Scavenger Falters (The SkyRyders Book 2)

by Liza O'Connor

  “That’s a good question,” Logan replied. “If it’s her own life, she certainly is. But she’s not been tested on what happens when Ryders die under her command. And I do worry about that.”

  Riley nodded. “I saw the video of her telling Daniel and you guys about the battle last night. She was clearly upset over the brutality of war.”

  “What do you mean you saw the video?” If MAC had wired his bedroom, his career was over!

  “MAC has Daniel Kane’s house wired.”

  “How wired?” Logan asked, feeling sick to his stomach.

  “Just the kitchen, living room, and front porch. MAC appears to be a little concerned over Daniel’s safety. Someone inside the Corps went to a lot of trouble to stop his pension plan by declaring him dead.”

  Logan calmed. Thank God the bedroom wasn’t wired! “MAC could be right. The first time I met Daniel, he thought I was there to kill him. He just asked me to get it done quickly.”

  Riley’s eyes widened in shock.

  “He knew Alisha would be returning, and he wanted the assassin gone first,” Logan explained.

  “And you didn’t think MAC would be interested in this fact?”

  “Truthfully, I’d forgotten the whole incident. And Daniel wasn’t as clear-headed as he is now. At the time, I figured he was simply frightened because a stranger was in his apartment, and given the dangers of living in that high-rise, it seemed a natural concern.”

  “Well, I bet when I report it, MAC beefs up security even more.” Riley leaned in and lowered his voice. “And Logan, don’t worry about what was said between you and Daniel. I dropped it in a classified bucket. It’ll never see the light of day again.”

  Logan groaned. He had totally forgotten the conversation he had had with Daniel about Alisha.

  “But let me say one thing,” Riley added. “Just because he was right about his daughter’s choice, doesn’t mean he’s right about Alisha’s.”

  “Riley, you’re my friend, but this topic is taboo between us,” Logan warned.

  “Fair enough.” Riley smiled and nodded toward the door. “And here’s our new colonel.”

  And her dashing young escort, Colonel Jack Sparkes, Logan added to himself.

  ***

  Powell called everyone’s attention to her entrance and proceeded to brag about her great promise and skill. It seemed strange to hear so many positive words come out of the general’s mouth in sequential sentences.

  He knew Powell was sincere in his compliments, but they still were making things worse for Alisha. Some of these colonels had gone their whole careers without a single kind word from the general.

  At least, Alisha had the good sense not to take it all too seriously. In fact, she and Jack were having their own playful discussion up to the point the general promised she would have a hundred flyers trained at her skill level by the end of two weeks’ training. Her eyes rounded in horror.

  When Powell finally stopped talking, there was only light applause from the officers. “She’s lucky she isn’t wearing a multicolored robe,” Riley said. Logan immediately caught on to the biblical reference. Joseph, the favorite son, was beaten and sold into slavery by his jealous brothers for receiving a multicolored robe from his father.

  His stomach turned to lead as he watched Alisha lean into Jack and whisper something. What parable involves the jealousy of a woman? Logan pondered. When he saw she was coming over to their corner, the lump in his stomach just got heavier.

  He knew she had been very angry with him when she left the house this morning. Don’t make a scene here, Alisha, for both our sakes.

  Before she could get to him, she was blocked by Thompson of the San Diego fort. “You’ve made a big splash for such a young little thing,” Thompson announced in his booming voice.

  Riley frowned. “Uh-oh. We might want to intervene. Thompson’s been drinking up the bar for at least an hour nonstop.”

  Thompson continued his barely disguised attack. “If you’re so amazing in battle, why is it none of us had ever heard about you until you became Jack’s girlfriend? It wouldn’t be that he’s giving you plum assignments in his battles to make you look good, would it?”

  That’s far enough, Logan decided and grabbed Thompson firmly by his arm, squeezing it hard enough that tomorrow he’d have bruises. “Your question is out of line, Thompson, and you’ll see that tomorrow during training, if you’re still here after letting the general hear you attack his favorite colonel,” Logan warned. “So why don’t you apologize in an equally loud voice and then lay off the booze until you sober up a bit.”

