The colonel turned to Jennifer Gleason. “Is it doable?” he asked.

One thing Danny had to give Dog—there was no visible sign that he was sleeping with her; his voice was as gruff with her as it was with anyone.

Another thing he had to give Bastian—the ol’ dog sure could pick ’em.

“We can do it, but only with Iowa because of the second control bay. I just don’t have the space to get the computer into Quicksilver and Raven. I mean, if we had more time—”

Dog held up his hand. “How long?”

“Six or seven hours. Tommy Jacobs is coming in on the next flight with the pilot, and he’s bring a full—”

“Okay,” said Dog.

“I’ll take Zen’s place on Quicksilver,” said Fentress.

Bastian’s Pentagon stare dissolved into a faint smile. He folded his arms in front of his chest. “So what else have you decided in my absence?”

“We didn’t decide,” said Bree innocently.

“We might have discussed it a little,” said Fentress.

Colonel Bastian shook his head and turned to Danny. “Captain Freah, you missed a little at the top there. I have business at Dreamland. The mission continues; reconnaissance only. You will continue to provide security for the Megafortresses. I realize it’s superfluous,” he added. “I trust the Marines, but I want at least a token presence. Work out what equipment and personnel we need to keep here.”

“Yes, sir,” said Danny.

“All right, well, let’s get cranking then. I have to pack. Commander Stein will be in charge of operation as of ten seconds ago.” Dog glanced at his watch, then back at them. “I expect everyone to follow orders to the best of their ability. And in some cases, beyond.”

Zen let his wheelchair slide down the ramp, rushing so close to Breanna he nearly spun her around.

“Hey, hot rod,” she said, grabbing hold of the side. “Watch where you’re going.”

“Gimps have the right of way,” said Zen.

“I thought you weren’t going to say that anymore,” Bree told him. “I hate that word.”

“I calls ’em like I sees ’em,” he told her.

“You like to piss me off, don’t you?”

“Favorite thing in the word, next to kissing you,” he said truthfully. “So you ready for the mission?”

“I can handle it.”

“No shooting down Chinese planes.”

“I will if I have to,” she said.

Zen laughed, but he believed her. “You going to be okay without me riding shotgun for you?” he said as they continued toward the planes.

“I don’t need you to watch my back,” she said.

“Hey,” Zen grabbed at her hand, but missed. “You mad?”

“No.”

“Bree? I was just kidding about the gimp thing.”

“I’m fine,” she said, still walking.

“Hey, what are you mad at?”

She turned toward the mess tent.

Zen began to follow. Ordinarily, she simply teased back. But this wasn’t teasing.

“Hey,” he said, rolling to the door.

“Just feeding my face before the flight,” she said, letting the screen door on the tent slam closed behind her.

Stoner let his breath flow from his chest softly, each cell in his lungs reluctantly surrendering its molecule of oxygen. A yellow light filed the center of his head. His body melted. Stoner’s consciousness became a long note vibrating in the empty tent. He slipped into a deep, meditative trance.

It was then he realized what had happened.

Deliberately, he unfolded his legs, then rose. He stooped down for a sip of water from the bottle near his bed mat and roll—he didn’t use a cot—then went to find Colonel Bastian.

“The lookout post belonged to the Taiwanese,” Stoner told the colonel when he found him. “All of them. the Chinese don’t need them. they must be helping the Indians.”

Bastian nodded. “Have you spoken to Langley?”

“Not yet. But it makes sense. I’ll talk to Jed Barclay too.”

“Why would they fire on us?” asked Bastian.

Us, not you. Stoner like that. He knew Bastian had, without complaint, taken the hit for what went down on the island. Protecting his people, even though they could have plausibly been blamed for messing up. He had grown to admire Bastian; he was a man he could work with.

“Because they fear discovery. Possibly they expected the Chinese, but more likely they knew it would be us. Taiwan can’t appear to be taking sides or provoking a confrontation. They want to hurt Mainland China, but if they do something that looks to us like it’s belligerent, like it’s against our interests, we might crush them. simply moving our fleet away would hurt them.”