Touch the Heavens (7 page)

“I don’t know, Dan. After that run-in with Brodie today....”

“You hit him right between the running lights,” he said, trying not to smile.

Her violet eyes darkened. “He’s an eighteen-year-old kid instead of a mature man in his early thirties!”

“Brodie never grew up in some ways, Chris.”

She tilted her head, studying him in the softened light. “You sound as if you’ve known him for a while.”

“He was in my F-4 squadron a number of years ago.”

“And did he go around telling people to watch their six?” she asked, anger lowering her voice.

Dan studied her for a moment. “He said that to you?”

“Yes, in front of the whole class.”

“He must have said it in jest.”

To Dan, that particular phrase carried plenty of weight and feeling behind it. It was reserved for a confrontation that would set up a demarcation line never to be crossed by the other person.

Chris grimaced. “If we were living in the Middle Ages, it would have been akin to Brodie throwing his gauntlet and challenging me to a duel.”

After talking at length with Brodie, Dan had been convinced that the pilot was going to continue trying to get to Chris. This extra bit of information confirmed his original impression. Dan held the mug in both hands, looking down at her upturned face. Right now all he wanted to do was take Chris into his arms, to hold and kiss her. His body tightened with desire. How could she look so vulnerable and trusting now, and so professional and unreadable at the school? Would her background as an orphan have forced her to take on this chameleon-like quality? Dan pushed aside his personal feelings for a moment. “Look,” he began heavily, leaning forward, “I’ve dressed Brodie down for his actions, and he’s given his word it won’t happen again.”

Chris gave him a stare of disbelief. “You actually believe him?”

“More importantly, will you?” he asked tensely.

She gave him a silent look, narrowing her violet yes. Then she bowed her head for a moment. “Is that why you came over here? To get my reaction to his promise?”

“Yes.” That was part truth, part lie. He had been feeling lonely after the harrowing day’s events and needed her nearness. But she couldn’t know that. Not yet. Dan didn’t want to be impatient, however. He could see that because he had backed off and given Chris room to accept him, she was responding more openly and trustingly. The look she gave him made his heartbeat quicken. So she did care about him after all. That piece of knowledge made Dan breathe an inner sigh of relief. He softened his stance slightly. “You know me. I’ll use any excuse to come over and spend a few minutes off duty with you.”

Chris was torn between Brodie’s threat and Dan’s sincerity. “Business before pleasure, though.”

“In this case, yes,” Dan responded. “How do you feel about Brodie?”

“That I’d better watch my six.”

“You don’t trust his promise?”

“Would you?”

Dan pursed his lips, staring down into the contents of the mug he held. “Look, I need one of the two of you to behave responsibly in this situation.”

Chris was on her feet in seconds. “Then why does it have to be me? I didn’t start this thing! Brodie has a twisted attitude about all women, not just me.”

Dan felt his stomach tighten. Calmly he looked up into her distraught features, compassion flooding his heart. “We’re in a messy situation,” he began carefully. “I could have Brodie kicked out now because of his attitude, and it would certainly ruin his career. He’d run screaming to every damn newspaper and magazine in this country. It would harm the opportunity for other women who want and deserve test-pilot status.”

Chris’s face paled. She clenched her fists at her sides. “You know exactly how to get to me, don’t you?” she whispered tautly.

Dan put the mug on the coffee table and got to his feet. Exhaustion showed deep in his eyes. “We’re all in this together, Chris. I don’t like it. You don’t like it. Nobody does. It’s simply the battle of the sexes over one more career position.” He rubbed his eyes. “And it’s not your fault you were picked to be the first woman. The first few women going through TPS as test-pilot nominees are going to draw the most fire. After a while, the furor will die down, and you won’t have men like Brodie overreacting to a woman being in class.” He spread his hands in a gesture of peace. “If it will make you feel any better, Brodie doesn’t get along with a lot of other people, including myself.” He searched her pained features. Shadows were visible beneath her large eyes, her translucent skin drawn tightly across her high cheeks, the corners of her mouth pulled in with unspoken pain.

“Raven, you’re an exceptional pilot. And right now, you’re number five in class standings. If you were a man, the Brodies of the world wouldn’t care. But you’re a woman and his kind are going to react. He’s going to keep sniping at you. He’ll train his sights on you from now on because you openly challenged him in class.”

