Chapter Ten

To my dismay, I wasn’t piloting the chopper. Some old geezer was. His orders were to drop us off and leave. About forty-five minutes later a private airfield with a single asphalt landing strip came into view. A top-of-the-line Learjet was parked on the runway. Next to a lone palm tree was a fuel tanker truck. About ten yards behind it was a metal shed with a busted door. I surveyed the area for any sign of hostiles. All I saw was an endless sea of sand that stretched from horizon to horizon.

The minute we touched down, a slender black male with dreadlocks appeared in the doorway of the Lear jet. He wore a white silk shirt, black pants and combat boots. I eyed his abundant gold jewelry. Yeow! A little over the top and the fact he was flaunting it meant he wasn’t as harmless as he looked.

“Everyone out,” Stone ordered.

“You’re sure about him?”

“I am.” Stone climbed out of the Huey and walked over to him.

“That is Kamous, a Nigerian warlord,” Tex said.

To my surprise, the warlord hugged Stone, and they did this complicated fist bump thing. “Why is he helping us?”

“The sergeant rescued him from an Iraqi prison.”

I let out a whistle. Color me impressed. “How many men did he lose?”

“None,” Rodriquez answered.

“None?”

Johnson grinned broadly. “Not a one. He freed the prisoners and blew the prison to smithereens.”

Stone motioned to us. “He’s got a bottle of fifty-year-old whiskey waiting.”

“Grab your gear,” Tex told me and hurried after his squad.

I didn’t join them. I was allergic to whiskey, and they needed time to do a little male bonding. Slinging Bertha over my shoulder, I picked up my pack and smiled at the pilot. “Thanks for the ride.”

“My pleasure, ma’am.”

I stepped away from the Huey and watched it fly off. The back of my neck itched like crazy. Something was wrong. I scanned the area again. Was I being paranoid? Maybe. Maybe not. I caught a glimpse of the guys being held at gunpoint and ducked under the airplane. Shit!

“Why are you doing this Kamous?” Stone snarled.

“They have my family.”

Dammit! Sounded like something Roberts would do. Time for a little distraction. I pulled my boot knife and jabbed it into the jet’s front tire. It hissed nicely as it deflated. I fished around in my pack and pulled out the grenade I had taken off a dead militant. I thought it might come in handy someday, and it had.

I sprinted over to the fuel tanker. The gauge showed it was almost empty. I blew out a breath of relief. If the tanker was full, it would blow all of us to kingdom come.

Someone shouted angrily, “Find the woman. Roberts wants to watch her die.”

I peeked around the fuel tanker. Two heavily armed goons exited the jet.

I waved at them all friendly like. “I need to pee. Don’t leave without me.”

“Come woman.” The goons raised their weapons and started toward me.

Pulling the pin on the grenade, I tossed it over my shoulder and ran like hell. Please, please don’t blow until I’m inside the shed. I dove headfirst into the flimsy metal structure and a thunderous explosion rocked my world.

Thunk! Bap! Thunk! Thunk! Bap! Pieces of metal bombarded the shed. Shit! It sounded like the roof was going to collapse. Thick, black smoke billowed in through the door. Time to leave.

“Tess!” Stone shouted. “Where are you?”

Hacking up a lung, I stumbled out of the shed and looked around. Wow! Chunks of burning metal covered the ground. I hadn’t expected such a big explosion.

Stone sprinted up to me. “Are you hurt?”

“What?” The ringing in my ears muted everything.

“Are you hurt?” Stone’s hands skimmed over me.

I rubbed my left ear. “I can barely hear you.”

“Where did you get the grenade?”

Why was he scowling? I had just saved his ass. “Snakes?” I looked around. “I don’t see any snakes.”

“Cut the act.”

Coughing violently, I stumbled over a piece of metal. The smoke was making it difficult to see.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” Stone muttered and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Easy. There are two bodies to the west of you.”

Yep. One of the goons had a piece of metal protruding from his stomach. The other had a gunshot wound to the chest.

Rodriquez stood guard by the stairs. He took one look at me and yelled, “Tex get your gear.”

“The front tire is flat,” Kamous hollered.

I glared at him and stroked my guns. “You can’t take off without a front tire.”

“Do you know what you have done?” Kamous’s hands balled into fists.

“I stopped you from killing my squad.”

Stone’s hand closed over my right hand. “Roberts kidnapped his wife and little girl.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you say so? I know where all of his hidey holes are. We’ll find them.”

“Was that info on the microdots?” Stone asked.

“No.” I started coughing again.

Stone practically carried me up the stairs and put me in a chair. “She needs oxygen, Tex.”

I stared at the heavily tattooed man duct tapped to a chair. It was hard to tell what nationality he was. The look in his weird white eyes gave me the willies.

Tex placed an oxygen mask over my mouth and nose. “Breathe.”

I nodded. The tattooed man kept staring at me like I was a piece of Godiva chocolate he really wanted to eat. If he wasn’t gagged, he would be licking his lips. “Stop looking at me.”

The jerk eye-fucked me.

