by Dianna Love
Bo stepped into view. He’d lifted his night-vision eyepiece, too, and pulled the hood back from his head as well. Dark hair sprang loose around the straps of his headgear. He had a strong jaw, something she’d always thought necessary for a man to be attractive.
Not that she considered this one attractive.
And now you are lying to yourself.
Blade touched her head with something cold that stung. She flinched.
Bo reacted by glaring over her head at Blade. “Be careful.”
“Think you can do better?”
“No.”
“Then shut the hell up.”
She waited for the backlash from Bo, but he just rolled his eyes and shook it off. Odd. She was considering that when she lifted her gaze to check his reaction again and found him staring down at her, studying her face with great interest. His gaze shifted with concern one minute and annoyance the next.
Everything about this man confused her except for one thing.
She found no acceptance in his eyes.
He would leave her behind at the first opportunity.
Chapter Nine
A scientist.
Okay, researcher in a lab, but the same difference as far as Tanner was concerned.
He needed a shovel slapped upside his head for having a momentary attraction back in the tunnel. This Jin had shown up at the last second ready to lead him out of the city. She’d convinced him that their mission had been blown.
But the bottom line was that she wanted a free ride to America.
What if she’d been the one to alert the soldiers to Pang and Har’s defection just to destroy Tanner’s first exit strategy and undermine his faith in any other plan?
If so, that had worked brilliantly.
She’d been involved somewhere in the communication line for this extraction and must have decided that as long as Pang and Har had friends helping them, she’d jump on the same ticket out of town.
Tanner could appreciate wanting to leave this place after the atrocities the world saw committed upon these people every day, but something about the way Jin had inserted herself into this mission hadn’t set well with him since he’d dragged her out of that bogus hotel.
Maybe she had nothing to do with any of the fallout tonight and just wanted to defect.
She had a sister somewhere.
If Jin were captured, her sister would end up in a prison camp even if they killed Jin, because the DPRK punished everyone related when anyone dared to break their laws.
Tanner would condemn one woman to death, and another to a life of hell if he made the wrong decision.
He dropped his gaze to Jin just as she looked up at him with soulful eyes that searched his face for answers. Her hair pooled around her shoulders and for the first time tonight, she looked desperate.
Blade started explaining to Jin how she had to keep the antibiotic on her head and the cut clean to prevent exposing it to any more germs. He glanced up at Tanner and nodded, letting him know he would do a subtle interrogation if Tanner stepped away.
That was the smart move, but Tanner’s feet weren’t helping him out one bit.
Blade raised both eyebrows that Tanner ignored until Dingo called over, “Bo.”
When Tanner reached where Dingo kept an eye on one end of the storm drain while Nick watched the opposite direction, he clicked off his comm set to make sure Jin didn’t somehow hear him through Blade’s. “What’s up, Dingo?”
“What do you plan to do about her, mate?”
Tanner wished he knew. “She claims she works with these two guys and she wants to defect, too.”
Dingo struck a thoughtful pose. “Pang says we’re making a mistake to listen to her.”
If Tanner were honest, he’d tell Dingo that he didn’t care for Pang, but that might only be due to Pang’s being a jerk to Jin. Why that bothered Tanner after having known those two for so little time was a mystery to him. “What reason did Pang give?”
“He says she’s only a flunky and he’s heard rumors that she’s sleeping with soldiers all the time. He’s worried that she’s the leak.”
A reasonable concern since Tanner had entertained a similar thought, but he had a tough time giving Pang any more credibility than Jin, even if the State Department had rubber stamped Pang’s defection. And he’d felt Jin react to his touch in a way that called Pang a liar about her sexual activities.
Besides, the guy hadn’t shared any nuclear secrets yet.
Until that happened, he was just a package to be delivered. Tanner asked, “What’s your take?”
Dingo scratched his chin, with its crop of whiskers a few shades darker than his short blond hair. “She did get us out of a tight spot.”
True and Tanner might be wrong to cut her any slack for that, but she’d been just as much at risk of dying. If there’d been a better alternative to the flooded tunnel, she’d have taken it.
He believed that, if he believed nothing else.
Blade walked up to the group. “She’s good to go.”
Tanner asked, “You learn anything?”
“She and her sister were raised by foster parents who are no longer in the picture. She tested high in science and languages, so she was put into an academic program at ten.”
Dingo asked, “She say anything about the other two Norks?”
“Yes.” Blade nodded and looked over at the pudgy physicist sitting next to Har, who still coughed and wheezed. He turned back. “She said she’s just as valuable as Pang or Har, but women are given no respect in their lab beyond being assistants. She says Pang hates her because he is a ...”
“What?” Tanner prompted.
“Dwaeji.”
Dingo scrunched his face. “A what?”
Tanner translated. “A pig.” That fit.
Chuckling, Dingo snorted. “Because Pang doesn’t miss a meal?”
“No.” Blade smiled at the reference then his expression soured. “Because he tried to force himself on her and she escaped him.”
