him in a mild, kind tone. She folded her arms, and in her snug tank top, her toned muscles looked healthily imposing. “Mind if I sit down?”

DAR CORNERED THE petty officer after he’d taken the new recruits to their barracks and gotten them assigned to bunks. “Do you assess them?”

“What?” The officer stared at her. “Not my job, lady. They do that at intake.”

“So where are their scores?”

“Scores? Who the hell cares?”

Dar felt like she was swimming through peanut butter. “How do you figure out where to place them if you don’t have scores?” She forced patience into her voice. “Or skill assessments?”

“Are you some kinda idiot?” the man spluttered. “These dorks don’t have skills, you moron. They’re nothing but bodies with empty heads. They’ll do whatever we train them to do. No one cares what their scores are.”

The sheet of white-hot rage hit her before she could defend against it. One moment she was standing with her Palm Pilot out, the next she’d grabbed the petty officer and slammed him against the wall, her hands reaching for automatic holds and a growl of pure animal emotion erupting from her throat. For a split second, she teetered on the edge of madness, and then her rational mind savagely ripped back control and forced her to merely push the man back against the wall.

Damn.

Dar waited for her throat to unclench, and then she took a breath.

“I don’t appreciate being called a moron.” Even she heard the rough touch to her tone. “Especially by someone whose mental power rates lower than a watch’s battery.”

The petty officer was breathing hard, his hands clenching and unclenching, barely in control. “Who in the hell do you think you are?”

he spat out.

For some reason, the question calmed Dar. She got herself under control, feeling the rage subside, leaving her knees trembling. What in the hell’s wrong with me? she wondered uneasily. A pounding headache followed her return to sanity, and she had to swallow before she answered. “I think I’m the person your bosses hired to find out why this place isn’t working.” She leaned forward. “Maybe I just have.”

Now it was the petty officer’s turn to swallow. “Now hold on.”

They were alone in the room, and the man looked around quickly before he returned his attention to Dar. “I didn’t do a damn thing. Just what I was told.”

Dar stepped back and let her hands drop, feeling exhausted. “I’ve heard that before.” She found the stool near the computer console and sat down on it. “Something’s going on here, and I’m gonna find it.”


178 Melissa Good The man hesitated, then walked over and leaned on the computer console table. “Hey, look, you really from Washington?” His voice had lowered considerably.

Dar lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I was hired by the Joint Chiefs, yes.”

“All right, look...” The man shifted, and straightened suddenly, cutting off his speech as the door opened. “Sir.”

Dar lifted her eyes to see the base commander enter. “Morning.”

“Howdy, tadpole.” Jeff Ainsbright gave her a big smile. “We all set for dinner tonight?”

The petty officer edged away from her, his eyes taking on a wary look.

“I think so, yes,” Dar agreed. “Seven, you said? You want to meet at the steakhouse?”

The older man nodded briskly. “Right you are, tadpole. Chuckie tells me you’re sweet on someone—you made the invite to him, too, right? Love to meet ’im.”

The complication of the situation almost made Dar wince. “They’ll be here,” she quietly affirmed. “Mom and Dad, too.”

“Great.” The commander slapped her on the back. “Carry on, didn’t want to interrupt anything. You find any holes yet I need to be plugging?”

Dar looked up at his weathered face, open and interested as it was.

His smile indicated he expected no startling revelations from her, and at the moment, she wasn’t sure if she had any.

Right? “Nothing concrete yet, Uncle Jeff,” she said. “I’m still working through the data.”

Maybe it was the way she’d said it. The base commander straightened a little, then glanced at the petty officer who was pressed against the wall doing his best imitation of a strip of wall weave.

“Dismissed.” He waited for the man to leave and the door to close, then he turned back to Dar, his face now mildly concerned. “What’s the poop, tadpole? You really find something?”

Dar’s lips tensed as she found herself caught between conflicting loyalties. She felt a mild sense of confusion for the first time in her life, and she had to stop and collect her thoughts for a moment before she could answer. “I don’t know yet,” she finally answered honestly. “I might have...there’s something I don’t like in the numbers, but I haven’t fully analyzed it.”

The CO put a large hand on her shoulder. “Tadpole, whatever you find, you bring it to me, hear? I don’t care what it is, I wanna know.”

Dar searched his face, seeing nothing but rock-solid resolve in his eyes. “All right,” she agreed quietly. “When I have something for sure, you’ll know it.”

