Freedom Does Matter (Mercenaries Book 2)
Read Freedom Does Matter (Mercenaries Book 2) Online
Authors: Tony Lavely
Tags: #teen thriller, #teen romance fiction
Contents
Chapter One - The Beginning - Cairo
Chapter Two - Day One - Minnesota
Chapter Three - Day One - The Nest
Chapter Four - Day Three - Cairo
Chapter Five - Day Five - Cairo
Chapter Seven - Day Eight - Cairo
Chapter Eight - Day Nine - Cairo
Chapter Nine - Day Ten - Almaza Bay
Chapter Ten - Day Ten - Kansas City
Chapter Eleven - Day Eleven - Almaza Bay
Chapter Twelve - Day Twelve - Almaza Bay
Chapter Thirteen - Day Thirteen - Cairo
Chapter Fourteen - Day Fifteen - Cairo
Chapter Fifteen - Day Fifteen - London
Chapter Sixteen - Day Sixteen - The Nest
Chapter Seventeen - Day Sixteen - The Nest
Chapter Eighteen - Day Seventeen - The Nest
Chapter Nineteen - Day Seventeen - Kansas City
Chapter Twenty - Day Eighteen - The Nest
Chapter Twenty-One - Day Twenty-one - en route Cairo
Chapter Twenty-Two - Day Twenty-three - Cairo
Chapter Twenty-Three - Day Twenty-five - The Nest
Chapter Twenty-Four - Day Twenty-five - Cairo
Chapter Twenty-Five - Day Twenty-seven - Cairo
Chapter Twenty-Six - Day Twenty-eight - The Nest
Chapter Twenty-Seven - Day Twenty-nine - The Nest
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Day Thirty - London
Chapter Twenty-Nine - Day Thirty-one - London
Chapter Thirty - Day Thirty-two - London
Chapter Thirty-One - Day Thirty-two - Kansas City
Chapter Thirty-Two - Day Thirty-two - London
Chapter Thirty-Three - Day Thirty-three - London
Chapter Thirty-Four - Day Thirty-eight - Kansas City
Chapter Thirty-Five - Day Thirty-nine - The Nest
Chapter Thirty-Six - Day Forty-one - en route Minnesota
Chapter Thirty-Seven - Day Forty-one - The Nest
Chapter Thirty-Eight - Day Forty-three - Minnesota
Chapter Thirty-Nine - Day Forty-five - Minnesota
Chapter Forty - Day Forty-five - The Nest
Chapter Forty-One - Day Forty-six - Kansas City
Chapter Forty-Two - Day Forty-six - Kansas City
Chapter Forty-Three - Day Forty-seven - Kansas City
Chapter Forty-Four - Day Forty-seven - Kansas City
Freedom Does Matter
By
Tony Lavely
Copyright © 2015 by tony lavely
Cover image
by
Martin Pettitt
via Flickr
Published under Creative Commons License
All Maps of The Nest by Tommi Salama
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Edition 151224.1
All rights reserved.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Tony Lavely.
Dedication
This work is dedicated to my friend, Paul McAlister and his granddaughter, Paige.
Paul, we miss you and your humor.
“Inquiring minds want to know.”
Paige, I regret so much that your future didn’t meet expectations. Your joy and wonder was special; we are better for knowing you.
Description
Mid-summer before her sophomore year at college, Beckie Sverdupe is grooming her horse when she receives horrifying news: her fiancé Ian Jamse has been shot.
Leader of a successful mercenary team, Ian’s not only Beckie’s fiancé; he’s her mentor, training her as a team member after she made it clear that, having fallen in love with him, she would make their group more than just soldiers for hire; they’d be more ‘socially conscious’ mercenaries, with concomitant longer life expectancies. The current job, an Egyptian land dispute negotiation, supposedly filled that requirement to a tee. Except it hadn’t: Ian was dying!
Instead of returning to campus for Engineering classes, Beckie kisses Ian’s insensate lips and heads to Cairo to complete the negotiations. It’s her first solo assignment, and she’s determined to finish despite her fears for Ian. Tracking the gunman will be an added challenge spurred by renewed assassination attempts targeting the new mediator: her!
Her quest to gain justice—or revenge—for Ian reveals a conspiracy to incite the final Mideast war by killing thousands at iconic Wembley Stadium in London. As she unravels the plot, she comes head-to-head with one man’s bitter, intransigent attempts to redefine freedom. Will Ian love her again? Can Beckie thwart the terrorist honcho before the attack and eliminate one hateful voice of irrationality?
