Blue Forever (Men in Uniform) (13 page)

21

The team had one more thing to do before boarding the fishing trawler that would take them back to the navy ship, USNS
Impeccable
. Quinn had arranged to meet up with the Russian submarine captain, Nikolai Romanov, to discuss the new plan. The Russian had become an integral part of it, more than just the mere distraction he’d previously been meant to play.

Darcy hadn’t ever thought using Romanov as a distraction would work, because of the coincidence factor. The Chinese would be expecting something to happen and would be ready for it. But now Darcy wondered if Commander Bridger had predicted all along the need for an operative inside the Chinese naval base, and somehow orchestrated Romanov’s timely tour of the facility. The man was scary brilliant. Hell, the man was just plain scary.

The van pulled up to a busy pedestrian square surrounded by sidewalk restaurants and craft vendors. In the middle of the square, a troupe of street performers was juggling and doing gymnastics to the delight of the crowd.

Darcy hopped out of the van, and at a signal from Quinn, Clint Walker climbed out after her. Darcy would recognize Romanov, but wasn’t sure he’d know her after only seeing her that one brief time on the ship. However, Walker was his friend, so there wouldn’t be any question from either side as to who they were dealing with.

“Take Alex, too,” Quinn ordered, and glanced at his watch as Zane slid from the vehicle. “We’ll be back for you in ten.”

The three of them melted into the crowd, searching for the Russian.

“There,” Walker said, tipping his chin toward a European couple standing on the opposite side of the troupe. “He’s with Julie.”

Julie the CIA officer. Darcy wondered what her bosses at Langley thought about their upcoming nuptials. Detente to the extreme. Although they did make a really pretty couple, with Julie’s flame-haired elegance and Nikolai’s studly imperial bearing.

They worked their way over to them through the crowd. “Nick! Julie!” she said cheerfully, putting on her “tourist” persona. “What a gorgeous day, huh?”

The pair turned to them, all smiles. “Hey, girl, how are you?” Julie greeted her with a kiss on the cheek, Euro-style, then gave Walker a big hug. “Wolf! So good to see you!”

Wolf?

Nikolai shook hands with them, said “hi” to Alex, and they all chitchatted for a few moments about the jugglers. Then he glanced around and said, “Shall we grab an ice cream?”

They broke off from the crowd, and as they made their way across the square, Darcy said, “The plan’s changed a bit, sir. We’ve decided instead of staging the mission on land, we’re going to divert it during a blue-water test, right into our waiting hands.”

Romanov’s steps faltered for a split second. “Blue water?”

“Blue water” meant deep ocean, as opposed to “green water,” which referred to littoral shallows.

“Apparently Bridger has friends in deep places,” she said. “He got us a Kilo.”

For a moment, Romanov’s expression went positively nostalgic.

Julie, on the other hand, looked horrified. “Please tell me it’s not a Russian boat.”

Darcy shrugged. “Not sure. Why?”

Julie shook a finger at her fiancé. “You are not stepping foot on that submarine, do you hear me?”

Uh-oh
. Darcy held up her hands. “Don’t worry. That’s not in the plan.”

“Explain to me,” Romanov said, “how you plan to ‘divert’ a sophisticated, tightly controlled, remotely steered vessel underwater?”

“We’ve got the new guidance system, remember?” This from Walker.

Stunned, Darcy asked, “How do you know that?”

Bridger had gotten the guidance system software from the client under Top Secret confidentiality—everyone at STORM had Top Secret clearance—and she’d gotten it from Bridger. The two of them were the only people in STORM Corps who knew they had a copy of the cutting-edge Chinese guidance system software.

“Well?” she demanded, battling to keep her voice low.

Walker smiled. “Julie was the spy who stole it last year. Afterward, I delivered the storage disk to the navy.”

Darcy’s eyes bugged out in shock.

“I did not steal anything!” Julie huffed indignantly. Her lips twitched. “I found it.”

