“Your girlfriend?”
He looked at her in surprise and then smiled. “No, she’s married to another good friend of mine,” he said. “But they’re two peas in a pod, and I’m absolutely delighted. Actually I find that my faith in human relationships centers around what they have,” he admitted. “And I don’t mean to be metaphorical or anything, but what they have between them is very special. And they’re all good friends, even better friends of Bullard’s,” he said sadly.
“Well, there’s no way to know yet about Bullard,” she said. “You survived, so there’s a good chance he did too. That debris was scattered a long way.”
“Well, I’m really hoping so,” he said, “and I know, if anybody out there will get to the bottom of this, it’ll be him.”
“And you,” she said shrewdly.
He frowned. “And here I was thinking I could hide that need to get answers from you,” he joked.
“No point,” she said. “Besides, why would you want to? If somebody blew you out of the sky, then it’s pretty damn obvious you’ll want to find out who it was.”
“Exactly,” he said. “And that’s a hard place to even begin investigating from, as evidence is streaming across the ocean, especially when I don’t even know where the hell I am, in terms of my physical condition.”
“Actually I’m surprised you’re even allowing that to stop you from thinking along those lines.”
“I’m not allowing anything to stop me,” he said, feeling his irritation grow. “But stuck out in the middle of the ocean on a naval vessel limits my options, you know?”
“I guess it depends on how badly hurt you are,” she said, studying him.
“Besides, I’m not sure I want to leave Garret.”
“And sometimes we have to,” she said gently. “Just because there’s no way not to.”
He frowned and then gave a clipped nod. “If there was a way to go back, I would.”
“Can you think back to how somebody could have planted a device like that?”
“We stopped in Honolulu for gas,” he said. “So it’s quite possible, but I’m not sure that it was then. It could have been planted before that, even in Texas.”
“And triggered how?”
He gave her a hard look. “In this day and age, a phone call could have triggered it.”
“Did you hear a phone ringing?”
“It didn’t have to be up in the cockpit with us,” he said quietly. “Triggers are tiny, and a cell phone could have been put in, close to where the bomb itself was.”
She crossed her arms and stared at him. “The back end appeared to blow from my vantage point. So it would have been someplace around the back section of the plane, I would think.”
“And that’s important too,” he admitted. “Only three of us were on the plane, when we stopped for fuel. It could have been on the outside of the plane. We did get off and walked around to stretch our legs a bit and checked a few things, but I certainly didn’t go under the tail end, and I didn’t see anything suspicious on the inside.”
“But how big would it have to be?”
He frowned, thinking about that. “Not very,” he said. “Probably the size of a fist would have done it, if it were placed properly.”
“So then, depending on how it was covered up,” she said, “it could have been disguised quite well.”
“Unfortunately it was,” he said.
“So now that you have some idea of what, you really need to know now the why.”
“And,” he snapped, “I need to know how.”
“What would that give you?”
“Hopefully the person on the other end. The son of a bitch who placed that bomb.”
“Do you have that many enemies?”
“Yes,” he said. “And I don’t regret any of them.”
“I don’t understand,” she said. “Isn’t that something you should regret?”
“No,” he said. “That is definitely not something I would ever regret. Every enemy I’ve made was because I was helping the good guys take down the bad guys. But bad guys tend to have very long memories.”
“Ah,” she said. “Are you military? Or special ops or … something?”
“Or something, yes.”
Chapter 4
Tabi was back in her room and had gotten a good night’s sleep. She woke up, was currently sitting in her bed, wondering what time breakfast was. On a ship this size, she imagined it had already started. More sleep was impossible. She’d gone to bed early last night, after meeting and talking with Ryland, and even now she wanted to pick up coffee and take it to the sick bay so she could sit down and visit with him again. She knew that, as soon as they got to land, chances were, they’d be separated.
There was just something about him. Maybe it was the connection over having saved his life. Maybe it was the connection with almost having drowned with him. She didn’t know, but something was very compelling about him. Besides, she really wanted to check on Garret. But she also felt like she needed an excuse to go. Just then her phone buzzed. She checked out the text and smiled; it was a perfect opportunity to pass on news to Ryland.
She dressed quickly into her cleaned and dried clothes, which she found when she got back last night, folded on her bed. So, back in civilian clothes, with dry shoes this time, she made her way out of the room and slowly, carefully, proceeded to the mess area. She was delighted when she found it on her first attempt. As she walked in, a good thirty-odd sailors were dotted around at the tables. She didn’t see any breakfast food out yet. She walked over and asked somebody.
“They’ll have the hot food out in fifteen,” he said. “There’s coffee, snacks, muffins, oatmeal, fruit, and things like that over on the sideboard.”
She nodded, then went over and grabbed two coffees. She put cream in hers and left the other one black. Just something about Ryland made her think he’d take his coffee black. Then she moved out, as other people came in. Getting from the cafeteria back to the medical unit was a trick in itself, but, when she finally saw the double doors up ahead, she sighed with relief. She pushed open the swinging door, using her hip and shoulder, and walked on in.
The person she’d seen last night wasn’t here. Instead a doctor stood here with a clipboard in his hands. He looked up and frowned.
She smiled. “I came to deliver coffee for Ryland,” she said. “I have a message for him as well.”
He walked to the door where Ryland was and checked, then said, “He appears to be awake, so go on in.”
“Thank you,” she said, then stopped and looked at the doctor. “Any update on Garret yet?”
“No,” he said. “Not yet.”
“There was some suggestion,” she said, “that my services might be needed, if you had to do surgery.”
“Ah, you’re the surgical nurse. Chances of that are not good,” he said. “At least, not at the moment. As long as he’s holding on, we’ll leave him as is.”