“And she’s involved in that?”

“I doubt it, but we won’t know till we look in her village.”

Danny frowned, as if Stoner were saying he should have done this before.

Which, in a way, he was.

“The gear’s pretty sophisticated,” said the CIA officer. “They wouldn’t be able to hide it.”

“Those atolls,” said Danny. “If there’s some sort of network, they’d have to be involved.”

“Probably.”

“All right,” Danny nodded. “We’ll go to her village ASAP. But here’s the deal—if what she’s saying checks out, we move her ourselves.”

Stoner shrugged. Danny took that to mean it was okay with him.

Dog figured he could sneak fifteen minutes away with Jennifer while the rest of the Iowa’s crew got the plane ready. He shouldn’t, of course—but rank had its privileges. Besides, Rosen and the others were fully capable of handling things on their own.

Now, if he were really taking advantage of the situation, he would ask someone else to fill in for him as pilot, which he wasn’t.

“Miss Gleason, if I could have a word,” he said as the others began filing out of the trailer.

“Miss Gleason?” she said, her face red.

“Um, Ms. Sorry.”

“Miss Gleason”

“Uh-oh, Colonel, you stepped in it,” said Zen.

“Hmmmph,” said Breanna.

“I had an idea about adding something to the com section of the computer,” said Dog. “A language translator. As part of the regular communication area. “We had—”

“Which communication area?” she snapped. “In the flight-control computer, or the master unit? Tactical or the mission-spree areas?”

She wasn’t angry with him, he told himself, she was just busting his chops.

She was, wasn’t she?

“Well here’s the situation,” the colonel told her, starting to explain how they had tried to talk to the Chinese yesterday.

“Important officers in the Chinese military all speak English,” she insisted, absentmindedly taking a stray strand of hair and pulling over her ear.

“They may speak it, but in the heat of the battle, they don’t understand it too well.”

“You can have language experts on call at Dreamland.”

Damn, she was being difficult. “In the heat of the moment, it would be easier if you could press a button and what you said was translated and broadcast,” said Dog. “It would prevent misunderstanding, and there’d be no time delay.”

“Mmmm,” she said.

“Can you insert some sort of translator into the communications sections?”

“I’d have to think about it.”

Busting his chops, definitely. He could see the start of a grin on her face, a slight hint.

Man, he just wanted to jump in bed with her.

“We should be ready to preflight in ten minutes,” said Rosen from near the doorway.

“I may be delayed,” the colonel said. “I have to check back with Dream Command.”

“You can do that from the flight deck, Daddy,” said Breanna. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to say “Daddy,” Colonel,” she added in a tone of voice that left no doubt that she’d done it on purpose.

“Colonel Bastian, I need a word,” said Danny Freah, squeezing inside. “Has to be private, sir.”

“Well, I was just leaving,” said Jennifer.

Dog managed to sit down in the chair without stopping her.

“Have a good sleep?” asked Danny.

“Yes, Captain, I did,” said Colonel Bastian. “Go ahead.”

“The girl we picked up, from the village.”

“We still have her?”

Dog listened as Danny explained in detail what had happened, what the girl had told Stoner, and what Stoner’s team had discovered on the atoll stations.

“I should have told you she tried to shoot me,” said Danny when he was done. “I’m sorry, sir.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I—it’s a little hard to explain.”

“You better try, Captain.”

“Yes, sir. This isn’t an excuse.” Danny’s body seemed to deflate. “In Bosnia, there was an accident, an innocent woman trying to protect a kid.”

As Dog listened, he noticed Danny kept shifting his hands awkardly. He’d never seen the captain so ill at ease.

Dog rubbed his forehead, unsure exactly what to say, much less to do. conceivably, his captain could be charged with dereliction of duty for not taking the situation seriously.

On the other hand, if this woman was just a housewife in the village—hell.