by Meryl Sawyer
He was afraid to guess.
Basking alligators were either sleepy or lethargic from having eaten recently. When they’d consulted the computer, there had been something roughly Holly’s size near the alligator, but it wasn’t there now.
No four-year-old toddler in a bright pink outfit.
Kyle watched Sadie, knowing she smelled what they couldn’t see. Something with the child’s scent had triggered this reaction. Give us a break, please, he silently prayed. Let the child be alive. The last thing he wanted was to find a shoe … or part of a body.
A few feet to the right of the snoozing alligator where the ferns were even thicker and a stunted sycamore girdled with Spanish moss made the shadows even deeper, an unexpected downdraft of wind ruffled the ferns. He caught a glimpse of a small foot in a pink sandal.
“There’s Holly,” he mouthed to Jennifer, relief nearly bringing him to his knees.
“She’s asleep,” whispered Jennifer. “Thank God.” She sighed heavily, joy filling her low-pitched voice. “So typical. Kids go until they drop.”
Kyle didn’t need to mention the little girl had dropped within a few feet of a deadly alligator.
Jennifer tugged on his arm, whispering, “I’ll go in and pick up Holly. I’ll be back before the alligator realizes I’m nearby.”
“Shit,” he cussed under his breath. He didn’t know if he could stand here and let her try. He wanted to push her aside and take the risk himself. But he knew better. This was her show.
“Go slow,” he advised, taking Sadie’s lead from Jennifer’s hand. “When you have Holly, run like hell for the water.”
“Why?”
“The little girl may cry out and awaken the ’gator. Believe me, they’re a hell of a lot faster than you think.”
Praying for the first time in—hell, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d prayed—he watched Jennifer cross the clearing, moving as quickly as she could without making any noise. But all she had to do was step on a dead branch and the ’gator would hear it and explode out of the water.
As she neared the sleeping child, a flicker of hot orange grabbed his attention. It disappeared, then another lightning-fast flash of orange appeared through the green brush.
For a second, he thought the brightly banded orange-and-black snake was a harmless king snake. Until he spotted its distinctive black nose. Son-of-a-bitch! A deadly coral snake.
Give him a choice between three lethal diamondback rattler snakes and one coral snake, he’d take the rattlers. Hell. He’d take a pit of rattlers—any day.
The snake was suspended from a branch, almost totally concealed by foliage. Tongue flicking, it was primed to strike the nearest target in its reach.
Jennifer.
The deadly snake was within inches of Jennifer’s head, but she didn’t realize it. Aw, hell. She didn’t have a prayer of escaping without being bitten.
He could shoot the head off a pin, but he hesitated.
What if he missed?
The sound of gunfire would awaken the child. And the alligator. He would be forced to fire at least twice.
No telling what might happen, who might be hit.
If he took this shot—and was off a hair—his bullet would shatter Jennifer’s skull. Sweat peppered his upper lip. Then his SEAL training kicked in and he reacted on gut instinct alone.
Something zinged past Jennifer’s head, singeing her hair. It took a fraction of a second for her to realize a bullet had nearly ended her life.
What on earth?
Hot, sticky blood splattered her face, a droplet hitting one eye and blurring her vision for a moment. From a branch next to her cheek dangled a poisonous coral snake. Jennifer charged forward, her throat parched with fear, knowing she had only seconds to save the little girl. The sound of the gun had awakened the child. Holly sat bolt upright, crying.
“It’s all right, honey,” Jennifer said as she reached to pick up the child.
Terrified, Holly scrambled away, heading right toward the alligator. The noise had awakened the creature, and it opened its powerful jaws to unleash a roar that shook the ground. Jennifer’s heart leaped to her throat as the beast heaved itself out of the water lunging toward the young child.
Holly stopped dead in her tracks, seemingly fascinated by the alligator. Fear nearly overwhelming her, Jennifer grabbed the girl and swung her into her arms.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” yelled Kyle.
Jennifer stumbled, twisting her ankle in a sinkhole, but she charged back toward Kyle. Behind her, she heard the alligator crashing through the undergrowth with astonishing speed.