  To make sure he got the point, Logan squeezed just a little harder. Thompson sputtered out a weak apology. Logan wasn’t impressed with the sincerity, but to avoid a scene, he released the man. Thompson hurried off.

  Alisha smiled and thanked him for coming to her rescue. Her eyes clearly sparkled with ‘white knight’ adoration.

  “If he hadn’t, I would have,” Riley assured her. “Thompson’s not a bad fellow, but he’s not yet gotten over Jack’s early promotion and now here you are. If he knew your actual service time, he’d probably just lie down on the floor and die.”

  “Well, just for the record, Jack is not the general’s favorite colonel anymore,” Alisha teased.

  “Don’t tell me you’ve already ousted the boy!” Riley laughed.

  “Not me!” Alisha assured them and then smiled up at Logan. “Colonel Logan is his favorite now.”

  Logan frowned. What nonsense is she going on about? If the general had a favorite it was the charming sprite before him.

  “It’s true. I heard him say it,” she insisted and clasped his arm.

  Riley laughed. “Well, I want to hear that from the general’s own mouth. You’ll excuse me for a moment…” he said, and left them alone.

  Logan was going to kill Riley for leaving him but his absence would at least give him a chance to apologize for this morning. Evidently, she had had the same idea, for their apologies fell out together. Logan insisted that she speak first.

  She nodded and locked eyes with him. “I was very rude to you this morning, and I deliberately flirted with Jack to annoy you. I apologize.”

  No beating around the bush there…

  “Thank you, and I was also unnecessarily out of temper,” he said, then stared at Jack talking to the general. If he believed that it was only to make him jealous, he wouldn’t be concerned, but Jack was a natural-born seducer, and Alisha was out of her league. He doubted she would listen, but he had to try one more time.

  “General Powell says you are quartered with Jack.”

  “Yes, there’s a room shortage, and he thought Jack’s reputation would suffer no further damage from us sharing the same room.”

  “His couldn’t, but yours could. I’ve a room to myself; you could have it, and I’ll bunk with Drake.”

  “No, it’s more important that you get your sleep, I understand Drake snores like a macaw.”

  So she does like him, Logan concluded.

  “I need you awake and clear-headed to learn Man Three through Eight so you can help me teach the others. Have you forgotten our plan?”

  Logan sighed. “The general has informed me I have to wait and be trained with the other colonels.”

  “But if you could learn immediately, you would want to, right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “That’s good, because I sent Jack over there to explain to the general that I won’t get more than twenty-five trained by the end of two weeks without your help. Jack said you would be pissed by my interfering, but I was sure you were game.”

  “You know me well,” he replied. She really does know me. If only… Stop there, he warned himself. And for God’s sake don’t look at her, or you’re apt to do something incredibly stupid.

  Staring out at the crowd, his emotions tightly under control, he decided to take one more shot at getting her free of Jack’s influence. “Alisha, I’m going to give you some advice. Y
ou can take it or not. All I ask is that you hear me out and think about it.”

  “What is it?”

  “You’ve been given a Herculean task. The only way you’re going to succeed is to remain completely focused. You can’t afford distractions right now.”

  “I know. I’m not even sure I can afford sleep. Besides the training I’m supposed to do, the general expects me to memorize those new regs and learn to shoot a rifle.” She stopped and then asked in a clearly offended tone, “Colonel, I hope you’re just pretending not to care what I’m talking about so no one will want to join our conversation.”

  A small smile appeared for an instant before he stifled it. So to the point! He didn’t know another woman who would have confronted such an insult head on. “How am I doing?”

  “Well enough that I’m going to talk to Riley now,” she replied, and headed over to the group containing Jack, the general, and Riley.

  Logan had no intention of following, but a few minutes later the general called him over. When he arrived, Powell slapped him on the back with his big hand and announced in full voice, “Colonel Logan has requested to train with the cadets so he can learn his skills and get on with his job. Any of the rest of you interested in joining him?”

