Empire Rising (31 page)

Christine raised her hand. “I can get you into the Great Hall of the People.”

There was a surprised expression on Harrison's face as he asked, “And how would you do that?”

Christine explained how her palm print had been entered into the security system and how she had opened the security doors as she escaped from the Great Hall of the People. As long as her entry into the security system hadn't been discovered, gaining entrance into the building would be easy compared to forcing their way in. Additionally, she recalled the commands Yang had entered to pull up the schematics of the Great Hall on the security panel, which would allow them to determine the best route to the communications center. However, after explaining how she could help, Harrison brushed her off.

“Thanks for the offer, Miss O'Connor, but I'm afraid that's not an option. This mission is far too dangerous for a civilian, and frankly, your participation would be more of a hindrance than a help.”

Christine could feel the heat rising in her cheeks, driven by a confluence of emotions. Her offer of assistance had been dismissed, and she wondered whether it was because Jake cared about her, or because he thought she was a helpless woman. As far as she was concerned, both of those reasons were unacceptable.

“I disagree with you on both points,” Christine replied. “Whether this mission is too dangerous for me is my decision, not yours, and as far as being more of a hindrance than help, I doubt that. Whatever difficulties my presence creates will be far outweighed by gaining clandestine access to the Great Hall of the People. I recommend you reassess your position,
Lieutenant
.” Christine's eyes bored into him.

Harrison was undeterred. “That's my professional assessment, Miss O'Connor, and you will
not
be a member of this mission unless I am overridden.” Harrison glanced at Commander McNeil, seated next to Captain Wilson.

After a long moment, McNeil replied. “You have valid points, Miss O'Connor, and your offer of assistance is accepted.” He looked toward Harrison. “Plan accordingly.”

“Yes, sir,” Harrison replied curtly, displeasure on his face as he wrapped up the mission brief. “Everyone is dismissed except O'Hara, Garretson, Martin, and Andrews. Crane, you're out. Your seat has been taken by Miss O'Connor.” Harrison cast a scowl in Christine's direction. “Miss O'Connor, I'll brief you separately on what to expect during the mission.”

Christine nodded, uncertain whether to be pleased or angry at Harrison's reaction. One thing was certain, however: a private conversation with him was long overdue.

*   *   *

An hour later, Christine was seated alone in the Executive Officer's stateroom, having asked the XO for an opportunity to speak with Lieutenant Harrison privately. She was seated in the XO's chair, one leg crossed over the other, facing the closed door. An extra chair had been dragged into the stateroom, positioned only a few feet away. Not that there was much choice. No matter where she put the chair in the small stateroom, in a few minutes she would be uncomfortably close to a man who had never been far from her thoughts.

Twenty-four years ago, Christine had left Fayetteville and Jake Harrison behind, headed to Penn State on a four-year gymnastics scholarship. Regardless of Harrison's opinion, it had been a difficult choice, leaving the man she loved behind. There would be time for marriage and children, just not then. But after graduating with a degree in Political Science, she'd been swept into a life of Washington politics. She'd get in touch with Jake soon, she kept telling herself, when the time was right. Only by the time she was ready, Jake had chosen another woman. Apparently, eleven years was too long to wait. Christine settled down instead with Dave Hendricks, their marriage ending after a turbulent ten years, his life ending three years later in the kitchen of her town house. But that was not entirely her fault.

There was a knock on the door.

Christine answered. “Come in.”

The door opened, revealing Lieutenant Harrison standing in the entrance, his stiff posture accompanied by cold, dark blue eyes. He'd been summoned to the XO's stateroom not by Christine, but by the president's national security advisor, made clear when she instructed the Messenger of the Watch. She was still steamed about how Harrison had treated her during the mission brief, dismissing her ability to contribute.

There was an awkward silence as Harrison stood in the doorway at attention. Finally, he spoke first. “You requested my presence, ma'am.” His tone was formal, his face expressionless.

