“Because I didn’t have Logan there to advise me,” she replied and stormed from the room.
***
Jack slammed down his napkin and stood up as well. “Unless it is your intention to drive her out of the Corps, then I would strongly suggest the two of you back off. You are both quite horrible on your own. There is no need to join forces.” He then followed Alisha out.
Powell huffed. “Jack’s right, Logan. I appreciate your good intention, but it would be better if you left the discipline to me.”
“I am not the one who was bellowing at her. I simply pointed out a better alternative to the choice she made,” Logan said.
“True,” the general agreed, “but your opinion clearly matters more than mine. So a whole day’s worth of my bellowing isn’t nearly as powerful as a single frown from you. And lately, you’ve been sending her plenty of frowns. If you’re angry at her because of Jack, then I can only advise you not to assume the worst in the matter. That relationship isn’t as serious as it seems.”
What the hell would it take to open the general’s eyes? For them to copulate on the table while he ate lunch? How much more obvious could they be?
Logan stood up. “Assuming Alisha shows, I’ve got a flying lesson starting in ten minutes.”
“She’ll show,” Powell said. “Jack will see that she does.”
Jack…the wonder boy who does no wrong.
“Which reminds me,” Logan said. “What the hell was Jack thinking when he didn’t place the one-eighty, the fast takeoff, and the vertical trekking maneuvers before the wind tunnel?”
“He was following my orders,” Powell admitted. “I was positive that with the same equipment and a little training, my flyers would be able to catch on as quickly as she had taught herself. So I had Jack put the maneuvers in order of overall usefulness. After a week and only two flyers passing the hurdle, I agree we need to change the program. But I won’t apologize for going for the golden ring. I wanted a troop of Alishas, not just one.”
“I’m not sure the Corps could handle more than one,” Logan muttered.
“I’m aware MAC has assigned Private Benjamin to you,” Powell said.
Logan nodded. “I requested him. I hope that is agreeable with you?”
“Absolutely. Alisha might be a little temperamental, but she truly is a catalyst for change. She makes you see things in a whole new light. Not just flying, but everything: how we treat our cadets, the regs, our battle strategies… I’m very glad I’m not going to have to fight you for her, because believe me, Logan, had you requested her, I was going to throw every low punch in the book.”
Logan knew exactly what low punch the general had in mind. He would claim that Logan’s feelings for Alisha were too personal for him to use her at optimal effectiveness, and ten minutes in the MAC lab would have proved his point far beyond his wildest dreams.
“Well, I made what I believed was the best decision for the Corps. I think Alisha will be more productive here with her grandfather close by and Jack even closer. Whereas Benjamin Abrams would be better off in a new environment where he can start over, with his new rank of captain.”
“You’re going to be a great general, Logan. I’m predicting that now.”
Not if he didn’t get finished with this training and get to the East Coast soon!
Chapter 34
Alisha threw herself on the bed to cry.
Why did Logan hate her? It was one thing to give her up for the good of the Corps, but what had she done to deserve his contempt?
The door to her quarters opened, and for a moment she hoped it was Logan, come to apologize and take back his hateful words.
Arms wrapped around her. They weren’t Logan’s, but they helped ease the pain.
“He didn’t mean it the way it sounded, Alisha. I’m sure of it,” Jack promised.
“No. Logan hates me! He hates everything about me!”
“I’ll admit, he does seem to be focusing on everything you do wrong, but I don’t think it’s hatred that drives him there. I think it’s love. I’m certain that he still loves you, Alisha, and that he will for the rest of his life. No matter how much he fights it, you’ll always be in his heart.”
“How do you know that?”
Jack stroked her face. “Because I love you, and I didn’t want to. The truth is, it’s impossible not to. Even the general likes you, and he doesn’t like anybody.”
Alisha found his words comforting to her aching heart. “You really think Logan still loves me?”
He pulled her up, so she sat beside him on her bed. “I do. And once this damn war is over, he may come to terms with it. Just be patient, Alisha. Everything will right itself.”
“Do you believe that for yourself, Jack?”
He paused. “I don’t know,” he replied honestly. “Maybe I was just a flash of passion and nothing more.”
“That’s not possible. There’s so much more to you than your good looks. I know, because I love you too, and I wanted nothing to do with a pretty boy.”
“We’re a sad pair of ducks: one too good-looking and the other too amazing.” Jack stood and pulled her to her feet. “Now wash your face. You’ve got Man Four training and Private Abrams will be heartbroken if you cancel.”
“And Colonel Logan will kill me,” she added as she headed to the bathroom.
Chapter 35
Logan stared at his watch. It was one minute after the hour. He had a sinking feeling that Alisha wasn’t going to show. Both Jack and General Powell believed he’d been too hard on her. He hadn’t meant to be. He had tried very hard to speak to her in a moderated tone of voice, but sometimes the anger inside him was more than he could contain.
“Colonel Kane might not be showing,” Logan warned Benjamin.
“Oh, she’ll show, sir,” Benjamin replied.
Logan smiled at the boy’s absolute faith in Alisha. He hoped for Benjamin’s sake she did.
“There she is, sir,” Benjamin said happily pointing to the small dot on the field coming toward them.
