by Dale Mayer
“Good,” Tony said. “Now we both have something.” He sniffed the air. “Fresh coffee. Damn, that can turn a situation from being downright ugly to feeling like life is almost doable.”
She chuckled. “I agree. I think, while we have the chance, we should also consider food.”
They rummaged in the kitchen and pulled out stuff to make sandwiches.
“I can only eat one right now,” she said, “but I should fix a second one, in case I need it later. We don’t know what’ll happen once the guards get here.”
“And we have no way to really stop them from doing anything because we won’t know if they’re good or bad,” he said, sighing. “Unless we get close enough to see their faces, and they look like their pictures.”
“Let’s hope they are the men they’re supposed to be, and we’ll take it to mean they are good guys,” Vanessa said with a little smile. She cut her sandwiches in half, sat down and demolished the first half. Before she got to the end of the second half, she said, “You know something? I think I’ll eat my second sandwich.”
Tony was right there with her. They plowed through their ham and cheese and every vegetable she could find squished between two slices of bread. With a cup of coffee, they stepped up onto the deck to take a look around.
“It’s a stunning morning and a stunning location,” she said with a smile. “And how damn sad we’re in this situation and can’t enjoy it.”
“We can enjoy it,” he said. “We just have to be aware there’ll always be that ugly edge to paradise.”
“I guess every paradise has that same ugly edge, doesn’t it? It’s just we spend an awful lot of our time trying to ignore it.”
“Exactly,” he said. “It doesn’t make it any less beautiful. You know how much I love New York, but it’s definitely a big city with all the crime that goes with it.”
“In the case of New York,” Vanessa said with a laugh, “a little more than everywhere else.”
He shrugged. “There are more dangerous cities, but it doesn’t change the fact every place has something beautiful and something ugly. It’s a matter of trying to live in the beautiful, to be aware of the ugly, but not to let it overwhelm you or to be what directs your actions.”
She sat down on a big deck chair, loving the way the boat rocked under her feet. “The good news is, right now nobody’s coming toward us. The sun is shining. We have coffee. We have full stomachs, and we’re not in black SUVs on our way to some tiny private airport.”
“I wish we were on the way to the airport,” Tony said quietly, “but not on the way to a small backwoods out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere unregulated airport. Because that’s dodgy as hell.”
*
The airport was up ahead. They pulled off the road, watching as the SUV drove to a small hangar. “This is as close as I can get you,” the driver said. “You got your weapons now, but do you need extra manpower?”
Johan nodded. “If you’re up for it. The goal is to retrieve the two team members here and get everyone back home safe again.”
“And what about the getaway vehicle?” He nodded at the SUV ahead. “Are you planning on keeping their vehicle?”
Johan chuckled. “Nope, it’s all yours. We do need to get back to the marina. Our vessel is on the water. That SUV goes to the spoils of the war.”
With a big grin of satisfaction, the driver said, “Perfect. That thing is worth a lot of money. I’m in. So is my buddy.”
“And where is your buddy?” Vince asked.
He pointed to the hangar. “He’s already in position. He got in ahead of us.”
“Good,” Vince said. “But how?”
“Bike,” he said. “Motocross bike. He went cross-country and got here about ten minutes ago, dropping off your special-delivery package that we just picked up.”
“Perfect,” Johan said. “We need to get them out of the vehicle. The plane hasn’t come in yet, and we’ll make sure they can’t get on it.”
They exited the vehicle and crept along the outskirts toward the hangar. As they approached from the back, they were happy to see the hangar had no windows. The black vehicle still sat out front. Nobody had gotten in; nobody had gotten out. Above they could see a flashing light coming in. The sun was just rising and would give the plane enough light to set down without landing strip lights. Something definitely not happening on this small airstrip.
As it slowly came in for its approach, they heard car doors opening, and then somebody saying, “Get up now. No more guff out of you.”
And that clinched it for Vince and Johan. Dr. Walker and Jasper were prisoners. Vince sent a text to Levi, pocketed his phone, pulled out his handgun and slipped around the corner. Vince noted the SUV driver on his phone, standing at the side of the vehicle.
Vince heard him say, “We’re here. The plane is coming in for a landing.” The man hesitated, listening. “Yeah, yeah. We got them. We got the two. Do you have the other one?” He listened again. “Yeah? You finally convinced her? Good. Okay, so it’s a clean sweep,” he said, pocketing his phone.
When he turned, Vince was on him with a chokehold around his neck. He never made a sound as Vince grabbed him by his pressure points and knocked him out cold. Just to make sure he didn’t wake up anytime soon, Vince took the handle of his pistol and hit him once across the temple. The body never jumped.
With one down, he heard a muffled sound behind him. He turned and saw Johan taking out a second one. Johan and Vince exchanged hard grins and then shifted into the shadows. The two prisoners stood in front of the vehicle, flanked by two more suited guys. Jasper leaned against the vehicle for support, as if he’d been beaten and couldn’t stand on his own. Dr. Walker looked a lot less polished than the last time Vince had seen him.
The captors spoke and then turned and called out, “Marco, where are you? The plane is coming in.”