She gave a shrug and sat back down on the floor. “I’ve always fought for the underdog. I guess I can do it for myself in this situation.”

“I’m beginning to understand where your sense of loyalty comes from. You protect your friends and slay your enemies,” Dan said, sitting down once again on the couch.

“Figuratively, not literally!”

Dan smiled at her. “You know, I named you well. Ravens are a clannish lot that protect their own kind with a fierce kind of courage. We have plenty of them here at Edwards. I’ve even seen ravens attack hawks or eagles if they get too close to their young ones.”

Chris sighed. “Just like I attacked Brodie in front of everyone.”

“He had it coming. I’m just sorry I wasn’t there to intercept and put a lid on it once and for all.”

She gave him a tender look, a soft smile appearing on her lips. “Don’t tell me there’s a little bit of the knight on his white charger in you.”

A careless grin came to Dan’s mouth as he regarded her in the growing warmth being woven between them. His heart stirred, his body craved her. “If Brodie heard that, he’d tell you I was Don Quixote, not a Sir Galahad.”

“Oh? Why?”

“Goes back to my days in Nam.”

“Want to tell me about it?”

Dan hesitated. He had rarely spoken about his two tours over the skies of Nam and Hanoi. It brought up too many painful memories. “Brodie was assigned to my squadron during my second tour. We flew the F-4s. I had a bit of a reputation among the marines up in the demilitarized-zone for hedgehopping. Brodie became my wingman.”

“Did he like you going down that low?”

Dan shook his head. “No.”

“Why did you?”

His eyes grew dark as more of those days in his life were dredged to the surface. “I guess I’ll always hear the radio crackling with the voices of pinned down marines on the ground screaming for help again. Chris,

I—” He hesitated, giving an embarrassed shrug. “This is going to sound silly.”

She leaned forward, her face calm, eyes penetrating. “No, it won’t. At least not to me,” she coaxed. “You risked plenty by going down on the deck, Dan. Why?” What made him run, Chris wondered. Dan always appeared buoyant and devil-may-care. But anyone who would take the cantankerous Phantom down to the treetop level where it could be hit by ground fire and missiles was either very foolish or very confident of his skills. And she didn’t see Dan as being a fool about anything.

Dan stood up, and walked to the end of the room, his features composed and thoughtful. “I guess I’m like you, Chris. I don’t like seeing the underdog get beaten down. If I can do something about it, I will.” He shrugged. “It got so that certain marine companies would call in air support and ask for me by name. They knew if they went into a tight spot, I’d be there to help them.”

A memory stirred in the back of Chris’s mind. What had Jim said one time? Her fiancé had spent two tours in Vietnam with F-4s. She gave Dan a keen look. “What was your name?”

“Cowboy. The marines dubbed me with it because I’d ride the F-4 down during any kind of situation or weather condition. Brodie hated going low level.”

Chris’s mouth went dry and her heart pounded at the base of her throat. Cowboy...Cowboy...Jim had known an F-4 pilot by that name! Her eyes widened. Was the world that small? Had Dan known Jim? The next thought paralyzed her: What if Dan knew about the crash? She swallowed hard, unable to think coherently for a moment. Jim had talked fondly of a pilot by the name of Cowboy, having nothing but admiration and praise for his flying ability. She looked guardedly up at Dan. She couldn’t forget the conversations she and Jim had shared. How many times had he laughingly told her about Cowboy? Her world felt as if it were collapsing around her. Above everything, no one must know of the crash! Not her colleagues at TPS. And especially not Dan.

If word got around about the crash claiming Jim’s life, her reputation at TPS would be destroyed. Chris frowned, getting to her feet. And what would Dan think? How close had Jim been to Dan before he had died? Had Jim ever told him of his engagement to her? A voice told her it was unlikely. Still, the way Jim had talked of Cowboy, Chris felt it was almost a brotherly relationship that had existed between the two pilots.

“The guys on the ground were worth that risk, though,” Chris murmured.

Dan pursed his lips. “I thought so. Brodie didn’t, but that was inconsequential to me.” Reluctantly Dan glanced down at his watch. “As much as I’ve enjoyed coming over and talking with you, I’d better get going.”

