Dancing with Fire

by Susan Kearney

  Kaylin didn’t know. The thought made her uncomfortable. She’d been so busy looking out for her sisters and paying the bills, surviving, that she hadn’t considered the choices she’d made or asked herself why she’d made them. But self-recriminations at this late date would serve no purpose. It wasn’t as if she expected to live much longer.

  What saddened her the most was the very real possibility that she would never have the joy of discovering where she and Sawyer could go together. While the sex was phenomenal, he was so much more to her. She trusted him. Admired him. And the more time they spent together, the more her feelings deepened, widened, strengthened. They were good together.

  A lump formed in her throat. Pavel simply had too many men on the island for them to escape. Even if the blast took out everyone in the building, he had armed guards on the perimeters, armed guards on the boats, armed men at the gates.

  Escape seemed impossible. But she liked the idea of fighting back. Of doing something proactive. No doubt Pavel thought he had the complete upper hand, that he could force them to do what he wished, that nothing could stop him from stealing her father’s formula. When Sawyer retrieved the broken chair leg from under the mattress and pushed it up his sleeve, she tried not to think about fighting off bad guys with a piece of wood.

  She expected the hours until Sawyer set off the explosion to go by in a flash. But the day dragged.

  Sawyer had work to keep him busy. He had to change the backflow of the chemicals running through the system and make sure the alterations didn’t set off any warning alarms. She sat beside him with nothing to think about except dying.

  She kept trying to relax, to save her energy, but unlike yesterday, Pavel didn’t leave them alone. During the morning he strode past their work area twice.

  The third time, during their lunch, Pavel, Asad at his side, peered at Sawyer’s laptop, his eyes cold through his silver-rimmed glasses. “I expect to see results this afternoon.”

  Her sandwich lodged in her throat.

  “I can give you the projections right now.” Sawyer’s voice remained upbeat as if he couldn’t wait to show off his work. He hit a few keys. A series of equations scrolled down the monitor.

  She had no idea what the numbers and symbols meant.

  Neither did Pavel. “That means nothing to me.”

  Sawyer nodded, his face grave. “Would you like to see a working diagram?”

  “Of course.”

  “Bear in mind I have some minor fiddling to do, and then we should retest—”

  Pavel snapped his fingers. “Show me the projection.”

  “No problem.” Sawyer ran a simulation. “Along the side of the screen, you can see the gallons per minute rate.”

  In the middle of the monitor’s screen, Sawyer had configured a blueprint of the plant. Valves opened, and oil pumped through pipes and into tanks, mixed with methoxide and then worked through the reactor.

  The reactor slowly turned red. An alarm sounded on the laptop.

  Pavel frowned at the red swirling gas in the tank. “What’s that?”

  Sawyer scratched the back of his neck. “I can fix it. The mix is too rich.” Sawyer ignored his lunch and typed steadily. “Sorry. It’s too late to change the mixture in this simulation. I’ll have to start over.”

  On the view screen the tank exploded. The entire screen burned red.

  Kaylin held her breath. Either Sawyer’s plan would work brilliantly, or he was an idiot, and Pavel would take out his gun and shoot him dead.

  Sawyer didn’t wait for Pavel’s permission to proceed. He cleared the screen. “I’m lowering the ratio.” He ran another simulation. This time it took longer for the tank to turn red, but again the plant exploded.

  Pavel glared.

  Sawyer shrugged. “I’m almost there. It’s a fine balance. If the mix is too thin, the gallons per minute is too low. If the flow rate is too high . . . well, you saw—”

  “What I saw is that you do not have your formula perfected.” Pavel scowled at Sawyer.

  “Henry died before that happened.”

  “You will succeed,” he pointed at Kaylin, and it wasn’t hard for her to look scared, “or she will pay for your failure. Am I clear?”

  Sawyer nodded.

  “And you will not test in this facility until that simulation runs perfectly, and my engineers have triple checked your data.”

