Hard Target (11 page)

Still, his heart pounded. Uncharacteristically.

He glanced behind him. Only dust chased them. No ghosts. He turned back and stared through the thick windshield. "Those clouds don't look good."

Dawna peered up at them. "We should have checked the forecast. Like everywhere else in the world, Bolivia's weather is changing. La Paz saw several feet of snow a few years ago and that looks like rain coming. Really odd for this time of year. This is the dry season."

They fell silent until the tiny village appeared from behind a series of sharp turns. Mud and cement block homes, even some traditional round Inca homes, all haphazardly encircled a small yet only unique church.

From this distance, Tay could see the square whitewashed spire, with its classic arches and small bell hanging. Below its dome. Attached to it was the sanctuary, a simple square with single door dividing a chipped plaster wall.

Dawna leaned forward and shut off the fan. Tay hadn't noticed the cooler air filtering in, but now, he shivered. "Lucy's right. It's a lot cooler up here."

"Just when you were getting used to the warm city, too," she muttered.

Tay coughed, feeling his chest tighten with the altitude.

"We should have brought a Thermos of coca tea with us," Dawna added. "It helps with the altitude."

Pulling in a deep breath, Tay found himself glancing over his shoulder.
Again
. "It'll have to get a hell of a lot colder before I'm bothered. Same with the altitude."

"You haven't seen the rain, yet. This high up, it may even come as snow." Dawna let out a snort so soft, he wasn't even sure he'd heard it. "And I've seen snow."

He pursed his lips. Of course she would have seen snow. Three years at an Arctic military base would give her an intimate knowledge of cold and snow.

He straightened. The military had wasted her talents on that northern posting.

He should never have tried to make love to her.

Turning off the main road and slowing to a crawl as she entered the village, Dawna cut into his thoughts, "Cabanelos said to meet him at the church."

Tay scanned the quiet streets. They were early, and the sun still sat above the white-capped mountains, not yet hidden by the rain-laden clouds. Ahead, a small boy herded a few skinny goats down the narrow street. There didn't appear to be any electricity up here, and Tay caught sight of a traditionally dressed woman hurrying into a house, a child wrapped in a colorful blanket that was tied around her shoulders.  

The street narrowed. Instantly, Tay's defensive instincts kicked in. He didn't like the idea of being penned in. His glance at Dawna told him that she seemed unconcerned by the close quarters.

The street widened into a small square. To their left stood the church. Words painted at one corner of the front facade pointed the way to the
'Santa Maria de Immaculada
.' Probably the convent that the ambassador had mentioned. Beyond the village and hanging onto the side of the mountain amidst terraced fields, were several large buildings in a similar Spanish style. The convent, Tay presumed.

Dawna swung the car around and parked it in the shadowed side of a larger home, sending a small flock of chickens scattering like mice. Tay's door was closer to the center of the courtyard. He nodded to himself. He would have told her to park like this. He could protect her better. If Cabanelos started shooting, the driver needed to be safe.

Tay glanced at his watch. Five-thirty. "I'd rather not sit and wait."

"Do you want to tour the village?" Dawna asked dryly.

"No. I just don't care to sit in the open waiting for a sniper to appear." He matched her sarcasm with his own. Continually scanning the irregular straw and clay rooftops of the buildings surrounding the church, Tay held back the urge to pull his sidearm from his holster.

He didn't need to. Along with Dawna's cell phone, she'd placed her fully loaded nine-mil Browning on the seat beside them. At the ready. He knew she had a round up the spout, too, even though the safety was on.

They lapsed into another long, painful silence. Dawna shifted to undo her seat belt. Here they go again. Enclosed in a staff car, their bodies inches away from each other.

His lungs hurt and he coughed again. The tension tightened his gut.

The memory of their first time in a staff car together, and all they'd done, hummed like a plucked wire between them.

The urge to grab her swelled in him. He wanted to drag her over to him, finish and savor the feeling that had eluded and yet haunted him for three, long years.

His body's reaction was immediate. Tay shifted to relieve the pressure. "Dawna-"

She cut him off. "Cabanelos is late."

"He'll be here."
Whoa, boy
.
Focus on your damn work, Hastings.

What the hell was he going to say? That he wanted to spend the time waiting for a sniper by making love to her? The sheer insanity of the desire made him smile, but the grin was brief. He had to focus on the present, not linger on what might have happened if the CO hadn't caught them and ordered Dawna home in a taxi, with cold instructions to report back to him at oh-seven-hundred hours the next morning.

"If Cabanelos doesn't show up soon, I'll call the ambassador." Dawna peered up at the clouding sky above the windshield, then picked up her phone. "I hope I don't lose service up here."

