Fire and Ice (Guardians)

by Paige, Victoria

  "We'll be cruising at 160 miles per hour," Viktor announced. "We should be on target site right before 3:00 am. Our birds are outfitted with anti-radar detection and we'll be flying low to the ground. As a recap of our playbook: Alpha team will fast-rope down to the roof. Bravo team chopper will provide cover fire and will provide backfill if necessary. Team Charlie will fast-rope to the courtyard and will proceed to rescue the Guardians from the cell block. The whereabouts of Agent Pierce in the three-story building is unkown. Alpha team will do that search and rescue. No detainees. Gavlik is shoot to kill. Any questions?"

  Everybody grunted their agreement as they dispersed to their respective choppers.

  ***

  Maia wrapped herself with the only blanket available to her. It was winter in Russia and she was dressed like Jabba the Hut's harem girl. Damn Gavlik and his perversions, and her own smart mouth that had earned her this punishment. She tried to bury her cold nose in the pillows. It was damn hard to sleep when one was shivering with cold.

  At first she thought she was dreaming when she heard the blunt rhythm of the rotor blades of a chopper. Temperature-controlled torture had been known to cause hallucinations. Then she heard shouts, rapid footfalls and bursts of gunfire. And then the alarms went off.

  What was happening? Who was attacking? Erik?

  Volynsky must have procured some helicopters for an air assault, because from what Maia had seen, the 30 foot walls of the compound were hard to breach.

  Wide awake now, Maia tugged on the cold chain that was attached to the manacle on her ankle. She knew she may be used as a shield or as blackmail but she was prepared to fight.

  Jack and Viktor led the assault of the Alpha team on the roof. Bravo team was doing a good job of keeping the shooters down to a minimum by raking bullets on the hostiles with their M4-carbines on fully-automatic. Jack fast-roped onto the roof, landing with more than 40-lbs of gear strapped to his body. As each man landed on the flat roof, they formed a loose line along the wall leading to the entrance of the building. One of Viktor's men knelt and set the breaching charge over the metal door. Everyone hunkered down as the portal was blown apart.

  Bright light broke through as well as a spray of gunfire. Jack flicked up his night-vision goggles as another Alpha team member threw a grenade into the entrance to pave the way for their assault.

  As soon as the grenade exploded, there was a brief stoppage of gunfire inside and that's when Alpha team swiftly moved in.

  A man on Jack's team provided cover fire while he and the other five men disappeared into the building. Once they were clear, the man assumed sniper position.

  Viktor took the top floor with one man while Jack headed down to the second floor with another, a guy named Brock. The fifth guy guarded the stairwell to backfill just in case. Erik, the leader of Charlie Team crackled through comms to inform them that they had also breached the first floor.

  Jack ran into a hostile at the base of the second-floor stairwell. A bullet zinged past his head, which pissed him off, but he calmly squeezed two shots off to take down the other guy.

  A barrage of bullets followed from the opposite side of the hallway, raining bits of plaster on them. Jack snuck a look down the hallway to check the number of doors. Three on the left, four on the right; it was a long-ass hallway.

  Gavlik's men were not using suppressed firearms which would make their muzzle flashes easy to detect in the dark, so Jack pointed out the florescent lights on the ceiling to Brock indicating what he intended to do.

  Jack shot out the lights and plunged the hallway into darkness. He and Brock quickly flipped down their night-vision goggles.

  Jack signaled to Brock to cover him while he advanced along the hallway. At his nod, well-aimed shots took down the hostiles systematically at the other end. Jack quickly kicked down the door of the first room on the right. When it was cleared, his partner moved forward as he provided cover fire.

  As expected, the hostiles became easy targets when their muzzle flashes revealed their positions.

  After a couple of minutes, it was down to the last gunman.

  There was a lull in the shooting when Jack heard a door crash, a distinct female voice curse and the sound of a scuffle. The commotion was happening in the last room on the right, from which light spilled into the hallway.

  "Let go, you sonofabitch!"

