“I talk!”
Chase towered over him with his gun pointed at the man’s crotch. “I’m not a patient man. Don’t make me use follow-up questions.” Zoric sucked in exaggerated gulps of air as he licked the syrup spilling into his own beard. Then he lunged at the Afghan, growling viciously. Chase grabbed Zoric by the collar and threw him back. “Talk.”
“Yes. Yes. I’m the one left behind. I was told to shoot in the air if someone came. They left one, two hours ago. They’re waiting to move in first light. They were afraid to make accident and shoot Massoud.”
“What’s the plan?” Chase watched Zoric edge closer and jab his gun into the man’s crotch. The Afghan yelped. “The plan.”
“Rescue Massoud. Kill the men. Take the women and children if possible, especially the government woman. She is worth money. Sell the others. Massoud wanted the other for himself. She killed one of our men with knife. Shot another...”
Zoric jumped to his feet and met Chase’s expression in alarm. “Killed a man?”
“Yes. All I know. I was not there. Massoud very angry. Wants to teach woman a lesson.”
Chase raised his chin in a quick jerk toward Zoric as he left him with the Afghan. “I’ll leave you the other horse. Be careful.”
Chapter 25
“Y ou scared even me this time, Zoric.” Chase handed Zoric the night vision goggles as he brought his horse alongside. “Glad I had Tessa’s crucifix in my pocket.”
Zoric shrugged. “You shouldn’t encourage me if I’m not to be your monster.”
“I’m just saying maybe tone it back a little next time. Don’t do anything around the kids.” The first morning breeze brushed his face. “I’m assuming you secured him.”
Zoric grinned as he tucked the goggles inside his jacket. “He decided to hang around.”
Chase stole a glance back into the darkness even though there would be no sign of the prisoner. “You need to talk to Dr. Wu when we get back. I thought you were making progress.”
“I am. He is still in one piece.” Zoric shrugged. “Shouldn’t have messed with little girls or…” His voice froze into silence as he squinted against the lifting darkness toward the village. “Those aren’t Kyrgyz, Chase.” His horse stamped with impatience.
“Massoud’s men are already there.”
~ ~ ~
“You are kidding yourself, tribesman, if you think you can protect yourself against my men.” Massoud refused to use Darya’s name.
He sat against the wall with knees drawn up as he attempted to loosen his hands secured behind his back. Toiluk had tightened the twine until he winced in pain. This forced a chuckle from the square-shouldered tribesman as he shoved him onto an already-sore hip.
“Where is the big man? The one with the devil at his side?”
Darya continued to use the night vision goggles.
“Tribesman.” Massoud shifted his attention to the women and children. “You.” Massoud whistled at them as if he were calling a dog. “The one with the blue eyes. Where is the big man? Are those two Americans? Tell me and I will spare you when my men come.” He squirmed to comfort his aching body. “My men come for you and the girls. I can protect you now.”
Darya whirled around to glare at Massoud. He crossed the room in two steps with such quickness, the Taliban leader cowered back farther into the crumbling wall. In one swift movement, Darya reached down and jerked him to his feet. He tried to pull away but the tribesman drove his breath from him with a punch to his stomach. When his mouth opened, Darya shoved his tattered mask, into Massoud’s mouth then swept his foot against the back of his knees. He collapsed back onto the dirt floor.
Darya wanted to continue the beating until he saw Tessa rocking Arzo back and forth with two other little ones clinging to her. She shook her head in protest and began to sing a lullaby which quieted the children as well as the turmoil brewing inside him.
Would the American helicopters arrive in time? Did Captain Hunter find the Taliban camp and eliminate the possibility of an attack? Or could he have been taken prisoner? No shots echoed across the land between the dense cover and the village. He glanced at his men posted at the two windows and rickety doors before going to Tessa.
