Prologue
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO
CAPTAIN HANNAH JACKSON tucked her lips between her teeth and fought the urge to knock together the heads of the two men arguing in front of her. Damned general staff officers. She was three weeks away from getting her majority. Major Jackson was a step closer to Colonel Jackson. Right now, though, she had to placate a disappointed Air Force General and contain a gleeful Navy Admiral. The seven guys with their noses pressed against the Plexiglas wall of the underwater tank behind her didn’t help matters.
“General Kahil, Admiral Preston, please gentlemen.” They ignored her. Sticking her thumb and forefinger in her mouth, she let loose with a whistle shrill enough the men in the tank cringed away from the glass. Water breathing freaks. Gills. Who would implant gills in a human and expect it to actually work? Except it did.
Kahil wanted men who could fly to the stratosphere without need for oxygen or pressure suits. Instead, the freaking scientists at this god-forsaken lab in the bowels of Area 51 had created frogmen. Two hundred miles of dry desert and she was stuck with gawddamned mermen. The man in charge of the labs watched, making note of everything. He made the hair stand up on the back of Hannah’s neck. She didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him, which in her current physical state equated to about three feet. Maybe. On a good day. At least she had their attention now.
“General Kahil, Project Angel Wings is hereby shut down. Deal with it. Admiral Preston, we will talk shortly about Project Atlantis.” She pivoted and stared at the men in the tank. “Seaman Reagan, get your ass out of that tank, along with the rest of you. You will be packed and ready to move out in one hour. Are we clear?”
The cocky bastard tossed her a salute before he executed a flip turn and headed toward the ladder at the far side. His school of guppies followed. She had to admit, they looked pretty damn fine in their red Speedos, especially since the water was heated to body temperature. Left nothing to the imagination and while she was mostly socially inept around men—at least in a social setting, she had a vivid imagination.
Squaring off against the two ranking officers, Hannah plastered on her diplomatic face. Good thing she had absolutely no problems dealing with men when it came to professional encounters. “Admiral, if you’ll meet me at your vehicle, I’ll just walk the general out first.”