The Protector

by Gennita Low

  Vivi scowled. “His file doesn’t say anything about his family.”

  “The lieutenant is single, had a poor and simple childhood, brought up by a single mom with six sisters and another brother near Slidell, Louisiana. Despite that horrible name his mother saddled him with, our lieutenant managed to survive high school and BUD/S’ ruthless instructors to become part of a group hand-picked by Admiral Jack Madison. His handle, Jazz, comes from his Louisiana roots and love of music. His bank account—”

  “Stop.” Vivi didn’t want to hear about Jazz’s bank account or anything intimate about him. T. had always been very thorough when it came to her job, but in this case, it was too much. She didn’t want Jazz’s portfolio and background being recited to her in facts and numbers. She had enough of that daily. She handed T. a comb. “I don’t want to know.”

  “I want you to see him without his uniform, that’s all.” T. winked at her as she combed her curls out. “Literally and figuratively.”

  “Why?”

  Vivi was curious about Jazz, although she didn’t want to dwell on the reason. She immediately regretted asking the question.

  “You want to deflect your attraction for the man by keeping a constant image of him in uniform. It’s easier to deny your feelings when you can summon up your fears and hatred for that symbol, right?” T.’s eyes met hers in the mirror. “Already you aren’t comfortable because you know too much about our lieutenant. He loves talking about his family, which is dominated by women, and his protectiveness toward them is so…sexy, don’t you agree?”

  Vivi stuck her tongue out at T.’s amused reflection. “Stop probing my mind.”

  “You asked, darling. Now hand me my lenses.”

  She put down the tray and picked up the contact lens case. She watched as T. popped the new lenses in. The transformation was complete. Unforgettable dark eyes the color of amethyst. A slightly altered nose. Collagen shot in the lower lip to make it poutier. T. flicked back her artificially extended hair, cocked her head as she studied herself, lowered her chin, then blinked; another woman peered up secretively. A wavy length of gleaming hair tumbled seductively over one eye. When she smiled, it was different. Even her stance had changed.

  Vivi admired the smoothness of the transformation. Even on her best days, in her now familiar disguises, she had to take more than a blink to get into the right frame of mind, but her chief did it seamlessly. She knew this new “person,” having met her several times before. This was T.’s new face for the operation that started a few years back when GEM and COS Command merged forces to find out who had their operatives attacked and slain. Operation Foxhole.

  “Hello, Tasha,” Vivi greeted softly. “You’ve been a busy, busy lady lately.”

  T. pirouetted, fluffing her curls into a glorious disarrayed mass that tumbled down to her waist. “Actually, I haven’t. As you know, ‘Tasha’ was last seen tumbling into the ocean, presumably dead.”

  She was referring to her last public appearance when “Tasha” was shot at by a certain illegal weapon dealer’s right-hand man and his bodyguards. Vivi had gotten a fax about T.’s adventure at sea.

  “So now you’re back when Maximillian Shoggi is in town. He’s bound to see you. And will remember how you’re indirectly responsible for his current lack of funds.”

  By taking out Mad Max’s right-hand man and freezing some of his offshore bank accounts, GEM and COS Command had effectively left the infamous arms dealer scrambling to keep his power base. It had been a very lengthy operation, but worth it.

  Vivi knew she had to ask. She was too damn curious. “Tell me, does it feel strange to know that Alex Diamond wants to be with Tasha and not you?” According to one of her GEM sisters, there was a blow-up of sorts at COM when Diamond had found out the truth about T. “Is that why you left?”

  T.’s eyes narrowed. “Do you have to bring him up now?” Even her voice had changed, a little lower, more modulated.

  “You’re the one who started the probing session,” Vivi pointed out. She leaned forward to adjust T.’s hair. “I’m in the same position, T. Jazz isn’t seeing me, you know.”