While
Freedom Does Matter
is set in the Mercenaries world, it may be enjoyed on its own.
Chapter One
The Beginning - Cairo
KEVIN DEVEEL SNAPPED THE NOTEBOOK closed and slid it across the table to Ian Jamse, his partner in the mercenary team they’d helmed for almost twenty years. He examined the room one more time, looking for things out of place. Old habits die hard, he mused, even if we’re not quite so much soldiers for hire, now.
When his sweep was complete, he found Ian watching, a small smile curving his lips. He knows we’ve done this every day we’ve been here, Kevin thought. And that, though well-paid, negotiating a land dispute hardly rises to the level of international terrorism.
“Any thoughts?” Ian said.
Kevin decided Ian meant the notebooks. “No. I’m impressed you keep these notes.” He recalled other pads Ian had filled with task related data. Three on this job, so far. “Who’s going to read them?”
“No one.” Ian’s smile became a knowing grin. “They serve as a reminder of past debates.”
Kevin grinned in return. “I’ll find Dan and we’ll bring the sheikhs up from downstairs.”
Their teammate, Dan Wu, was in the hallway chatting with two of the Cairo Trade Center’s security guards. “Everything okay?” Kevin said.
Dan nodded. “Everything’s secure.” He rubbed his black hair. “Hope Ian can get this deal finished. I’m ready to get home for a few days.”
“You and me both,” Kevin said. They’d been in Egypt twenty days. He sighed. “We’ve missed the Independence Day celebrations. Patrice flew Shalin and the kids over to Nassau for the Junkanoo parades. They had a great time.” He checked the hallway once more, then his phone. “Let’s go collect the clients,” he said before turning to the security guards. “Let the staff know we’re ready for the coffee and tea, please.”
Ten minutes later, the dozen Egyptians, one woman amongst the men, entered the conference room. Kevin, standing half in and half out of the doorway, watched as they took their places. When the passage was clear, he called, “Is Sue still downstairs?”
“Yeah,” Dan said. “She was checking on the bill for hospitality. It was gonna take a few more minutes.”
“Move closer to the elevators, then.” He surveyed the conference room. Ian was standing at the head of the table, ready to take his seat. The two sheikhs, Al Hosni on Ian’s right and al-Kassis on his left, had taken their positions behind their chairs, waiting while the attendant finished pouring their coffees. Another server distributed small cups along the table. Kevin took three steps in the direction of the snack table, looking for a bottle of water.
He heard an obtrusive “Pop!” behind him. The noise echoed in the large room.
Spinning, he saw Ian sprawled over the end of the table, blood pouring from his head. As he ran headlong toward him, he hollered out the door, “Shooter! Ian’s down, get Sue! Ooof!” He’d run into one of the Egyptians. He caught the man and used him to keep them both from falling. Oaths came unbidden, unspoken, as he thrust the man away.
While his eyes were locked on Ian’s motionless body, shouts and the clatter of overturned furniture assaulted his ears. He shoved another person toward the door then vaulted a chair to land beside Ian. Along with Ian’s blood, spilled coffee and tea covered the table top and dripped to flood the white marble of the floor. The acrid smell of gunpowder covered that of the spilt coffee.
The chaos faded. While Kevin kept Ian from sliding to the floor, Dan and the security guards verified that no one else had been injured. They had the room emptied and Ian laid out atop the table before Sue arrived.
Sue went to work, though her muttered imprecations left Kevin with little doubt about her feelings. She turned her head to face him, cheeks glistening. “I need Millie. This is too much for me. All I can do is basic trauma care: stabilize the injury, keep him from bleeding out…” She choked back a sob. “We need Millie.” She went back to work.
Kevin began a frantic search to contact Millie Ardan, the team’s chief doctor. In half an hour, he touched Sue’s arm. “Millie’s in Germany. Frankfurt. She’s hiring a charter.”
Sue rubbed her eyes. “Frankfurt ought to be good for that.”
He nodded. “Unless you disagree, she wants us to take him to the plane. She’s got everything there, and we can leave as soon as she can get him ready.”
“Hmm. Okay. Let me call her back.”
In two hours, they had Ian in the one-room hospital aboard the plane. Kevin wondered if Ian’s breathing was labored; when he asked Sue, she agreed and put an oxygen mask on him.
An hour later, Millie called; she’d finally gotten a charter and she’d arrive between eight and nine.