“Little one.” He kneeled down to touch Arzo’s head. “Darya will protect his little girl.” Arzo pushed away from Tessa to wrap her arms around the tribesman’s neck. He stood, loving the way the child clung to him. Extending his hand toward Tessa, he felt her take his hand. The two other girls scrambled up to wrap their arms around their protector, too, as Darya pulled Tessa to her feet.
Tessa patted Arzo’s short legs before lifting her face to him. She didn’t resist his pulling her into his embrace, her head tucked beneath his chin. In English, he whispered into her ear, “Thank you for giving me these days, Tessa. Whatever happens today, know you have my heart. Know, if I die today, you made me happy.” She tightened her arms around him. If there had been more time for them to get acquainted, maybe she would not have looked at the American captain.
“And if I die today, I will meet you in paradise, Darya.” She stroked his back. “I’m sorry I’ve caused you so much trouble. You’ve given up everything for us to return. If I could change one thing, it would be to keep you safe with your people in the Wakhan Valley.”
“I am doing what is right, Tessa. I have no regrets.” Her smirk brought a chuckle from his throat. “Well, maybe one regret.”
Tessa’s forehead creased. She reached up to touch his face. “Is it the bride price you gave for me?”
“No. It was not taking my rights as your husband on our wedding night.” His grin made Tessa land a light punch to his side. He kissed her forehead. “But, if we do survive, I will hold you to your promise.”
“Then you better get us out of here.”
Darya felt surprise at seeing warmth instead of dread or fear in her face. She focused on his mouth and neck. Arzo reached for Tessa who welcomed the child into her arms.
Darya patted the two girls hugging each of his legs. “Go with your mother.” He had heard the children call her mother several days earlier. Whether she understood the Pashto word was irrelevant. She’d taken the orphans in like a guardian angel. He remembered seeing a picture on a calendar once where two small children crossed a dangerous bridge. An angel followed them with outstretched arms to catch them if they should fall. Tessa had reminded him of the picture from the moment he watched her defend the children and especially when he discovered what she’d done to protect Shirin from the Taliban.
Tessa ushered the girls back to join the others along the wall. Darya watched her for seconds longer before turning back to his companions. He came alongside Toiluk who stared out the window from the corner, so as not to be a target.
“They are coming.” Toiluk glanced at him. “The Americans may be dead.” His voice, now a whisper, continued with an unemotional evaluation of the situation. “We are outnumbered. Hand to hand, we can defeat the dogs. If they carry any weapons taken from the downed helicopter, we could be in trouble. Our ammunition is low.” Toiluk glanced back at the women and children. “We need to decide right now, Darya, what you want to do if we are overwhelmed. Those women and children will die a thousand deaths if the Taliban take them.”
Darya resisted looking over at his new weakness. “I will do it, if it comes to that.”
Toiluk reached back and put his leathery hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Let me do this for you. No man should have to kill his family to save them.”
“Blindfold Massoud.” Darya nodded to one of the other Kyrgyz. The man retrieved Massoud and pulled the stocking cap from his head then forced him to face Darya. When Massoud continued to resist, Darya shoved him back against the wall then pressed his foot against his chest. As he quieted, Darya kneeled beside him. “If I let you go, will you take your men back into the hills?” He jerked the cloth from Massoud’s mouth.
“My men are coming to kill you.” His tone showed no fear. “I do not nee
d you to free me.”
“When your men get within ten feet of the village, I will kill you, Massoud.”
“And if the American helicopter comes to save you and the women? What will you use as a bargaining chip to keep them from throwing you in jail?” Massoud smiled so big his crooked teeth became visible. “Yes. I know who you are and why you have been in these mountains so long. I am your get-out-of-jail-free card as the Americans like to say.”
“I didn’t desert. I made it appear as if I did. All this time, I’ve been searching for you and anyone helping from the inside. I intend to take care of the ambassador on my own.”
“So you free me and then what? What makes you think you can trust me?”
Darya rose to stand. “You are right. I should never trust a rabid dog.” He strode away as Massoud laughed deep in his throat.