  “Understood.”

  Kaylin didn’t dare glance at Sawyer. Talk about smooth. Pavel had not only stopped demanding they complete the formula by this afternoon, he’d delayed the testing until other engineers checked out the data.

  Sawyer had taken a huge risk. The dangerous time was when the chemicals were mixed. Even she knew that flow rate had nothing to do with the possibility of an explosion. Obviously, Pavel didn’t have a clue about the manufacturing process of biodiesel. His ignorance and Sawyer’s intelligence had bought them the time they required.

  Three o’clock and then four o’clock passed, and she had to stop herself from glancing at the clock every minute. She didn’t want to look anxious or suspicious, although if she did appear frightened their guards would likely attribute it to Pavel’s threats.

  If Sawyer noted her impatience, he didn’t acknowledge it. All business, he typed furiously into his computer. As the guards approached to escort them to their quarters, he reread his code one last time, then shot her a quick wink, then an are-you-certain-you-want- to-go-through-with-this look. They locked gazes. Her mouth went dry.

  She nodded.

  This was it.

  Sawyer pressed the enter key. The countdown began.

  If the guards didn’t bring them out in time, they’d blow up along with the plant.

  Sweat broke out under Kaylin’s arms and between her breasts. Her pulse pounded as she walked through the exit next to Sawyer, trying to look bored. But every muscle in her body shouted for her to run.

  42

  SAWYER WISHED he’d had more time to prepare. He wished he had a gun instead of a broken chair leg up his sleeve. He wished he knew the emergency procedures at the plant. He had no idea what would happen after the explosion. Would the guards form a tight perimeter? Would police and fire engines arrive? Since he wasn’t certain of the size of the island or if it was inhabited by anyone other than Pavel and his men, he couldn’t calculate the odds of escape.

  In addition, he had no firm plan. Stealing a vehicle and getting Kaylin as far away as possible remained at the top of his priority list. But that could change. He intended to watch for opportunities.

  He’d set the charge to go off at exactly six minutes after five. Their guards shoved them out the door, and Sawyer happily complied. He and Kaylin headed past the exit—just as they had yesterday.

  So far, so good.

  Two minutes until blast time.

  Outside, the sun beat down on their heads, and he squinted. They still had plenty of daylight left, but he’d have preferred to make their escape in the dark. Men headed out of the plant for the shift change. The perimeter guards made a last security check as final loads of fuel were being pumped into ships at the loading dock.

  One minute left.

  Sawyer tensed. He was counting on the explosion distracting and disorienting the guards long enough for him to take them out. Too bad he’d only been in one prior fight, when the kidnappers had taken Lia. That hadn’t turned out well. He much preferred chemistry and physics to boxing or the martial arts. However, even he knew a hard enough blow to the right place could knock a man unconscious.

  He had to be swift, sure, decisive. At least he’d played enough computer games to know the proper sequence of action—disarm, disable, run. In theory it sounded easy. But his opponents outnumbered him and they had weapons. And time was on their side. He had to move fast. Pavel and Asad
would send reinforcements at the first sign of trouble.

  He glanced at his watch.

  Thirty seconds.

  He gave Kaylin’s hand one final squeeze and decided they should make a run for the parked vehicles on the other side of the chain link fence.

  Fifteen seconds.

  Sawyer fingered the wooden chair leg up his sleeve. He reminded himself that if Pavel had ordered these men to shoot him, they wouldn’t hesitate. It was Kaylin and him . . . or them.

  Behind them, the blast roared like an angry dragon. Sawyer didn’t look back. He raised his arm and slammed it into the nearest guard’s head, striking his temple. With a grunt, the man collapsed. As flames broke out in the plant ,and black smoke and hellish sparks shot into the sky, the second guard pulled his firearm.

  Sawyer tripped over the downed man, slowing his forward progress. Damn. He wasn’t going to get to the guard before he could shoot.

  The man aimed.