  T.’s expression softened. “You and I aren’t in the same boat, darling. You aren’t a completely different person with him, except,” she said, with a smile, “when you’re that nasty old woman, of course. You’re Vivi, through and through. Just take out those damn braces.”

  “You’re saying I can’t act?” Vivi mocked, not wanting to delve too deeply.

  “Don’t change the subject. You took the probe challenge, you finish it.” T. tapped the bottom of Vivi’s chin. “Go on. Give me your best shot.”

  One didn’t ever back down when T. was challenging. It wasn’t very often the other woman allowed anyone to test her. “Okay. Tell me, why shouldn’t I run like you? You’ve been running from Alex Diamond for almost five months now, and don’t deny it. I’ve been tracking you since your sudden transfer back to the UN.”

  T. flopped carelessly onto a nearby loveseat. She examined her newly painted nails. “Darling, you weren’t assigned to try to get a man to fall for you. It wasn’t in your plan to make him think of somebody special every time he looked into your eyes. In fact, I didn’t run. I just refused to compete with a dead woman. What are you competing against, a uniform?”

  Ouch. She could get burned playing this game with T. Fire with fire, she supposed. “What’s the difference? Your opponent is dead, so why not point this out to him?”

  T.’s eyes appeared several shades darker, as if they were projecting her thoughts. “My opponent lives inside a living person’s head. Yours live inside yours,” she pointed out softly. “You have total control over your behavior. Whether you want to change it or not is up to you. Are you ever going to take out those braces and let go of your past?”

  Vivi grimaced. “Okay, you win.” T. smiled, her expression brightening a little. “I always do, darling. When?”

  “Soon.”

  “You won’t lodge a protest if I release you from this contract.” It wasn’t a question. “The survey can go on without you. Besides, they need fresh blood.”

  Which reminded Vivi. “I need to talk to you about Juliana Kohl.” When T. narrowed her eyes, she shrugged. “All right, all right, I won’t lodge a protest. But you’ll let me see this new element with the masked man through. I want to know what he has.”

  T. nodded. “I’m not going to pull you out immediately, Vivi. You’re still very effective, and besides, there is the joint mission. Plenty to do still, don’t worry.” She uncrossed her legs and stood up. “Now you need to get going. Can Juliana Kohl wait?”

  “Yes, she can wait,” Vivi replied. It wasn’t an urgent matter yet. “So tomorrow you’re going to make sure Maximillian Shoggi sees you. I wish I could be there to see his shock when he realizes that you’re alive.”

  “Oh yes, it will be a very satisfying moment,” T. acknowledged with a bitter smile. “We have never officially met, but he watched me behind his two-way mirrors. It had amused him to deny me a meeting while watching me refuse to play with his man.”

  T. had been dealing with Cash Ibrahim, who was now dead. “Revenge is going to be so sweet for scum like him,” Vivi said quietly.

  They both looked at each other, remembering their dead friends. “There’ll be another greatly satisfying moment in the future,” T. promised in a flat voice. “When he finally has no one to turn to, nowhere to go. With Dilaver and the Triads busy with each other, he will have less and less options.”

  “Don’t you think Alex Diamond will be there too? Will you be running away again then?” Vivi had never seen her chief avoid another person like this. She noticed the tension around T.’s eyes and pressed on, “Perhaps he’ll let go of his past then, hmm?”

  “Perhaps, but we both have one thing in common.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Our men don’t seem to see us through our disguises.”

  They both laughed at the uncomfortable truth
. Vivi wondered whether Jazz truly saw her. But she didn’t have as many layers as T., who had enough personalities to rival a schizo.

  “Thank you for the session,” Vivi said as she picked up her purse. “It was enlightening.”

  “For both of us, darling. It isn’t very often I give in to a probing, but in this case, the desired results outweigh the discomfort.”

  Vivi laughed. “I’m afraid to ask what you’ve manipulated my mind into making me do.”

  T.’s answering smile was secretive. “Do I ever tell?”

