Dex and his group stepped to the side while the commander briefed his team.
Dex turned to his team. “I need you here on the ground, running point for me and assisting where needed. We start today, not tomorrow. I have no idea what we’re dealing with here, or how trained these pilots are. We’re about to find out.” He studied their faces. They were alert; energy sparked between them. “If something happens to me, or I go down, Ivy is taking lead. I’ll communicate as soon as I’m able from the ground.”
To their credit, no one responded.
And before he knew it, Dex Callison was back up in the air.
He radioed his team. “Warning shots only. I repeat. Warning shots only unless you’re fired upon.” The ocean sped past below them. “Don’t get hit.”
He chatted with his copilot. “So, Amelio, how long have you been flying?”
“This is my fourth year with the Alliance. I trained on Tandora, with the US Air Force.”
“Excellent.”
Everything he heard from Amelio put him at ease. They were a well-trained and, for the most part, an experienced group. Very few had any battle experience, but hopefully they wouldn’t need any. The training program would not need him once he got things up and running, which meant he could take on a different job, or take a pit stop on Panau for a while, before his next job with Top Flight...as long as the situation cooled down.
As soon as he saw the strip of islands, his heart ached for the people he had left to fend for themselves. He flew by and then circled back. The other jets did the same to the north and south of him. A string of boats flying the Mantukese flag were anchored off the shore. A radio crackled in his ear. “We’re getting a signal from Panau. We’ve got an American on the ground. Gianna West. She’s sending up a call for help. Supplies, on the ground, operations. Send some of the team back for a food drop. We can at least do that.”
“Copy that.” He switched to radio his team. “Drop the supplies on Panau. I’m flying over it now.”
“Roger. We’ll do the food drop.”
Gianna.
He made a decision, it was rash. But he had his comm unit with him. He had his emergency kit on his back. His copilot could get the plane back. He wasn’t going to leave them alone again.
“Don’t do it.” Ivy’s voice in his ear made him smile. The fact that she knew what he was thinking gave him courage to do it.
“What do you know about any of this?” He tried to keep his smile out of his voice.
“We need you here.”
“You’ll do great. Get these islanders some food and supplies. Train up the Alliance pilots and wait for word from me.” They needed a man on the ground on an actual island anyway, someone to relay accurate circumstances. He told his copilot. “I’m going down.”
“What!”
“Just fly her home. I have my radio.”
The silent response would have made Dex smile if his heart wasn’t hammering out of his chest. “Fly low over the north part of that middle island. Slow our speed. I’ll eject.”
They turned, and as soon as the jet was in a good position, he popped up in the air. Then he was in free fall. The air rushed all around him. He rolled and then stretched his hands and legs out. He studied the layout of the island below. From what he remembered, only villagers lived on the northern tip of the island. And those were the people he most wanted to see. He could set up a safe base there.
Was he responding to a military situation with a personal agenda? He knew he was. Was he motivated by past guilt? Absolutely. But he didn’t even try to deny the largest draw to these islands was Gianna. He grinned. They could finally work together on something important, just like they’d talked about. He laughed, thinking about her reaction when she saw him. She might punch him in the gut. Or would she run to him with a hug? Could he remember what she felt like in his arms? Yep. He closed his eyes. Solid, sleek. She was lithe and strong with a softness not many were able to see. He opened his eyes. Time to open his chute and guide himself to land in the north.
Chapter 4
The children’s chatter pulled her attention away from the last few emails that needed to be sent. She’d alerted everyone she could think of to the problems she was facing and told them what she thought should be done. She logged out with one eye on a group of children from her home. They stood outside the internet café, obviously waiting for her to exit.
As soon as she stepped back out into the heat, she smiled, rubbing down the goose bumps from the icy air conditioning in the café. “What is it?”
They tugged and pulled her until they were far from other ears, then the youngest said, “There’s a man in a tree.”
“What?”
They nodded. “He fell from the sky, but now he is sleeping.”
She took off running. “Which way?”
Nothing could have prepared her for an unconscious Dex hanging from a tree outside her village. She nearly tripped and swallowed air, throwing herself into a fit of coughing.
His chute was caught. And it looked like he had a head wound. His coloring was normal, which gave her hope.
She raced back to her hut, diving through wet underbrush, grabbed a machete and came back. But while she was too far away to do anything, some of the locals had climbed the tree and were just about to drop him to the ground. “Wait!” She waved her hands.
But a man, Redgie, sliced through his ropes, and Dex fell.
She yelped, but as she raced closer, she breathed out in relief when she saw a group of men had gathered and caught him.
By the time she was at his side, he was lying on his back. She pulled back his gear and placed fingers at his neck. “Oh, he’s alive.” She closed her eyes in relief. Then she inspected his head wound. Crusted blood had matted in his hair and run down his face. It looked like a decent gash but not too deep.
“Thank you.” She shielded her eyes to look up at the villagers. “Could you bring him to my house? He’s a friend.”
“You know this man?” Redgie raised his eyes in disbelief.
“Yeah, crazy as it sounds.”
“He must really love you.” The incredulous shake of his head made her laugh, but her heart hammered inside. Love. She shook her head. “It’s not like that. But I am very curious about why he’s here.”
She stood and backed away so that they could lift him, keeping him flat. It took three men. They followed her through the village, past several rows of homes, until practically everyone in the place had seen them and all the children were following.
They climbed her ladder and placed him inside.
“Could I get my bucket filled?” She held it out and Redgie nodded.
Once she had fresh water, she climbed in and began to sponge off Dex’s face.
She winced when she touched the area around his wound, grateful he was still unconscious. “Why are you here?”
She wouldn’t flatter herself that he’d come just for her. He hadn’t reached out in over a year, or was it two? And yet here he was on the very island and in the very village she was living…
She took large amounts of water and poured it through his hair. It rained down through the slats on the flooring of her bamboo hut.