  Then Kaylin did some kind of spin kick, striking the guy’s wrist and flinging the weapon into the dirt. Sawyer recovered his balance. He lunged, the piece of wood he’d hidden held above his head. The guard closed in, and they struggled for control of the stick. Wrestling, they fell to the ground, and he abandoned the stick, which did little good in such tight quarters. Instead, he punched and jabbed, using elbows and knees.

  It was taking too long.

  Sawyer spat out dirt, tried for a choke hold.

  Kaylin had recovered the gun. She swung it at the guard’s head. Connected. The guard’s eyes rolled to the back of his head.

  “Is he out?” she asked.

  “Yes.” Sawyer began to shove the man off him.

  To help, Kaylin tugged the guard’s arm, and finally Sawyer stood, grabbed her hand, and they sprinted toward the fence. Other men also ran from the flames and smoke, shouting in a variety of languages. But no one appeared to pay attention to Kaylin and Sawyer. The fire burned brighter.

  Heat had increased in intensity. Several more explosions, as one tank after another caught fire, rocked the dirt under their feet, making their balance precarious. His lungs burned as fire sucked the oxygen from the air.

  They reached the fence, and he cupped his hands. Kaylin placed her foot in his palms, and he boosted her up the fence. Before she reached the top, he started climbing. Barbed wire at the top sliced him in a half-dozen places. He ignored the pain and jumped down ahead of her.

  She’d been more careful going over the top, and he could see only one cut on her hand. Thank God, she was an athlete, more suited for this kind of activity than he.

  “Let’s see if we can find an unlocked vehicle.” They ran to the cars, but the perimeter guards had begun to recover from their initial panic. The ones at the gate spied them, pointing and shouting.

  Sawyer checked the first car. Locked. The second was also locked.

  Three cars down, Kaylin had the same problem. “They’re all locked.”

  Sawyer spied a golf cart parked alongside the entrance gate. “Over here,” he yelled.

  They both raced toward the cart. The key sat in the ignition. He started the vehicle, pulled it through the gate, and arbitrarily turned right onto a dirt road.

  Kaylin glanced back over her shoulder. “Pavel’s after us.”

  “You sure?”

  “It’s hard to miss his bald head. Floor it.”

  “I already am. Top speed is around thirty miles per hour. They’re going to catch us.”

  “So what’s the plan?”

  Wind whipped her hair. She had dirt smudges all over her face. Her coveralls were ripped. She’d never looked more beautiful. Her eyes glinted with a warrior’s fire, and with that gun in her pocket, she looked sexy as hell.

  “We put as much distance between us and them as possible.”

  “And then?”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “Work faster. They just reached the cars.”

  The terrain ahead didn’t suggest many choices. Thick, stubby vegetation along both sides of the road offered few places to hide. And it was so dusty, hiding their tracks would be impossible.

  The road curved, and she leaned into him. “I’ve lost sight of them.”

  He slowed and pointed. “Pick up those rocks as we pass by.”

  She scooted to the edge of her seat, grabbed a hand bar, leaned over, and picked up rocks. When she had five or six good sized ones, he tapped her. “That’s enough.”

  “Now what?” She looked back. “I can see their dust. They’re gaining on us.”

  “Pile the rocks on the gas pedal.”

  She didn’t ask questions and kneeled, piling the rocks on, wedging them tight. When she finished, he removed his foot from the pedal. The cart kept up its speed.

  He ripped off one of his shirt sleeves and tied the cuff to the steering wheel and the other end on the cart’s roll bar. “This should steer the cart down the road without us for a while.”

  Her eyes widened. “Without us?”

  “We need to jump.”

  She shook her head. “We’re going too fast.”

  “Jump, tuck, and roll.”

  Again she shook her head. “We’re going too fast.”

  He should have slowed, let her jump, then done the rest himself. But it was too late now. “They’ll see us soon. We have to jump now. And then hide.”

