Stars Across Time (25 page)

Theron scowled down at the invitation. If the general populace believed he might be a part of some scheme that involved the buying and selling of women, that rankled. He thought he had a better reputation than that. Or maybe he did, and as the general had said, he would have to do some convincing to get these people to let them into their party. How he was supposed to do
that
, he had no idea.

“What if we scrap this idea,” Theron said, “and try something that plays more to my strengths? Like taking in a couple of boats full of well-armed men and taking the ship?”

“The ship has its
own
complement of well-armed men,” Captain Schwarzburg said. “It’ll be well-guarded. Especially tonight.”

“There’s also the possibility that the captives might be harmed or used as bargaining chips if they saw a threat coming,” Gideon said.

“The point would be to
not
let them see the threat coming,” Theron grumbled, but he admitted that they might be out of time for his idea. Such an attack would be easier to pull off in the middle of the night, not during a party when dozens, if not hundreds of people were milling around on deck.

“You’re welcome to take the ship, Theron,” Morimoto said. “You just have to do it yourself. And with your pilot.” The general’s eyes narrowed in a challenge. What, did he expect his words to make Theron reconsider which pilot he would take? If anything, Theron wanted Andie more than ever. Not only could she fight, but men usually underestimated women; she had already shown him that she didn’t hesitate to press advantages she often gained from that.

“We believe subterfuge is your best bet, sir,” Gideon said.

“Isn’t it possible some of our original kidnappers will be there?” Andie asked. “And that they might recognize him? Or me, for that matter.”

“It’s unlikely that those who do the dirty work and are, from your reports, quite dirty themselves will be invited to this shindig,” Gideon said.

“Optimus might be there,” Theron said. “He’s more than a grunt. He knows how to work the time machine; he may have even been the one to find it.”

“Then I suggest you avoid him, sir. Be creative.”

Theron grumbled, then leaned toward Andie. “Is this how it works in your army too? The people who never step outside of the offices come up with the crazy plans, and then leave the field officers to deal with implementing them?”

“Yes, except we’re not supposed to express ourselves and be creative, just follow orders.”

“I’m not that excited about the idea of expressing myself on a ship full of enemies.”

“Quit whining, Theron,” Morimoto said. “We’ll send explosives with you, and I think Lieutenant Davies has a couple of other toys for you. You don’t have to stay there all night. Just get the women into lifeboats and sink the ship. The captain, wherever he’s from, will regret committing crimes in our waters.” He pointed a finger at Theron’s nose. “But before you start blowing things up, I want you to question a few people first, especially if you see the captain or that Optimus. I want to know the location of that other time machine, and I want it destroyed.”

“You want a lot, sir.”

“You say that like it’s unusual.”

Theron grimaced, wondering how he could possibly accomplish all of this by himself. Well, not entirely by himself. He looked to Andie.

“So, I don’t get an invitation?” Andie pointed to the card with Duckworth’s name on it. “After flying us to the ship, I have to sneak aboard at some point and free the women?” she asked, her face not showing much expression. Did she feel daunted? She must.

“That’s the plan,” Gideon said. “We don’t have their names, so I can’t research their contributions to history, the way I could yours—” he nodded at Andie, “—but we have to assume that any one of them could be one of our ancestors.”

“Not the general’s ancestor,” Theron said, trying to muster some of his usual humor for Andie’s sake. “He’s descended from bears.”

“That’s right,” Morimoto said. “Don’t shoot any grizzlies if you go back in time again.”

Theron’s humor evaporated at the idea of leaving Andie to have to infiltrate the ship alone while he mingled among the guests. Actually, he would probably be mingling down in the engine room, looking for a good place to plant the DM-3, but he would rather have Andie with him than wandering on her own. Maybe he could find an opportunity to invite his “pilot” up for the auction.

“Once the auction has begun,” Gideon said, “you may find it easier to sneak aboard.”

Theron almost asked about trying to bring her to the party as his guest, but she needed the freedom to roam about on her own. He would have to trust that she could handle it. With kicks to the heads of the guards if necessary.

“I’ll try to give you a signal when the auction has started,” he said.

“All right.” She nodded firmly. “I’m ready.”