Where had the time gone? Chris looked at her watch to confirm it. A sense of disappointment washed over her. Their personal time together was rare, and she hungrily looked forward to those small, placid moments when they could meet on equal ground and discover new facets about each other.

“Tomorrow is going to be a tough day,” he reminded her.

“Test day,” Chris agreed, walking to the door and opening it. Tomorrow she would be given the final flight test in the F-4 that would qualify her to take up another student engineer, navigator or fellow pilot. But the test held less fear for her than the fact that Dan might have known Jim. If Jim had told him—Chris stopped thinking as Dan drew close. Regardless of her spinning, tumultuous thoughts, she responded to his lean maleness. Raising her chin, Chris met his warm blue gaze, and felt his tender caress as he smoothed a stray tendril from her cheek.

“You know,” he murmured, his voice becoming husky, “it’s too bad you can’t wear your hair down all the time. You look pretty this way.”

Chris momentarily closed her eyes, her heart racing. She could still see his strong, chiseled mouth in her mind’s eye. Memory of the branding kiss he had placed on her lips sent an ache of need throughout her. “Thank you,” Chris whispered, meaning it. His eyes had darkened to a thundercloud intensity, sending a warming shiver down her spine. All he had to do was reach out, and... Her breath caught when she read the intent in his eyes.

One part of her cried out for Dan’s touch once again. Another shrank in fear from him. She had just lost someone she had loved. It can’t happen again, a voice screamed. She never again wanted to feel the kind of pain that still persisted over the loss of Jim. “I think we should say good-night, Dan,” she said firmly, her voice more businesslike than she intended.

If he was disappointed, he did not show it. Offering her a smile, Dan nodded. “I’ll see you in the morning, Raven. Good night.”

5

I
T WAS 0600
when Chris arrived in her flight gear at TPS. She saw Dan’s Corvette parked in the rear lot. The sky was still dark with stars although a gray hint of dawn nudged the silhouetted mountains in the background. Her fingers tightened in the pockets of her flight jacket as she quickly took the steps two at a time up to the door. Dan was busy with paperwork when Chris stepped into his cramped office. He looked up, giving her a slight smile.

“Grab a cup of coffee and then go check the weather. I’m going to be tied up with this stuff for another half hour.”

“Sounds good,” she murmured, meaning it. The coffee was like a shot of adrenaline to her exhausted mind. Sleep had been impossible, and Chris wanted to be perfect on the test flight today. Dan was a fair, but tough instructor. She called up operations and got in touch with the meteorologist, jotting down the wind direction, knots, the temperature and dew point. All these factors would have a great deal to do with the rotation or takeoff point of the jet that she would pilot this morning. Gathering up the flight plan information, Chris met Dan as he was coming out of his office. He glanced up at her.

“All set?”

“Ready, ready now,” she replied, dropping into B-52-bomber slang. It brought the expected smile to Dan’s face.

“Okay, let’s get Double Ugly checked out and then you can take me for a ride.”

A new feeling penetrated her exhaustion. She recognized it as a shot of badly needed adrenaline. Today was the day! Resolution coupled with desire to do her very best on the test catapulted through her. Not only did Chris want to make the highest scores possible, but equally important, she wanted to make Dan proud of her. He was giving up a great deal for her sake. More than once she had heard some of the other instructors teasing Dan about the flight overtime he was logging for her benefit. Chris felt her heart expand in silent gratitude for his sacrifice. Dan personified the image of the ideal officer and gentleman.

She picked up her flight bag at the locker and doggedly walked out to the flight line where Dan was waiting. Hopping into the waiting van, they were driven out to the ramp in the grayness of the burgeoning dawn that outlined the black shapes of the awesome F-4 Phantoms.

As always, it was business only in the cockpit. Conversations were kept to a minimum, covering only the technical exchanges that were needed to complete the preflight list. Suddenly her fatigue vanished, and Chris placed all her concentration on the present. The shiver of the throbbing twin engines of the jet filled her with confidence. Working the rudders, she gave the crew chief a thumbs-up and inched the throttles forward, pointing the black nosed fighter toward the taxiway. In an hour and a half she would know whether or not she had the right stuff to continue flying the fighters.