White Jade

Chapter Nine

Sunlight shone on streets wet with early morning rain. Water on the pavement mirrored a clear, bright sky of light blue with scattered white clouds. The heat wave had broken. The smog had blown away in the night. The city smelled fresh and clean.

A black Ford Crown Vic with plain wheels and government plates pulled up where Carter waited outside his building. A man sat in the front passenger seat wearing a gaudy red Hawaiian shirt covered with white flowers. A loose, cream colored linen jacket bulged over his holstered Glock. He was wearing wraparound shades and a pork pie hat. He looked like he'd just stepped off the set of CSI Miami.

Ronnie Peete was a full blooded Navajo, born on the Reservation. His skin was a light, reddish brown. He had broad shoulders and narrow hips and sleepy brown eyes that could spot a hawk or a sniper at a thousand yards. Ronnie had been a Gunnery Sergeant in Nick's Recon unit. Carter considered him the best combat Marine he'd ever known. He was also a friend.

"How's the ear?" Ronnie asked through the open window.

"Itches like hell."

Nick climbed in back. They pulled away. Ronnie looked back over the front seat.

"They had some great shots on the news last night. Bodies and wrecks on the highway, you covered with blood. How come you have all the fun?"

"Lucky, I guess. Harker find anything out yet?"

"Nope. No ID on any of them. The attackers were probably Chinese. Harker filled me in. Maybe it's about that book. It's too much of a coincidence."

"That's what I think."

"She asked me to ride along to the airport, just in case."

They pulled up at the Mayflower. Selena waited outside with her bodyguard, dressed in jeans and Nikes, a light jacket over a gray silk blouse. She got in the back with Nick. She looked tired, stressed out.

"Morning," he said. "Sleep well?"

"Good morning. Not very. I kept thinking about yesterday."

"This is Ronnie. You'll see a lot of him."

"Morning."

The driver picked his way through traffic. Selena was quiet, lost in thought. They got to the airport without incident.

Ronnie left them at the counter. Carter looked at his ticket. Booked in First Class.

"How did we luck out with this? I usually end up next to the baggage."

"I called in and got us upgraded. I didn't see any point in getting squeezed into coach. It's a long flight."

"Maybe they'll have some real food for a change."

"I wouldn't count on it. I bring my own. The hotel made up a package for me. Do you like roast beef?"

"Any horseradish with it?"

"I haven't looked, but they seem to think of everything."

Carter took Selena through private security. There was a discussion about his gun. A look at his ID with the Presidential seal on it and they let him keep it. They settled into the comfort of First Class.

The attendant brought mimosas.

Selena said, "I was thinking about immortality. If you're immortal, what happens to your friends and lovers? Are they immortal? Do you think someone could stay married for, say, a thousand years?"

"No one could stay married that long."

"Have you ever been married?"

His whole body went tense.

"No. I was engaged, once."

He remembered.

Megan was laughing, her fine, brown hair blowing in the wind coming off the Pacific. They'd gone up the coast to Trinidad for the weekend and found a Victorian bed and breakfast, on the cliffs looking out over the water.

From the deck outside the room they'd watched the seals sunning themselves on the black rocks out in the ocean.

They were getting ready to leave. Megan was beautiful, that day, her green eyes sparkling in the morning sun, excited about going to her new job down in San Diego. Nick had held her close.

"I love you," he'd said. "I'll always love you."

"Nick. You've got to come back to me, come back safe."

"We'll get married when I get back. My tour is up in six months. I'll be a civilian and we can have a real life together."

"And a very, very fine house?" She'd smiled and punched him lightly in the chest with both hands while he held her.

"And two cats in the yard, just like the song." He'd kissed her.

"Why didn't you get married?" Selena asked.

He took a breath. "She died."

"I'm sorry."

"It's all right. Anyway, I haven't been involved with anyone since then."

The plane lifted into the air.

They'd gotten to the airport in plenty of time. They were both flying out, Megan to San Diego, Nick back to the East Coast.

They'd killed time in one of the airport cafes until she had to go. Nick had watched her enter the gangway to board her plane. She'd turned and smiled, waved at him, and disappeared in the stream of passengers.

He'd stood by one of the big windows looking out over the runways, waiting to see her plane take off.

In a few minutes he'd seen it. The plane picked up speed down the runway, lifted into the air, the wheels coming up. He was about to turn away when the aircraft made a strange motion, the wings dipping unevenly right and then left, the nose angling downward.

Fingers of ice wrapped around his chest.

Then the right wing turned straight down. The plane arced into the ground and exploded in a billowing fireball. The shock wave slammed against the window and shook the terminal. At the end of the runway a dense column of orange flame and black smoke boiled up into an indifferent sky.

Megan.

He shoved the memories back into their dark box.

"Have you ever been married?" he said.

"No. I was close, once. I thought I was in love. We'd had dinner and a few drinks and then we got into a big fight. I forget what it was about, some stupid thing. He hit me. It made me mad. I broke his nose, kicked him where it hurts and walked out."

"You broke his nose?"

"He asked for it. I'm good at martial arts."

She shrugged, as if to say what else could she have done?

"Since then I haven't met anyone I wanted to know better. Men are attracted by the way I look. When they find out who I am and don't get what they want, they back off. I guess I scare them away."

"Too much competition for the male ego?"

"If it is, that's not my problem."

She shifted gears. "How would those men yesterday know where I was?"

"It's not hard. You're high profile."

"Do you think they'll try again?"

"They might. Until this gets resolved you should always have people around you. Right now all you've got is me."

"That was good enough yesterday."

She looked out the window, pulled a box from under the seat.

"Hungry?"

After lunch and the mimosas, he was slowing down. He fell asleep. One thing he'd learned in the Corps was how to fall asleep anywhere. Asleep, he wasn't remembering anything, unless he was dreaming.