Blue Skies

by Ali Vali

  As soon as her chute opened, she twisted around trying to find Junior. He was floating down a few hundred feet from her, but he was unconscious, or at least he seemed to be by the way his head was slumped back.

  In the distance she could see Blazer making for the coast with the North Korean plane in pursuit. From the north there were more planes coming, but they were a good ways off, so hopefully they’d be on the ground before they were spotted. Below them there was a stretch of trees that would provide good cover while she assessed just how fucked they were.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “We don’t have much time if we want to catch them,” Yong said.

  “I guess we won’t be lucky enough for this fool to turn around again and try to take us one more time?” The leather of the seat felt cool against Jin’s damp shirt. They hadn’t had the opportunity to put on the flight suits before taking off since they’d sped from the hot springs they were enjoying to the airstrip when she saw the planes coming in. The time off was her parting gift to Yong since she was going through with the plans she’d shared with Pak, and once she deserted her post she figured she’d never be allowed to see her lover again.

  “At least we brought one down. The general will be pleased with that,” Yong said.

  Jin could see the water in the distance and knew her chances to engage were getting slim. Not that she was afraid of facing off again, but her backup was too far behind her for that to be prudent now if there were any other planes to come to his defense.

  “From the size of that explosion we flew through to get here, we’ll be lucky if the general only has us shot. The facility and everyone in it is gone.” The burning building was something she saw destroyed as her plane’s wheels left the ground, and the ramifications of not being in the air with the number of planes her father wanted was too much to contemplate at the moment.

  She’d gambled by being lax and the rubble pile was a clear signal that she’d been wrong. While she and Yong were enjoying an intimate bath together at the hot springs Yong had found, Jin had ordered the two planes scheduled to patrol that morning to head farther south since that’s where she figured the danger would lie, if there was anything to fear at all. All she’d wanted was a morning of peace and normalcy before she gave up everything she’d worked for.

  Her only salvation was that they’d downed one of the planes. She had kept the plane she was chasing under her paw like a cat would with a wounded mouse while she watched the other enemy plane take out her fellow countrymen. The talent and the speed meant he was the lead pilot, and she was surprised by how easy it had been to take him out, but she had the pilot in front of her to thank.

  “No amount of patrolling would have stopped that,” Yong said.

  “And the fact that the two other witnesses that could confirm we weren’t in the air are dead doesn’t hurt either, right?” They were over the water of the Sea of Japan and she was still too far away to take a clean shot.

  *

  “They’re still there,” said Alan Lewis, Blazer’s backseat.

  “Don’t sweat it, we’ll be back to the Jefferson before they get anywhere near us.” From what his radar was showing they were alone in the air aside from the idiot behind them. The sight of Berkley’s plane exploding in midair was playing in an infinite loop in his mind.

  “What you need to sweat is what’s going to happen to us when we get back and the others find out what you did. We’re screwed, I hope you know that.”

  Blazer rolled his shoulders, trying to relax the tension in them. “Listen to me. I’m not going down because of this, and if you try it I’ll do everything in my power to see that you’re thrown out of the Navy. What happened was an accident—nothing more.” His conversations with Rodney came to his mind. The admiral would be thrilled with the outcome. Berkley had not only been downed, but behind enemy lines liked they’d planned.

  “She said not to turn around and to roll right when we got our ass in a crack and you rolled left. It’s almost like you set her up on purpose.”

  “You can’t fucking believe that. Just shut it down. I don’t want you talking about this with anyone. The great Cletus is dead and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it now. See? I was right. No one is that good all of the time.”

  *

  Jin finally pulled back when she saw the two other black planes coming in from the east. Vader and Killer came around and were split enough apart and behind her for Jin to take a chance, even though, her position with her father would’ve been better had they brought down more than one plane.

  “Find the nearest place we can land,” she told Yong as she watched the two planes streak by. “We need to refuel and call Central Command to tell them what happened.”

  “There’s a base fifteen minutes to the north,” Yong said softly. “Our base just radioed and said the other nuclear site was destroyed as well.” Jin realized that any plans to see her mother before she died would have to wait until it would be too late. “The dispatcher said that’s where the general will be waiting for you. We’re to refuel and return to our base as soon as possible.”

  “With any luck he left the firing squad at home.”

  *

  “Blazer, where’s Cletus?” Vader asked as he flew on Blazer’s wing.

  The airwaves were silent for so long that Killer asked again. “Blazer, what happened?”

  “She went down.” Blazer’s voice was soft. “One of the planes locked on me, then at the last minute it changed targets. It’s like she didn’t see it coming.” In essence it was the truth.

  “Are you sure she didn’t eject?” Vader said.

  “There’s no way she had time. She’s gone.”

  “Did you go back and check there was no parachute in the air?” Killer asked.

  “The same plane that shot them out of the sky was on my ass.”

  “Then there’s a chance they made it,” Killer said.

  “She didn’t.”