Holly was sobbing, saying, “No, no. No stranger.”
Strangers. Jennifer realized Holly’s mother had warned her about strangers.
“It’s okay, Holly, sweetie. Your mommy sent me.”
What Jennifer had thought were soothing words only made the little girl cry harder and thrash her body, struggling to get free. It was only a matter of seconds, but it seemed like hours, before she reached Kyle.
Not trusting herself, terrified something would go wrong again, she thrust the little girl into the safety of Kyle’s arms. He charged toward the water, yelling, “Let’s go!” over the child’s sobs.
Jennifer grabbed Sadie’s leash, conscious of the alligator closing the distance between them. She unsnapped Sadie’s leash, afraid it would become entangled in the underbrush.
With his long stride, Kyle was already way ahead of them. Thank God the child was at a safe distance, going back to her mother.
Jennifer ventured a quick glance over her shoulder. The alligator was charging after them, crushing vegetation with his powerful body.
“Run, Sadie, run!”
Sadie raced after Kyle, and Jennifer followed as fast as she could with a twisted ankle. White-hot pain seared through her leg, but she kept going, crashing her way through the brush. Ahead she saw the water and beyond it, the other key.
“I think he’s given up,” Jennifer cried. “I don’t hear him.”
A half dozen paces ahead of her, Sadie suddenly pitched forward, her paw caught in a small sinkhole. Jennifer heard the bone snap. Fear thrummed in her head, making it difficult to think.
“Oh my God, Sadie,” she cried as she raced up to her injured dog.
“What’s the matter?”
“Keep going,” she screamed to Kyle who was already in the water, crossing the channel. “Don’t let anything happen to Holly.”
She looked over her shoulder for the alligator, but it wasn’t there. Still, she couldn’t chance letting Kyle come back. “Get Holly home to her mother.”
Sadie gazed up at her and whimpered. Jennifer didn’t have time to examine the leg, but she was positive it was broken. She managed to haul Sadie into her arms even though the dog weighed almost as much as she did. Every breath burning in her lungs, each step agony, she stumbled the few feet to the water.
She planned to let Sadie float and guide her across to the other key. She didn’t want to think what this injury might mean to the dog she’d raised and trained. A broken leg wasn’t a problem for an ordinary dog, but Sadie was different. Agility and speed were everything—sometimes the only thing between life and death.
She plunked Sadie into the water with a clumsy splash. The tide was still rising, filling the channel with brackish water and reeking of dead seaweed. She began to swim, calling, “Come on, Sadie.”
The dog paddled slowly beside her. Jennifer wouldn’t ordinarily be worried about Sadie following. They often swam together. It was a routine part of a bloodhound’s training. But Sadie was injured and the water was honey-combed with weeds and vines. Still, using her three good legs, Sadie was swimming nicely.
“Good girl, Sadie. That’s it. Go to Kyle.”
At Kyle’s name, Sadie swam even faster. So did Jennifer. She wanted to get the little girl and Sadie out of the mangroves before it became totally dark.
Suddenly, there was a thundering noise l
ike the wings of some Stone Age predator swooping down on them. The calm, almost stagnant air, became a churning wind tunnel. She looked up and saw a helicopter hovering above the arch of trees that nearly hid the channel.
Kyle was on the bank of the other key now. Holly was clinging to him, sobbing hysterically at the terrifying noise. The helicopter zoomed away as unexpectedly as it had appeared. Evidently, they hadn’t spotted them. An eerie quiet settled over the area, broken only by their splashing in the water. Jennifer looked over her shoulder to make sure Sadie was coming and saw her dog paddling.
Jennifer swam toward the bank where Kyle was struggling to comfort the child. How was she going to get Sadie out of here? she asked herself. She couldn’t let Sadie put weight on her leg and risk further injury.
“Jennifer, look!” Kyle yelled.
Setting one foot on the spongy bank, she glanced back, expecting to have to help Sadie out of the water. The bloodhound was caught midchannel in some underwater growth Jennifer couldn’t see. The alligator exploded out of the ferns lining the bank behind the dog.
