The Guardian (A Wounded Warrior Novel)

by Anna del Mar

  I rummaged through my pack, ripped open an energy bar and handed it over. “Can you wolf this down quickly?”

  She stuffed half the bar in her mouth, chewed and swallowed. She washed it down with some water, then crammed the other half in her mouth while I repacked my pack and slipped it over my back. I cocked my head toward the door. “This way.”

  “Just a sec.”

  Jade rushed to the table, grabbed her backpack and dropped her smallest camera in it. “I hate to leave my laptop and the rest of my equipment behind, but I take it lighter is better?”

  “Affirmative,” I said. “We’re in a rush.”

  She grabbed a rusty machete hanging from the rafters, slid it between the straps of her pack then slipped on her backpack. “Ready.”

  My brave woman was one hundred percent back.

  I pressed my back against the threshold and swept the sloping corridor ahead through my weapon’s viewfinder. “Clear.” I signaled for Jade to follow me down. “Heads up, marine. It’s sketchy out there.”

  The crude tunnel delivered us to an above ground hut. Jade noticed the two bodies I’d stowed in the corner on my way in, Kumbuyo’s guards, including the belly-lugging bastard who’d been with Kumbuyo the night of Jade’s arrival.

  “Do you want a weapon?” I held up one of the AK-47 that had belonged to one of Kumbuyo’s cronies.

  She grabbed the weapon from me wordlessly and checked the magazine like the trained solider she was. I crouched by the small, high window, scanning the complex.

  “Lamba is meeting with what some of his men are referring to as ‘special guests,’” I said, eyes working the camp. “There’s talk, something about an auction. They’re auctioning the ivory maybe?”

  “Me,” she said. “They’re auctioning me.”

  My head whipped around to make eye contact with Jade. “Are you shitting me?”

  “Nope,” she said. “That was the plan. Until you came.”

  Fire blazed through my veins. They were gonna pay for that thought.

  “Those ‘guests’ are from ISIS, Al-Qaida, and Boko Haram.” Jade gave me a quick rundown of everything she’d learned. “A plane full of troops is going to land soon.”

  “I’ve got to warn Rem.”

  “If your prototypes are working and Rem’s monitoring the signal, he should be able to follow the ivory here. Am I right?”

  “That’s too many ifs for my taste.” Too many lose ends that could blow up right in front of our faces. “There’s no cell reception out here. I’ve got a radio, but I can’t risk transmitting voice when the poachers are most likely monitoring the stations’ channels.”

  “I’ve got an idea,” Jade said. “Sarah and Lara are running their own channel so we can communicate with each other. If we can get on their channel, maybe they can relay a message to Rem. No voice. Morse code maybe?”

  My brows went up. “You think they’d understand it?”

  “Sarah? Nope. But Lara? She will.” Jade grinned. “I guarantee that somewhere in that spectacular brain of hers, she’ll make all the right connections.”

  I pulled out the radio from my pack and tossed it to Jade. “Let’s do it.”

  I kept watch while Jade brushed up on her Morse and then clicked the radio on and off, the classic SOS plus our location’s coordinates as indicated by my GPS. She programmed the radio for continuous broadcast. I had to hope that she was right and Lara would be intrigued by the repetitive transmission. When she was done, Jade tucked the radio out of sight up in the rafters. We didn’t want to give the enemy a lock on our location, so the radio would have to stay behind.

  “Let’s get moving,” I said. “I don’t like our odds here. The gates are heavily guarded, so I want to be in position to get over the palisade as soon as it gets dark. Keep an eye out for a crib with a million-dollar view. Ready?”

  We stole out of the back door and dashed from the back of one hut to the next, dodging the men going about their afternoon routines. My instinct was to protect Jade, but even after her ordeal, she insisted on carrying her weight. We worked in tandem. I advanced, cased, and signaled, then Jade moved ahead and did the same for me.

  Toward the back of camp, Jade spotted a small, partly collapsed shed. She cocked two fingers toward the crudely build structure that might have served as an animal pen but had obviously fallen into disuse. It was out of the way but it offered a good angle on the compound and it was only a few feet from the palisade. We headed for it.

