Move the Sun (Signal Bend #1)(52)

Newell maneuvered, and Donna rocked hard, losing noticeable altitude. Now the cabin was quiet but for the sounds of the engine. Everybody was paying attention to what was going on up front.

“Was that you or Donna dancing, bud?”

“I—I don’t know, ma’am. Sir. I think I feel something.”

Lilli carefully reached over and manipulated the co-pilot cyclic. She felt the same catch. It wasn’t the stick, then, it was something deeper. In the engine itself. Donna wasn’t taking anyone to the front today. She called it in.

The response from Command was terse and direct. “Negative. Squad on the ground is overrun. Get those troops forward, Major.”

She had fourteen men on her ride. She gave it another couple of tries, but Big Donna was getting angrier every time. She barely reclaimed control the last time, and a few of the men actually screamed as the rotors skipped and the engine coughed. “No can do, Colonel. Donna won’t fly. Putting her down.”

“That’s a NEGATIVE, Major. Those troops are needed now!”

She knew full well they were needed. She knew full well what they would all likely lose by not carrying out her mission. But her mission had already failed, and she wouldn’t risk these men, too. “Sorry, sir.

Mechanical failure. Putting her down. Need new transport.”

oOo

Within ten minutes, another copter was on the scene, but they were too late. The squad on the ground was wiped out. All of them—Okada, Scarpone, Miller, and the rest, KIA.

Lilli had disobeyed a direct order. She’d done it to save her squad, but she was relieved of flight duty as soon as she hit camp, pending investigation. Captain Ray Hobson, the senior pilot but for Lilli, was put in charge of the investigation. Hobson had never stopped gunning for her—in fact, he’d recently gotten much worse. He’d been passed over for promotion to Major, a promotion Lilli had gotten below the zone. Hobson had one more go, next year. If he was passed over again, he’d be forced out of the service.

Lilli knew his being in charge of the investigation made things even dicier for her, but she didn’t care.

She’d let a whole squad of men—friends of hers, brothers—die violently, their bodies desecrated. She’d done it to save another whole squad, but it didn’t ease the loss. And she’d lost more. She’d lost Colonel Corbett’s respect. She’d lost the respect of everyone on base. The men who’d been flying with her, most of them understood. But not all of them. Some had been livid that she hadn’t pushed on.

Everyone was questioned. She had no idea what the men with her had said; she had no intention of asking. For her part, she’d told the truth. She went easy on Newell, who’d been no help to her at all, but he was green. She’d been shaky on her first mission, too, and she hadn’t been headed to a firefight.

Lilli pushed her papers and waited for the investigation report. For the most part, she kept to herself.

For the most part, everyone left her to herself.

The investigation turned up no mechanical faults. Nothing. The cyclic was smooth. Everything worked as it should. Lilli read the report three times and then went straight to Chief Pettijohn, who glared at her as she approached. He saluted, and then nodded curtly. “Ma’am.”

“Chief, is this right? No fight in the cyclic?”

“Checked it myself, Major. Donna’s healthy as a horse. No failure.” He turned back to his work.

Lilli didn’t know what to think. She knew there’d been a bad—a potentially catastrophic—failure. She’d never have landed and disobeyed an order otherwise. She knew it. But Chief was good. He was thorough.

And he’d once been on her side.

Had she f*cked up? Had she gotten men killed?





CHAPTER THIRTEEN


Dumbstruck, Lilli didn’t answer Isaac right away. He knew Hobson? How did she not know that? She briefly considered lying, but decided against it—and it was too late anyway. Isaac’s question had caught her flat-footed, so she’d already given the answer away, simply by standing there, stunned.

But Jesus, she couldn’t tell him. And if he knew Hobson, f*ck. Would he try to get in her way? She didn’t know what to do. Normally, she thought quickly on her feet, adapted to the situation before her. But now, her brain just . . . skipped. Without answering, she turned and headed back toward the house. She had no idea why she did that—it wasn’t like there was any chance at all that Isaac was going to turn around and ride away, or let the subject drop. She wasn’t avoiding anything. And yet, it took a force of will to keep her legs from speeding into a run.

She was panicking. She didn’t panic. Ever.

Sure enough, she heard him coming up behind her, and he grabbed her arm—not roughly, but firmly.

He stepped up to face her and grabbed her other arm as well. “Lilli, no f*cking way. We are talking this out.

The secret ends now.”

She fought him. More than anything else, that was a testament to her panic. She broke his hold with a violent swing of her arms, then hit him hard in the chest with the heels of her hands. Winded, he fell back a few steps, and she bolted, thinking to get into the house and lock him out.

None of what she was doing made any f*cking sense. Running would not get her clear of this problem.

Running was making it worse. But her body would not listen to her brain. She heard him coming up behind her, surprisingly fast, and she felt his hands reaching just before they grabbed her. She spun as he got hold, and they went down, Isaac landing hard on top of her. They were face to face, on the ground, both of them winded.