Authors: Lindsay McKenna
Woodward smarted under the remark. He felt heat rising from his throat into his face. Whenever he got angry, his face turned red, and he knew it. "This is an unconscionable position. You've got three lives—one of them the man who owns this damn company—at stake, and you don't have anyone to run a rescue mission?"
"Back down," Wolf snarled, crossing his arms over his chest and returning Jim's glare. "We're doing what we can with the resources we have."
"I won't back down." Jim held his gaze for a long moment. "All right, then I'll volunteer for the mission."
Jake's brows knitted, and he studied Jim for a long moment before speaking. "This is personal, isn't it?
Between you and Laura?"
"That's none of your business,
Randolph
. What is your business is that you've got someone to take this mission. I can get orders cut to allow me to do this. I'm a Recon. I'm HAHO qualified. I've been in more jungles than I care to think about. I've been in
Panama
,
Grenada
and other South American venues on deep undercover assignments." He
stopped,
his voice low and shaking with tightly held emotion.
Jake glanced around the table, assessing his team for some inkling of their thoughts. Killian stirred and placed his arms on the table, clasping his hands in front of him. He glanced up at Woodward.
"Laura is married to Morgan. They love each other," he said quietly.
Jim recoiled inwardly. "Don't insult me with facts I already know."
Killian held his stare. "
Mercs
who have an emotional involvement with the person they're trying to rescue don't live long."
"That may be your problem, Killian, but it's not mine."
With a shrug, Killian looked across the table at Wolf.
Wolf said, "You'll need a partner. We never go in alone. It's two or nothing. Do you have someone in mind
who
has the same qualifications?"
Jim hesitated. "Two?"
"Yes," Jake rasped, "two people on every mission. That's Morgan's law, and it's a good one. If one partner is injured, the other can always bring him out." He lowered his voice. "We have no time for heroics, Colonel. We work as a tightly knit unit and watch each other's backs. I know Recons. I used to be one. You don't go gallivanting off by yourselves, either. You have five men to a team and you know the value of working together."
"I don't disagree with you, but I can't honestly think of anyone who would volunteer for such a dangerous assignment. The one man who might be willing, a sergeant, is laid up in the hospital with a broken ankle right now."
Jake shook his head. "Colonel, this mission doesn't go down without two team members."
Wolf slowly unwound from his chair. He rubbed his temple and looked first at Woodward, then at
Randolph
. "I know someone who can do it. Her name is Pepper Sinclair. Her brother's a Navy Top Gun and a test pilot. She's a team leader for the National Forest Service's smoke jumpers. In fact, Pepper is in the Hotshots, the elite, highly trained group that goes into dangerous forest hot spots or wildfires. She's got over two thousand parachute drops and is ex-army." Wolf smiled a little. "Matter of fact, I've known her for nearly a year now, and her background is impressive. She was the only woman ever to complete Army Ranger training—but they wouldn't let her graduate because she was a woman."
Jake twisted to look in Wolf's direction. "What'd she do then?"
"She quit the army. She was an officer, and she resigned her commission in protest over their decision. Pepper went into the smoke jumpers because it was the most dangerous career she could find where nobody cared about her gender. She's got six years of military service behind her, and she was in
Panama
and
Grenada
, too, so she knows jungles. I think she's around thirty years old, and she's got a good head on her shoulders. Pepper doesn't go off half-cocked on anything." Wolf studied Woodward. "And in this case, that might be important, because, Colonel, I think you're in this way over your head emotionally. You're carrying a torch for Laura, whether she's married or not, and that's going to get you into trouble on this mission."
Jim opened his mouth to protest, but Harding went on.
"I know the question
you're all wanting
to ask. Would Pepper volunteer for something like this? I don't know, but I can sure call and ask. She's good friends with Sarah and me, and I think she'd be interested."
"She'll get good pay for it," Jake said hopefully, liking the suggestion.
Wolf's smile broadened a bit. "Pepper isn't turned on by money. She's a competitive person and she likes challenges."
"This is hardly a game!" Jim protested vehemently.
"Pepper doesn't play games, Colonel. What I'm saying is that she's as solid and trustworthy as they come. Hell, she leads a Hotshot team. You probably don't know a thing about smoke jumpers, but I can fill you in. You're a Recon, the best warrior the Marine Corps produces. Well, in the smoke-jumping world, Hotshots are the equivalent. We had a forest fire north of
Phillipsburg
, where we live, and I got to see Pepper and her crew up front. That fire was bearing down on our small mountain town, with seventy-mile-an-hour winds pushing the blaze.
"Of all the teams that could have been put on the line between that fire and our town, Pepper and her staff were chosen. She served as commander over ten Hotshot teams. I worked with her on tactics and strategies for the fire and I saw her parachute in with a team that I thought for sure would be burned alive. She went in there with her walkie-talkie—and with her people, who would go to hell and back for her—and she did the impossible. She got the fire to move, and
Phillipsburg
is still standing, thanks to her guts, intelligence and experience."
