“So how’d you get in? Your dad?”
“I tried that, but it didn’t work. So I told a little white lie.”
“Like?”
“I said I was your fiancee.”
Karr started to laugh. His ribs had been broken and he started to wheeze and cough — and laugh even harder.
“You don’t have one, do you?” she asked.
“Well, maybe now.”
116
In the dream, she was back in Korea. She was powerless to do anything, completely unable to resist. He and his henchmen dragged her to the little room. She began to scream, but no one came and the men began to pummel her.
“Hey.”
Lia shook herself awake, practically jumping out of the seat. She was in an airplane with Charlie Dean — an Air Force VIP jet that had been used to take the Secretary of State to France. It had been detailed to take them home at the President’s direct order.
“Bad dream?” asked Dean, sitting across from her.
A dream? Yes. A nightmare. And more.
She’d gotten past it. Whether that was good or not — what that really meant — she didn’t know.
“Hey, did you have a dream or what?” Dean asked again.
“None of your business, Charlie Dean.”
He grabbed her arm. “You are my business,” he said.
She frowned but then said softly, “Just a dream.”
STEPHEN COONTS
As a naval aviator, STEPHEN COONTS flew combat missions during the Vietnam war. A former attorney and the author of thirteen
