She wished she could be certain of that, but her stomach was roiling in protest. She lifted up on toes and brought her lips to his. The kiss began as gentle and quick, but she found herself pressing more tightly against him, and the kiss became more urgent and desperate. Her eyes were tearing and when she blinked, twin streaks of wet rolled down her face. “Mein Liebling,” he whispered, pulling back from her. “Don’t worry.”

Barbara brought her heels down to the tarmac. She wiped at the betraying moisture on her face, sniffing. “I’m not. I’m sorry…”

Klaus shook his head. “Don’t apologize.” He bent his head down and kissed her forehead this time. “This will be over soon. I promise you. You … you are better at what’s required here than I am. Me … I’m better at what will need to be done there. It’s why we are a good pair, nein? A good team.”

She laughed, once. “Then go do it,” she told him. She took his hand, pressing it with hers, then let it drop. Klaus nodded. Taking a long breath, he glanced at Jayewardene. “Secretary-General,” he said. “We’ll handle this.”

“I have every confidence in that,” Jayewardene answered. And with that, Klaus strode toward the stairs leading up into the plane. He moved quickly up them, two at a time. At the top, he waved back at them once, then entered the plane. The ground crew pushed away the stairs; someone inside the plane shut the door, and the turbojet engines began their slow whine as they warmed up. A wash of hot air blasted Barbara and Jayewardene as the jet slowly turned and began to taxi toward the runways.

“He will be safe,” Barbara heard Jayewardene say against the roar of the engines. “We will do what we have to do here to ensure that.”

“Yes, we will,” Barbara told him. “We will.”

“Hey, Sheeba,” Michelle said as the Angel slid into the seat next to her. The plane was almost ready to depart. “That was some impressive canoodling you and Ray were up to back at HQ.”

The Midnight Angel rolled her eyes. Michelle gave her a teasing smile, but would never admit that she was a little jealous—hell, a lot jealous—of their relationship.

Though Michelle and Billy Ray would always have a thread of tension in their interactions, she did admire how much he loved the Angel—and how willing he was to display it.

“I’m not sure about this group,” Michelle said, glancing around the plane. Bugsy, Earth Witch, Lohengrin, Tinker, and the Lama she’d done missions with before and she knew what their strengths and weaknesses were. But the new kids—Doktor Omweer, Aero, and Recycler—were unknown elements. She liked Aero. But just as Ana had said, Omweer was a boring jerk. He had barely deigned to say hello to her. Recycler seemed like a decent guy.