Page 38 of Dan

Finley kissed him, then started to leave the room. Stopping at the door, she turned to stare at everyone.

“You know, they might be right. I may be broken. How could I have never known that my own parents despised me, hated me enough to want me dead? Don’t you have to be broken to not see that?” Luke shook his head.

“No, honey. Only someone with a kind and beautiful heart could see so much good in two people who were so awful. That makes them broken, not you.” Finley smiled at him, nodding.

“I knew you were the right choice for my surrogate father.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Seattle was cold. And raining. As usual. At least, that’s the way it always felt. Like it never stopped raining. In reality, they had less rain than people believed. Able to land at Fort Lewis, they remained unseen by anyone other than those on-base. With the morning traffic long gone, they decided to make their first stop, Air and Space FormJet.

With Nine and Gaspar’s long-time friend long gone, the new CEO was scheduled to meet with them personally to show them the new jets that were being built. For added pressure, Doug would be inspecting the jets along with Evie and Savannah, who’d tagged along.

“Welcome!” called the woman as her heels clicked on the concrete floors. She wore a stiff, dark blue suit and white shirt with a tie, much like a menswear look. “I’m so glad we’re able to get you out here. I just know that once you see what we’re doing here at FormJet, you’ll be able to help us push this contract through.”

“We make no promises,” said Doug with a straight face. “We’re here to see what you’ve done so far and to try and understand just how you plan on mounting these defense systems.”

“I see,” she said, wiping the smile from her face. “Right to business then. Alright, if you’ll follow me. Of course, the jets are highly complicated pieces of machinery, and you would need to be an expert in aircraft to understand them.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Doug, not willing to give anything away. She obviously knew nothing of them, nor did she care, not asking for introductions. “You didn’t give us your name.” He knew that would irk the woman, thinking that everyone would know who she was.

“Oh, right. My apologies. I feel as though we should all know one another. My name is Malina Ramirez. I’m currently acting as CEO and CFO for FormJet. My predecessor left us unexpectedly a few months back. As you know, our former owner passed as well a few years ago.” No one said anything, just stared ahead at the two jets in the massive hangar.

“And you are?” she asked.

“We are G.R.I.P.,” said Doug. “That’s all you need to know for now.”

They could tell she was chewing on the inside of her mouth, trying to decide how she might respond to that statement. To her credit, she pushed down the urge to snap at Doug and simply nodded, walking toward the jets.

“This is Hudson Rhodes,” she said, pointing to the tall, lean man standing beneath the jet. He looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but here. His eyes were surrounded by dark circles, his hands callused and rough. He appeared to be between thirty-five and fifty, but it was really anyone’s guess at this point.

Dan stared at the other man, something about him so familiar it was sending signals to his brain. When he made eye contact, he could see the other man’s reaction. He knew Dan as well. With the smallest shake of his head, it told Dan what he wanted to know. Hudson Rhodes was not here by his own power.

Rhodes had been a stellar pilot with the 21stParatroopers Special Forces division. He was not only a pilot but a jumper as well. And one of the best. So, why the fuck was he here with FormJet?

“Hudson? Hudson, are you alright?” she demanded. “For goodness sake! We’re all tired. I need you to give them a rundown of what’s happening on the jet.”

“Right. Sorry.” He cleared his throat and started walking beneath the jet. “As you probably know, the engines that we use give higher speed and greater fuel efficiency than piston and propellor aeroengines. We have a compressor of our own design that gives additional thrust power as well as in-air stopping power for the pilot.”

A phone rang, and Ramirez looked down, cursing under her breath.

“If you’ll excuse me. I need to take this.” They all just stared at her as she quickly walked out of the hangar.

“Rhodes, what the fuck, brother?” asked Dan.

“Don’t trust them,” he whispered. “I’m here against my will. They have my little brother being held at her home somewhere in Bellevue. I was forced to work on this, or they’d kill him. Please, I can’t lose my brother.”

“Shit,” muttered Gaspar, staring at Nine. Hudson looked up at the man and immediately knew who he was. Their size, the faces, the bearing of men who had seen and done more in this lifetime than Hudson would do in ten.

“You really are a Robicheaux, aren’t you?” he smirked, looking back at Dan.

“I really am, and we’re going to help you. Quickly, with Doug, Evie, and Savannah point out the faults in the jet. Do it fast, brother.”

Hudson ran down a laundry list of things that would make the jet nearly impossible to fly with the defense system attached. Not only was it too heavy, the maneuverability wouldn’t be there, and, when fired, it most likely would cause such a concussive kickback on the jet it would break apart. Take into account the microchips they were attempting to use in the system, and it would break down in any abnormal weather conditions, making it completely useless to anyone.

“Jesus, they’re trying to sell this shit,” said Doug.

“This thing is even equipped to fly unmanned. They wanted to be able to show its abilities to fly remotely, not jeopardizing any pilots. But that means that they control the entire thing. They could put in coordinates, send it on its way, and then change the coordinates remotely, claiming faulty equipment.

---