Page 55 of Frequency of Attraction

When they climbed out of the cockpit, Harv ripped off his helmet and gave Vadim the iciest glare he’d ever seen. Straight up lethal. He stalked away with no words to spare, passing by Thomas, who stormed toward Vadim red-faced and looking inches away from a stroke.

He snatched Vadim’s helmet from his hands and threw it on the ground. Vadim blinked, taken aback by the hostility. “I did my damn job. What is the problem?”

“Yourjobis listening to the backseater who has seniority. Yourjobis listening to me as the director of fucking safety. You explicitly disobeyed me. Where’s your head, Baranov? You couldn’t handle Gs and you can’t take orders? If I can’t trust you on a training flight, then you have no business flying passengers to space.You may have gotten out of the condition, but you failed today.”

Tate joined them on the steaming runway. His grave expression worried Vadim more than Thomas’ rage. Rage faded. Disappointment lingered.

Thomas stared at him. “I’m not sure you are going to work out, Baranov.”

Vadim’s stomach dropped to the ground. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Yeah, I’m fucking serious,” he snapped. “Don’t forget you onlygotinto that condition because of an overcorrection. That was your mistake. I can fix flying, but I can’t fix stubbornness. How can I trust you with our billion-dollar equipment, or our passengers, if you won’t listen?”

Vadim nodded, his teeth grinding together painfully. “I’ll do better.”

“You will if I fucking let you. You almost crashed today from pure stubbornness. I need to think about whether you’re worth the risk. I need you to think about the same thing. Would you gamble on you after today? Get your fucking head right and wait for word from me.”

Thomas stomped off, taking most of Vadim’s hope for his future in space with him. He couldn’t feel his face. He’d gone numb. He turned to Tate. “I knew I could get us out of the condition.”

Tate just stared at him. “I thought you were going down. Your wing almost scraped the fucking ground, Vadim. We have hundreds of people in that building.” He tipped his head toward the hangar. “If that plane had exploded on impact, they would have been hurt, too. It’s not just you alone in a plane. Ever. Understand?”

Vadim nodded, feeling sick and irritated. He’d thought he’d done the right thing. Mostly. “Can he really get rid of me?”

“Yes.”

“You wanted me here. Can you overrule him?” Vadim was grasping and he knew it.

“I can, but I won’t. Nothing personal, but I wouldn’t be doing right by my people if I didn’t let them make their own decisions.”

Vadim frowned. “That’s what I tried to do.”

“You’re still in training. Like Thomas said, your job is to listen and learn. Your time truly in command will come. I hope.”

He hoped? Panic started to seep into his system. He had come too far to fail again. OrbitAll was his last chance at space. “How do I get there?” Vadim asked. “How do I convince Thomas to let me stay?”

“Be trainable. Set aside your brain space for him. Your pride, too. You’re an incredible pilot, but you still need to learn how we do things. You’re a part of the team, so be part of it.”

Set aside brain space. Be part of the team. He’d been studying, but obviously not enough. He needed to get in the air, in the sim, give Thomas all his time. Strip away the distractions so he could succeed.

“Thank you,” he said to Tate.

He moved to leave, but Tate stopped him. “The checklist, Vadim.”

Vadim’s cheeks burned. He’d nearly forgotten to do the postflight checklist on the T-38.

You failed today.

With his last chance at space in the balance, it was possible this was the worst failure of his life, besides failing the women his brother held captive in that warehouse all those years ago. That failure he had been forced to come to terms with. Losing his chance at space, too? That would be unforgivable.

After he finished the checklist, Vadim trudged to Thomas’ office. Sarah, the human resources woman, was in there. Vadim’s stomach constricted so hard he almost gagged. Was this the death knell of his career?

Sarah raised her eyebrows at him as she slid by on her way out the door.

Vadim took a seat without being invited. Thomas stared at him, mouth thin and eyes still sparking. “I had to write you up. You knowingly endangered a teammate.”

A write-up did not sound as final as a dismissal. Vadim nodded. “That won’t happen again. Whatever you need me to be, Thomas, I’ll be.”

“I want you to be the best of us, Baranov. You have the potential, but you’ve gotten cocky. I don’t know where your head’s been lately.”

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