  Never. T.’s power of manipulation was like a soldier’s well-oiled weapon. She was a mental sniper. Vivi had never seen her miss when it came to NOPAIN.

  “Viv? Is he a good kisser?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then, you know what to do when he’s finds out about your disguise. You just start kissing him back and let him know it’s you inside.”

  Vivi laughed again, then sobered. “I know you don’t mean me in that old woman’s makeup pushing my tongue down his throat.”

  “Well, that would be something I’d want to see, but you know I meant something else. Look at your real self in the mirror and forgive the past, Viv.”

  It was an order. Vivi didn’t feel the need to argue anymore. Maybe she was just tired. She couldn’t seem to find a solution to any of her problems. She knew T. was right. A change of venue and jobs would be good for her. But what about…She realized with a start that she was thinking of Jazz in terms of the future, when there probably wouldn’t be any.

  The drive back allowed her the luxury to dwell on the kiss. He was a good kisser. More like fantastic. She had always been able to keep part of herself detached during intimate moments but during that kiss, she couldn’t think at all. Everything came in a rush, and she had responded to his lips and caresses eagerly, wonderingly, without a single observation or thought.

  Vivi touched her lips with her fingers. She had never felt like that before. It was frightening how just one kiss could churn her insides into such a knot. She had been attracted to men before, of course—charm and attraction were weapons taught at GEM—but she had always been emotionally in control.

  The stairwell at the apartment building was silent in the late hour and Vivi was grateful Mrs. Lee wasn’t around to chide about her single status again. She didn’t feel like going another round about not needing a man.

  She locked her apartment door and leaned against it, feeling its hard wood against her back. Because she needed. Right now. It was tough to admit it; it had been so long since she had needed a man. T.’s probing had brought that point home.

  Without turning on the light, Vivi walked into her bedroom, unzipping and loosening her clothes carelessly. One could live in the past for only so long, especially when there didn’t seem to be anything with which to feed off from. All these years, she had kept wondering what had happened to her old friend, had agonized over a promise she had made, but since her return, she hadn’t been able to find any trace of her.

  All she had found were painful reminders that nothing had changed in this culture, that it had become worse. She rubbed the crick in her neck as she stepped out of her heels and took off her clothes. She reached for the cotton nightie on top of her bed and froze when her hand touched something that was definitely not made of cloth.

  CHAPTER

  14

  Conflict resolution, navy SEALs style. That was the team’s private joke when they set out to do utter destruction to bridges, roads, bunker complexes, and other big targets. As Cucumber often said, “There are few troubles that high explosives can’t take care of.”

  The team had traveled by night up the muddy road, driven by a local truck driver, to the observation point that Jazz had targeted on the map. That was the new Point Zero, where all members must return. The truck driver had given them a thumbs-up after they had unloaded the hidden crates of equipment before driving off into the darkness.

  The air was damp from the previous day’s rain, making the humidity even more oppressive. Within minutes, Jazz’s T-shirt was stuck to his body as he and his team moved about silently, unpacking and setting up what they needed.

  Hawk had sent out their point man, Turner, the day before to scout the area, making sure the coast was clear and checking the coordinates with the map they had been given. Turner had also returned with a thumbs-up.

  From this lookout, Jazz could see the bridge with his night-vision binoculars. Everything was running smoothly. The countdown started the moment they had received the phone call that the satellite had the target within forty-eight hours of reaching the bridge.

  That was both good news and bad news. The good news was that it meant the arrival would be around evening time, with enough daylight left so they could make sure which vehicle was which. The bad news was that it would be evening and what they could see, the enemy could, too. Everyone’s watch was set to precisely at midnight insertion time. The men would be divided into their usual two groups, one to follow Hawk’s orders and one to follow Jazz’s. Hawk would run the team from the lookout point first, making sure each team member covered Jazz’s team as they went under water to string up the bridge for a special welcome to the visitors.