  The Jefferson was a spot in the distance, and they let Blazer line up first since he was flying point. It wasn’t the time to distract each other with any more questions, and for that Blazer was grateful. As long as he kept his story simple it would be harder to break him. Rodney had told him that over and over until he could say it backward.

  *

  North Korean Countryside

  After she’d rolled up her chute so no one would spot it, Berkley reached Junior where he was hanging ten feet in the air from a tree branch. A branch that was sagging precariously from his weight.

  “Junior?” She hoped her voice wouldn’t carry. They weren’t alone in the area and she didn’t want to attract attention. On the way down she’d seen a village and people pointing, but none of them looked military.

  Above her, Junior moaned as he came around, then bit into his fist to keep from screaming. “What happened?”

  “Did you pass out before or after I hit the eject button?”

  He brought his head forward and just stared at her like a man trying desperately not to throw up. “Does it make a difference?”

  She shook her head and turned her attention to how best to cut him down. “I just wanted to know how much detail you needed.” With the way the branch was sagging, she thought her only option was to go above it and cut him down.

  “I was fully alert when we got hit, but I think something smacked me in the unexpected exit.”

  “Is your head all right? No bleeding?” After years of practice in the mimosa tree in their New Orleans backyard, Berkley made quick work of the climb.

  “No hits to the head or bleeding.” He stared up at her as she hung by her knees from the branch above him with a pocketknife in her hand. “But,” she brought the blade down and was about to cut when he let out a panicked, “Wait.”

  “It’s just ten feet. I promise it won’t kill you.”

  “A piece of debris hit me, but not on the head.” He pointed to his leg where his flight suit had a large tear in it. “I’m not a
doctor, but I think it’s broken. If I had to guess, the pain is what knocked me out.” Just as he finished his assessment and before Berkley could come up with another course of action, the branch snapped.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  USS Jefferson

  “Where’s Cletus?” Aidan asked as soon as the pilots were safely away from their planes. She’d ordered up another team to fly security just in case there was any fallout from their actions.

  Vader stepped forward and shook his head. “Let’s go inside, Captain.”

  “Where is she?” Aidan asked, her voice so clipped it sounded foreign even to her.

  “She didn’t make it,” Killer said.

  It took every bit of discipline her father ever taught her when it came to her emotions not to fall to the deck in despair. She didn’t make it. What kind of cruel joke was he trying to play?

  “What?” Now she fought the urge to hit one of them. To inflict physical pain as a payback for the emotional death she was feeling after hearing those four simple words.

  “We need to set up an inquiry, Captain, while it’s all still fresh. Do you want to set up the usual format? I can get Lieutenant Gibson to get things going,” Vader offered, referring to Erika. At the moment Erika was standing behind Aidan as if frozen in place.

  “Mike, call Devin and have six separate rooms set up in the brig, and post an escort in each one,” Erika said, clearly taking control.

  “No communication between any of you staring now,” Aidan said after a deep breath. “Have Devin meet me in my office in ten minutes and you’ll escort each pilot and navigator to and from there until we’re done,” she said to Erika.

  “We just flew through hell, Captain. Can’t this wait till tomorrow?”

  It was the first time she’d heard Blazer’s voice since they’d landed. Aidan tried hard to remember what Berkley had said about Blazer—the precise words. Hearing him say the most stupid thing he could, given the situation, made it suddenly very important to remember verbatim Berkley’s words on the subject.

  “No, it can’t, Lieutenant Morris, but if you’re that traumatized by the whole ordeal then I give you my word to save you for last. Feel free to take a nap while I talk to the others.” The brief glimpse of panic was all Aidan needed to know how they needed to proceed. Six of the crew stepped up behind her. “Hattie, make sure you escort Lieutenant Morris to his cell and let him sack out for a while and post someone on his door to make sure he’s not disturbed.” She said it loud enough for all six men involved to hear. “But have his navigator brought to my office first.”

  The walk from the deck to her office was one of the longest Aidan could ever remember making. Waking up with Berkley just that morning felt like the end of a lifetime. How very surreal that it took less than a day for every hope, dream, and fantasy for the future to cease so abruptly. The reality of what she had to look forward to was what made her tears fall as soon as she stepped into her quarters.

  “Aidan?” Erika waited twenty minutes before knocking on the door. “Lieutenant Alan Lewis, Blazer’s backseat, and his escort are waiting in the corridor. Can I come in?”

  “No reason for you to.” She knew her face appeared drained and somber. She’d been looking at in the mirror, but the need to break down and give in to her grief would have to wait. “Bring Lewis in.” She nodded in Devin’s direction.

  “Are you sure?” Erika spoke as she looked between Devin and Aidan.

  “Erika, I’m really not in the mood to repeat myself. Bring Lewis in, then wait in the hall. We’ll take care of the interviews.”

  “Lieutenant Lewis, tell us what happened,” Aidan said after the door was shut. He was standing in the parade rest position and Aidan had no intention of changing that. “Before you begin, I should inform you that this will be part of the official report. I’m sure you’re familiar with the penalties for lying.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Let’s hear it,” Aidan said.

