by Dale Mayer
She shook her head and noticed the vehicle behind them. “I can drive faster.”
“Go cross-country. We should be able to lose them on the other side of the village.”
She didn’t hesitate.
He really admired that. She took directions and drove fast. She twisted the wheel hard and blazed cross-country. The road was a lot rougher, but, as long as she could avoid any big rocks, they should gain some speed. The road returned not too far ahead, and he pointed it out to her. She nodded and angled toward it, and, with a heavy jump, the vehicle ripped up onto the road again, landed roughly and peeled away. He looked over to see Samson, his tongue lolling, facing the wind, as if enjoying the ride.
“Is the dog okay?” she asked.
“He’s better than okay,” Parker said with a big grin. “I think he’s enjoying this.”
“Of course. This is his deal, isn’t it?” She laughed. “But you realize, if it isn’t the right dog, we’re the ones in the wrong here.”
“It’s the right dog,” he said. “I checked his tag.”
“Well, thank God for that.” Just then the same black vehicle ripped up in the road not too far behind them.
Parker swore. “They took the same shortcut.”
She glanced in the rearview mirror, and he could see the fear in her eyes.
“Just drive, drive, drive,” he said.
The trouble was, they were being fired upon now. It wouldn’t be long before the rebels were close enough to hit their target. Parker looked for options. They had to find some way out of this. “Maybe the airport,” he said.
“Sure. Do you have a way to get there cross-country? At least that way maybe they’ll hit a rock or get caught up in something versus us,” she said. “On the road, it’s all about speed.”
“That’s very true,” he said. He studied the ground around them and pointed up ahead. “At that second corner, go over. It’ll be terrifying because of the sharp rise initially, but it smooths out really fast.”
“And you know this how?”
“Because I used to do a lot of driving here. I know this area fairly well. We can head to the airport completely cross-country from there, catch it on the far side of one of the runways and drive all the way in.”
“I like the sound of that,” she said with a laugh.
Another shot was fired at them and pinged the vehicle on the side. She swore.
“Steady. We’re coming up to the spot …”
She kept driving straight ahead until Parker cried, “Now.”
She sent the vehicle straight off the edge of the corner.
Chapter 3
Sandy’s heart raced, and she would swear to God that she’d never driven like this in her life. Just taking that vehicle over the edge was enough to give her a heart attack. But she hung on, her foot hard on the gas as the vehicle raced magically forward.
Parker was laughing at her side. “Good girl,” he said, his voice full of admiration.
She shook her head. “I was absolutely terrified.”
“Terrified but you did it anyway,” he said. “And that’s what this is all about. Courage is being brave when you’re under fire. You’ve definitely got what it takes. Watch out for that big boulder coming up.”
But she had this now. She twisted around the boulder and kept going, picking out the path in front of them.
“Where did you learn to drive?”
She laughed. “My brothers,” she said. “They taught me. They were all about 4x4-ing. I can’t say we ever raced like this, but cross-country driving is second nature. Just not under this kind of pressure. Or speed. Or gunfire.”
“The faster, the better,” Parker said. “We can make up a lot of time this way.”
Another shot pinged, making her duck instinctively. But then nothing else came, and she eased the tension in her shoulders while she raced ahead as fast as the terrain allowed. If it wasn’t for the danger, she’d be thoroughly enjoying herself.
Parker stretched his arm out and pointed. “Turn up here. Your ten o’clock.”
She turned the steering wheel and headed in that direction.
He laughed. “You’re good at this.”
“Nope. I’m great at this,” she said smugly. “I used to navigate for my brothers whenever we went out driving. I’ve done this plenty. We loved the dunes the best. Who knew my misspent childhood would come in so handy?”
“Now that would be fun,” he said, chuckling. “Coming up, I want you to do a two-o’clock turn. Right … now.”
She turned again. “Now we’re going back the same way we were,” she said. “Did you consider that?”
“I know,” he said. “But that’s all right because this is where we need to be.”
Almost instantly she took the vehicle up a small rise and jumped over the top and blasted onto smooth ground. She cried out in surprise.
“Hit the gas, and go fast,” he said.
“Ha, I’m going as fast as I can.” She already had her foot flat on the floor, racing toward the small buildings ahead. “I don’t know how you saw this in this light,” she said. “I can barely see.”
“I know, and it’ll just get worse. I’m glad we did this when we could. In a way, it was a perfect storm that worked in our favor.”
“How’s the dog?”
“Samson is fine,” Parker replied. “I swear he’s enjoying this.”
She checked the dog, and, sure enough, he was sitting up in the back seat, looking around. “Doesn’t seem like anything fazes him.”
“Think about his training. Think about what he’s seen. Think about what he’s been through …”
“Good point,” she said. “Are they still behind us?”
He checked the rearview mirror. “Doesn’t look like it. It’s clear.”
As they came up to the small air base, Sandy said, “Nobody’ll be here, will they?”
“Not likely at this time. Let’s drive up to the hangar, where we were last. We need a place for Samson to stay for the night. This might be our best bet.”
