The Last Airship (31 page)

Sam
Reilly opened the doors to the elevator. 

Aliana
had left earlier, while Sam remained behind to have his annual twenty-minute
catch up chat with his dad.

His
father owned the top ten floors of the building. The highest two and the roof
were part of his grand residence, while the other eight floors were places Sam
had never seen, nor had he ever bothered to wonder for what purpose his father
used them.

Today,
the elevator stopped at the 76th floor.

Four
levels below his father’s residence.

The
doors opened, and a tall woman with tidy
,
short cropped, dark red hair
walked in. She was slim
,
and the hardened bony features of her face
betrayed the arrogant confidence of someone accustomed to power
,
and
none of the signs of age which often afflicted other women in their early
forties.

Sam
watched her enter and felt his heart beat just slightly faster, as his hands
turned clammy.

The
doors closed but the elevator did not resume its downward movement.

“Madam
Secretary,” Sam Reilly smiled, unsure of how genuinely happy he was to see the
U.S. Secretary of Defense again. “You could have saved me a lot of trouble if
you’d shared your interest in the Magdalena with me from the start.” 

It
was as much of a reproof as even he was willing to give the leader of the
world’s most powerful Armed Forces, her position second only to that of the
U.S. President, America’s Commander in Chief.

“Sam
Reilly,” she said, her voice was quiet but nonetheless scolding in its tone.
“You have cost your own government a fortune, not to mention the loss of the
single most dangerous bioweapon in history. Do you realize how long we have
been manipulating John Wolfgang to both find the Magdalena and catch Abdulla?”

Sam
opened his mouth and started to answer…

“I’m
not finished yet, Reilly,” she continued, “It wasn’t until the very end that we
were even convinced that we had any control over the man
,
and we never
did learn the identity of his original financial backer, and, we could only
imagine what that person’s interest in all this was. So, what do you have to
say for yourself, Reilly?”

“You
should have let me in on the game from the beginning, “ma’am.”

“Reilly,
you impudent fool! We weren’t convinced you hadn’t gone rogue, especially when
our surveillance showed you fraternizing with Wolfgang’s daughter. How could
you have been so stupid? Haven’t you ever seen a pretty girl before?”

Sam
kept his mouth shut this time.

“I
want you to know, I expressed an interest in having you taken out from the
onset, Reilly…” Her voice betrayed not one iota of an apology, and she
continued to say, “but the Commander in Chief vetoed the idea, advising that
your unique attributes made you useful and although it appeared that your
loyalties may have been misplaced, perhaps through your bungled efforts, our
surveillance might be successful in finally obtaining the identity of the
person who was really controlling our puppet, John Wolfgang, from the
beginning. I’m not sure whether or not the President really believed any of
that, but if we inadvertently managed to kill James Reilly’s only son… well, we
can only imagine how that might affect your father’s future presidential
contributions, I’m sure.”

Sam
had never even considered the President’s relationship with his father, but he
had no doubt that she was telling him the absolute truth.

 “After
all, with your finances and your standing around the globe, who could possibly
be entirely convinced as to where your true loyalties lay?” the Secretary of
Defense said.

Sam
knew that it was a hollow threat.

She,
of all people, knew exactly how much honor meant to him. His word was like an
ironclad bond, and when he gave it in service to his country, there was nothing
and no one who could force him to break it.

“That’s
rubbish, ma’am, and with all due respect, your naiveté nearly got me killed
this month.”

“Should
I take that as your formal request for resignation?” She asked, a seductive
smile just forming.

“No,
would you like to ask me for it?” It was Sam’s turn to be provocative.

She
paused, her head tilted just slightly to the left, as she mulled it over.

“I
would like that, you know I would, but I am duty-bound to the defense of this
country, and in that regard, I’m obliged to retain the services of the most
competent person for any position.” She eyed him up and down and then said,
“And you, Reilly, have the most extraordinary credentials, which make you particularly
useful. You’ve been an exemplary Navy SEAL, with the highest marks on record of
any recruit, a highly-respected leader in marine biology and in the maritime
world, and since you’re wealthier than any playboy pup, the world opens its
arms wide for you, whereas any other official investigator would have their
arms tied. No, we need you, Reilly. Just try not to fuck up our mission the
next time out of your own good will.”

The
elevator door then opened, and she stepped out.

“Yes
,
Madam Secretary.”

The
elevator continued its descent, and Sam couldn’t help wondering,
just
who
was blackmailing John Wolfgang?

*

Sam
Reilly took the helm of his newly built ship,
Second Chance II,
as it
sliced through the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean. Aliana was at his
side, as beautiful as ever
,
and they were sailing alone through some of
the most pristine islands on earth.

