Flight to Fight by M. L. Buchman

Author:M. L. Buchman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Buchman Bookworks, Inc.
Published: 2015-09-10T16:00:00+00:00

7

Lee knew he was hovering but couldn’t help himself. Over the next few days he spent most of his non-mission time with Donya and Sughraa—not knowing her name they’d taken to calling her “Little One.” Once Donya could get out of bed, Lee always carried the girl to make sure that Donya didn’t pull open her wound.

Sometimes Dilya Stevenson took the little girl for a while.

“Why is there a teenager on a ship of war?”

Lee smiled at Donya, “Threw me the first time too.” He’d led her up onto the upper deck of the eight-hundred foot long helicopter carrier. A number of people were wandering among the tied-down and covered helicopters in the cool dawn morning, taking a stroll before heading to their bunks. There was a light breeze as the ship drove south.

Her hair caught and fluttered. Her niqāb was down on her shoulders and she didn’t appear to care. Unable to help himself, he brushed a hand over her hair, touching her for the first time since he’d brought her aboard. It was as soft as he’d remembered.

“Sorry,” he pulled his hand back. “You have no chaperone. No person of your culture to make sure…”

She watched him closely with those dark eyes that he could so easily get lost in. They halted at the stern of the ship and the breeze brushed her thick hair forward, partly hiding her face.

Subject change. He needed a subject change. The next time he touched her it would be much harder to stop.

“This is a very odd ship,” he found a new subject. “It was retired by the Navy, but kept active exclusively for our helicopter company.”

“The 5th Battalion D Company,” she acknowledged. She said it as if it wasn’t something she’d merely overheard.

“Yes,” he said carefully.

“And under several of those tarpaulins are stealth aircraft that no one is supposed to know about.”

He knew she hadn’t seen them personally. She, like all guests, was kept strictly below decks during night operations.

Donya pulled her hair aside and looked up at him. She stood five-four, taller than average for a woman of her race. Her western clothes revealed how perfectly she was proportioned for that height.

“I know a great deal about your company, Sergeant Ames. Possibly more than you do.”

A spy? He’d brought a spy into their midst. Except…he’d only handled the exfiltration. Someone else had cut the orders.

“Yes,” she nodded. “I have been, shall I say, consulting for your government for some time. I was approached by a man who claimed he worked for CNN. I am a very good reporter and I know that he is not in their employ. Yet if it helped my country,” her shrug was eloquent. “I became an analyst on Egyptian and North African affairs. I have seen many changes for the better in the region this year, but never knew how they happened. Not until I saw this ship. Even wounded and faint with blood loss, I knew what this was.”

Lee had never faced a national security risk from a foot away.

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