Black Ops Warrior

by Amelia Autin

  Her attention was caught by the waving arm of Mary Beth Thompson, who was sitting with her husband, Herb. She didn’t want to eat breakfast with them, but she didn’t think she had a choice. Then she saw Tammy and Martin Williams at a table near the front door. She waved back at Mary Beth and shook her head, pointing toward the Williamses as if to indicate she had a previous assignation with them. Then she carried her tray over to their table.

  “Mind if I join you?”

  Tammy smiled. “Please do.”

  Savannah sat with a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I just couldn’t bear Mary Beth’s brand of chattiness at breakfast.”

  Tammy laughed and signaled to the waiter. “Coffee?” she asked Savannah.

  “Yes, please.” She smiled at the waiter. “No cream.”

  Tammy reached into her purse. “Do you need some no-sugar sweetener? I have some here.”

  “Oh no. I brought my own. I did my research before I came on this trip. ‘Don’t drink the water. Don’t even brush your teeth with it,’” she intoned, checking items off her fingers as if ticking them off a list. “‘Bring your own no-sugar sweetener, because very few places will have it. Lock everything you don’t want stolen in the safe in your hotel room.’” She made a face. “That last thing applies everywhere, unfortunately, not just here in China. I had my iPhone charger stolen out of my hotel room in Washington, DC, one time.”

  “What were you doing in DC?” Martin asked, buttering a roll.

  Mindful of her security warnings, Savannah merely said, “Oh, I was there on a business trip.” She didn’t mention that, except for a cab ride around the city to see a few of the monuments from a distance, all she’d really seen was the view from her hotel—she wasn’t about to go into her fear of crowds with mere acquaintances. Which hammered home the difference between them and Niall. She hadn’t hesitated to confide in Niall her deepest secrets, because...well...because she felt as if she’d always known him. As if she could trust him.

  And one other thing. She was falling for him. Hard.

  Was she going to get her heart broken? Probably. But she didn’t care. She wasn’t foolish enough to think he was Mr. Right. But if she played her cards well, he could be Mr. Right Now.

  She looked up from her plate suddenly, and there he was, standing in the entrance to the restaurant. So tall. So ridiculously fit. So reassuringly male. And all at once she remembered how he’d kissed her last night, then left her because he was a gentleman.

  Their eyes met across the short distance, and she beamed at him. Her gaze slid to the empty chair next to hers, a blatant invitation. One he seemed to have no hesitation accepting.

  “Mind if I join you?”

  Savannah just smiled her welcome, but Tammy said, “The more, the merrier. Grab a plate of food. Want me to order coffee for you?”

  “Sure. Black.” He glanced down at Savannah’s now-empty plate. “Come keep me company,” he invited. “You can tell me what was good.”

  He didn’t really need her recommendations, but he wanted her company. That was all Savannah could think of as she followed him to the buffet. She took an empty plate and added some fruit, watching while Niall piled his plate high with protein, no carbs and no fruit. “Is that how you stay in such great shape?” she asked. “Mega protein?”

  He smiled lazily down at her. “I eat things other than meat. But not where you can’t trust the water that comes out of the tap.”

  “Oh.” She glanced at the cut fruit on her plate.

  “You think they wash the fruit in bottled water?”

  “Oh,” she repeated blankly. “I never thought of that.” She mentally reviewed what she’d already eaten, and felt slightly queasy. Her expression must have given her away, because he said, “It’s probably not an issue, so don’t start second-guessing yourself. Just keep it in mind going forward.”

  * * *

  Niall and Savannah left the restaurant together. “Don’t forget the tour bus leaves at eight,” Tammy called after them. “And the tour guide said they wouldn’t wait for us if we weren’t on the bus. You don’t want to miss the Forbidden City.”

  “We’ll be there,” she assured her new acquaintance. “No way would I miss that.”

  Niall steered her toward the front door. “Let’s go look at the fountain,” he told her. “There’s something I want to discuss with you in private.”

  “That sounds ominous.”

  “It’s not meant to be,” he began, then amended, “Well...maybe it is. It’s about last night.”

  “You mean the attempted break-in?”

  “I don’t think it was a break-in, Savannah,” he said, his voice very deep. Very serious. And obviously very concerned. “I think you were targeted. And I don’t think they planned to rob you.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “I talked with hotel security last night and this morning—that’s where I was before breakfast. This hotel has extensive security cameras at all the entrances, and they reviewed the tapes. No one wearing the clothing I saw entered or left the hotel last night, with or without masks. Which means they didn’t leave the hotel. Which means they either work here...or they’re guests.” He paused, then added softly, “And if they’re guests, my money says they’re on the tour.”

  Chapter 5

  Savannah stared up at Niall, an arrested expression on her face. “Okay,” she said slowly. “Maybe they work here. Or maybe they’re a sophisticated gang of thieves who’re masquerading as guests, maybe even on the tour. But how do you get from that to thinking they weren’t just planning to rob me?”

  Niall chose his words carefully. “What did they say when they knocked at your door?”

