Medusa Seduction

by Cindy Dees

  He let her sleep as long as he could. But eventually, Jack poked his head through the tent flap and, with a sympathetic look on his face, hand-signaled that it was time to get going.

  They—more specifically, Sophie—had places to go and things to do today.

  Brian kissed her eyelids gently and they fluttered open as delicately as butterfly wings. “Good morning, sweetheart,” he murmured.

  “Mmm, good morning.” She stretched her arms over her head lazily, smiling in sleepy contentment. And then her arched brows came together, a faint frown etching her formerly smooth brow.

  There it was. The real world had just shoved in rudely between them. He’d held it off as valiantly as he could, for as long as he could. But even he was not invincible against the march of time. He dropped a light kiss on her mouth. “It’s time for you to quit being a lazybones and get this thing over with.”

  She smiled gamely, but her eyes were dark and troubled. “Yes, sir.”

  “It’ll be fine.”

  “Promise?”

  “Yeah. I promise.” It was a lie. But a compassionate one. Hell, he’d held a man in his arms once with half his body blown away and told the guy he was going to be just fine, too. This felt even worse.

  He helped her find her scattered clothes and don them in the tight confines of the shelter. While she went outside to relieve herself, he warmed up water and added it to a dehydrated breakfast packet. He handed it to her when she returned and she looked down at it distastefully.

  “I think I’ll pass.”

  “You’ll need the energy later,” he said quietly.

  Without protest, she began to eat. He suspected she wasn’t tasting a bite of it anyway.

  He ran scenarios with her for the next hour, describing possible surprises and talking her through how to respond to them. The morning warmed up around them and sweat trickled down his brow, though from heat or abject terror, he couldn’t tell.

  They wouldn’t be able to send her in with much gear. Freddie and his men were too well-trained at spotting such things. And for all they knew, she might be searched before she was allowed to approach Freddie.

  Vanessa called the team together to go through the timetable. As Viper started to talk, Sophie took hold of Brian’s hand, crushing his fingers heedlessly. He winced and let her hang on. Vanessa went over the whole plan, including which satellites would be watching the compound, which agencies would be waiting to pick up and track the signal of the burr Sophie put on Freddie, who would launch the air strike on Sollem and what possible bomb packages for that strike would be.

  “How long after the burr goes live does Sophie have to get away from Sollem?” Brian asked.

  “She’s got about three hours. That’s how long these nano-burrs usually last,” Vanessa replied. “We’ll have a burr on Sophie, too—several burrs, actually—and as soon as she’s got sufficient physical separation from Sollem to survive the blast impacts, we’ll call in the strikes.”

  Brian glanced over at Sophie. “Did you understand that?”

  She nodded, her eyes big and dark.

  He clarified just to be safe. “Once you’ve marked him, get away from him when you can. No rush, but get separation.”

  Vanessa continued, “When the fighter planes are in the air, we’ll move in to be in position to recover Sophie if necessary and to take out anyone who tries to flee the scene. The Bhoukari army is standing by to surround the area and apprehend anyone who attempts to flee across the desert. But, they prefer not to be directly involved in this hit if they can avoid it. They’d like us to contain the situation right here if at all possible.”

  Brian was amazed the Bhoukari emir had even allowed this strike, let alone provided any assistance. It was a huge political risk for him in a country where many of his citizens supported Freddie Sollem and men like him.

  Vanessa concluded by saying, “This situation is going to be highly fluid. I’ll need all of you to be on your toes today. Everyone ready?”

  Nods all around.

  Isabella put a hand over her ear to listen to an incoming transmission. She announced, “The Teddy Roosevelt is in position and the F-18s are loaded and standing by to launch. They wish you good hunting, Sophie.”

  Vanessa said briskly, “Let’s do it.”

  Brian stuck to Sophie like glue for the next half hour, checking all her equipment and going over its uses with her one last time. He helped her hide three nano-burrs at various readily accessible places on her person where they were extremely unlikely to be spotted.

