Crossfire

by Traci Hunter Abramson

  “That’s between you and your uncle,” Halim said simply. He hesitated a moment and then closed the distance between them. She stared up at him and fought the instinct to step back as he ran a finger down her cheek. “As for me, I don’t want to see you hurt.”

  Vanessa swallowed nervously. “I appreciate your concern, but you needn’t worry.”

  He stared at her a moment before dropping his hand back to his side. He stepped away, his eyes unreadable as he motioned to the shopping bags. “Enjoy your new shoes.”

  Vanessa gave a brief nod followed by a sigh. “Can you at least tell me how long it will be before I can go into town again?”

  Halim hesitated briefly before giving her an answer. “Only a few more weeks.”

  Vanessa watched him open the door and then disappear outside. As soon as she was alone, she lowered herself onto a chair. Halim’s feelings for her were becoming more obvious, and she wasn’t sure how she should feel about the notion that this man seemed to care for her even though her main purpose in being here was to destroy his plans. She took a deep breath and then pulled the closest shopping bag into her lap. Shaking her head, she stared at the pair of sandals on top and wondered how she could possibly get a message out.

  * * *

  Quinn blended into the dark night, impatience shimmering through him. Ellison had been correct when he said the people at La Playa were accustomed to watching for people following them. As he had taken up his position near the resort entrance, he had already bypassed several warning systems that had been installed to alert the residents to intruders.

  If he had really wanted to, he could have penetrated the resort itself, but at this point it wasn’t worth the risk of discovery. For now, his location a few hundred yards from the main entrance would serve his purpose well.

  He didn’t want to think about how many hours he had already been lying in the dark. That would only lend credence to the very real possibility that he might be in this position well into the next day. It wasn’t the first time he’d been in this situation, he reminded himself, and it would undoubtedly not be the last. Still, he knew that the SEALs’ best chance of finding Vanessa Lauton was to stake out the resort where she was believed to be staying and hope they could see her leave for the contact point.

  The gas receipts Brent had come up with had narrowed the search drastically. With the given gas mileage and frequency with which Granger had filled up his tank, the SEALs thought they had identified the town where the contact point was located. Now they had to find out where in the town—and when.

  Quinn’s job was to find the when. The rest of his team would work on the where. Even now, Kel was staked out down the road in an old pickup truck waiting for Quinn to signal him when Vanessa headed his way. If Vanessa appeared at all, that is.

  Brent was standing by with Granger’s motorcycle on the outskirts of Suero, while Tristan and Seth were both on foot keeping an eye on different areas in town so they could move quickly in case Vanessa was spotted.

  A car pulled out from a narrow drive a few hundred yards from the main entrance. Quinn narrowed his eyes as he looked through the binoculars, spotting the single figure inside the vehicle. With a rare smile, he gave the signal.

  9

  Something was wrong. Vanessa’s steps slowed as she approached the edge of the alleyway. She glanced back over her shoulder, seeing Domingo sitting on his front porch. A rodent scampered along the edge of a garbage can, and she could hear birds calling from the trees nearby. She couldn’t smell anything but overripe garbage and the lingering scent of diesel fuel.

  Everything looked and smelled the way it always did, but it didn’t feel the same. She took two more steps forward as the uneasiness grew. Over a week had passed since she had last seen Devin Granger, but she came each night, praying for a clue. She stopped once more and listened to the night. For months she had been coming here, but never before had she felt this impending sense of danger. Could someone have followed her? Had Granger somehow jeopardized her cover?

  She wanted to continue forward. After all, this might be her last chance to get out before Akil Ramir arrived. Once he left, it might be too late. It might already be too late. Panic coursed through her as she debated whether to push forward or listen to the warning bells sounding in her mind.

  Just as Vanessa started to turn, a flash of movement caught her attention. She whirled toward it, but before she could turn fully the huge man emerging from the shadows grabbed her, covering her mouth with his hand before she could scream for help.

