The Heart of War: Book Seven of the What's Left of My World Series

by C. A. Rudolph

  “I can’t…my ribs. I have to go slow. I—”

  She didn’t allow him time to finish. Unbuckling the detainee’s seatbelt, she curled her free arm around his neck, muscling him out of the seat and shoving him facedown onto the gravel.

  The agent grunted, groaned and howled bellyaches from the pain of the crash.

  Jade pounced on him as he writhed, forcing a knee to his spine. “Has he been patted down?”

  “And then some,” Christian replied. “You might want to go easy. His ribs are in bad shape.”

  Ken moved in and knelt beside Jade to offer support while she invasively felt through his pockets with her free hand until proving him weaponless.

  Christian rounded the front bumper, appearing perplexed. “Hey, I said he’s clean. We already took care of that.”

  “Who’s we?” prompted Jade, gazing up at him. “And what happened to your face?”

  Alan sent his would-be son-in-law a look conveying his pressing need for an explanation.

  It was easy to discern Alan’s burden, but Christian had multiple fears weighing on his mind, one above all. “Is Grace okay? I need to see her…please, tell me she’s okay.”

  “Grace is fine.” Alan moved closer to consider him. “She’s better—awake now. Michelle went to the Vincents’ a short time ago to see her.” A pause. “But…how did you know?”

  Christian exhaled a trickle of relief. “Lauren. She told me.”

  “Lauren told you?”

  “Yeah, she told me everything.”

  Alan explored the SUV’s interior by way of the windshield. “Where is she, Christian?”

  The young man delayed, determining there wasn’t any way to gently deliver the news. He pointed to the eastward mountains. “Out there, on her own. Getting ready for the fight of her life.”

  “What did you say?” Alan badgered.

  “Hear me out, please. I’ll tell you what I know,” Christian began, hands signaling assent, “but you’re not going to like what you hear. After I get this out, though, I’m through—done, with any and all parts of this. Grace needs me, and I’m not leaving her again.” He pointed to the large man beneath Jade’s knee. “I came upon a couple of this guy’s buddies wandering around on the mountain last week. I had the drop on them until two more showed up and ambushed me. I tried getting away, and by the looks of me, you can probably gauge how that went. They dragged me a couple of miles to some camp, then tossed me in a cargo trailer where they were holding the girls. Days went by, I couldn’t tell how many. Then this morning, the door opened…and it was her. Lauren freed the girls and got us all out of there. She effected the rescue on her own, took out a bunch of agents, too.”

  “Exactly how many comprises a bunch?” Dave Graham gruffly probed, having drawn near.

  Pivoting, Christian identified his inquirer on the spot, recalling the awe-inspiring rescue in Cumberland months ago. “She didn’t say, but I estimate she deaded at least four where we were being held. She alluded to coming upon another camp last night prior to finding us. I imagine she got at least four more of them there.”

  Dave forced an exhale through flaring nostrils, pointing to the agent on the ground. “And why is he here?”

  “Her prisoner, you mean? She was adamant about bringing him here,” replied Christian. “She mentioned something about him killing one of his own and sparing her, but I never got the full story.” He circled back to the driver’s seat, regained the faux-leather folder, and handed it off to Dave Graham.

  Dave only stared at him coarsely.

  “Lauren told me to guard it with my life,” Christian said. “She said it’s evidence. I assume you of all people will know what best to do with it.”

  Jade rose to holster her weapon, then bent at the knees to roll the agent over with Ken’s help, going abruptly aghast at seeing the man’s face. “What the? August?”

  The agent blinked a few times. “Jade? What are you doing here?”

  Christian craned his neck. “You two know each other?”

  Jade backed away and looked the agent over as her mind went for a disturbing stroll down memory lane. Her close encounter with Beatrice Carter had been off the wall, but this was getting ridiculous.

  “I believe we do,” August groaned with a sharp eye. “We go way back. Don’t we, SA Hensley?”

  Jade didn’t respond to him or even bother looking his way. “Hey, Ken, do something for me. Get him out of here.”