  “Remember, as soon as you remove them from their paper backing, they’ll go live. As long as the mark’s burr is on the tip of your finger, it’ll be close enough to your burr that we’ll know you haven’t placed it yet. Once Freddie’s burr separates from yours, we’ll know you’ve marked him.”

  Sophie nodded, her concentration intense, even though they’d been through all this before. He didn’t need to say any of it, and she didn’t need to hear any of it, but it gave them something to talk about other than finding a way to say good bye, something to think about other than the desperation tearing them both apart.

  Isabella finally forcibly took Sophie away from him to give her a quick briefing on a few local customs within Muslim households in this region. He moved farther down the ridge and paced, too restless even to attempt to sit still. Usually, he retreated into Zen-like calm before a mission. Jitters never got the best of him. But then, he’d never sent a woman he felt like this about into Death’s jaws before, either.

  “Walk with me,” Jack Scatalone murmured to Brian as both men watched Sophie retreat into a tent with Isabella.

  He didn’t feel like talking to anyone, but since it clearly had been more than a request from the colonel, Brian fell in beside him.

  They moved down the face of the ridge well out of sight of any Sollem guards. Jack scanned the horizon to the south. Eventually, he commented, “It’s tough letting them go, isn’t it?”

  “I beg you pardon, sir?”

  “It sucks rocks sending Sophie into combat, doesn’t it?”

  Brian huffed. “That’s an understatement.”

  “Did you do your best in training her?” Scatalone challenged.

  “Yes.”

  “And did she learn everything she needed to?”

  Brian sighed. “She learned everything we had time for. But there’s so much more I wanted to show her before she goes in there.”

  “It’ll never be enough. To this day, I think of things Vanessa doesn’t know yet that I want to tell her. But it’s like being a parent. At some point you have to trust you’ve given them enough tools to get by with while they learn the rest. And then you have to let them go.”

  “Yeah, but Sophie’s not a teenager trotting off to college or her first job. She’s walking into a den of scorpions with AK-47s.”

  Jack put a hand on his shoulder. “You have to trust her. Trust the training you’ve given her. She’s smart and resourceful. Sophie strikes me as having a hell of a level head on her shoulders.”

  “She does.”

  “I feel your pain, bro. I’ve been in your shoes. Except it wasn’t just Vanessa I had to send out. I had to send out the whole damned lot of them.” Jack glanced back over his shoulder at the encampment.

  “You really care for those ladies, don’t you?” Brian asked.

  “Yeah. They’re like family to me. But rough on a guy to love.”

  “Sophie’s not even a soldier.”

  Jack said wisely, “If she survives this mission, it won’t surprise me in the least if she asks to pursue becoming a Medusa. And hell, with the training you’ve already given her, she’s well along the road already.”

  Brian started. “Mother of God, did you have to mention that now? As if I don’t already have enough to worry about!”

  Jack laughed. “Welcome to my hell. Anders is in the same boat you and I are. He almost lost Karen last winter. She went into full cardiac arrest in his arms. He
has yet to recover fully from it. This is her first mission back on unrestricted operational status and he flatly refused to let her come out here without him.”

  Brian muttered, “Hell, maybe we guys should start a club. The Frazzled Significant Others of Medusas.”

  Jack grinned. “I can tell you this, though. It’s worth it. To find a woman who understands every last bit of who and what you are and accepts—hell, embraces—it all…there’s nothing like it.”

  Brian sighed. “Yeah, I noticed. I’ve never met another woman like her, dammit.”

  Jack laughed. “She’s got it bad for you, too. Trust your feelings for each other. She’ll be okay. She’s got a hell of a reason to live.”

  “Lord, I hope so. I only pray it’s enough.”

  Chapter 16

  Sophie stood still while Isabella expertly draped the abaya around her and pinned a scarf over her head, tucking in her hair. “All set,” the Medusa announced quietly. “How are you holding up?”

  “I don’t know. Shaky. Ready to get this over with. I’m worried about Brian.”

