by J. L. Saint
Pegging the security barracks was easy. Muscle sat on the porch smoking. The team moved on doing their best to attract as little attention as possible. Jack snapped pictures with a hand-held Sony and Beck used the monitoring equipment. The thermal camera enabled him to pick out guards in the shadows and in the foliage.
“What are you doing?” one armed guard shouted at them in Spanish.
Jack, Weston and Beck stopped but pretended not to understand. They showed them their CNN badges and mimed that they’d like to get the men’s picture. Several nearby men posed.
Jack thought they were home free until the guard insisted they go to the main building. Change of plan, but they’d deal by doing inside first then move outside. Going in through the service entrance, they were placed in a waiting area until the guard could contact someone named Fidel. Damn. Jack would give the situation three minutes then they’d go rogue.
Lauren wanted to stand in the middle of the floor and scream to the world on live TV that the SOB smiling so benevolently and doting on his chimpanzee was a horrendous, mass-murdering terrorist who’d kidnapped her children.
Instead she bit her lip, clenched her jaw, and walked along with the Latimoor Live crew. She had to hand it to Candace, the woman was a master of maneuvering. Menendez/Miles had wanted to take everyone to the GXP plant that adjoined his private compound, but Candace had talked him into showing them his private quarters first, emphasizing just how much more human and real and empathetic the viewers would be if they got to know the real Andreas Miles before they learned about his ingenious biofuel invention, GXP.
Menendez had fluffed like a peacock and began leading them around, explaining all of the green technology built into his facilities. He rarely had to use a generator between solar, wind and hydraulic power.
He led them to his energy control panel room and the engineer in charge. The man began explaining how power for the entire compound was regulated. While they were being lectured to, Lauren saw a man approach Menendez. Menendez immediately left the room, looking alarmed.
Lauren hesitated only a split second before following. One of Latimoor’s crewmen with a small video camera followed her.
“Want to tell me what’s up?” the guy whispered. A partially opened door indicated the way Menendez and his man had gone.
“Just follow and film,” she said. “And whatever you do don’t let them hear us.”
Once they passed through the door. Lauren heard Menendez. “This is an unacceptable failure, Fidel. How could they possibly escape?”
“You said the rooms would be a perfect prison. But they were not designed to be. The doors were locked, the windows barred but a design flaw was not seen.”
“¿Que?”
“The hinges were on the inside.”
Menendez screeched loudly, as did the chimp in his arms. A loud ruckus followed by a man’s scream.
“George will finish this later.”
Lauren moved forward with caution. The sight of a man choking on his own blood as he tried to deal with the fact that his nose had been torn off his face turned her stomach and sent her heart wrenching with fear for her sons. The cameraman caught it all and Lauren hurried after Menendez, hopeful that the man would lead her to her children.
Beck paced the waiting room, messing with the toys attached to the camera and Jack was ready to scream with frustration. Weston wasn’t handling the idle wait well either.
“Damn different than our usual takedown.” Jack clenched his fists.
“Yeah.” Weston exhaled hard. “Makes one feel as effective as a wet noodle.”
Their usual method of lethal infiltration was solid, second to second action. In the two-minutes and forty-five seconds they’d been sitting they could have secured an entire building.
“Got something,” Beck said. “It’s chaos on the Big Easy with the number of people talking, but ‘race car’ came through.”
Jack and Weston jumped to their feet. It was all they needed to roll. They exited the room and moved at a fast pace down a hallway. Beck had hoped to zero in on the race car voice and lead them to it via volume read outs. The next transmission was “monkeys, Aunt Angie” but after those two phrases, Beck heard nothing else.
Damn. Jack led the way and they kept up the pretense of filming as they moved through the rooms.
“I’ve got chimps.”
“Let’s go with it.”
Beck led them opposite the service entrance and down a hallway. They passed a door that had been set off its hinges and Jack’s pulsed raced. All three of them picked up their pace.
