Red Sky At Morning - DK4 (47 page)

Dar watched in stunned disbelief as it traveled over her chest and stopped. For a second, all she could hear was her own heartbeat turned into a thunder as her mind realized what was happening.

The shotgun cocked.

“Dad!” Dar let out a yell, knowing if she moved, she’d expose Kerry and her mother.

She closed her eyes.

Then there was a thud, and a curse, and the sound of something ripping.

Metal hitting flesh. Flesh hitting flesh.

An animal growl.

“All right.” A commanding voice rose over the chaos. “Hold it!

Everybody stand down!”

And then the lights came on.

“WHAT IN HELL is going on in here?” A tall, burly man strode into the room and put his hands on his hips. “I thought I—Andy?”

Andrew dropped the arm he was holding and straightened from a crouch, turning to face the newcomer. “’Lo, Steve.” His eyes anxiously checked the sprawl of bodies between the ruined computer consoles.

“You all okay?”

Ceci squirmed out from under Dar’s outstretched leg. “Fine.”

Kerry didn’t move an inch, preferring to remain where she was with both arms wrapped around her lover. “Yeah.”

Dar grimaced, shifting her weight off her bad arm as she met her father’s eyes. “Thanks.”

Andrew nodded, then returned his attention to the newcomers. The SEALs, both protectors and attackers, were sprawled everywhere, fatigues in jungle pattern and black smeared with paint and a thick, glutinous coating that also covered the floor and was spattered on walls, consoles, equipment, and every other surface within the room.

Andrew let the end of the fire hose he’d been wielding drop off his shoulder, then he glanced down at his feet with a sense of tired disappointment. He reached out a sneakered foot, rolled over the slumped form dressed in similar black fatigues, and gently booted the rifle he’d taken from the attacker far out of range. “Damn.”

“Holy shit.” Steve Drake had picked his way over to where Andrew was standing. “What the hell’s the CO doing here? Did you hit him?

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Why? What the hell are you doing here? Who— Hey, ain’t that your little girl and the missus?”

“Steve,” Andrew exhaled.

“What happened to these damn machines?” The SEAL commander turned and glared at the slowly disentangling team members. “I thought I told you people not to touch any of this—” Steve stopped talking as a large hand fit itself over his mouth.

“Hush,” Andrew exhaled. “We got a lot to talk through. Get some medics in here first.”

“But—”

Andrew’s voice took on a crisp, stern quality. “Just do it.”

Dar managed to push herself upright, hampered by both her arm and Kerry’s tenacious hold on her. She let her head rest against the wreckage of the console and blinked. “Doug?”

“Just fine, ma’am.” Doug and his companion crawled out from between the computer and the nearby wall. They were both covered in dust, but unharmed. “That other lady officer took off in the dark, though. I don’t know what happened to her.”

Several possibilities occurred to Dar and caused her to smile unpleasantly. She hurt too much to enjoy them, however. “Take the box and get outside. Mark’s waiting for you. Get it into my car, and just get off base.” She kept her voice low. “Move it.”

Doug hesitated, then his freckled face scrunched into a grimace, and he nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Be careful.” He and the other tech carefully uncovered the disk assembly and lifted it between them, then started to make their way quietly toward the door, dodging the cursing, slipping SEALs.

Kerry’s eyes were on the still form at Andrew’s feet. “You were wrong,” she murmured.

“Yeah,” Dar agreed sadly. “I guess I was. I was hoping I wasn’t.”

She closed her eyes. “He was trying to use the exercise to cover wiping his tracks, I guess.”

Kerry shook her head. “I don’t get any of this. What about that petty person? Was she part of it, too? Is everyone in this place messed up, Dar?”

“I don’t know,” Dar answered. “I don’t want to think about it right now.” She let her eyes open and examine the hole in the console just opposite her. “I hate this.”

“Well, hon, I don’t think anyone would like being in a half-shot-up room full of fire retardant foam and cursing sailors,” Kerry joked weakly. “I know I don’t.”

It was more like a bad dream. Dar felt a hurt beyond the physical as she considered the consequences of the day.
Never had to nail a friend,
have you?
She accepted the self-acknowledgment with a bitter taste in her mouth.
It was sure easy enough for you to do this to some damn strangers,
wasn’t it, Dar? You used to laugh about it, remember?
It was true, she
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knew. She remembered exchanging bets with Duks on how many people she could nail at companies they consolidated. What was her record? Fifteen, wasn’t it?