  Now Logan felt like poor Joseph.

  “That’s what I thought. I’ve got one colonel who isn’t afraid to put his balls on the line.”

  “Or the skill to pull it off,” added Riley.

  “Skill is a state of mind,” the general declared. “Look at this young girl here. She’s been flying one month. One month! And there has never been a Ryder to come close to the equal of her skill. I keep hearing you guys say the reason Logan can out-fly you is because he’s taller, stronger, and has greater endurance. Well look at this puny little girl. She’s not taller or stronger than any of you.” Then thumping his head with his fat forefinger, he explained, “She does it up here. It’s all in attitude, gentlemen. You fly the way you think you can.”

  Logan touched the general’s arm and spoke softly. “Sir, leadership is also a state of mind, and calling Alisha a puny little girl is not presenting the appropriate image.”

  The general looked annoyed but immediately retracted his description and declared her to be one hell of a soldier.

  Logan and Riley eased away from the general’s circle. Riley laughed and told him Alisha had asked why Anna wasn’t at her party. “I almost dropped my drink when Powell apologized to me for forgetting to invite my wife. Then he suggested she should be the MC at the training.”

  “Are you sure you heard him right?” Logan asked. Powell had consistently ignored Anna for five years. He’d never invited her to any event on the fort grounds.

  “I told him to send her an email, because she wasn’t going to believe me.”

  “Brave response.”

  Riley laughed softly. “It’s easy to be cocky when you don’t report to him.”

  Logan had always envied that point. Neither Riley nor Anna reported into General Powell. Instead, they both reported directly into MAC. While Logan had no great desire to report to a meddling computer, he envied the freedom it gave Riley.

  Suddenly their conversation stopped as Taylor’s irritating voice declared that MAC was defective if it bumped up Alisha’s test by the quality of her landing.

  “You can’t tell whether a flyer has skill by his landing,” Taylor objected.

  Riley joined their conversation. “You aren’t slamming MAC again, are you, Taylor?”

  “I’m not slamming anything, Riley, so don’t get your tethers in a tangle. I’m only saying that it’s not possible to rate a flyer’s skill by their landing.”

  “You know, I was pretty sure this conversation would come up tonight, so I brought video.” He pulled out his palm pilot and passed it to Colonel Taylor once he had the file up. “This is Alisha’s landing. She had a hurt knee, so she didn’t want to land on the landing tarmac because it was too far from the door. You tell me if she looks like she needed to take a basic flight exam.”

  Not even meat-eaters moved as fast as the colonels when they all rushed in for a view. Finally, Powell quelled the mob by ordering Jack to put the video on the wide-screen projector.

  Alisha walked away, no doubt less than thrilled with this brouhaha, but Logan agreed with the general that it was probably a good idea for these officers to see proof of her talent. She wasn’t just a really good flyer. She was a literal deity of flying.

  Upon viewing the video, Taylor tried to shift his mistake to Logan. “Logan! You sent an injured girl to take the Captain’s exam?”

  “No Taylor, I sent her in to take the basic flight exam, something I was quite certain wouldn’t tax her injury at all.”

  After the landing, they watched Alisha’s test flights and then her surveillance run. By the time they were finished and ready to have dinner served, their guest of honor had fallen asleep in a recliner in the back of the room.

  “Should we wake her up?” Powell asked. “She looks so damned peaceful.”

  And young, Logan thought.

  “Let her sleep, General,” Jack suggested. “I’ll have Gunny bring her a snack later if she wakes up.”

  “Then carry her back to her quarters, Jack. At least let her sleep in the comfort of her own bed.”

  “Maybe, I should do it, sir. Jack will probably drop her.” Logan had spoken up before he knew what he was going to say. Had he known, he would have gagged himself with the loaf of bread on the table.

  The other colonels laughed heartily at the slur against Jack. Logan gritted his teeth. As much as he did not want Jack around Alisha, he also did not want to lead the Jack-bashing party. Over the last week, he had found the fellow had many strong qualities and did not deserve the contempt of his fellow officers.