“But that means we have to stay with him too,” she said. “No way we can trust anybody else with the dog. Not at this stage. I’m still not sure Ronnie didn’t help the kid take the dog by leaving his cage unlatched.”
“You got that, huh? I was wondering myself,” he said.
Sandy slowed down and pulled up against the hangar door. Parker hopped out and disappeared from sight. She drove a little past, looking for any place to pull out of sight because the last thing she wanted was somebody to follow her here. She parked around the corner and turned to pet Samson. The big shepherd whined, then licked her hand and nudged her to give him a better scratching. She scrubbed him hard, chuckling. “Aren’t you a beautiful boy,” she whispered.
He barked at her, almost like a yes.
Parker came back. “One of the side doors is open,” he said. “Let’s take him in there.” He wrapped his hand around the rope and led Samson out of the back of the jeep. They went around to the side door.
Sandy checked the surrounding area, looking for any plume of dust, indicating if vehicles were coming their way, but she saw nothing. She turned to Parker. “You know they’re out there.”
He nodded. “Oh, yeah. They definitely are.”
Parker opened the hangar door quietly and slipped inside, holding Samson at his side, Sandy with him. He whispered against her ear, “I don’t want to turn on the lights, in case we’re seen.”
She nodded. “Any way we can open the bay door to bring in the jeep?”
He pondered that for a moment and then nodded. “I think we have to take that risk. The rebels are likely to come here anyway, but, if they find the vehicle outside, they’ll know for sure and likely disable it.”
He walked over to one of the big bays and studied it. “What I need is a manual crank,” he said. “So we don’t have to fire up the electronics, which could be noisy.”
He studied the panel on the side, hit a few button
s, switching off the auto functions. He grabbed one of the handles and pulled. It took a little more effort than he expected, but it did lift. Halfway up, he studied the height and realized the jeep should just about make it through. He fired it up, and, without turning on its lights, then shutting off the jeep’s running lights, he backed it up and parked it inside the hangar.
He shut off the engine and let out a breath. He jumped out and pulled the door closed as quietly as he could. He couldn’t see anything out there from where he stood. He heard Sandy’s strangled call.
“Parker?”
“I’m here,” he said. “What’s up?” He could hear a whine coming from Samson.
“What’s the matter?” he repeated, walking toward the sound. He pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. He shone it on her face, seeing a strange look.
She said, “Look down.”
He shone the flashlight around to see a man crumpled facedown on the floor.
“Shit,” he said, dropping to the man’s side. He checked for a pulse but found nothing. A large pool of blood was under his chest and abdomen area. Shining the flashlight on his face to confirm, he had already recognized who it was. “It’s Ronnie.”
She nodded and whispered back. “Yeah. I recognized him.”
He looked at her, and she shrugged. “When you opened up the garage door to come in, I saw just enough. Did you check how he died?”
He shone the flashlight over the body again.
“Exit wound,” she said and pointed to the center of his back.
Twisting the flashlight for a better angle, he nodded. “Single bullet hole.”
“But, if that was the case, that would turn the suspects into the two people that were here when we talked to him earlier.”
“That’s an assumption we can’t afford to make,” he cautioned. “He could also have stayed behind and spoken to somebody or had a private meeting here.”
“Do you think it’s related to Samson?”
“The dog could be part of it, but I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg.” Sandy stared at him, and he nodded. “Too much potential here for selling and stealing contraband.”
“You mean, the ground crew removing items that are supposed to be shipped in or out?” she asked. “All of that paperwork is checked and cross-checked many times.”
“Sure, but by whom?”
She sagged to the ground beside Ronnie, as if not wanting to leave the dead man alone. “I suppose if one had a system in place,” she said slowly, “it’d be all too possible.”
“Not only possible but likely,” he said, searching her face in the dim light. She was holding firm. Shaken but standing her ground. All the more reason to admire her. He reached out a hand. She reached back. “Unfortunately it happens all the time. Not necessarily from the ground crew or from anybody flying in or out, but, within the military base itself. Humans make honest mistakes. Plus the paperwork is daunting. So consider how many moving parts are necessary to keep track of. Stealing military supplies to resell is big business. It’s very easy for somebody to set up a system like this.”
“So now what do we do?” she asked, standing up, holding on to his hand.
“That’s a good question. Because we have to contact the right person.” Then he added, “And only the right person.”
He could feel her twist as she turned her head to look at him again. He shuffled over a step and tugged her closer, almost in his arms, and he added, “We have to make sure, if this goes as far as the rebel camp, which it probably does, that we don’t contact the wrong person somehow who is already involved.”
“Meaning, if they’ve already killed one person, what’s several more? Do you think it’s that lucrative to risk the penalties?” She turned slightly to look at the darkened hanger, as if someone were listening in.
“I think it’s beyond lucrative,” he said quietly. “Smuggling always is. And when it’s Uncle Sam’s goods, potentially moving to rebels in this country or another, I think those types of items are worth their weight in gold.”
“Oh, good Lord. What did we get into?”
