Conrad was worried about Missy. She hadn’t said a word, neither to him nor to the MPs escorting them, since they set off across the flight line to General Daniels’s office.
It was obvious that seeing the downed aircraft had shaken her. He wanted to comfort her, to hold her hand or put his arm around her, but he couldn’t.
As the MPs knocked, then stepped aside from the general’s door, he could feel the tension radiating from her. Why was she so stressed? Was it the fact that there were two pilots missing, or was it to do with last night? Both? He hated not being able to talk to her. He was so used to understanding her perfectly.
Except that wasn’t exactly true. In fact, as he began to think more about it, he wondered if he even knew her at all. He had no idea she was considering a transfer. Now that he thought about it, he knew nothing about her. He tried to remember their conversations. Why hadn’t she ever told him anything? She was from Montana. No, that was the crew chief. Shit. He didn’t even know where she was from. Her accent gave no clue. He tried to visualize her family. But he didn’t even know if she had one. No one had ever visited her on base. That he knew of. A coldness seeped into him as he realized that everything he knew about her only related to how well she helped him do his job. Had she been right about that? He cared about her more than he could verbalize, but it suddenly seemed as if it was a totally self-absorbed caring. He was a complete dick.
“Colonel. Major,” the general snapped, making Conrad start.
Missy and he remained at attention in front of the large oak desk. The general was seated, but at his right shoulder was a civilian Conrad recognized as the guy in charge of TechGen-One—the contractor who was running Red Flag that year.
“This isn’t the time for silence,” the general said.
How could the general possibly not realize that they were not going to talk to him while they were standing at attention? Was he confused? Was he…?
“My daughter is missing.”
Conrad was about to open his mouth and ask for permission to stand ease, when Missy spoke.
“I know, sir.” Her voice trembled.
Conrad was astonished but suddenly had no idea what was going on. Why would the general think that they were being silent to keep things from him? After all, Missy had only seen the outline of the plane. They were just unfortunate witnesses. To something horrible.
“I’ve been told that you both spent the night in the hangar last night,” the general said.
Wait, what?
“I need to know what you saw. Did anyone touch her plane?”
Conrad felt dread clawing up his spine. This was not good. Why did the general automatically assume someone had done something to his daughter’s aircraft? Conrad had been involved with aircraft investigations before, and criminal action was not normally the first assumption. Unless the general, and this contractor, knew something that no one else knew. Missy had seen that aircraft on the floor of the valley less than an hour previously. Assuming they had no contact with either pilot, the automatic assumption should be some kind of pilot error, especially when two aircraft were involved. Yet the general had gone directly to sabotage, without passing go, without collecting $200.
Something wasn’t right.
“No, sir, we didn’t see anything.” At least that was the truth. The general didn’t even look at him when he spoke.
General Daniels kept Missy firmly pinned in his gaze. “If you didn’t see anything, maybe you did something yourself? Or maybe you saw the lieutenant colonel here do something.”
Conrad froze. The shit show just got real. He was accusing them of espionage, treason, murder, sabotage. He wanted to grab Missy’s hand and tell her to stop talking.
“No, absolutely not! How could you possibly…?” Her voice trailed off, which to Conrad’s untrained ear, made her sound guilty, or confused, or scared. Not a good look to a general on the warpath.
He intervened as best he could. “Missy and your daughter are friends. Neither of us would ever damage somebody else’s aircraft. How could you possibly already know it wasn’t an accident?”
“Because there’s no other explanation,” he shouted. “They were both the best pilots in their squadrons.”
Conrad wasn’t going to take the general’s raised voice sitting down. “For the want of a lock, the country was lost. Right, sir? A simple lock on the hangar door would have prevented any suspicion of sabotage.”
“My daughter could be dead and you’re lecturing me about locks?” the general spluttered, his face turning red. Was he about to have a heart attack?
“Wait,” Missy said. “There was someone else in her hangar yesterday morning. Some civilians. I could point them out if you like. They even had a golf cart in there. But Eleanor told me she’d already spoken to you about it.”
The general’s demeanor changed instantly. He looked shocked. Scared even. Didn’t he know that TGO had contractors in and around the hangars?
“Eleanor told you about our conversation?” he asked quietly, eyes on his desk, almost wincing.
“Of course she did. We’re friends, and we were both worried about possible damage.”
The general’s eyes closed as if he were in deep pain. The contractor guy—what was his name? Danvers—placed his hand gently on General Daniels’s shoulder. It could have been a gesture of solidarity, but somehow it didn’t seem like that to Conrad. Something weird was going on here, and somehow he and Missy were caught up in it.
“You two will be held under house arrest in barracks until we get to the bottom of this.” The general swiveled in his seat and didn’t look as the two MPs—apparently with their ears to the door—came in and led them out.
What the fuck was going on? Nineteen years in the air force and nothing like this had ever happened to him before. Conrad hadn’t even ever heard of anything like this happening to anyone.
He tried to catch Missy’s attention, but her eyes were on the ground. What was she thinking? He knew what she was thinking. Like him, she was realizing that if they came clean, they would be fired, and if they didn’t, they could go to jail anyway. Unless she really did know something.
He managed to stroke his thumb over her hand as they were led away. She raised her eyes to his and frowned.