Mind Games

by Laura K. Curtis

  Eric held his hand out parallel to the ground and mimed for them all to get down. Jane crouched next to Dani but didn’t take her eyes off Eric. He and Trey had dropped as well, but even beneath the long-sleeved jackets they wore, she could see the tension in their muscles. Both unholstered weapons.

  “Heading away. Don’t move yet.”

  Alvaro coughed.

  “They heard that.”

  Alvaro looked as if he might cough again, but Eric, next to him, knocked him in the temple with the butt of his gun and caught him as he fell over.

  “Talk to me, Marco,” he whispered.

  “Can’t figure out how they heard that. I only got it through my bud.”

  Eric glanced at Alvaro’s prone body. “Fuck. I know how. Keep an eye on them.” He went through Alvaro’s pockets, then checked the seams and hem of his shirt. At last, inside what looked like a label sewn onto his jeans, he found a small electronic device. He crushed it between two rocks. “Short-range transmitter,” he said. “They were probably hoping that Dani would tell him whatever she knew if they were locked up together. We’re just lucky they didn’t GPS tag him.”

  “They’re standing still again. Maybe trying to figure out what happened to their signal.”

  “Fuck,” said Trey. “You think he knew?”

  “No way to tell,” Eric said.

  “Of course not!” Dani said.

  “These assholes are armed for bear,” Marco said. “I can see AKs and M16s. Unless this kid has some value no one’s bothered to tell us about, calling attention to himself would be fucking suicide.”

  Eric dropped the pack from his back and pulled out a folded strip of duct tape. He tore off a two-foot section, peeled off the backing, and re-gagged Alvaro, wrapping the tape all the way around his head. Dani hissed a protest, but his glare silenced her.

  “Still not moving?”

  “Nope. But they’re not arguing, either. Wish I had ears in there.”

  “No getting closer, Marco. That’s an order.”

  In her earbud, Jane heard Marco grunt agreement.

  “Okay, they have a plan. They’re circling outward, looking for a trail.”

  “Which we definitely will have left.” Eric hoisted the unconscious Alvaro into a fireman’s carry. “Everyone stay close together and be as quiet as possible. Step lightly.”

  They inched forward, taking pains not to disturb the ground more than absolutely necessary. That a two-hundred-pound man carrying another could leave so little trace of his passage amazed Jane, and she did her best to imitate him.

  “They found part of your trail,” said Marco, “but then they lost it. They may pick it back up if you’re not careful There are six of them, and they have comms. I can’t take all of them out without one sending up a flare.”

  “Can you get out?”

  “Yeah, I’m good. I’ll keep you posted.”

  It seemed hours before Alvaro stirred, trying to kick free of Eric’s hold, but it had probably been only ten or fifteen minutes. Eric set him down but held him still. He shoved his face right up to Alvaro’s, so close their noses practically touched.

  “Maybe you believe the men behind us intend to spare your life. Or maybe you have a death wish. I don’t know and I don’t care. Make a move to alert them again, and I’ll kill you myself.” He spun and forged ahead, leaving Alvaro to follow.

  Did the kid believe him? Jane did, and it freaked her out more than a little. If Eric killed Alvaro, it would be in her defense. Hers and Dani’s. She glanced over her shoulder at her friend, but Dani was trudging along completely absorbed in her own thoughts and Jane couldn’t catch her eye.

  The shadows were lengthening, and the patches of actual sunlight had completely disappeared by the time Eric allowed them to stop again. Marco had kept them apprised of their pursuers’ location through the afternoon, allowing Eric to set an opposing course. As they sat down in a minuscule clearing, he joined them.

  “They stopping?” Eric asked.

  “Looks like, but they could be waiting for reinforcements. They know they’re close. We’ve gained some distance, but they’ll close it soon enough.”

  “We keep moving, then,” Eric said. “Jane, Dani, if we rest for an hour, can you go on?”

  Could she? She ached in places she hadn’t known she had muscles and itched in places she couldn’t scratch in public. The stupid shoes had rubbed raw spots in her feet, and she wanted to give up. But she wasn’t ready to die, either.

