Tal’s lips thinned. “Remember? I told you there was a curve ball to this assignment?”
Shep Porter held her somber look. He sat in a Mission room at Delos, a global charity organization. There were eight people, all from Planning, at the oval maple table. “You did. What is it?”
Gesturing to the screen on the wall to his left, she said, “The PIC, Pilot In Command, and her co-pilot both work for Shield Security out of Bahir Dar. Willow Chamberlin is the PIC. Your ex-wife.”
The pit of Shep’s stomach clenched into a painful fist. He stared at Tal, who was leading the planning of this mission, feeling shock race through him. He had very little connection with Willow. Shep never asked where she was or what she was doing. They kept their few emails brief, breezy and impersonal. He always looked forward to them, no matter how brief or blasé they were. Knowing he’d hurt Willow badly, Shep knew she was protecting herself from his earlier immature actions. She was a Feminist, and he had over reacted to her all the time. And because they were both confident and very sure of themselves, neither gave or considered compromised to keep their budding relationship viable. It was death spiral for their marriage, no matter how well they got along in bed. That was three years ago, and now, it seemed like another lifetime.
Tal studied him as silence cloaked the room. She put another photo on the screen of the wall of the Planning room.
Shep turned, his gaze on Willow. She was wearing a dark green one piece flight suit with the Delos patch of red and yellow rising sun above her left breast pocket with her name, Chamberlin, W. below it. On her left arm was an American flag. On the right, as part of her undercover status, in big yellow embroidered letters was Delos Charities with her name below it.
His throat tightened, unable to tear his gaze from her oval, unsmiling face. She wore an olive green baseball cap with the Delos logo on the front of it. She had bright carrot red hair gathered in a pony tail. It was her green eyes, large, intelligent and and taking no prisoners look in them. Willow was standing next to her Otter twin engine aircraft, her hands on her hips, looking confident. He knew that look. After all? She’d been a badass combat pilot, hurling destruction below her to keep Americans safe on the ever changing battlefield called Afghanistan years earlier.
“Willow and her co-pilot, Dev, are both Shield Security employees, and they are undercover as Delo’s employees and they have been at Bahir Dar for two years. Her job as PIC was to take all the supplies Delos ships in monthly, to all the villages that you see on that map in front of you. Her copilot is Dev Mitchell, another ex-USAF transport pilot and they fly into each of the dirt strips next to the village to deliver the goods and supplies to the Delos charity that supports its people.”
Shep noticed the black nylon drop holster around Willow’s right thigh and the .45 pistol in it. “So nowhere in Africa is safe?” he asked, turning to Cav, the expert in that part of the world for this planning session.
“Not really,” the ex-SEAL said. “Some places are more safe than others. Some hire security guards to keep it that way. With domestic or foreign terrorism, no place in the world is safe anymore, Shep. It isn’t just Africa.” Cav pointed toward the screen. “As I understand it, Willow and Dev are in constant potential danger because they’re operating in outlying, rural villages. We know that Tefere David, a known terrorist in the Middle East, who is a real ongoing threat, has his soldiers rove these areas, looking for ways to rob Delos IF they can get inside the fence to get to the plunder in the school or medical buildings. The only reason they haven’t is due to a back door agreement with Ethiopian Army General Hakym. He’s placed a squad of ten soldiers at each Delos charity. Those men live in those villages and it has detoured a number of attacks by Tefere David on them, as a result. But it’s not foolproof.”
“And,” Wyatt, the manager on this mission, said, “that’s ending once we get our new security measures in place via Shield Security employees we’ve just hired. We may also have to place a permanent security team at each one of these villages until Tefere David can be caught and brought to justice or killed by one of General Hakym’s hunter-killer teams who are out always looking for him. They are actively seeking him and his men, but the Middle East is a big area and he doesn’t have unlimited resources to find that bastard.”
“I see.” Shep tried to settle his thudding heart as he kept his gaze trained on Willow’s face. Her nose was red from being outdoors too long. She was typical redhead in that her skin was very susceptible to too much sunlight. That was why she always wore a baseball cap at Bagram Army-air base in Afghanistan where she had been stationed in Afghanistan. The sleeves on her uniform were rolled up to just below her elbows and he saw the aviators watch on her slender right wrist. Willow was five foot seven inches tall, around a hundred and forty pounds. She was built lean like a greyhound, with small breasts and slender hips. But that look did not reveal her assertive, Type A personality in the least. To an outsider, no one would guess she’d been a combat pilot. He smiled to himself, knowing she was a like a Belgian malinois war trained dog who took no prisoners. It didn’t show up except when she was sitting in the cockpit of her F-15 Eagle, taking out the bad guys to protect Americans below where she flew.