“Yeah. On my damn boat. Right before they blew it up,” Romanov groused, but his eyes were twinkling.

“And I am
not
an s-p-y,” she spelled out under her breath. “I’m an analyst.”

Speechless, Darcy gaped from one to the other. Were they for freaking real?

Alex snorted. “And they accused the Marine of being a spy.”

All three of them shushed him.

“So anyway,” Romanov said, turning to Darcy, who’d somehow managed to snap her mouth shut, “what do you need from me?”

She gave herself a mental boot and dragged herself back to the present situation. “Right. We need you to go through with your planned diplomatic tour of the naval base. And while you’re inside . . .” She pulled a pack of gum from her jeans pocket and casually passed it to him. “There’s a thumb drive in there. I need you to stick it into any USB port that you can get to on any mainframe terminal on the base.”

He regarded the gum warily. “What’s on it?”

“A nifty little app that will call home one time with the log-in info I need to access their system, then wipe itself clean.”

STORM’s extensive server-side databases included log-in data for dozens of U.S. and international systems—they had done missions for nearly every major government in the world, and inclusion in the country’s security data pool was a nonnegotiable condition of their services. Unfortunately, they’d never done work for Beijing.

Every vestige of humor had fled Julie’s stricken face. “You know what will happen to Nikolai if they catch him.”

Darcy knew. They all knew. It was the accepted risk in the game they played.

Romanov leaned over and kissed her hair, murmuring a few words in Russian to her. Julie nodded, her eyes glistening. They were so in love it was downright painful to watch.

Darcy turned away. God, she was becoming a sentimental fool.

“Be sure to take the gum wrapper off when it’s in place,” she told him, “so you don’t leave any fingerprints.”

Romanov gave a nod. “Anything else?”

“Nope. That’s it. And thanks, Captain. We appreciate what you’re doing for us.”

He gave a regal incline of his head. “Think nothing of it.” He tipped his head at Walker. “Clint, you can really do this spoof?”

Walker winked. “Rufus and I’ll give it a hell of a shot, Kapitan.”

The Russian’s lips quirked. “I trust he brought the Ukrainian balalaika music?”

Walker gave a belly laugh. “I’m sure he did.”

Darcy blinked. Okay,
that
must be a hell of a story.

Julie rolled her eyes. “Watch those two,” she muttered to her. “They are complete lunatics. Thank God Nikolai won’t be with them.”

But Darcy had the feeling she wished he were, rather than doing what had been asked of him.

Romanov gave Walker a slap on the back. “Keep it hot, straight, and normal, my friend.”

“No crazy Ivans, I promise.” Walker gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Stay safe, Nikolai. Don’t take any chances.”

“Nor you.” With that, he hooked his arm around his fiancée’s shoulder, and they strolled away.

Okay.

After a moment, Darcy looked at Walker. “You’re good friends.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Almost dying together tends to do that.”

How well she knew.

“You’ll have to tell me about it sometime.”

As they walked back to meet the van, she thought about Quinn, and how many times they’d faced death together over the years. A whole bunch. It had brought them closer than most people would ever be with another human being.

Was that why they loved each other so much? Because no one else could understand what it meant to stare mortality in the face on a regular basis?

No. She’d faced death with any number of STORM operators. But Bobby Lee Quinn was the only one she was in love with.

So why couldn’t she bring herself to set a date to marry the man?

With a sigh, she thought of her adoptive parents, and for the millionth time silently cursed them.

Deep inside, she knew exactly why.

They’d taken her in, made a legal commitment to her, then two years later had replaced her with their own much-wanted children, leaving her in a loveless, emotional wasteland to fend for herself.

But knowing the reason didn’t help the deep-seated, totally irrational fear that Quinn would do the same thing to her as they’d done.

