Or something like that.
Hail was certain Pepper wasn’t telling her to go and have a good time and get a tan and bring him back a hand whittled set of Ring-tailed lemurs. The CIA was the CIA, after all, and they were not hard to figure out. They did CIA stuff.
“I wish you could have stayed longer,” Rogers said. “I thought we could have had some dinner and catch a ball game or something.”
“Maybe next time,” Hail said.
“There isn’t going to be a next time. Is there?” Rogers asked. “I mean you haven’t been back in years. When do you plan to come back?”
Hail didn’t say anything.
“I didn’t think so,” Rogers said flatly.
“Well, what about you taking a boat ride someday?” Hail offered. “You know, when you don’t have a month of important FBI stuff to do.”
Rogers laughed. “I think you might be back before that happens. Mine is not a job you can just leave for a month.”
“I didn’t think so,” Hail said. “And mine really isn’t either.”
Rogers looked thoughtfully at his friend.
“And what is your job these days, Marshall?”
“Nuclear power for the downtrodden masses. Penny’s for power,” Hail said, as if he was reading a Hail Industries pamphlet.
Rogers shook his head slightly and looked disappointed.
“You don’t really believe that, do you?” Rogers asked.
“It’s as good a job as any.”
“No, I mean your new job is killing people. Doesn’t that bother you at some level?”
Hail looked his friend square in the face and said, “It revives me, Trevor. It brings me back from the dead. It might be the only reason I’m still around and haven’t jumped off my ship on some moonless lonely night. I don’t know if that’s something you can understand or not.”
Rogers said nothing.
The lull in conversation was filled with the flap, flap, flap sound of approaching rotor blades.
The private conversation between the CIA folks broke up and Kara walked over and stood next to Hail and Rogers. Pepper headed back up the lawn and toward the Whitehouse. He didn’t wave goodbye.
Kara looked nervous and said, “I hate flying.”
Wow, Hail thought. The beautiful tough CIA woman is afraid of something. Not the first card he would have played if he had been in her shoes. Best not to show any faults until you were firmly in place.
“I’m afraid of flying as well, but only on commercial aircraft,” Hail told her sympathetically. “Don’t worry. The Marine guys fly these things in their sleep.”
Kara said nothing and Hail let it go.
The calm day turned into a wild windstorm as the Black Hawk touched down in front of them.
Hail shook Roger’s hand and yelled, “Take care of yourself my friend.”
Rogers said something that Hail couldn’t quite make out, but he shook Roger’s hand and nodded his head none the less.
Hail and Ramey turned and ducked their heads and began walking hunchbacked toward the door that had been pulled open on the helicopter. Ramey used her right hand to uselessly corral her mass of red hair. The same marine lieutenant was waiting at the door and he offered his hand to Kara, who took it and stepped into the aircraft. The soldier then offered his hand to Hail who didn’t take it and also stepped into the aircraft.
Both were seated, buckled and the door was drawn shut. Through the tinted glass, Hail waved at Rogers as the chopper spun up and began to rise into the Washington haze.
Kara startled Hail by reaching over and clutching his arm as she nervously looked out the window. Hail thought the woman actually looked terrified and he didn’t think she was acting one little bit. As they got higher, her grip tightened. It was a short ride to Andrews so Hail decided to allow her to cling to him. He wondered if he would have said something if Pepper was the one grabbing his arm. Pretty women got all the breaks.
In less than five minutes, Marine Two touched down next to Hail’s jet. The door slid open and Hail and Ramey disembarked.
Kara looked toward the hanger to her left and then began to walk toward it. Hail caught her elbow and instead of screaming over the howl of the Black Hawk, he pointed toward the Gulfstream to their right. Kara began shaking her head, no. The Black Hawk lifted off and Hail nodded his head, yes. For a moment, Hail thought that Ramey was going to make a break for it and dash across the tarmac and hide inside the hanger. But she didn’t. Reluctantly, she began walking toward the sleek jet and Hail released her elbow.
When she was certain the Black Hawk was far enough away so she could be heard, she said, “I hate flying. Can’t we take a train or a ship or something?”
“Is that how you get around on the CIA’s dime?” Hail asked.
“No, but I do a lot a Xanax before I fly. Don’t suppose you have any?”
If I did I would have overdosed on it years ago, Hail thought.
Hail was getting tired of reassuring the CIA agent and therefore said, “If you don’t want to go, I understand. Just give me your phone number and I will call for the information we need.”
“That ain’t gonna happen,” Kara said, all of sudden finding the courage to walk up the jet’s stairs.
Hail followed her up and closed the door behind them.
“Wow,” Kara said. “Nice digs!”
“It beats flying commercial,” Hail said, sounding a little ashamed of the opulence of the aircraft.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been on a plane like this. I mean when I went on trips with my folks, we went first class, but this ― this is first class.”
Hail didn’t know what to say, so he just stood there waiting for her to sit down somewhere.
“Where should we sit?” Kara asked.
Hail gestured toward the CEO flight seats to their left.
“I really like to sit in the flight seats when we take off or land. Just in case it gets bumpy,” Hail said.
Kara didn’t look like she liked the word bumpy all that much. She sat down in a chair, away from the window and facing forward. Instead of sitting across from her so they were looking at one another, Hail selected the window seat next to Kara’s.
Kara fuddled around with her seat belt, until she was sure that everything was snapped and in place. Hail noticed that her right eye was twitching a little, a nervous tick of some sort to be sure. Besides that, Ms. Ramey still looked good. Really good.
“Where should I put my purse?” she asked.
Hail flipped opened a compartment between their seats and she dropped it in. Hail then released the padded top and it fell shut.
“So you said that you have your own pilots that fly your planes?” Kara asked.
Hail felt that the question was more than just idle conversation.
“Yes, I do.” Hail said.
“And they are all great pilots, I assume,” Kara said with a nervous laugh.
“I trust my life with them, and I can’t say that about just any old pilot.”
Kara winced when she heard the engines begin to start.
There was a click of an intercom being activated and a voice above them said, “Hi Marshall. We have received clearance to taxi and should be in the air in about five minutes.”
“Sounds good,” Hail said into the air. “Let’s make sure we keep things extra smooth for our guest here. She doesn’t like flying.”
“No problem-o,” the voice responded.
The plane started moving forward in a tight right turn and pulled away from the hanger area. The engine’s tone rose in pitch as they strained against the still air to push the aircraft forward.
“The pilot sounds so young,” Kara said.
“Would you like to meet him?” Hail asked.