  The part of the shed still standing barely fit us side by side, but it provided excellent cover. Compared to the hole in the ground where Jade had been trapped for the last few hours, it must have felt like a five star resort.

  “Good find,” I whispered.

  We had a great view of the large clearing where the majority of the poachers hung out and also of the command and control building, Kumbuyo’s headquarters. I urged Jade to drink some more water and handed her another power bar while I made myself a sniper’s cradle. I stretched on my belly looking through my scope and munched on my own power bar as I kept watch over the camp.

  “We’ve got less than an hour of light left,” I murmured. “Try to catch some rest.”

  Jade let out a long sigh, stretched out on her back next to me, and stared at the partly collapsed roof. I glanced up and spotted the sky between the gaping holes where the rot had eaten through the straw. Colored in pinks and oranges, a troop of fast-moving clouds marched across a fiery sky, accompanied by a flock of flamingos.

  “It may be that I never sleep in the dark again,” Jade mumbled, eyes swelling with tears.

  “Hey.” I kept my gun in position but reached over and gave her a side hug, pressing her body against mine. “I’m gonna get you the best nightlight money can buy.”

  She smiled through her tears and quickly composed herself. She was so strong, brave, and resilient. Anyone other than her would’ve been hard pressed to bounce back from her ordeal. And yet here she was, ready for the fight, brain in full gear.

  “Lots of questions,” she whispered.

  Just what I expected from her. “Go.”

  “Why aren’t you at the embassy and how the hell did you find me anyway?”

  “The embassy, sure.” I shrugged. “Never went there. Came to in the truck.” I gave her an abbreviated version of my journey here. “But ultimately, it was you who led me here.”

  “Me?” Her gaze settled on my profile. “How?”

  I kept my eye on the scope and my carbine sweeping slowly over the camp. “I don’t want you to get mad at me or anything…”

  “Mad at you?” She lifted up on her elbows and cocked her eyebrows. “Why would I be mad at you?”

  “That ring I gave you?” I jerked my chin toward her hand. “It’s not really made of jade.”

  Her eyes widened. “What?”

  “This.” I took her hand and twisted the smooth band between my finger pads. “It’s made of a synthetic resin poured, baked, and colored to look like jade. It came out of Dr. Valdez’s lab. It’s got a GPS tracker in it.”

  She gaped. “You put a tracker in my ring?”

  “Yeah, I did. I didn’t have much time when I came up with the idea and I never expected you’d be far from me, three feet max if I’d had my way. Problem is, the signal can only be detected within a three-mile radius. For a whole bunch of soul-killing hours, I wasn’t getting any hits.”

  “My God.” She shook her head in disbelief. “I knew you were good, but tracking me until you got in range must’ve been a nightmare. And infiltrating this place? Suicidal.”

  “I would’ve tracked you to hell if necessary.” I narrowed my eye on the scope. “What do we have here?”

  Jade turned on her belly, her gaze following the line of the scope. Three men dressed in combat fatigues ambled out from one of the larger huts, along with Lamba, and—who else?—Mei Cheng in the flesh.

  “I’ve got to get this.” Jade groped through her backpack, extracted her camera, an
d aiming carefully, began to take pictures and small snippets of videos.

  I watched Mei through my viewfinder as she socialized with the most violent scourge of the earth with the same flirty, refined poise she deployed when having cocktails with expats and diplomats in Zanzibar. I had to give it to her. She had balls coming out here with only a driver and a bodyguard as far as I could see. She was quite the entrepreneur.

  “I’m so going to get this bitch,” Jade muttered, shooting away under the waning light.

  Half my mouth came up even as I kept my eye on our quarry. “You’ve got a thing for Mei?”

  “You bet I do.” Click, click, click.

  “Is it personal or professional?”

  “Both.” Jade flashed a ferocious smirk. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten: she wanted my man.”

  “Your man, eh?” I grinned, gratified to hear those words from her mouth. “I like the title, but please, remind me never to piss you off like that.”

  “Reminded.”

  A commotion ensued and the gates flew open. Several improvised fighting pickups sped into the compound and screeched to a stop beneath the camouflage netting. A trail of dust rose over the camp and obscured my view. When the dust finally settled, Kumbuyo strode out of the twilight, brows drawn, mouth tight.