“Where
did the name
Second Chance
come from?” Aliana asked him.

“It’s
exactly what the name says – it’s my second chance.”

It
was an answer, but Sam knew that it wasn’t what she wanted to know.

“But,
there’s more to it, isn’t there?” she persisted.

Sam
considered evading her question, or even making up a simple answer, as he’d
done so many times before, but today was different. Aliana was different, and
he had no desire to lie to her about it as had been his usual reaction to that
question.

“Did
you know that my mother was a very good sailor?”

“No,
you haven’t mentioned it before, or even said much about her for that matter.”

“She
was Australian, and in her youth had won a number of the Sydney to Hobart
races.”

Aliana’s
gaze widened as he spoke.

“She
and my father used to be very well matched. They loved each other almost as
much as they loved the sea. As you can imagine, my brother and I spent more
time on the ocean than we did on land.”

“I
didn’t know you had a brother.”

“I
don’t anymore, he died many years ago.”

“Oh,
I’m so sorry,” Aliana said, throwing her arms around him.

“It’s
okay,” Sam said quietly, but there were tears in his eyes. “My brother and I
were both good sailors, but we were driven to prove ourselves to our father who
was the skipper of the racing yacht. So, one year, when the Sydney to Hobart
race advisers considered whether or not to cancel the race based on the
tremendously violent and unpredictable weather patterns, my brother and I
decided that’s how we would prove ourselves.”

A
part of him hoped that Aliana would accept his answer and not push to hear more
about how it happened, but another part of him wanted her to make him continue.

She
persisted.

“What
happened?”

“It
was a particularly bad storm.  More often than not the sea can be as kind as it
can be unforgiving, but on that night it was entirely unforgiving. My brother
and I had received numerous reports of other ships dropping out of the race, or
being dismasted. Worse, we learned that one ship had already sunk. But, like
all young fools, we thought we were invincible. At about three a.m., while
desperately needing to furl our headsail before the wind literally knocked our
ship over, a small loop caught hold of a cleat at the front of our yacht. I
noticed it, and should have gone forward. It would have been easy to unclip it,
or at worst cut, but I hesitated. I was frightened. I knew that the sea was
more interested in being unforgiving that night than it was in being kind. As
it was, my older brother noticed my hesitation, and he told me that he would go
and do it instead, and that we would then try to ride the enormous wave at a
thirty degree angle, so as to avoid broaching.” His tears were falling more
frequently now.

“It’s
okay, it wasn’t your fault.”

“My
brother was an exceptional sailor. He alone could have beaten my father, and on
that night, he saved my life. He unclipped the catch on the headsail, but while
making his way back to the cockpit, he was caught by a secondary wave that
crashed down from the other side of the one we were riding. There was no way he
could have known it would happen, and by the time the water that crashed over
the deck had dissipated, I could no longer see my brother. I sent out the alarm,
and I tried my best to remain at the same location, but I never did see my
brother again.”

“My
god, that’s awful,” Aliana said, holding onto him as she spoke.

“I
promised myself that night that if I survived, I would never return to the sea
again. I meant to keep that promise too. I had completed a master's degree in
marine biology
,
but the next day I joined the U.S. military and became a
helicopter pilot. My mom blamed my father
,
and try as they might to repair
their relationship, she never forgave him for it. When I got out of the Corps,
something just told me that it was time to come back to the ocean, to give
myself a second chance at the life that I was meant to have. I’ve been trying
to recreate that night for years so that I can finally say goodbye to my
brother properly, but I have never found just the right conditions.”

“So,
tonight, you sail on towards your second chance and this time, with me.”

“And
I am so very much the happier for it,” he said as he kissed her. “Come back
with me.”

“Where?”

“Wherever
the perils of the world take us. Anywhere you want to go. Just come and do it
with me.”

“I
would love to, but I still have my PhD to complete,” she said. “And, I intend
to keep my promise to head up the research department for the Wolfgang
Corporation.”

“When
you’re finished with your studies, give me a call. Work for me, we could
certainly use someone with your background aboard the Maria Helena. Your
corporation will still continue to produce brilliant medical research where it
can help people in ten, perhaps fifteen years’ time, once it’s beaten the
various ethics committees. Work with me, and I promise that you will get to see
firsthand what a mind like yours can do for the good of the world in the
present, rather than the future.”

“If
I work with you,” she said, grinning lasciviously, “am I still able to sleep
with the boss?”

“Not
usually, but for you, I’ll make an exception,” he said, as she wrapped her arms
around his neck and kissed him.

The End

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