The Protector

by Gennita Low

  “I’ll be right behind you. Don’t hit her again.” There was a pause. “You’ll have to carry her out. She isn’t going to make it on her own.”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t let her escape me again. Better get out. Fast. You haven’t much time once I’m outside. I don’t wait for anyone. I’ll see you tomorrow, Stefan.”

  Vivi felt herself swung around and then hung upside down. Oh shit. Dilaver. She could hear him yelling for his men but it was difficult to understand what he said with all the noise. She seemed to be hearing muffled echoes in her left ear. Lifting her hand, she touched the side of her face. It burned. The brute had certainly given her a wallop. Grimly, she counted the voices. Okay, Dilaver and maybe three…four men? She couldn’t hear Stefan among them.

  She forced herself to ignore the blood rushing to her head, adding to her dizziness. As long as Dilaver was moving, she had time to think and come up with a plan. He was probably the one who had wired the building with explosives. Somehow he had caught sight of and gone after her. She recalled her earlier conversation with T. and how she had agreed that this mission was personal and that she mustn’t jeopardize their insider’s work.

  When Dilaver snatched her up, Stefan obviously couldn’t just rescue her without revealing himself. Besides, the girls in the back—they needed rescuing more than she did. She had handled the thug once before; she could handle him again. If only she didn’t feel as if she was headless.

  Jazz couldn’t believe it. He had been staring at the entrance, watching desperately for Vivi among the hordes of seemingly naked girls. The last thing he had expected was seeing Dilaver and Hawk coming out of the building with Vivi over Dilaver’s shoulder. Hawk was talking, gesturing. There were two others with them. The interpreter and a bodyguard.

  “Are you getting Hawk’s signals, Cumber and Joker?” he spoke into the mike quietly.

  “Affirmative. He wants those two with Dilaver put out. The one on the right not a problem from my angle,” Joker replied.

  “I can take out the other hostile from my angle, sir.”

  “Good. Stand by for clearance.” The screams were louder now as thick smoke whirled out of the windows. “What’s happening in the back, men?”

  “Situation under control. As expected, the guards are running out through the secret exits, leaving the doors wide open. We got them. We made sure those who fought and escaped think they were being shot at by Dilaver’s men. There were a couple who had taken off with a dead hostile, sir. I think they’re going to show the body to their boss.”

  “Good.”

  “We have women running out too but they need help. Stumbling and acting funny, sir.”

  “Help them. They’re the locked-up ones Armando freed, probably drugged.” Jazz heard the sirens of the fire department in the background. “You have to stay out of sight as soon as the authorities arrive. Do you hear them?”

  “Affirmative. Ten-four.”

  Hawk was signaling again. Jazz froze. His friend had a message just for him, using signals that only he would understand. He wanted two shots in his direction. One to hit him in the arm, the other for Dilaver. He wanted Jazz to shoot both of them. As if Hawk was aware of the thoughts running in his friend’s head, he looked up at their direction, his gaze direct, fierce.

  “What’s Hawk saying?” Cucumber asked quietly. He knew about their secret language.

  “He wants me to nick his arm first, and then get Dilaver.” He had no problem with the latter. But shooting Hawk…

  “Shit. Why wouldn’t it be better just to get that bastard the way we had planned? I thought he was going to help Dilaver when he’s down. Why shoot him too?”

  “Because…” Jazz swallowed. “Vivi’s in the way. When Hawk reacts to being shot, Dilaver will turn toward him and that’ll give us a clear shot at him without risking Vivi.”

  And he had to be the one. His best friend trusted his aim.

  “We have to get away fast. I hear the fire engines. That means the authorities won’t be far behind.”

  Vivi frowned. Her hearing must be playing tricks with her. That sounded like Hawk speaking another language. She peered to the left. Dilaver shifted her like a sack of potatoes and she winced as everything whirled in her head.

  “You should just leave the girl.”

  “No! She’s probably working with them. That’s why she was at the bridge. She has a lot of questions to answer.” Dilaver cursed rapidly. “Where the hell are the others?”

