Morgan's Mercenaries: Heart of Stone

He nodded and dropped into an at-ease position, his hands behind his back. “The report didn’t say that.” Maya stood easily, her booted feet slightly apart. The other women pilots were looking his crew over with critical eyes. He felt as if they were all bugs under a microscope.

“The report,” Maya said crisply, “was meant to be brief and to the point. My X.O., Lieutenant Klein, here—” she motioned toward Dallas, who stood at her right shoulder “—did warn you of possible altercations with druggies once you entered our airspace. And it happened, unfortunately.”

Dane held back a retort. “If you’ll get someone to show my men to their quarters and where we can set up our schooling facility, I’d appreciate it, Captain.”

All business. Okay, that was fine with Maya. It was better than York taking verbal potshots at her pilots. Turning to Dallas, she said, “Take them to their quarters. Feed them. And then have Sergeant Paredes take them to our Quonset hut, where we’ve set up shop for them to teach.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Dallas smiled hugely at the cluster of men in green flight suits. “Gentlemen? If you’ll follow me, I’ll give you a quick tour of our base and get you some quarters.”

York didn’t move as his men left with Dallas. He remained rigidly where he stood. Maya frowned.

“Aren’t you going with them?”

“We need to talk, Captain. Somewhere private. Your office, perhaps?”

Smiling suddenly, Maya got it. Okay, York was going to have it out with her in private. Fine. She turned to her other pilots. “Let’s call it a day, ladies. You all have reports to fill out, plus your collateral duty assignments. Wild Woman, see to it that the crews refuel the Apaches and let’s get them on standby. Any problems, see me.”

Jess came to attention. “Yes, ma’am!” And she turned on her heel and hurried into the cave with the other copilot at her side.

Turning her head, Maya looked at Dane, the ice between them obvious. The sunlight was suddenly shut out as a thick cloud slid silently over the Eye. “Well, Major? You ready?” Her voice was a dangerous rasp, a warning that if he thought she was an easy target in private, he was mistaken. She saw York’s eyes widened momentarily and then become slits. Maya felt him harness his anger.

“Ready whenever you are, Captain,” he said coolly.

Turning, she moved into the cave’s murky depths. Within moments, York was at her shoulder, matching her stride, his profile grim and set. Maya could feel the tension within him. As they walked into the maw, the lights overhead illuminated the way, giving the cave a grayish cast with heavy shadows.

“Let me give you a quick idea of our layout, Major,” she said, gesturing to the right. “Over there is our HQ. My office and all other collateral offices are located in that two-story building. Just ahead of us is the maintenance area for the helicopters. As soon as they land, we get them inside. Faro Valentino always has his Kamovs snooping around. Luckily, we’ve got that lava wall between the cave entrance and the jungle out there. Otherwise, I’m sure he’d have come in here a long time ago and tried to use his rockets or missiles on us. The wall prevents that from happening.”

York looked back at the landing area. “It’s a perfect, natural defense position,” he murmured, awe in his tone. “How thick is that rock?”

“Thick enough to stop radar from getting through it.” Maya grinned wickedly as she gestured toward it. “We got lucky with this place. On the other side of this inactive volcano is an old mining operation and a shaft that connects us to it. There’s no way Faro and his pilots can get access to us. Of course, if we were stupid and left our helicopters out on the landing lip, they might drop a bomb or two, but we don’t give them that kind of an opportunity.”

Dane looked around. He felt a little of the tension ease between them. Seeing the sudden pride and excitement in Maya’s eyes as she talked about her squadron facilities was refreshing to him. So far, she hadn’t lobbed any verbal grenades at him. He was waiting, though. There was too much bad blood between them, and he knew she hadn’t forgotten a thing he’d said or done to her back in flight school. The depths of her emerald eyes were very readable. Or maybe she was deliberately letting him see her myriad emotions.

“I’m going to look forward to checking out your facility, Captain. Seeing it on paper doesn’t do it justice. Seeing it in person…well, frankly, it’s overwhelming. Who would ever think you could get a base like this inside a mountain?”

“It took a year for Navy Seabees and a lot of helicopter flights to bring in everything you see here.” Maya stopped at the door to the two-story metal building. She took off her gloves and stuffed them into the right thigh pocket of her flight uniform. A number of electric golf carts whizzed around the buildings, coming and going in ceaseless activity. They were the workhorses of the facility.

“And you were here that first year?” Dane found it hard to believe.

She straightened and placed her long, spare fingers over the doorknob, her movements full of grace, like a cat’s. “Of course.”

He heard the sting in her husky tone. She opened the door and he followed. They climbed quickly up the metal stairs. Looking around, Dane was once more impressed. There was fluorescent lighting in the ivory-painted hallway. The highly polished white tile floor made it even brighter. He saw a number of doors to offices as they walked by—every one of them open. Women dressed in army-green T-shirts and fatigues were busy inside. There were computer monitors, telephones on the desks—just like any other busy squadron HQ. Only this one was situated inside a cave in a mountain. Blown away by the facility, he felt his respect for Maya inch upward.

“In here,” she said, and stood aside, gesturing for him to enter the open office.

Dane scowled. “You leave your office door open like this all the time?”

She heard the censure in his tone. “Why not? Who’s going to come in here and steal top secret info? One of my people?” She laughed.

“Still,” Dane said stubbornly, “it’s not a good policy.”

Snorting, Maya followed him into the office. She turned and shut the door. The tension between them was there again. Placing her helmet on a nearby table, she shrugged out of her chicken plate and hung it up on a wall hook. Ruffling her hair with her fingers, she moved around her metal desk, which looked like a disaster had hit it, and went to the coffeemaker sitting on a makeshift table behind it.