Chapter Nine
Gordon couldn’t figure out what had changed during the flight.
Vanessa’s smile was most of the way back when they clambered out into Hawaii’s thick and humid air. It wasn’t particularly hot, still an hour to dawn, but the pine-washed clarity of Oregon air had been replaced by the thick sea salt-and-palm atmosphere of the tropical island. He wanted shorts and a t-shirt, but the one change of clothes in his personal gear bag were jeans and long-sleeved shirt just as he was wearing now.
Where Vanessa was cheerier, Ripley was more subdued and thoughtful. He could feel her eyes tracking him as the two crews stretched their legs while staying clear of the refueling teams pumping seventy-five thousand gallons of Jet A from the underground pipelines up into each aircraft. Their hel