  She shook her head, her brow furrowed, as if she wasn’t seeing his point. “All they said was—” Then she got it. “Housekeeping,” she whispered. “But no Chinese accent.”

  He nodded. “I don’t see them speaking English like an American if they were there to rob you. It’s possible, of course, but not very likely. Which means you were probably targeted for some other reason. And the only reason that comes to mind is...the job you used to have.”

  “How do you know what my job used to be?” Her face had lost some of its color. “I never told you.”

  “I can put two and two together, same as you. You told me you’re an engineer. You told me who your employer was, and you told me they tried to convince you not to quit.” He smiled faintly. “Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out you were a rocket scientist. And, therefore, vitally important to the defense industry in some way. Which makes me think...”

  “I’m not that important. Not enough for someone to, to—”

  “Kidnap you?”

  She swallowed hard. “It’s like something out of a spy novel. Things like this don’t happen in real life.”

  “Maybe not. But give me another reason why someone would target you.” She couldn’t and he knew it, and his heart went out to her. “I work in security,” he reminded her, although he wasn’t about to tell her what kind of security. “It’s my job to be suspicious. To question everything.” He waited for that to sink in, then asked, “I don’t suppose you’ll agree to cancel the rest of this tour and go home.”

  She blinked at him as if she couldn’t believe what he was suggesting. “Go home?” she asked, clearly stunned. “I’ve wanted to take this trip practically my whole life. I finally—finally—get up the courage to do it after my parents—” She stopped abruptly, and the stricken expression on her face told him she couldn’t finish that sentence without breaking down. But she didn’t have to say it for him to know what was in her mind. “And you want me to go home?”

  Her voice had risen in intensity, but then she glanced around to make sure she hadn’t drawn attention with her ou
tburst. She lowered her voice when she continued. “No way,” she said fiercely, but with a tearful edge that made his throat ache. “I saw the Great Wall yesterday, but that’s not nearly enough. I’m going to see the Forbidden City, Niall. And the Xi’an terracotta warriors, too. I am. I’m going to cruise the Yangtze River, visit the Three Gorges Dam and the Goddess Stream. I’m not giving that up. I’m not. I’m not!”

  He cradled her face in his hands. “Okay,” he soothed. “Okay.” He slid his arms around her and pulled her close. “I understand, Savannah. I do. You’re not just doing this for you, but for your parents, too. I understand.”

  He felt the shudder that traveled through her entire body when he mentioned her parents. Well, he’d known what her answer would be, hadn’t he? Which meant his options had just dwindled down to one. Protect Savannah for the next two weeks. Keep her safe so she could visit all the sights she’d planned to see, for herself and for her parents.

  And to do that—to be with her 24/7—he just might have to accept the invitation she’d extended last night and become her lover. A sacrifice in one way, because any more time in her company would push him right over the edge. He knew that. And when they returned to the States, when he had to let her go—how could she ever forgive him once she discovered why he was there in the first place?—it would be like taking a bullet to his heart again.

  But in another way, it wouldn’t be a sacrifice. Because part of him acknowledged he had to have her, just once. He had to know what it was like to make love to her. To feel her body arch beneath his and make her cry his name. To see the smile of a woman who’d been well and truly loved on her face when she looked at him.

  He didn’t know how he’d managed to go from contemplating killing her to needing her like he needed his next breath in less than twenty-four hours, but he had. And he knew his life would never be the same again.

  * * *

  Damn, damn, damn! the man told himself as he closed the email and logged off his computer. The fourteen-hour time difference between Alamogordo, New Mexico, and Beijing meant he’d only learned of last night’s failure to kidnap Savannah Whitman early this morning, and his encrypted, coded reply with further instructions for his agents hadn’t been read until they’d woken this morning in Beijing. Phone calls back and forth wouldn’t be any better time-wise, and he would run the risk that the National Security Agency might be listening. His emails could be intercepted, too, but the encryption should make it nearly impossible for the NSA to crack them, and besides he was using coded instructions.

  No, encrypted emails were far more secure, and his frustration had nothing to do with the method of communication. Just with the execution...or lack of it.

  He’d tried for years to lure the quietly brilliant Dr. Savannah Whitman to work for his company to no avail. But now he had no choice. He’d lost too many competitive proposals to the company that had employed Dr. Whitman, because the damned DoD trusted her and her work. Which meant his company had been teetering on the brink already. And the breakthrough missile design she’d just come up with this summer? The one that had made the missile his company had been supplying to the DoD for years obsolete?

  He’d cursed her, but he’d also known he had to gain possession of her to stave off bankruptcy. And he could no longer afford to wait the two years demanded by the non-compete agreement she’d signed, either. Not that that would prohibit her from working for his company those two years; it would just forbid her from working on something directly related to a previous project...which was exactly what he wanted her to do. And he knew she was just too ethical to try to skirt the strict interpretation of that non-comp.

  So he’d had an epiphany when he’d learned she was taking a year off after the deaths of her parents and traveling the world, beginning with China. This was his perfect opportunity to kidnap her...and throw suspicion on the Chinese government.