  “Okay, sure,” Ken said. “Where?”

  “Just take him somewhere. Anywhere but here.”

  Dave snapped his fingers, nabbing Will Sharp’s attention. “Private Sharp, give him a hand, please. Transport this…prisoner to the brig, please.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Ken and Will then hoisted August to his feet and led him away.

  “Back to Lauren,” Alan thundered. “Where precisely is she, Christian? And how could you have just left her there?”

  “It wasn’t like that, I swear to you. Like always, she gave me no other choice,” Christian began. “I can tell you where to look for her, but there’s no guarantee she’ll be there. She’s planning something big and won’t stick around for long. On the way here, our agent friend told me about the arsenals of ordnance they keep in these trucks. This one’s already been cleaned out, and I estimate there to be at least three more of them. If Lauren combines all of it, she’ll have enough firepower and explosives to wage war.”

  After relaying what August had divulged to him, Christian gave the group directions to where he had last seen Lauren, then went over the vehicle tracking system and how he had gone about disabling it before entering the valley. “If the other trackers are still pinging, reenabling this one should help get you close. I don’t know the specifics of what she’s proposing, but I doubt she’s waiting for them to come to her. I think she’s plotting to go there in a manner they’d least expect, as in driving right up their ass in one of their own vehicles. If I were in her position, it’s what I would do.”

  He regarded Alan once more. “You have to believe me…I didn’t purposefully abandon her—I would never do that. I tried to get her to come home, but she wouldn’t hear of it. I’m sorry if I didn’t push hard enough or wait her out, but after she told me about Grace, I couldn’t bear to be away; I had to get back. Besides, it’s been my experience that once Lauren’s mind is made up, there’s no talking her out of it.”

  “Sounds a lot like someone else we know,” Jade remarked.

  Christian bid the group adieu and took his leave of them, heading off in a sprint along the driveway without looking back.

  Alan stared hard at the DHS vehicle, barely able to stomach all he’d learned thus far today. He got inside and reached for the ignition keys, halting at the sound of an approaching ATV. A glance at the rearview mirror revealed his wife on the final leg of her return trip home from the Vincents’.

  Michelle coasted to the edge of the driveway and skidded to a stop amidst the group, killing the engine. “I think I just passed Christian on the road—he wouldn’t stop, though. He wouldn’t say anything; he just waved me off.” She gestured to the black truck. “Where did this thing come from?” Then she saw her husband in the driver’s seat. “And where the hell do you think you’re going?”

  Alan did his best to explain matters to her as rationally as he could, using every bit of reasoning he could muster. “I have to stop her, Michelle, and I need to go now. I’m sorry.”

  Hopping down from her seat, she marched directly to her husband, a finger pointed at his nose. “Oh no, you won’t, either! Not for love or money, Alan Russell.” She latched onto and tugged angrily at his shirt. “We just got you back after fearing you dead for over a year. And there is no way in hell I’m letting you out of my sight.”

  Alan cut his eyes at her. “Let me? Michelle, that’s my daughter out there!”

  “No!” she shouted. “Lauren Jane is our daughter, yours and mine! And for the record, while you were gone fo
r fifteen months, she’s been my daughter, solely my responsibility. I’ve been the one losing sleep and killing myself striving to figure her out, only to just now learn what the two of you had going on behind my back. For God’s sake, Alan, do you honestly think that I don’t feel the same as you right now? This isn’t a first for me. All I want is to find her myself, hold her and…stop her…keep her from doing something stupid and throwing her life away!” She paused, exhaled, and fought back tears. “But I know my limitations. I know what I’m capable of, what I can and cannot do, and I know this is far beyond me. And it’s beyond you, too!”

  Alan looked upon her, floored and bemused. His lips parted, but he said nothing.

  “I’m sorry,” Michelle continued. “I’m sorry if it hurts you to hear me say that, but by God, as much as you both might believe yourselves to be, you and Lauren are not superhuman! You…are a father and a husband. And she’s barely more than a child. And neither of you can be replaced.” A pause. “We just got you back. I don’t know how, but we did—and that is precisely why you aren’t going anywhere. Plant yourself in our house and root your feet to the floor, because I will not go through that again, Alan!”

