Blaze of Glory

Cantou, AsiaNine months later"AVOIDANCE," Lieutenant Grace Marie Lanier, Ph.D., sighed to herself with longing.What a wonderfully passive-aggressive way of dealing with the uncomfortable moments undoubtedly in her near future. Not a particularly professional thought for a psychologist, but, well, professional objectivity checked out when it came to Bobby Ruznick. And she would be unable to avoid him for a full flipping week in their jungle mission camp in Cantou.Grace Marie directed the unloading of her platoon's gear from the cargo plane for the joint Air Force/Army Reserves exercise in the lush jungle. A career coup that she had pulled strings to get. She wasn't here in Cantou for the job perk. Only one thing could have lured her here.Rescuing her father.And she could very well need Bobby's help, the reason she had by name requested his crew.Grace Marie kept her eyes off the steaming expanse of sky where his CV-22 aircraft would crest the horizon any minute now. She'd arrived earlier today in a cargo plane with her equipment. Bobby's Special Ops craft would bring the troops.Damn it, she needed to focus on her father, not Bobby. Yes, nuclear scientist Matthias Lanier touted more brain power than any Mensa think tank, but when it came to common sense, the man might as well still be in kindergarten on the buddy system for field trips.A shadow stretched over her onto the tarmac, reminding her to get her head out of the clouds before genetics kicked in and she morphed into her absentminded old man. She pivoted to find one of the cargo-plane pilots rocking on his heels beside her...Rodeo, another Air Force flyboy. But this one was her friend, a very treasured and dear pal."Hey there, Flipper."Grace Marie cringed at the use of her honorary call sign given to her by her Air Force buddies. Thank God, most of them didn't know the reason why and she sure wasn't sharing the details of that mortifying event.My, how they loved their nicknames. She'd learned early on the different military services had different group personalities. Knowing that aided her in dealing with these people. Air Force service members tended to be more laid-back than their Army compadres, which wasn't a problem for her. She simply needed to understand how best to approach the different mind-sets, something she usually managed with ease thanks to her training, except when it came to Bobby Ruznick.But Rodeo -- Derek Washington -- was a friend, easy to relate to. His Denzel-like good looks drew plenty of female attention, but for Grace Marie, Rodeo tamed any lady-killer tendencies in honor of their friendship.She relaxed her Army stance for the less rigid Air Force at-attention. "Something I can help you with or are we just catching up on gossip?"He gestured to the back hatch of the cargo plane, a military van rolling down the tracks with loadmasters controlling. "Just passing time while they unload. Did you bring any good shoot-'em-up videos for us to watch via your surveillance van?"The equipment would also provide infomercial-type films for the camp and area military to teach ways to win over the hearts and minds of an enemy in the hope of avoiding war. Or, at least softening up some of the enemy to lessen casualties."Capture their minds, and their hearts and souls will follow." She winked. "My unit's motto."Heart. What an interesting word choice. She knew she and Rodeo weren't interested in each other that way.She'd gone out with him a couple times after breaking up with Bobby, only for Rodeo and Grace Marie to find after a few kisses -- no spark. Definite friendship realm. Most likely because they were both stuck on other people.And why did it seem the monkeys were cackling louder at her thoughts right now?Rumor had it Rodeo's call sign had been earned because he always shouted the wrong woman's name during sex and one particular time got bucked off in under eight seconds flat, bare butMann, Catherine is the author of 'Blaze of Glory', published 2006 under ISBN 9780373771189 and ISBN 0373771185.