“It’s me that’s into it,” he said. “I promise I’ll get you back to the base. You can leave tomorrow. That’s the plan.”
“We’ve already been seen together,” she said in a reasonable tone, as if trying to explain something he wasn’t already aware of.
The trouble was, he was very much aware of how much danger he’d put her in. He tugged her closer. She came willingly, snuggling in for warmth. “I should never have asked you to come,” he said. “I was just thinking about a nice country drive, looking for a dog and getting off the base for a bit. Something to take our minds off the real reason we’re here.”
“We were both thinking that,” she said. “The base holds tough memories for us, and both our brothers are lying back on the base, waiting to be flown home. I wanted to get away just as much as you.”
“Right,” he said. “We found Samson too.” He reached out and scratched Samson on the back of the head. Samson lay down beside him and dropped his head on Parker’s foot.
“The question is, what do we do now?” she asked.
“I’m also wondering that. Not just what to do now but I’m wondering whether or not the dog saw something. I know that sounds foolish, but these dogs are trained. In many different areas. Maybe he alerted someone who shouldn’t have been alerted, or maybe he smelled something that shouldn’t have been smelled. Or maybe Ronnie befriended the kid and thought he should have a dog of his own and let Samson loose.”
“Let the dog loose?” she reiterated slowly. “Right. No way that kid would have been allowed out of here on the runway with Samson, would he?”
Parker looked at her. “Not likely, but that doesn’t mean impossible,” he said.
“The dog was used to being flown around the country,” she said with a frown. “Which means, where the dog was located at the time of his disappearance was actually part of this. Because, if he was already on board the plane, the local boy couldn’t get a hold of Samson.”
“Even if Samson was in the hangar here,” he said, “I highly doubt the boy could open the cage, unless somebody had left it open for him. Like Ronnie. Or potentially someone saw the kid here and thought he’d make a great scapegoat.”
“And, if the boy didn’t take Samson, the dog could have run off anyway.”
“Potentially, yes,” he said. “But you also have to consider that most likely men were here who could have controlled the dog with commands.”
“Except that he was now being sent home for retirement. He didn’t have a handler with him, besides the Gorman guy.”
“Gorman and his buddy. They have both said the dog was close to the plane but how close? I don’t know.” He pulled out his phone. “I want to ask Cam a few more questions about that, but I don’t want to alert anyone here. So I can’t contact my buddy.”
“We have to do something,” Sandy said, tilting her head back to look up at him. In the darkness he could barely make out her features; only the whites of her eyes showed. And the fear darkening them.
“Yes, but we have to bring in somebody from the outside. And that’s tricky.”
“Okay, so not Commander Cross, without jumping to a lot of unfounded and unsubstantiated conclusions. What about the guy who asked you to come look for the dog?” she asked. “He should have connections.”
“That might not be the worst idea,” he said. He stepped aside slightly, keeping an arm around her shoulders and hit Badger’s name on his contact list. He listened as the phoned dialed the number. When Badger answered, Parker said, “I’ve got a problem.”
“Let me have it,” Badger said. “Problems are the name of our game.”
“I hope so because this one is ugly,” Parker replied and explained the issue.
Chapter 4
Sandy listened to the conversation as she crouched and studied the dead man in front of her. She reached up to grab Parker’s hand
as it slid off her shoulder. She didn’t want to lose that physical connection. They were close together, but it wasn’t the same as being tucked up against him. The man on the ground wasn’t the real problem. No, she’d seen more than her fair share of death; it was part of her career, but it was also part of her military career.
She’d been months on the front lines, and she’d helped save a lot of men, but a lot of men came to her too far gone to save. None of it was easy. But finding this man killed in cold blood on a US Navy base bothered her more than anything. And the nuances that were yet to be sorted out here were something else again. She’d come for her brother and had somehow gotten embroiled in something much uglier. And this poor man, someone she’d spoken with just hours earlier, was gone. Such a waste.
He’d been a young, vibrant man just a few hours ago. And to see him cut down like this, and for what? Revenge to keep quiet because he’d opened his mouth? Because he’d let Parker know about the local boy? Because he’d helped let the dog escape? None of them were good enough reasons for her. When she heard silence behind her, she turned to look at Parker. “So?”
“He’ll contact Commander Cross. And then he’ll get back to me.”
Not even five minutes later, both of them sitting in the dark, waiting, his phone buzzed. “Badger. What’d you find out?”
Sandy leaned in so she could hear the call. “Commander Cross has contacted the base commander. Colonel Barek says a special military police force is coming your way. It’ll be four men. He’s vetted them all, but Commander Cross said, as we well know, deceit happens. Even at the highest level. So he wants you to keep an eye on the MPs, get their names and monitor their actions closely.”
“Once they get here, we’re cut out. You know that, right?” Parker said.
“Yes,” Badger said. “So, you have about twenty minutes. I suggest you take a look around for clues.”
“We’ve deliberately been hiding because of the rebels chasing us.”
“Any rebels coming now will meet up with the military police. You got twenty minutes.”