  Michelle strolled passionately away and squared off with Dave Graham. “Forgive me ahead of time for being out of line. I realize we’ve only just met and we don’t know a thing about each other, but I am officially tasking you with this. I don’t care what it takes, but go out there and find my daughter, and bring her home.” She exhaled. “Please.”

  Dave met the searing glare being sent his way with one of his own. His lips pursed and he straightened. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Michelle almost fainted at the response, her tone becoming a whimper. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry for being so…brash. I know you don’t take orders from me and—”

  The veteran held up a hand. “We’ll handle it. Nothing more needs to be said. Only, I must politely disagree with your call to rule out Alan’s involvement. As sure as I’m standing here, it’s my belief that if anyone in the world has a chance of talking her off that ledge, it’s going to be her father. I’ll leave you with that to mull over.” He pivoted. “Tang?”

  Woo Tang stood at attention, tapping his right boot on the ground in response.

  “Janey is AWOL, and your guardian angel orders remain in place. Locate and escort her safely back to the reservation.”

  “On it.”

  Jade hustled to pursue. “I’m going with him.” She shared a look with Alan and Michelle. “And I won’t come back unless she’s with me.”

  With teary eyes, Alan nodded his approval. He thanked Dave and Woo Tang, then said, “Jade…I don’t know how to thank you.”

  “You don’t have to. I’m not doing this for you.”

  Chapter 42

  Woo Tang navigated the DHS SUV through the Wolf Gap barricade and down the meandering stretch of road on the east side of the mountain. In the passenger seat riding copilot, Jade worked to recommission the tracking system Christian had deactivated. After reconnecting the antenna coax and rewiring the power cabling, the touchscreen’s backlit display emitted a blank, featureless glow. Before long, a map layer appeared, followed by a triangular symbol in the center indicating the vehicle’s location and direction of travel.

  Given that two vehicles had been at the camp where Lauren had found him and the girls, it was thus estimated at least two others would be sited at the previous camp, for a total of four. Their own blip counting as one, Jade went about panning the map to search for signs of the other three, knowing any one of them could provide clues as to Lauren’s whereabouts. “Damn, she’s good.”

  Woo Tang glanced her way, at the touchscreen console, and back to the road ahead, but said nothing.

  “According to this thing, there’s only one other truck out there within a fifty-mile radius,” Jade explained. “She must’ve disabled the others, and either hasn’t done so yet to this one, or she’s going crafty on us and employing it as a decoy.” She regarded her companion. “Did you teach her that?”

  “Not that I recall,” replied Woo Tang. “Is our current path of travel suitable?”

  “It looks that way. Keep an eye out for a road up ahead on the left.”

  “And is our mark stationary? Or in motion?”

  Jade tapped the other icon visible on the screen and a drop-down box of information displayed the vehicle’s latitude, longitude, heading and speed, the latter value being zero. “Static, for now, anyway. That could change, though, if she sees us coming for her.” From a hip pocket, she pulled out a black Sharpie marker, rolled up her sleeve and scribbled the coordinates on her forearm, catching another sideways glance from the former SEAL. She shrugged. “Just in case.”

  Woo Tang only scarcely nodded his head.

  Jade’s attention veered to the rows of trees coursing past. “How do you want to go about this? I’ll defer to you, given your history with her.”

  “I propose we get close, but not too close, and wait for darkness of night to set in before we move on her,” he began. “I am confident Lauren Russell will be disinclined to make any attempts of her own until then.”

  “How confident?”

  “Very close to being certain.”

  “I see,” said Jade. “And did you teach her that?”

  Woo Tang almost grinned. “Undeniably. At twilight, we will disembark and continue on foot from opposing flanks and converge on her somewhere in between.”

  Jade nodded worriedly. “Right. And how do you think she’ll react to that?”

  Woo Tang thought a moment. “Uncertain. I presume it will likely startle her.”

