“Oh. You was kiddin’.” He said simply. “Hmm. You and that tall woman you were with ever…” he let his sentence fall, embarrassed he’d even ask.
Carter tapped on the smart phone and smiled over at Joe. “Ever chance we get. She’s pretty freakin’ awesome, Joe. There are times when I think I’ve died and” Carter cocked his head slightly as a voice answered on the other end of the phone. “Director? Carter. We’re in, but we have a problem.”
The captain is going to be angry with me again, Tessa reasoned as she tried to talk herself out of trying to help the Enigma men. What could she do that could possibly make a difference against a man with a gun? One wrong move they might be killed; not something she wanted on her conscious. But then again if she didn’t do something they’d probably be shot anyway. Where could Carter be? Was he close enough to have heard the explosion of gunfire? Should she wait? Should she hide? Her stomach growled so loud she grabbed it in fear that the new threat would hear. In the end she decided being safe would mean being sorry. Dear God, just one more time. Please, she prayed.
“Sweetie,” Tessa said stepping out in the open as she rubbed her eye. “My contact lenses slipped. Can you help me?”
In that split second everything seemed to unfold in slow motion, or she would remember it later like that. The big man with the gun shifted his eyes to her and his gun slightly lowered her way. In that split second Chase leaped toward the man, knocking the barrel of the weapon up so that when he pulled the trigger bullets sprayed upwards. Vernon rolled toward his downed rifle, secured it easily and pushed to his feet, where he quickly put himself in front of Tessa for her protection.
Chase could feel the powerful muscles of the gunman swing around and hit him in the side with the butt of the gun. Momentarily his ability to breathe escaped his body when a jolt of white hot pain threatened to down him. But in that split second he saw the man flinch with a satisfaction of victory.
Lunging forward with all the strength he had left, sent the gunman up against the wall with a grunt of surprise. Although Chase’s body, tired from escaping a fire, jumping off a cliff and a strenuous hike, demanded a reprieve, he forced his fists into the gut of his attacker. The gun fell, leaving the giant of a man with two free hands to fight back, which he did with a furiousness that nearly overwhelmed Chase. The blows to his jaw and chest propelled him backwards. With each blow he felt as if darkness would soon overtake him. Then he turned his head slightly to see Tessa step out from behind Vernon, horrified at the beating. Remembering the time she’d out foxed him, Chase reached for the vest of the attacker and jerked him forward enough to ram his knee into his groin. With a sudden growl of agonizing pain the big man stepped back half bent, covering his privates. Chase doubled his fists and slammed them down on his neck sending him sprawling face down on the floor before giving him a swift kick to the ribs. Falling on the man’s back, Chase finished the man off by twisting his neck so fast he barely heard the snap of death. Staggering to his feet he turned toward Vernon and Tessa and tried to take a step.
Tessa ran to him and managed to slip under his arm to support him around the waist just as he staggered. Vernon slung his weapon to his shoulder and did the same. “Chase!” was all she managed to say. Blood trickled down from his nose and his cheek had already begun to swell. “You need to sit down. Let me get some water for those cuts,” she said as if mothering one of her kids. “What were you thinking fighting somebody so much bigger than you?” she scolded as she eased him down on a blue cushioned stool in the alcove where she had waited. She tore off the ripped hem of her blouse before running it under the spout of the water fountain. As Tessa touched his cheek with the coolness he flinched and grabbed her hand.
“What would you have had me do?” he said taking the wet scrap of cloth from her trembling hands and wiping his nose.
“Shoot him,” Tessa said flatly as she put her hands on her hips.
Chase looked up at her in surprise as a chuckle came from Vernon. His one eye that hadn’t begun to swell shut shifted to Vernon. “Good idea. Why didn’t you shoot him, partner?”
Vernon’s eyebrows went up along with his shrug. “Didn’t have a clear shot. Besides, I thought you could take him.”
“Thanks.” He frowned as he let Tessa take the cloth and rewet it. “And you!”