  “We can’t wait, boss.” That was somebody else…not Hawk. Maybe she heard wrong.

  This time she managed to slowly turn her head without becoming dizzy. She craned her neck to glimpse the man next to Dilaver. It was Hawk. She frowned. Wasn’t Jazz’s team going to be here tomorrow, too?

  “Well, where is your boss?” Dilaver was asking the man who looked like Hawk.

  “He’s probably gone already. He doesn’t stand around waiting for trouble. I’m going to—” Hawk groaned in pain, fell on one knee, holding on to his arm. Vivi could see blood streaming between Hawk’s fingers. He had been shot.

  “What’s the matter?” Dilaver quickly turned toward Hawk and this time Vivi closed her eyes to avoid being dizzy again. When she opened them, she was facing the other way.

  “Fuck!”

  “Who—” Vivi heard a thud and Dilaver’s body jerked under her. He shouted in surprised pain and toppled forward.

  With all the screaming and yelling around them, they hadn’t heard any gunshot. The sirens sounded closer and closer. Vivi tried to move but her legs were trapped by Dilaver’s weight. He moaned as she groped and grabbed at clothing and limbs, wrenching herself free. Someone pushed at her back until she was finally able to crawl away from the fallen man on her own. She turned around. All of Dilaver’s men were down—dead. Dilaver—no, he was alive, howling in pain. She caught sight of Hawk beside him. It must have been him pushing her just now. He was looking in the direction of the trees behind her and signaling. Then he looked down at Vivi and winked.

  “Dilaver, are you all right?” he shouted as he got on his feet, still holding on to his arm. “We have to get out of here. Come on! We’re being shot at. The Triads are after us.”

  Vivi watched Hawk haul the injured big thug up on his feet. He urged him to put a hand over his shoulder, helping him along. “Let’s go, come on, man. The police are almost here.” As they passed her, Hawk winked again and dropped a small piece of paper next to her.

  Jazz rushed toward the scene, his eyes glued on Hawk. His shot had hit him exactly where he had intended, but it was still tough to see his friend go down. He pushed people out of the way as he hurried forward but Hawk was already back on his feet and helping Dilaver up. He was on his way out of there. His mission had started. Just before he disappeared into the crowd, he paused and half turned. Dilaver appeared to double over in pain. Hawk took that moment to signal. Two taps to his heart.

  “Jazz!” Vivi called out.

  Jazz went down on his haunches, shocked at her puffy face. Blood streaked all over her hands. He pulled her into his arms, relieved that she was alive and free. He looked up again. Hawk and Dilaver were gone.

  “Are you okay?” He pulled back to examine Vivi’s face again. A fierce anger replaced concern as he saw the damage. “Son of a bitch. I wish I could kill him for doing this to you, chouchou.”

  Vivi shook her head. “I’m fine, just…a tad…swollen. Jazz, why are you here?”

  Jazz stood up with Vivi in his arms. “Later. The fire engines are here.”

  “Okay.” She seemed content to lay her head against his shoulder as he walked quickly toward the back of the building to join the rest of team. “Hawk’s gone, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah.” Using a weapon on his own friend had been the toughest thing he had ever done.

  “Are you okay?”

  He smiled tenderly. She was worried about him even when she was injured. “Yeah. Just a bit lost. I’ve always known where Hawk was and how
to contact him, but now…”

  He didn’t know how to explain what he was feeling. Hawk was his best friend and they had been together in the navy for over a decade. They had grown up together, had watched each other’s back in their missions together. He was no longer able to do that.

  “I know. I lost a friend tonight, too,” Vivi said softly. “I saw her, Jazz, but…she’s no longer Sia-Sia.”

  The others had already returned to the agreed meeting point. Someone brought out lanterns and flares and he could see spectators and helpers gathering in the melee. Without needing an order, the men merged into the shadows of the nearby trees and buildings.

  Dirk gave a quick update. “The live prisoner is ready for transport. You should’ve seen the number of young girls who escaped through the back exits after we’d gotten the guards—I lost count, there were so many. Somebody apparently unlocked their cells before the fire reached the back. One of them said some man pointed them the way out. We made sure the weaker ones are together where the firemen will easily see them. No explosions…yet.”