  His secret glee had known no bounds when he’d cast aspersions on her character with the US government—payback for the many times she’d turned down his job offers—and he’d pretended to be greatly reluctant about revealing the “true” reason behind her resignation from her former employer. It had been so easy to manipulate suspicion, because certain high-ranking individuals within Homeland Security and the DoD were paranoid about the government of the People’s Republic of China. A private word here, a calculated disclosure there and he’d succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

  But he still had to kidnap her and make it appear to be the work of the PRC. Everything depended on it. Which meant this man who’d suddenly turned up on the tour and befriended Dr. Whitman, this man who’d unwittingly interfered with the brilliant plan, had to be eliminated. One way or another.

  * * *

  Savannah stared in wonder at the vast expanse in front of her that was Tiananmen Square, across the street from the Forbidden City. So vast, it literally dwarfed the tens of thousands of people assembled there. The tour guide was droning on and on about the history of Tiananmen Square in her electronic earpiece, but she turned off her little receiver because she didn’t need him to tell her. She knew.

  She could see the row of tanks in her mind’s eye, see the lone man confronting them. You could debate the rights and wrongs of what happened that day in 1989 and everything that led up to it, but the bravery of the man confronting the tanks was beyond question.

  She turned to Niall, standing quietly at her side, and blinked away tears. “He believed,” she whispered.

  Niall seemed to be able to read her mind, because he said, “Yeah. He had the courage of his convictions. He didn’t die that day, you know—he was pulled to safety. But no one knows what ultimately happened to him. There are conflicting reports. Some say he was later arrested and executed, some say he escaped and went into hiding.”

  “I believe in fighting for democracy, too,” she blurted out. “With all my heart. I have friends who ask me how I can do what I do for a living and still sleep at night. And I tell them they don’t understand. The work I do—the work I did,” she corrected, “it’s vital to national security.”

  She drew a quick breath. “Guided missiles are so much better than anything we used to have. It’s my job to make sure our missiles are as accurate as possible, so they hit the military targets they’re aimed at, and civilian casualties are minimized.”

  He didn’t say anything for the longest time. Then he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers in a chaste kiss. “Eloquently put,” he murmured when he raised his head. There was an expression in his eyes she couldn’t interpret. It almost looked like remorse. But what about her words would make Niall feel remorseful?

  * * *

  More proof—if he needed it—that Savannah wasn’t a traitor, Niall realized. But someone had deliberately set out to convince the US government she was. Why?

  Her words also made him extremely glad he worked for a government that didn’t automatically assume guilt and act accordingly. Yes, he’d been dispatched to prevent Savannah from betraying the US by whatever means necessary. But his first assignment had been compiling proof of her guilt that would stand up in a court of law. Killing her would have been a last resort, only if he couldn’t stop her any other way.

  He didn’t want to dwell on what might have been, because it wasn’t going to happen. Not now. But what she’d just revealed only added to his determination to find out who had made Savannah his target, and why. And to bring that person to justice.

  * * *

  The couple posing as husband and wife watched from a hundred yards away as Savannah and Niall walked hand in hand through the Forbidden City. Savannah, they were quick to notice, was completely oblivious to the danger they posed. Niall, not so much. His gaze was constantly moving, moving. Checking out the crowd, almost as if he were cataloguing people for future reference. They smiled and waved when his eyes met theirs, then they turned away to e
nter one of the small courtyards to deflect suspicion that they had Savannah and Niall under observation.

  “Spencer was right,” the man said. “He’s a complication we don’t need.”

  The woman froze, then glanced left and right to make sure no one was close enough to overhear. “You’re going to kill him?” she whispered, obviously appalled. As if to say she’d signed up for kidnapping, but not for murder.

  “I’d rather not if I don’t have to. Don’t want to bring official scrutiny on the tour if I can help it. But if I can arrange a little accident...” He shrugged. “A broken leg, maybe. Something to put him in the hospital or at least incapacitate him. We’ll see.”

  * * *

  Hours later, Savannah was exhausted. She’d walked for miles, it seemed, had ascended and descended countless broad stairways in her determination not to miss anything, had poked her nose into numerous courtyards, had peered into glass-walled rooms depicting homey little scenes of family life in the royal palace. She’d taken hundreds of photos with her camera that would be a pictorial diary she’d look back on years hence.

  And she’d reveled in Niall’s company. She’d been surprised at how knowledgeable he was about Chinese history, both ancient and modern, and had thoroughly enjoyed every moment they’d spent discussing the pluses and minuses of life in China’s glorious past.

  “Not so great for women, of course,” she stated after long discussions about Chinese contributions to art and science, the Silk Road and commerce, gunpowder, the invention of paper and life in general under the Chinese emperors.

  “Yeah, but not really all that different from what life was like for women in England or Europe at that time, either,” he countered.

  “True.” She stopped and drew a deep breath, conscious that her leg muscles were about to revolt.

  “Tired?”

  “A little,” she admitted, then amended, “Okay, a lot. But very happy I came here. It’s just so much to cram into a small span of time. I could spend days here and not see everything.”