  “Shh. I’m here to help.”

  Even as he spoke, her training kicked in. She jammed her elbow back, barely missing a particularly sensitive spot of his anatomy. Still, the impact caused his hold to loosen slightly and evoked a muffled groan. She prepared to strike again, but instead stumbled forward when she was suddenly released.

  “Vanessa, knock it off.” The deep voice was clipped, nearly disguising the familiar Southern drawl. “I said I’m here to help.”

  Her heart pounding, her adrenaline still pumping, she turned and looked up into the man’s face. Her eyes narrowed, and recognition dawned. “Seth?” she asked, realizing now that he had called her Vanessa, not Lina. “Seth!”

  Seth’s eyes widened as Vanessa launched herself at him again, only this time she wrapped her arms around his waist. She was too stunned to notice Seth’s hesitation before his hands came around her to hug her back. She held on for several long seconds before asking the obvious. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m your new contact.” Seth stepped back so he could see her more clearly. “Granger had a stroke a week ago.”

  “What?” Confusion crossed her face. “Why did they send you?”

  “No one knew where your contact spot was, and the Agency said that you were told not to divulge information to anyone but Granger.” Seth’s shoulder lifted. “They sent my squad in to find you and make contact because they figured you would trust me.”

  “Your squad?”

  “The Saint Squad. It’s a five-man unit with SEAL Team Eight.”

  “You’re a SEAL?”

  Seth nodded.

  Vanessa gaped at him, her mouth dropping open for a moment before she remembered why she was standing in a dark alley in the middle of the night. “I definitely want to hear all about this, but I don’t have much time.” Vanessa motioned down the alley and headed back to where she had hidden her car. “I’m not sure, but I think there’s at least one leak within the CIA, maybe more,” Vanessa told him. She stopped and faced him. “In fact, I can’t be sure that your contact at the Agency didn’t send you in so that he could find me.”

  “Rick Ellison knows your cover story. If he was working with Akil Ramir, he could have simply told him who you really are.”

  Vanessa nodded, recognizing the truth to his statement. “Even if we can trust him, I can’t be sure who else I can trust.”

  “You can trust me.”

  Vanessa stared up at him, their eyes meeting. “I know.”

  Seth was silent for a moment as he looked down at her. Then he shook his head slightly and asked, “Do you have any new information since you last saw your contact?”

  Vanessa recognized the subtle shield Seth was putting up between them and wondered if he could ever manage to trust her again. Trying to focus on the present, she took a deep breath. “Akil Ramir is due to arrive any day at La Playa,” she began. “Once he gets here, I probably won’t be able to get out, but something big is definitely being planned.”

  “How big?”

  “9/11 big,” Vanessa told him. “A few days ago I heard Halim talking about how he expected the casualties to be in the thousands. One of the guests also mentioned some antiaircraft guns he had ordered and how he needs them to arrive before he gets his shipment of helicopters.”

  “Helicopters?”

  She nodded. “We’re not talking about the little news choppers either. I think someone out there is either selling or stea
ling Z-10s.”

  “Why would they want Chinese attack helicopters?” Seth asked. “And how would they be able to get their hands on them?”

  “I’m not sure. I haven’t been able to figure out why all of these training camps keep popping up either. They’re training for something, but I don’t know what.”

  “We have to figure this out and soon.”

  Vanessa rolled her eyes. “Tell me something I don’t already know.”

  “We need to set up a secondary contact point in case you can’t get out,” Seth said, ignoring her sarcasm. “Do you ever go out sailing?”

  She shook her head. “Halim has me on a pretty tight leash right now.”

  “Is this Halim guy always at the resort?”

  “Halim Karel. He’s the top advisor for Akil at La Playa.” Vanessa nodded. “He rarely leaves, which makes me think that at least one of the leaks in our intelligence has to be someone stationed here.” She paused for a moment and looked around the alley before bringing her eyes back to Seth. “He said he has people in the right places,” she continued. “I haven’t been able to break into his e-mail accounts, but I can trace where his e-mails are coming from. None of them come from the U.S.”