Jim sat down. "I'll be damned if I'm going in with a woman," he said harshly. "They aren't qualified for this kind of a drop."
"She's ex-army, ex-Ranger. Ranger training is similar to Recon," Wolf droned. "And you know that."
Jake nodded. "It's an excellent idea, Wolf. Can you call Pepper now and fill her in?"
"You bet." Wolf excused himself to make the call.
Woodward stood up. "You can't be serious about this,
Randolph
."
"I'm dead serious. You don't know Wolf, nor do you know his background and experience. If he says Pepper Sinclair can do it, I believe him." Jake held the officer's shocked stare. "I do know one thing for sure, however. If you take this mission, you're doing it the
Perseus
way, not the Marine Corps, John Wayne style. I've got three people I love very much on the line right now, and I'm not going to blow it by putting anything but two first-rate people on this mission. Do you understand that, Colonel? Because if you don't, or if you give me grief about it, I'll make a call to the JCS and tell them we don't want you. Do I make myself clear?"
Angrily, Jim moved around the table. "Don't threaten me, Randolph. I'm damn well capable of pulling off this mission
alone.
"
"It's not a threat, Colonel. It's a promise."
Was
Randolph
bluffing? Jim wasn't sure. As a matter of fact, he didn't like the loose way
Perseus
worked at all. This decision by committee wasn't in the least like the military. He rubbed his jaw as he assessed Randolph, who sat like a mountain in the chair at the other end of the table.
"Even you can see the folly of Harding's idea," Jim insisted.
"Really?
What's that?"
"A
woman,
" Jim said in exasperation.
Jake grinned tiredly. "Colonel, one thing Morgan
Trayhern
has made very clear to everyone at
Perseus
is that in his opinion, women are just as good, and usually better, than any man at this work."
"That's ridiculous!"
"Not in our book." Jake tapped the table deliberately with his index finger. "And as long as Morgan is alive, we're running his company his way. You got that?"
Biting back the anger that warred with his fear for Laura, he sat down. "This woman could be killed."
"It's an equal-opportunity business, Colonel, just as women in the military can be killed as easily as men. Bullets don't consider gender."
Stymied, Woodward sat very still, evaluating his options. He knew no one was better qualified than he was to rescue Laura. But to have a woman—a civilian, of all things—along on such a dangerous mission was beyond his imagination. He wasn't usually so temperamental—but this was personal, just as they had accused him of earlier. Jim knew his emotional involvement could be a detriment to the mission. Somehow, he had to separate his feelings from the job to be done, and concentrate on surviving.
"I want your promise on one thing,
Randolph
," he insisted.
"What?"
"If this Pepper Sinclair is stupid enough to volunteer for this mission, I want the opportunity to put her through her paces. If she can't or refuses to do a HAHO, or in some way is not militarily qualified, I have veto power."
"With an attitude like yours, she's sure to fail whatever task you set her," Jake said tightly.
"
Dammit
, I have a right to protect myself in this mission. I don't care how glowing Harding's report is, if she can't stand the heat, she doesn't come with me."
Jake glared at him. "I propose an alternative plan, Colonel. If Pepper volunteers, you can set up the tests you need to feel comfortable, then you can both report back to me. I'll make the final decision."
In that moment, Jim disliked
Randolph
intensely. "I can set up the tests?"
"Any and all you want, understanding that we don't have much time. Once the CIA gets a fix and confirmation that Laura is on
Nevis
, we want to initiate the mission immediately."
Satisfied, Jim leaned back in the chair.
"Fine.
I'll bet you a hundred dollars right now that Ms. Sinclair is going to fail miserably at the tests I've got in mind."
Randolph
smiled uneasily. "You're on, Colonel.
A hundred bucks."
Jim crossed his arms, wondering about the outcome of Harding's phone call to Sinclair. He prayed she'd turn him down. What woman in her right mind would volunteer for a high-kill-ratio assignment like this? He didn't look too hard at his own answer to the same question.
Tension thrummed through Jim Woodward as he stood waiting for Pepper Sinclair to walk through the partially opened door. It was 0700 on Wednesday, November 23, and she was due in from a red-eye flight from
Butte
,
Montana
, at any moment. Harding had gone to the airport to pick her up and would brief her on the way in, so she'd be up to speed by the time she reached the
Perseus
office.
Jim didn't want a woman with him on this mission; it was that simple. She could have taken first in
Hawaii
's grueling physical-endurance contest, the Iron Woman, and it wouldn't have mattered to him.
His sensitive hearing caught the sound of voices in the reception area, where Marie had her neatly organized office. Warm, husky laughter—distinctly feminine—drifted to where he stood. Jim tried to stay immune to that rolling, mellow sound, but it was impossible. It wasn't Marie's laughter, so it had to be Pepper Sinclair's. His mouth turned down. Why did she have to have such a provocative laugh?
He stood tensely, hearing Wolf's deep voice and Pepper's well-modulated one intermingle as they chatted amiably. He didn't know Harding well, but knew he wasn't the type of man to be chatty, so it must be Pepper's presence drawing him out.