On that note, Johan and Vince jumped them.
As Vince stepped out of the way of his targeted guy dropping to the ground, he turned to look at Dr. Walker whose jaw dropped, and he burst into tears.
Vince turned to the young man. “Jasper, how badly hurt are you?”
Jasper blinked, his eyes bloody and puffy. “I’m sore, a couple busted ribs. I don’t know how much worse,” he said. “I really can’t walk much.”
“Back into the vehicle,” Vince barked.
Johan hopped into the driver’s side. “Let’s go now.”
Jasper needed help to get in. With their driver riding with them, and his buddy taking the other car, they pulled out from the hangar. Just before the plane landed, it shot back up into the air.
Vince grabbed the phone and called Levi’s number. “Four hostiles down. Plane is taking off. See if you can track it.”
“Eyes in the sky are on it,” Stone’s voice came through loud, clear and steady. “Condition of the prisoners?”
“Suffering but they’re alive,” he said. “Jasper might need serious medical care. I don’t know yet.”
“Get them to the boat if you can. Pull up anchor and get the hell into international waters as fast as possible.”
“I heard their driver say something about having these two, and yet, needing to know if they had the third, … a woman. He said something about a clean sweep.”
“Have you got his phone?”
“Yeah. Hang on a sec,” Vince shuffled through the phones in his pocket. They’d taken wallets and phones and had left the men where they were. Soon the cops would be called to come and collect them. He got back to Stone. “Here it is, at least it looks like it. Okay, the phone call came in about six minutes ago.” He rattled off the number.
“Tracing it now,” Stone said. “It’s a Colombian number. If they’ve got Dr. Sanchez, what are the chances they’ve already moved her out of the country?”
“You still think she’s a prisoner?”
“Let me find out from the guys, and I’ll call you back.” Vince turned, looked at Dr. Walker and Jasper and said, “Okay, we
’re on our way to the marina. But I need to know what your hosts said about Dr. Sanchez.”
Jasper spoke up. “They’ve got her. It was all about her. They came on board, took her, and were busy telling us how easy they’d taken us down.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Vince said. “The fact of the matter is, we need to confirm she isn’t part of this.”
Jasper managed to open his good eye, watching him in shock. “Hell no. She’s not part of this. I saw her. She was crying and protesting, but they grabbed her, threw her over their shoulder and left with her.”
“I have to know for sure,” Vince said. “Do you have any doubts about whether she was complicit in this?” He turned his gaze to Dr. Walker.
Dr. Walker shook his head. “No, they made it very clear what they would do to her. She’s a prisoner.” His voice sounded sad. “Jasper is right. This was a setup to grab her. We were only leverage to make her cooperate.”
“And it wasn’t her trying to get her freedom and disappearing?”
Dr. Walker shook his head. “No. As far as I understand from what Jasper said, she’s barely alive. They beat her badly.”
“I know where they’re going,” Jasper said. “There’s a huge estate the family lives on in her home country. They’re taking her back there.”
“I need all the information you have about it.”
Jasper gave him what he could, and Vince passed that information on to Stone. “I don’t know if we have locals or someone on the ground in Colombia, or if we need to gather a bigger team, but she has been taken back there.”
“I’ll see. Levi knows a couple groups down there. It might be a good opportunity for them to get back at somebody they’ve been trying to hurt for a long time. Dr. Sanchez’s family are big drug kingpins. Taking them on won’t be easy.”
“No,” Vince said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It won’t. But my job is to get her and the rest of your team safely out of here, and we’re having a hard-enough time doing that.”
“I know,” Stone said. “I’ll contact somebody down there. We need to know if we can get her out. You take care of yourself. Over and out.”
Chapter 15
Hearing sounds of a boat arriving, Vanessa and Tony rushed to the rails. It appeared to be a small powerboat pulling up alongside them.
“Oh, shit,” she said, bouncing back and away from sight. But she knew it was likely too late. They’d probably already been spotted.
“Why is it an Oh, shit?” Tony asked.
“Because there’s more than two,” she said. “We were only given facial images of two.”
“So they needed a third, somebody to take the boat back.” Tony shrugged. “Surely that can’t be all bad.”
She twisted her hair into a knot nervously. “But it can’t be good. Anything that’s not what Levi said can’t be good.”
“I think you’re worrying too much,” Tony said lazily. “Come on. We’re on the sailboat. We’ve had a great several hours. We’ve had communication. We know everything is going as planned, and the two men, which I definitely recognized one of them, are here. We’re safe and sound.”
She wanted to believe him, she really did, but she wasn’t sure.
Just then two of the men boarded the boat. With big grins, they walked forward with hands out and shook her hand.
Then the third man came aboard. She took one look at him, and her heart ran cold. She didn’t like him one bit. Maybe it was his eyes. They were dark, small, narrow, a little bit too much space between them. She thought there was a saying about that when it came to horses—those eyes meant the horse was stupid or you couldn’t trust them. She’d go with the latter because that was exactly how she felt. There was something off about him.
She bolstered up a smile. “Hi.”
The men smiled and introduced themselves. “I’m Shawn, and he’s Jared.”
