Double Impact: Never Say Die & No Way Back by Tess Gerritsen, Debra Webb Read Free Book Online

high. And the glory. So he went back.”
    â€œThey got divorced?”
    â€œHe never asked for one. And Mom wouldn’t hear of it anyway. She loved him.” Willy’s voice dropped. “She still loves him.”
    â€œHe went back to Laos alone, huh?”
    â€œSigned up for another two years. Guess he preferred the company of danger junkies. They were all like that, those A.A. pilots—all volunteers, not draftees—all of ’em laughing death in the face. I think flying was the only thing that gave them a rush, made them feel alive. Must’ve been the ultimate high for Dad. Dying.”
    â€œAnd here you are, over twenty years later.”
    â€œThat’s right. Here I am.”
    â€œLooking for a man you don’t give a damn about. Why?”
    â€œIt’s not me asking the questions. It’s my mother. She’s never wanted much. Not from me, not from anyone. But this was something she had to know.”
    â€œA dying wish.”
    Willy nodded. “That’s the one nice thing about cancer. You get some time to tie up the loose ends. And my father is one hell of a big loose end.”
    â€œKistner gave you the official verdict—your father’s dead. Doesn’t that tie things up?”
    â€œNot after all the lies we’ve been told.”
    â€œWho’s lied to you?”
    She laughed. “Who hasn’t? Believe me, we’ve made the rounds. We’ve talked to the Joint Casualty Resolution Committee. Defense Intelligence. The CIA. They all had the same advice—drop it.”
    â€œMaybe they have a point.”
    â€œMaybe they’re hiding the truth.”
    â€œWhich is?”
    â€œThat Dad survived the crash.”
    â€œWhat’s your evidence?”
    She studied Guy for a moment, wondering how much to tell him. Wondering why she’d already told him as much as she had. She knew nothing about him except that he had fast reflexes and a sense of humor. That his eyes were brown, and his grin distinctly crooked. And that, in his own rumpled way, he was the most attractive man she’d ever met.
    That last thought was as jolting as a bolt of lightning on a clear summer’s day. But he was attractive. There was nothing she could specifically point to that made him that way. Maybe it was his self-assurance, the confident way he carried himself. Or maybe it’s the damn whiskey, shethought. That’s why she was feeling so warm inside, why her knees felt as if they were about to buckle.
    She gripped the steel railing. “My mother and I, we’ve had, well, hints that secrets have been kept from us.”
    â€œAnything concrete?”
    â€œWould you call an eyewitness concrete?”
    â€œDepends on the eyewitness.”
    â€œA Lao villager.”
    â€œHe saw your father?”
    â€œNo, that’s the whole point—he didn’t.”
    â€œI’m confused.”
    â€œRight after the plane went down,” she explained, “Dad’s buddies printed up leaflets advertising a reward of two kilos of gold to anyone who brought in proof of the crash. The leaflets were dropped along the border and all over Pathet Lao territory. A few weeks later a villager came out of the jungle to claim the reward. He said he’d found the wreckage of a plane, that it had crashed just inside the Vietnam border. He described it right down to the number on the tail. And he swore there were only two bodies on board, one in the cargo hold, another in the cockpit. The plane had a crew of three. ”
    â€œWhat did the investigators say about that?”
    â€œWe didn’t hear this from them. We learned about it only after the classified report got stuffed into our mailbox, with a note scribbled ‘From a friend.’ I think one of Dad’s old Air America buddies got wind of a cover-up and decided to let the family know about it.”
    Guy was standing absolutely still, like a cat in the shadows.