  Maia! Jack's heart leaped to his throat. He looked at Brock and nodded for him to be on the lookout. Jack slung back his carbine and drew his semi-automatic pistol. Flipping his night-vision goggles up, he concentrated on his pistol's front sight and turned into the room with his gun raised in a modified-weaver position. The remaining hostile had a gun to Maia's head and was screaming that he would shoot her if he didn't back off.

  Jack vaguely registered Maia's startled gasp as she recognized him, but her eyes were calm. She suddenly flashed her three fingers over her abdomen and then started to count down three, two... damn it Maia...

  ... one...

  She broke free and dropped. Jack squeezed the trigger.

  Maia felt the man behind her go down even as she noticed Jack surging towards her. He came for her! She couldn't believe her eyes, couldn't fathom that he was there.

  "Maia, God, Maia!" Jack said hoarsely as his warm body hit hers and she was crushed into those familiar arms that had curled into her so many times.

  "Jack ...you came for me," her words came out as a sob as emotions threatened to overwhelm her. Get a grip, Pierce, she berated herself. They were not out of the woods yet.

  "I'll always come for you, babe," Jack whispered tenderly. His eyes dropped to her shackles and suddenly became alert as he looked around the rest of the room.

  He pulled the chain taut and ordered her to look away as he snapped a round into the metal links to separate them.

  Maia quickly ran to the dresser to change into her own clothes as she divested herself of the harem attire.

  "Hurry up, Maia," Jack urged her as he peered down the hallway, giving the all-clear to his partner.

  "I've secured Pierce," he said through comms.

  "Copy that," Viktor replied. "Alpha team rendezvous to position A for pick-up."

  Jack walked over to Maia and handed her a nine-millimeter. "You ready, babe?"

  She nodded, still not believing that he was here.

  "Stay close."

  It looked like all the hostiles from the second and third floor had been eliminated. There was a heavy din of a firefight that was coming from the first floor. This was punctuated with bouts of shouting.

  "Shouldn't we help them?" Maia asked as she made a move to go downstairs. She ran into Jack's out-thrust arm catching her around the waist and holding her tightly against him.

  "No! Damn it, Maia will you follow orders for a change?" Jack growled as he lugged her up the stairs where they ran into Viktor.

  "Third floor is all clear," Viktor said.

  "What about Edmunds and the others?" Maia asked with concern.

  "They're fighting their way out right now," Viktor said.

  "We have to help them!" Maia said fiercely as she shook free of Jack's hold and made a move to go down the stairs.

  "No!" Viktor and Jack yelled simultaneously as each man took hold of her arms on either side and hauled her towards the waiting Black Hawk.

  "What the fuck?" Maia shouted back. "Those are my men, I'm responsible!"

  She was surrounded by damn Neanderthals, Maia thought furiously.

  "Not anymore," Viktor informed her as he observed the mulish set of her jaw. "Some men from team Bravo are on their way now to provide backup. Edmunds and the rest will be fine. Gavlik's men are giving up. Don't worry, Maia."

  Jack bundled her into the chopper and got in behind her holding her so tight she couldn't breath.

  "Jack, you're suffocating me," Maia complained. He loosened his arms only to have his lips come down on hers in a deep, searching, hungry kiss ignoring all the other occupants in the chopper.

&n
bsp; Maia was red-faced, not used to this PDA in front of people she worked with. And then she remembered something.

  "Wait a minute: we're broken up, remember?" Maia whispered.

  "I think that was more like a lover's spat, babe," Jack murmured huskily. His voice was so warm and gentle, Maia had trouble remembering why she had been mad at him in first place. Besides, he had crossed the Atlantic to rescue her.

  ***

  Erik Costa took the kill shot that finished Mikhail Gavlik. In some way, he was able to avenge his mother. Edmunds, Manning and Chavez were able to get out with the help of team Charlie. With the death of their pakhan and with the imminent return of Volynsky, the rest of the Gavlik crime family abandoned their posts and disappeared into the woods of Orenburg.

  "So what now?" Maia asked Alexsey Volynksy. They were back at the Samara compound, refueling the choppers and saying their farewells.

