Breakpoint by Joann Ross Page B

indication that it could be terrorist related.”
    “Last I heard, NCIS handles terrorism.”
    “So it does. But apparently they want you.”
    “I’ve never even been on a carrier.”
    “Well, this will be a new experience. And guess what—the one you’re assigned to is the USS O’Halloran .”
    “You’ve got to be shitting me.”
    “Nope. Supposedly named after some naval hero. Any chance he could be a relative?”
    Dallas shrugged. “I’ve no idea. I remember my dad saying something about the O’Hallorans taking that biblical edict about going forth and multiplying literally, which means the clan’s pretty big, so I suppose anything’s possible.
    “But, getting back to the so-called murder, it seems like it’d be hard for a terrorist to get on board a carrier. Let alone kill someone and get away with it.”
    “I wasn’t given any details, though I tend to agree with you. Except for the getting-away part. If it was murder, then it’s going to be your job to find the killer.”
    “Me?” Dallas knew the government worked in mysterious ways. But this was way beyond his pay grade. “I was a CCT. My job was radios, computers, and shit like that. I’ve never investigated a crime in my life.”
    “I know. Maybe it has something to do with computers,” Zach suggested. “You being the emperor king of the propeller heads and all.”
    “Maybe.” Dallas rubbed his jaw. Fuck. After having reluctantly agreed to be Phoenix Team’s liaison to the ultrasecretive government agency, he’d begun to think that he’d never get tagged for an assignment. Now that he finally had, he had the uneasy concern he could be over his head.
    “If it eases your mind any, you’re not going to be handling this alone. THOR’s assigned you a partner.”
    “That’s good to hear.” Probably, Dallas guessed, from military police. “Did your caller happen to say who it is?”
    “No.” Zach’s lips pulled into a tight line that wasn’t the least bit encouraging. “But as it happens, McKade and Tremayne still have a lot of ties to the Spec Ops world. And Cait made a couple calls to some people she knows in the FBI.”
    Dallas struggled to rein in his natural impatience as Zach paused. “Who is he?”
    “ She’s a former JAG officer.”
    Comprehension hit like a cluster bomb.
    “No way.”
    “Way. Proving that fickle fate does, indeed, have a sense of the ironic, your partner on this possible carrier-terrorist murder investigation is going to be none other than Julianne Decatur.”
    The weirdest thing was, Dallas thought, as Zach filled him in on his travel plans, that he couldn’t figure out if this news was good. Or bad.
    Whichever, he decided, it definitely wasn’t going to be boring.
    And, even though he’d been in enough battles not to take the loss of any life lightly, let alone the loss of a fellow military member, Dallas couldn’t help grinning when it occurred to him that maybe, right now, at this very same minute, the sexy former naval attorney was receiving the same orders.
    And learning that she was going to be partnered up with the very same man she’d spent three long days giving the third degree to—Air Force Combat Control Tech Sergeant Dallas O’Halloran.
    Oh, yeah. Fate might, indeed, be fickle.
    But it could also occasionally, like now, be really, really sweet.

9
    It would be impossible to visit Naval Station Pearl Harbor and not think about all those who’d lost their lives during the bombing on what Franklin D. Roosevelt had called a “day of infamy.”
    The first family thing they’d done together when Julianne’s father was assigned to Pearl was to visit the USS Arizona Memorial. Of course, given that her father was a rising star in the officer ranks, they hadn’t had to bother with standing in any lines with tourists.
    When she’d boarded the plane in San Diego, Julianne had expected, upon landing, to be driven to command offices. Rather, after passing through the main Nimitz Gate and