  Isabella laughed. “I feel your pain. I’m dating a Special Forces operative, too. I’m a complete wreck whenever he goes out on an op, and he’s a complete wreck whenever I go out. It comes with the territory.” She leaned in close and murmured, “But the homecomings…they make it all worth it.”

  Sophie felt her cheeks heating up. The good-byes weren’t half bad, either.

  Isabella continued, “Don’t try to be a hero. Go into the Sollem compound as low-key as you can. You’re not there to make a fuss. You just want to give a childhood buddy a friendly warning in repayment for all the kindness his family showed you when you were a little girl. You hope to have a cup of tea with Grandma Sollem, give Freddie your message, and be on your way.”

  Sophie patted Isabella’s hand. “Brian’s been over all this with me at least a dozen times, but I appreciate your concern.”

  Isabella smiled lopsidedly. “I’d do anything to be the one going in instead of you.”

  “Every one of you would rather be the one putting your neck on the line. You Medusas have big hearts. Thanks for your concern.” She took a deep breath. “But I’ll be fine.”

  Isabella smiled. “Yes, you will. This is going to be a piece of cake. Even if the whole mission goes to hell in a hand basket, Freddie will have no idea the kind of training you’ve got under your belt. He’ll grossly underestimate you. It’s the Medusas’ secret weapon and it’ll be yours, too.”

  Sophie just smiled. Her secret weapon was Brian. He was her armor and her strength.

  She stepped outside. Brian waited, wearing a field pack and hiking gear. “Ready to blow this popsicle stand?” he murmured.

  She nodded, suddenly choked up. She stared, unseeing, at her watch through a time hack to get everyone’s watches perfectly in sync, and then it was time. Brian and Sophie hiked south, directly away from the ridge.

  “How’s her signal?” Brian muttered into the microphone clipped to his collar. He listened for a moment and then flashed her a thumbs-up. Her own burrs were working, then. She had one in the heel of her left shoe, and one in her stomach that Isabella had given her to swallow as a capsule. Both of her burrs had sizable batteries and would operate for several days. Good Lord willing, she wouldn’t need them for that long, though.

  She and Brian slogged through the sand in silence. The afternoon’s heat stacked up around them, layer upon layer of stifling air, whipped by a dry, hot wind full of talc-fine grit. The dust stuck to everything—to her eyelashes and the sweat dotting her brow, even to her teeth.

  In about an hour, they arrived at a desolate strip of asphalt that stretched away into nothingness as far as the eye could see in either direction. Whorls of dust skittered past, threatening to bury the paved strip until another gust came along to clear it. The effect was of a shifting, mirage-like image of a ghost road.

  And then a large, linear puff of dust appeared in the east. Brian pulled out his field telescope and had a look. “It’s your ride,” he confirmed.

  She looped her arm in his elbow and leaned her head on his shoulder. He turned, wrapping her in a fierce embrace. There was no time for words. Which was just as well, for neither of them had any. Far too much was left unsaid between them to begin to express in the remaining seconds they had left. Sophie fought back a rush of hot tears, her throat clenched around a sob.

  Brian’s hand slid to the back of her head, pressing it down onto his shoulder. His cheek pressed into her hair. She inhaled the scent of him. Dust and sweat and that indefinable male essence that was uniquely Brian.

  “Think of the teahouse,” he muttered. “Of our perfect moment.”

  The sound of a car motor intruded upon the silence of the wind and whispering sand.

  Brian’s cheek lifted away from her head and she leaned back enough to look up at him. She could swear a little extra moisture glistened in his eyes.

  He said simply, “I’ll be waiting for you.”

  She reached up on tiptoe and pressed her lips to his. Their mouths were dry, their lips cracked from the harsh desert sun, but she didn’t care. She let out a wordless moan, low and heartbroken. She tore away from him went to the white Mercedes that pulled up beside them. The driver rolled down the front passenger window and said something in Arabic. Brian nodded and said something back. Sophie recalled Vanessa mentioning a pair of recognition phrases that would be traded with the taxi driver.

