the skin at the corners of too-blue eyes. If Dr. Cody Richardson had left his vehicle to climb the rocks, her instincts told her it wasn’t to admire the view.
Still, Richardson had been cleared for this project by the highest levels at the Pentagon. He matched the physical description in his dossier, more or less. He wasn’t supposed to arrive until tomorrow but could have made good time on the road and decided to press on. Jill saw no other choice but to put him through one more gate.
“Do you have the time, Dr. Richardson?”
He bent his elbow. She caught another flash of gold and the ripple of muscle under his knit shirt when his shoulders lifted in a shrug.
“Sorry, my watch seems to have stopped.”
Jill dipped her head to acknowledge that he’d given the proper response. Something about this guy still didn’t sit right with her, but he’d passed every test. Filing away the nagging little doubt for further examination later, she handed him back his wallet and rendered the salute he was due because of his superior rank.
“Welcome to Site Thirty-Two, Dr. Richardson.”
He returned the salute with a precision that surprised her. Although the Public Health Service was one of the seven uniformed services, the members of their small officer corps were more noted for their medical expertise than their strict adherence to military customs and courtesies.
“My vehicle’s just over that rise,” she informed him. “Wait here until I retrieve it, then I’ll escort you to the compound.”
Cody slipped his billfold into his back pocket and watched the major stride off into the darkness. Damned if the woman hadn’t taken five years off his life, popping up out of the desert the way she had.
Given the security briefings he’d received after being selected for the Pegasus Project, Cody had fully expected to be challenged when he arrived at the test site. He just hadn’t expected that challenge to take place out here, in the middle of nowhere. Or in the form of a bristly female soldier.
Well, maybe not all that bristly. The woman’s smooth sweep of silky blond hair softened the Amazon image considerably. Not to mention the trim, tight butt he’d taken note of when she turned and strode off. Despite the beret, combat boots and bulky web belt with all its accouterments, Major Jill Bradshaw looked pretty good in her BDUs. Cody ought to know. He’d studied the human form in all its variations for going on fifteen years now.
Lord! Was it really that long since med school? That many years since he’d tumbled into love with a bright-eyed Red Cross volunteer? Those days at Duke seemed as if they’d happened in another life. To a different man.
They had, he thought grimly as he yanked at the Navigator’s door. An entirely different man. Or so Alicia had claimed the night she’d stormed out of their house three years ago. Her last, furious tirade haunted Cody to this day. Not even a velvet night and a brilliant tapestry of stars could ease his soul-searing guilt.
He wasn’t about to admit he’d stopped out here in the middle of nowhere in the vain hope of finding solace, though. Particularly to a tough, no-nonsense military cop.
Wrapping his hands around the steering wheel, he stared into the darkness and waited for the major’s vehicle to appear.
Chapter 2
Radioing ahead, Jill advised Navy Captain Sam Westfall that one of his key team leaders had appeared on the scene well ahead of his estimated time of arrival.
“I’m escorting Dr. Richardson to the compound now.”
“Good,” the commanding officer replied in his deep, gravelly bass. “Bring him to my quarters when you arrive.”
“Will do, sir.”
Hands on the ATV’s wheel, Jill navigated the dirt road shooting straight as an arrow across the desert. The headlights of Doc Richardson’s SUV speared through the darkness behind her.
“I don’t know about this guy,” she muttered to Goofy as she flicked a glance in the ATV’s rearview mirror. “He sure doesn’t look like any brilliant research scientist I ever stumbled across.”
Not that she’d stumbled across all that many. After the brutal assault in her freshman year and a subsequent bungled investigation by the campus police, Jill had made up her mind nothing like that would ever happen to her again. She’d switched her major to law enforcement and enrolled in every available self-defense course available off-campus. And once she’d been commissioned as a military police officer, she’d pretty well lived, breathed, eaten, and slept in her fatigues. She hardly knew anyone who wasn’t a cop, much less a brilliant scientist.
“Think I’ll take another look at his dossier,” she murmured to Goof. “Something about his roadside stop to drink in the stars just doesn’t sit right with me.”
Mickey’s pal bobbed his head in vigorous agreement, as he always did.
Some forty minutes later, Jill slowed for the first checkpoint. The MP who came out of the modular booth that served as a guard shack recognized her in the glare of the spot angled down from the shack’s roof. The sergeant saluted respectfully but still asked for ID. Jill handed him a flat leather case, pleased that he hadn’t let her pass on mere visual recognition.
He aimed a small electronic sensor at her face, then ran it over her holographic ID. The flat, credit card size bit of plastic contained an astonishing array of photo imaging, retinal scan data, fingerprints, DNA information, and a special code signifying Jill’s level of access within the compound. The card also contained a built-in signal transmitter that allowed the Control Center to track the movements of the person carrying it. When the card reader gave two soft pings, the sergeant handed her back the leather case.
“You’re cleared for entry, Major.”
“Thanks. I’m escorting Dr. Cody Richardson to the site,” she told him, pointing a thumb at the vehicle behind hers. “He’s on your key personnel list.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The sergeant walked back to the idling SUV and requested the doc’s civilian ID. Angling his flashlight at Richardson, he scrutinized the physician’s face and compared it to the photo before taking the identification back into the guard post to check the access list. Tomorrow Jill would issue each of the cadre members a holographic ID similar to hers and considerably speed up the entry process.
After some moments the guard returned to Richardson’s vehicle and handed him back his ID. “Do you have a camera, computer, cell phone, or other electronic device in your vehicle, sir?”
“Just a cell phone.”
“Sorry, sir. I’ll have to take that.”
“Right.”
Reporting instructions had advised all cadre members not to bring their own computers or electronic notebooks. Encrypted versions would be issued to them. The same instructions had advised that personal cell phones used en route would have to be turned in on arrival. Any calls coming in to those phones would be routed through the Control Center to secure instruments on-site.
Once cleared, the doc followed Jill’s vehicle down another lonely five-mile stretch of road.