  “Whatever we have to do,” she said, settling next to Dani, who’d plopped herself down on the trunk of a fallen tree. “Dani?”

  Dani shrugged. “We don’t have any choice, do we?” The grime on her face was streaked with tears, and the flat tone of her voice contradicted her statement.

  Jane slipped an arm across her shoulders. “You’re doing great, Dani, but if you can’t go on you need to say so. The guys will figure something out.”

  “It’s just walking. Anybody can walk.” She stared down at her sneaker-clad feet, comparing them to Jane’s. “Oh my God, Jane, you’re bleeding!”

  Eric’s eyes followed Dani’s gaze, and he cursed. “Trey?”

  “On it.” Trey opened his pack and pulled out ointment and bandages.

  “So you’re a doctor as well as a Ranger?” Dani asked.

  “Medic. We all have multiple roles. I patch people up and fly them around. Marco’s a sniper and tracker. And our fearless leader for this mission is an expert strategist and tactician, as well as the king of SERE.”

  “Seer?”

  “Survival, evasion, resistance, escape,” Eric said. “In other words, I’m good at games.”

  Jane figured it meant a whole lot more than that but kept her mouth shut. Trey slathered salve on her feet and wrapped them in gauze, creating socks to prevent further damage from the ill-fitting shoes.

  “You should have spoken up sooner. The jungle’s no place for an open wound. Bacteria love it here.”

  “Trey fucking hates the jungle,” Marco said, the jab the first touch of humor Jane had heard from him. “’Scuse my French.”

  “Who doesn’t?” Trey groused. “There’s all kinds of crap that can kill you here. Plants, bugs, snakes. Give me a good chase through the city any day.” He studied Dani. “I don’t think an hour’s going to be enough, Eric. They need two.”

  “Marco?”

  Without a word, the other man disappeared back into the thick forest around them. Trey pulled a packet out of his bag and shook it out to reveal a survival blanket. He kicked together a bunch of fallen leaves, then laid the blanket atop them, silver side facing down, olive green side showing. “Lie down. Get as much rest as you can.”

  Jane didn’t have to be told twice. She and Dani both lay on the plasticky sheeting, and in a couple of minutes, Alvaro joined them. Despite the twigs poking her and the musty, damp smell of the forest floor, she drifted off to sleep.

  • • •

  ERIC WISHED HE didn’t have to wake them, but Marco had seen too much movement among their pursuers. He leaned over Jane and shook her gently. Her eyes popped open, full of fear. He put a finger to his lips.

  “Time to go.”

  She nodded and touched Dani on the shoulder. Within minutes, they were moving. At least both Jane and Dani had managed forty-five minutes of rest. While they’d slept, the sun had disappeared completely and the jungle had gone black, the shadows broken only by glints of silver where the moonlight hit moisture-covered leaves and branches. Marco could tease Trey about his dislike of such areas, but Trey wasn’t alone—Eric had grown up a country boy in many ways, but this kind of environment creeped him out. Snakes both human and reptile infested the landscape.

  “Do either of you know how to shoot?” he asked.

  Jane shook her head, but Dani said, “I do. My father used to tak
e me target shooting.”

  “Good.” He handed Dani a pistol and magazine from his backpack. “It may be bigger than what you’re used to, but it’s better than nothing.”

  Dani checked the gun, then slapped the magazine into place with practiced ease.

  “Don’t shoot anything unless you have to—we don’t need the noise. That said, if you do need to, just go for it and we’ll worry about consequences later.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “Let’s go.”

  They headed out, winding around the trees and picking their way through the dense undergrowth. In the distance, Eric heard the distinctive howls of a pack of wolves. You stay on your territory. We’re just passing through.

  “They’re catching up to you,” Marco said in his ear. “Not a lot, but you guys should move faster if you can. And head west.”

  Well, fuck. They couldn’t go west for too much longer, or they’d be putting an insurmountable distance between themselves and the airstrip. He picked up the pace a bit, and the others followed.

