Stars Across Time (20 page)

The general exploded with curses and slammed his hand down on his desk, making a machine in the corner jump. A typewriter, Andie realized. Theron’s museum comments weren’t far off.

“This is his good mood?” Andie whispered.

“Yes,” Theron whispered back, not bothering to lower his voice much. “When he’s really irritated, the keys fly off the typewriter when he bangs on his desk.”

Morimoto gave him an exasperated look. “As long as those thieves have that machine, the best we can do is climb all over the surface of the dam, sticking our fingers into leaks that have already sprung.”

Theron weathered the criticism without comment, but Andie had come to recognize the set jaw and the hard expression in his eyes that meant he was disappointed with himself.

“He would have destroyed it the first night,” Andie said, even if she knew better than to speak to a senior officer without being invited to do so. “But he was protecting us. He knew that if he left, we would be... unhappy.”

“Unhappy. Wonderful.” Morimoto turned his scrutiny toward her, which was perhaps not an improvement. “He says you’re a pilot, girl. That right?”

“A pilot and an officer,” Theron said, censure in his voice for the first time as he frowned. “Not a girl.”

“What’s your rank, not-a-girl?” Morimoto asked.

Theron rolled his eyes.

Andie was starting to get the feeling that these two had known each other for a long time. “Captain,” she said. “I served ten years, active duty, and I’m in the Reserve now, while I work on my master’s degree. I flew an F-16 Fighting Falcon.” She thought about adding where she had served and flown, but she had no idea if either man had ever been out of the Pacific Northwest. Were there even people in the Middle East in this era? Or had it grown too hot for human beings to survive in? How much of it remained above water?

“Sounds fancier than our cloud hoppers,” Morimoto said.

“I imagine so, sir,” Theron said.

“Where the hell is Lieutenant Davies?”

“I didn’t know he was coming.”

“He’s going to brief you on your new mission.”

Theron blinked. “New mission, sir? I’ve promised Andie—Captain Kim—that we’ll be working to retrieve all of the women and return them to their time period.”

“Yes, and that’s what your new mission is about. We’ve found the ship where the market is being held. They buy and sell women, oil, weapons, and other supplies, and tomorrow night is the big event. It’s a once-a-month deal, so you’d better be ready to infiltrate it.”

Andie leaned forward, listening intently. She wasn’t sure about the word “infiltrate,” but was it possible she might yet find Min-ji? And before she was sold to some grubby slave owner?

“I... I just talked to you this morning, sir.” Theron sounded stunned. “You didn’t mention that we’d found anything. Did someone get some good intel?”

“Yeah, you, but I’m not sure if I can credit you for being brilliant, when you said you tripped over General Duckworth by accident.”

“Ah no. That wasn’t brilliance.”

“I had him followed. Dicey, considering he outranks me. Bringing him up on charges is going to be hell, but for now, as long as he doesn’t know that we know—” Morimoto tapped his temple, “—we can use him.”

“I’m daunted at the prospect of
using
a general.”

“You? Daunted? I didn’t think you knew what that word meant, Theron.”

“I didn’t, but I’m trying to improve my vocabulary. In case I want to retire and teach.”

The general grunted. “You shaping the minds of youths. There’s an alarming notion.”

A knock came at the door.

“Get in here, Davies,” Morimoto said in what Andie had decided must be his usual greeting growl.

A slender man in his late twenties walked in, strode up to the desk, and said, “Lieutenant Davies reporting for duty, sir.” He saluted the general sharply, waited for it to be returned, then shifted to salute Theron. “It’s good to see you, sir.”

Theron’s return salute came in the way of a thump on the shoulder. “What are you doing preparing spy missions, Gideon? I thought you were in training to become the fort historian.”

“That’s a side project, sir. As for the rest...” The lieutenant spread a hand toward Morimoto, though he also glanced curiously at Andie.

“Davies is the one who did the initial research on the time machines,” Morimoto said. “In case you’ve been too busy rescuing women to notice, I’ve been trying to let as few people know about them—about this whole fiasco—as possible.”

“Yes, sir. I gathered that’s why you sent me on the mission instead of someone...”

“Qualified?” Morimoto asked.

“Better qualified,” Theron said, smiling ruefully at Andie.

