Ryker (The Mavericks Book 6)

by Dale Mayer

  “Only about ten minutes,” he said, although it was probably closer to twenty minutes. She yawned, and he said, “Just sleep. The best thing you can do now is sleep.”

  “Sounds good,” she muttered. And she quickly closed her eyes and fell asleep again.

  With her quietly snoring beside him, he went back to researching which of the naval ships would be closest and how long it would take to reach them. Out in the ocean on a Zodiac, they could be up against all kinds of weather. A small boat would get buffeted badly. It would be all about fuel. And that was a concern. They had to make sure they had enough to get where they needed to go.

  He quickly mapped out the best landing spot and sent them to Asher and then looked at the time frame to get back from one side to the other and realized that the reason it would be midnight was because it would take that long just to get the Zodiac to them. Too bad no helicopters were around. They could just land the damn thing beside the town. But that was way too easy. And it certainly wouldn’t work in this instance. Not within their optimum timing. But he thought he’d ask. No helicopters close by?

  Nothing that will do the distance. The destroyer is coming toward you as it is. So, with any luck, your trip won’t be too long.

  We’re still talking four to five hours before the Zodiac reaches us?

  Five hours going against the current, yes, Asher said. And five hours is doable.

  As long as it comes with a ton of fuel, Ryker said.

  Yes, it will. Once you’re out in the ocean, everybody’ll be looking for you—those on our side, that is. So don’t worry about it. We got this.

  I know. It’s not me I’m worried about. It’s the passengers.

  Are they okay?

  Yes, he said. But it’s been a rough trip.

  Manila is apparently pretty tough though, Asher said, so I wouldn’t worry about it.

  So, if I told you to not worry about Mickey, would you have listened to me?

  There was silence and then he came back with a Hell no.

  Exactly, Ryker said. And that’s how I feel about this one.

  Interesting. Glad to hear you found somebody.

  I’d be glad too, if we were out from under this scenario, he said. But I can’t guarantee that right now.

  Of course not, but you’re a good man, and you will look after your own.

  Sure. It’s just doesn’t necessarily correlate to mean that she’ll be safe.

  You’ve only got a few more hours to go, Asher said with a smiley emoji. What could possibly go wrong in that time?

  Ryker groaned. Don’t even say that.

  I know, Asher said. That’s like a death sentence and asking for everything to go wrong.

  Absolutely, Ryker said. And what we really need is for something to go right for a change.

  Well, you’re not in the jungle. You’re in a hotel, and you’re safe and sound for the moment. That’s an awful lot of right to me.

  Okay, I’ll give you that. But, in the meantime, I need eight hours just to get our ship close enough to us, he said. And then another four or five hours with us in the middle of the night on a Zodiac in the ocean.

  And, for you, that’s easy-peasy, Asher said. Good luck.

  And Ryker signed off.

  Chapter 12

  Manila woke up from her nap, feeling groggy and disoriented. But then she finally recognized that she was in a different room. Although identical, it wasn’t the same. At least not a hundred percent. For one, it didn’t feel like home, and the bed that she had slept in last night had that added extra something to it. But then maybe that was because she had also been with Ryker. Now she felt like a visitor again. She stretched as she got up, doing a couple floor-to-ceiling stretches to ease the aches and pains in her body. And then realized she was all alone.

  Her team had headed into town, and Ryker should be around here somewhere. She didn’t remember what he was doing. She stepped out onto the balcony and studied the distance between the two balconies, then shook her head. She still didn’t believe she’d crossed that. But then, after what she’d been through, it was just one more thing.

  She ducked back inside, not wanting to stand outside too long, and brought her laptop out quickly and used it, connecting to the Wi-Fi network. Thankfully they had that here. Immediately, she got on with the university and talked to several of her colleagues. Global had emailed her several times, and she opened up a conversation with them.

  They had heard about her from Benjamin, confirming what he said he’d done, and that they were worried about how to get her home again. Conversations flowed back and forth, and she said that she thought she had an answer, but she was waiting on the team who’d rescued her to confirm it. There was absolutely nothing else she could do but wait. She did have samples and had found a couple good prospects, but the conditions here were pretty rough, and they would be up against guerrillas on a constant basis, so maybe they should look at other countries with better mining opportunities.

  A noncommittal answer came back after that, and she just shrugged. It wasn’t her problem. They’d either make good with the government and the guerrillas, or they’d end up with a fight. Again, it wasn’t her problem. One of the questions that came back was how did Benjamin and Andy hold up. She replied that both were fine. They were both different in their own ways, yet she wouldn’t blackball either of them.

  Even Benjamin?

  She stared at that question for a long moment. He obviously wasn’t pleased with what went on, but yes. Why?

  He’s registered a complaint against you.

  She stared at that in shock. About what?

  The fact that he believes you were at fault that you were captured.

  At fault? She asked, anger rising up within. I was following instructions, collecting from the best data points that we had established prior to leaving. The guerrillas came upon us early in the morning. We were fully surrounded before we ever left camp. The camp location was decided based on the guide’s recommendation.