  “She can’t weigh more than ninety pounds!” the general snapped.

  “It’s all right, General,” Jack replied. “Logan is clearly the most qualified. He’ll probably be needed to carry Thompson later on as well. Might as well let him warm up now.”

  Logan carried Alisha from the room. The moment they were in the hall, she shifted a bit, and her arms curled around his neck as she snuggled against his chest. When they arrived at Jack’s room, Logan stared at the two beds, clueless as to which would be hers.

  “I know you aren’t asleep, so are you going to tell me which bed is yours, or do I have to worry about Jack coming back in the dark and crawling in beside you?”

  Alisha opened her eyes and smiled. “Mine’s on the left.”

  Little imp, he scolded her in his mind. He eased her down on the bed. “So did you wake up in my arms or were you faking it all along?”

  “It was a very boring party.”

  “They all are,” he assured her. “I’ll tell Gunny to bring you some food.”

  “Can you stay and have dinner with me?”

  Logan had almost agreed before he stopped himself. “No. I wasn’t as clever as you. General Powell will expect me to stay at your party ’til the bitter end.”

  She sighed and gave him a playful look of pity.

  Alisha was so amazing, so full of life. He couldn’t fault Daniel for wanting to protect that. He would do everything in his power to protect her as well.

  ***

  When he returned to the dinner, the main course was being served.

  “You’ve been gone for a while, Logan, you have trouble putting her to bed?” Thompson asked with a snicker.

  Logan was about to reply, but the general slammed his fist down on the table, creating his very own earthquake of rattling dishes and glasses. “We’ll have none of that!” he bellowed. “I’m putting a stop to the sly innuendos right this minute. If I ever hear another remark from any of you suggesting sexual improprieties with our new colonel, I will bust you down to a buck private, is that understood?”

  The statement was made to them all, but the general’s eyes blazed directly at Thompson.

  “I wasn’t meaning to sugges
t anything about the girl. I was just noting Logan took a while,” Thompson replied.

  “If you want to know why Logan took so long, then say it that way. Do not drag the girl’s reputation through the mud to find out why Logan took his sweet time returning to this dinner.” Powell then turned his glare onto Logan. “So we may put this at rest, why were you so long in returning?”

  Good thing I didn’t stay and have dinner with Alisha. “I took the colonel back to her quarters, went down to the commissary, found Gunny, checked the menu, ordered her something light, saw several of my squad eating, checked on them, and received quite a few questions about the training tomorrow. There certainly won’t be a shortage of volunteers. In fact, Jack, I hope you and Alisha have devised some equitable way to select who goes first, because if not, we may have a riot.”

  “There, you see! Logan was off doing something productive,” Powell concluded and then turned to Jack. “He’s right about the selection of who goes first. It needs to be fair.”

  “We’re starting with all the flyers that participated in the first training: that gives us thirty. Then we’re adding the next top twenty flyers based on their MAC ratings to the group,” Jack explained.

  “And Logan,” Taylor added. “You’re already making exceptions.”

  Jack just smiled. “His flying rank easily puts him in the twenty. Thus, there’s no exception being made. However, if any of the rest of you had wanted to join him, then we would have needed an exception.”

  “Damn, Logan!” Dryer complained. “You’re supposed to be getting old like the rest of us!”

  Logan shrugged. “If you had stayed in the field, Ray, you’d still be up there.”

  “Or dead,” Thompson muttered.

  Jack continued their plan. “The fifty will be taught and tested together, which does give First Squad a slight advantage.”

  “They’ve earned that advantage!” the general declared and slammed his fist on the table again. Logan decided to keep his hand on his wineglass. He did not want to be buying new whites because Powell felt expressive tonight.

  “Second Squad will go through an hour of training and then be given the same test that the First Squad ran. Both marksmanship and flight metrics will be scored on three runs. The highest thirty scores move on to the next maneuver, the lower twenty stay and go through one more round. If they are in the top thirty during the next round of tests, they move on. If not, they get sent to the back of the queue and won’t get another chance to progress until everyone gets a try.”