Page 53 of Operation Protector
“If she’s in trouble or danger, we’ll come in like a tidal wave, unstoppable,” Liam said, the first words he’d spoken in a while.
“And let the chips fall where they may,” Quinn said. “We’ll deal. But you need to stay free and clear so our girl here will have a place to land.”
Grace was starting to look a little concerned. Ali wasn’t sure how much of what they were saying she fully understood, but even knowing her less than two weeks she wouldn’t underestimate the child’s quick mind.
And neither would Hayley, who quickly diverted the discussion. “Here’s something else, Grace.”
She held out another small metal cylinder, but this one was shorter and bigger around, about the size of a flashlight battery. It had what looked like a screw-on lid, and a clip device on the other end. She opened it, and Ali saw there was a strip of paper rolled up inside it.
“It’s blank,” Hayley explained, “ready for you or us to write on.”
She closed it back up, and clipped it onto Cutter’s collar, next to the blue name tag in the shape of the boat from which Ali guessed his name had come.
“For messages!” Grace yelped.
“Yes.” Hayley smiled at her. “Like we talked about before. It’s easier for him than trying to hide it in his mouth—and drier.” Grace laughed as Hayley went on. “It’s a little old-fashioned, but kind of cool, huh?”
Grace nodded. Then she looked up at Ali, who saw the expression she’d come to know meant the girl’s mind was racing. “So you can send one to me, but what if I need to… Wait! I can use the whistle, then Cutter will come, and I can put in my message!”
“Come see us in about ten years, Grace,” Quinn said with a grin. “We’ll hire you.”
“Hire?”
“That means you’d get to work with them, doing for others what they’re doing for us,” Colby said, his voice level now, apparently resigned to his rather removed role in this. Oddly, she found herself liking him even more for hating being sidelined.
“Wow! That would be the best!”
She was so excited now that Ali was glad they would have the walk home for her to calm down a little. Unlike a normal mother, she didn’t think Liz would be pleased to see her daughter so happy.
Chapter 24
Saying goodbye had been hell. It always was. It just felt so wrong, to watch his little girl leave him.
But at least he now had more opportunity to see Grace than he had had in over a year. He’d rather it be every day, but had to agree with Hayley’s warning that if it became too regular, too routine, it also became more likely that Grace would inadvertently say something that would give them away. His girl was brilliant, and she knew how important it was to keep this a secret, but she was also seven years old.
He couldn’t deny that he felt better that she was with Ali, for at least a bit longer. And Cutter, too. That little demonstration today had thoroughly convinced him of both the dog’s cleverness and his awareness that his main job was to protect Grace.
When Quinn started to go outside to roll the helicopter back in its hangar, Colby leaped up to follow.
“I need to do something. Anything,” he said.
“Not used to not working, huh? Careful or you’ll end up building my new tool rack,” Quinn said as they walked toward the helipad.
Colby’s mood shifted almost instantly. “Tool rack? Show me what you need and I’ll get on it.”
Quinn laughed. “Somehow I thought that might be your reaction.”
“Anything that’ll keep me from thinking too much about…things I can’t do.”
“I know it’s got to be hard taking a back seat. But for now, while things are still stable, it’s for the best.”
He waited until they had the aircraft back under cover—a job that was a bit easier than he’d expected—and Quinn had shown him where he wanted the rack and what kind of tools it needed to hold, before he asked what had been eating at him.
“What happens later? If Liz really does blow up?”
“Then we do whatever is necessary to protect Grace.”
“I believe you. I just don’t know what that might involve.”