~ ~ ~
Bonnie Finley nudged Tessa. “What do you think those two are up to? Maybe Darya is working for him.”
Tessa shifted her attention from Arzo playing patty cake with Shirin to the man who consumed her common sense. Darya. What would she do if she made it back to safety? Chase made it pretty clear he meant to take her home to her real life family. Imagines of her husband, Robert, and their history grew clearer by the hour. The emptiness she experienced when imagining him confused her, although she felt she must have loved him.
But what of Darya? Although their marriage wouldn’t be recognized in the United States, he was her husband, too. Without him, she would not be alive, nor would the orphan daughters she’d grown to love. Her responsibility to him when this nightmare ended remained a problem she’d deal with later. When memories rolled over her like an unpredicted tsunami, other emotions returned.
Some of those emotions involved Captain Chase Hunter. Just good friends? Somehow, his claim didn’t feel right either. Tessa shook her head to clear the confusion.
“Darya hates Massoud and what he stands for. Don’t be ridiculous.” Tessa sniffed a retort at Bonnie as she felt for her gun.
Bonnie arched an eyebrow. “Or maybe love is blind.” She shrugged as she stared across the room at Massoud. “We need to bargain out of this.”
“And how do you propose we do that? Make a deal with Massoud and turn our backs on these people who have risked everything for us? No thanks.”
“Time is running out. If those helicopters don’t get here soon we’re dead. The captain and his ghoul…”
“Don’t you dare call him that.” The viciousness in her voice took Bonnie aback.
“Okay. The captain and his sidekick. Happy? Anyway they’ve been gone a long time. Chances are they aren’t coming back. They’re either dead or captured, which, with the Taliban is kind of the same thing.”
Tessa didn’t want to believe the captain and Zoric could be dead.
“They’ll be back.”
Bonnie got to her feet then went through some awkward stretches to loosen up. She stepped over a child who had fallen back asleep then moved to the center of the room. Tessa didn’t trust the woman. When Bonnie moved closer to Massoud, Tessa thought it curious but became distracted as Arzo jumped into her lap and kissed her on the cheeks. By the time she’d settled the child, Bonnie had wandered away.
~ ~ ~
Chase and Zoric followed the Taliban at a distance until forced to veer off to avoid detection. They led the calm horses into the village at the opposite end. Sunrise flooded the land with dabbled light as they passed several shacks. A woman peeked out a window then pulled the rag of a curtain, to block out a view to the inside. One old man came and stood in the door holding a brew with curls of steam escaping around the lip of the cup. He held it in midair as if trying to decide whether or not to take a drink. His clothes, ragged and soiled, blended the Afghan and Kyrgyz style. He dropped his hand to his side and nonchalantly pointed an arthritic finger to a nearby building before holding out two more fingers. After taking a sip of his brew, the old man backed inside and shut the door.
They stopped along the side of one of the buildings, their ears tuned to any sudden movement or noise. The horses bobbed their heads but settled down with a pat to their necks with reassurance.
The door swung open in front of them as they rounded the corner which revealed three Afghans who swung their rifles up at hearing the horses. But they reacted too slowly. Chase and Zoric fired the instant the men raised their weapons, dropping them where they stood. An avalanche of gunfire ensued, from rooftops, behind overturned carts, and through darkened windows.
They faced more than the fighters they’d followed. Chase could see the house down at the end of the street where he’d left the Kyrgyz fighters. They fired their weapons, aiming at a group of Taliban swarming in from several directions. Chase and Zoric managed to duck into an abandoned house, jerking the bridles of their horses to follow. Once inside they took up positions at unadorned windows to pick off the hidden Taliban.
They took turns, shouting.
“Roof. Your two o’clock.” Chase knew Zoric could make the shot.
“Doorway across the street.”
“Two behind the overturned truck.”
“Back window. Don’t shoot the horses!” Zoric continued to shoot as he shouted.
“I’m almost out of ammo!”
