Cameron let out a frustrated and confused growl against the dirt as Diana rolled away, getting to her feet and stumbling between the groups of soldiers that were closing in. She and Axtell shared a glance, Diana stepping forward to shake her hand, other soldiers splitting out of her way like she was way more important than she actually was.
“Thanks for coming,” Diana said.
“Good to see you.”
“Just on time.”
“Just as you said,” Axtell replied.
Diana grinned and said, “Called it.”
“You inspired me, Weick,” Axtell said, as if she’d been holding in the words for hours.
“In what way?”
“I’m re-enlisting and signing up for the SEALs,” Axtell said. “Stepping out of those office positions and getting back out there.”
Diana raised her eyebrows and said, “Well, glad to hear it. Good luck. The training isn’t easy but you can handle it. The SEALs could use a soldier like you… now more than ever.”
“If you did it,” Axtell replied flatly, “I certainly can.”
Diana laughed. “Yeah, you’re right about that.”
“Maybe you’ll come back to be a trainer?” Axtell asked, pretending like it was an innocent question, but there were quite a few ears listening in on the conversation. Taking a glance around the wide young eyes of the soldiers around her, staring at her, gauging her reaction, Diana gave a sheepish smile, the heat of embarrassment joining the dry desert heat.
“Maybe I will,” Diana said, not wanting to give much more of a guarantee than that. She was still dealing with the fact that she and her family were alive after accepting all of their deaths at one time or another.
Axtell nodded, saluted and smiled. Diana did the same to the chorus of Cameron Snowman’s wailing about his cause behind them.
At the front of the house, Laird was sitting on the front step, his sniper rifle by his side. Two medics were attending to him; the joint was still hanging from his lips as they hit him with antiseptic and wrapped bandages around his wounds.
Amber was there too, laughing and clamping a heavy hand on Diana’s personal backup that she’d brought along—Rex.
She took a moment, standing at the end of Laird’s driveway in front of the destroyed farmhouse, staring at the three men and the medics on the front step, wondering what had happened over the years that had led her here. Of course, she knew what had happened in the past. But reflecting on it, it was all a blur, none of it important except for what was laid out in front of her right now.
Amber noticed her first, his dark stare catching on to her and a grin spreading across his face as he waved her over.
“All right?” he asked.
Diana nodded, approaching them.
“Your mom?” Diana questioned, turning to Laird.
Laird winced as the medics moved to the bullet wound on his side and with a hiss between his teeth, he said, “Yup. She’s fine. She’s hiding inside from all the strangers… another medic looking at her.”
“Yeah.” Diana looked around at the throes of military personnel, working their way around the house, checking for any remaining threats though all of them on the front step knew—the Readers were finished.
“She’s got the right idea,” Rex said.
The medics gave Laird a final push, bandage and a stream of painkillers as they went back to their van to grab a stretcher for him. He was already complaining and protesting, saying that he could walk but when he tried to get to his feet, he grimaced and immediately sat back down, muttering that he needed another smoke.
Branscomb and his team brought Cameron Snowman around to the front of the house. His hands were in cuffs. They were pushing on his shoulders as he ranted on and on about all of the things he was going to accomplish from prison and how none of them were going to have jobs by the time he broke out. His eyes flashed over to all of them on the step as they dragged him past.
His mouth snapped shut. His gaze moved intensely between all of them, resting for a long time on Amber and then on Diana. He held that stare even as they shoved him into the back of the black van. Though Diana couldn’t see him, she was sure he was still holding it even beyond the armored sides of the vehicle. His intensity, his passion and his indignation making its way to her, boring through the steel, across the hot desert and prepared to follow her for the rest of her life.
Chapter 34
Diana Weick
Seattle, Washington
“Turn the camera around.”
“Like this?”
“No, not like that.”
“Oh, this way?”
“No, I’m looking at a toaster.”
“Now?”
“There you go.”
Through the iPad screen, Amber grinned at her as Diana placed her elbows on the kitchen counter. It had taken her more than a moment and more than a little help from Wesley to set up the video calling with Amber, but now that she had it almost all the way figured out, they could talk often. It wasn’t a relationship. That certainly wasn’t what they were calling it. It had always been more of a partnership between them, working well together on the field and sometimes off of it too.
Maybe, one day they could call it a “relationship,” but they needed to let the dust of Korea, of the Yukon and Alaska and of Laird’s Texas settle first.
“How are the vice-chief things going?” Diana asked, standing up straight and rounding the kitchen island.
“Going all right,” Amber replied. “They’ve finally put some plywood up on the window you broke, so that’s nice.”
“Oh, I broke it, did I?”
“Single-handedly,” Amber said.
They both laughed a little.
Diana heard Wesley and Kennedy bickering and then the sound of them galloping up the stairs.
“Mom!” Kennedy called. “Can you please get Wesley to put some friggin' pants on?”
Diana turned. The long black graduation robes billowed around Wesley’s ankles. He almost tripped on them as stepped out of the entrance to the stairs and into the wide-open kitchen and living
