Max grinned, scanning the various digital readouts on the instrument panel. “Hmm. Actually, you are losing quite a bit of altitude, now that you mention it.”
“Max, please. Take the aircraft. This is not funny.”
He looked over at Renee, who was sweating through her tank top. They sat side by side in the small single-engine aircraft. Renee sat in the left seat, holding the side-mounted yoke with her left hand and the throttle with her right. Ray-Ban aviator-style sunglasses — a gift from Max — hid what was likely the look of genuine fear in her eyes.
Max’s voice remained steady, and only slightly condescending, as he spoke through his headset. “Look, this is how you learn. Finding your way out of a sticky situation on your own will make you a better pilot—”
“Take the aircraft right now.”
He folded his arms across his chest. “No.” He was a teacher, and she his pupil. Sometimes the teacher needed to be stern.
“Fine.”
Max began second-guessing his teaching approach as Renee pulled back much too hard on the yoke and the nose pitched way up, filling the windscreen with a hazy white sky and bright yellow sun. Compounding the rather excessive control input was the unfortunate fact that she had forgotten to add power.
“Well, this is going to be interesting,” Max said as the nose continued to pitch up. Max watched their airspeed bleed off precipitously. And, like a heavy truck trying to get up a hill without adding any gas, their climb slowed, the airspeed continued to decelerate, and the sinking feeling in Max’s stomach grew as he knew it would only be a moment until…
A high-pitched warning tone sounded.
“What is that?” asked Renee. Her voice panicked. “Max. I’m not joking… ”
The nose of the aircraft plunged downward like the lead car of a roller coaster as it dropped past the peak of a towering hill.
Renee screamed profanity all the way down.
Max grinned as the aircraft dove, his stomach left somewhere five hundred feet above. “You are using your French-Canadian churchy curses again. I must tell you, I really love it when you do that.”
The aircraft’s dive caused their airspeed to rocket back up. Max laughed to himself. Renee still had too much back stick. The increase in speed would cause the aircraft to nose back up, and the roller coaster would soon begin again. Yes, they were getting lower — closer to the Appalachian Mountains — but Max was paying close attention to their altitude and would make sure they didn’t really get into trouble. This was fun. He was glad that Renee had finally agreed to take lessons.
Max said, “There’s nothing you can say that will make me take the aircraft. It’s important that you understand aerodynamic principles if you ever want to—”
She looked at him over the top of her sunglasses, her dark eyes menacing. “Take the controls right now or I will never sleep with you again.”
Max immediately placed his grip on his yoke and throttle. He cleared his throat. “My aircraft.”
Renee let out a long steady breath, collapsing backward into her seat and letting go of the stick. She closed her eyes for a moment, her chest heaving. Then she opened her eyes, turned, and punched Max in the shoulder. “Don’t do that again.”
Max added more power and climbed back up to altitude. He watched as the altimeter ticked up, saying, “I think you’re really getting the hang of it. You showed a lot of grit today.”
Renee glared at him.
“Okay, enough fun for now. We’ll have to head back if we’re going to make the surprise I have in store.”
“Which is what, exactly?”
“It’s not a surprise if I tell you.”
Max banked the aircraft into a wide right arc. Beneath them, a shimmering Shenandoah River wound through the Blue Ridge Mountains like a snake. Renee was looking out the window, admiring the view. Hopefully the scenery would improve her mood by the time they returned.
Max made his approach from the west into Leesburg Executive Airport. Another single-engine aircraft, a Cessna 172, was in the downwind ahead of him. He made all of his traffic calls over the radio, completed the landing checklist, and then maneuvered the plane onto final.
“You sure you don’t want to take the landing?”
“No, thanks.”
“Landings are the best.”
“Not right now, thank you.”
Max waxed poetic. “Landings always give me a kick of endorphins. The sound of the wheels touching the pavement. The blur of runway zooming past. The satisfying sense of accomplishment that once again, I have not killed us.”
“Can you please not joke like that until we’re on the ground?”
A moment later, Max had parked the Cirrus on the flight line and shut down the engine. Together they allowed their cockpit doors to slide open, letting in the summer breeze.
“You have anywhere you want to eat tonight?” Max asked.
She shook her head at him as she took a swig from her water bottle — ice cubes clunking against its plastic walls. “What am I going to do with you?”
Max’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and read the message.
WOLF TRAP IN ONE HOUR
“Who is it?”
“It’s our surprise for the evening. I’ve just gotten us concert tickets. The outdoor amphitheater at Wolf Trap.”
Renee’s expression finally warmed. “Now that sounds lovely.”
Max didn’t bother to tell her that it was his CIA handler who had decided on the venue. And he would be working.
The summer concert series at Wolf Trap was one of the cultural gems of Northern Virginia. Thousands of men and women were sprawled out on blankets on the well-trimmed lawn that surrounded the amphitheater. The grass banked downward toward the concert stage area, which was covered by an architecturally stunning wooden structure. The amphitheater — known as the Filene Center, after the woman who had donated the land now operated by the National Park Authority — was constructed of Douglas fir and southern yellow pine. It could seat seven thousand under the covered section, but on a clear night like this, Max and Renee enjoyed sitting on the lawn.
“They’re good,” Renee said of the string quartet on stage. Her fingers tickled the hairs on his forearm. She lay on her side, facing him, and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Thanks for taking me out tonight. I forgive you for almost letting us crash today.”
“In reality, we were in very little danger… ”
He turned towards her and smooched her on the lips, then turned back towards the stage. Max rested on his back, partially propped up on his elbows.
Renee had a glow in her eye. The glimmer of unrestrained and optimistic love. While the pair had dated once before, when they were both in college, it had been so many years ago that their current reboot felt new and fresh.
The Max and Renee relationship “take two” had been going on for about a year. Since a well-publicized near-death incident on the shores of northeast Florida. Max, an ex-DIA operative, had been accused of hacking into his father’s company, Fend Aerospace. Charles Fend’s multibillion-dollar firm did a lot of work for the defense department, and the hacking incident had quickly turned into a national manhunt. Renee had helped Max to solve the puzzle and avert disaster. Well, with minor help from the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team. But other than that, Max’s only assistance had been from the lovely French-Canadian hacker lying next to him.
Renee wore a low-cut tank top that showed off her sculpted shoulders, and a pair of skimpy shorts that revealed a pair of magnificent runner’s legs. A small but elegant flower tattoo ran up her right thigh. She had been a college athlete, and while she was getting close to age forty, she kept in excellent shape by competing in road races and mini-triathlons.