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  “Let’s find out if the sentries have seen anything,” she said briskly.

  The guard shack was heated, allowing them to dispense with their hoods. In the dim red night lighting, Andrea could see that her troops were sleepy looking but alert.

  “No, ma’am, we haven’t seen anything,” the senior airman answered her question. “After we heard the fence was breached, me and Lewis went out to look around, but we didn’t see anything unusual. Sergeant Nickerson said we weren’t to go close to the planes, though.”

  “That’s right.” With a dog and its handler on each plane, the bombers should be secure. Even if the handler fell asleep on the job, the dog would be guard enough, alerted by the faintest of noises.

  “Has there been any trouble with the electronic systems?” she asked.

  “No, ma’am. Not since we came on duty. Maybe earlier, though. Want me to check the logs?”

  “Please.”

  While she waited for the sergeant to scan the logs by the illumination of a penlight, Andrea turned to look out at the B-52s as she had the night Halliday claimed to have found the fault in the system that had caused the intruder alert. The night Alisdair MacLendon had arrived on base. No way could she have guessed then just how much he would shake up her life. Apart from small whirlwinds of blowing snow, everything looked just as it had that night four months ago, yet Andrea felt the woman she’d been then was a complete stranger. What had she thought as she stood here that night so long ago? What had been uppermost on her mind then, except the loss of sleep?

  “Ma’am?” said the sergeant from behind her. “Sergeant Halliday was out here at nineteen-thirty hours. The log shows he did some work on the system. There was an intermittent circuit failure.”

  “Where have I heard that before?” Andrea mused aloud, remembering that Halliday had used those same words four months ago. “Nick—” She broke off and leaned forward. “Nick, something’s moving out there.”

  “Douse that light, Kavitch,” Nickerson said sharply to the sentry. “Where, Captain?”

  “Three planes down and to the right. I could swear I saw something.”

  It was gone, though, and after thirty seconds of staring intently into the night, Andrea gave up.

  “Let’s go, Nick. Kavitch, get on the radio and tell everyone to look alive. Our man is out there, and he’s going to be trying to get away very shortly.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Andrea.”

  Dare’s voice drew her up short just as she was about to go out the door. Wheeling, she glared at him as she struggled to zip her snorkel with one hand.

  “Damn it, Colonel, stay here,” she said shortly. “Don’t get in my way.” She heard Nickerson draw a sharp breath, but she was past caring. The intruder was out there, and every moment’s delay increased the chance he would escape.

  Dare’s voice reached her, deceptively mild. “I was just going to say that I saw a shadow moving under the fourth plane down. Take it easy, Captain.”

  “Damn fool thing to say, skipper,” Nickerson remarked near her ear as they stepped out of the guard shack.

  “I’ll apologize later. Stow it, Nick. Let’s split up and move in on the third and fourth planes from opposite sides.” She kept her voice low even though they were downwind from the planes and their voices shouldn’t carry.

  “I’ll take the left side,” Nick said. “Likely he’ll try to make a break toward the perimeter, and I’m bound to be at least as big as he is.”

  And I’m not, Andrea admitted silently, bowing to reality. “Okay. Let’s move out.”

  Just then the door of the guard shack opened and closed quickly. Turning, Andrea recognized Dare’s large shape. In his gloved right hand was his pistol.

  “Not a word, Burke,” he said flatly. “I’m pulling rank.”

  She should have known, Andrea thought. Right from the start he’d been the kind of CO to stick his nose everywhere and get involved where he wasn’t wanted. She should have known. She wanted to get angry, but she couldn’t, because part of her warmed to the fact that somebody in the world wanted to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her. “How do you want to proceed, sir?” she asked stiffly.

  “It’s your show,” he said levelly. “Just get it through your head that it includes me.”

  She could live with that, Andrea thought. “Okay. Nick, you go ahead to the left. The Colonel and I will come up along on the right. Let’s move out.”

  Chapter 15

  Andrea crouched, keeping low, and moved swiftly across the tarmac to the right of the parked planes. She hadn’t gone a dozen steps before a sense of déjà vu assailed her, reminding her of the night she’d been shot. Her neck and scalp prickled with unexpected fear, and her step faltered, but only for an instant. Nickerson was out there, depending on her to do her share, and he could be in serious danger without backup. There was no choice but to go on, and no point in thinking about what might happen.

  Suddenly and unexpectedly, she was extremely grateful for Dare’s presence at her side. He moved stealthily, reminding her of a jungle cat, but when she inexplicably reached out for him, he paused and caught her hand in his.

  What the hell am I doing in this business? The thought came out of nowhere, stunning her with its ferocity. She’d lied when she told Dare she’d never considered anything else, lied to him and to herself. Somewhere along the way all those other ideas had gotten lost in a burning desire to prove herself as an Air Force officer, but not even then had she imagined herself in this situation. Law Enforcement had never been her goal; it had been thrust on her, and she’d been making the best of it ever since.

  Now here she was in the dead of night, stalking a killer with an M-16 in her hands. If she had an ounce of sense, she would be back in the guard shack directing this operation, the way a commander should. No, she had to get into it up to her neck. She always had and wondered if she always would.

  “Andrea?” Dare’s whisper was barely audible, although he’d turned so that his mouth was only several inches from her ear. “Something wrong?”

  Andrea drew a deep breath and managed to shake her head. An instant later she released his hand a crept forward again. A faint rustle told her that he was following her.

  Approaching the third plane, she slowed up and crouched lower. With her teeth, she pulled the mitten off her right hand and let it fall to the tarmac. The liner glove wasn’t nearly as warm, but she had to be able to wrap her finger around the trigger. As quietly as she could, she released the safety and crept forward. The dog wouldn’t be able to smell anyone under the planes, not when the wind was blowing at a stinging thirty-five miles an hour, and the same wind would carry away any reasonably quiet sounds. Andrea didn’t want to chance it, though, for fear of scaring away their quarry. Those dogs were squirreled away on the sealed-up planes, but she had no idea whether their barking might be audible to someone on the tarmac below.

  Seeing nothing around the undercarriage of the third plane, she edged forward to the fourth. Her heart was beating wildly now, and adrenaline soured and dried her mouth. Pausing, she pushed back her snorkel to widen her field of view. Now only a knit stocking cap covered her head, and the cold made her scalp ache.

  A sudden groan and clatter to her left brought her swinging sharply around, and she peered intently into the shadow of the bomber. Lord, it was dark under there. Turning, she sought Dare.

  “Did you hear it?” she barely whispered.

  He nodded. “Nick.”

  That was what she thought, too. Dare gestured with his hands, indicating that if she moved to the left, toward the sound, he would swing around from the right and try to come up from the rear. Andrea nodded her agreement.

  Licking her cold lips, she changed direction, creeping toward the bomber’s rear wheels. Those tires were big, big enough to hide a crouched man easily. And she was exposed, mercilessly exposed. Cautiously, she eased into the protection of the big plane’s shadow. Maybe the dog in the fuselage above h