He was silent. “I find I do want to do it.” He took another sip of his tea. “Svardak is unfinished business that needs a period. But I’ll have to consider the ramifications and get back to you.”
“I can’t give you much time.”
He shrugged. “I don’t like being pressured, Cara. I’ll take as long as I wish.”
“And Jock will ask you to keep an eye on me before he leaves to go to that ranger station.”
“How humiliating for you. I’m sure you’ll make him suffer. Don’t worry, if I decide to do this, being an expert liar goes along with being intelligent and without conscience.” He nodded at the door. “Run along, Cara. I have things to do. I’ll get back to you later.” The mockery was suddenly gone, and his demeanor was clipped and radiating pure power. “Is there anything else?”
For an instant she was caught off guard by that sudden coolness. Then she turned to the door. “Yes. You can call Cheknof and tell him that you’ll draw and quarter him if he doesn’t take good care of Michael. Eve is being forced to use him as a makeshift babysitter while she’s keeping an eye on the ranger station.”
“No problem,” Kaskov said as he reached for his phone. “Cheknof has already made his one mistake, and he knows it. The boy will be safe.”
HUNTER’S LAKE
“He will be safe,” Cheknof said belligerently to Eve as he watched Eve and Michael walk toward his car. “You did not have to call Kaskov again. The other was not my fault either.” He glared at Michael. “He made me look like a fool.”
“I’m sorry,” Michael said gravely. “You’re not a fool. You’re very smart. I wouldn’t have even tried to slip away if I hadn’t had to get to my dad.”
“You should not have done it.”
Michael nodded. “I can see that now. I won’t do it again. I’d never want to get you in trouble.”
“It wouldn’t do you any good to try.” But a little of Cheknof’s belligerence had faded. “Get in the car.”
“Right after I say good-bye to my mom.” He turned and went into Eve’s arms. “You shouldn’t be doing this,” he whispered. “I should go with you. Let me go.”
“Not this time.” She swallowed to ease the tightness of her throat. “You’ve done your part. I have to know you’re safe. Hey, you’ve been so good about accepting this. Don’t spoil it.”
“I would if I could,” he said. “But I know you won’t change your mind.” He looked up at her, his eyes misting. “Don’t you get hurt. Dad will blame me for not taking care of you.”
“I promise I won’t.” She gave him another hug. “Now go back to Cheknof and don’t give him a bad time. Okay?”
“Okay. You’re right, Cheknof only wants to do what’s best for me.”
“Well, he’s not that good-hearted. There might also be some self-interest involved.”
He smiled back at her over his shoulder. “Then maybe we can convince him that to be good-hearted would be to his self-interest. What do you think, Mom?”
“Just do what he says. Take care, Michael.”
He nodded as he got into the backseat. “You’ll call and let me know when you get Dad away from him?”
“You know I will.” She turned and headed for her car. “The minute it happens.” A few minutes later, she was heading down the hill toward the road that led to Lake Kedrow.
Michael watched her go.
He should be with her.
He should take care of her like Dad had told him to do.
Darkness had fallen, and he didn’t like the idea of her being out there alone. Jock was supposed to be coming, but how long would that be? Not knowing all those things was worrying him.
He had to do something about it.
“You want a soda?” Cheknof asked. “I’ve got Coke in the cooler.”
Michael shook his head.
“Your mom’s going to be okay. I can tell she can take care of herself.” He scowled. “She nearly got me killed when she thought I’d hurt you.”
Michael turned to look at him.
Cheknof was not a good man, but he was not totally evil. And he had tried to comfort Michael. That meant Michael would probably be able to reach him if he made the effort.
And he would make the effort.
“Yeah, I just worry about her. I bet you worried about your mom, too.” Michael smiled at him. “Could I please have that Coke now?”
RUELL FALLS
“I wasn’t sure you’d even come to say good-bye.” Jock threw his backpack into the helicopter and turned to face Cara. “You were very explicit regarding my stupidity.”
“Not stupidity. Your idiocy. There’s a difference. And you’re still wrong. I deserve to go with you. Joe and Eve belong to me.” She glanced at his backpack on the floor of the copter. “What have you got in there?”
“C-4, rope, audio equipment, my Remington rifle, various other weapons that might prove useful.” He paused. “Bandages and medical supplies in case I need them for Joe.”
She flinched. “And possibly for yourself?”
He smiled faintly. “Not for me, Cara.”
“How do you know?” she said jerkily. “Oh, yes, that’s right, you’re impregnable. How is this going to work?”
“Nikolai flies me to within an hour’s hike of this ranger station and drops me off. He returns here to Ruell Falls. I make contact with Eve and look over my options.” He shrugged. “And then I choose one. I’ll call Kaskov and tell him if I need Nikolai and additional men to implement it.”
“Why not take help now?”
“Because you want Joe alive,” he said quietly. “Every man I take is an unknown quantity during an attack. I can’t control the outcome.”
“Like me?” she smiled bitterly. “I’m left by the wayside because I’m another unknown quantity?”
