“I bet. Hard to know your kids have a father that’s unbalanced.” Her tone didn’t change. Eyes forward, looking competent and sexy.
“Real hard. But they have me, and as their only sane uncle I will be there when they need me.”
A brown M&M hit him on the cheek.
“No littering in the plane or you have to clean it, and I’ll make you use your toothbrush.”
“I bet you’re a real hard-ass when you’re in uniform,” Luke said, enjoying this other side to Quinn. “Do the people you command have a really bad nickname for you?”
She shot him a smile. It was small, but he saw the dimple. “Not that I know of.”
She felt comfortable up here. Some of her shyness and awkwardness had gone.
“What’s the scariest moment you’ve had flying?” Jack asked.
“Is this something we need to hear while we hurtle toward Lyntacky many miles in the air?” Dylan asked.
“She flies fighter jets, Dyl. Not the same as a Cessna. Not sure we’ll have any land-to-air missiles between Ryker and Lyntacky.”
“Right. Good, then.”
“Lay it on us, Captain Harper,” Joe said.
“Not sure I can tell you, because I’d have to kill you, and I am in charge of this plane.”
“I’m willing to take the risk,” Jack said. “I’ve never met a fighter pilot, so spill some stories, Quinderella.”
She looked at Luke.
“Go on. See if you can make Jack go weak at the knees.”
“Is he a wuss, then?”
“In every way,” Joe said, to Jack’s howls of outrage.
“We’d been on a mission.” Quinn started talking, and they fell silent. “I won’t go into details, but we’d been in the air for close to four hours. It was the early hours of the morning, and we’d completed the loop we’d had to fly and were heading back to base. There had been plenty of main arterials we’d passed over, where there would have been surface-to-air missiles if there was going to be any, but this area was usually clear and nothing ever happened or had happened before.”
“What kind of main arterials?” Luke asked.
“Rail lines, roads, things like that.”
She talked calmly, like she was discussing last night’s game. Luke couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“We were relaxed, just doing reconnaissance and taking pictures. In my head I’d zoned out a bit and was planning what I’d eat and how many hours I was going to sleep for. I’d done it plenty of times. Then my nav yelled to break right. I slammed my throttle forward and rolled 120 degrees right, then pulled hard to the ground. He started pumping out flares, which are a decoy to the surface-to-air missile that had locked on us.”
“Christ,” Luke breathed.
“We did a maneuver, and luckily the missile changed to lock on the decoy. It exploded in a shower of white in the rearview mirrors.”
“Well, fuck me,” Joe said, then whistled.
“I can’t even,” Jack said.
“We’re in the presence of greatness,” Dylan added.
She looked a bit embarrassed now and shrugged.
“I bet it took you a while to get over that?”