by Cindy Dees
“Can I get you something to drink?” Vanessa offered.
“No, I’m fine.”
“You’ve got to drink at least double your normal intake of water out here. The desert sucks the moisture right out of you.”
“Brian’s been forcing me to slug huge amounts of fluids.”
“Good man, Captain Riley.”
Sophie nodded. “Yes, he is.”
Vanessa studied her intently. “You like him, don’t you?”
“Well, yes.”
“It’s clear he’s totally smitten with you. He reminds me of Jack right after he proposed to me. He hovered over me like I was made of glass.” A smile drifted across the major’s face.
“Brian has hovered over me from day one. He’s determined to keep me safe.”
Vanessa sighed. “Safe is one thing that doesn’t come with this job. If you spend long enough in this business, you begin to believe there’s no such thing as safe anywhere.”
“Surely back in the United States, on a military base or at home…”
Vanessa shrugged. “I could be hit by a car tomorrow or a meteor could fall on my head. You just never know.”
Sophie frowned. “That’s a pretty pessimistic view of the world. How do you refrain from slitting your wrists and just being done with it?”
Vanessa laughed, albeit under her breath. “Ahh, but you see, most of us take the exact opposite approach to life’s uncertainties. You never know when your number will come up, so live fast and hard every moment. I’d venture to say I enjoy life a great deal more than most people, simply because I realize it’s so precious and fragile.”
Sophie considered that for a moment. She understood the sentiment, but was perplexed as to why Vanessa had brought it up now. “You strike me as the kind of woman who doesn’t sit around in the desert randomly philosophizing about life for fun. Where are you going with this little talk?”
Vanessa’s intelligent gaze snapped to hers. “Brian wasn’t kidding when he said you’re smart, was he?”
Sophie shrugged. “I’d like to think not.”
“Do you fully understand the risks of going into that compound in search of Fouad Sollem?”
Sophie looked her square in the eye. “Yes. It’s a suicide mission.”
Vanessa exhaled hard. Swore quietly. “There may be another way. An assault on the compound. By all of us.”
Sophie reared back in the tight confines of the tiny tent. “Why in the world would you even consider that? The way I hear it, hundreds of armed men are roaming around that place. Why would you throw away the lives of ten people, when you can minimize your casualties and lose only one?”
It was Vanessa’s turn to lurch. “That’s not how I think about the lives of my troops. Each one of you is non-expendable.” A pause. “Are you sure you’re up to doing this alone?”
“I won’t be alone,” Sophie murmured. “Brian will always be with me. In here.” She touched her heart. “Right up till the end.”
“Cripes, Sophie. You don’t need to throw your life away to prove to him that you love him!”
Sophie stared. “What is it with you people? Brian’s been trying to talk me out of this mission practically since the moment I met him. And now you? Do you want me to mark Freddie for you or not?”
Vanessa sighed. “You have to understand the moral dilemma this puts us all in. To ask a civilian to do something that may very well cost her life because we’re not capable of doing our job without her? That’s hard for any of us to swallow, and we’re not even in love with you as Brian is.”
Sophie stared at Vanessa. In that moment, she felt a deep kinship with this woman, who was a lot like her, just trying to do the right thing out here in an impossible situation. “What would you do if you were in my shoes and it was Jack proposing to throw away his career for you?”
Vanessa nodded. “Ahh. So he did offer to take you and run. Hollister thought he might. No wonder we were sent to collect you in such a sudden rush.”
Sophie blinked, startled. So. Her speculation had been right. Hollister had sent in reinforcements to keep Brian from disappearing with her. The realization that she’d read the situation correctly gave Sophie little satisfaction, however. She said soberly, “Make no mistake. I don’t want to die. But what choice do I have?”
Vanessa stared at her for a long time. Then, in a sudden burst of decision, moved to the tent entrance. “Anders, take over for Cobra. Medusas, Jack, Brian, huddle in here. Now.”
Sophie blinked, startled at the command lacing Vanessa’s voice. As the others moved toward the tent, she muttered, “Wow. Even my grandmother didn’t sound like that, and she was the toughest broad I ever knew.”
Vanessa grinned sheepishly. “I practiced that tone in my bathroom mirror for about six months before I got it right.”
Sophie grinned back. “It rocks.”
“Thanks.”
In a few seconds, all six Medusas, Jack and Brian and crowded into the tent with her. There was barely any floor left, and Brian pried up a corner of the tent to let air in as the space got stuffy.
Vanessa got right to the point. “We have to figure out a way for Sophie to get into—and back out of—that compound. I hate to call in the bunker-buster bombs and tell them to blow everyone in that compound to smithereens given the number of women and children inside, but I’m willing to do that rather than send Sophie on a known suicide mission.”
Sophie started. “But what about the possible nukes?” She’d been shocked to learn about this latest development from the Medusas in Canada. “Wouldn’t a full-scale assault on the compound blow up the bombs?”
