Page 37 of Air Force One (Miranda Chase #16)
Miranda had let Meg and Andi’s double hug bring her back. That and her simple statement, “You take care of Air Force One. I’ll take care of Holly.”
They were a team of two and Miranda knew to her very core that Andi always spoke truth.
So not having to worry about what Holly said anymore, she’d pushed away the darkness and returned to watch the machinist as Andi went on deck.
Though she did keep Meg clasped tight in her arms. Meg had calmed enough to rest her head on Miranda’s left shoulder as usual when everything was okay.
After a careful inspection, she made a few suggestions. The man had agreed and implemented them quickly.
She felt the heft of the finished two-plated window seal. The chief petty officer had done a fine job and done it quickly. This seal would hold against fifty atmospheres of pressure, five times the necessary maximum.
“Do not let them bleed the air in too quickly, Chief, or they will risk blowing the hull of the fuselage. It is in balancing the internal and external pressures that will provide a chance of success. If this does work and the plane does rise, you will have to rapidly release the pressure back to one atmosphere or it may rupture and sink again.”
He held up a box with four switches. “Petty Officer 2 Stanik will be holding this. We’ve rejiggered some steam relief valves to add a remote control.
We shoved ’em through the top and bottom of the fuselage as we don’t know which way she’ll come up.
Put ’em fore and aft, so as to balance her if we have to. ”
Miranda nodded. She enjoyed working with competent people.
He took her nod as approval and hurried toward the ladderway leading to the deck. They’d used a single media, non-verbal communication. Yes, that worked nicely too.
Competent people.
She stood alone in the now-silent shop. She enjoyed working with her NTSB team because they were all competent people. All different, but skilled at what they did.
Andi Wu was good with helicopters and Miranda herself when she became flustered.
Mike Munroe was good with people.
Holly Harper was—
Mike was good with people!
“Mike, is Holly right about planning a plane crash?” Except he wasn’t here to ask.
However, Mike had come with Holly when she’d asked that horrid question. Why would anyone crash a plane that had done nothing bad to anyone? But Mike hadn’t turned Holly aside before asking her question.
“You understand people. I don’t.” She continued her one-sided conversation with Mike.
She pretended that Mike stood there with that patient smile of his, waiting for her to find the answer.
“But…” Miranda stopped. With no idea regarding what came next, she knew that she never would understand people.
“What are you thinking so hard about?” Andi came back down the ladder.
“I don’t understand how to decide if Holly’s question was more important than the life of an airplane.”
Andi came up and took her hand. “Miranda, I think you may be the most thoughtful woman ever born.”
“But I don’t understand my own thoughts.”
“That’s okay. You wouldn’t be who you are otherwise. And do you want to know a little secret?”
Miranda unlocked her phone. Yes still showed as the final screen she’d had open.
Andi understood. She nodded and smiled.
“I wouldn’t worry too much. We neurotypicals don’t understand our own thoughts and reactions a lot of the time either.”
“But that’s…” Miranda searched for a word but ridiculous didn’t quite fit.
“Nonsensical?” Andi suggested. “It is.”
It was. “Should I go and try to help Holly?”
Andi gazed up at the shop’s ceiling.
Miranda didn’t see anything there except the overhead cables and service pipes that traced through so much of the ship’s structure. Despite being deep inside the ship, she did hear the sound of a departing helicopter.
Andi nodded upward, apparently indicating the departing helicopter. “I’d say that she’s past where either of us can help her. But don’t worry, Mike went with her.”
Miranda slipped out her notebook to check. But once she did, Miranda couldn’t bring herself to point out that Andi’s expression exactly matched the worried emoji on her emotional reference page.