“We’re here,” he pointed to the map, holding it awkwardly with one hand until Sam lifted one side. “Chase says the fire is moving fast. We’ll never make it through there in time. Even if we could, Chase thinks it’s too big of a risk. So if we go on this old mining road here,” Carter pointed to another spot on the map, “it comes in less than a mile from the Global Navigation facility. We’ll rendezvous with Chase and his people then head north here.” After tapping the spot, Carter folded the map and stuffed it back into his vest pocket. “This will all be over within less than an hour if we can get through the pass.”
Vernon searched his hand held electronic device quickly and nodded. “Roads are in good shape. Global had them widened and resurfaced with a chip and seal mix just a month ago in case of emergencies.”
“How far sighted of them,” Sam quipped. She sniffed the air. “Smoke. How soon will Chase be here?” Sam glanced at her Rolex and then to the darkening skies. “I don’t like this.”
Vernon continued to look at his hand held computer. “The aerial link shows that fire has jumped the ridge. I think the captain is trapped, Carter,” Vernon said with all the calm he could muster. “If they’re not on their way…” He left the sentence unfinished.
Carter looked up the road as if Chase Hunter and Zoric would appear in that monstrous black Hummer. He never understood why someone like Chase didn’t get a fast and furious sports car like his. Chicks dug that kind of crap, not that Chase really cared what his lady friends preferred. Those brainy types he attracted seemed contented to just breathe the same air as Dr. Chase Hunter. All those old books, Jazz music and candle light dinners in Old Town just prolonged the inevitable; a roll in the hay. Carter found a couple of beers; a jukebox and flattery got a guy from point A to point B in record time. Of course he stayed away from all those brainy, high brows. He’d tried that at Houston and the Kennedy Space Center. NASA’s combined IQ if turned into rocket fuel could have easily gotten man to Mars and back in record time. The women, although more enjoyable to work with and easier to respect, tended to over analyze a weekend at Coco Beach. That Russian astronaut certainly didn’t understand the concept of sharing and nearly killed him on the International Space Station. All hell broke loose when the American female astronaut sent a revealing photograph of herself with the words bring your rocket to my space. Unfortunately Natasha had been floating by at the time he opened the picture. That had been the beginning of the end of his career at NASA.
Carter and Chase met only a few years after that episode during a Buck Austin campaign event for president. A gunman managed to out maneuver the Secret Service. Chase, having been invited by Benjamin Clark to the event, hoped meeting the future president of the United States would help the Delta Force captain understand the idea of Enigma. Just after Buck Austin finished his speech to a roaring crowd of enthusiastic voters, he moved from the stage to shake hands with his fans on the ground. Chase stood in the first row with Ben noticing that the ex-astronaut, Carter Johnson, also enjoyed the admiration of the crowd. From the corner of his eye he saw a short, chubby man with glasses pull out something dark from under his shirt. As the gun came up, Chase leaped on the future president, taking the bullet through his arm. Without thought to his own safety, Carter lunged at the shooter, who began screaming some socialistic mumbo gumbo. Knocking his stocky body to the ground, Carter began pounding the shooter’s face with doubled fists. Secret Service, embarrassed by their lapse in security, tackled all three men, knocking Carter unconscious, and giving Chase a swift kick to the side and a goose egg size knot on the back of his head. Both protectors ended up in the same hospital room and became fast friends in spite of their personality differences. Chase admired the astronaut’s carefree attitude and reckless disregard for danger. He would have made a good Special Forces man. Carter respected the former Delta Force captain for no other reason except he deserved it. He was a man’s man. No nonsense. Honest. Fearless.
“Look!” Vernon pointed toward the road. “It’s Zoric. He looks hurt!”
The three rushed toward their comrade who awkwardly carried someone else over his shoulder. Even though the old man had not been over weight, the effect of smoke in his lungs, a downhill trek and trying to out run a forest fire, had winded Zoric. Blood trickled down the side of his face from a wound on the side of his forehead. When Carter gently removed the old man from his care, Zoric felt his knees buckle only to be pulled back up by the capable hands of Sam and Vernon.
“Where the hell are Chase and Tessa?” Carter yelled, hearing the fire marching toward them.