Chapter 26
“H ere they come!” shouted Darya as he took aim with his rifle. The weapon spit bullets with deadly accuracy as the building filled with the smell of gunpowder and the screams of children scrambling to cower into the corner with Tessa.
Bonnie fell on top of Shirin as a bullet landed above her head. Her cry faded into the chaos of the rapid fire of weapons and the hail of casings being expelled. She covered her head with her hands as if doing so would protect her. When she looked toward the backdoor a man appeared with a gun pointed at the backs of the Kyrgyz. She screamed more in terror than as a warning. Her cries diverted his attention long enough for Darya to swing around and shoot him two times in the chest.
Tessa pushed Arzo into Shirin’s lap then pried the little hands of the others off her body the quickest way she could. “Stay down, children!”
She hunched over to drag a table, flipped on its side, in front of them. There were several wooden crates used as stools the night before which she carried to stack up in front of the table. A bullet pierced a metal bucket making it fly back and hit Tessa in the side of the head. Shirin scrambled up to help her as she set the children aside.
“I’m fine! Stay down, Shirin!”
The sun now shone through the windows, making it easier for the Kyrgyz to pick off the Taliban who ran out in the open. Clouds of dust and gunpowder choked Tessa as she crawled back to the children. As she got to one knee, something took hold of her foot and yanked her down on her stomach. In one fluid motion, she rolled to her back to see Massoud bending over her.
For someone who had been beaten, the one-eyed Taliban moved with remarkable speed as he pounced on Tessa, forcing all the air from her lungs. In one swift move he jumped up then jerked her to an unsteady standing position. He circled her neck with his arm. In his free hand, he held a glass shard pressed against her throat.
“Darya,” screamed Shirin as she stood in slow motion. “Darya!”
This time he turned his head to where the young girl pointed. He gave an order for the men to stop firing and they, too, turned toward Massoud backing toward the door with Tessa.
Bullets continued to hit the building from outside.
Massoud gave a contemptuous smirk. “It seems the situation has changed, huh, Kyrgyz? I will kill her if you come closer.” Massoud jerked her up against him. Tessa whined in fear. Her expression pleaded with Darya to save her.
“Then you will be dead as well,” he said, holding his tone level. “What is the point in killing her? You have nothing but a sharp piece of glass, and we both know this will not protect you from me or my men. Let her go and I will return you to your herd of swine myself.”
Massoud’s amused expression co
ntinued. “I think I will take her with me. I do not trust the words of a man who burns yak dung for warmth or compares Allah’s faithful to swine.”
Darya avoided checking further on Tessa. It would make him indecisive. “I’m going to kill you whether you take the woman or not. Maybe not today, but soon.”
“I think not. You need me alive if you ever want to return to the West with these pitiful orphans.” He continued to sidestep toward the door. “This woman has made you weak. You think you can barter with me for forgiveness with the Americans. They are less trustworthy than me.”
Tessa took advantage of Massoud’s obsession with Darya to jerk sideways enough to drop her fist so hard into his crotch, he dropped his arm from around her neck. Before he could slice her throat, she fell to the floor. As she rolled to her back, Tessa pulled out her gun and aimed it up at Massoud. Without hesitation she squeezed the trigger.
Nothing happened.
In the next split second, she saw Massoud take a step forward. At the same time, Darya’s legs straddled her head. He grabbed the Walther from her raised hands, causing Massoud to lose his smug expression and run to the door. She cringed at the report, covering her ears with her hands. Two hot casings landed on her throat where Massoud had held the shard seconds before. The one-eyed terror of Afghanistan grabbed hold of a shelf, bringing it down on him as he hit the floor.
Darya stepped aside so he could reach down and pull Tessa to her feet. The men at the door and windows commenced firing their weapons again, not giving Massoud further attention.
Tessa panted so hard she felt as if she’d been out for a run. Darya forced the Walther back into her hand. “It works better if you take the safety off.”
The Enigma Series Boxed Set Page 94