Danielle gazed at the ground below. “How high are we?”
“Forty, fifty feet.”
She thought about all the news stories she’d read and covered. “You can survive a fall that high. People have done it.”
No one said anything, but she got the feeling no one believed her either. She stared at the trees below, then-for the first time- saw the crater left by a SCUD that had fallen short. They were still twenty or so miles from Sanliurfa. They were going to be lucky to make it.
Local Time 0813 Hours
Goose didn’t register what had happened until his fingers were torn from the doorframe and he was in a free fall. He toppled backward from the cargo door and saw flames clinging to the helo’s skin.
Somebody shot us. That crossed his mind just before he realized two other people were in the air with him. Icarus didn’t fly any better than his namesake, and David Miller screamed in terror, except that the wind and the noise of the helos washed it away.
Vaguely Goose remembered that Miller had staggered into him and Icarus when the explosion happened outside the helo. Goose had tried to maintain his hold on the doorframe, but he’d been precariously balanced after the blast and hadn’t been able to. Icarus had been caught in the same situation.
Turn over. Get your feet down. Forty feet. You can tuck and roll out of that.
He managed to turn over and slide his assault rifle off his shoulder so he held it by the strap in one hand. The ground came up fast.
Trees seemed to be everywhere. He hoped Miller and Icarus missed them.
Then branches whipped into his face and eyes as he plummeted.
He hit the ground and threw himself to one side, remembering all the horror stories of men who’d landed from a high jump and had their legs pushed up into their hipbones. The air rushed out of him, and he saw the tree beside his head too late to avoid it.
His forehead slammed into the tree, and everything went black.
29
United States of America
Columbus, Georgia
St. Francis Hospital Visitors’ Area
Local Time 0114 Hours
Joey’s heart hammered as he stood at the door and stared at Jenny McGrath sleeping in one of the chairs against the back wall. The room was quiet except for the low rumble of late-night television reruns. Muted lighting barely revealed the other people sitting around the room.
Jenny slept under a Windbreaker and looked like a kid. That reminded Joey of the way his little brother, Chris, would curl up and drowse whenever he was tired. Thinking about Chris hurt. There was something about having a little brother that had made him feel invincible, like not everything was all about him.
But that was gone now. So much was gone.
He hadn’t intended to end up at the hospital. It had just happened. He’d started riding his bike at seven o’clock, trying not to think about the rec hall at eight and Bones and Zero looking for him. But after finding his mom at the hospital and seeing Goose on TV, it seemed as if all Joey’s problems were crashing in on him at once.
He hadn’t gone home, just kept riding, and now here he was.
He’d known Jenny was at the hospital with her dad, and he hadn’t exactly meant to track her down, but somehow his bike had just sort of found its way here. And now he found he really wanted to talk to her. Goose was over in Turkey, right in the middle of the fighting, already dead for all Joey knew. His mom was focused on that and on all the kids in their house. And then there was the problem of Bones and Zero and the rest, out to kill him. That wasn’t going to go away. Joey had seen enough true crime shows and detective movies to know that. He was a witness. If he had an attack of conscience, he’d name them all.
They’d never understand that all he wanted was to go free.
If there were just some way to keep the nightmares of the shopkeeper’s death out of his head, Joey thought everything would be okay. It was an accident. That was all. Just a bad accident.
Only he knew it wasn’t. He could fool himself for a little while, but that didn’t last long.
Suddenly he felt eyes on him. When he glanced at Jenny, he saw that she was staring at him.
“Joey.”
He didn’t hear her. He watched his name form on her lips. He knew he should walk over to her, but he couldn’t invade that room with his problems. Those people were in there trying to rest, trying to stay strong enough to support someone they cared about who was going through something threatening.
You don’t belong here, he told himself. You need to go. He tried to leave. He honestly did. He willed everything inside him to leave.
Instead, Jenny got up from the chair and walked over to him.
“Are you okay?” she asked in a quiet voice. She pulled her hair from the corner of her mouth and studied him.
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“What are you doing here?”
Joey shrugged and hated the reflex action immediately. Shrugging was dumb and immature. But he hadn’t learned what else he was supposed to do.
“Is your mom all right?”
“She’s fine.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I was in the neighborhood, that’s all.”
Jenny glanced at the clock on the wall. “In the neighborhood. At one in the morning?”
The way she said it, her words sounded like an accusation.
“Look,” Joey said, “if this is a bad time-”
“It’s not a bad time.”
“Good. That’s good.” He stared at her, remembering how cute she’d looked out on the dance floor the night of all the weirdness.
“That’s really good.”
She waited.
“So how’s your dad?” he asked.
“The same. Nothing’s changed.”
“He’s gonna be okay,” Joey said automatically.
“How do you know?”
Joey shrugged again before he could stop himself. “I just do.” He was afraid Jenny was going to be mad at him.
“Then you know more than the doctors,” she said.
“Doctors don’t know everything.”
Jenny looked into his eyes. “You want to talk?”
“I don’t know. You feel like talking?”
“Sure.”
“That’s good.” Joey nodded in relief. He didn’t know what he would have done if she’d said no.
“But we can’t talk here,” Jenny said. “People are trying to sleep.”
“Yeah. I see. Want to grab a coffee somewhere?”
“Cafeteria’s closed.”
“We could go out.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to leave the hospital. In case… something changes.”
“Okay.” Joey glanced up and down the hall.
“I know a place we can talk.” Jenny reached out, took him by the hand, and led him down the hall.
Local Time 0124 Hours
“The chapel?” Joey glanced around the room.
“It’s quiet. Usually this time of morning there isn’t anyone here.”
No one occupied the room. Jenny pulled Joey into motion and got him seated in the back row. The light was dim. Joey sat beside her. She didn’t let go of his hand. He was glad for the physical contact, but the sensation made him feel weak and vulnerable, and he hated that.
“So,” Jenny said.
Joey looked at her.
“You just happened to be in the neighborhood,” Jenny prompted.
“Yeah.”
“Want to tell me why you just happened to be in the neighborhood?” Joey thought about it for a moment. “Couldn’t sleep.”
“What’s keeping you awake?”
He thought about his answer for a moment, then shrugged.
“Stuff.”
“Want to talk about that ‘stuff ’?”
“Not really.”
Jenny leaned back in her chair and wrapped herself in the Windbreaker. She closed her eyes and breathed regularly. For a minute Joey thought she’d gone back to sleep.
“I’ve just got a lot on my mind,” Joey whispered.
“You try talking to your mom about it?”