Tessa handed him the cloth. “Don’t start. I know I took an awful chance, but he didn’t know I was here so I thought…”
“Did you call me sweetie?” he interrupted.
Vernon nodded. “She did.”
“Maybe. I don’t remember really,” she lied. “Besides,” she assisted Chase as he tried to stand.
“You are a dangerous woman, Tessa Scott!” he said shaking his head and trying to stand tall to make sure he towered over her enough to make her stop fussing over him. “You’re not very good at taking orders are you?”
“What orders?”
He looked at Vernon. “This is why I’m not married.”
“Oh I thought it was because…” Vernon stopped when his boss leveled a dangerous look his way. “Never mind.”
“Do we need to tie that guy up or something? I would hate for him to get a second wind,” Tessa said pointing out into the corridor.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Chase said through clenched teeth. He watched the reality of his kill dawn in Tessa’s wide blue eyes as his hand went to his side to examine the spot on his left side where he’d been punched. He raised his shirt to have a closer look when Tessa suddenly put her hand on the bruise. Sucking in his breath at her cold touch forced him to take a step back. “Woman, your hands are like ice!”
Tessa slapped his hand aside and touched him again. “Stop being a baby. I know they are that’s why I’m touching you. You’ll feel better in a minute.” She managed to put both her hands on the ugly bruise with an awkward unsteadiness. Feeling Chase’s right arm circle her waist, she managed to gently keep her hands still enough until his heat swallowed her healing touch. Looking up into Chase’s face, she found him watching her like an angry lion.
Her daughter’s favorite Disney movie was Beauty and the Beast. The scene where Belle doctors the Beast’s wounds raced to mind and she couldn’t help smiling inwardly knowing the Beast was eventually tamed.
“Better?” She slowly removed her hands as she gently lowered his tee shirt over the area. He nodded, but didn’t immediately release his hold on her body. “I, I…” she battered her eyes nervously at him, “should get something for those cuts.” Timidly, Tessa touched his face and felt him pull away.
“I’m fine. Let’s move,” he said firmly. “Gotta get the hostages to safety. Any idea where Carter got to,” he said turning his eyes on Vernon who had taken a position of watching the corridor for further action.
“Find a female hostage and Carter will be there making sure he’s the hero.”
“Makes sense. Let’s go.”
Straightening up to his full five foot ten inches, Essid looked at Honey still glued to the computer screen. His silence, flaring nostrils and twitching index fingers at his side drew Honey’s attention back to him. Essid began to pace like a caged beast.
“We’re in trouble, Essid,” Honey whispered forcefully. “Chances are the men on the loading dock are dead too. That leaves Mansur, me and the two goons eyeing the women over there like they’re a piece of meat. Ever since you said they could have them their attention has been on that, not what we’re trying to do here!” Honey stepped so close Essid could feel her breath on his lips. “We’ve got time to get out. Let’s cut our losses and leave while we can,” she insisted.
“No!” he snapped as he walked away and began to pace. “Not without destroying this place!”
Zoric sniffed with disgust. “Fine! Blow it to hell, but let these innocent people go. Have some humanity.”
Essid stormed up to the Serbian and grabbed him by the throat. “Humanity! When has your country ever shown my people humanity? Was in in Iraq or Afg
hanistan? How about in Libya when we begged for you to intervene with Kaddafi? And them,” he said pointing at the Russians. “They killed my wife merely because she was from Chechnya.”
“These Russians had nothing to do with that,” Zoric choked feeling Essid’s fingers tighten on his windpipe. “They want to make the world a better place.”
Sam tried to push Essid with her body to force his release of Zoric. He did so with a back hand slap to her face, knocking her down only to be jerked back up by the hair. He pulled her head back with one hand and slid the other down one breast. “American women try to be like their men.” Shoving her into Zoric he smiled. “I will have this one for myself.”
Honey angrily stepped in front of Sam. “You are no better than them if you take her!” She shoved on his chest putting distance between him and Sam. “I hate you!” she screamed.
