“There it is!” The screams floated up from the beach, the excitement of witnessing a miracle in every voice.
On the second ring, Jess managed to open her eyes and look up at the clouds just as the fiery plume appeared for a brief few seconds, orange and huge and headed for space.
“God speed, Atlantis.” She could barely whisper the send-off as she doubled over with searing pain.
“Jess? Are you watching? Can you see it? A flawless launch!”
She opened her mouth but another wave of pain brought only a grunt.
“Wait, I can’t hear you… there’s so much noise here. Are you watching the launch?”
Her gaze slipped to the TV screen—the shuttle, well past the bridal veil of clouds, hurtling toward orbit, caught by cameras much closer than she.
“Jess? Jess? Are you okay? Answer me!”
But she couldn’t speak. Her lids heavy, she tried to focus. At the bottom of the television, the familiar NASA insignia burned bright and proud, white and blue, tried and true. That logo… those letters… they’d once meant nothing to her.
Then they changed her life. That symbol even saved someone’s life a long time ago.
“Jessie! Answer me!”
She gave in and closed her eyes, the image of that emblem burning her lids and her memory, only able to whisper one word.
“Deke…”
Chapter One
New York City, 1999
An intruder had taken the place that Jessica Marlowe had worked tirelessly for six years to earn. In the coveted spot next to the president of the world’s largest public relations agency sat a sunny, phony, conspiring interloper who twirled her hair and shared a laugh with Mr. Anthony Palermo. Only Carla Drake called their boss “Tony.” Already. After only two weeks at the agency.
Jeez. It had taken Jessica two years to work up the nerve to call him Tony.
With as much poise and nonchalance as she could muster, Jessica strode to the opposite end of the table and laid her Palm Pilot in front of an empty chair. She wouldn’t muscle or flirt her way next to the boss. She could do so much better than that. She settled into the buttery leather, willing herself to be as cool and calm as her rival.
She would outsmart Carla from California. Right here, right now. At this worldwide meeting of the top brains in Ross & Clayton Communications, Jessica Marlowe would remind Tony Palermo who was his best team player, his most creative vice president, and the most logical choice for general manager of the Boston office. She’d hit a home run and leave Carla choking in her dust.
She just had no earthly idea how.
For a moment, she listened to the buzz of hip and conservative Type A’s, charged with caffeine and the thrill of being part of the elite think-tank session in the international agency’s New York headquarters. An invitation to the forty-ninth floor conference room on the first Monday of the month meant they’d made it to the top, literally and figuratively. Called in from Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, and, like Jessica, Boston, they would concentrate on one client’s problem and no one would leave until they’d solved it. Hopefully with a plan that would make the agency beaucoup bucks.
It was bad enough the slinky blonde had blown into the Boston office two weeks earlier and been named “the other” vice president, essentially making her Jessica’s professional equal. The fact that she’d gotten the coveted invitation to the New York meeting really rankled Jessica’s nerves.
It didn’t matter. Carla could be sitting next to God himself, but the better idea won in this room.
Suddenly, a low-pitched rumble drowned out the hum of conversation as electronic room darkeners slid across the massive wall of glass and eliminated the breathtaking view of Manhattan. A young man with thinning hair and black-rimmed glasses stood at the far end of the conference table, wearing Armani head to toe and an expectant expression on his angular face. Until this moment, no one in the room knew what the subject of today’s think tank would be. He tilted his head toward the screen behind him as four white letters slowly emerged out of an azure background.
NASA. Silently, he clicked to the next slide. Jessica read the words with a sinking sensation of dread. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Oh, great. Space.
Jessica shifted in her seat and resisted the urge to rub her temples as she stared at the slide. Why couldn’t it be like last month when they came