Hawkins stepped into the office and flopped into a chair. “You have any coffee?”
Abby used the intercom and called for a pot of coffee and two cups, which arrived within minutes.
“You’re looking well,” she said, staring at Matt over the rim of her cup.
“Thanks. And you are as lovely as ever.”
“Thank you. Tell me more about that navy ride,” she said.
Hawkins had tuned into the patronizing tone, but he took a sip of coffee and said, “Please call the Naval War College in Newport and ask for Dr. Charles Fletcher. Tell Dr. Fletcher I’m thinking of using your company.”
“Who’s Dr. Fletcher?” she said.
He nodded toward the computer screen. “Look him up on the website.”
Humor him, she thought. Bring him gently back to reality. With a smile frozen on her face, she Googled the war college site and clicked Fletcher’s name from the staff listings. A photo and biography of Fletcher popped up.
Hawkins studied Abby as she read about Fletcher and called the war college number. Her dark red hair was parted in the middle, and cut short, curving down in points to her chin, framing the same beautiful face he had fallen in love with when they had first met on board ship. The high bridge nose and haughty upward tilt to her chin should have warned him of her strong personality, but he had been intent on her lush body. Once they were ashore, they had begun a heated courtship that culminated a short time later in their marriage.
Abby’s call had gotten through.
“Matt Hawkins asked me to call you, Dr. Fletcher. He’s here in my office. He says you can vouch that he is on Navy duty. Oh he’s not.” She smiled in triumph at Hawkins.
“I’m not officially working for the navy,” Hawkins said in a low voice.
“He says he’s not officially with the navy, Dr. Fletcher.” The smile vanished. “Oh. He’s been given a consulting assignment? Yes. I’ll do that. Thank you.”
She hung up and stared at Hawkins.
“Your Dr. Fletcher confirms that you are consulting for a special assignment. I’d like to know more.”
Matt got up and closed the door. Then he returned to his chair and gave her an account of his meeting at the War College. Her brow darkened as he told her about the assignment to find a lost treasure in the wilds of Afghanistan. She placed her hands palm down on her desk and gazed at him with a soft expression in the big blue-green eyes that had always reminded Hawkins of tropic seas.
“We weren’t married very long, but I still care a lot about you and your welfare.”
“I still feel the same about you, Abby.”
She allowed herself a quick smile. “What you have just described is a dangerous, may I say, insane mission. You could be killed.”
“I know that. Which is why I’ve come here to ask for your help. I need your logistics expertise.”
Abby shook her head. “Matt, look around you, for god sakes. Do you know how many projects we’re juggling? GLT is an international contractor. We’ve got sixteen hundred employees here and around the world. We’re not just military; we serve the commercial and humanitarian sectors as well. We’re moving warplanes and tow tractors. Barracks and kitchens. We make sure that equipment gets where it is needed, when it is needed, anywhere in the world.”
“That last phrase sounds like a marketing slogan,” Hawkins said.
“It is,” Abby replied. “I came up with it.”
“I like it,” Hawkins said.
“Thanks. Here’s the bottom line. The government’s outsourcing more and more jobs to companies like ours. In addition to keeping military supply lines open, I’m up to my ears setting up camps at a half dozen disaster locations. We’ve got goods and people moving on planes and ships around the world. There’s no company in the U.S. that does the kind of stuff we’re doing, the way we do it.”
Hawkins had followed his ex-wife’s career since she left the Navy, feeling an indirect pride as he watched her form one of the biggest logistics corporations in the country, eventually becoming its CEO. Her success didn’t surprise anyone who had watched her meteoric rise through the Navy after graduating with honors from the Naval Academy at Annapolis.
“Hell, Abby, you just made my argument for me. It’s like the Carley Simon song from that James Bond movie. No one in the world does it better than GLT.”
“I won’t disagree with that, but let me ask you a question. I hope you won’t take this the wrong way. But given your hostile attitude towards the Navy, why did they choose you to go on a mission that has national security at stake?”
“I asked the same question. Fletcher said I was uniquely qualified, whatever that means.”
“Even with the unique circumstances of your discharge?”
“Those circumstances will no longer stand after this mission.” He told her about his bargain with Fletcher.
“You really are determined about this, Matt.”
“I think that’s self-evident.”
Abby pursed her lips in thought. “I’m not saying I will take this job, but if I did, what would you offer in return?”
“Name it.”
“Okay then. Two conditions. First I want you to purge your mind of that whole episode in Afghanistan.”
“Easier said than done, Abby. I can lock up my memories, but I still walk with a limp.”
“I’m sorry about that, but you’ve got to forget the past. You know how damaging your obsession has been.”
Hawkins was well aware that his moods and outbursts after his return from Afghanistan had helped destroy their marriage. She had been riding high with her career and had a hard time dealing with his suspicions that her beloved Navy had not only failed him but turned on him.
“I apologize for all that,” he said. “You’re a good woman, Abby.”
“Thanks,” she said with a quick smile. “But it’s you I care about. Your obsession will kill your chances for a normal life.”
“I have a normal life.”
“Oh really, Mr. Normal. When was the last time you had a meaningful romantic relationship?”
Without thinking about it, Hawkins said, “With you.”
Silence ensued for a moment. Then Abby said, “Do you really believe that national security is involved in this crazy mission? That if we don’t stop this treasure grab, thousands of people will die?”
“That’s what I’ve been told, Abby. That’s all I can say.”
“Okay. I’ll do it.”
Hawkins blinked at the quick decision. He sighed with relief. “Thanks, Abby.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I said there was a second condition. I go to Afghanistan with you. I travel to Kabul several times of year for my work so I can call this a business trip.”
Hawkins had no intention of having his ex-wife on the mission. He’d let her go as far as Kabul and dump her.
“Thanks, Abby. I’ll teleconference you tomorrow night to go over strategy.”
“I’ll start the ball rolling as soon as you leave. Who else is on our team?”
“No one yet. You were the first one I asked.”
Abby rolled her eyes. “In that case you’d better get busy.”
She saw him to the door and came back to her desk. She was smiling as she punched out the number for her operations department. Seeing Matt again reminded her that life with Hawkins had never been a bed of roses. But it was seldom dull.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Professor Akram Saleem had just emerged from his classroom when he noticed the tall stranger wading through the crowd of students and academics milling along the hallway. The man’s face looked as if it had been chiseled from oak and he had a physique like a longshoreman. He projected an easy confidence and there was an eagle’s alertness in his dark probing eyes.