“Really?” she asked in amazement, feeling as if her heart might burst from happiness.
“I swear to God. I love you with my whole heart!”
Alisha couldn’t believe it had happened. He loved her! And he was finally willing to admit it. She started crying.
“Why the tears?”
“Because I’m so happy,” she explained between gasps of emotions. “You were so hard and angry all week. I was sure you hated me.”
“No, Alisha. I could never hate you. I was angry because of the cruelty of fate. To be allowed to experience true love and then have it taken away. It’s hard to deal with.”
“But you’re a general now, and there’s nothing Powell can do to keep us apart.”
He was quiet for a moment and then stroked her face. “Alisha, it was never Powell who stood between us. It was and continues to be my sense of duty.”
She looked up at him in confusion. “Continues to be?”
“You’re not going to Chicago with me, Alisha. You’re staying here.”
“No,” she replied as a painful pressure built around her heart.
“Your grandfather would be miserable in Chicago.”
“No!” she yelled. There was no reason to keep them apart now, especially not her gramps. She knew he would want her to be happy.
“Alisha, I can’t have you on the East Coast. I’ve got to stay focused on the war. I’ve had fifty men dying every day for the last two weeks. It’s a far cry worse than what Powell presented.”
“Then I can help you!”
“No, you can’t. I love you too much to put you in danger. I could never see you as a resource to be risked and possibly sacrificed. I can’t be in command of you, Alisha. I wouldn’t risk your life. I would put your safety before the Corps, and that’s not fair to you or to the Corps. You have a right to be a soldier just like the rest of us. That’s why I have to leave you here on the West Coast. While the general certainly likes you, he’ll use you in battle. I know I wouldn’t.”
“You can’t mean this. You’re not thinking straight.” Her eyes welled with tears.
“Alisha, I haven’t been thinking about anything else for the entire week. And I hate what I’m doing to us.”
“Then don’t do it!”
“I don’t have a choice. MAC is convinced that I’m the only commander capable of turning the East Coast around. And modesty aside, I have to agree. There aren’t any other colonels or generals that have been in a major battle in the last five years. Those soldiers on the East Coast deserve better than an armchair general. If I’m going to ask them to go into battle, they need to know I have enough confidence that we can win the war to put my own hide out there with them. That is the only way at this point the war can be turned.”
“All right, I see why you have to go. Now let’s review why I can’t!”
Logan sat down and pulled her into his lap as he explained once again how he loved her too much to ever put her into danger.
“But you let me run the mission at Broadtown!”
“Because I knew if you stayed with me, you would die. And I was right. A mortar completely devastated my quarters three minutes after you took off. But, Alisha, once I saw your body fall into the Cully River, I stopped functioning. It’s a good thing Jack was in charge of the battle, because I was just this heartbroken shell, completely useless to my men.”
“That’s not true,” she insisted. He was a hero. He held it all together even when they were clearly doomed. Then he rolled up his sleeves and saved the injured. He was a hero, everyone said so!
“It’s the truth. Sandy had to keep yelling at me to focus after I offered my services as a medic. She had less trouble with her first-year students.”
Alisha realized nothing would sway him. He was going to leave her. “So this is just temporary, right?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I’d like to tell you it is, but try as I might, I don’t see how it can be. I will always love you too much to use you in a battle. That’s the simple truth. If I loved you less, I might be able to do it, but if push came to shove, I would sacrifice the entire Corps to save you.”
She couldn’t let him leave her behind, not if he loved her. He wasn’t thinking right. There had to be some way to change his mind. Something she could do…
“Will you make love to me tonight?” she asked.
“I can’t, Alisha. I barely have the willpower to do this now.”
“A kiss then?” Please God, give me some chance to stop this horrible plan.
“Tomorrow, when I leave. If you haven’t decided you hate me by then, I’ll kiss you goodbye,” he promised.
By then it would be too late. “I may despise you by then,” she admitted and leaned her head against him, wondering how she was ever going to survive the pain welling inside her.
Suddenly the door of the wind tunnel opened and Logan stood and moved her away from him.
“Sorry for the interruption,” Jack said, “But General Powell needs you both in the war room immediately. The Cartel is attacking up and down the West Coast and Midwest.”
“Same attack plan?” Logan asked as he stood up and helped Alisha up as well.
“With some slight modifications, yes. We’ll talk more inside.”
Alisha felt completely numb. Not only was her life a disaster, but now the whole country was at war as well.
Logan pestered Jack with questions as they rushed back to the officers’ quarters, but Jack refused to answer any of them beyond, “We’ll address it when we get to the war room.”
Finally, she grew weary of the questions and snapped at Logan. “Colonel, Jack has told you he won’t answer questions out here. You’re going to have to live with ‘no’ just like everyone does!”
No one spoke for a moment, and then Logan replied. “It’s ‘General Logan’, if you’ll try to remember. And you are correct. Clearly Jack has a reason for saying no, and I should respect that.”