“No, I’m leaving you here because you’re not unknown. I can predict what you’ll do, and it terrifies me.” He looked over her shoulder at Kaskov, who was strolling toward them. “I’m ready to go. You should have your copter and Nikolai back within forty minutes. I’ll be in touch.”
“If he’s not too busy,” Cara said. “There’s always that possibility.”
“I won’t be too busy.” He stared into Kaskov’s eyes. “I’ve told you what I expect of you. Don’t disappoint me.”
“Why would you doubt me?” Kaskov asked. “When I told you that I only came because I didn’t trust you to take proper care of an asset I value? Now you’re doing exactly what I wish, plus working to give me Svardak’s head on a platter. For once our aims coincide beautifully.”
“That’s why I’m doubting you. You seldom do the predictable.” His voice was cold. “Do it this time. I want her safe.”
Cara took a step forward, and said fiercely, “Then take me with you and see to it yourself.”
“One final attempt?” Jock shook his head. “I thought that might be why you came.”
“And that only proves what an idiot you are.” Her eyes were glittering as she gazed up at him. “This is why I came.” She launched herself into his arms. She held him with all her strength for an instant. “Did you think I’d let you go face that son of a bitch without seeing you one last time? Then I’d be the idiot, and he’d win.” She whirled away from him. “Now get out of here with your C-4, fancy weapons, and all those other fabulous options.”
She stalked away from him.
She didn’t look back even when she heard the helicopter taking off.
“Do you suppose you could stop?” Kaskov asked mildly. He had caught up with her and was falling into step. “My men might believe that you’re trying to escape, and I was chasing you. Not a good scenario for you.” His gaze lifted to the sky. “And Gavin is out of sight and can’t rescue you. Though I’m sure that he’d try after that touching farewell.”
“Shut up.” She was searching for her handkerchief and finally found it. “What else did he say to you?”
“Nothing. You upset him enough so that all he want
ed to do was to get out of here and kill something. Preferably Svardak. It was excellent motivation.” He watched her dab at her eyes. “It’s too bad it wasn’t calculated. I could not have done it better. Without all the passion and emotion, of course. That’s definitely not my style.”
“I wouldn’t think so,” she said dryly. “I’m not ashamed of anything that happened, but I’d prefer not to talk about it, if you don’t mind.”
“As you wish. It just surprised me. You constantly surprise me, Cara.”
The helicopter was almost out of sight, and her glance shifted to his face. “What happens next?”
“We wait until Gavin has been dropped off and Nikolai is on his way back to us. I admit to being uneasy unless Gavin is sufficiently far enough out of the picture to raise my comfort level.”
She wasn’t sure that she believed him. She’d never seen Kaskov uneasy. “And then?”
“Then I let you phone Svardak and have a conversation that should prove interesting.”
“You decided you’re going to help me?”
“It depends on what you term help. I’ve decided that I’m going to let you assist me in eliminating a problem.” He paused. “Unless you’ve changed your mind?”
Svardak. Forty minutes, and everything would start. Jock would be on his way to help Eve and search for his damn option to save Joe. How could Cara risk less? “I haven’t changed my mind. I’ll make the call.”
LAKE KEDROW 8:32 P.M.
Three men on guard at the front of the station, Eve noticed.
And she had noticed two other guards dressed in ranger uniforms who had been going in and out of the interior of the station for the last hour. Abrams and Lacher?
That had to be where they were keeping Joe.
But she couldn’t see him. Maybe if she could get just a little closer to that window at the side of the house …
Eve wriggled on her stomach through the damp grass so that she was closer to the tree line of the woods.
Careful.
No sound.
Don’t startle any of them, or they’ll hurt Joe.
If he was still alive.
Of course he was still alive. Don’t even think anything else.
She stopped as she reached the tree line. Too much open area before she could reach that window, she realized desperately. She’d just have to rely on what Michael had described to her, along with what she’d found on the Internet about the general structure of the ranger stations. But who knew if this one was the same as the others? None of the others she’d seen on the net had a damn tree house as a third floor. Maybe go around the back and see if—
A hand clamped down hard over her mouth!
She instinctively bit down hard.
“Get your teeth out of me,” Jock gritted. “And start backing back toward the lake. You’re too close. If those guards were any good, they would have heard you moving through the brush.” He wasn’t waiting but was already on his way toward the lake without a whisper of sound.
She was following him as silently as she could. He was dressed in black and was wraithlike in the darkness. She almost lost him in the brush before he stopped beside the lake. She sat up on her knees and whispered, “You scared me to death. You’re lucky you still have fingers. You were supposed to call when you got close.”
“I wanted to do a little scouting on my own. Then I saw you moving through that brush and decided that I didn’t want to startle you. You were making enough noise.” He looked down at his hand. “And I’m not certain all those digits are still in place.” His gaze was darting around the bank and the woods. “No guards here. We can talk if you keep it low.”
“I wasn’t planning on shouting,” she said sarcastically. “And not everyone moves like a phantom, Jock.” She drew a deep breath. Jock was in attack mode, and politeness was never at the forefront. But she was no longer alone, and no one would know better than Jock how to find a way to save Joe. “I thought I was doing pretty well, but I’m still glad you’re here. Who’s with you?”