She shook their hands again, then she turned to the third man, being up-front and bold as she said, “What’s your name?”
He just shrugged and said, “Call me Captain Matt.”
She frowned. “But you’re not the captain, are you?”
Shawn and Jared shook their heads. “No, he’s not. He just gave us a ride over,” one said. “We were on shore and needed a quick hop.”
She nodded but didn’t trust any of them now. She turned to Tony to see him lounging on one of the big deck chairs and frowned at him.
He shrugged and smiled. “It’s all good. We need to be here for another few hours, and then hopefully we get to leave.” He kept his big smile. He pulled on the back of his deck chair to lie it flat, let his body drop back and closed his eyes. “If anybody is making drinks, I’m all for it.” He then yawned. “And, if they’re not, I’ll have a nap.”
She got that he was young and naive, but she didn’t have the same sense of trust. Shawn and Jared appeared to be easygoing.
They headed into the cabin, talking about food and coffee. But the third man grabbed another deck chair and sat down beside Tony. It was almost as if he was keeping watch on him, wondering if he would be the most dangerous. Tony had his handgun, the same as she did, but he held it completely casually. Unlike her. The weapon sat heavy against her heart.
She hated those thoughts, and she would blame Vince for putting them in her head because she knew he’d have already analyzed the situation. She didn’t like anything about this scenario.
She wandered over to where she could keep an eye on “Captain” Matt, but he appeared to be stretched out lazily beside Tony as he slept.
She crept down below to talk to Shawn and Jared. “Hey, is that guy staying here?” she asked worriedly.
They turned to her, their faces lit up. “That’s pretty normal. We’re a friendly bunch. Don’t you worry.”
She shoved her hands in her pocket, stepped out of the way from the stairwell, afraid he’d be up there listening. “He wasn’t part of the plan.”
“Plan’s change,” they said. “We haven’t had any problems. He’s definitely been a help to get us out here,” one said, “so don’t worry about it. If he becomes a problem, we’ll take care of it.”
She nodded but still didn’t like anything about this. She didn’t know if she should stay down here with these two or go up on deck where she could keep an eye on the stranger she had no intention of calling captain. She needed to be where she could get a picture of him.
She grabbed a coffee, and, sitting where she could keep an eye on the harbor and all the boats coming and going, she sent a text to Levi, telling him about her concerns. The response she got back wasn’t reassuring. Watch your back.
What does that mean?
Don’t trust any of them now.
Her heart sank. She pocketed her phone and sat back, drinking her coffee. Now her heart pounded, and her nerves were stretched taut. Where the hell was Vince? He should be here.
She hated to say it, but she didn’t know where he was, and she desperately wanted to contact him but didn’t want to take the chance of disturbing him. If he was skulking around town, having his phone buzz and getting him caught or shot wasn’t something she wanted to be responsible for.
She got a text a few minutes later that made her heart lighten. On the way.
She took a deep shaky breath and whispered, “Thank God for that.”
A voice behind her said, “Hey. You enjoying the morning?”
She stiffened slightly and looked up to see “Captain” Matt smiling at her. She nodded. “Enjoying my coffee. Nothing like the peace and quiet of being on deck alone.” She tried not to be snide because she didn’t want to piss him off, but, at the same time, she definitely didn’t want company.
He just nodded and walked ahead of her slightly. “All quiet in paradise.” He gave a hard laugh and kept on walking to the bow of the ship.
She could see him somewhat. He pulled a phone from his pocket and made a call. And that terrified her even more. She texted Levi again. Message from Vince said he’s
on his way.
They should be there soon. Stay calm.
“I wish,” she whispered.
She pocketed the phone and decided, as her instincts prodded her, to get up and move. She tried to make it look like she was heading toward the stairs, then ducked around to the back of the ship. There she climbed up one of the ladders used to fix the rigging and just sat by the mast, amid the sail, looking out where she could see everybody. She hated that she was being so suspicious, but she didn’t know how else to deal with this.
Matt walked around, talking on the phone up at the front. And then he pocketed his phone, glanced around, checking to see where everybody was. He couldn’t find her, frowned, and then walked toward Tony, who was still lying there. He pulled the gun from Tony’s hand.
Matt reached down with a hard slam of the butt of the gun to Tony’s head. She slapped her hand over her mouth. Tony never even woke—he just slumped to the side. Then, with the gun stashed behind his back, Matt dashed down the stairs.
She pulled out her phone and texted Levi. By now she knew she had to hide, but she didn’t know where. Levi asked if she had a photo or could take a picture of him.
No, he’s gone down below. Her phone rang. She shut the ringer off once she answered it, hearing Levi talking to her calmly.
“Did you get a good look at him?”
She whispered, grateful the wind was whipping around her. She kept her gaze on the lower cabin to see if he came out. She was half hidden by one of the masts and the billowing sail edge, but it wouldn’t be long before he found her.
“He’s still down below. But I watched him hit Tony on the side of the head to make sure he didn’t wake up. Where the hell is Vince?” she asked in a harsh whisper.
“He’s about ten minutes out. Sending him a warning now.”
“I don’t know where to hide,” she cried out, trying not to be overheard.