The sound of monkeys grew louder. The hallway opened up to a huge atrium where a domed ceiling of glass showed massively tall trees overhead and what seemed like hundreds of monkeys going wild, swinging from limb to limb, scrambling here and there.
Before Jack could step completely into the room, he was hit from the side by a chair. He managed to deflect it with an upper cut of his forearm as he slid out his p226 to shove in the oncoming man’s face.
“Son of a bitch, Rico. That hurt.” The man’s features registered in a flash and Jack hugged the man instead of putting a bullet in him.
“Damn, DT. My aim is off. That should have nailed your head.”
Weston and Beck entered and slapped Rico on his good arm. Rico groaned in pain.
“Where are the boys? Angie?”
“Here. Angie, you can come out. The cavalry has arrived.”
Jack turned to find the blessed sight of Matt and Mitch and Angie. All three looked frightened out of their minds. “Hey, kids. You ready to make some bad guys disappear?”
The boys gave a subdued nod. Man they were really wrung out.
Somebody else was with them.
“Who are you?”
“Friend of Bill’s,” Angie said. “Conrad Gardner.”
Jack fought to keep his face neutral, still his skin crawled. So did his gut. This was the sick puppy whose house almost became his grave. “How did you get here?”
“Kidnapped after I escaped my burning boat. Tried to fight the man on the shore but he shot me.” Gardner indicated his shoulder.
“Let’s go then.” Jack moved toward the boys.
“Nobody’s going anywhere! They must die for their father’s betrayal.” Menendez/Miles ran into the room from the opposite hallway, gun raised and aimed right at Matt and Mitch.
“No!” Jack died a thousand deaths as he leaped toward the boys. Everything went in complete slow motion. Gardner dove away from the kids. Angie threw herself against the boys. Four shots were fired and pain ripped up Jack’s back and hip as he landed on top of Angie and the twins.
“No!” Lauren screamed as she saw Menendez/Miles point a gun at her sons. She died in every thundering heartbeat that slammed through her as she ran and hit Menendez full force from behind. She was too late. Menendez had already shot Jack. Bullet holes riddled his back and a well of bright red blood spilled onto the carpet. She barely registered that Weston and Beck had guns pointed her way but jerked wildly up on them when Menendez fell to the ground. One of their shots must have fired because the glass dome overhead cracked.
A wild screeching came at Lauren and she twisted to see Menendez’s chimp coming at her. All she could see was the man with his nose missing, Lauren ran. She jumped over a coffee table that sat in a grouping of furniture and managed to shove a chair between her and the animal when he caught hold of her wig. She pulled away, barely feeling the pins ripping at her roots.
“Get down!” Lauren heard Jack yell. Though it went against every logical thought to escape, Lauren dove for the ground, just waiting for the chimp to rip her scalp off. Inhuman hands grabbed her legs with super strength and pulled her back. She screamed.
Fighting for breath, Jack rolled off Angie and the crying boys onto his back. He saw Lauren dive for the floor. He barely registered that Rico was grappling with Menendez over a gun and that Weston and Beck were fighting three other guards hand-to-hand as he took aim
at the chimp. The shot hit the chimp’s shoulder and rang through the room. The chimp screeched in animal pain and let go of Lauren. It ran wildly toward a glass wall and then pushed through a framed panel, a pet door of sorts. It ran into the forest.
Menendez went insane. He broke free of Rico and ran toward the glass wall. Rico took aim at him as did Jack. They shot in tandem, but Menendez dove to the side. The bullets shattered a large glass panel and Menendez rushed through it, flying glass and all.
A second later ten men in complete tactical gear stormed the room. Christ, Jack thought, his heart sinking in dread.
“Hold your fire, mates.”
Jack recognized Rashid McGuire’s Scottish twang and it hit him. He sat up and looked at Rashid, who was pulling off his gas mask.
“You planned this all along,” Jack said. “You didn’t have enough evidence against Menendez to prove he was Menendez or the man in the yellow hat to raid, but if we went after him and found Collins’s kids, who would take you to task for helping out?”