General… He’d never be ‘General’ to her, so she had best settle on Logan. Oddly, the thought of calling him Logan immediately distanced him from her heart. To her ‘Logan’ was impersonal, while the sobriquet ‘Colonel’ had always been full of affection and respect.
She never actually replied to his correction, because by the time she had come to terms with calling him Logan, they had entered the war room and General Powell’s bleak, angry face was enough to hold her full attention.
“Where the hell were you two?” he bellowed.
“Jack says we’ve got a major attack on our hands?” Logan replied.
“No. I’ve got a major attack on my hands. MAC says you are to get to the East Coast as quickly as possible.”
“Do you want me to leave the war room then?” Logan asked.
“No!” the general huffed. “We’ll need every good mind available for this one. Clearly Jack’s alone isn’t going to win the day.”
Alisha glared at the general and was about to point out that Jack was the best planner in the Corps, but Jack’s hand suddenly was on the back of her neck as if to caution her to hold still as he explained the problem.
“MAC’s aerials show that instead of placing the concussion launchers in a straight line, they are now placed in a bow. I submitted a plan similar to the Broadtown plan, but it came back with a twenty-eight percent chance of success,” Jack said, pulling up the aerials.
“What was the probability on Broadtown?” Alisha asked, as she studied the aerials.
“Seventy-eight percent,” Jack replied.
Alisha shook her head. “I wouldn’t have rated it nearly that high myself. And I would put the probability of success of running that plan with this layout and our new class fives at zero.”
“But they passed the training!” General Powell bellowed.
“They didn’t learn a crosswind dive, which is what I did at Broadtown.”
The general turned a shade redder in the face. “Well, why the hell didn’t they? You were supposed t
o teach them something useful for war, not to impress the tourists at exhibitions!”
“I didn’t teach them a crosswind dive because every one of them would have died trying to learn it. It was only from sheer determination to live…” She glanced at Logan to see if he understood it had been his declaration of love that had given her that determination. His face was grim and impossible to read. “…that I managed to maintain my balance and complete that run at Broadtown. MAC was wrong about the probability of success that night.”
“Well, no matter,” the general said. “The fact is MAC agrees with you that it won’t work now. So we’ve got to come up with a better plan, and fast.”
“How many concussion lines are there?” she asked.
“Five on West Coast, five in the Mid-West regions,” Jack replied.
“What if we use two class fives for each attack site. Ironically, the fact they moved to a crescent shape will help us. It allows the Ryders to dive at an angle that will face more into the head wind so they won’t be nearly as likely to roll as I was at Broadtown. Each will come in at an angle and only be responsible for half the crescent. The shorter run will also enable them to dive with their catcher so they can get out of there after the run by reengaging in a high altitude climb.”
***
What Logan really liked about the plan was that he knew his Class-Fives could do it. He knew he could do it. Alisha wasn’t asking them to perform the impossible flight that her Broadtown mission had been. Everything she laid out was absolutely within their skills. That meant the Class-Fives should be able to get in and get out without anyone ever knowing they were there.
“It’s a good plan, Alisha,” Jack said. “But we don’t have enough Class-Five Ryders to give two to each site.”
“But you said there were ten sites. Counting me, we’ve twenty-one Class-Five Ryders.”
“Half of the Class-Fives belong to General Logan now, and MAC has ordered them to the East Coast.”
Logan could see her outrage at MAC’s decision. Yes, the East Coast needed Ryders but at what cost? Her plan would result in a clear win and more than likely no losses of Class-Fives. Logan had to believe that if MAC were presented with this alternative, it would change its orders.
“This is no time for technicalities, General. If you need my Ryders to make this plan work, then let’s do it!” Logan insisted.
“You don’t think I tried to take them back?” Powell replied. “MAC was adamant that you take your Class-Fives to the East Coast with you.”
Now Logan understood how MAC had come to make such an unrelenting order. The son of a bitch hadn’t asked to use Logan’s crew—he had tried to steal them back, permanently keeping them here on the West Coast.
Still, no matter how pissed Logan might be at Powell, right now he needed to keep a level head and do what was right for the Corps. “Jack, submit Alisha’s changes with my crew cleaning up the Midwest problems. We are headed that way anyway, might as well get used to this attack plan, for if it works, I’ll use it on the East Coast as well.”
Jack typed in the changes and resubmitted the plan. After a few minutes, MAC replied with an 88% chance of success for Midwest and 70% chance for the West Coast.
Logan smiled. Those were good probabilities.
“Why are we so much lower?” Alisha asked.
“I know exactly what it is,” the general snapped. “I don’t have a decent field commander anymore.”
Logan shook his head. “I appreciate the compliment, General, but I don’t think that’s the variable. Jack performed flawlessly at Broadtown.”
“Well I didn’t put Jack in as the field commander. I put Dryer,” the general snapped.
Why the hell would he put an indecisive fool like Dryer in as field commander? Logan walked up to the computer, typed in the change, submitted it, and read the reply. “Well you can raise it to 86% if you use Jack instead.”