Her eyes went to the ceiling. Well, she had a job to do; after this, chips were going to fall where they fell, that’s all. After all, there had been that laser scope on her chest, and now Dar had to face the possibility that given another few seconds, her family’s “old friend”

might have chosen to pull that trigger.

That close, with a shotgun. There was no doubt she would have died. It would have been a “mistake” during an exercise; that was all.

Friendly fire. And civilians who had no authority to be where they’d been, anyway.

Dar’s lips twitched.
Damn, life just really sucks sometimes.
She inhaled, then rolled her head to one side to meet Kerry’s eyes. Had Kerry seen the scope? Did she know what almost happened? “You okay?”

“Me?” Kerry almost spluttered. “I’m perfectly fine, Dar. Can you stand up? I’d like to get the hell out of this room. The smell of that foam is making me sick.”

No, Dar realized. She didn’t know. After a moment’s hesitation, she decided to save the news for later, when they were alone. “Sure. That’s a good idea.” She got her feet under her and slowly stood up. Kerry held onto her, for which she was glad, as a wave of dizziness nearly sent her right back down to the ground again. “Whoa.”

“Easy.” Kerry wrapped an arm firmly around her. “I got you.”

Dar waited a moment for the buzzing to fade, then laid her arm across Kerry’s shoulders and took a look around the room for the first time. “Holy shit,” she blurted, shocked at the compound disaster the area had become.

“Leave it to your father.” Ceci had come up on the other side. “He could do that to a perfectly clean carport, too.” She looked up at Dar.

“You doing all right?” There was a faint hesitance in her voice. “Or is the smell in here killing you as much as it is me?”

Dar felt sick to her stomach, and the pain in both her shoulder and head seemed to be getting worse. Or maybe it was just a combination of things. “It’s pretty bad,” she agreed. “We’re going to get out of here.”

“Good idea,” Ceci remarked, noting but not commenting on the stark paleness of her daughter’s face. “I’ll walk out with you.” She exchanged glances with Andrew, who nodded, a sober, very serious look on his face.

After a moment’s pause, she drew in a breath, then settled a hand firmly on Dar’s back as they made their way slowly to the door.

Dar glanced to one side, then to the other, a dozen words of protest rising to her lips about this overly solicitous behavior. Then her stomach almost rebelled, making her glad of Kerry’s grip, and she decided to make an exception.

Just this once.

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ANDREW WATCHED HIS family leave, then turned back to his old friend, Steve Drake.

“So what’s the deal, Big A?” Steve asked, folding his arms across his chest. “Better come up with something good ’fore Ainsbright wakes up and throws you in the brig.” He glanced down. “Gonna be some pissed.”

“Can’t,” Andrew replied. “I mustered out.” His eyes fell on the still-unconscious form of the base commander. “You got medics coming? Ah think I might have busted something in there.”

“Yep. On the way,” Steve agreed. “You really retired? No shit?”

Andrew nodded. “Got me a nice, peaceful job watching out for mah damn kid.” He shook his head. “This ain’t a good day, Steve. We got some bad stuff going on here.”

The big SEAL snorted. “Here? Nah. Nothin’ ever goes on here, Andy. You know that better than most. It’s so quiet, they picked this place to let us do our urban playpen weekend here.”

Andrew shook his head, remembering those weekends.

“So, what are you gonna tell the heat when they get here? You gonna explain why a retired frogman’s holed up inside an official Navy action area, spraying some poor kids with foam and whacking the hell out of the base commander?”

“No,” Andrew replied. “Ah am not going to explain it.”

Steve cocked his head in a puzzled fashion.

There was a rifle lying near the wall. Andrew walked over and crouched next to it, examining the weapon with knowledgeable eyes.

“C’mere.” He waited for Steve to come over and kneel down. “This what you’re arming with?”

A blink. “Hell, no,” the SEAL commander said. “You know better.”

Andrew nodded. “Yep.” The rifle was a standard issue, old style M16 rifle, with a night scope attached. “Trouble is, what made them holes in them there pieces of machinery sure wasn’t this here rifle.” He turned and looked. “12 gauge Remington, I’m thinking.”

Steve walked over and examined the holes. “Damn.” He straightened. “None of my people were carrying those.” He came back over. “Andrew, what is going on here?”