  Then Jazz’s team was to move to a safe distance on the other side as Hawk kept watch. Vivi was in charge of communications between HQ and the team. With her calling in to confirm the satellite signals and Hawk’s watch of the vehicles’ progress from his vantage point, Jazz would be able to time what he had to do to the second. His job wasn’t to look up at the bridge but to keep his ears open for Hawk’s signal to blow the baby up. His team was to ensure the safety of the vehicle with the women. Hawk’s men would take out whoever was left on his side of the bank. Except Dilaver, of course.

  “What do you see?” Hawk asked from behind him.

  “Just checking the bridge. I like to see what it looks like from afar.” Jazz adjusted the binoculars. “The water is high from the rain and the bridge is pretty low. Tricky.”

  “I’m sure you can handle it.”

  “Yeah, but another big rain tomorrow and we might not need to blow it down. It looks pretty rickety with the mud banks.”

  From photos and Vivi’s information, it was an old bridge, very seldom used. The locals were aware of its role in the illegal trades and kept out of its way as much as possible. Bribery was the usual currency for access in this region, and Jazz wasn’t surprised to learn that the local government turned a blind eye to the activities in their backyard.

  “You just don’t want to get mud in your hair.”

  Jazz grinned as he handed the binoculars over. “Yeah, that too.” He patted the haversack next to him. “My guys and I will be able to suffer through this while you guys have it easy up here drinking coffee.”

  The haversack was loaded with water-resistant explosives, complete with an MC-1 clock, a safety and arming device, and a MK 96 detonator, all designed to provide precision delay and detonation of the main charge. It wouldn’t take very long for two swim pairs to attach the explosives. The trick was to apply it where it would blow the bridge down and not up, causing the least damage to the surroundings. They couldn’t chance too much shrapnel and chunks of blasted heavy wood flying around.

  It was going to be more complex, what with the timing as well as the precision of each blast. Jazz didn’t like it when too much depended on Lady Luck. Things could always go wrong, and the need to ensure the safety of a certain vehicle had put even more pressure on the operation. It was tough to leave to chance that none of the female prisoners would be injured.

  He hadn’t talked to Vivi since their kiss. “Did Vivi say when she will call again?”

  “Negative.”

  “We still don’t know her plans. Or did she tell you?”

  “Negative.”

  “I don’t think she’s just going to call in now and then to update us with satellite feeds.”

  Hawk finally looked away from the binoculars. “Why not? S
omebody has to do that.”

  Jazz cocked a brow. “I thought you were the expert on these GEM people. Even I can tell they aren’t the type to sit back and let things happen. No, they are up to something and not telling us.” He couldn’t see Hawk’s expression in the semidarkness but he knew his friend never liked surprises in a mission. “I know you talked to her more than I did about the operation. Did she give you any hints at all about orders from her side?”

  “Negative.”

  “You’re doing that deliberately to goad me, aren’t you?” Jazz asked in a mild voice. “What were you doing then?”

  “Not puckering lips.” Hawk walked away so the men could put up “window dressing,” as they called it, camouflaging the opening of the lookout with plants and twigs. “We discussed the weather. Most boring. And she was asking about coordinates and detonation power. I suspect she was concerned about how we’re going to get some vehicles and not another.”

  That made sense. Vivi’s top priority would be the girls. “Yeah, that complicates things.”

  “I mostly asked her about Dilaver and his trip here. Curious about his future plans and why GEM and Admiral Mad Dog didn’t want him dead. Dilaver flew from Europe to do some sort of business in South East Asia, then decided to take a road trip in the darkness to meet up with the Triads. Obviously, he couldn’t fly again, not with a load of captured women. I wanted to know what he was after.”

  Jazz shrugged. “Couldn’t be anything good. I can imagine a reason why Mad Dog is letting him go. It’s a joint mission, so it’s easy to assume GEM wants him loose and the admiral obviously agreed to the reasons.”

  “You’ve been thinking about this too, huh?”