  Brian opened the rear door for her. He handed her inside, his fingers trailing across the wet tracks on her cheeks. He lifted his fingertips to his mouth and kissed her tears. Without a word, he closed the door and nodded to the driver. He stepped back.

  Sophie reached up, pressing her palm to the cool glass. The taxi pulled away, and she turned, watching him stand there alone and tall beside the road until he disappeared, swallowed up by the desert and her tears.

  Thankfully, the ride took about a half hour. Enough time for her silent sobs to fade away and for her to collect herself. The driver said nothing. He glanced up at her occasionally in the rearview mirror, but seemed to respect her privacy. She rehearsed what she was going to say in Bhoukari under her breath.

  Her thoughts turned to Brian as they looped out of a dusty, unremarkable village and headed back east, toward the Sollem compound. She drew a shaky breath and tears threatened yet again.

  Steady, Sophie. Stay in the moment, Brian’s voice whispered in her head.

  Right. In the moment. She focused on her cover story, blocking out everything else as the long, familiar, white walls came into sight ahead. She’d made her way to Bhoukar from the United States and was out of her element. Scared. Unsettled by the foreignness of this place. But she was determined to see her old friend and pass him a warning. The sun was drawing near the horizon and the first tints of sunset were beginning to paint the compound a soft peach hue.

  Peaches…

  Focus, darn it!

  The driver slowed as they neared the compound, and at least six guards charged from the front gate as the car approached. They looked like angry fire ants swarming forth.

  Show time.

  Suddenly, one of the guards jumped in front of their vehicle. The taxi driver slammed on the brakes, pitching Sophie forward hard enough that she had to catch herself against the back of the seat. Shouting erupted outside the window. Male voices. It took a moment for the angry cacophony to resolve itself into Bhoukari words. They were ordering her out of the vehicle. Now.

  She took a deep, unsteady breath. Too late to second guess herself. Get in the game, baby. I’m with you. A sense of calm came over her. This was for him. For them.

  She opened the door and stepped out. Two armed men rushed her, grabbing her roughly by the upper arms through her black robe. They dragged her toward the high, carved wooden gate. Fear screamed through her. The enormity of what she was attempting slammed into her, all but drowning her in choking terror. What in the hell was she doing?


  Brian tore into camp, his entire body on fire from the long sprint back to camp through the sand. “Did I get here in time? Is she inside yet?”

  Isabella nodded infinitesimally toward the compound. “The cab just pulled up.”

  He flopped to his belly and slithered forward to see over the spine of rocks. He pulled out his field glasses…and hissed with displeasure as the guards manhandled Sophie.

  One of them all but yanked her off her feet, and he lurched up involuntarily.

  “Down, Tonto,” Isabella said sharply. “There’s nothing you can do. And Sophie knows what to do.”

  Brian’s gut twisted like a nest of restless snakes, nonetheless. Clenching his teeth until his jaw ached, he watched Sophie shake off the men’s hands and say something to them. Both guards backed off.

  “Good girl,” Isabella muttered.

  “What did you tell her to say?” Brian asked, surprised.

  “I told her to order them to take their hands off a properly covered woman. And not to say it too nicely.”

  “Thanks.”

  Isabella smiled sympathetically at him. “Maybe you ought to go back to camp. You can pace down there in peace. I’m too busy for you to have heart failure on me up here.”

  His anguished gaze snapped to hers. “I’ll be okay. If Sophie can do this, so can I.”

  “Then help me track her signal against the overlays on my computer. I’m using a satellite photograph on the screen, and on this tab over here, I’ve got her signal flashed up against our schematic of the compound. You flip back and forth between the images with this button here. Got it?”

  He nodded, has gaze fixed on the tiny pinpoint of light that was Sophie. His need to jump through the screen and join her was nearly unbearable. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t sit here and watch her live or die, completely helpless to protect her. What the hell had he been thinking to let her talk him into going through with this?

  The guards hauled her just inside the front gate, where a man wearing a cobbled-together military uniform of sorts met her and demanded to know her business.