  He heard a rustle and then a feminine “damn” behind him and turned to see that Dani had tripped over something and fallen to the ground. Alvaro leaned over to help her up, and before Eric could stop him, the kid had her gun. Had it and pointed it right at his sister, jabbing it into her stomach, his finger tightening on the trigger.

  The shot that rang out surprised even him. The kid’s eyes widened, his brain seeming to take a second to catch up to the fact that it wasn’t working any longer, and then he fell over.

  Dani started screaming. Her face was white in the night’s darkness, all color leached away. Her shrieks went on and on as she stared at her brother lying on the ground, a gaping hole in his forehead.

  And then she leaped on Trey, pounding her fists into him and yelling at him.

  “How could you? He was just a kid! You monster!”

  “That kid was about to kill you.”

  “He wouldn’t have. He was my brother!” She crumpled, all the fight gone out of her, and crawled back over to her brother’s body.

  “You have to shut her up,” came Marco’s urgent command. “They’re headed straight for you.”

  “Give them something else to think about,” Eric said. “We’ve got a problem.” Immediately, the sound of gunfire came from his left.

  Trey had a hypo out. “Jane, she’s not going to let me near her, but she needs a sedative. We can’t do this here, now. Can you get her to take it?”

  Jane, tears running down her face, took the needle and vial from him, along with an alcohol pad to wipe down Dani’s arm. Eric had to blink moisture from his own eyes watching them.

  “Dani, sweetheart, give me your arm,” Jane said.

  The other woman stared at her, her face a frozen mask. “What am I supposed to tell my parents?”

  “I don’t know, sweetie. But we can worry about that once we get home. Right now, you need to make sure you stay alive so they don’t lose both their children.”

  “They’ll never forgive me. Never. This is my fault.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “If I hadn’t gotten involved with Bryan, he wouldn’t have taken Varo.”

  Jane wiped the grime off the inside of Dani’s elbow and injected the sedative from Trey’s kit. “You know that’s not true. Bryan would have found a way to get what he wanted, whether you dated him or not. He’s evil. He played on the fact that you loved your brother. That’s not your fault.”

  Dani started to say something else, but then her eyes fluttered several times and she simply keeled over. Trey stepped forward and caught her, then passed her off to Eric while he picked up Alvaro’s lifeless body.

  “Janie, we’re going to have to do this at a run for a while. If you stop being able to keep up, say so and we’ll slow down. But we cannot stop again.”

  God bless her, she just nodded even though he knew she had to be in shock. Eric settled Dani as comfortably as he could across his shoulders and beat feet.

  Daniela Peralta didn’t weigh as much as some packs he’d carried over the years, but even with his NVGs the darkness, the unstable footing, and the thick, heavy air made the going rough. He could hear Jane’s ragged breathing behind him and wished he could stop for her, but safety was his priority. He’d like to ask Trey to leave the kid behind, for that matter, but he understood his friend’s need to bring the body home. It was a gesture that would be lost on Dani now, though she might appreciate it later. But even after Trey had done his best to patch up the wound, there was no doubt they were leaving a blood trail, and the deadweight was slowing them down.

  How in the hell had a simple rescue op gone so badly wrong?

  The GPS on his wrist vibrated. They were within four hours of the airstrip. Thank God. He called a halt, laid Dani down to let Jane fuss over her, and pulled his sat phone out of his pack.

  Miguel answered on the first ring and assured him he’d have the plane there and ready for them when they arrived. They needed to get the fuck out of this country. Jane wouldn’t be safe until all the men involved in the experiments were locked up or dead, but at least back home he could provide her with protection. Here they were entirely too exposed.

  Trey had his own pack open and was digging through it.

  “I’m out of sedative,” he said. “I wanted to knock her out until we got at least as far as the plane, but it doesn’t look as if that’s going to happen. She’ll be waking up in a half hour or an hour.”

  “Okay. We’ll deal with that when it happens. With a bit of luck, she won’t be screaming.”