As she approached, Logan could see she was loaded down with extra gear.
“Run out and give her a hand, Private,” Logan ordered. He would have gone, but he didn’t dare risk further damage to his ribs.
When she arrived, she dropped the gear near his feet. “Sorry, I’m late, Colonel. I forgot to tell Gunny to set these up on the field today. I seem to be screwing up left and right.”
“No.” Logan gripped her arm. “You’re not screwing up at all. You’re doing a great job. You called it right this morning. I’m just a grumpy old man.”
“I believe I called you a grumpy bear, not an old man.”
***
Logan wondered why she had dragged out all the equipment, when for the first half hour, she made them ski across the sands as the catcher pulled them.
Finally, she told them to ascend to five thousand and repeat their morning exercise. Except this time when they reached three hundred feet, they were to collapse the catcher and fly to the ground, and a second before touching the ground, release the harness and land. She ran the last part of the maneuver twice and then sent up Benjamin first.
“May I inquire why you chose Benjamin to go first?” Logan asked.
“Two reasons. First, he was the better flyer through Man Three, so it’s his right. And secondly, I believe you learn more when you have the opportunity to watch others. In this case, it should be watching what’s done right. I fully expect Benjamin to nail it first time.”
Logan sighed in relief. He was afraid she knew how much pain he was in. The first half hour of banging across the rough sand had pretty well killed him. He was glad to have a rest before his turn.
Alisha called Benjamin’s performance. The boy was perfection! He came out of the sky in a near horizontal line.
“His ability to hang in air is phenomenal. Part of it may be the new suit. It’s designed more aerodynamically than our regular suits, but mostly it’s pure talent.”
“Which you saw his talent at once,” Logan pointed out. “Right there you did something incredibly valuable to the Corp.”
“Yeah, but I undid it by stripping down to my skivvies,” she muttered.
“No, you didn’t,” Logan assured her. “You’ve made some mistakes, Alisha, but they are immaterial when compared to your contributions. Don’t let anyone, especially not me, make you think otherwise.”
Logan shook his head as Benjamin leaned into his slats, turning toward them, and came all the way in with his own momentum. Not only could the kid fly, but he clearly could ski as well.
“Damn good run, Abrams,” Logan said, giving the boy a smile.
It wasn’t easy for Logan to smile, since his ribs still ached like hell, and he knew he had to make his own run now. Taking a moment to focus, he lifted off and climbed to five thousand. Since each stop down would cause him incremental pain, he suggested to Alisha he try one run for three thousand feet, instead of three one-thousand runs. After a pause, she agreed, but warned him if his legs started to tire, then to reengage the catcher, regardless of height.
Logan thought it an unlikely problem. His legs were quite strong. Yet, once he passed a thousand feet on his dive he noticed his legs felt an ache from the continued tension of the position. By two thousand they hurt, and by two thousand five hundred he reengaged the catcher. He was certain he could have held out ’til three thousand, but then his legs would be Jell-O when he tried to land on Man Four. As it was, he was sorry he hadn’t engaged the catcher at two thousand.
“Bad strategy,” he chided himself. Nothing he did up there counted. All that mattered was those last three hundred feet, and he had sorely disadvantaged himself by holding that run so long.
As he came down below one thousand, he went over in his mind what he was going to do. When he reached three hundred feet, he stalled out the catcher and forced his aching legs back into position and shimmied down to earth. Alisha had warned him the air would be much rougher near the surface. He had failed to translate that to mean nonstop pain, but the message was clear enough now.
As he touched down, he knew he was on the edge of rolling. His legs simply did not have the strength to hold him. Yet, he also knew if he fell, he was out of the running for the East Coast job. He would spend the next six months in a hospital with broken ribs.
Pure determination kept him up as he slammed into the sand. His slats were poorly aligned, and he continued to fight to stay up for several feet, but he remained standing until he could bring the slats to a halt.
It wasn’t pretty, but he was still in the game, and that was all he could ask for at the moment. He remained motionless on the slats, trying to let the pain ease.
By the time he felt it safe to move, Alisha had already retrieved his catcher, folded it, and placed it in his pack, which she now carried on her back.
“The landing wasn’t pretty, but I’m passing you on one condition,” she said.
“What?”
“You start being honest with me about the pain you’re in. It’s obvious that the sand-skiing exercises worsened your injury this morning. Had I realized that, I would have shortened your training time in the sand. But I only determined you were hurting when you went to five thousand feet and asked to do a single run, instead of three. I figured you had to be in serious pain to ask that, so I was torn between making you do three runs and hurting your ribs or letting you do one and risk having your legs so sore you couldn’t land. I know you’re incredibly strong, so I took a chance on your legs, which almost cost you everything.”
“That wouldn’t have been your fault, Alisha. You warned me to pull out if my legs started to hurt. My vanity almost cost me, not you.”
“Regardless, do I have your word?”
“First, I need you to understand how important it is that I pass.”
Alisha released a sharp, bitter laugh and stared out at the horizon. “I think I’ve gotten that message loud and clear. But you aren’t helping yourself achieve your goal. Your descent today was impressive as hell, but it wasn’t even part of the test, and if you had lost your legs when you landed, you’d be in the hospital for six months.”