  “Uh-oh,” Jade said. “Look who’s home.”

  “Roger that.”

  My mouth curled into a silent snarl. I wanted to go after Kumbuyo, right here, right now, while I had him in my crosshairs. One small twitch of my finger, and boom, the bag of shit would be gone, the world would be a better place, and my promise to myself would be fulfilled.

  But a shot, however deadly, would unleash Armageddon. All those poachers would fall on us like rabid zombies. When I calculated the odds—numbers of thugs versus access to ammunition—the math wasn’t jiving for success. I reminded myself that my most immediate job was to get Jade out of this compound and to safety.

  Lamba said something to his visitors and strode toward Kumbuyo, meeting him halfway. Kumbuyo spoke, gesturing wildly, angrily. He raised a fist in the air, waving a crumpled paper in his hand. I smirked. The piece of shit had gotten my message. Judging from Lamba’s frown, the fuel and weapons cache was a total loss. Hell, yes, I’d made sure of that.

  Lamba’s visitors, including Mei, joined Lamba and Kumbuyo. One of the men said something to Kumbuyo. Kumbuyo was in a foul mood. He replied with his fist. Within seconds, both men were engaged in an all-out boxing match, roaring with the violence of a pair of battling lions.

  Most of the men in the camp paused whatever they were doing and gathered around to watch. Mei stood by Lamba, who gestured for his bodyguards to stop the fight. But not even Lamba’s brutes could tear off Kumbuyo from his opponent. Kumbuyo was bound to get even more violent when he found out that Jade was gone. In the middle of the commotion, Mei’s head swiveled in our direction. Jade’s camera clicked, catching full frontals of her face.

  “Put your camera down,” I whispered. “Our timetable just got pushed up.”

  “Why?” Jade said, tucking her camera away. “Do you think she saw us?”

  “Don’t know.” Didn’t want to stick around to find out either. I hopped to a crouch and clutched my carbine to my chest. “But we’re taking advantage of the commotion. We’re moving.”

  Jade slung her pack on her back, hugged her AK-47, muzzle up, index on the trigger, and lead the way out of the shed. The sun had set and the darkness had claimed the sky. I signaled her toward the murkiest corner on the palisade, away from the gates, where nine feet of wood with sharp, pointy ends awaited us.

  We took cover behind one of the huts. A guard sat on a stool by the decrepit hovel, smoking a joint. When the fight between Kumbuyo and the other man intensified, the guard got up and joined the others at the edge of the bloodthirsty crowd. Money exchanged hands. Bets were placed. Fucking shitheads. It was the perfect opportunity for us to tackle the wall. But then I heard it. A cry. More specifically, a child’s wail. The sound came from inside the hut.

  Jade met my gaze and cocked her eyebrows. She’d heard the same sound. I eyed the hut, the fence, Jade. I signaled. Get going.

  She shook her head and clasped her fist to her heart. Together.

  Jesus Christ. Insubordinate hothead. That’s what I got for falling for a shield maiden, one who was never gonna change. But she was right. We had agreed to together. Might as well do this quick.

  I signaled for her to stalk around the hut and covered her as she moved. She rounded the corner, ducked under the threshold and sneaked into the dark hut. I surveyed the camp again before I stuck my head in the hut. “Sit-rep?”

  She motioned me inside, jaw tight, eyes haunted. “We’ve got a problem.”

  I stole into the hut and swept the space with the arc of my weapon. A cage stood in the middle of the hut, a crate built to haul pigs maybe. Two teenage girls crouched in it, huddled around a younger girl who couldn’t be more than six or seven years old.

  I knew what they were. Brides for sale or slaves on the way to the black market. And then it hit me. I knew these girls! I’d taught them at the orphanage. I’d played soccer and shared meals and holiday parties with them. Right before my eyes, Adisa’s ebony face materialized from the shadows, followed by that of her friend, Tari. Tucked in between the older girls, little Kanoni cried softly. These were my girls.

  My head felt like a powder keg about to ignite. My blood roared in my ears. Watch the rage. Head in the game. It was hard. The three girls lunged forward in the cage and stuck out their hands, calling my name, reaching out for me.