It alarmed her to think that he might not have been his commander’s first choice. What if some other soldier had been sent? Would he have stepped in, defending Andie and the others? Or perhaps someone trained as a true spy would have blended in more easily, joining in with the kidnappers in all of their depravities so he wouldn’t be identified as an outsider. She shuddered at the thought.

“If Park and Mendelson had ever come back from the first mission,
they
would have handled this,” Morimoto grumbled.

“It’s always possible they will, sir,” Davies said. “There could have been a miscalculation on our part in setting up the machine. They may appear at your dinner table for Christmas four years from now.”

“Comforting.”

“I’m more of a battlefield commander,” Theron whispered to Andie, “but I suppose you already guessed that.”

“Is it true that you singlehandedly brought down a squadron of kidnappers, sir?” Davies asked, his eyes bright and full of adulation as he gazed at Theron. “And rescued twenty women all by yourself?”

Instead of basking in the adulation, Theron winced. “I just shot some holes into tires.” He lowered his voice to a mutter to add, “And people. I was trying to salvage something from a situation that had already grown interminable.”

“Interminable, sir?” Davies removed his cap and scratched his head.

“Colonel Theron is working on improving his vocabulary this week,” Morimoto said. “Now, Lieutenant, if you’ll brief him on the mission you’ve proposed. Ah—” The general pointed at Andie and then at the door. “Your new friend may want to wait outside.”

Theron looked at Andie. She didn’t want to leave, not when they were talking about going after Min-ji, but she also understood that there was about zero likelihood of these people trusting her to be a part of this. Even if she was in the military herself, it wasn’t
their
military. Even Theron hadn’t known her for that long.

“One of the captives is a close friend of hers,” Theron said, resting a hand on Andie’s shoulder and facing the general. “If there’s infiltrating to be done, she may wish to be a part of it.”

“What she wishes is irrelevant,” Morimoto said. “We just got her out of danger. You’re not sending her back in. If she’s important to the timeline, or some of her children are, we can’t risk losing her, and she would be an unpredictable element, regardless.”

“She got
herself
out of danger,” Theron said. “She’s extremely capable. I’d rather have her at my back in a fight than Lieutenant Davies. No offense, Gideon.”

“Oh, none taken, sir. I try to stay out of fights when I can help it.”

Andie bit her lip, ridiculously pleased with Theron’s statement. It was one thing for him to say that he admired her ability in private, but to say it in front of the other men? She resisted the urge to clasp his hand.

“Who else would you send, sir?” Theron said, speaking again before the general could do more than open his mouth. “She already knows all about the time machine. And in a pinch, she could sneak in with the women already captured and blend in with them. I’d have a hard time doing that.”

“Mm,” Morimoto said. Not exactly acceptance of the plan.

“I suppose,” Theron murmured, meeting Andie’s eyes, “I should ask if you actually want to go.”

“I want to go,” she said without hesitation.

“I did have the thought that our infiltrators might
fly
to the ship,” Davies said.

“Why?” Morimoto asked.

“To show off their great wealth, thus to suggest that Colonel Theron can actually afford the goods being sold.”

“Wait,” Theron said, “I’d be going as myself? I was imagining costumes and wigs.”

“If General Duckworth was going to go, why can’t you?”

“I don’t have great wealth? And I don’t make a habit of buying women?”

“They might believe you’re buying fuel for that secret project under Mount Olympus,” Davies said.

“Nobody should
know
about that secret project,” Morimoto growled.

“The colonel needn’t share the details, just give enough to be believable. And then, he can flash some gold coins.”

Much of the conversation was going over Andie’s head, thanks to references to who knew what. Maybe she should have waited outside, after all. But Theron’s hand was still on her shoulder, and it would be a shame to move away and have it fall off. She appreciated that he had stood up for her—again. It was interesting that he already knew her well enough to know that she would want to go.

She flexed the shoulder that had been shot, eliciting a twinge. Would she be capable of fighting? And flying? Had Davies been recommending that she pilot Theron to this ship, wherever it was? Would she be able to figure out how to fly that prop plane without crashing it? And even if it turned out to be simple, how would she land it on a ship? Unless this meeting was taking place on an aircraft carrier, that seemed unlikely. Maybe they had a version with floats instead of wheels somewhere. Given all the water around now, that could be a possibility.