Jack typed on the keyboard. “I bet I can get it even better than that.” He typed and waited. “Ninety percent probability of success if we use Alisha and me as joint field commanders.”
Logan was grateful for the suggestion. Alisha was clearly in no condition to be flying a mission tonight.
Powell still resisted Jack being field commander. “See what Alisha and Dryer as joint commanders would do.”
The general had to be desperate to suggest that combination. Dryer kept his feelings to himself, but Logan knew he resented Alisha’s rapid rise to colonel. If she were assisting him on the field, he would do the exact opposite of anything she advised.
“Well what is it?” the general demanded.
“Forty-three percent, sir,” Jack replied.
“Goddamn it!” the general bellowed. “You don’t deserve the privilege, but put yourself as field commander with Alisha assisting.”
“Sir, you’ll be one short if I don’t fly a mission,” Alisha objected.
Logan spoke up before she could undo Jack’s smart move. “I traded one of my class fives for Captain Tucker. So there are ten class fives for the West Coast mission, Alisha.”
“When was all this decided?” she demanded. “Tucker is very close to passing the wind tunnel!”
“It was clear this week which cadets would pass the Class Five test. Instead of leaving it to the last minute, the general and I have amicably split the resources.” That was true, as long as “amicably” was defined as “no blood drawn”. Powell had been an absolute bastard during negotiations. He had accused Logan of obtaining inside information from Alisha about the bottom dwellers and tried to claim their agreement to share them equally null and void. Eventually, they had to pull MAC into their squabble to settle it ‘amicably’.
“We don’t have time for this discussion now!” the general bellowed, still pissed about MAC siding with Logan. “Jack, have you got that damn plan submitted and accepted?”
“It’s done,” Jack said and stood up.
“Then let’s get this thing started. We’ve got one hell of a lot to do.”
Chapter 43
General Powell gathered all the troops into the mess hall and explained the situation. “The West Coast and Midwest regions are both under attack. The only thing standing between them and major casualties is us. And we will annihilate this enemy and bring them to their knees. Same as we did in Broadtown—there will be no survivors. Let’s send a clear message that you don’t mess with the Corps.”
He allowed the soldiers a moment to roar their approval before silencing them. “Now the plan had been for approximately half of this troop to be transferred to the East Coast under the command of General Logan. The East Coast has been ravaged by this war, and they desperately need our skills and leadership, so many of you were scheduled to fly out tomorrow.”
A soldier called out, “We want to fight, sir.” Immediately a thunderous roar of agreement broke out.
“Glad to hear it,” the general shouted over the roar and waited impatiently for them to quiet down. “Because General Logan has offered his assistance in striking a deadly blow to this cartel here and now. The attacks occurring in the Midwest region will be commanded and fought by General Logan on his way to the East Coast. So for all soldiers being transferred out, you have thirty minutes to get your bags packed and placed on the carriage trucks. Any cadet failing to do so will start his career on the East Coast without his personal belongings. And any cadet who does not listen and fails to line in with the correct squad will find himself out of this Corps by tomorrow morning. Do I make myself clear?”
“Sir, yes, sir,” was barked in response.
The general seemed satisfied with their answer and continued. “Colonel Dryer will now read the names of those being transferred. If you hear your name called, go immediately to your quarters and pack your bags. Exactly one half hour from now all bags going East had better be on the trucks. Once you have placed your bags on the truck, meet General Logan on the west landing field. You will receive your orders directly from him.”
With that warning, Powell stormed out of the room.
Alisha was amazed by the utter silence in the room as Colonel Dryer read the names of cadets being transferred. First came Benjamin and eight of the Class-Five Ryders, which Alisha expected. She was not happy, but not surprised when Captain Tucker was called next. However, her unhappiness dramatically increased when Dryer called out Jersey, Ginnie, Ollie and Washington’s names.
Logan took everyone but me, she realized. He knew she and Ginnie were good friends, but he didn’t care. He took her anyway. Alisha searched the hall for him, but he had evidently slipped out with the general.
She stormed out after him. It wasn’t enough that he’d ripped her heart apart and chosen her protégé over her, but now he’d taken all her friends as well. She headed toward the officers’ commons but then decided to try his quarters first. If the truck was leaving in thirty minutes, he could very well be packing.
Well I’ll be glad to help him pack, she fumed. I’ll be glad to get that cold-hearted bastard as far away from me as I can. I only wish the East Coast was farther away…maybe in the middle of China!
Chapter 44
Logan had just closed his last suitcase when Alisha stormed into the room, angry and hurt.
“Let me help you pack, General Logan, because the sooner you are gone, the better for me!” Alisha declared, trying unsuccessfully not to cry.
Logan approached her. “Well, you’re too late to help me pack. So maybe you should just throw a few punches.”
“I can’t. If I punch you in the chest, which is what I feel like doing, it could change the outcome of the whole damned battle.”
Scavenger Falters (The SkyRyders Book 2) Page 21