Rashid grinned. “I’ll thank you later. Meanwhile, you all are under arrest. Got some hunting to do, but I’ll see you stateside.” Rashid and several other men followed Menendez into the rainforest.
Jack located Lauren. She had Matt and Mitch in her arms with Angie attached. She looked up at him and he nodded. A thousand words of relief, gratefulness and love were voiced in her expression. He didn’t know what the fallout of everything would be but he did have something to say to the NCS SOO. The man was barreling his bald head through the room. Weston and Beck were being cuffed. Rico and Gardner were getting medical attention. Bullet wound to the hip and bruised ribs aching, Jack intercepted the man. Jack wasn’t in the mood to play nice. “You take those kids out of her sight for even a second and I’m after you.”
“Are you threatening a NCS official?”
“No, I’m making you a promise. She’s not involved in any of this, but she’s one hell of a smart woman and knew Collins on some level. If you play your hand right, she might be able to help you figure out the details and get you accolades as opposed to a demotion. So, remember, I’ll be watching.”
“How?” the man scoffed. “You’re under arrest.”
“My connection goes all the way to the White House, dickhead. You do her wrong and I guarantee you’ll regret it before you die. Doubt me? Just watch. Inside of twenty-four the three of us will walk and there won’t be a damn thing you can do.”
The man gaped like a fish and Jack turned away, thinking there had to be a better man for the job.
He surrendered to the medical treatment and the cuffs and prayed like hell Weston’s connection to the White House would prove Jack right. But then, the moment General Dekker got wind of their little venture, the White House might not be enough to save any of them.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Asheville, North Carolina
1800 hours, August 29th
Jack frowned at Bear Grylls on the TV wondering what was so great about the man’s mug from the Man Versus Wild show to push Livy’s button. One minute she was tapping her foot to go home then the second she saw Bear, she glued herself to the TV screen. Currently, Bear was giving a lesson in surviving in Central Africa’s rainforest, and slumming with the monkeys. Jack didn’t think Bear would be making friends with the chimps if he’d met Murderous George. But that thankfully wouldn’t be happening. When Rashid McGuire found Menendez/Miles in the Peruvian rainforest after hunting for him all night, George was with him. The monkey had been attacked by a jaguar and hadn’t survived. Menendez/Miles didn’t even put up a fight, but had surrendered, requesting one thing—that George be buried in the jungle. He got his request.
The world was still reeling from Mendes/Miles and Bill Collins’s actions. Further study into Bill Collins’s records and email drafts revealed that Collins was in Lebanon to trade Ambassador James’s and Prime Minister Shalev’s daughters to Muhammad al Qassem for backing to manufacture the Biofuel. Jack supposed that was a step above killing them as Menendez/ Miles had ordered, but not much.
The White House had come through within an hour of the SOO putting him, Weston, Rico, and Beck under arrest. The SOO practically blew a gasket releasing them that quickly. Jack had smiled all the way to General Dekker’s office, where he got the ass chewing of his life. He still stung from the dressing down, but in a good way. There’d been a look in the general’s eye that said he wished he’d been there.
The rescue mission had been so different from Delta’s usual assault into a hostile situation and Jack found himself thinking more and more about how non-lethal the takedown had played out. It had him wondering about starting a company that did what Lauren had needed. The right men to help at the right time. Men who were capable of lethal force if needed, but also men who could operate outside the military’s constraints. He hadn’t mentioned it to anyone yet. He, Rico, Pecos, and even Beck were still recovering from what went down in Lebanon. Rico and Pecos had surgeries coming up. Beck was planning to take some time off and Jack was pretty sure it had something to do with his guilt over Ambassador James’s daughter. Shalev’s daughter was still in a coma.
For now, Jack and his men would take things a day at a time and see how everything played out. Helping Lauren, rescuing Matt and Mitch, and stopping Menendez/Miles despite his injuries had taken away the desperation that had been eating at him.
“He is so cool.” Livy practically sighed and Jack’s frowned deepened. What was the big deal about Bear?
“He is cool and a lot of fun on and off the show,” Jack said, looking forge a connection to Livy.