With a thunderous splash, the beast was in the channel, up to its snout in the water, swimming straight toward Sadie. Jennifer flipped the tab on the waterproof holster clipped to her belt, her fingers trembling. Could she hit such a small target as the alligator’s half-submerged head—a moving target—without hitting Sadie?
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kyle was trying to restrain the child while he drew his gun. The little girl kicked, and his gun flew into the bushes. The alligator—much faster in the water than on land—was almost on Sadie.
The air suspended in her lungs, Jennifer pressed the voice-activation tab, saying, “Please, God. Help me.”
She fired once, but her aim was off. The alligator was within a few feet of Sadie now, and the dog, sensing imminent death, was windmilling the water in a frantic effort to escape—making it impossible for Jennifer to get a good shot. Sadie’s high-pitched whine filled the air. Jennifer instantly recognized it as the terror-stricken sound animals made before they died.
“Hit him between the eyes,” yelled Kyle. “The rest of his hide is as tough as Kevlar.”
Like a robot, she kept firing, her heart a dead weight in her chest. The last round shot of the chamber, and she dropped her arm praying she’d hit the alligator.
The channel was a pool of red, rippling waves, proving she’d found the target. The alligator was belly up, its underside silvery white in the glow of the setting sun.
Her world pitched precariously from side to side, then halted with a bone-jarring jolt. Her breath stalled in her lungs, gagging her. An abnormal chill pervaded her central nervous system and a terrifying rushing sound like Niagara Falls obliterated all other sound.
“Oh, my God! What have I done?”
A stray bullet had hit Sadie.
Chapter 11
Jennifer flung her Colt to the ground and jumped into the water so quickly she hit with a belly flop that knocked her breathless. Gasping, her mouth full of foul-tasting water, she swam toward Sadie. Behind her she could hear Kyle yelling, but the harsh rasp of her own breath and the terrified thunk-thunk of her heart made it impossible to understand him. Ahead she saw Sadie bobbing around, blood forming a dark cloud in the water where a low-angled ray of the setting sun punched through the trees.
“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry. I never meant to hit you.”
Sadie’s head lolled to one side, her muzzle below the surface of the water. If the shot hadn’t mortally wounded her, the dog would drown.
“Sadie! Sadie!” she called, attempting to get Sadie to lift her nose out of the water as she closed the distance between them, but the dog didn’t respond.
Jennifer reached Sadie and treaded water while she gently raised the bloodhound’s head out of the water. Eyes closed, Sadie coughed up water.
“Kyle! She’s still alive,” Jennifer cried with a surge of hope.
Nearby the dead alligator floated upside down, its silvery underbelly red with blood. She tried to tow Sadie to shore, but the dog was still ensnared in the underwater vines.
Jennifer’s heart slammed against her chest so hard it hurt as she kept Sadie’s head above water while she used the other hand to pull her knife from her equipment belt. She slashed under the water at the reedy vine around Sadie’s back leg. An image of a small pup sucking from the bottle Jennifer was holding flashed through her mind.
How could she have shot that sweet little puppy—all ears and soulful eyes?
Because she’d been arrogant. She’d put other skills before the ability to accurately hit a target. As much as she hated to admit it, Kyle had been right. Her inability to shoot would cost lives. In this case, she’d been so shaken; trying to kill the alligator, she’d hit her beloved dog.
“Let me do it. You just keep Sadie’s head out of the water.”
Jennifer had been so absorbed she hadn’t heard Kyle swim up. Sadie whimpered, a weak, gurgling sound. The dog’s soulful eyes opened, glazed with pain, silently condemning her.
“She’s free,” Kyle told her. “Let me take her. You get back to Holly.”
Jennifer swam toward shore, telling herself to be professional. As much as she might want to help Sadie herself, Kyle was stronger. It would be easier for him to lift her onto shore where they could see how bad the wound was.
She stood up near the shore where the channel was shallow, realizing water had seeped into the Kevlar jumpsuit. Her clothes were soaked, weighting her down like a load of cement. She slogged out of the water onto the mossy embankment where Holly was sitting, sobbing.