Harrison's demeanor made Christine regret the words she relayed through the Messenger of the Watch. This wasn't how she wanted things to go.

“Please be seated, Jake.” She used his first name and put a warm smile on her face.

“I prefer to stand, Miss O'Connor.” He kept his eyes focused straight ahead, looking at Christine only when he spoke.

She fought back the desire to put a hard edge into her voice, ordering him to take a seat as directed. Instead, she decided to try again.

“Jake, I apologize for the wording of my request. I don't want to talk to Lieutenant Harrison, the Navy SEAL. I want to talk with Jake Harrison, the man I once dated.” Christine said nothing more, waiting for his response.

After a moment, Harrison's eyes drifted toward Christine, and the stiffness in his shoulders softened. “Request permission to close the stateroom door.”

“Please do.”

Harrison stepped inside the stateroom and closed the door behind him, then grabbed the vacant chair and swung it around backward as he sat in one fluid motion. He folded his arms on the back of the chair and stared into Christine's eyes. He was only an arm's length away, his chair a few inches from Christine's legs.

“What would you like to talk about, Chris?” His demeanor had softened, but his eyes and voice were still hard.

“It's time we cleared the air, Jake.”

Harrison nodded subtly. “Me first or you?”

“I'll start.” Christine locked her fingers around her knee. “I don't want our personal past to affect our professional present, and I think there might be some of that going on here.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You had to be ordered to include me on the mission, when my participation makes perfect sense.”

“It does not make perfect sense, Chris. I explained my position during the brief, and it has nothing to do with the fact that we were once engaged.”

“We were never engaged!”

Harrison pulled back a bit. “You said yes, and the ring went on your finger. That sounds like an engagement to me.”

“I changed my mind and returned the ring the next morning.”

“Still,” Harrison insisted, “I believe my statement is more accurate than yours.”

Christine pursed her lips together a second before replying. “All right, I concede your point. But that has nothing to do with today's discussion.”

Harrison blurted, “It has
everything
to do with today's discussion!” He clamped his mouth shut a second too late; the words had already been spoken. He paused a moment before continuing, his eyes searching hers. When he finally spoke, the hard edge was gone from his voice.

“I loved you then, and I still love you today in some capacity. I don't want anything to happen to you, and if you accompany us, you won't make it back. We'll have the element of surprise on our side when we enter the Great Hall of the People, with or without your help. Making it back out is another issue altogether, and odds are none of us will. My professional opinion is that we don't need your assistance, so I see no point in needlessly sacrificing your life.”

Christine let Harrison's words sink in, but she kept going back to the one phrase, trying to put it into context.

I still love you …

The words had an unexpected effect on her, and only then did she realize she had wanted to hear those words from the moment she laid eyes on him in the Dry Deck Shelter. She struggled to maintain her composure, her mind going in several different directions at the same time. Finally, she decided it was best she get off this track. Now was not the time to let long-buried emotions surface.

“Fair enough,” Christine replied. “I respect your opinion, but I don't agree, so I'm going with you. Hopefully this will be the last of that discussion.” She paused before continuing. “Now it's your turn. It sounded like there was something you wanted to get off your chest as well.”

“All right,” he said. “I'll get straight to the point.” Only he didn't. He fell silent for a while, searching for the right words. He finally found them.

“I wasn't good enough for you, was I?”

Christine hesitated before replying.
How is it he still doesn't understand?
“You were more than good enough for me, Jake. It's the timing that wasn't good.”

“The timing for what? Love? There's a right time and a wrong time to fall in love?”

“We were only eighteen.”

“We were old enough.”

“I wasn't ready. I had a gymnastics scholarship to college and I spent my afternoons and evenings in the gym. I didn't have time to be a wife or—God forbid—a mother at that age.”

“I didn't ask you to become a mother, only a wife.”

Christine waved away his words. They had rehashed this issue dozens of times. Neither could persuade the other, and it appeared things hadn't changed. “We've been over this before. I loved you and would have married you if you had waited for me.”