“No one. But I can have a team here within twenty minutes after we decide it’s safe for Joe.” He paused. “You told me to be careful. Is he still okay? Have you seen him?”
“Not yet.” She realized she was shivering. “I was trying to get close enough to that first-aid room to make certain. Michael said he was very sick.”
“Michael’s just a kid. I don’t think we’ll go along with his diagnosis on this.” His smile was suddenly gentle. “Suppose I go take a look for myself.”
“And how are you going to do that? I couldn’t see how I was going to get near that porch without being spotted.”
“I’ll find a way.” He was gazing thoughtfully at the station looming through the trees. “I was planning on planting audio and maybe a few other items in the house anyway. I’ll just add it to the list.”
Add seeing if Joe was still alive to his list? “Svardak has to be in there and probably Abrams and Lacher. I saw two men in uniform going in earlier. There might be more, Jock.”
He nodded. “Plus two men standing guard in front. Three sentries are stationed in these woods near the south and west banks of the lake. And I saw one guard on the ridge leading to the main road when I was looking around. That should be all.”
“That’s enough,” she said. “And you didn’t tell me how we could manage to do it.”
“We? I’ll barely be able to get myself in there, much less you.” He was turning and moving back through the woods. “Stay here. I’ll come back for you.”
“But I told you, there’s no way you could get in through that porch.”
“I’m not going through the porch. I’m going down through that tree house…”
He had disappeared.
Through the tree house? Eve gazed at the ranger station. The top of that house was composed of branches, and who knew how it was accessed from the lower rooms of the house. There would definitely be a noise factor to overcome. But no one would expect anyone to enter that way either. And when Jock entered the main house, he would only have to negotiate the corridors, avoid running into Svardak or his men, then set up his “items” where he chose.
And check to see if her Joe was still alive.
Only?
She could feel the muscles in her stomach tense as she strained to hear any sound issuing from the station.
God, she was afraid. If Jock was caught or killed, it could not only mean his death but Joe’s. Who knew what Svardak’s reaction would be to any intrusion?
Stop it. Joe had told her once that no one was more capable than Jock at this kind of deadly game. Eve had to believe he could do this.
Do as Jock had told her.
Wait for him.
Pray for him.
And pray that Joe was still alive.
She sat back on her heels. Her gaze on the tree house.
Waiting.
* * *
“Everything’s okay, Eve.”
Eve’s gaze flew to the lake to see Jock emerging from the tall grass in back of her. “Where have you been? It must have been at least an hour, dammit.”
“Fifty-four minutes. And you know where I’d been. It took a little longer than I estimated because I had to avoid Abrams and Lacher and set up a deterrent to get them out of the house while I was working.”
She stiffened. “What deterrent?”
“Nothing suspicious. I was prepared. I caught a squirrel while I was in the tree house and let it loose in the kitchen where they were having their supper.”
“A squirrel?” It was too bizarre, and she didn’t care about Abrams or Lacher. “Joe?”
“I already told you that everything was okay, Eve,” he said gently. “I knew you’d want to know that first.”
“You didn’t say Joe was okay. All you could talk about was Abrams and squirrels and—” She broke off, and said, “Joe’s still alive? You actually saw him?”
“I saw him. I couldn’t risk actually going into the first-aid ro
om, but I had a few minutes to study him from a distance.” He hesitated before adding soberly, “And I hate to admit it, but Michael might be right. Joe’s pretty sick. He’s unconscious, and he won’t be able to help us if we try to get him out of there.”
Joe was alive. It was all that sank in for that first minute.
“If he’s alive, that’s all that matters. And Joe is always stronger than anyone thinks. We’ll get him out.”
Jock nodded. “No question. But it will make it more difficult.” He was reaching into his pocket and pulling out two small devices. “And we have to know what’s happening over there because of Joe. That’s why I had to set up audio. It’s extremely sensitive and will pick up any hint of sound in any of those rooms including phone transmissions. It would have been much easier just to blow the place.”
“And no doubt explosives were on the list of items you left in that ranger station?” She tried to smile. “I’m certain Joe would appreciate your using the listening devices instead of the C-4.”
“Until we get him out.” He was tucking the electronic earpiece in his ear as he handed one to Eve. “Monitor Svardak as much as you can, particularly when he’s near Joe. I don’t want to make any precipitous moves, but Joe can’t take much more punishment. It’s not only the fever.”
“I know. Svardak turned Abrams loose on them.”
“Them?”
“Never mind.” Eve was tucking the device into her ear. “I guarantee I’ll know everything the bastard is doing. I take it you’re going to be too busy to do any monitoring. Tell me you’re not heading for that tree house again.”
He shook his head. “I have to start getting rid of a few of Svardak’s guards. I can’t touch anyone near Joe yet, but I can eliminate the guard on the hill leading to the road. After that, I’ll see if it’s safe for Joe for me to go after the guards by the porch. Let me know if there’s something important I should hear.”
“Other than the fact that we aren’t going to be able to get to Joe unless we go through Svardak and his two stooges?” she asked bitterly. “You said he was in bad shape. We’re going to need help, but that might get him killed, too.”
Dark Tribute--An Eve Duncan Novel Page 32