Essid jerked her in his arms and held tightly as she tried to squirm away. “Jealousy becomes you. And all along I thought you were void of any feelings at all,” he teased with a condescending tone. He felt her relax within his hold. “Now that’s better. Get these two ready to move. We’ll take them to the area where the Molybdenum is being stored. I want nothing to be left of them when this place goes.”
Honey nodded as her breathing began to return to normal. She turned and slammed Sam up against the wall as she landed a blow to her stomach. “I regret we will not fight to the death,” she said listening to Sam gasp for breath.
“Let me loose. Let’s do it.” Her voice gasped with pain.
Essid held up his hand in impatience. “As attractive as that sounds to me I do not have the time. Mansur, you take them down. I cannot depend on Honey,” he said with a smirk, “to not try and kill the beautiful one before time is up. Go!”
Mansur nodded and gave Zoric a shove toward the door. Sam followed obediently as she gave Jericho a fleeting look of regret. He smiled weakly and mouthed he was okay. The two Libyan guards spoke loudly as if disappointed when Sam disappeared through the door. Essid frowned at them so sternly that they soon hushed.
The two military guards reached out and patted Sam on the butt as she passed only to be assaulted by a borage of adjectives and nouns from her pretty mouth. Her onslaught only managed to bring masculine laughter and a volley of insults. She attempted to spit at them but missed.
“Elevator!” Mansur commanded and shoved them in roughly when the door opened. He lowered his weapon to push the first floor button. As he turned to look at his prisoners he saw they had removed their plastic cuffs and held them loosely in front of them. “I was afraid I’d made them too tight,” he said with relief. “We can’t go to the lobby. Essid will be watching.” He touched each floor button. “Let’s get off before then.”
Sam took the Glock he’d hidden under his shirt in his waistband. “I’m going to strangle Honey Lynch,” she warned as Zoric took his knife from Mansur who’d been able to hide it in his boot.
The elevator doors opened slowly to the third floor, soft jazz playing in the background as if it were any other day. Both he and Sam put their hands behind their backs to appear contained as Mansur took a defensive stance.
Waiting with AK-47s aimed at chest level were Carter and the trucker named Joe.
“I was just about to come rescue you,” Carter quipped as he lowered his weapon.
Sam snarled as she stepped off the elevator. “We got tired of waiting on you. Figured you’d lost your nerve.”
Carter grinned and looked sheepishly over at the trucker. “She gets like this when we’re apart for very long.”
Sam whirled around and crossly snapped: “What!”
Joe took a step back and nodded respectfully to the beautiful Samantha Cordova. “You kids will be together again before you know it. Sam looked from Joe to Carter with an arched, angry eyebrow. “What’s he talking about?”
“You two have a thing. I get it. Carter shared with me how you two…”
Sam shoved Carter so fiercely up against the glass wall it rattled. “A thing! I would rather lay with a pig before I had a ‘thing’ with him.” She shifted her sharp eyes to Joe. “Better yet I’d take you before him!”
Joe lifted his hands in protest. “Wait a minute now. I’m a married man!”
Sam rolled her eyes. “Oh shut up!”
Carter continued his grinning as he straightened and leaned in to whisper in Joe’s ear. “I told you she was crazy about me.”
Joe shook his head as the team began moving down the hall. “That kind of crazy can get you killed.” He began listening to Sam plan all the things she planned to do to Honey Lynch with a little concern. “Why does she hate that Honey person so much?” he said in a low voice.
Zoric heard him and volunteered the information. “Honey killed her cat a few years ago.”
Joe looked even more concerned. “She’s going to do all that to her over a cat?”
Carter smiled watching the backside of Sam. “The cat was a Bengal Tiger.”