“It’s okay,” Jennifer said as her twisted ankle gave out and she fell to her knees on the slick moss.
“D-d-dog-gie, doggie, doggie,” cried the little girl.
Jennifer looked over her shoulder. Kyle was wading toward them carrying Sadie. Dusk had fallen, making it difficult to see, but Jennifer had the sickening feeling the wide, dark streak on his jumpsuit meant Sadie was bleeding to death.
“Don’t worry,” she tried to reassure the child and herself, “the doggie will be all right.”
Please, God. Don’t let Sadie die.
She put her arm around Holly and gave her a hug. The little girl snuggled up against her. The tears had stopped, but Holly was trembling.
“Why … shoot doggie?” Holly asked, wide-eyed.
“I made a mistake. I was aiming at the bad alligator.”
Kyle reached them with Sadie cradled in his arms. He gently placed the dog on the embankment.
“Get out your flashlight. Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
Jennifer pulled the flashlight from the Alice clip on her belt and turned it on. The rod of light hit Sadie’s motionless form. The dog’s rich mahogany fur was so wet and soaked with blood that it looked black. The blood seemed to be coming from her neck area, not her head as Jennifer had feared.
“Is the doggie dead?” asked Holly.
“No, honey. She’s just hurt. See, her sides are moving. That means she’s breathing,” she told the child.
Sadie was still alive, but for how long? Kyle was examining her without saying anything, which she took as a very bad sign. The only thing she could do was get out the waterproof pouch with the gauze and tape to stop the bleeding.
“What do you think?” she finally asked.
His eyes met hers over the tunnel of light, concern etching the masculine planes of his face. He took a packet of gauze from her, saying, “I don’t know. The sooner we get her to a vet, the better.”
Holly leaned over and put her little hand on the dog’s haunch. “Wake up. Wake up.”
“Honey, she can’t. She’ll wake up later, and you can thank her for finding you,” Jennifer said, watching Kyle bandage Sadie’s neck. “Should I radio the sheriff and see if that helicopter can get us out of here somehow?”
“There’s nowhere it can land.” He finished wrapping the gauze, and she handed him the tape to secure it. “Grab m
y cell phone.”
It was attached to the equipment belt on his waist. She leaned over, taking care not to bump Sadie. Protected by a waterproof case, the telephone hung next to his hard, muscled thigh. She took the tiny cell phone out of the case.
“Dial star 7,” he told her as he applied the tape.
“That’s all?” she asked, and he nodded. This had to be some special military telephone.
“Blackwatch 7,” answered a man in a brusque voice.
She handed the phone to Kyle, then leaned over Sadie, whispering, “Hang in there, girl. Hang in there.”
She ran a loving hand over the soft, damp fur along Sadie’s back. Her sides were moving slightly. Thank God she was still breathing.
Holly moved closer and petted Sadie’s rump with surprising tenderness for such a young child. “Hang in dare. Hang in dare.”
Dare not there. How cute, Jennifer thought. A rush of happiness elated her. She was unbelievably thankful they’d found the child before something terrible happened to her. Between the coral snake and the alligator, Holly Block would never have made it home alive.
If it weren’t for Sadie.
The hot sting of tears behind her eyelids threatened to become the real thing. History wasn’t repeating itself. She had found this little girl … alive. Now she had to get her back to her mother. She couldn’t help being extremely proud of what Sadie had accomplished.
She realized Kyle had hung up and put away his telephone. All she’d heard him say was: “Code 21.”
“What’s a Code 21?” she asked.
“It means the Navy will send a helicopter with a SEAL team on it. They’ll lower a Special Forces inflatable to us.”
“You didn’t give them our coordinates. How will they find us?”
Kyle held up his watch and pulled out a thin, foot-long antenna. It was difficult to imagine how it fit inside such a small space.
“This is an emergency positioning beacon. They’ll home in on the signal it’s sending.”
Her eyes on Sadie, she nodded. She knew Brietling manufactured watches for the Special Forces teams as well as pilots and astronauts. She had often wished she had one, but they weren’t available to civilians.