“We were cut off! He’s still up there.”
Sam stiffened. “Dear Lord in Heaven!”
“We were ambushed. I tried to push Crawley inside the Hummer to escape but they shot out the tires so we took cover in the rocks. They managed to separate us long enough for the fire to make it impossible for us to regroup. Last I saw Chase they were headed deeper into the forest. I forced the old man to his feet when the shooting stopped, figuring whoever ambushed us needed to get in front of the fire.” Zoric nodded toward Jericho Crawley. “He just couldn’t make it with the wheezing and coughing.” He wiped the blood from the bullet graze on the edge of his black tee shirt, and then examined it as if surprised to see the evidence of the near miss.
Carter carried the old man like a baby until they reached the trucks where he sat him down on wobbly legs. He felt Jericho Crawley pat his arm as he leaned against the truck. “Thank you.”
“We’re leaving now!” Carter motioned for the rest to return to the truck they were to be guarding.
“What about Chase?” Sam demanded. “We can’t just leave him up there.”
“If we don’t get this Moly 99 to Global a lot of people are going to die. Now, Sam! Chase will find a way. He always does!” Opening the door of his truck, he stepped up to find his driver gone. “What the hell?” Carter looked down at his crew and was stunned to see all three drivers holding them at gunpoint.
“Guess you didn’t count on this, did ya, Mr. Hotshot Fly Boy.” The other drivers grinned smugly as the one in charge ran his gun up and down Sam’s back suggestively.
Carter sighed. “That’s really not a good idea, buddy.”
Chapter 24
Gunfire exploded around Chase’s team as the forest fire began its steady death march toward them. Seconds earlier Jericho Crawley meandered to the Hummer, stretching his legs and arms from sitting too long in the shade. Removing a bottle of water from the Styrofoam cooler, he turned a watchful eye towards him. His concern at smelling smoke alerted Tessa first. She rubbed the old man’s back gently and reassured him that two years ago forest fires could be smelled sixty miles away. She whispered that she’d just take a quick look while everyone put supplies back in the Hummer so preparations could be finalized to meet Carter and the convoy of trucks.
Just as she screamed a warning, gunfire erupted causing everyone to scramble for cover. Tessa crouched down and covered her head while desperately looking for someplace to hide. Later she would realize a bullet pinged off a tree above her head making her scream again. She felt like being trapped in a carnival shooting gallery where you would take a shot and something would ping then send the duck in the opposite direction. The image of her family floating gently in a rented canoe on Lake Tahoe swam up into her consciousness just as something heavy slammed her to the ground. Large hands pushed her head down as arms covered her back and neck. Tessa could still hear bullets hitting boulders and the gravel as their sting slammed against her arms and legs. Barely able to catch her breath, Tessa heard Zoric call out to them, with a deafening response from Chase that made no sense; something about go without them. In that instant of confusion Tessa felt Chase’s warm breath on her ear, his left hand in her tangled hair, and the pungent stench of the world burning all around them. Alarmingly the sound of ricocheting bullets had been replaced with the crackle of fire.
“Get up! We’re leaving!” Chase seemed to defy gravity as
he sprang to his feet jerking Tessa up roughly by the back of her shirt. Flames of fire licked up the sides of trees and danced recklessly at the tops of evergreens only to bend as if to hand their destruction to other life forms around them. He nudged her firmly toward the fire. “We’re cut off, Tess! Down the trail is our only choice!”
How a body could freeze amongst the inferno confused Chase momentarily as he watched Tessa look in awe at the burning Hummer. She appeared unaware of the death trap creeping toward them for its final assault. Snatching her hand, Chase felt pieces of twigs and gravel embedded in her palm with the wet trickle of blood mingling with his own. Just as Tessa turned her wide eyes of terror up at him, Chase yanked on her arm to get her moving after him. “Move!”
