Read Double Impact: Never Say Die & No Way Back for Free Online Page B

do you mean? Is your mother dead?”
    â€œNo, but she’s dying.” Willy gazed out the window at the lantern lights along the river’s edge. For a moment they seemed to dance like fireflies in a watery haze. She swallowed; the lights came back into focus. “God,” she sighed, wearily running her fingers through her hair. “What the hell am I doing here?”
    â€œI take it this isn’t a vacation.”
    â€œYou got that right.”
    â€œWhat is it, then?”
    â€œA wild-goose chase.” She swallowed the rest of the whiskey and set the tiny bottle down on the nightstand. “But it’s Mom’s last wish. And you’re always supposed to grant people their dying wish.” She looked at Guy. “Aren’t you?”
    He sank into a chair, his gaze locked on her face. “You told me before that you were here on family business. Does it have to do with your father?”
    She nodded.
    â€œAnd that’s why you saw Kistner today?”
    â€œWe were hoping—I was hoping—that he’d be able to fill us in about what happened to Dad.”
    â€œWhy go to Kistner? Casualty resolution isn’t his job.”
    â€œBut Military Intelligence is. In 1970, Kistner was stationed in Laos. He was the one who commissioned my father’s last flight. And after the plane went down, he directed the search. What there was of a search.”
    â€œAnd did Kistner tell you anything new?”
    â€œOnly what I expected to hear. That after twenty years, there’s no point pursuing the matter. That my father’s dead. And there’s no way to recover his remains.”
    â€œIt must’ve been tough hearing that. Knowing you’ve come all this way for nothing.”
    â€œIt’ll be hard on my mother.”
    â€œAnd not on you?”
    â€œNot really.” She rose from the bed and wandered out onto the balcony, where she stared down at the water. “You see, I don’t give a damn about my father.”
    The night was heavy with the smells of the river. She knew Guy was watching her; she could feel his gaze on her back, could imagine the shocked expression on his face. Of course, he would be shocked; it was appalling, what she’d just said. But it was also the truth.
    She sensed, more than heard, his approach. He came up beside her and leaned against the railing. The glow of the river lanterns threw his face into shadow.
    She stared down at the shimmering water. “You don’t know what it’s like to be the daughter of a legend. All my life, people have told me how brave he was, what a hero he was. God, he must have loved the glory.”
    â€œA lot of men do.”
    â€œAnd a lot of women suffer for it.”
    â€œDid your mother suffer?”
    She looked up at the sky. “My mother…” She shookher head and laughed. “Let me tell you about my mother. She was a nightclub singer. All the best New York clubs. I went through her scrapbook, and I remember some reviewer wrote, ‘Her voice spins a web that will trap any audience in its magic.’ She was headed for the moon. Then she got married. She went from star billing to a—a footnote in some man’s life. We lived in Vientiane for a few years. I remember what a trouper she was. She wanted so badly to go home, but there she was, scraping the store shelves for decent groceries. Laughing off the hand grenades. Dad got the glory. But she’s the one who raised me.” Willy looked at Guy. “That’s how the world works. Isn’t it?”
    He didn’t answer.
    She turned her gaze back to the river. “After Dad’s contract ended with Air America, we tried it for a while in San Francisco. He worked for a commuter airline. And Mom and I, well, we just enjoyed living in a town without mortars and grenades going off. But…” She sighed. “It didn’t last. Dad got bored. I guess he missed the old adrenaline