“At the time I likened it to the mother of all orgasms experienced at the same time you stick a finger in a light socket.” Karla Raven sat in a central chair in Tim Ryan’s office. Ryan, however, wasn’t behind his desk. A two-star was. He’d been introduced as General Grazier. Around the room were no less than five other officers and what looked like a couple of clerks who were recording and writing notes. The little red Ducati on Ryan’s desk looked lonely.
“Chief?” An officer who had been introduced as Major Savage, stepped over, moved the little Ducati to the side, and rested a haunch on the corner of the desk. He clasped his hands in his lap. Unlike Grazier, Major Savage didn’t look like a rear-echelon kiss-ass. American Indian, she thought. And given his demeanor, he’d been deep in the shit a time or two. Definitely a combat vet. But then, a lot of combat officers were assholes.
“Sir?”
He studied her thoughtfully. “We need to know what you were doing up at that time of night. The RN on duty said it was flashbacks. Can you tell me about them?”
She ground her teeth, feeling the rage stir down deep. “They come and go, sir.”
He worked his jaw and nodded. “So, you buzzed the RN and she let you out. What happened then?”
In a precise voice Karla laid out the entire event, all the way back to her door when the world went hinky.
“And you’re sure you were just disoriented for a few seconds?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’re positive that no one could have slipped past you, opened Alpha’s door, and helped her carry out the machine?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How do you know that?” General Grazier asked, his hard dark eyes reflecting irritation.
“Been there before, sir.”
Grazier took a deep breath and ran the flat of his hand along Ryan’s desk. “Chief, I understand what you’re doing, and I know why you’re doing it: Never, under any circumstance, tell an officer more than he needs to know. Right now, I don’t need a hard-assed SEAL proving she’s a hard-assed SEAL. You get that?”
“Yes, sir.”
Grazier waited, an eyebrow lifted as if in expectation.
Karla remained silent.
Major Savage chuckled, raising a hand before Grazier could explode. “Chief, what do you think of Colonel Ryan?”
“Fine officer, sir.”
“Now, Chief, we know you were here to visit him yesterday in this office. Did he at any time hint that Prisoner Alpha was any kind of threat?”
“No, sir.”
“But you did talk about her?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did he give any indication that anything was wrong with Prisoner Alpha? Um, I mean anything wrong in addition to her obvious dysfunction.”
“No, sir.”
“What did he say, exactly?”
“With respect, sir, the Colonel would be a better—”
“Damn it!” Grazier slapped the desk, giving her a hard look. “Chief, you’re beginning to chafe a raw spot on my ass. Do you understand what’s going on here? A very high-value detainee waltzed out of Ward Six last night with an unauthorized piece of equipment. Now, there’s only one way in, and one way out of that fucking room. If we’re to believe Seymore’s report, you were in that hallway when whoever it was went in and got Alpha and her effing machine! I damn well want to know who!”
Karla bit off the growl that started in her throat, forced her heart to beat normally, and kept her expression like stone.
“Well?” Grazier thundered.
“Yes, sir?”
“Who?”
Karla ordered her thoughts, calmed her racing pulse. In a concise voice, she said, “I saw no one pass me, sir.”
“But it was dark,” Major Savage added.
“Yes, sir.”
“So, you couldn’t have seen anyone.”
“I’d have known, sir.”
“How?”
“I was pretty much spread all over the hall floor, sir.”
“And if they had stepped over you while you were unconscious?”
Karla kept her mouth clamped shut, her flintlike glare eating into Major Savage’s.
Grazier muttered a curse and flexed his fingers. “Chief, however Prisoner Alpha got out of that cell, she couldn’t have done it without inside help. Now, we know that Colonel Ryan was sympathetic to the woman. Sometimes men can identify with an attractive and vulnerable woman. If that’s the case, we’d like to manage this before Dr. Ryan does something irreparable to his career. Do you have any thoughts about that?”
Karla stiffened. “Impossible, sir.”
“Or could you be an accomplice?” the general asked.
Karla shot to her feet, standing at full attention. “Sir! No, sir!” She kept her eyes fixed on what Ryan called his “me” wall. The insanity of it, the outright fucking impossibility! Her muscles knotted. Cold rage burned in the pit of her stomach.
“Dismissed, Chief.” Major Savage said. In her peripheral vision she could see the distaste in his expression.
Karla snapped a salute, rotated as if she were on an axle, and strode purposefully to the door. She let herself out and closed the door precisely behind her.
“Mother fuckers!” she exploded, then cast a sidelong glance at Janeesha. “You know what they’re cooking up in there?”
“Nothing good for Dr. Ryan,” the secretary said softly, avoiding Karla’s eyes.
Karla walked over to the desk, her anger bottled like an unlit rocket. “No way the Skipper would ever spring Gray. But that’s how they’re going to write it.”
Janeesha gave her a horrified look. “They think Dr. Ryan helped Alpha escape?” Her expression tightened. “But then, he didn’t hardly go home this last week. He was here most of the nights. If he was seeing that woman . . .”
“Stop it! My door’s next to Alpha’s. And her door is a heavy damn thing. I hear it open and close every time they take her food, clean her room, or escort an interrogator inside. If the Skipper had been sneaking in for high tea, let alone for anything else, I’d have known.”
She pointed a hard finger at Janeesha. “And I may just be one more nut in the loony bin, but I know the Skipper. Whatever this is, he didn’t let her out. Damn it, I was there.”
“Then how’d she do it? Get that machine out and all?”
“Haven’t got the foggiest idea, but I guess I’ll find out.”
Janeesha jumped as her phone rang; she reached for the receiver.
Karla took a deep breath and straightened, a spear of joy shooting through her as she whisked the smartphone on Janeesha’s desk behind her thigh.
As Janeesha answered her desk phone with a “Yes, sir?” Karla Raven was already out the door, knocking off a salute to the uniformed sentry who waited in the hall to escort her back to Ward Six.