  Unfortunately, they had no idea how many others were coming after them. Marco had taken out all six of the previous hunters, but not before they’d radioed their position, calling for reinforcements. And they had no choice but to head for the airstrip, which meant that the new group would figure out their plans with relative ease.

  “I’ll try to keep her calm,” Jane said. “But . . .”

  “But?”

  “It might be best if Trey and Marco traded positions. If that’s possible. I don’t think she’s going to want to see you right now.”

  “Of course,” Trey said. “I’m not as good as Marco is, but we’ve only got a few hours left. We can manage.”

  Eric spoke to Marco, who appeared, wraithlike, from the jungle a few minutes later. He passed off binocs and a rifle to Trey without a word and hoisted Alvaro’s body onto his back. Trey slipped into the woods, and Eric picked up Dani and led the way once more toward to the airstrip.

  As Trey had predicted, about an hour later, Dani stirred. Eric let her down while Marco set Alvaro’s body down a few feet away and backed off. Dani blinked a few times, and then her eyes opened, but her gaze remained unfocused until it caught on Alvaro’s body.

  “Oh,” she said, but she didn’t scream. Instead, her body shook with quiet sobs. She looked at Eric. “You brought him?”

  “Trey did. We’ll take him home for you.”

  If she noticed that Trey wasn’t with them, she didn’t mention it. She stood up somewhat shakily and nodded. “I want to go home. So let’s get going.”

  Two hours later, Eric could almost taste safety. This was always the most dangerous part, the part where people got sloppy. The airfield was damned close, and as much as it represented their way out, it was by no means a secure location.

  “Trey, let’s find out whether any of our friends are currently using the strip for cargo.”

  “On it.”

  They slogged through a muddy stream and paused at the top of a small hill for Marco to pass Alvaro over to Eric so he could pull out his rifle. Jane sucked in a deep breath, and Eric wondered whether she’d ever get over all the killing. Maybe once she got home, she would be able to put all this behind her.

  Of course, that would mean forgetting him, too. But he’d have to deal with
that. There was no way she could look at him the same way she had in the past.

  “No one here,” Trey said in his earbud. “There’s a sweet little Bear 360 two-seater housed in the hangar. Fully fueled and ready to go, which means someone’s actively playing games out here. So keep your eyes open.”

  “Okay, we’re coming in. Marco, cover us from up here.” He led the women slowly down toward the airstrip.

  “I can hear Miguel’s plane,” Marco said after a couple of minutes.

  He could, too. A dull hum on the horizon. “Let me know when it’s in sight. We’ve got no visual under this canopy.”

  “Gotcha.”

  They forged on until they got to the airstrip. Eric set Alvaro’s body down, leaning it up against the hangar wall. Rigor had begun to set in. The heat wasn’t helping either that or the smell of the boy’s blood and body fluids. It was going to be unpleasant as hell in the closed environs of the plane.

  He stretched his back, working out the kinks, then pulled binocs from his pack to search the sky for Miguel’s plane.

  “Fuck!” Marco yelled just as he spotted the plane. “Abort! Get the hell out!”

  The plane shuddered, then exploded, fire raining down from the night sky into the jungle. Jane screamed; Dani shouted. Eric blocked it out.

  “How far out are they, Marco?”

  “They’ll be on you in eight. Max ten. And you’re between me and them. I can’t get them for you. I’m on my way.”

  “Trey, get in the damned hangar and get that plane started. You’re putting both women in the passenger seat and flying out. The rest of us will get out as we can.”

  Trey ran for the hangar.

  “This isn’t a fucking ’76 Oldsmobile, you know. I can’t hot-wire it.”

  “Yeah, you can. Rangers lead the way, remember.”

  “What should we do?” Jane asked. “Get in the plane?”

  “Not until Trey starts it. If he can’t and they have SAMs, that whole hangar is a death trap. Find cover.” He gestured to the side of the building, where a rusted Jeep with no doors or tires rotted into a cement pad and four large barrels lined up to create a small wall. “Over there.”