  "Gavlik's bratva is being dismantled. Your FBI had been working for years to weaken it. With Gavlik and Reznikov gone, no one is keen to take over," Volynsky said. "As for GAV-VOL Pharmaceuticals, I had legal proceedings started to have it renamed Volynsky Pharmaceuticals and plan to restore the business to respectability. Any board member who had supported Gavlik in the development of the Rave-IX will be prosecuted."

  "It's over then," Maia said as peace came over her.

  "Thanks to you," Volynsky replied as he clasped both of her hands and brought them to his lips in gratitude. "If you need my help for anything, anything at all, Agent Pierce, you know how to contact me."

  Jack came up to them and looked at Maia. "You ready?"

  Maia nodded and hugged Volynsky goodbye.

  They landed in Kumuroch Airport at noon.

  They were lingering in a private hangar waiting for their plane to pass flight check; Maia eyed the Gulfstream 550. "So who did you bribe to get this?" she asked Viktor.

  "Compliments of the State Department," he answered with a grin.

  "I'm feeling honored," Maia laughed.

  Viktor threw his arm around her and walked her away from the other Guardians. Jack was watching them surreptiously.

  "Katerina, you gave me a fright with this one," Viktor told her. "I wasn't sure how to get you back."

  "How were you able to find us anyway? Not even Erik's men knew the location of Gavlik's fortress," Maia said.

  "You have your boyfriend to thank for that one. He is still your boyfriend, right?" Viktor asked with a sly grin.

  "Hmph, not so sure yet. We have a lot to talk about."

  "Remember the vaccination you received in December?"

  "Yes?"

  "Well, it wasn't for the flu. That was a tracking serum that MDI had developed. It's a biological tracking device. The signal is in your bloodstream."

  "What? Who makes shit like that?" Maia asked in amazement. "Wait, I'm not going to be trackable forever, am I?"

  "It's like a self-kill virus. It disappears in six months. That stuff saved your life. Jack was so worried about protecting you, he offered it to AGS for free. We're definitely going to place an order for our agents. It's untraceable by other devices."

  Maia was impressed. She stole a glance at Jack, who was still watching them anxiously.

  "Maia, I've always thought you can take care of yourself," Viktor said gently. "But Jack McCord is a good man. We may have had our differences and I know you had that recent blow-up, but give him a chance, I think he gets you. He may be an overprotective ass sometimes, but you do need that. Actually, I saw his point earlier."

  Maia scowled as she remembered the two of them hauling her to the chopper.

  "Can't believe you're defending a man in my life," Maia grumbled.

  Viktor snorted. "Come on, we're leaving soon."

  They approached the rowdy group that was now filing onto the plane. Maia guessed the huge success of the mission had put everyone in a celebratory mood.

  Jack came up to her and pulled her aside.

  "We're not going with them," he informed her.

  "What do you mean? I don't want to stay here."

  "Babe, what do you think of Paris?"

  "What?"

  "We'll fly straight from here, I have a charter on standby."

  "Are you nuts?"

  Jack curled an arm around her and kissed her nose.

  "I couldn't be any more serious and we have lots of things to discuss."

  "Oh, yeah, that," Maia retorted sarcastically.

  "Are you going to hold that over my head forever?" Jack sighed.

  "Maybe. But I must say you have one heck of a way of making up for it."

  "Well, about Paris?"

  "Jack, I don't have my clothes and my real passport."

  "I have that covered."

  "What? You broke into my house?"

  "No, I had Laurie buy you a new set of clothes before we came for you."

  Maia was having a hard time processing this. "You bought me a whole new wardrobe?"

  "Yeah."

  "Before you even knew the outcome of the mission."

  "Babe, any outcome other than you coming home with me was unacceptable."

  Maia shook her head in disbelief. "And my passport?"

  Jack shrugged, "Viktor gave it to me."

  "Viktor gave it... ?" Maia was baffled. "Since when did you and Viktor become such buddies?"

  Jack chuckled. "Well, babe? Paris?"

  "Oh, all right, since you went through so much trouble."

  Jack looked like he had hit the lottery and went off to finalize the arrangements with the charter company.

