The Dean of Academics sounded thoughtful. “I’m not prepared to approve it immediately, but I certainly see the merit in your position.”
Bird Dog tried again. “Captain, the entire focus of my studies here, including my Advanced Research Project?my ARP?has been on crisis response. What could be better than marrying up the academic with the practical, with basing my final paper on an actual honest-to-God crisis?”
The Dean nodded. “As I said, it’s a good point. We’re always in favor of kicking our students out of the ivory tower and exposing them to the real world. But truthfully, haven’t you already had quite a bit of that?”
Bird Dog had to admit that was true. On his first cruise, he’d been on the pointy end of the spear in the Spratly Islands when the Chinese made a grab for the oil-rich islands off the coast of Vietnam. Later, he’d taken part in ejecting Ukrainian Cossacks from the Aleutian Islands, and had started to learn some of the harder realities of war. And there had been more confrontations after that.
This tour at the War College was supposed to be a time of decompression, a reward for a job well done. Even though he was drawing flight pay, it didn’t feel like it. It had been months since he’d flown anything other than the single-engine owned by the local flying club. And as crazily gratifying as he found his relationship with Callie, he felt part of his soul was missing without access to the cockpit of a Tomcat.
Maybe, just maybe, if he could get back aboard Jeff?no, don’t let the Dean even guess that was what he was thinking of. Concentrate on the academic benefit, not the chance that he might get to do a little bit of flying.
“I’ll discuss it with the admiral,” the captain said. “We can let you know in another day or so. That okay?”
Bird Dog nodded. “Thank you, sir. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed with the final result.”
As he left the Dean’s office and headed back to the parking lot, a sudden conviction hit him. The Dean would approve him?he knew he would. He couldn’t wait to tell Callie.
Unfortunately, Callie was not as excited about his taking part in the Turkish conflict as he’d thought she’d be. Surely she could see what an opportunity it was!
After all, if she’d had a chance to get on board Shiloh, she would have jumped at it and he wouldn’t have begrudged her that opportunity.
Would he?
Suddenly, the full implications of his deepening relationship with a hot-running surface-warfare officer in the United States Navy started to hit him. How would he feel if it were Callie who was out on the front lines, if she were the one in the middle when missiles started flying?
The thought was a sobering one. Bird Dog considered himself a model of equal opportunity, and certainly he’d flown with women in his squadron. Commander Flynn, for instance?Tomboy to her squadron mates. One of the finest RIOs he’d ever met, and an aviator he’d be proud to have in his backseat.
But that was different, wasn’t it?
He wasn’t dating Tomboy Flynn?Admiral Magruder was, although that particular fact was a well-kept secret within the Tomcat community. But if it were Callie instead of Tomboy?all at once he wasn’t so certain.
“You’d just walk away from us?” Callie asked acerbically. She tossed her notebook and a few reference sources down on the couch. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Bird Dog felt himself go on the defensive, although for the life of him he couldn’t figure out exactly why.
“It’s the C word, isn’t it? Commitment.”
Callie spat the word out as though it tasted foul in her mouth. “We start getting serious, and all at once you’re afraid I’m going to tie you down. Well, hell, buddy, you can just forget it.”
She stormed out of the room, leaving a puzzled and confused Bird Dog in her wake. Just what the hell had he said?
“The American embassy,” Pamela ordered. She leaned back against the rich leather cushions, keeping a tight grip on the center console as the car darted and weaved through Istanbul traffic. Mike had provided her with the car, as well as a driver and a cameraman. He’d tentatively broached the possibility of occasional updates, but had quickly shut down that line of inquiry when he saw the cold gleam in her eyes.
“We talk to the embassy every hour or so,” the cameraman offered hesitantly. “Do you really think we’ll learn anything there?”
Pamela turned slowly toward him and impaled him against the seat with a cold glare. “What are you, some sort of cub reporter? Or a spy for Mike?”
The cameraman stuttered and stammered, “No, not at all, Miss. Drake. I was just?I mean sometimes it’s?we know the way things work around here, you know. I was just trying to be helpful.”
She held the glare until he looked away. “Thank you. When I need some help, I’ll let you know.”
She turned to face forward again, and was quickly lost in her own thoughts.
Of course, the cameraman was right. There would be nothing new to be learned at the American embassy, not without some personal contacts who would be willing to work off the record with her. But it had been too long since she had been in this area of the world, and she tried to summon up the faces and names of the last two men she’d known at the embassy. How long had it been?eight, maybe nine years?
There was little chance they would still be there.
Nevertheless, she resolved to at least ask if they were. Hell, they’d remember her. Who wouldn’t?
“Where is the USS La Salle headed?” she asked suddenly. She turned to the cameraman. “Do you know?”
Sensing a chance to redeem himself, the cameraman said, “I heard it was Gaeta. There’s no official word, but that would make sense.”
Pamela nodded. “It does make sense.”
She filed this bit of information away as a potential lead, or as possibly a sidebar assignment for one of the lesser lights with ACN.
How to cut to the heart of this conflict?
When Ukrainian Cossacks had seized the Aleutian Islands, she’d hired a commercial helicopter pilot to ferry her out from Alaska to the location of the USS Jefferson, then convinced him to simulate engine problems. The Jefferson had been forced to let her land, and she’d been privy to a good firsthand look at the United States Navy’s operations. It hadn’t hurt anymore, now that she’d reflected on it, helped?that her old fiance, Tombstone Magruder, had been in command of the carrier battle group.
Tombstone. Now there was a subject best left untouched. If she’d had the slightest doubts that their engagement was fully and finally terminated, they’d been dispelled in the Aleutians. Never had she seen him so cold, so completely focused on his job to the exclusion of even her best efforts to distract him. In a way, she’d come to admire him more during those days than she had at any time in the past. Admire him, and realize he was lost to her.
No matter. Rumor had it that he’d taken up with some female chippy off the ship, an aviator at that. She mulled that over for a few moments, contemplating with some satisfaction the thought of Tombstone hitched up with someone just as driven and career-oriented as he was himself.
“Take me to the airport,” she said suddenly. In thinking about Tombstone and his new chick, an idea had occurred to her. A relationship with two people so alike could lead to bitter battles. Who, then, was Turkey’s equivalent in international politics?
The Islamic nations to the east?
Possible, but she had her doubts. Turkey had spent too many centuries as an open, internationalized society with close ties to the United States to revert so easily to the social tenets of fundamentalist Islam. And certainly not Greece to the west. No, the border skirmishes between the two countries had created too much permanent ill will. But there was one other option, one she hadn’t heard discussed publicly yet, though certainly some think-tank pundit had floated it in closed meetings.
The north?Ukraine, the fertile breadbasket of both Eastern Europe and Asia. For centuries battles had been fought over Ukraine and her resources, and since the fragmentation of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had been increasingly vulnerable to outside influences.
But what could an attack by Turkey on U.S. forces have to do with Ukraine?