  “Startle her? Dude, your scheme entails sneaking up on her in the woods after dark while she’s alone, provoked, highly motivated, exceedingly well-armed and incredibly pissed off. That’s a considerable underestimation, even if we get the drop on her.”

  “Go on.”

  “I venture it best to anticipate a full-on, aggressive response on her part,” Jade advised, “and we should ready ourselves accordingly. Otherwise, we’re better off wandering around like a couple of idiots calling out her name with our flashlights burning.”

  Descending Wolf Gap Road’s strict curves to a forestry road shrouded by overgrowth on the left, Woo Tang made the turn and continued ahead at a snail’s pace through a deep, winding valley until finding a spot to conceal the vehicle in the woods. There, they waited for several hours in silence until the sun dropped below the westward mountain’s horizon.

  Jade took one final look at the active blips on the tracker’s screen before rendering it inoperative once again, then got out and began situating her gear. Woo Tang unstowed his helmet-mounted NVD and activated it, then allowed his eyes time to adjust. Jade did the same with the Harris NVD binoculars attached to a skull crusher, the device setup she’d used to navigate the Marauder from Butch’s hideaway into the Shenandoah Valley in months prior.

  “All set, Jade Hensley?” Woo Tang asked, shifting into reverse.

  “I really wish you’d stop calling me that.”

  “My apologies. All set, Miss Hensley?”

  Jade gave him the stink eye. “I reckon, dude.”

  “Very well. I will retrace our route here and locate the forest road’s other terminus, then insert from there, stash the truck, and reconnect with you at a midpoint near the last-known coordinates. If we do not find her, we will regroup and exercise other options.”

  “What other options?” Jade asked, but Woo Tang had already reversed the vehicle out of earshot.

  Jade watched him pull away, and walked the gravel road for a distance before moving off and cutting a path into the woods. After a mile or so, the full moon beckoned her in the darkness, reflecting off an object through the trees ahead. The object appeared unnatural, and as she got closer, she found it to be the dust-covered gloss-black paint of a vehicle’s quarter panel. She made her way to it in defensive fashion, M4 pulled to her shoulder at low ready, while questioning herself as to why
she was doing so.

  Jade put her hand to the vehicle body to feel for warmth. The rear portions of the truck were cold to the touch, but as she neared the engine compartment, she felt a drastic temperature change. The engine had been running recently. Opening the unlocked driver’s side door, she found the front and back seats empty save a few random items. She examined the interior, discovering a collection of automatic rifles, sidearms, magazines and ballistic helmets in a pile on the backseat floorboard, then went to the rear hatch and popped it open, expelling a gasp.

  There in front of her lay a collection of small arms, explosives, and anti-personnel and anti-armor weapons. Lauren had evidently gathered every sample of ordnance found in each DHS vehicle and relocated them to this one. Jade counted two dozen M67 fragmentation hand grenades, two dozen M84 flashbangs, four shoulder-fired AT4 eighty-three-millimeter anti-armor rocket tubes, and eight half-kilogram bricks of C-4 plastic explosive coupled with a pile of shock tube detonators. She almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

  Jade looked deeper, spotting two familiar nylon duffels near the seatbacks. “Pretty sneaky,” she said, pulling them close. She unzipped one and felt inside until the rigid form of a unique bolt-action rifle was detected. “Dammit, Lauren. I hope you took care of this thing. Otherwise, Butch will never let me hear the end of it.” She released the magazine and brought it close, pushing down on the top round with her thumb and feeling the spring give beneath. The mags had been fully loaded the last time she’d checked, leaving little doubt that the weapon had been fired. She dropped the mag into the duffel and felt around for another, finding it completely empty on inspection. Lauren had put the rifle to use a number of times.

  Unzipping the second duffel, Jade heard a twig snap from behind. She bounced in place, pivoted on the ball of her foot, and swung her weapon around on instinct. Once aligned, she snapped off the safety just as an intense beam of light hit her in the face, blinding her and shutting down her NVDs. She dropped to a knee, went to stow them with her free hand and transition to the torch mounted to her M4 in time for her visitor to announce herself.