  “But—”

  “You can do it.” He prayed he was right. Even a minor sprain could be a death sentence, because Pavel would catch them. But he hadn’t really expected to get this far. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Pretend you’re doing one of those ballet jumps.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding.” But she jumped. And he leapt off right behind her, watching to see that she made it. He hit hard, and his sleeveless arm scraped across the dirt. Gritting his teeth, he tried to pretend he didn’t hurt.

  Kaylin rolled and bounced to her feet. “That wasn’t so—you’re hurt.”

  “I’m okay.”

  “Your arm—”

  “Get down.” He tugged her into the underbrush. From the way the dust was kicking up, Pavel, Asad, and his men were right around the last bend. He held his breath, hoping they’d take the bait. The golf cart continued down the road, then veered to the opposite side of the road from them. Perfect. They’d search inland, and that would give them time to get away along the coast.

  After the vehicles passed by, he and Kaylin hurried deeper into the underbrush, past a burned out cabin half overgrown with weeds. Trees grew right through a rotted wall. Kaylin spied an aloe plant, tore off several of the thick fleshy leaves, and as the resinous pulp leaked out, she spread it over his arm. Immediately the sting lessened.

  “Thanks,” he whispered.

  Up the road they could hear Pavel roaring orders. Asad shouted, “It’s a trick.”

  So they’d found his sleeve tied to the steering wheel. But they would have no idea where they’d jumped off or in which direction they’d walked. And the trees here were taller, better for cover. Kaylin reached into her pocket and pulled out the gun. “Here.”

  He took it as if he knew what to do. But in truth he’d never fired a gun. Sawyer checked the safety, removed the clip, counted the bullets, replaced the clip and slid it into his pocket. The weight of the weapon against his side reminded him that they were still far from safe. They needed water and a way to get off the island. They had no map. No knife. Not even a fishing hook.

  “Which way?” she asked.

  “We should head for the beach. If people live here, they probably live by the sea.”

  “Which way is the sea?” she asked.

  He’d always had a good sense of direction. But he couldn’t count on that. Just because the water had been on this side of the road back
at the plant, they still might walk for miles and miles before they hit the ocean. The plant could have been in a cove or bay, the land could jut out in this area.

  He might save hours of walking time if he got their direction right from the start. “I need to climb a tree.”

  She frowned at his arm. “You’re in no condition to climb anything. I’ll do it.”

  “You ever climbed a tree?” He kept his voice easy, but couldn’t hold back a grin.

  She scowled. “You think I can’t?”

  “After you kicked that gun out of the guard’s hand and saved my life, I don’t think there’s anything you can’t do.”

  “I might have got lucky on that one. But trees, I can climb.” She spun around, looking for a suitable tree, eyed one bent at an angle, and headed for it. She pulled herself up, high along the trunk, and although she made it look easy, he didn’t take a normal breath until she’d descended and set both feet back on the ground.

  She pointed. “The sea is that way. About a half mile.”

  Her shirt looked funny, and he frowned at the large lump between her breasts. “What happened?”

  She followed the direction of his gaze and grinned. “I picked a snack on the way down.” Opening the coveralls, she pulled out a coconut. “If we can open it, we can have a drink.”

  “Sounds good, but I don’t want to pound it until we’re certain Pavel and Asad have given up the search. Sounds can carry a long distance in the wild.” He took her hand, and together they walked through the vegetation. “Did you see anything else interesting while you were up there?”

  “The plant’s still burning. And I caught sight of Asad a long way down the road.” She paused. “I also thought I heard a helicopter, but I didn’t see it. You think they called out a chopper to search for us?”

  “It’s possible. We’ll have to take care to stay off the beach as much as possible.” However, if the choppers had sophisticated search devices, like night vision or infrared indicators, they could be spotted even at night. Sawyer didn’t mention that though. No point in borrowing trouble. With the vegetation’s increasing density, they had enough to deal with.