  “Good. Let’s get ready to go then.”

  “Is Vivienne okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “No, she isn’t. Dilaver punched her or something.”

  “Fucker!”

  Jazz quickly did a head count. Everyone was there, except for…“Did you all see Hawk signaling our team sign?”

  “Yeah,” Cucumber said. “The shot was good, sir. He’s okay.”

  “I signaled back but I doubt he saw me,” Joker said.

  “That was strange, how everything worked out, even though—”

  “Jazz! Put me down!” Vivi, who had been quietly listening, tapped Jazz’s arm excitedly.

  “Whoa, sweetheart. Wait.” She wriggled impatiently till he sat her on her feet. She took a step and stumbled. “Where are you going off to now?”

  “Look! Look!”

  A man was walking slowly through the gathering groups of people, making his way toward the alley where the fire engines were parked. He had a girl in his arms.

  “What? Who’s he?”

  “That’s Stefan. But look at the girl in his arms! That’s Rose. I’m sure that’s Rose! Let’s go over there!”

  Stefan. That must be the insider T. was telling him about.

  “No, sweetheart, we can’t afford to be seen right now. I’ll get Stefan to come here instead.”

  It did look like Rose. They watched as Dirk sprinted over. They exchanged a few lines and Stefan nodded, changing direction.

  Vivi turned and hugged Jazz. “Oh God. It is Rose, Jazz. I can’t believe he found her!”

  Jazz smiled. There were no words to describe how much he loved this woman who cared so much about the wellbeing of others. He knew that had she been able, she wouldn’t have hesitated to risk her life to save any of those women inside. He tightened his hold on her. He owed Stefan and Hawk a big thank you for getting her out for him.

  CHAPTER

  28

  The room back at the compound wasn’t really that small, but two attending medics, T., Armando Chang, as well as six SEALs sitting around her bed, took up a lot of space. Rose was resting in another room. Vivi wanted to be with her but no one appeared to think she could walk on her own two feet. She had never been carried around by so many men in one night.

  Stefan hadn’t stayed once he deposited Rose into Cucumber’s arms. He studied them for a second, then he touched the injured side of Vivi’s face gently. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop him. But your friend’s bullet should hurt like hell by now.” He nodded to Jazz. “Good shot. Tell T. I’ll call.” With that, he went back into the crowd and disappeared.

  Back at the compound, Vivi had learned what had happened earlier and how the timetable had gone down the tubes the moment the team saw Dilaver scouring the place. Everyone’s adrenaline was still high from the night’s unexpected adventure; a low-key tension wove around the room as each member of the group related his or her little part. Even T. had been an important player, directing offstage, the glue that held the action together. Without her, no one from all the different groups would have any idea what was happening inside or outside the Triad den.

  “We’re lucky we decided to do a little checking,” Jazz said quietly. “Dilaver had planned to bring the place down. If he had succeeded, there would have been many more casualties.”

  “Yes,” T. said. “As it is, the authorities are suspecting gang war, since the dead are mainly Triad members and some unknown foreigners they will discover are part of an arms-dealing gang.”

  “Courtesy of GEM?” Jazz asked, cocking a brow. T. smiled. “The governing authority here might be under the Triad thumb, Jazz, but there are still some who celebrate Triad deaths. They’ll pass news on to everyone that the second brother has suffered a serious loss. We’ve emptied all their accounts and will be sending information and coffee money to certain people concerning Triad secret drug locations.”

  “Good.” Vivi found herself relaxing against the pillow. The medics had given her something for the pain, which reminded her…She shuddered at the sudden image of Rose lying in some locked room, unable to move, at the mercy of those people. How could her father do this to her? “I hope we find all those damn pills and destroy them.”

  “Stefan has already taken care of the batch we used as bait,” T. reassured her.

  “How? That man couldn’t have had time,” Vivi said.

