Mackenzie's Mission Read Online Free PDF Page B

have had to be brain-dead not to absorb some of the information. "The colonel may have more questions," he finally said, "but it looks like we can start testing how well it targets and tracks a moving object now."
     
      An arm slipped around her waist, and Caroline went rigid. Her head whipped around. Major Deale grinned at her as his arm tightened. Behind him, she could see the other pilots watching and grinning, too. They all looked like posters for a dental convention. Dismay filled her. Damn, it was starting already.
     
      "So, beautiful, where do you want to go for dinner tonight?" the major asked.
     
      "Hands off, Daffy," came a deceptively mild voice behind them. "Dr. Evans will be with me tonight."
     
      There was no mistaking the speaker's identity. Even if she hadn't recognized those smooth, deep tones, she would have known by the way her heart began pulsing wildly and her lungs suddenly constricted, making it difficult to breathe.
     
      They all turned around at once. Mackenzie was still in his flightsuit , helmet under his arm. His black hair was drenched with sweat and plastered to his skull, and his eyes were bloodshot from pulling Gs. His expression was calm and remote as he looked at them.
     
      "I saw her first," Major Deale protested, but he dropped his arm from around her waist "Damn it, Breed, you can't just take one look and decide—"
     
      "Yes I can," Mackenzie said, then turned to Picollo and began firing questions at him.
     
      The major turned and gave Caroline a slow, considering look, as if he were really seeing her for the first time, and maybe he was. Until then she had been just a reasonably pretty face, a lark, but now he had to look at her as a person. "I've never seen Breed do that before, and I've known him for fifteen years," he said thoughtfully.
     
      "I don't know him at all," Caroline replied in a tart voice. "I mean, I met him last night. Is he always that autocratic?"
     
      "Breed? Autocratic?" The major pursed his lips.
     
      "Despotic," Caroline elaborated helpfully. "Dictatorial. Peremptory."
     
      " Oh, that kind of autocratic. You mean, does he make a habit of commandeering a woman's company for dinner?"
     
      "That narrows it down nicely."
     
      "Nope. First time. He usually has to beat women off with a stick. They love him to death. It's the glamour of his profession, you know, the lure of the wild. Women looove uniforms, but underneath he's really dull and boring."
     
      "Daffy…" The calm voice was both patient and warning.
     
      The major looked over Caroline's shoulder and broke into a smile. "I was just singing your praises."
     
      "I heard."
     
      Mackenzie was right at her elbow, but she didn't dare glance at him. She had specifically asked him the night before not to single her out in any way, but the very next time she met him he had all but hung a sign around her neck that said "Mackenzie's Woman." She struggled to subdue the impulse to sink her fist into his belly. For one thing, violence was seldom the answer to anything. For another, he was the project manager, and it would be a very stupid career move. For yet another, he looked like he was made of tempered steel and it would probably break her hand.
     
      So she did the prudent thing and concentrated on Major Deale. "Daffy? As in duck?"
     
      "No," Mackenzie said with grim relish. "As in petunia."
     
      "As in flower child," added the captain, who had been in the group watching the monitors.
     
      " As in … blooming idiot ," several others said in unison.
     
      "Petunia," Caroline repeated. "Flowers. Daffy Deale. Daffydeale. Daffodil !" she finished with a peal of laughter.
     
      The major gave Mackenzie a dirty look. "I used to have a good, macho nickname. Concise. Thought provoking. Provocative. 'Big.' That's a good nickname, isn't it? Big Deale. It made women think. Was it just a play on my name, or was there a deeper meaning there? Then this… this