  There was no answer for a long moment. Noted. We’ll discuss it with him when he comes back.

  And me. I need to be part of that discussion. Sounds like he’s holding a personal grudge. And I have seen some of that here in his attitude.

  In what way?

  Apparently, he knows or assumes that I make more money than him, and he has made several jabs about that during the trip, including me being a female, and I think he’s more or less done with this entire process.

  No longer a team player?

  She thought about it and shrugged it off. I’m not trying to diss him here. It’s been a rough trip for all of us. But the sooner we all get back into our normal surroundings, I hope some of the hard feelings will settle down.

  Yet he’s made his complaint official.

  Good to know, she said and refused to go down that path. What is the process for me to refute it?

  We’ll have a sit-down meeting when you get back.

  I presume that choice was between which of the two of us would take the lead on this job?

  No, never, her boss said. Your job position originally was between the two of you. You were hired since you’ve been there, and we’re more than happy with your performance over the last several years. He would never be the one to take this trip as a lead.

  It could be that it’s time for him to consider retiring or taking another type of job in life, she said. His job dissatisfaction is fairly obvious. But then again, we’ve been under a tremendous amount of strain. There’s nothing like being taken prisoner to have you reevaluate your job choice. She ended that with a laugh, sending a smiley emoji.

  You stay safe, and let us know when you come in.

  Will do, she said. Then she quickly ended the chat and closed down everything, including her laptop. It was incredibly small and, even in its case, fit into a particular pocket on her backpack, which was, as far as she’s concerned, the only reason why the kidnappers hadn’t taken it. The fact that it was surrounde
d by rocks may have helped too. They had been pretty disgusted when they’d seen her rocks, but the guerrillas had left her with them. Then again it was to their benefit as well to have the rocks come up as containing platinum. Because, if anybody could find something like that in their part of the world and mine it, then they could certainly step in and mine it themselves, just as they were doing with the country’s gold. Although it wasn’t the guerrillas doing the mining, she couldn’t help but think that all these industries were working with each other and against the government. She didn’t really blame them. It wasn’t exactly a Western society they all lived in.

  She quickly packed up the rest of her stuff so that she had one bag and her clothes to get changed into were at the foot of her bed. Then, not for the first time, she twirled around in her dress, loving the way that the skirt flew open. It was just such a hot day and such a lovely gift and very thoughtful of Ryker. She checked her watch and realized it was late afternoon already, and somebody should be here by now.

  She hated waiting. She didn’t have any way to contact any of them without her phone though. As far as she understood, nobody had phones. Not her team anyway. That was something the kidnappers had recognized and had taken. Not to mention a lot of their survey gear and anything they recognized as valuable. So they had left her the rocks.

  She looked outside into the late afternoon sun and realized it was too hot even here at her balcony door. So she stepped farther inside. She’d eaten, and she’d had coffee, but now it felt like she was alone in the village. She dared not leave without shoes on her feet, and she didn’t really want to get changed yet, although she would within a few hours. But if she had a few hours without her hot outdoor gear on, then she’d appreciate it.

  She wanted to head out and take a look around but couldn’t, considering she was under strict instructions to stay here. She understood that, but it seemed like she was missing out on an opportunity that everybody else was enjoying, and she wasn’t. It sucked. She walked over to the hotel room door and would have opened it but then remembered the fact that those two men standing guard at her hotel room door had sold her to the guerrillas, and nobody was to know that she was here instead.

  She raised her hands in frustration and threw herself on the bed. Just then she heard an odd noise. She slowly straightened and stared at the front door, but she wasn’t sure that the noise had come from the door as much as it might have come from the room beside her. She tiptoed across the room and held her ear against the wall to see if she could hear anything.

  Definitely somebody moved around in there. But that could just as easily have been Ryker, making sure they’d emptied everything from the room, or even Miles determining that they would stay there for the night. But that hadn’t been the plan. The plan had been that they were leaving tonight, and, if anybody was coming and going into that room, then Miles and Ryker would go across the balconies, not enter the front door—not without exiting that front door first.

  She shook her head and muttered, “Something weird is going on.” Someone’s on the other side. But it could easily have been one of the two men who had supposedly been standing guard too. Frowning, she wanted to go out onto the balcony but that too would reveal where she actually was. Then she heard voices. And somebody saying that they had to find her. At that, her heart froze. She raced to the glass balcony doors and quickly closed, then locked them and checked her hotel room door. It was already locked.

  Just then, the door quickly opened and shut really fast. She spun around to see Ryker. She raced toward him and threw herself into his arms. “Shh,” he whispered. “It’s okay.”

  She shook her head and pointed at the room beside her.

  He nodded and placed a finger against her lips. “I know.”

  She stared up at him. “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, “but we need to get you out of here.”

  “How?”

  He glanced at her dress and lack of footwear and frowned.

  “I can get changed,” she said.

  He checked his watch. “You might as well anyway.”

