There were no more terrifying bumps on the flight, and Marion eventually nodded off to sleep. She had no idea how long she was out before she woke up with her face in Daniel’s sleeve.
“Sorry,” she said.
“What for? Look.” He pointed out the window. “That’s Mount Fujiyama.”
She stared in awe as they approached over Tokyo Bay. The angle seemed impossibly low, but they landed with barely a bump. After refuelling, they were off again, this time for Hong Kong.
“Sleep some more,” Daniel advised, balling up his jacket to use as a pillow. He placed it on his arm and patted it, indicating she should lean in. When she did, he dropped his head back on his chair so he faced the ceiling. “Next stop is Saigon. Trust me. You want to be awake for that.”
Almost immediately, his face relaxed into slumber. She stared at him, as confused as she always was about this man. So young and gentle, breathing calmly beside her, and yet behind that soft exterior was the hunger of a lion. It was obvious he couldn’t wait to get his boots on the ground and head into the violence.
As a psychiatrist, she found the dichotomy fascinating.
As a woman, she was experiencing something new. Daniel was the very picture of a warrior. To both her dismay and her selfish delight, he had already said he would die without hesitation to protect her. Her job was surgery, he said. His job was her.
But, like most women, Marion held feminist views, like demanding equality and fighting back against exactly the kind of male strength that he represented. Marion had experienced chauvinism firsthand, so she understood the need for progress. And yet here she sat, propped comfortably against a tall, rugged, handsome soldier determined to be her champion. She was surprised by how content she felt, letting him take care of her. How it filled her up inside, knowing he kept her safe.
He made a little sound in his sleep, and a scowl flickered across his expression. He had come so far from the tortured man she had first met, screaming in panic whether awake or asleep. He still suffered, though. Recently, she had seen him flinch on occasion, but it was nothing like the soul-stealing episodes he’d had before.
His jaw loosened slightly as he dropped deeper in his slumber. How on earth was Marion supposed to sleep when her whole nervous system vibrated? But the combined flights added up to almost twenty-four hours, and she knew he was right about being prepared for the next landing. Neither her body nor her mind argued when she closed her eyes.
She was jarred awake by the thud of the plane’s wheels touching down at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut Air Base. Daniel was already wide-awake, his gaze on the view beyond her window.
“I read this is the busiest airfield in the world right now,” she said, scanning the scene. “Look at all those helicopters!”
They stood in lines like huge, lethal dragonflies. Warplanes were parked beside them, awaiting pilots and commands. Men in dark green jumpsuits milled around the machines.
“Look,” Daniel said, pointing across the runway. “A Phantom. The fastest fighter jet there is. I knew one of those pilots once. He said their slogan was ‘Speed is life.’ I wonder where that guy is now.”
If the helicopters were dragonflies, the camouflage-painted Phantom was a wasp.
“Are those… on the wings…?”
“Missiles,” Daniel confirmed. “Air to surface. These birds can carry thermonuclear weapons, if required. Don’t worry. They’re not right now. But they could.”
“And over there?”
A giant plane stood in the sunlight. If the Phantom was a wasp, this was a bumblebee. It struck her that she must not have gotten enough sleep if she was classifying warplanes into types of insects.
“That’s a bomber. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. Those things saved my ass more than once.”
Their own plane jerked to a stop. Marion caught a glimpse of scattered, charred metal off to the side, the burnt remains of aircraft. She squinted beyond them at a pillar of smoke.
“What’s that?”
“Artillery fire,” Daniel murmured, then he straightened and stretched his neck, tilting it one way then the other. “Ready, Marion? We’re almost there.”
His calm statement shot adrenaline through her, and she felt the compulsion to cry. What in the world was she doing out here? She held her breath all the way to their plane’s eventual parking spot, then she watched the other passengers rise calmly and grab their bags.
Daniel stayed in place. He faced her, and it struck her for the first time that he looked uncertain.
“I know you’re frightened,” he said. “If you weren’t, you’d be nuts. This is alien to you. But you’re doing the right thing, Marion. You’re going to save lives. I’m not gonna lie: it’s going to get scary, but I know you pretty well. You can do this. Just keep pressing forward, no matter what. If it gets dicey, do everything I tell you to do. That’s the only way I can protect you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“You’re trying to tell me not to panic,” she replied softly. “It’s not working.”
“I’m trying to tell you that we will get through this. I won’t let anybody hurt you.”
She nodded, wide-eyed.