He patted her cheek. “Atta girl. You doing okay, tadpole? You look a little pale t’day.”


Red Sky At Morning 179

Dar winced, lifting a hand to rub the back of her neck. “Headache,”

she explained with a light shrug. “Think I’ll go take a walk outside for a few minutes.”

“Right you are, my friend.” Commander Ainsbright slung an arm over her shoulders and tugged her toward the door. “Fresh air’s just the ticket. I’d send you out on a boat if I had one leaving; get you some salt in those lungs.” He opened the door and they walked outside into the sunlight. “How ’bout a cup of java? That usually puts a patch on my noggin bangers.”

Dar thought back to the petty officer, then realized the man was probably long gone, chasing after the new recruits. “Sure,” she agreed.

“Then I’ll go catch up with the swabs.”

“QUITE THE LITTLE Lone Ranger, aren’t you?” Ceci commented as she and Kerry watched her siblings retreat into the golden rays of sun. They’d lasted through all of ten minutes of Kerry’s pointedly polite chatter, then decided to give up and leave them alone. Ceci hadn’t minded, but she suspected her sister, at least, wasn’t giving up and would be back in touch.

That was all right. She’d never really minded Candice, who generally just went along with Charles in some kind of twin-like Zen mode. This time, however, Candy had spoken for herself, using the unusual “I” instead of “we,” and Ceci had almost warmed back up to her.

A little.

Very little. But if Candy was, at this late stage in her life, attempting to develop a mind of her own, who was she to get in the way? “I feel well and thoroughly rescued.”

Kerry leaned back and propped her feet up on the chair Charles had hastily vacated. “Who, me?” She smiled a trifle sheepishly. “Dar’s rubbing off on me a little, maybe.”

Ceci chuckled and nudged her glass over. “Want some?”

Kerry’s brow contracted a bit. “No…my stomach’s acting up.” She exhaled, putting a hand over the afflicted area. “Or maybe it was just too many stressful meetings. It’s been in a...knot all day.” She finished the sentence softly.

Ceci watched her face, seeing the expression change as Kerry’s focus turned inward. “Kerry?”

After a moment, the green eyes flicked up to meet hers. “Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about something.” Her fingers twitched as she resisted the urge to pull out her cell phone and call Dar. She’s not a baby, and you’re not her sitter, Kerry. You can’t call her to find out if she’s okay every time you get a cramp.

Ceci hazarded a guess. “About my daughter?”

Kerry’s eyebrows hiked up. “Um...”


180 Melissa Good

“She gets the same expression on her face when she’s wondering about you,” Ceci remarked mildly. “I think it’s an indication of her fondness for you.”

A faint blush darkened Kerry’s already tanned skin. “It’s mutual.”

She played with the napkin from Ceci’s drink. She recalled Dar’s half-forgotten “fit” before Thanksgiving and decided here, at least, was a person she could broach the subject with who wouldn’t think she was weird.

Well, not too weird, anyway. “Can I ask a question?”

Ceci looked around, then pointed at her own chest. “Of me?”

Kerry nodded.

“Sure,” the older woman agreed, more than a little apprehensive.

“It’s not about motherhood, is it?”

Kerry’s eyebrows went straight up. “Um...no.” She put a hand on her stomach. “Why, do I look pregnant or something? I know I put on some more weight lately, but...”

Ceci chuckled and relaxed. “Not at all...I just used to have nightmares about having ‘that talk’ with Dar.” She cocked her head.

“What’s on your mind, Kerry?”

What was on her mind. Interesting way of putting it. “It’s kind of a weird question,” she replied slowly. “But...did you ever...” Kerry paused, frowning. “This sounds so crazy,” she apologized.

“Not yet, it doesn’t, except you don’t usually beat around in the bushes,” her mother-in-law remarked mildly.

“No, I know.” Kerry circled her knee with both hands. “Okay, well...before Thanksgiving, when Dar and I were both traveling?”

“Hmm.”

“My plane had some real problems during the flight, and I have to tell you, I was scared senseless,” Kerry said.

“Perfectly reasonable,” the older woman stated. “Nothing crazy about that, Kerry.”

“Dar felt it,” Kerry admitted. “She knew something was wrong.”

She stopped speaking and watched her mother-in-law’s face for a reaction.