  “I’ll talk to my commander and see if we can track down the problem,” Seth told her. “In the meantime, do you have any ideas for someplace we can use as a second meeting spot?”

  “If I can’t get here, I won’t be able to get anywhere,” Vanessa insisted. “When Akil is at the resort, there’s no way I’ll be able to get past security.”

  “If you can’t get out, I’ll have to come to you.”

  “Seth, there’s no way you could get into the resort. There are armed guards everywhere, plus all sorts of alarm systems.”

  “Vanessa, I’m a SEAL,” Seth reminded her. “This is what I’ve been trained to do.” He retrieved a folded paper from his pocket and handed it to her. “This is a map of the resort. I need you to identify everything for me so I know what I’m up against.”

  “You’re serious.” Vanessa’s eyes widened.

  Seth nodded. “Let’s start with where you live.”

  Slowly she nodded and pointed to the map. Then, hesitating a moment, she looked up at him. “Seth, I’m really glad you’re here. I hope you can help me figure out what’s going on before it’s too late.”

  Seth stared at her a moment, a flash of something in his eyes that she couldn’t identify. Then he spoke softly. “Don’t worry, Vanessa. I’ve got your back.”

  She let his words seep in, and she could almost feel the weight on her shoulders lift. “I’m counting on it.”

  * * *

  “Kel, you can’t be serious.” Brent’s voice was charged with anxiety, an emotion that was extremely rare for him. He paced across the lounge of the boat that had been rented for the team to use as its home base. Turning back to face Kel, he shook his head and added, “It’s too risky.”

  Kel understood his concern, but he had also made up his mind. They had to find the leak in the CIA. Until then, they wouldn’t know who they could trust, and they couldn’t risk losing the information Vanessa Lauton was feeding them. “I know you don’t like this, but Amy is the only one who can get away with it.”

  “She’s not an undercover operative. She hasn’t been trained for this.”

  “Exactly,” Kel agreed, throwing Brent off balance. “But she has been trained by the CIA as an intelligence officer, and that is exactly what we need her to be.” Before Brent could voice any more objections, he continued. “If Vanessa is right, the leak has to be in the field office here in the Dominican Republic. By putting Amy in as an employee there, we’ll have the eyes and ears we need to figure out who that leak is.”

  “What about her safety?”

  “Brent, be logical for a minute. We’re shorthanded here, especially now that we know we can’t rely on intel,” Kel insisted. “Besides, it’s July, the prime time for government and military rotations. No one is going to suspect that an intelligence officer showing up for a new assignment is a plant. Not to mention that this source, whoever he is, doesn’t know we’re onto him.”

  Brent let out a frustrated sigh. “Will you at least let me go in as her backup? The field office is over an hour away. We can’t leave her unprotected.”

  Kel let out a sigh of his own. Slowly he nodded. “I’ll let you go and do your own digging, but you have to trust your wife to do her job.”

  As if on cue, Amy walked into the room holding a stack of papers. “I have the bios on the CIA personnel in Santo Domingo. The good news is that we only have five people there.”

  Resigned, Brent motioned to the coffee table. “Show me what you’ve got.”

  “Okay.” Amy spread out the five profiles, each of which included a photo. “We have the chief of station and his deputy, one secretary, and two operatives.”

  “What about other support personnel?”

  “The deputy doubles as the finance officer, but I doubt she’s our leak.” Amy tapped a finger on the picture of a woman who looked to be in her mid-forties. “She only transferred to this station in May and she came from headquarters. I couldn’t find any way that Halim Karel could have come into contact with her.”

  “What about the others?”

  “The chief and his secretary have both been here for two years. One of the operatives, Al Medrino, transferred in last summer from Rome, and the other one came from headquarters, but he got here only three weeks ago.”

