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Chapter 1

"Hey, I thought you said there was a woh the windscreen of his C-17, broken clouds revealing the barren landscape of Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota

Not a dah his headset froht mechanic "Mako"

"Yes, sir," Mako drawled fro this air shoith that one, didn’t we?"

"You dudes got ripped the throttle and let the "tricked" than to ad on to this mission

"The clue bird should have hit you like a whole flock s told you that Minot joke about the trees" Mako continued to gloat "His ould kick his butt if she thought he was checking out the feirlfriend you keep them all too busy, anyway"

"One at a ti a casual tone and attitude to mask a deep-seated attention to detail "Always one at a tiuided the craft toward the base, a mere speck ahead in the middle of flat, flat and more flat farmland, where he would spend the weekend at Minot’s annual air show--dateless

Okay, so he had a reputation around the squadron as a player But he wanted a steady relationship, wife and kids souy Maybe even more, since he’d never had a real hoh a lot of breakups in the search, such was life It see a woman once he realized she wasn’t The One So fifty-fifty when it caiven and received

Painful? Soh, the journey wasn’t aup in a boys’ hoing in the air, what guy wouldn’t prefer to spend the rest of his life pressed up close to a soft, jas wo-flowers-deodorant scented He wasn’t picky

Still, he was grateful for Minot’s treeless state Noasn’t the time to shuffle those fifty-fifty odds either way He had round than his exhaustive and so quest for a Mrs Rokowsky

He wasn’t working the Minot Air Show to roupies, but rather to meet one woman in particular And no way in hell would she be open to sex with him

Froaze Bo’s hile the boss evaluated Scowled "If you boys are done discussing your dating prospects in the Land of Tatanka, let’s see about getting this plane on the ground"

Bo clamped his jaw shut Fun tiloo pain in the keister kind of leader, better known unofficially around the squadron as "Darth Vader" To be fair, the guy was a solid flier and a technically perfect co his hold on the throttle, Bo flexed the stiffness out of his fingers, already anticipating a couple of hours with his guitar to work out the twinges and frustration He hadn’t "enjoyed" this much supervision since Sister Mary Nic had walked hirade

Of course he did have a habit of detouring even then

Under nore the Miss America Contest with Quade, much less spend the weekend under his thu had been nor and capture overseas to be exact Discovering that drug-running Air Force personnel and civilians in his own community had supported terrorists responsible for the shoot down only rocked his already cockeyed world

He wasn’t even sure he wanted to stay in the Air Force once his commitment was up next month And wasn’t that a kick-in-the-ass life crisis for a guy who’d been certain since the cradle that he would tear up the skies and raise hell with airplanes? He suspected he wouldn’t have his answer until he’d put a piece of his past frohter

Theand child of thebastard with terrorist ties

"Well, Rokowsky?" Quade hissed low through the headset, punting Bo back into the present "Are you planning to call for landing weather? Review the approach? Any of this ringing a bell for you, Captain? You’re not a lieutenant anyer, sir, I’ for the weather report five freaking minutes early, Bo scanned the sky and kept his teht question his call to the air these days, but he knew his job and had done everything to the letter on this mission His check rides attested to his overall nuts-on flying But wearing the unifor kahuna

Bo continued to scope the horizon while listening to the all-clear weather report So ere those dotsback the stick

A flock of birds--geesebelow the craft as the C-17 climbed So reality

His heart dru-honed instincts

Soose at this speed would shatter the windscreen, could even kill a pilot

The plane groaned at the abrupt ascent, then leveled, huain Damn, that had been close His pulse started to slow--

Whoomp

His brain barked the answer in sync with Quade’s affirine"

Death for a jet engine And hopefully only one engine, with no explosion

Caution lights flooded his control panel, an engine-fire alert The landing strip grew closer, a stretch in a region as flat as any desert But was it near enough?

Bo sla quicker than he cut the fuel to the engine with a jerk of the fire handle "Roger, fuel cut, beginning boldface checklist for engine shutdown"

Voices popped through the headset Coh the air with the drag and pull of power adjustines to compensate for the diminished thrust on the left Protocol and division of labor was crucial for getting their butts on the ground in one piece From here on out as copilot he would talk and Quade, in the aircraft commander’s seat, would fly No