It was the legal commitment part that terrified her, down to her very toes. Without that, if he left, she could always tell herself it hadn’t been real, wasn’t official, so it didn’t matter so much if he left her for someone else. Replaced her. But after they were married . . . if he discarded her that way, it would kill her. Literally. She wouldn’t be able to take it. She’d be devastated, lose her concentration completely, and make a mistake. In this job if you made a mistake you were dead.

The ultimate replacement.

She saw the white van coming up the road, approaching the square, and shook off her distressing thoughts. She really needed to get a grip. And stop being so damn paranoid.

And just pick a frikkin’ date.

“Everything go okay?” Quinn asked when they’d all climbed into the van.

She gave him a very unprofessional kiss on the cheek. “Yep. I gave him the thumb drive and he agreed to place it. We’re all set.”

“Excellent.” He turned to Jaeger, who was still at the wheel. “Okay, let’s head for the harbor. It’s high time we got off this damn island.”

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, they were all sprawled out below decks in the crew lounge of a nondescript fishing trawler, heading out to sea.

DeAnne couldn’t decide whether to celebrate or to start worrying again. The good news was, Kip was safely out of China—or he would be as soon as they hit international waters—and could no longer be arrested for espionage. That was a huge relief.

Okay, yeah, she’d nearly had a heart attack when they were abducted at gunpoint, but Bobby Lee Quinn had explained it had all just been for show, in front of witnesses, so U.S. officials could say the accused spy and his accomplice had been swiftly and quietly dealt with, and there would be evidence.

While Walker and the two others were gone and the van was just driving around, Kip had asked Bobby Lee Quinn what he’d meant when he’d said he was sending Kip back into the fray but he’d be working for STORM. DeAnne had been more than a little alarmed when he’d said that, and also wanted to know what he’d meant.

Kip had never actually told her what his mission was on Hainan. Something to do with photography, she’d gathered. There were a lot of military installations on the island, so she figured it involved one of those. But exactly what he’d been sent to do, she had no idea.

Quinn hadn’t been any more forthcoming. He’d told Kip to be patient, that everything would be explained once they reached their destination—a navy ship somewhere between China and the Philippines.

And then Quinn had told DeAnne that she’d be transported to the Philippines, and from there she’d be flown home.

“Wait. I’m not going with you?” Her heart had stalled.

Quinn had shaken his head. “Our orders were just to pick you up. The navy will get you back to the States. We have a mission to run.”

“But Kip—Major Llowell isn’t part of your team, either.”

“No, but he’s a Marine, ma’am.”

He’d said it as if that explained everything.

Which she supposed it did. For better and for worse.

She glanced over at Kip now. He’d chosen to sit on the opposite side of the fishing trawler’s salon. His eyes were closed, his head leaning against the back of the fish-stained banquette, his legs stretched out with boots crossed, arms banded over his chest.

He hadn’t looked her way since boarding the trawler. Practically since being loaded into the van. He’d closed himself off from her completely.

She’d thought . . . For those terrifying moments while they were being kidnapped, he’d been so protective of her. He’d held her so close, using his own body as a shield against the danger. She’d thought he’d forgiven her for reneging at the last minute on their promised date. For in essence rejecting his offer of a relationship. Such as it was.

She supposed she’d asked for his indifference. But it still hurt.

And now they really would be going their separate ways, as soon as they got to the ship. And she’d never get a chance to tell him . . . how much he’d come to mean to her.

If only he’d look at her . . .

“Don’t worry. He’s just being a guy,” Darcy murmured, following the direction of her gaze. The other woman had taken a seat on the same banquette as DeAnne. “Men are so totally oblivious. But trust me, he’ll come around.”

DeAnne felt her ears burn. Had she been that obvious? She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. No future there, anyway.”

A wry smile curved Darcy’s lips as she glanced at Quinn. “Yeah. That’s what I said, too.”

DeAnne caught her look of love. “You’re with Quinn?”

“Yeah. Engaged.” She stuck out her hand and DeAnne oohed over the gorgeous diamond on her finger.