“We’re sending a couple of boats up now,” Morimoto said, “to be ready to pick up survivors and you two, as well, if you can’t return to your plane. They’ll stay back behind the nearest island and wait for your signal.”

“What signal will that be?” Theron asked.

“Smoke and flames and a sinking whaling ship.”

“Ah yes. We’ll try not to deliver anything less.”

“Good,” Morimoto said. “Pick up your bombs on the way out. Dismissed.”

• • • • •

Andie had never ridden a horse to get to her hangar—or her lake, in this case—and she had never had a mission that started with the command, “Pick up your bombs on the way out.” Of course, she was more worried about figuring out how to fly the small propeller plane than about the combustible packets she had been given for blowing open locked doors.

“Looks like we’ll have another starry night,” Theron said as they left their mounts with a private and headed for a long dock that stretched into the lake. He nodded toward the clear blue sky, the sun dipping toward the horizon. “Maybe the comet will shine auspiciously upon us.”

“So long as it’s not shining auspiciously on the other guys.”

“No, I’m certain its glow will be quite ominous and forbidding for them.” He grinned at her.

“That’s a relief.” Andie was glad to see his grin back, even if her heart wasn’t as light now. She was always nervous before a mission that took her into enemy territory, and this was well outside of the usual parameters of her missions. “You looked a little daunted in the briefing room, but now you look downright perky. Is that usual for you?”

“Perkiness? Yes, I’ve irritated some of my soldiers by being ready for battle or physical training at dawn. You didn’t seem to mind my tongue’s perkiness this morning.”

“That’s because you put it to good use.” She swatted him.

He sobered, stopping her with a hand once they reached the end of the dock. “Whatever happens out there, and in the future as well, I want you to know how much I’ve enjoyed our time together. Which is probably inappropriate, given that you were a naked kidnap victim during a large portion of that time. But nonetheless, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss meeting you for—” His voice grew raspy, and he stopped to clear his throat. Instead of saying anything else, he pulled her into a hug, kissing her on her temple.

Andie knew she should be taking the time to familiarize herself with the cockpit—such as it was—but she hugged him back, touched by his expression of feeling. “I enjoyed it too. Most of it. Less so the first part, due to the aforementioned naked-victim thing.”

He chuckled and stepped back, holding her shoulders for a moment and gazing into her face, then letting her go. “You better see if you can fly this antiquated contraption.”

“Will do.”

Andie grabbed the bottom wing of the biplane and stepped onto the float. The craft was light enough that it rocked slightly under her weight. Hadn’t those early WWI planes been made from cloth and sticks? This wasn’t much beyond that. She had to climb onto the wing to pull herself into the cockpit and was careful not to thrust her boot through anything. The inside was made from wood. She imagined bullets zipping right through the walls in a dogfight. As she soon saw, the craft did not have any weapons. She would try to avoid battles. The controls were blessedly simple, with little more than a starter, throttle, and a twin-handled flight stick. The only displays were a tachometer, fuel gauge, and a compass.

“I’ve seen motorcycles more complicated than this,” she murmured. “No problem.” She refused to feel daunted that she had never flown the craft before, nor had she ever taken off or landed in the water, aside from a few drills that simulated emergency water landings.

“How’s it looking?” Theron asked, having climbed into the seat behind her.

“Quaint. Tell me again why we couldn’t just get a ride up there on a boat?”

“It would take longer to get there, for one thing, and we’ll be able to get a better feel for the terrain and any secondary ships that might be in the area if we come in from above. I don’t want to put all of those women on a lifeboat, only to have some armed ship come motoring out of a channel to blow them up.” Theron paused. “Also the general told us to.”

Andie turned the starter. “Yeah, that’s the usual reason in the military.”

The seaplane started up with an even if noisy hum, the propeller stirring the air around them. She and Theron would have to shout back and forth to hear each other, especially once they were in the air. At least they wouldn’t need to fly too high. She remembered that those early pilots had worn a lot of clothing to keep from freezing up there. She wouldn’t have minded her liner suit to wear under her uniform. Or a helmet with a visor—the sun was setting, and it would be in her peripheral vision. The wind would be in her face too. There was a windshield, but she doubted it would keep her eyes from tearing up in the open cockpit.

“There should be goggles under the seat,” Theron said over the engine, perhaps seeing her glance around.