Livy turned to look at Jack, wide-eyed. “You know that guy? You really know him?”
“Spent a month with him in the Tibetan Alps.”
He and Livy had shared a stiff, tension-filled day going to the movies and eating lunch. He’d come back to his hotel room to pack his duffle bag before he dropped her off at her mom’s house. He’d been in Ashville four days waiting to see her. Customary for Jill, she’d neglected to tell him that Livy was at camp until after he arrived. Jack had spent the three days looking at the misty mountains and doing some much needed thinking and had decided on a few things. His career had consumed his life. That needed to change. He needed to take time for relationships and to see a horizon beyond being a Delta team leader. His first priority was Livy. He’d see her every week until they developed a relationship past mere tolerance.
Jack also knew he wanted Lauren. He couldn’t get her out of his mind nor out of his heart. Didn’t know where that want would take him or her, or even if it was a possibility considering his role in Bill Collins’s death, but he realized he hadn’t given it a chance. That look she’d given him at Andreas’s compound when she had her arms wrapped around Matt and Mitch, wasn’t anywhere near a look of disgust. Quite the opposite.
“Dad!” Livy reached out and punched his shoulder. “You can’t stop there. Tell me more!”
Jack turned his head in shock and Livy’s eyes widened even more than they had over Bear Grylls. She hadn’t called him Dad in years. Only Father, and she hadn’t voluntarily touched him in any way either. That she’d playfully punched him like she used to do when he hadn’t told her something she wanted, left them both emotionally open.
Jack tapped her back like he used to do. “You first, Liv. Tell me what’s so big about Bear and I’ll tell you anything I know about the guy.”
“Don’t you know that just about every hot guy at camp hero-worships him? All us girls were really looking sexy in our bikinis in the canoes and they didn’t pay us an ounce of attention. All they talked about was Bear Grylls that and Bear Grylls this. So us girls checked Bear out. And OMG is he uber hot and knows more than the boys at camp could ever dream of knowing. The girls will just die to find out you know him.” She frowned. “Can I tell them? It’s not secret, is it?”
Jack blinked. Hot guys? Sexy? Bikini? Uber Hot? Grylls? Livy was ten. Ten freaking years old. He sucked in air, tryin
g to breathe, but not quite sure he was. “Yeah.” His throat was thick with emotion. “You can tell them.”
Livy squealed and then turned her attention back to Grylls and sighed.
What the hell? Jack thought. It was a damn good thing he’d woken up now. Another year or two and there would be no telling what trouble Livy would be into. He didn’t think seeing her once a week was going to be enough.
His cell buzzed and he answered Weston’s call.
“They cut her loose,” Weston said.
“What do you mean?”
“Let her go. Told her to call them if she thinks of anything else and sent her home. Dean just called me. No protective services. Nothing. The International Crisis Summit is next week. The proof from Menendez’s compound and the arrest of his operatives before they attacked UAE’s holdings will go a long way to soothing some. But there are radicals that are going to be calling for more blood. As Collins’s widow, she and her sons could be targeted. They still haven’t pieced together all of the puzzles yet, and who else may be involved. There is also five million still hanging out there.”
“They’re setting her up. What do you bet the SOBs are putting her out there as bait?”
“I agree. Listen, some idiots are making anonymous bomb threats to Bragg this afternoon and the place is locked down. Mari went with Holly to the supply store, but their cell phone is jammed. All circuits busy. Otherwise, I’d catch a plane to Atlanta.”
“She’s going there?”
“That’s what Dean says. Says one of Bill’s friends installed a top of the line security system for her.”
“Gardner?” Jack asked, his skin crawling. The man couldn’t rub two nickels to— Shit? Was it possible? Jack ran Gardner’s dump back through his mind. The equipment on the porch splattered with water. The puddle of water on the porch. The shooter hiding in the rafters as if he knew someone would come? Was he being paranoid? Prejudiced because the guy was such a loser? Or was Gardner not an innocent victim in this mess?