The smoke swirled around them like some twisted death dance. Flecks of fire rained down so quickly that their progress became a zigzag of jerky movements to avoid being burned by the tentacles of flashing flame and dead tree limbs. Tessa’s eyes watered so heavily that the lightly applied mascara began leaving black trails of fear down her cheeks. Her lungs burned as she began coughing and staggering after the captain. He pulled her after him at a dead run. She had not expected the intense sound of burning debris, dried underbrush and tree bark, to be so deafening. Tessa found it confusing and disorienting as she clung with both hands to Chase Hunter’s outstretched arm. If she slowed, he jerked. If she stumbled, he paused a split second to let her fall into him only to rush forward again, dragging her out of breath body with him. Besides stomping impatiently ahead, Chase failed to exhibit any fear or concern as to where he led them.
Just when Tessa thought she couldn’t take another step he stopped shortly and pulled her up beside him. “We can’t go any further, Tessa,” he yelled above the fire.
Tessa looked around her, alarmed that they’d been boxed in by the raging fire. The heat seemed to scorch their skin as it began to enclose them in a ring of hell. “Dear Lord!” she cried as Chase pulled her forward.
It was then she realized they teetered on the edge of a cliff. Below roared a river created by a waterfall still full of late spring rains from mid-May. The opposite side of the ravine smoldered with burnt underbrush and pine needles. Fire had already devoured its beauty and had moved on to the ripe hillside where they stood.
“What do we do?” Tessa yelled above the fire. She hadn’t realized her hands clutched Chase’s forearms in some desperate plea for rescue.
“Jump!”
Tessa pulled away, choking on her fear of heights. Shaking her head obstinately, Tessa pointed at the water below. “I can’t! I won’t! There’s gotta be another way!”
Chase reached out and grabbed her roughly by the arm and jerked her forward. “You’ve got two choices. Jump or I’ll have my way with you here and now like I should’ve done in the middle of the night. I’ve got nothing to lose,” he grinned sardonically as he narrowed his eyes. “I’ll burn now or burn in hell. Makes no difference to me.”
Horrified at the dilemma, Tessa opened her mouth to protest when Chase jerked her into his arms and squeezed so hard, she felt faint. Struggling wasn’t an option as he stepped off the cliff and began to drop into the churning waters below. Something like a scream escaped from deep inside her. She felt Chase release her seconds before water swallowed her, knocking the breath from her seared lungs. Feeling the flow of liquid into her throat caused Tessa to fight at the invisible hand of death until a cloud of eternal darkness began its final hold on her soul.
Chase fought his way to the top of the turbulent pool and looked around for Tessa. Diving back under the water, he saw her stop fighting and grow limp with surrender. Grabbing her around the waist he swam upwards and then to shore where he dragged her limp body out and began CPR. When she began to spit and cough up water he rolled her over not caring that he had straddled her body with his legs. Gently, Chase pushed the matted blond curls away from her face along with the soot and smeared mascara. Realization slowly swam up into her eyes that Captain Chase Hunter had only been scaring her into a decision she couldn’t make alone.
Tessa coughed one more time and wiped the spit and water from her mouth as she smiled weakly up at her protector. “I was going to choose having your way with me!”
Chase laughed. “Next time I feel like bursting into flame I’ll remember that,” he said standing up and pulling Tessa up into his arms where he steadied her wobbly legs.
She weakly pushed at his chest, not liking the way he made her feel so safe and something else she couldn’t identify. “Lost your chance, big guy!” Tessa staggered a bit as she pushed her hair back and tied it up into a knot. “But,” she smiled in spite of herself, “thanks. I’ll try and save you some day.”
Chase started down the burnt trail. “We’ve got to get to Global. Can you do it?”
Tessa squared her shoulders. “Do I have a choice?” she said trying awkwardly to keep up with Chase’s already long strides. For every one step he took Tessa scrambled to take two, sometimes three. “Freakin’ robot!” she muttered under her breath. When Chase turned and frowned back at her as if he also possessed some supersonic hearing capability, Tessa decided to keep her thoughts to herself.
She kept a vigilant eye on the ridge above them knowing that the sweep of fire could very well cut off their escape further up the trail. The pungent smell of smoke clung to her body as she tried to spit the taste of ashes from her mouth. Sweat mingled with the remaining river water evaporating from her torn blouse and jeans. The trail meandered upward for what seemed an eternity. Tessa felt like they’d been walking far longer than was true. The squish of wet tennis shoes managed to make her steps awkward and unsure as she followed after the captain like a lost puppy.