  She snatched up her clothes, went into the bathroom and quickly pulled on her slightly stiff jeans. She also wore her T-shirt, and, when she came back out, she put on her socks and then stuck her poor feet into her boots. She walked experimentally around, hating the blisters but knowing she had no other option.

  “How are your feet?” he whispered.

  She shrugged. “They’re not bad. I’ll survive as long as we’re not doing another thirty-mile hike.”

  “Not today,” he said.

  She nodded and bent down on one knee, then tightened up her boot so that they were as good as they could be for walking around securely. And then she took the dress and folded it gently and rolled it up as tight as she could. She tucked it into one of the side pockets of her backpack. And that’s all there was left of her things. She lifted her bag, winced at the weight of the rocks, and said, “Are we clearing out?”

  “We’ll take anything you feel you need to take, just in case,” he said. “And we’ll come back and get the rest of it later.”

  “Do we need anything though?” She glanced down at one long duffel bag he had, which was full of weapons, and then his own bag.

  “No, not necessarily,” he said. “But I’m not sure that we want to take everything right now.”

  “Well then, we can leave it here, and we can go for a walk around the village,” she announced. “As long as I’m with you, they’ll think twice about coming after me.”

  “Well, we can check out a rendezvous spot for tonight.”

  “Let’s go.” Immediately she held out her hand. “As long as you think it’s safe.”

  He stepped out first, noting that the two guards weren’t at their post. He quickly sent Miles a note, updating him on that event. He swept her down the hallway to the back stairs. Just as they were going around the corner, he could hear men’s grumbling voices and stomping. He rushed her forward and whispered, “That’s the guards.”

  He caught a glimpse of them coming up with platters of food before they retook their spot in front of her door. He grinned at that. But it also meant that whoever else had been in her room had known Manila was not there. He immediately suspected either the manager or the owner of the hotel.

  And the only thing he could think of was some sort of agreement with the guerrillas. And he didn’t know that they operated on that level. It was too damn confusing, and he didn’t really care about getting the final details as long as he could get her out of here.

  Outside, he watched as the humid and hot air hit Manila’s face full-on. She took several deep breaths and said, “Wow, so hot and humid. It was much cooler in the hotel room.”

  “We had the air-conditioning on,” he said.

  She shrugged. “But I was outside earlier.”

  “With the door open,” he reminded her.

  She nodded and hooked her hand through the crook of his elbow. “Can we stop and see Pablo too?”

  He considered the suggestion, then nodded. “That works. We’ll go there first.” He led the way to the hospital, and, as they stepped in, the doctor looked up and frowned.

  “Pablo’s not here. I told your friend that already.” His broken English came out testy, as if he was tired of being nagged over something.

  “He’s not here at all?” Ryker asked in confusion.

  “Where could he be then?” Manila asked.

  The doctor stared from one to the other. “I don’t know. He checked himself out.”

  “Was he in good-enough shape?” she asked in surprise.

  “Somewhat, yes,” he said. “The antibiotics kicked in, and his fever broke. I don’t know for how long he’ll be okay. Depends if he rests up somewhat.”

  “Good,” she said, showing her relief.

  “Maybe,” Ryker said, but he could feel her fingers gripping his elbow tightly.

  “He was doing okay though?” she
asked persistently.

  The doctor nodded. “We gave him several doses of heavy antibiotics and cleaned out his lacerations. He obviously needs to rest, but he was doing much better. We also had him on IVs for hydration, and he’s fine now. Or will be fine,” the doctor corrected.

  “And he checked himself out?” Ryker asked.

  The doctor nodded again. “That’s what I said. Now can you guys stop bothering us, please?”

  “Well, since this is the first time I’ve been here,” Manila said, her voice stiff, “I wanted to confirm for myself that he’s okay.”

  “Then track him down,” the doctor said. And he turned and walked away.

  The receptionist gave them a half smile. “We aren’t used to people coming and going all the time.”

  “Of course you are,” Manila said. “You’re a hospital. Everybody comes to visit, looking after their loved ones.”

  “Yes, but this guy came in last night. We put him into a small separate room, so he could stay away from everything and everyone,” she said. “And then, as soon as he could, he got up and left. I think that’s what the doctor objects to mostly. He feels like Pablo’s a fugitive, and he’s helped him.”

  “He helped him stay alive,” Manila objected. “That’s what a doctor does.” But she spun on her heel. “Come on.”

  Ryker nodded and smiled his thanks to the receptionist and asked, “Did he pay for his care?”

  The nurse winced and shook her head. “That’s probably what the doctor’s more worried about.”

  Ryker pulled out several American hundred-dollar bills and placed them on the counter. “I know it’s not enough, but we appreciate it.”

  The nurse took it in, surprised. “No, but this will go a long way to helping that,” she said. “Thank you.”

  And he quickly stepped out with Manila.

  She stared up at him. “I didn’t even think of that.”

  “No such thing as a medical plan here,” he said. “Somebody has to pay for his care.”

  “Right, and we did look after him, so it does feel like we should be looking after him more.”