My temper flared to life. I yanked off the mask and swung the oxygen tank at his head.

Thunk! He slumped over.

Stone growled. “What in the hell is wrong with you?”

“I don’t like the way he’s looking at me.”

My squad carefully dropped chocolate bars in my lap.

“We needed him awake to find out where Kamous’s wife and child are,” Stone snapped.

I sucked in some oxygen. “They’re in New Zealand.”

“Why do you think that?” Kamous demanded.

“The gray mud on his boots has a sulfurous stink. Mango groves always smell like rotten eggs. Plus, he has yellow manuka pollen on his pants, which is only found in New Zealand’s North Island. I know for a fact that Roberts has a house on stilts in the middle of a mango grove. It’s about a mile south of Lake Matheson. It’s his favorite interrogation place, because no one can hear his victims’ screams and getting rid of bodies is easy.” I inhaled more oxygen.

Rodriquez interjected, “I’ll call Jenkins and see if he can get us some satellite pictures of the area.”

“We’ll need to commandeer an aircraft for a HALO parachute jump too.” Stone eyed me. “You can do a high-altitude jump, right?”

“Yes, sir.” Okay, I had only done it once, but he didn’t need to know that. Right?

“Let me see if I got this right. Your father not only trained you to be a sniper, a helicopter pilot, he also taught you commando skills and then he sent you to school to become a CIS technician too?” Johnson inquired.

I dropped the oxygen mask. “Yep. I’ve had four semesters of crime scene evidence classes.” I picked up a candy bar, ripped the paper off and happily ate it.

“I have a spare tire in the cargo bay,” Kamous exclaimed. He grabbed my face, kissed me hard on the mouth and charged down the stairs.

My left hand dropped to my gun. “If he does that again, I’m shooting him.”

Stone just shook his head and followed Kamous out of the jet.

“You continue to surprise me.” Tex knelt beside me. “I need to take your blood pressure and listen to your lungs. Do not shoot me.”

I raised my eyebrows in mock surprise. “Me? Shoot you? Never happen.”

Tex snorted.

I ate another candy bar while Tex moved his stethoscope around my chest.

Rodriquez frowned. “Did your father ever let you have fun? Go to parties? Have friends?”

“No,” I crammed an entire candy bar into my mouth. I was through talking.

“Your blood pressure is good, but you need to stay on the oxygen for another twenty minutes,” Tex said.

I mumbled, “Okay.”

A black smear across his mouth, Kamous charged up the stairs. “Buckle up, little one, we are going to pay Roberts a visit.” He leaned down. “But he is mine to kill. Are we clear on that?”

Before I could swallow my mouthful of chocolate, Tex’s hands clamped down on my wrists and he whispered, “Nod your head.”

I did.

“Good.” Smiling brightly, Kamous entered the cockpit, and settled in the pilot’s seat.

I watched Kamous confidently go through his pre-flight checklist. Thank God, he knew what he was doing. I did not want to get stuck trying to land a Learjet.

Sergeant Stone closed and secured the outer door. “Can you fly a fixed wing aircraft, Tess?”

“I’ve taken some lessons.” I gestured at the cockpit. “But only in a Beechcraft. Nothing as fancy as a Learjet.”

Stone took the seat next to me and fastened his seatbelt. “Kamous might have been raised in Our Lady of the Lake Catholic orphanage, but he is a vicious fighter. If Roberts has harmed his wife or child, he will hack him and his crew to pieces. Don’t get in his way.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I mean it Tess.”

“Roberts deserves a bloody death. I won’t stop Kamous.”

“That’s my girl.”

His girl? As if.

The tattooed man jerked upright. His gaze fell on me, and he went nuts, trying to break free of the duct tape.

I could only make out bits and pieces of what he was yelling, and boy, did he have a potty mouth. I raised the oxygen tank.

“No!” Stone bellowed.

“But…”

“Do you want to be duct taped to the seat?”

I lowered the tank. “No, sir.”

Stone glared at me. “We need to interrogate him, and we can’t do that if you knock him out again.”

“Yes, sir.” What crawled up his ass and died.

Stone spouted something in a language I didn’t understand.

The tattooed man literally froze.

The Learjet taxied down the runway and lifted smoothly into the air. Once we were at cruising altitude Stone turned to me. “This jet has a shower.” He pointed at a door. “While we interrogate Moses, go get cleaned up.”

“Cleaned up? Do I have chocolate on my face?”

Tex handed me a mirror.

I held it up. “Holy hell!” My face, hair and uniform were covered in soot. That explained the black stuff on Kamous’s mouth. I handed the mirror back to Tex, grabbed my gear and headed for the bathroom.

“You won’t need Bertha,” Johnson said.

The memory of a masked man attacking me in the shower flashed across my mind. “You would be surprised.” I shut the door and looked around. The room was the size of a closet. Both the toilet and sink were solid gold. Was Kamous rich enough to install real gold fixtures? Maybe. Or was this the jet stolen from a Saudi prince two months ago? I ran a hand along the white marble vanity and opened a drawer. It was filled with shower gel, shampoo, mascara, face cream and makeup.