  Maia shook her head and turned her phone on to listen to her messages. Her phone gave a rapid beep as the voice message notification filled up her phone. Holy crap, twenty voice messages from Jack?

  She started to listen. And some from Derek, Jack's assistant Laurie and Jack's mom, all of whom, Maia was sure, had been put up to by Jack.

  She got a bit teary-eyed listening to some of Jack's messages. He was truly scared for her and had reacted in anger and she had also not handled leaving for Russia that first time properly either. After spending such a wonderful month together, she had treated him like crap, which she had realized in the weeks that followed. She had nearly destroyed him; good thing they found their way back to each other. And she was surprised how she was now willing to trust Jack with all of her.

  They certainly did have a lot of things to talk about.

  He loped back to her with a big smile on his face. It looked like everything was set with their trip to Paris.

  Seeing her face, Jack frowned, "What?"

  "Just listened to my messages," Maia said waving her phone at him. "You are such a stalker."

  Jack's laughter filled the hangar as he pulled her into his arms.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  It was the dead of winter, not the most ideal time to be walking along the River Seine. But there's nothing more romantic than watching couples all-bundled up and clutching at each other tightly as they strolled along Paris' iconic waterway.

  "Want some ice cream?" Jack asked.

  "Are you kidding me?" Maia groaned. She was stuffed from dinner. They had arrived at Charles de Gaulle at around 3pm and taken the RER to their hotel in the 8th arrondissement where Jack was able to secure a premiere suite. There was nothing Maia wanted more than to soak in the marble bath tub, but Jack insisted on getting ready for an early dinner.

  By 5pm, they were seated at a restaurant known for the best duck confit in Paris. They followed the meal of crispy duck with the restaurant's famous but simple apple tart. So despite Maia's penchant for overeating, she couldn't understand Jack's suggestion of more food.

  "Well, there's a popular ice cream shop right on Ile Saint-Louis," Jack informed her.

  "Why do I get the feeling that you're fattening me up for the kill?" Maia said as she angled her clear blue eyes on him.

  Jack looked sheepish and glanced down at his feet. He guided Maia to the railings that lined the river embankm
ent.

  "We haven't really talked about what happened," Jack began tentatively.

  "Oh, the night you kicked me out of your apartment?" Maia said sarcastically. Her eyes flared with the beginnings of her temper as the events of that night came back to mind.

  "Let's go back a bit further than that," Jack fired back, obviously getting himself riled up as well. "About the night you just packed up and left me to go on some dangerous assignment. I know I said I'm okay and I understood it's your job. What I'm not okay with is you just up and leaving me like I'm some damn roommate or some damn meaningless fuck. I thought we were in a committed relationship, I deserved more than just a 'Hey I need to be somewhere, see you in three weeks' kind of deal."

  "Well if ..."

  "I'm not done talking," Jack snapped. "I was okay with that then. Not now. After this shitstorm you got yourself into this last time, you are done accepting these kinds of assignments. I don't care if you quit AGS to do this. You will tell me exactly where you are going, when you are leaving, what you are doing and who you'll be dealing with. I want names. I told Viktor, once I get you back from this I make the decisions to keep you safe, not him. Got me?"

  Maia gaped at him in disbelief. Her mouth must have hung open.

  "You can say something now," Jack said impatiently.

  Maia snapped her mouth shut. She stalked a few steps away, spun around and walked back to Jack and got into his face.

  "Unbelievable! You are delusional! What gives you the right to control me like that?" Maia sputtered. "Quit the AGS? In your dreams, buddy! You've got the wrong girl if you think you can enforce those rules on me." She poked her fingers in his chest three times for emphasis.

  "No, you're the girl I'm in love with. I love you more than my own life," Jack declared fervently. "If anything happens to you Maia, it will be over for me. I'm never gonna come back from losing you—not in ten, not in fifty years. So I'm asking you not to throw away what we have on some fucking job someone else can do. I'm begging you to give what we have a chance. You've done your time; it's OK to slow down, babe. I promise you, I'll make it my life's priority to make you happy."