“Well?” Tal pressed gently, holding his gaze. “Are you still in this assignment or not? You will be interfacing with Willow all the time. She and her copilot will be constantly flying in and out of the villages where you’ll be working to put the security fencing in place for that particular charity.”
He shrugged. “I’m okay with it.” He saw Tal’s eyes narrow speculatively on him, almost feeling her energy in his mind, as if trying to read his real thoughts.
Wyatt added, “Look, Willow and Dev have worked two years for Delos out in that area of the world. They’re good at what they do. Both are savvy ex-military trained pilots and they know the lay of the land. You need to realize that they both have experiences and observations that is going to help the new Shield security team you’ll have, and your Delos people, so you need to listen to them, Shep. Is that going to be a problem between you and Willow?”
Shep knew his faults. Just like Willow, but he had accused her headstrong and bullheaded. When one put two pieces of titanium steel in the same room with one another, there was not much give or flexibility accorded to the other. Rubbing his bearded jaw, he said, “Not a problem. I value my people’s protection. I’ll listen to Willow and Dev’s experience and counsel. Just because Willow and I couldn’t make the marriage work doesn’t mean I can’t work with her on a professional level.” Shep saw the question in Wyatt’s eyes, but the Texan said nothing except to give him a brief nod.
“Okay, everyone can leave except Tal, Alex, Matt, Shep and myself,” Wyatt told the employees at the table. Within a few minutes, the room was cleared out, the door shut, and silence returned to it.
Alexa said, “Shep? This is personal between the four of us. We’re shutting off the recording equipment because it needs to stay within our circle. I know Willow personally. I’ve worked with her closely in the past. Because I was an Air Force officer and flew a combat jet like she did.” She opened her hands. “You might say we’re sisters of a sort because of the background and experiences as combat pilots that we share.”
“Okay,” Shep said, “what are you trying to say, Alexa?”
Moving uncomfortably, Alexa said, “I’ve never lost contact with her. We’ve always remained good friends. From time to time, Willow would open up to me about her marriage to you. It sounded more like a dog and cat in a fight. You two butted heads constantly. Neither of you, from the sounds of it, could make a compromise. You were both right. Neither was ever wrong. It was like putting two Type A’s into a room to figure out a compromise on something and it never worked.” She tilted her head. “Am I wrong about this analysis?”
Shep could feel the tension rise in the silence of the room. Women talked, he knew that. So he wasn’t surprised that Willow and Alexa were tighter than thieves because of their mutual military background. Clearing his throat, he said, “No, your observations are correct.”
“Okay,” Alexa pressed, “if that’s so? What makes you think that you’ll be able to get along now for the sake of the assignment?”
It was a fair question and Shep knew it. He ruffled inwardly, his pride hurt. But then, he knew he had too much pride and wasn’t able to admit when he was wrong about something. It was a bad habit, one he had worked on constantly to be honest since Willow walked out on him. “Maturity? Time? We’ve been divorced three years. I hope I’ve matured since then.” And then he grimaced. “I know where my faults are at, Alexa. And I’m working on them every day. I have changed but Willow is going to have to find that out once we meet up.”
Wyatt cleared his throat. “Shep, with all due respect, I’ve looked at the reports from your people when researching your field reports. You are considered an able manager, you listen well, you ask for the employees thoughts and ideas. That’s very different than what we’re hearing what happened between you and Willow. You seemed to be able to respect and hear your employees and that’s praise coming from them. Am I correct about that?”
Shep felt their collective concern at the table. Another legitimate question and he knew the Delos people were trying to ensure this would be a successful outcome to their mission. He could feel their confusion and if he could honestly carry off the assignment successfully, given his behavior toward Willow. Folding his hands over the manual in front of him, he gave them all a serious look. “You’re right. I’m fine working with employees. With Willow? It was different and I’m not going to throw blame around. I’ll make this mission work because we aren’t married any longer. To me? She’s an employee from another company. I’m a professional hired by Delos. I’ll slip into my management harness and we’ll get a long fine, and I’ll make it work.” He saw relief in their expressions. They needed assurance that he would do his level best to keep it a peaceful venture, not a contentious one like their marriage had been for those stormy years.
Tal sat back, a pleased look on her face. “Okay, good enough, Shep. Wyatt is going to send Willow an encrypted file that is going to give her info about the up and coming mission, plus info on the the large Shield Security team coming in under cover as Delos employees. You have a construction team to manage as well. Our next step is to find out whether or not she can work with YOU.”