Resentment returned to her consciousness, knowing that once again, she depended on a man to save the day. All her life men stepped in to protect their little Tessa; her father, brothers, her husband and now the mighty Captain Chase Hunter. A part of her just wanted to be given a semiautomatic and turned loose. Maybe she could be the next Tomb Raider or female Jason Bourne. Scenarios played rapidly in her head when something large and hard loomed in front of her. “Oh!” Tessa found herself stumbling backwards until her feet flew out from under her.
“What are you doing?” Chase asked with his arms folded across his chest. He had turned back to see Tessa falling behind, staring into oblivion, barely putting one foot in front of the other. He waited patiently, not an easy task for him, so she could catch up only to have her plow into him with a glazed look in her eyes. Hearing a grunt from her parched lips, he watched her sprawl backwards onto her bottom.
Tessa quickly masked her embarrassment by a cynical retort. “Trying to figure a way to get us out of this mess.
She began a clumsy attempt at trying to stand only to slip and land on her butt harder than the first time. The uncontrolled laugh of the captain and his large frame moving to assist clumsy attempt at standing halted before reaching out to touch her.
Chase understood the hands off gesture and folded his arms across his chest again, forcing patience upon himself. “And how will you save the day, Mrs. Tessa Scott, because up until now you’ve been a great deal of trouble.”
Tessa took a deep breath as she shoved at his chest. “Trouble! Trouble!” Throwing her hands up in the air, she elbowed her way past him and headed up the trail. “You don’t know what trouble is, buster! When we get done here my husband, the lawyer, thank you very much, is going to fry your high and mighty attitude in court!” Chase had easily caught up and remained quiet. “I’ve been attached to a bomb…”
“It wasn’t a bomb,” he added.
Tessa waved him off. “I thought it was a bomb! Shut up!”
“Sorry. Continue.”
“Kidnapped! Dragged half way across the country and back, delivered a baby, shot at, forced the indignity of sharing a motel room with you…”
“Now that hurt,” Chase said drily as he laid a hand over his heart.
“A cheap motel ro
om at that!” she snorted. “I’ve been hog tied, left for dead…”
“With all due respect, if you had only listened…”
Tessa held up a hand to silence the captain, “nearly burned alive, and pushed off a cliff…”
“I gave you a choice,” he said with an amused shrug.
“Nearly drowned and now forced on a death march through an eerie scorched land that leads to nowhere! I’m tired, I stink…”
“I noticed,” he smiled.
Tessa halted suddenly as she reached down and picked up several rocks. Hurling them at the captain gave her much pleasure when one hit him in the leg. Only a minute flinch of Chase’s eye indicated it smarted. His wide, disarming grin forced Tessa to reach for another rock only to be overpowered by Chase’s unexpected grip on her wrist. He squeezed the wrist so tightly that the rock dropped aimlessly to the ground.
“Feel better?” he said in a condescending voice.
“Don’t patronize me, you over grown Neanderthal. I want to go home. I want to see my family.”
A tidal wave of regret washed over Chase, knowing that he kept the truth of Robert and the kids hidden from her. He couldn’t risk Tessa being paralyzed with the stark reality of getting involved with all things connected to national security. In the end the price of her sacrifice would be greater than the gratitude of the thousands she helped save. Tempted fate never revealed a happy ending and Tessa plummeted toward a revelation she’d have to live with the rest of her life. If only you’d gone to Tahoe with Robert, he thought regretfully. I can’t save you from what’s ahead.
Jerking her hand free, Tessa rubbed the wrist furiously to start the circulation of blood again. That strange contemptible look of danger Chase so often exhibited dropped on her. In the last week she’d watched him pummel a man on her kitchen floor, unload his weapon into a dead man, or so he claimed, shoot with deadly aim in a fire fight at one of the most secure laboratories in the country, and save her life on several occasions. He showed no fear. Paranoia crept into the back of her mind. When this all came to a conclusion, what then? Realizing that she knew too much about all their secret shenanigans at Enigma, buried inside a California university, would she become a victim? The phrase ‘silence is golden’ began to take on new meaning as Chase nodded up the path, expecting her to follow blindly.
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