“I waited long enough. It looked like you were more interested in being wed to Washington politics than to me. Did I embarrass you? Were you too afraid to introduce a simple corn-fed Midwestern boy to your sophisticated friends? An enlisted man to boot?”

“You could have been an officer—you could have gone to college with me and earned a commission instead of enlisting.”

“I
am
an officer, if you haven't noticed. And the path I chose was far more difficult and honorable than simply being knighted an officer because I graduated from college. I
earned
my commission, working my way up the enlisted ranks, and I'm a far better man for it.”

“That's not what I meant, Jake. I meant we could have gone to college together—you had the grades, just not the desire. We could've graduated and built a life together.”

“And I could've ended up with a bullet in my head.”

Jake's words sliced through Christine, leaving behind the image of her ex-husband's body on the kitchen floor of her town house, blood spreading across the stone tiles.

“That's so unfair, Jake.” It was Christine's turn to pull back slightly, the memory of her struggle with her ex-husband flooding her body with emotion. “Dave drove a knife almost straight through my neck.”

Harrison's eyes moved toward the thin scar on the left side of her neck, barely discernible now. “I'm sorry. It must have been difficult for you.” He reached toward her, his fingers caressing the faint, inch-long vertical scar.

The warmth of Harrison's fingers, his gentle touch, sent shivers through Christine's body. She pulled away even farther. There was another awkward silence until he lowered his hand to his side.

“I'm sure you gave Dave a run for his money,” Harrison added. “I've never met a woman as strong as you. Or as flexible.” He broke into a wide grin.

Christine couldn't help but smile at the memories; the times they'd escaped to the loft in his father's barn, spending hours talking, and … She suddenly found herself leaning toward Harrison. She needed to change the subject.

“So, are you married?” She already knew the answer, but she and Harrison had never discussed it.

“Yes,” Harrison answered. “It took me a while to find someone like—” He stopped, his eyes probing Christine's, until she mentally finished his sentence.

Like me
.

She could feel the heat in her neck rising toward her face, and she searched for a way to divert her thoughts, to hide the feelings surging inside her while she struggled to discern their meaning.
Is it possible I've never gotten over him?

“Do you have any kids?” she asked.

“I have one daughter. A ten-year-old. She's into gymnastics, like you.” Christine smiled as Harrison continued. “Speaking of gymnastics, it looks like you haven't wandered far from the gym.” He surveyed her body, his eyes moving slowly up her lean legs and narrow waist, his gaze undressing her along the way. Had any other man ogled her so blatantly, Christine would have slapped him. Instead, she struggled to keep from taking his hand, pressing it against her cheek. Her bed lay just a few feet away, and she fought the urge to lock the door and pull Harrison into her arms, dragging his hard body on top of hers.

There was a knock on the stateroom door, thankfully distracting Christine from her thoughts. “Enter,” she said.

The door opened, revealing the XO. “Oh, I didn't realize you two were still talking.”

“That's quite all right, sir,” Harrison replied as he stood. “I've still got some mission planning to do, now that Miss O'Connor is accompanying us. I better get hot.”

Speaking of getting hot
, Christine thought as Harrison left the stateroom and Lieutenant Commander Greenwood entered. She hoped neither man noticed how warm her skin felt.

 

48

USS
RONALD REAGAN

“Sir, casting off all lines.”

“Very well.” Captain CJ Berger acknowledged the Officer of the Deck's report as he reviewed the status of his aircraft carrier from Auxiliary Conn on the starboard side of the Island. Night had settled over Oahu, and the deck lights illuminated the large warship floating in Dry Dock One of the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. Along the dry dock wharves and on each side of the ship, personnel were casting off the mooring lines, and inside the ship, the Sea and Anchor Detail was set, the crew ready to get
Reagan
underway. Whether the ship itself was ready was another question altogether.