“You’re thinking,” Theron murmured, his words for her alone. Morimoto and Davies were arguing—or rather, Davies was logically presenting facts and the general was growling back at him.

“Yes,” she said.

“Second thoughts about going along?”

“No, I’d like to go. This plan sounds sort of... nuts at the moment, though.”

“They’ll refine it by morning, I’m sure.” He smiled. “I can’t promise it won’t still be nuts. I had a similar reaction when Morimoto proposed infiltrating the kidnappers. He likes to come up with impossible missions, then trusts his people to find a way to make them happen. My first inclination would be to blow up the ship where all of this is taking place, but we’d have to get the women off first.”

“Yes, I’m sure they would appreciate that.”

He slid his hand off her shoulder and down her back, and she leaned against him, glad for his support.

“All right, all right,” Morimoto said. “Let me get some more intel from Captain Schwarzburg. Theron, go take your woman somewhere. I don’t want anyone stroking anyone else in my office unless I’m involved.”

“A sound policy, sir.” Theron offered Andie his arm. “Dinner, my lady?”

Andie wasn’t sure if she could stop her mind from spinning for long enough to enjoy a meal, but she would relish spending time alone with him. That wasn’t something they had gotten to do so far, unless one counted that kiss under the loft. Her cheeks warmed at the memory. Maybe he would have kisses planned for tonight, as well?

She accepted his arm and walked out with him, feeling guilty that she was thinking of kisses and the pleasant way his hand rested on the small of her back rather than of rescuing her friend. Ah, but there was nothing to be done about the latter until tomorrow. As for the former, she smiled up at him, looking forward to dinner, even if she knew that nothing could come of a relationship with him.

Theron smiled back, but then held up a finger. “I’ll be right back. Wait here, please.”

He jogged back inside and murmured something to the lieutenant that she couldn’t make out. Davies nodded. Theron thumped him on the shoulder, then strode back out, offering her his arm again.

Andie shrugged and accepted it, but she glanced back toward the office as they walked away, wondering what that had been about.

T
heron surreptitiously wiped his hands on his trousers as the carriage rolled into town, the horses trotting down a slight grade, the view of the water spread out before them, visible over the driver’s head. He kept telling himself that he had no reason to be nervous, that after what Andie had experienced, she would be grateful for a meal in any restaurant that fielded a more talented cook than the ones on army ships. Which wouldn’t take much. But he wanted her to like it and worried that nothing here would match up to the cornucopia of dining options she had back home.

In addition to worrying whether she would like the restaurant, he was nervous because she sat beside him on the bench, her shoulder touching his, and he had a hard time thinking about anything beyond how good she smelled and how much he wanted to slip an arm around her. She had found someone of similar size to borrow clothes from, changing out of the baggy army uniform she had worn earlier and into riding breeches and a loose blouse with the sleeves rolled up and the top couple of buttons undone. Some of her tattoos were visible, and he had caught himself contemplating them a few times, wanting to ask the story about them, but she was sure to wonder why he was staring at her chest if he brought them up. Given how short a time they had actually known each other, it was odd—and awkward—that he had seen her naked. And that she had
seen
him seeing her. His cheeks heated again at the memory.

He wondered if she had speculated at all on seeing
him
naked. He hadn’t been much of a prize out there in the mountains, and he had a silly urge to take his shirt off for her to show her that he looked much better without the dirt. The carriage didn’t seem quite the place for stripping down. He imagined her wearing an expression somewhere between stunned and horrified. Even though she had seemed earnest—even passionate—when she had kissed him back in the cabin, he hadn’t been certain if that had been for show or not. She might only have been going along with his wishes to deceive Bedene.

Was she truly attracted to him? After such a short time together? Was it odd that he was enamored with
her
so soon? He barely knew her. Still, he couldn’t help but be attracted to someone who could beat up two men at once, escape from kidnappers on her own, and survive a twenty-mile forced march without a peep of complaint. And she loved space. She wouldn’t tease him about the posters and star charts he had up in his study, or the fact that he still dreamed it might be possible to find planets out there and visit them someday. Oh, and she flew
airplanes
. He would love to see her in that... what had she called it? A Fighting Falcon?