Chapter 29
The air conditioning failed along with other electrical services on timers throughout Global Navigation when Vernon Kemp tinkered with the sophisticated computer systems. They promised to have the ability to sense people working at any hour, any floor, in any office or lab by merely recognizing body heat. Climate would automatically adjust to that area insuring the population of Global Navigation felt no discomfort which might interfere with their work. Wanting to be the poster child for environmental consciousness and responsibility, the buildings had been created with all the latest high efficiency mechanisms known to man in the creation of the plant and operational offices and labs. Unfortunately, when Vernon blocked several climatic sensors and fed in a “Global Warming” virus he created, the buildings gradually began to warm. Eventually the rooms would become so warm the computers would sense hot spots releasing the overhead sprinkler systems. They would abruptly stop, sending the air conditioning controls into overload, dropping the temperature down in the fifties. After several hours the process would begin again.
Honey frowned at Mansur when he reentered the room, wiping sweat from his face with the shoulder of his faded shirt. She didn’t know how brothers could be so different; one docile and easily manipulated, the other an out of control narcissistic maniac who demanded loyalty from everyone. If she were a better person, maybe her feelings toward Mansur would be more sympathetic, more understanding of the shadow he was forced to stand in next to his brother. The fact remained she just didn’t like him. His body odor offended her. His eating habits disgusted her and his broken English grated against her nerves. His long bouts of silence since she’d known him made her uneasy, as if he might be keeping notes on her movements. Then there were those sidelong glances of interest he’d used, exploring her body like fingers of twisted behavior. She shivered even though when she looked at the thermostat on the wall it read ninety degrees.
“Ugh!” She stormed over to the bald computer hostage. “Why is it so hot? I turned the thermostat down twice!”
“There’s a systems failure. I can’t fix it from here,” he said rapidly as if by doing so he’d not suffer her rage.
Honey looked around the room at the hostages. Perspiration glistened on their faces and wet spots appeared under their arm pits. Some of the men still wore their suit coats, but a few had wisely removed theirs shortly after the takeover. The woman with asthma struggled with every breath. The smell of fear filled the room and a hint of urine released from someone too afraid to ask for a restroom break now made close quarters even more unbearable. She glanced at the Haskin brothers, sitting quietly on the floor under the windows, watching her every move. Their legs were outstretched but her hard glare made them pull them up.
“Where did you take them?” Honey demanded of Mansur. “We watched for you on the computer.”
Mansur ignored her question by turning to his brother. “The men on the loading dock are alive and waiting. I turned the prisoners over to them.” His eyes went to the
hostages at the table then the two Libyans standing guard. “They were enjoying themselves when I left,” he smiled.
“And the containers?” Essid ask anxiously.
“Secured.” Mansur took a step near his brother. Essid was the youngest son of his father. Spoiled and given every advantage, Essid had always taunted his sisters while growing up in Libya. Mansur, the oldest, had been a part of the spoiling until he saw Essid as a teen brutalize one of his sisters and eventually caused her death. She had been a sweet, pretty girl of fifteen when Essid caught her talking to one of his friends. He accused her of a sexual relationship with a man. Although she denied, begged and pleaded, their father threw up his hands in disgust as Essid took her into the desert and left her. Mansur, upon hearing of the incident, went after them, only to find her stoned and ripped apart by wild dogs. “When will we set the charges, brother?”
“It is done. The American military guards outside are experts and knew how to,” he paused trying to think of something funny, “get the biggest bang for my buck!” Essid burst out laughing then fanned his left hand in the air as if batting away a fly. The laughing stopped as did the expression on his face. “Did you tell the others to watch for the American captain?”
Mansur nodded humbly. “Of course.”
Essid embraced his brother for a moment then released him. “You are my only friend, Mansur. I love you!” he proclaimed warmly.
“And I you, my brother.”
“The heat in here feels like our desert, does it not!” he smiled.
Mansur took a step back from his brother and patted his shoulder. “Soon we will return.”
“Indeed! With victory and pride running in our veins. Americans are such fools. All this time they trust those of us that walk among them.”
Honey sighed in boredom. “Blah. Blah. Blah. Let’s go. I’m tired of waiting. Someone is bound to start poking around soon!”
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