Dingo stopped laughing and sent an evil look in Pang’s direction.
Blade finished reporting what he’d learned from Jin. “She said Pang’s been impossible to work with since she rejected him and she fears he’ll lie to make us leave her.” Blade cut his eyes at Tanner. “Are we taking her, too?”
Tanner was still processing that Pang had tried to sexually assault Jin and wanted to jack the little bastard up for that, but his common sense finally showed up and reminded him that she could be the one lying to all of them.
Female scientist and lies had gone hand in hand before.
Not the same woman, dude.
True. But she was sure as hell hiding something. He knew it in his gut.
But his men deserved a decision so they could form the next plan of action.
Tanner spoke for his team’s ears only. “Before I make a decision on Jin, I want to talk to Pang and get a read on him. While I do that and Blade deals with Har, we need to pin down where we are, Dingo.”
Dingo was all over that. “I’ll get our satellite position so we aren’t moving blind this time.”
“Sounds good. Wait until we’re further out of the city to make contact with home base,” Tanner said, indicating their people back in Seoul waiting to hear from him.
When they broke up, Dingo asked Jin where the closest opening to the street level was. She pointed past Nick and explained where they were in relation to the river.
With that, Dingo took off.
Tanner motioned to Blade who had just finished administering more drugs to deal with Har’s cough and sniffles. When Blade stepped up close, Tanner kept his voice low. “Get Har away from Pang without it appearing obvious that we’re separating them and find out what you can from the whiny one.”
“Not a problem. Har needs a quick breathing treatment. I’ll tell him I want to get him under better light so I can check him over. He’s eighty-percent hypochondriac. Should be no effort to get him to move.”
“For me,” Pang stressed. “She is assistant. Nothing more.”
Tanner crossed his arms with his rifle hugged up against his chest. He dropped his voice to that level men used to share bedroom secrets. “You ever get a piece of that?”
Pang was very still for a moment then smirked. “Of course. Women like her will spread their legs any time for someone in my position. What else are they good for beyond giving a man pleasure? They are not as intelligent and cannot be trusted. After I had her, she slept with soldiers. I do not tolerate seconds.”
Just the way Pang had said that pricked Tanner’s skin.
Pang might be telling the truth, but he sounded like a sleazeball who treated women like dirt. Tanner could see this man threatening a woman who had wounded his fragile ego.
Dingo’s voice called into the comm unit, “I’m heading back,” alerting Nick not to shoot him.
Tanner had heard all he wanted from the dwaeji and slogged through the six inches of drainage sludge again to meet up with Nick and hear what Dingo had to say.
Dingo reported, “We’re just under five kilometers southwest of the Ryugyong Hotel and half a kilometer from the river. She got us out of the center of the city.”
When Blade joined them, Tanner asked, “What’d you find out?”
The medic frowned. “Har says Jin is little more than a messenger between the lab and the underground group helping them defect. I asked him if he trusted her and he said he didn’t know her well enough to answer that question. She stays to herself and only this week revealed herself as the contact delivering information about their escape.”
Throbbing picked up behind Tanner’s eyes.
Which one of the three was telling the truth? Pang and Har’s stories were the closest, but Pang had said that Jin was his assistant, not a messenger.
Tanner spoke for his team’s ears only. “At this point, I don’t trust any one of the three of them. I said we’d deliver these guys, but that doesn’t mean they can’t show up in cuffs. Jin goes with us, but that could change depending on what happens between here and crossing back into friendly territory. Until we find out for sure who she is, she’s under suspicion.”
He paused, considering everything he’d learned just now, and added, “Don’t lower your guard, but I don’t want Pang harming Jin while she’s in our custody. Got it?”
They all agreed and Nick said, “Roger that.”
Everyone broke apart to resume their positions for moving through the sewer.
Before leaving that spot, Tanner asked Jin where everyone could hear her answer, “Where are we?”
She eyed Dingo then her gaze slashed back at Tanner. “Your equipment does not tell you?”
“That’s not what he was doing,” Tanner lied.
She pointed in the direction Dingo had gone. “The river is that way. If we pass the first opening to the street, the second one is in a more secluded area where it will be very dark at this time.”
Tanner nodded as if she’d just told him something he didn’t know.
Everyone moved forward at a steady pace with Jin in the lead again. She walked beside Tanner, shining her tiny light onto the sludge ahead of her.
Was she telling the truth about wanting to defect or was Pang right about her being the leak? Tanner couldn’t discount the physicist just because he didn’t like the guy. The CIA had confirmed Pang and Har’s position in the DPRK nuclear program, but there hadn’t been a spit of intel that mentioned Jin.
Until someone Tanner did trust could establish her identity, she was an unknown entity and would be treated as such.
It took another twenty minutes to locate the manhole Jin claimed was the best place to exit the storm drain. Tanner pushed up the manhole cover and peered at the street that would be busy in any other city just after a major event.