He leaned over to look at it. "You haven't yet. Be patient." Yeah, fine words, when impatience danced inside of him. Cabanelos could be out there, hovering in one of the adobe houses or tucked in along the erratic lines of tiled roof of the church, waiting for them to turn edgy and climb out. This vehicle might withstand a small rocket launcher, but both of them out in the open wouldn't.

Cabanelos also might be hiding within the tiny church. He could be anywhere.

Tay had to stay vigilant.

For Dawna, the time plodded by. She sat behind the wheel, feeling Tay's presence with every nerve, every sense, every uneven breath she took. Her Browning defended the no-man's-land between them. But how easily she could shove the weapon under the seat, before sliding over to him.

Why
, she demanded of herself. Because he was stirring up all those blood-warming emotions she'd kept in perfect check for three years?

Forget it. He'd betrayed her, not once coming to her defense, as if he'd played some deliberate part in a scheme to see her fail.

She tightened her body and gritted her teeth, telling herself not to be paranoid.

But she refused to wait forever, not after the long drive up here, and with night falling on this tiny village. She threw open the driver door.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tay snapped.

"Someone has got to make the first move. And I'm willing to bet that Cabanelos doesn't plan on killing us today."

"I wouldn't put money on that," Tay yelled across the seat. "Get back in here! That's an order."

Dawna climbed out and leaned back into the car. She grabbed her Browning. "I'm tired of waiting. I want Cabanelos and I want to listen to what he has to say. But it's obvious that he won't come out first."

"Don't be a fool. I'll go-"

Dawna's gaze flicked past his shoulder and into the dusty courtyard. "There he is." She straightened and slammed the door as hard as she could, before walking to the corner fender.

A man, bone thin and obviously carrying strong native genes, staggered into the open about twenty yards away. He wobbled on bowed out legs, as if drunk. She scanned his wiry frame and simple peasant clothing for a sign of a weapon. But the clothes hid too much. To her right, she heard Tay alight from the car, but didn't take her eyes off Cabanelos.

Something was wrong. Cabanelos took another faltering step toward her. Obviously, he had rickets, but that wasn't what staggered his gait. His expression was dazed, his weak chin sagging. Dawna started toward him, ignoring Tay's quiet, gritted-out order to back up slowly.

Stepping closer, she saw the sickly tone of Cabanelos' complexion despite his dark skin. His eyes conveyed a wild, glazed panic in the seconds before they rolled up into his head.

Then he collapsed.

Chapter Six

Dawna stepped toward Cabanelos a moment before Tay plowed her up against the shadowed adobe wall beside the car. His strong body pinned her, his fingers dug into her biceps. He bent his face toward hers. "This could be an ambush, Dawna! A set up. He could be rigged with explosives! Didn't anything I taught you stay in that blonde head of yours?"

She glared at him.
The bastard
. "Everything you taught me, in and out of the classroom, stayed in this blonde head, thank you!"

His short, anxious breath brushed across her face as his dark glare bored into her. "Then listen to that training!"

She ripped her gaze from him to glance over his shoulder, watching in horror as Cabanelos twitched on the packed ground.

"Of course, it could be an ambush," she whispered. "But if it isn't, then what? Do we stand here and watch this man die? Have you done that so often that you can handle a death on your conscience?"

Tay backed off an inch. She wrenched herself out of his firm grasp and after a quick scan of the entire area and her sidearm at the ready, she raced over to Cabanelos. She dropped by the man's side and gently turned his head toward her.

A thin face framed an aquiline nose. His black eyes fluttered open to stare frighteningly into hers. His breath smelled odd as struggled to say something between hacking coughs.

Her heart pounding, she remembered Tay's wise words. He could be wrapped in explosives, a suicide bomber. She swallowed.
No
. This wasn't the MO of a suicide bomber.

She heard Tay approach as she checked the man's thready  pulse. When Tay leaned over her, she felt his warm words tickle her ear. "Move away."

"No. This man isn't rigged with explosives."

"You don't know that."

"I'm listening to your training, Tay. Expensive explosives would be wasted on this village, and on us up here. Suicide bombers prefer to blend into crowds to get maximum effect from their explosions." She leaned forward and gently padded Cabanelos' thin torso.

She could hardly breathe. Wetting dry lips, she felt nothing but ribs around a barrel chest, the hallmark of chronic altitude sickness.

Tay stilled her hands. "No, Dawna. Back up. Crouch behind the car. I'll check him out." He glared at her as she turned to answer him. "Yes, now!"

She obeyed, giving in the logic of risking only one life. Once behind the car, she looked again at Tay, who motioned to her to crouch down. She did.