“I realize that!” he snapped, angry at himself for being so stupid.
“Then know this. I am not your enemy. No matter how hateful you are to me, no matter how poorly you think of me, I will try to help you pass these tests. But you’ve got to trust me. I know you think I’m a screw-up and I don’t have a clue what I’m doing—”
“That’s not true,” Logan insisted as he grabbed her shoulders and turned her to him. “I haven’t been honest with you about the pain because I was afraid you’d place my safety over the importance of my passing.”
She paused. “So I have your word?” she asked again.
“Yes.”
“Then you’re done for the day. Go take care of yourself, and we’ll run Man 5 tomorrow.”
“We’re done?” Logan asked. They still had another hour of training time.
“No, Colonel. You’re done. Benjamin thinks this is great fun, so I’m going to take a few more runs with him, to see if there’s anything I can teach him.”
Logan was about to protest that he’d stay as well, but she stopped him when she placed her hand on his arm.
“I have no doubt of your ability to repeat that maneuver successfully in battle, Colonel. Don’t waste your bullets shooting the same target again,” she advised and walked off, carrying his catcher.
By the time he removed the slats and slowly made his way back to the landing field to the place she had set down his pack, she and Benjamin were already in the air, invisible to sight. He resented that his injury prevented him from continuing the lesson, but he knew she was right. What he needed was a long soak in the tub, or tomorrow he wouldn’t even be able to walk.
When he entered the commons, the general looked at him and then his watch. “You’re walking like a dead man. Did training go badly today?” he asked without his usual bluster.
“I feel like a dead man at the moment,” Logan admitted. “But I passed Man Four.”
“Damn good job!” General Powell exclaimed, but this time had the good sense not to pound him on the back. For that, Logan was grateful.
Chapter 36
Going up with Benjamin brought back Alisha’s joy of flying. There was no fear or tension in Benjamin. He was in his element, like a bird finally released from its cage. As they dove, they practiced both steep and narrow descents. When her own legs started to tire at one thousand five, she ordered engagement. She then asked Benjamin if his legs had been weakening, but he couldn’t remember. He was simply having too much fun to remember a moment of discomfort.
That prompted a lecture on always being aware of the signals his body sent. He listened dutifully, but even a hundred feet away she could tell he was smiling from ear-to-ear. She gave up. She’d have to lecture him on the ground. The remainder of the lesson they practiced landings and various dive angles. Benjamin could perform the maneuver easiest on a flat angle, but even on a short, hard landing, he could remain upright. In fact, his landings looked much more stable than hers.
“Have you skied?” Alisha asked, trying to figure out how he could be so comfortable on the landings.
“My grandfather was second alternate in the last Olympics,” Benjamin admitted. “He used to tell me all about skiing. When I was a kid I had these slats with rollers on the bottom, and I’d do jumps off a ramp I put on the roof of our shed, pretending I was him.”
“Well I’m thinking we should have you design something for us, assuming anyone else gets beyond the tunnel.”
“They will,” Benjamin assured her. “It’s just hard for those who came up through training forts. The whole idea of diving is contrary to what they were taught.”
“Why didn’t you go to a training fort?” Alisha asked.
“Couldn’t afford it. Trainees have to pay their own room and board until they pass the general fl
ight test. So I stayed at home and taught myself to fly.”
“Are you aware of any others who have taught themselves?”
“A few,” he admitted.
“Have they been tested yet?”
“No, they’re bottom ranked.”
Alisha sighed. Clearly she wasn’t going to find another Benjamin among the bottom ranks.
“That might not mean they can’t fly, though,” Benjamin added. “Once I went through my next testing, I would have been bottom ranked as well.”
“Not likely,” Alisha laughed.
“No, I would have,” Benjamin assured her. “Jason had made it real clear what would happen to me if I didn’t.”
“You mean there could be good flyers in the group who’ve just dunked their test?”
“Yeah, but the problem is to get them to stop dunking. Jason wasn’t the only captain who creates bottom flyers.”
“Benjamin, I think I can fix this, but I’ll need your help.”
“Whatever I can do, I will.”
Alisha ran off the field to the officers’ commons and found Powell. “General, I need you to promote Benjamin to captain and give him his own squad,” she announced, still out of breath.
“I’ve already done the first. I was just waiting until the ceremonies to announce it,” Powell replied.
“Can we announce it today?”
“If there’s a good reason.”
“There is,” she assured him and explained her theory that among the “bottom dwellers” there could be hidden talent. “The only captain they will trust enough to get them to fly their best will be Benjamin, because try as they might, they’d never out-fly him and even if they did, he wouldn’t punish them for it.”
“There are thirty-three cadets in the bottom rank. That’s too many for a captain.”
“Well, give some of them to me.”
“You’re a colonel now,” he reminded her.
“Then demote me. I’ve done enough things wrong to be demoted seven times over!”
The general actually smiled. “You probably have. But your contributions so far out-weigh your indiscretions that demoting you isn’t a consideration.”
Scavenger Falters (The SkyRyders Book 2) Page 17