  “I don’t know the details, darling. I just know it from the brief status report he sent. But if he said he destroyed them, he did.”

  “Who’s he, T.?” Vivi asked curiously. “Is his name really Stefan? I have never heard of him through the channels. Is he GEM?”

  There were male operatives in GEM but Vivi had never heard of a Stefan. The standard operating procedure for two newly met operatives was to send or communicate to each other a gift or symbol of their GEM insignia for quick identification and later references in their own debriefing. He hadn’t done so.

  “Not exactly.” T. wasn’t very forthcoming. “He’s involved in a few GEM contracts.”

  “I would like to meet him some day to thank him,” Jazz said. He was looking at Vivi. “He was very quick-thinking, what with so much happening inside. And still got his job of putting Hawk and Dilaver together done.”

  “The insertion was more complicated than our planned one,” T. agreed, “but Stefan always finds a way to finish his job.”

  “What’s his job? I know he’s one of the COS commandos, T. He isn’t Alex Diamond, is he?” Vivi stifled a yawn. T. looked startled for an instant, then her expression turned to amusement. “No. Alex’s job is more like”—she watched Jazz readjust the cold compress Vivi had on her face—“Lieutenant Zeringue’s. A lot of strategy. He initiates the operation. Stefan usually takes over near the end of one.”

  That made sense. Vivi understood Phase Two was in the final stages and that Phase Three began with Hawk. She was getting more and more interested in GEM’s new partnership with COS Command.

  “I’d like to thank him for Rose.”

  It was a sneaky attempt to find information and of course T. didn’t fall for it. Her chief’s eyes were filled with secret amusement as she shook her head. But hey, a girl could try.

  “Since all of us, except for Armando, have been briefed about Phase Two, I’ll confirm that he’s one of the COS commandos,” T. acknowledged. “And no, his name isn’t Stefan. I think he chose it to attract Hawk’s attention at the beginning.”

  “That makes sense, since there are so many Steves in Hawk’s family. Ladies, you have to tell me what COS stands for. The admiral used it and I didn’t have a chance to ask Hawk,” Jazz said. “I’d like to know what outfit my friend is working with right now.”

  T. hesitated. There were, after all, quite a number of people present. “Covert Subversive commandos. They are an infiltration system that destroys organizations from within.”

  “The guards inside knew and fear
ed him,” Vivi said. “I heard the one in the red pants call him Ghost Lightning or something like that. I can see why too.”

  “Why?” Jazz asked.

  Vivi put down the compress and touched the side of her face. She couldn’t feel a thing there as her fingertips pressed on cold, numbed flesh. “It’s his eyes. I bet he scared the hell out of the locals with that strange color. Like lightning. I noticed those thugs didn’t dare look too long into his eyes. And he had this stillness about him. You should’ve seen him when everyone was running around inside that awful place, Jazz.” She didn’t mention how she’d found him with Alissa, that the latter had obviously been his assignment. There was no black or white in their cloak-and-dagger world, and she didn’t harbor any feelings against Stefan for using her former friend. She looked around the room with her one good eye. She realized suddenly that she had lost much but she’d also gained a lot, too. “Of course, you were all doing just as good a job as he did. Thank you, every one of you. I’ve decided you guys aren’t too shabby after all. I’m going to make you my honorary goats.”

  She grinned at the sudden explosion of machismo in the room. It was also her way to distract the men from asking any more questions about COS Command or Alissa. She knew T. would take the ball and run with it. She was right.

  “I think you should rest now, darling. Plenty of time tomorrow to debrief and get everything in order. Rose will be fine. I’ll check on her later. Jazz, you make sure she stays in bed. She probably has concussion. Every one of you, except Jazz, follow me. I have this strong desire for some food.”

  Vivi rolled her eyes as T. winked at all the men around her. She was out of the room in seconds. The men, except for Armando, jumped to their feet.

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  “Food! Did she mention food?”

  “I can eat a whole cow.”

  “Move, man, you’re such a freaking sloth. Can’t you tell Jazz wants us gone?”

  “Do sloths eat? Besides jerk off?”