  “Hush,” Jade whispered, crouching next to the cage, holding their hands, hugging them through the bars. “How did you get here?”

  “We out. Looking for seeds. To make this,” Adisa pointed at the bracelet on her wrist. “Men came. They made fire and took us.”

  I looked to Jade. “Fire?”

  “At the orphanage,” she said. “On the night that Kumbuyo took me. He set up the fire as a distraction.” She told me quickly about Cara and Stoats. “In the confusion, the girls probably went unaccounted for.”

  It all made sense now. How Kumbuyo had eroded my defenses and infiltrated the station with inside help, how the whole thing had gone down. I tugged on the padlock that secured the cage. Damnit. It was locked.

  The terror I spotted in the girls’ eyes shriveled up my heart. Neither Jade nor I would walk away from these innocents. We had to get the girls out.

  I motioned for Jade to setup watch at the small window. I took a knee by the cage, surveying the girls and whispering a few words in Swahili to reassure them. I put my weapon down, took out my Swiss army knife from my pocket and tackled the padlock. I was about to spring the lock when I felt the cold circle of a muzzle press against the back of my head. I looked up. Mei stood behind me, holding a Glock to my skull.

  30

  Jade

  The horror of seeing that black muzzle buried in Matthias’s hair stopped my heart and sent my stomach plummeting. The sight of Mei holding her gun and Matthias, kneeling at her feet, made me spitting mad. She’d stolen into the hut, quick and silent as the lethal viper she was. I aimed my AK-47 at her heart, but she had the element of surprise in her favor.

  The girls huddled in the cage’s corner, hugging each other, eyes wide with terror. I was livid with myself. I should’ve been at that door as soon as Matthias came into the hut. I should’ve never left his back unprotected. I should’ve scratched Mei’s eyes out when I had the chance and taken her out of the equation.

  But my confinement had taken a toll and my exhaustion, combined with the shock of finding the girls here, had dulled my instincts for an instant. That instant could prove fatal. I couldn’t shoot Mei without risking Matthias’s life. A single shot from a 9mm at close range would scatter his luminous brain all over this freaking place.

  “Get the hell away from him,” I snapped, finger on the trigger. “Take a step back and put down your weapon
, now.”

  “Not a chance.” Mei’s rouged lips drew back from her teeth in a defiant leer. “He’s mine, and you need to put down your gun.”

  “Easy, everybody.” Matthias reassumed his work on the lock as if he didn’t have a gun to his head. “Let’s not get overly excited. You want to tell us what the hell are you doing here, Mei?”

  “If you haven’t noticed,” Mei said, “I’ve got the gun, so this conversation really ought to go the other way around. I want to know what the hell you are doing here.”

  “Kumbuyo kidnapped Jade and I came after her,” Matthias said with mind-blowing equanimity. “On the way out, we found this crime in progress.” He jerked his chin toward the girls. “The American people and their government do not condone human trafficking. The question is: Do you?”

  Mei’s throat corded with a hard swallow. Her knuckles tightened around the gun. Her gaze shifted from Matthias, to me, to the girls and back to Matthias.

  “Tell her to put her weapon down,” Mei said.

  I scoffed. “Fat chance.”

  “You should know,” Matthias said. “Jade doesn’t follow orders. She does her own thing.”

  Mei’s glare fell on me. “If you shoot, the poachers will be on you in seconds.”

  “And if you shoot,” I said, “you’re dead and done.”

  “Whoa.” Matthias fanned his hand under his nose. “This place stinks.”

  “Excuse me?” Both Mei and I looked at Matthias in puzzlement.

  “Estrogen, I think.” He smirked as he continued to fiddle with the lock. “It stinks. Big time. Someone once told me that the stench of excess testosterone was suffocating. Whoever mentioned that hadn’t been swamped by a surge of estrogen. It’s equally overpowering.”

  He was quoting me. He was telling me the same thing I’d told him that first day when I’d landed at the reserve, when he and Peter had gotten into it. Matthias was cool as ice and trying to tell me in no uncertain terms to keep cool and hang back.

  The padlock clicked opened. Matthias wrestled the hasp off the hook.