Andrew looked from the holes, to his old friend—now starting to groan—then to the rifle he’d taken from Jeff’s hands and slammed against the wall. “Ah wish to hell I knew.”

KERRY ADJUSTED THE passenger’s seat back a little, watching Dar’s eyes blink slowly in the midday sun. “You okay here, honey?

Would the back seat be better?”

“No, this is fine,” Dar murmured. “Feels better to be half sitting. I think if I laid flat, I’d end up chucking my guts all over your pretty new car.”

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“It’s leather. It cleans.” Kerry let her hand rest on Dar’s thigh as she glanced around. Ceci had gone to get some water, and Mark had already left in Dar’s car with the drive array box. It was sunny now, and peaceful out here in the parking lot, with a nice breeze blowing. Kerry felt a lot better, and she hoped that Dar did as well. “How are you doing?”

Dar tilted her head to one side and regarded her wryly. “I must be doing horrible.”

Anxiously, Kerry clasped her fingers in her own. “Why? Does it hurt that bad?”

“No.” The blue eyes twinkled, just a little. “It’s the seventh time you’ve asked me in ten minutes,” Dar said. “Am I turning green or something?”

“Psshst.” Kerry had to laugh. “Sorry.” She lifted Dar’s hand and kissed it. “This was just a little too much, I think. My mind’s going in a thousand different directions.”

“Yeah.” Dar pulled her closer into a hug and laid her cheek against Kerry’s soft hair. She could feel warm breath through the fabric of her shirt as the smaller woman sighed. “You know what?”

“What?”

“I love you.” Dar was mildly surprised at how easily that came to her lips now. She felt Kerry smile, and one of her arms snaked around Dar’s waist, giving her a hug.

“I love you, too,” Kerry murmured.

They stayed that way, even though Dar could see her mother’s approach through the windshield. “Sorry I was such a raging bitch today,” she said. “This didn’t really go like I planned it.”

“Oh.” Kerry didn’t budge. “You mean you didn’t expect someone to suspect what we were up to and use a SEAL exercise to cover the destruction of all the evidence?”

“No.”

“Tch. Bad Dar. No biscuit.” Kerry squirmed a little closer. “You must be slipping.” She felt the motion under her as Dar chuckled just a bit. “Your tummy’s rumbling.”

“Not from hunger,” Dar sighed, as her mother rounded the door and paused, watching them bemusedly. “Hi.”

“Is it ticking?” Ceci hazarded. “Here, drink some of this. I think it’s safe. There’s enough chlorine in it to kill anything nasty.” She handed Dar a bottle she’d filled from the tap.

“Thanks.” Dar accepted it and took a sip, licking her lips thoughtfully. “Mm. Tastes like home.” She rolled a mouthful around and swallowed it, perversely enjoying the sharp tang of the minerals and chemicals infusing the tap water. “Nothing else tastes like it.”

Kerry lifted her head and straightened, pulling the bottle over curiously and taking a sip.

She blinked, then spat it out immediately. “Yahh!”

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Ceci and Dar both chuckled.

“Boy, is that ever an acquired taste.” Kerry looked like she desperately needed something.
Like a drink of water.
“Good grief, Dar!

How on earth could you drink that?”

Dar winced as a wave of nausea hit her. “I’m wondering that myself at the moment,” she said. “Better step back, in case I lose what I just swallowed.”

Kerry didn’t move an inch. She took the bottle from Dar’s hands and gently rubbed her forearm, caressing the warm, bare skin as she watched Dar close her eyes and lean back. “I think we’d better get going,” she told Ceci. “Go on and get in. I’ll drive over there, then run in and get Dad.”

Ceci nodded. “Good idea.” She opened the back door and climbed inside. “But you drive, I’ll go fetch him.” She watched Kerry carefully close the passenger side door, then jog around the front of the Lexus.

Awkwardly, she patted Dar’s arm very lightly. “Hang in there, kiddo.”

Hang in there.
Dar swallowed, uncomfortably aware of the pain in her head and shoulder getting worse. “Do my best.” Even the sound of Kerry’s closing the door hurt. “Did Mark get that box?”

“He got it, honey.” Kerry backed the car, then put it in gear and headed for the building. “Don’t worry about that.”

Okay.
Dar closed her eyes and concentrated on taking shallow breaths. She didn’t want to throw up. That would hurt. That would make her head hurt a lot worse than it did. It would also, the more ingenious part of her argued, ruin the new-car smell of Kerry’s little blue buggy.