  It didn’t take long for Lewis to tell them what happened in what Aidan thought was a robotic-sounding tone. When he was done Aidan noticed that he kept his eyes on the rivets on the wall. She had never interrupted him from the time they started, but he had steadfastly kept his eyes front and center as if he was reading a script off the wall. It was the first story he’d tell them, but her gut suspected it wouldn’t be the only version of it.

  “That’s it?” Aidan asked.

  “That’s all, ma’am.”

  “Just as long as you’re sure.” She knocked on the top of her desk to make him look down. “You’re dismissed for now, but you’ll be restricted to temporary quarters until we get this sorted out. I will personally throw you off this boat if you try and disobey that order and try to get past your guard. Understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Lewis snapped to attention and saluted.

  Devin Clark crossed his legs and tapped on the bottom of his boot with his index finger. He was the head of their onboard security and someone Aidan trusted implicitly. The fact that he was one of the shortest men serving on the Jefferson didn’t matter; his forceful personality more than made up for any height disparity. He was the perfect man to head the MP unit they had onboard.

  “That boy’s like a phonebook that’s ten years old,” he said to Aidan.

  “How so?”

  “Got a lot of information between the covers, but it ain’t worth shit. There’s something he’s not saying.”

  “I figured that out on the deck, but we’ll get it out of him eventually. And we will find out. I can’t go back and tell Corbin Levine that I lost one of the Navy’s most valuable assets and his legacy and I don’t know why. Have the others brought in, but have Lewis cued up the second we’re finished with Blazer.”

  “And if he still refuses to talk?”

  “Then I might just let you snap him like a twig.”

  “Don’t get me all excited with talk like that, Captain. The next few shouldn’t take long since they won’t have any firsthand information. No matter why, though, we need to wait at least four hours before we bring Blazer in here.”

  “Bring a couple more in, then, but let me check one more thing out.” Aidan picked up the phone and asked Erika to step in. “Get Mike in here, and, Devin, post some guards on those planes now.”

  It didn’t take Mike Dyer, the head aircraft mechanic, long to arrive, and he saluted Aidan immediately. “Ma’am, I didn’t mean to overstep my authority, but I went ahead and downloaded all the planes’ computer logs for you.”

  “You saved me a call, Mike,” Aidan said. “Let’s see Blazer’s first.”

  The regular black boxes had been removed since there was no way they wanted to give North Korea any ammunition against them, so Berkley’s flight information wasn’t available. Because of their mission if one of the planes went down, it was set to self-destruct. The only information they had available to them was the route Blazer had flown after the encryption code was put in, as well as the very brief radio contact he’d had with Cletus.

  When the map came on screen Aidan watched and almost came out of her chair when Blazer’s plane suddenly turned around and flew toward the shoreline. The route didn’t become erratic until he was seventy miles in, and then he reversed his course again and flew a direct course for the ship, but mostly over enemy territory.

  “Get Lewis back in here now,” Aidan said and Devin snapped to attention.

  “You need to call this in, Aidan. If she was shot down that far in, it could have serious repercussions, and the sooner Command knows it the better,” Erika said when they were alone. “This isn’t what they had in mind as an outcome, and I did warn you. But no matter what, I’ll stand behind you.”

  “I’ll call when I’m goddamn ready to call, and I’m not going to do that until I know what happened.” Aidan felt her anger rise. “And you warned me?” She threw the words back at her. “Are you kidding me?”

  “I know you’re upset now.” Erika put her hand on Aidan
’s shoulder close to her neck. “That won’t last as long as the consequences from this if it turns into an incident that requires more military action. You need someone who’ll help you through that who cares about what happens to you.”

  The touch made Aidan want to hit her. All the teasing about Erika being in love with her wasn’t some fantasy Berkley had made up. “If you don’t want to be transferred to the kitchen for the remainder of our time here, I want you to keep your opinions to yourself.” She shrugged off Erika’s hand and put some distance between them.

  “Aidan, I’m only being honest because I care about you.”

  “You will address me as Captain Sullivan.” Aidan glared at Erika’s hand as she went to touch her again. “We aren’t friends, much less anything else your imagination conjured up for you.”

  “She isn’t coming back, Aidan.”

  “Captain.” Devin had opened the door with Erika’s words hanging in the air. “Are you ready?”

  Aidan lifted her finger to put him off. “Erika, I want you to report to the kitchen and tell them you’ll be responsible for supplies until we put to shore.”

  Devin pressed his hands behind his back as if he was ready to subdue Erika if that’s what it took. “I think that was a dismissal,” he told her.

  “Captain,” Erika said and hesitated before finally leaving when Aidan didn’t respond.

  “Thanks, Devin.” Aidan took her seat. “Bring him in.” Lewis appeared more nervous as he was brought in, his eyes darting around the room this.

  “Ma’am, I don’t have anything new to add.”

  Aidan kept her eyes on the computer screen as Blazer’s plane made the loop from take off to landing. At the point where he turned north toward the coast, she added the brief radio contact he’d had with Berkley.