I opened the bottle of shower gel and sniffed. Nice.

A muffled shriek sounded from the cabin.

I guess the guys had started their interrogation. I stripped down, stepped into the itty-bitty shower and turned the water on. I yelped as the icy cold spray hit me.

“You okay in there?” Rodriquez yelled.

“Just hunky-dory.” The water heated up to tepid. I grabbed the bottle of shower gel and quickly washed all the soot off. Thankfully, the shelf on the wall held shampoo and hair conditioner. By the time I was done, the water was frigid again.

Shivering from the cold, I quickly dried off and caught a glimpse of myself in the full-length mirror. I was still too damn skinny, but my bruises were fading.

Stone bellowed, “Need any help hooking your bra?”

The squad roared with laughter.

“No.” Stone was such a jackass.

Tex cackled, “You’re sure?”

“Positive.” I rubbed some of the face cream on my sunburned skin and it immediately felt better. Scooping up another handful, I rubbed it all over my body and sighed in relief. This stuff was great. I’d have to buy some.

Someone knocked on the door. “If you need help, just ask,” Stone said quietly.

“I don’t. Go away.”

“Okay.”

I fastened the hooks in front of me, slid the bra around until the cups were under my breasts, and pulled it on. Ha! That fixed that problem, but my hair was another story. I dried it as best as I could and put it in a ponytail.

The jet began to descend rapidly.

What the hell? I hurriedly dressed. Was the jet having mechanical problems?

The aircraft shook violently as it hit turbulence.

Whoa! I stumbled backward and hit the shower. What the hell was going on? I took a cautious peek at the cabin.

“Stay put, Tess,” Stone shouted, opening the cabin door.

Dark storm clouds shot by as air rushed into the jet.

“Holy shit! Are you crazy?”

The tattooed man was laughing like a madman. “You will all die. Die! Die!”

Climbing ropes attached to their waists, Tex, Johnson and Rodriquez hurled the tattooed man out of the jet.

As he fell, he kept laughing.

Kaboom! An explosion rocked the Learjet.

I hung on for dear life. How had the tattooed guy managed to get ahold of a bomb?

Stone shut the cabin door and leaned against it for a moment.

“That was too damn close,” Tex said.

Johnson dropped into a seat. “How do you even search for something like that?”

“Like what?” I demanded.

Stone straightened. “A body cavity bomb.”

“Roberts put a bomb in him?” I stared at the sergeant in horror.

“Yes,” Rodriquez replied.

I sank down on a chair. “I know Roberts is a monster but that’s just…” My voice trailed off.

“Evil,” Tex finished.

I nodded. “Didn’t someone try and off a Saudi prince that way?” Call me curious.

“A Houthi militant. He created a bloody mess, but he was the only one that died.

In case I ever ran into this situation again, I had a few questions. “How did you know he had a bomb in him?”

“A flashing red light appeared in the middle of his chest,” Rodriquez said, removing the rope around his waist.

Stone grabbed a bottle of whiskey out of a glass cabinet, unscrewed the top and took a long drink. “And he started ticking.” He handed the bottle to Tex.

Tex drank some and passed it to Rodriquez.

Rodriquz took the whiskey bottle and drained it.

“Hey! You didn’t leave any for me,” Johnson protested.

The sergeant pulled out another bottle and handed it to him.

Johnson unscrewed the top and started drinking.

I snatched the bottle away. “Seriously guys, we have a woman and child to rescue, and you can’t do it drunk.”

“Yeah, we can,” Stone drawled arrogantly.

I sighed. They probably could. “Let’s not. I scare easily.”

The men started laughing.

Stone’s satellite phone beeped. He pulled it out of his pocket, and grimaced.

“You gonna have to tell him what happened,” Rodriquez said.

The sergeant gave him the one-fingered salute and answered it. “Stone. Yes, sir. Our ETA to Hawke’s Bay is three hours. I understand, sir. This is an off the book covert operation. Yes, sir, King Saraki is involved. Roberts kidnapped his daughter and granddaughter.” Stone rubbed his forehead. “I’ll try, sir. Who’s the pilot? I agree, Jeb Wilson is a good soldier.” Stone stared at the ceiling for a moment. “Yes, sir, I’ll keep you informed.” He stuffed the phone back in his pocket, grabbed the whiskey bottle and took another drink.

“The general isn’t happy about King Saraki’s involvement, is he?” Tex asked.

Rodriquez interjected. “Would you be? Saraki’s a vicious tyrant.”

“Masters is furious, but our government wants access to the bitumen deposits on his lands. Wilson did a recon of the mango grove. There are eight heavily armed mercenaries guarding the stilt house. He has the satellite pictures and our gear.” Stone screwed the lid back on the whiskey bottle. “We have three hours to come up with a battle plan.”

I raised my hand.

“What is it, Tess?”

“Is there anything to eat? I’m starving.”

Stone grinned. “I’m sure we can find something.”