But North Korea was a world unlike any other.
One minute a massive celebration to one man’s ego, but the instant that was over all the locals scurried home and the city went silent.
Jin had been right about the lights being out in this section. That didn’t stop the twitch between Tanner’s shoulders.
Something was off about this entire extraction.
It could just be Jin’s unexpected presence, but he had a feeling it was more than that.
He pushed up out of the hole and stepped aside to keep watch as Dingo climbed out next and called each one up behind him. Tanner sent the two physicists and Jin to hide in the shadows of nearby trees with Blade and Dingo covering them. Once they were all above ground and moved to the cluster of trees, Tanner backed away from the street, turning at the last minute to face the group.
He had to come up with a plan and fast.
Jin whispered, “What time is it?”
Dingo said, “Twenty-three, forty-seven.”
She cocked her head, eyes looking away as she did the conversion.
Tanner translated, “It’s thirteen minutes to midnight.”
Her fine eyebrows drew tight. “We cannot stay here. A patrol comes by every half hour. We must move down the river and find a boat we can cross over with, but we will have to avoid being spotted by a river patrol.”
Nick had joined the circle and stood with his arms crossed. “How far down the river to these boats?”
She said, “Seven, maybe eight kilometers.”
One of the physicists grumbled at hearing that. Probably Har.
Tanner ignored them. Reaching the other side of the river wasn’t the problem. It was how to get his group a hundred miles south of Pyongyang to a bridge near Panmunjom where they could cross the DMZ. The possibility for success of this mission was dropping by the minute.
The last thing he wanted to do was share what he and his team planned with any of the North Koreans, especially Jin, since he knew zip about her. He told her, “Wait over there with the other two until one of us comes to get you three.”
Her eyes flared at that order.
He’d insulted her by grouping her with her co-workers? That was the least of his concerns.
The minute she was out of earshot, Nick volunteered, “I’ve got an idea.”
When Nick offered an idea it had equal potential to be a highly successful magic act or a major clusterfuck, but this was the kind of night that they needed to pull a rabbit out of somebody’s backside.
Tanner qualified the offer by asking, “How much of Pyongyang will still be standing when we leave?”
“Is that mission critical?”
Tanner didn’t have to look at Dingo or Blade to know they were thinking the same thing he was. “Not particularly.”
Nick grinned. “Then this’ll be fun.”
Chapter Ten
Jin watched Bo stride toward her with a confidence she envied. What would it be like to have been born a man who had a choice in his life? She didn’t know, but was going to find out about having choices one day if she survived this escape.
He stopped and dropped into a squat beside where she sat. “Go with my men and do as they say.”
She was wet and cold and she’d hit her fill of orders, but she’d learned a long time ago that men didn’t care what a woman thought. “Where are you going?”
“That’s not your concern, just do as you’re told.”
“Perhaps I could help you with whatever you are going to do.” Why did she even offer? Let the arrogant man get his head blown off. But the vision of him shot and bleeding bothered her. More than she wanted to admit. Her head should be checked for caring what happened to a man standing in the way of her getting to the US.
“I don’t need your help.”
She asked, “What will you do if you are caught or shot?” Clearly her head had not been checked, because she did care.
His eyes lit with the devil. He leaned down so close only she could hear his words. “Worried about me again, Jin?”
She crossed her arms and gave him a look she hoped sliced through his cockiness. “Of course I am.”
When his lips twitched with the start of a smile, she added, “You are my way out of here. Even a cowboy knows a live horse is of more use than a dead one.”
He huffed out a growl and stood. “Just stick close to my men. They won’t be understanding if you step out of line.”
She stood up beside him. He was not joking.
“I’ll be a good little woman,” she snarled.
He shook his head and walked away with the tall, dark one called the Italian Stallion.
She knew what that term meant, but that one was not as attractive as the cowboy.
What was wrong with her? How could she find that arrogant, oversized mountain attractive?
“Let’s go,” Dingo said, but not as an order.
She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands and followed him. He led their five-person group from gap to gap along the waterfront, slipping between trees, then buildings that were closed for the night. During the half-kilometer trek, she struggled not to look over her shoulder for the irritating mountain.
Only a fool would care what happened to him.
She finally looked back. And again.
Confirmed. She was a fool. Had to be exhaustion. She’d been up for most of the past two days.
When they reached the point on the Taedong River where a canal split off to the right, Dingo directed them to wait beneath the north end of the Yanggak Bridge where the tall support structure offered places to sit.
They were safe for the moment.
But only while it was nighttime.
Come daylight, they would have to find a real place to hide. This was going to take much longer than she’d expected. If someone had not located the evidence against Pang’s boss so quickly, this team would have used its resources to take Pang and Har out of here by now.
The damage to their exit plan was her fault.
But only because the soldiers had been too quick. She had waited as late as she’d thought safe to plant it, but in this country suspicion ran high and the leader expected all his men to watch for evidence of traitors.