Cindy Dees - Medusa’s Master

Kat flinched as her teammates stared at her.

Aleesha asked quietly, “Cobra? Are you okay?”

“Yes,” she grated. “I’m fine. Jeff seems to think that honor counts for nothing, however. And he’s prepared to trample mine.”

Aleesha looked over at Jeff soberly. “Mon, de girl, she take dat honor wicked serious.”

He exhaled heavily. “Yeah. I know.” He paused. “Our orders are to stop the Ghost. Using whatever means necessary. Nothing in our orders precludes use of force. As mission commander, I have to assume that implicit in our mission orders is not only permission to use force but a directive to do so if it will accomplish the mission.”

Kat winced. Jeff had resorted to legalese for one reason and one reason only. He was warning her that he’d given her a lawful order-to use force if necessary to apprehend the Ghost. And furthermore, if she failed to do so, he’d hold her liable for having disobeyed a direct order.

Sure enough, on cue he said grimly, “Do you understand me, Captain Kim?”

“Yes, and I acknowledge that you have given me a lawful order. Do you want that in writing?”

She looked up from her tightly clenched hands at him across the table. His stare gave away nothing. No pity, no compassion, no caring. Just the hard, cold gaze of a military commander putting a subordinate sharply and unquestionably in her place.

So. That was how it was going to be.

Anguish wrenched her heart messily in two as she sat there, frozen, her face totally devoid of expression. Damn Hidoshi for teaching her this terrible control, anyway. She wanted to scream and cry and rage, to argue with Jeff about the stupidity of his decision, to demand to know how he could cut her off like this. Worse, she desperately wanted to beg him to look at her the way he had last night in the moonlight. To love her a little. But here she sat, as cold and lifeless as some plastic mannequin who didn’t feel a damn thing.

Jeff sighed heavily and looked away from her.

Meanwhile, her teammates stared back and forth between the two of them in nothing less than open shock. As well they should. She’d never shown a single hint of temper, let alone defiance, in all the time any of them had known her.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn.

She’d known from the very beginning that it would never work between her and Jeff. And sure enough, it had come to this.

She stood up from the table and said woodenly, “I’m going for a walk. I’ll be back in time for the final briefing.”

Kat was mildly surprised that none of the Medusas followed her down to the beach. But she supposed they were so stunned by her outburst that they didn’t know what to do. She’d been walking aimlessly along the beach for about an hour, oblivious to the magnificent sunset glinting scarlet off the pristine sand, when her cell phone rang.

Reluctantly, she pulled it out. Startled at the caller, she opened the phone. “Hi, Vanessa. Did the others sic you on me?”

“Hi. And yes, they did. Wanna talk?”

“If I say no and hang up, will you call me back continuously until I do talk to you?”

“No. I’ll be on the first plane down there to get in your face until you talk to me.”

Kat sighed. The woman would do it, too. Vanessa wasn’t known for taking no for an answer. Thing was, of all her teammates, her boss came the closest to understanding her. She sometimes thought Vanessa had an inkling of her true capabilities but chose to honor her secret. Vanessa also seemed to have a handle on Kat’s view of things like honor and right and wrong.

Kat asked in resignation, “What did they tell you?”

“That Captain Steiger, while making a rational mission decision, is forcing you into doing something he shouldn’t.”

Her teammates had supported her? She ought to have expected it, but it surprised and pleased her nonetheless. “They said that?”

“Aleesha said he asked you to go against your personal code of honor. She’s worried that you’ll disobey him and get in trouble.”

Kat didn’t reply.

“Will you disobey him?” her boss pressed.

“No offense, Vanessa, but I’ll face a court-martial rather than go against my code of honor. I know you’ll think I’m a fool, and you can tell me how I’m throwing away my career, but it’s who I am. I can’t go against my prom-” she broke off, horrified at what she’d just revealed.

“I don’t think you’re a fool, Kat. And I’d never ask you to go against the vows you made to your grandfather.”

Kat practically dropped her phone. “How do you know about him?”

Vanessa had the good grace to sound apologetic. “I talked to Captain Steiger a few minutes ago.”

Kat’s stomach burst into butterflies. Not the excited, happy kind. The nervous, unpleasant ones. When Vanessa didn’t continue, she asked reluctantly, “What did he say?”

“He loves you, Kat.”

“He said that?”

Vanessa laughed. “Are you kidding? Of course he didn’t say it. He probably doesn’t even know it himself yet. But he’s a wreck. He’s tearing himself in two over what he believes to be his duty and his feelings for you. He could hardly form a coherent sentence when he was talking to me. He’s a mess.”

“Then how do you know how he feels?” Kat challenged.

“Because I watched Jack go through the exact same thing.”

Jack Scatalone. Their training officer and supervisor, and Vanessa’s husband. The man who’d been assigned to train the Medusas-and to break them. He’d been ordered to make sure they never became Special Forces operators. Except no matter what he’d thrown at them, they’d survived and succeeded. He’d reluctantly come to the conclusion that they deserved to take their place in the Spec Ops community, yet he’d been ordered to dismantle the team regardless of his pleas to let the Medusas have a shot. And to top it off, he’d been falling in love with Vanessa at the same time he was forced to sabotage her team.

Of all people, he probably was the one who could best understand the dilemma Jeff found himself in. Vanessa probably got it, too. Heck, even Kat could understand why Jeff was doing what he was doing. But that didn’t mean she could meekly go along with it.

“Look, Vanessa. The Ghost appealed to my honor. He gave me his word that he meant no harm and that this meeting was vital. If I show up, I’m tacitly giving him my word in return that I won’t pull any stunts on him. I can’t take the guy down.”

“Any idea why this thief wants to talk to you so much?”

“We’ve been chewing on that all day. No one has any idea. We all agree it’s insane, and something compelling must be driving him to it.”

“Does he know who you are?”

Kat mulled that one over. “He probably has a good idea. He ripped off my throat mike during the fight. When I hit the ground, it was gone, so he must’ve taken it with him.”

“And after examining it, he’d probably have a pretty good idea that he’s dealing with at least a U.S. government agent, if not a military member. Not too many civilians have access to the caliber of equipment we use. Let’s assume he does know roughly who you are.”

Kat frowned. Okay. So that only made his request to meet her all the more puzzling. Vanessa was quiet on the other end of the phone, and Kat didn’t fill in the silence. Viper’s intellect was formidable, and her instincts were pretty much without exception spot-on.

Finally, Vanessa sighed. “Jeff said this guy was old school. Carried no gun and made no effort to do serious injury to the two of you. Is that your impression of this guy as well?”

“It is.”

“Something extraordinary has happened. Something he wants the American government to know about-badly enough to risk his life to tell it to you. You’re the logical person for him to approach. Particularly since you could’ve killed him and didn’t. You’ve earned a measure of trust from him.”