“They wouldn’t blow up—they’d just crack open and release some radiation. But nothing like an actual nuclear detonation. As long as we thought you could go in there unrecognized and mark Freddie, we were willing to wait on blowing the whole place up. But when it became clear Freddie was on to you, we were prepared to annihilate the joint. Then we spotted the bombs. They’re the only reason why the whole compound isn’t a smoking hole right now. They’re also why it’s more critical than ever for you to mark Freddie for us—so we can do the smallest precision attack possible on him and try to avoid breaching the nukes’ casings.”
Sophie shuddered. The stakes riding on her success were almost too high to comprehend.
Vanessa continued, “My orders are to stop Freddie Sollem. Period. No discussion of any fallout, political or nuclear.”
Sophie protested, “But there are dozens of women and children in there.”
Vanessa turned a hard gaze on her. “And Freddie Sollem is responsible for using them as a human shield. The families in there know full well they’re harboring a terrorist mastermind and are voluntarily acting as his shields. Yes, it would be a huge political hot potato to blow up the lot of them. But don’t lose sight of the fact, Sophie, that they’ve chosen to place themselves in harm’s way. I can only be responsible for protecting innocent lives up to a certain point. After all, aren’t you an innocent, too?”
Brian all but collapsed in relief beside her. The shadows in his eyes receded a little.
Vanessa turned to the others. “Let’s put on our thinking caps. Sophie, are you familiar with our free-flow brainstorming techniques?”
“Brian taught me how you folks do it, yes.”
“Perfect. Ideas, anyone?”
Jack spoke up from beside Vanessa. “The problem is that as soon as Freddie recognizes her, he’ll kill her, right?”
“Correct,” Vanessa answered.
“And the original plan was for her to use her friendship with Grandma Sollem to gain entrance to the compound. She was to enter the compound as Sophie Giovanni, old neighbor of the Sollem family.”
Nods all around.
“What if she goes in posing as someone else?”
Sophie turned the idea over as Jack continued. “If she barely knows what Freddie looks like anymore, I’d expect he’ll have trouble recognizing her, too. Sophie, do you
still look a lot like you did as a child when Freddie knew you?”
“Good heavens no! I was a gawky kid with twig legs and braces and stringy pigtails the last time he saw me.”
Jack smiled. “May I compliment you on having filled out very nicely, then?”
“Hey, buddy, stick to your own woman,” Brian growled.
Low chuckles vibrated all around.
“I’m back to speaking Bhoukari close to fluently,” Sophie remarked. “Maybe we could use that.”
Vanessa piped up. “A cover story. She’s a teacher with some humanitarian aid group. Maybe she’s canvassing the women and children in the compound to see if they are getting educations and if she can arrange for them to have a teacher come into this area to work with them.”
Jack cautioned, “She’s never tried to maintain a legend before. It’s a hell of tall order for an amateur.” He glanced over at her apologetically. “No offense meant.”
“None taken,” Sophie replied with a smile.
Brian spoke up. “Freddie will be looking for something like this. As soon as a strange woman walks into the compound, he’ll be suspicious and check her out. He’ll put her in front of a surveillance camera, recognize her and send in one of his goons to kill her. And then we’ll be right back where we started.”
Sophie asked slowly, “What if I do the exact opposite?”
Everyone looked at her, surprised.
“What do you mean?” Vanessa asked.
“What if I walk right up to the front door and say, Hi, I’m Sophie Giovanni, and I need to talk to Freddie Sollem. I tell him the U.S. government has kidnapped me and tried to get me to roll over on him, but I’ve escaped and I’m mad as hell. I’m coming to him to warn him and to ask for protection from those Imperialist bastards.”
Brian sucked his breath in hard. “It’s too risky.”
Vanessa checked him with a raised hand. “Let’s develop this idea a little bit. What are the risks?”
Karen piped up. “That Freddie doesn’t believe her and kills her on the spot.”
Sophie winced. There was that.
They hashed out at least a dozen more ideas, but none of them stood up to intense analysis. Over and over, they kept coming back to Sophie’s suggestion. It was the one approach that would guarantee to get her close enough to Freddie to mark him, and it was the only approach any of them thought might actually stand a chance of fooling Freddie for any length of time. At a minimum, it would force him to pause and think—hopefully for long enough for Sophie to make her escape.
Darkness had fallen and the sky was thick with stars through the tent opening before Vanessa rubbed a hand across her eyes and said, “I think we’ve eliminated every other possibility. And only Sophie’s plan is left standing.”
She turned to Sophie. “I’m prepared to blow the entire compound and everyone in it to kingdom come and let the diplomatic reaction fall where it will. Or, you can try to convince Freddie you’ve come to warn him. It’s your life on the line. Your decision.”
Chapter 15
Brian and Sophie were assigned a tent together—if the low, narrow tarp staked out across the sand could even be called a tent. Sophie crawled underneath it and stopped, startled. Brian had dug down into the sand, creating a surprisingly spacious living area for them. She was able to sit up comfortably and there was plenty of room for both of them to store their gear and stretch out side by side.
“Like my shelter-building skills?” he murmured from behind her.
She moved farther into the enclosure. “This is great.”
“Empty this.” He passed her a water skin holding about two liters of water. She worked on drinking it while he efficiently unrolled their down sleeping bags.
“It was in the nineties today. Do you really think we’ll need those?” she asked.
