Hugh really was very good at what he did. "None of your business," Patrick said primly. "Leave a message if anything else crops up, will you? And, hey, thanks. We did some good work here."
THEY WERE SITTING ON A STUMP OVERLOOKING KACHEMAK BAY IN Alaska. The view, both near and far, was breathtaking.
Kenai was more relaxed than he'd ever seen her, the tension that had kept her at peak performance expended now in a job well done. "Eratosthenes is in orbit and working, just a flawless deployment," she said. " Laurel is ecstatic, and so are all the astronomers. The Al Jazeera satellite deployment went without a hitch, too, so all the Arab nations could watch their guys take a shot at us. Sons of bitches."
"Did you see them shooting?"
"No, but Rick and Bill did. Like a big tracer across the nose. Way too close for comfort. Said it cleared up their sinuses."
"I'll bet," Cal said.
"Other than almost getting shot out of the sky, it was a great mission. Even the Arabian Knight managed to behave." She reflected. "Probably had something to do with the fact that his people had very nearly shot up his own sweet ass. Rick told him straight out that if he even so much as sneezed in the direction of anything even remotely resembling a control switch Rick would duct-tape him to a bulkhead and leave him there for the duration of the mission. The Arabian Knight believed him."
"Wise of him."
"Very. Rick was thinking of doing it anyway, just on general principles, and he didn't decide otherwise because any of us talked him out of it, believe me."
"What it's like?" Cal said. "The view from orbit?"
Kenai leaned back in the deck chair and contemplated the dark blue bay and the mountain peaks cutting white wedges into the darker blue sky. "I don't know what I can say that will do it justice, Cal," she said finally. "It's beautiful. It's terrible. It's glorious." She turned her head to meet his eyes and smiled, but her eyes were sober. "Earth is such a small place. So far, we're all there is. If we don't make it, if humanity doesn't make it, we've had it. We have got to figure out a way to get along with each other, or we have just flat had it."
They sat in silence for a few moments. "And you?" she said. "How are you?
He shifted in his chair, wincing a little. "Mostly I'm just sore from all the bruises I got falling all over my ship. Taffy says for a Coast Guard captain I sure am a honking big klutz."
"Your father okay?"
Cal 's grin was wry. "What, you haven't seen him on CNN, describing his escape from death by inches, all due to this heroic son?"
She sat up and reached for his hand. She opened it and kissed his palm, her lips warm against his skin. She cradled it against her cheek. "You saved my life. You saved all our lives."
Acutely uncomfortable, Cal shifted in his chair again. "Yeah, well, don't let it get around."
She held his hand between her own. "No, Cal. Tell me. Say the words."
He thought about it first. He wanted to say this right.
"I've never been the most dedicated soldier," Cal said. "I've never wanted to die for my country. Staying alive and living the best life you can has always made a hell of a lot more sense to me."
He smiled at her. "But guess what?" "What?"
"Turns out I'm willing to die for you."
Her eyes brightened with a sheen of tears. With some difficulty she said, "I'm glad you didn't." He laughed. "Me, too." They went inside, and closed the door of the cabin firmly behind them.
Kenai Munro flew once more on the space shuttle before it was retired in 2010. She is currently employed by NASA as a manager in the development of the next manned space flight program.
Captain Callan T. Schuyler, decorated for his actions during the attack on Munro, was later promoted to admiral. He retired from the USCG the next day to go to work for George Soros's Drug Policy Alliance as an expert advisor in support of the effort to end the war on drugs.
The bodies of Yussuf al-Dagma and three of the other terrorists who attempted to shoot down the space shuttle Endeavour were cremated. The other terrorists apprehended at the scene were tried and convicted of piracy on the high seas and sentenced to life without parole. They are currently serving out their sentences in a federal maximum-security prison.
Karim Talib and Yaqub Sadiq were imprisoned without trial, first in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and after that facility was closed down in a series of facilities in foreign nations friendly to the United States. Their current whereabouts are unknown.
The new administration in Washington, D.C, discovered to its great and well-publicized dismay that there had been a consistent culture of blackballing of whistle-blowers and dissident government employees by the previous administration. An internal review was conducted in the full light of the media. One of the results was that Sara Lange was promoted to captain, and offered command of a 210 in Kodiak, Alaska.
Lieutenant Commander Mustafa Azizi was promoted to full commander and in June 2009 took command of a 210 out of Alameda, California.
Hugh Rincon now works part time from Kodiak, Alaska, as a data analyst for the Knightsbridge Institute.
Mrs. Haddad Mansour buried her daughter, sold her house in Miami, and moved to Houston, Texas, where in an odd twist of fate she wound up cleaning house for the Robertsons, the family of Kenai's first mission commander.
Arlene Harte continues to travel and make friends wherever she goes.
Akil Vihari, alias Isa, remains at large.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My eternal gratitude goes to U.S. Coast Guard Captain Bark Lloyd and the crew of Munro during my two-month ride-along in the eastern Pacific Ocean on patrol doing narcotics interdiction and immigrant interdiction in the spring of 2007. XO CDR Steve Rothchild and OSC Luke Cutburth helped solve important plot points, weapons officer LTJG Kevin Beaudoin and GMC Greg Colvin helped with armaments, and blame the mole on BM3 Tim Stamm, BM3 Gary Susalis, and BM2 Tim Myers, who were united in their desire for the bad guy to be some snotty little OS.
My thanks also to USCG Captain James Monaghan for his very timely information in regard to Coast Guard operations during a shuttle launch.
How do I know what I know about terrorism today? I listen to NPR, I read The New York Times, and I subscribe to Atlantic Monthly. For general background on modern-day terrorism, there was Know Thy Enemy: Profiles of Adversary Leaders and Their Strategic Cultures, edited by Barry R. Schneider and Jerrold M. Post, and Jean-Charles Brisard's Zarqawi: The New Face of al-Qaeda, both very helpful.
Michael Collins's Carrying the Fire and Mike Mullane's Riding Rockets are the two best written, most informative, and certainly the most entertaining astronaut autobiographies published to date.
As always, I am my father's daughter, I never let the truth get in the way of a good story, so when I alter facts to suit my fiction, don't blame any of these good people.
Thanks are also due to research librarian Nancy Clark, who in spite of a husband, two kids in preschool, a new job, and helping put on an international crime fiction convention never fails to dig up what information I need when I need it, no matter how esoteric.
My thanks also to Der Plotmeister, whose heroic efforts to keep my plots grounded in reality shall not go unrewarded, and in whose eyrie this novel was completed the week the Dave and Dan Show came to install my office shelves.
Dana Stabenow