  “Then our focus is on these three.” Brent slid the three bios closer and pushed the other two aside. He studied them for a moment before looking up at his wife. “Once you figure out their work schedule, I can go check out their houses to see if I can find anything that way.”

  “Just don’t get caught.”

  “I won’t get caught if you promise to be careful,” Brent countered.

  Amy cocked her head to one side. “I’m always careful. You’re the one who’s always jumping out of moving vehicles and calling it training.”

  Kel stepped between them and put a hand on each of their shoulders. He shook his head, but humor and sarcasm tinged his voice. “You know, sometimes life gets really complicated having a married couple on my team.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who hired her.” Brent grinned.

  “You weren’t married to her then,” Kel reminded him. “In fact, you probably owe me for bringing her on board.”

  Ignoring the banter, Amy fought back a grin of her own and tapped on her watch. “I hate to break this up, but I’ve got to go.”

  “Be careful,” Brent insisted. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Don’t worry,” Amy told him. “We’ll figure this out.”

  Kel nodded. “Just don’t take too long.”

  10

  Seth leaned against the starboard side rail of the forty-two-foot fishing boat that he would be living on for the foreseeable future. He wasn’t sure how Rick Ellison had managed to rent the boat without raising any suspicions, but he was grateful to have this extra resource at their disposal.

  Behind him, Tristan Crowther appeared completely at ease as he stood at the helm. “We’re coming up on La Playa,” Tristan told him as he adjusted their heading and they neared the resort where Vanessa was currently staying.

  Seth itched for a pair of binoculars to check out the beach and the neat little houses that made up the resort. Unfortunately, he knew that he had to trust Kel and Quinn, who were currently below deck using a variety of surveillance equipment to scope out the area.

  The purpose of this reconnaissance mission was to determine the safest way to penetrate Ramir’s defenses at the resort if it became necessary. Armed with the information Vanessa had given him the night before, Seth was confident his team could insert him if they needed to, but they wanted more than just an easy way in. They also needed to set up a warning signal for when Akil Ramir arrived in Punta Cana.

  Seth knew that the rest of his squad was curious
about his past, especially the part Vanessa played in it. He should be amused, he supposed, that Tristan had been the one brazen enough to ask about Vanessa. Tristan was almost as private about his personal life as Seth was. Of course, that had changed the year before when he had met his wife. Seth knew he could trust every man in his unit with his life, but when it came to Seth’s personal life, he considered his a closed book.

  Since seeing Vanessa last, Seth hadn’t dated anyone seriously, and never once had he been able to mention Vanessa’s name or the fact that his best friend from high school had been Mormon. Even when Seth had converted to the Mormon Church a few years earlier, he hadn’t been able to open that door to his past and confide in his friends that he had known someone in the Church. Seth kept his eyes on the beach, his futile wish for a glimpse of Vanessa going unfulfilled.

  As soon as they passed the resort, Kel came topside.

  “Did you see anything?” Tristan asked.

  “Lots of armed guards.”

  “We already knew about that,” Seth commented, still keeping his eyes on the resort.

  “We also think we located the storage facility where they’re housing the guns they’re shipping through there,” Kel told them. “It’s about a mile north of the resort, and it has a small airstrip right next to it.”

  “How are they getting planes in here without being detected?” Tristan asked. “There are tourists all over the place.”

  “Yeah, but this resort is isolated enough that if they came in at night, no one would hear them coming,” Seth pointed out.

  “And with the airstrip right next to the beach, they could come in under the radar, although I doubt the Dominican Republic has the kind of defenses we’re used to dealing with,” Kel added.

  “So now what?” Seth asked.

  “I’ll send Quinn and Tristan in tonight to set up a sensor at the airstrip so we know when they have planes coming in,” Kel told him. “And tonight you’ll find out everything you can from Vanessa Lauton. We know that she’s been feeding names of suspected terrorists to the CIA through Granger, but they don’t know about the attack helicopters. We need to put people in position to help us figure out what we’re fighting against.”