He glanced up from the sleeping bags. “It’ll go down below freezing tonight. The temperature swings like crazy out here.”
“What an incredible climate.”
He shrugged. “It makes the people who live in it tough, that’s for sure.”
She shuddered. “Can I take off my boots?”
“Store them upside down so no scorpions crawl into them.” He turned around from securing the tent flap in the sudden darkness. She made out the flash of his smile. “Let me help you with those.”
“Yeah, right. Like I want you smelling my stinky feet,” she laughed.
“I’ve worked out here for years. I don’t even notice human body smells anymore. Except when a beautiful lady smells like peaches.”
“Rotten peaches is about the best I’ll be able to do tonight.”
His arms slipped around her as they knelt face to face. “You’ll always smell like peaches hanging heavy and ripe on a tree, warm in the sun and so juicy they make a mess of your chin when you bite into them.”
“Stop that. You’re making my mouth water. And I’ve got to eat dehydrated eggs in the morning.”
He chuckled, his hands coming up to frame her head, his mouth pausing a fraction of an inch from hers. The moment stretched out as the humor between them faded, leaving in its place electricity so powerful the hairs on her arms stood up. Desire zinged through her, originating deep in her core and radiating outward until every cell of her being tingled.
His mouth closed upon hers, devouring her whole. She kissed him back with all the passion she’d stored up for the past few days, all the fear, all the desperation of the moment exploding out of her. She flung herself against him, knocking him over onto their sleeping bags, following him down as if she were trapped under the ocean and he was her only air supply.
He pulled her fully on top of him, one knee propped up for her to lean against. He growled, “I can’t get enough of you. I’ll never get enough of you.”
His hand on the back of her neck urged her down to him and they strained against each other, seeking complete connection and momentary escape from the events looming over them. Tomorrow might be about dying, but tonight was about being entirely, incredibly, intensely alive.
They tore each other’s clothes off, scattering them all about the small space. Their hands roamed restlessly, and skin slid across skin in delicious chaos. They made love frantically the first time, pounding against their mutual frustration, driving back the rest of the world by main force. It was urgent and rough and explosive. And as she surged up beneath him, nearing release, he captured her mouth with his, swallowing her strangled cries of pleasure and giving his to her in return.
Breathing hard, Brian propped his elbows up on either side of her head, his body still buried deep within hers. They panted in unison.
“Do you suppose they heard us?” Sophie whispered.
“Do you suppose I care?” he whispered back.
“I’d die of embarrassment.”
“Honey, what do you think they think we’re doing in here? I’m about to send you out alone to risk your life on an incredibly dangerous assignment. They don’t think we’re sitting around reading poetry.”
“Oh, good heavens, I’m mortified.”
“If it makes you feel better, I bet Jack and Vanessa are doing the same thing right about now, and Karen and Anders, for that matter.”
“Great. We’re out here having sex Olympics while the rest of the team listens in.”
“They didn’t hear anything. We’re dug mostly underground and sand’s a great noise insulator.”
She smiled against his mouth. “Even if that’s a complete lie, thanks for saying so.”
He smiled back, his lips curving sweetly against hers. “You’re welcome.” And then he proceeded to do exactly as he’d promised, loving away the hours of the night and distracting them both from the day to come.
But come it did. Sophie woke up in the faint glow of predawn creeping through the cracks in the tarp. She lay there nestled in Brian’s arms for a while—hard to tell how long, for each minute seemed to race by at light speed. Funny how time always behaved exactly the opposite o
f how you wanted it to.
It wasn’t fair that she’d found Brian so soon before this mission. But then, if not for the mission, she’d have never met him at all. As corny as it sounded, she’d rather have known him for this short time than never have known him at all.
His mouth moved softly against her temple. When she tightened her arms around him to indicate she was awake, he murmured, “Hey there, sunshine.”
“I’m feeling more like a thundercloud at the moment,” she muttered.
He raised himself up on an elbow to peer down at her in the dim tent. “The waiting is the worst part of any mission. But once the action gets rolling, you’ll forget everything but the moment at hand.”
She’d never forget him. Not even in the heat of battle. He was with her all the time, a part of her, and she a part of him. It hovered on the tip of her tongue to tell him she loved him. But what if she died today? Would it be fair to put that burden on him? How would he live with having let a woman who loved him go forth to her death? She couldn’t do that to him. No. Better not to say anything to further stress the guy out. He was already stretched as tightly as she was.
“How are you doing, really?” he asked seriously.
She gazed candidly into the shadowed depths of his eyes. “I’m scared. What if I mess it all up? What if I wreck your career? What if—”
He pressed a finger over her lips, stilling the words. “Don’t think about it. We don’t have to get up for a couple more hours. Close your eyes and go back to sleep.”
Brian watched dawn seep through the tent flap, willing it away, begging the gods for just a few more hours here with Sophie wrapped in his arms, safe and sound. The gray light turned pink, then brightened to orange, then blazed with the bursting energy of a new day.
Please God, let it not be Sophie’s last day on earth. He couldn’t go on without her. If something happened to her, he was going to lie down in the sand and die right along with her. She was his heart. His soul. Hell, his life.