Goggles. Huh. It
was
like riding a motorcycle. She found the eyewear and tugged it on, trying not to feel like a kid in shop class, wandering up to the band saw. She also tried not to feel underdressed without her G-suit, mask, and helmet.

“Just cruising over the Sound,” Andie reminded herself. “Recreational like.” It wasn’t as if she would be taking this puddle jumper to sixty thousand feet. “Ready?” she called back.

“One question first.”

“Do I have any idea how to land this thing?”

Theron hesitated. “That wasn’t my question, but... should it have been?”

She grinned back at him. “We’ll see. What’s your question?”

“Do you have a call sign?”

Since he looked a tad nervous, she resisted the urge to say it was
Crash
. There
had
been a Crash in one of her units, but she wasn’t that reckless and didn’t have such a dubious moniker. “Soju,” she told him.

He tilted his head.

“It’s a Korean drink.”

“Alcoholic?”

“Of course.” She winked and turned back to the controls, steering away from the dock.

Theron leaned forward and gripped her shoulder briefly before settling back for the ride. The private waiting with the horses waved at them before they turned out toward the lake.

“Here we go,” Andie said, accelerating toward the shore at the far end.

Heading straight for the trees was a new experience, as was the choppiness of the waves under the floats. Fortunately, it didn’t take as much speed as she would have guessed to get the light plane into the air. Halfway down the lake, the floats were begging to leave the water. She pulled back on the flight stick, taking them into the sky.

She found herself grinning. It had been a while since she found taking off exhilarating, but something about trying a new craft, or maybe it was the wind whipping through the cockpit, made this feel all new again. She pointed the nose of the plane north, then did a few practice maneuvers to familiarize herself with the craft—just in case they
did
end up in a dogfight—though she resisted the temptation to turn them upside down. Oh, she knew those early pilots had done that and countless other stunts in planes like this, but it would take her a while to get used to the idea of not having anything except a wing over her head.

Seeing the altered Puget Sound area from above was stunning. It truly had changed so much, it was almost unrecognizable. If the mountains hadn’t been there, she would have been certain they were in another part of the world. At least the land retained its familiar lush green look. Some of the plants may have changed with the warming of the area, but it still saw plenty of rain.

“Veer to the northeast,” Theron said.

Had they reached their destination already? Even if the sun had set while they had been aloft, the flight had felt short—almost disappointingly so. She wouldn’t have minded spending more time up there, but Theron was pointing past her shoulder to the water. From their altitude, the brown-sided steel ship appeared small, but she knew it would be massive down there. It looked like a relic from her own time period, a freighter converted to a whaling ship.

“Take a couple of laps around before you go down,” Theron said. “I want to make sure our own ships are in place and that there aren’t any surprises.”

“You got it.” She almost called him “sir,” but caught herself in time. This wasn’t a mission back home, and he wasn’t her superior officer. Besides, she wasn’t going to sir someone who had been sharing his perky tongue with her the night before.

After they took in the view below, ensuring the military backup ship was indeed behind the island, Andie took them toward the whaler. Numerous yachts dotted the area, anchored and waiting. For their owners to finish their business aboard the whaling vessel? She chose her landing spot carefully, not wanting to crush any of them or bounce off the hull of the bigger ship. That wouldn’t impress the captain or anyone else. She would settle them down and then glide up to the port side, nice and easy. Two of the smaller boats were on the starboard side, people climbing up to the deck on rope ladders. With luck, enough guests were arriving now that Theron wouldn’t be scrutinized to a great degree.

Surprisingly, she spotted two planes on the deck of the large ship. They had floats instead of wheels, so they couldn’t have landed on the vessel, not that the deck was spacious enough for that, anyway. Important guests whose planes had been lifted out of the water? Or maybe those planes belonged to the ship and were used for reconnaissance. In addition to the aircraft, a lot of people were walking around on the deck. More than a few carried rifles across their backs or in their hands. Several men lifted their hands to their eyes, peering up at her plane. Andie was glad twilight had come and that it would hide their faces. She only hoped that Theron’s face would be accepted once he revealed it. He hadn’t been very good at fitting in with the kidnappers—would he be able to mingle with wealthy buyers happy to purchase their women illegally?