Hard Target (23 page)

"He must know someone. What job has he got in Buenos Aires?"

"Can you believe it? He's a front desk clerk. But he's fluent in Spanish." The sound of rustling papers filtered through the phone. "He must have connections to get here. I know the CIA here lost their clerk a while back and needed one ASAP. But they didn't expect some college kid to show up."

"What's he like? Do you know him personally?"

"He's young, really green and gung-ho. He's pretty good with a computer, though, but what kid isn't? Likes South American history for some reason and wants to be a spy when he grows up. And he has three earrings in one ear."

"Apart from liking history, you've described half the kids in the US."

Jeff laughed. "Yeah, I guess I have. Okay, let's see. Martin, Joseph, born..."

She waited but when Jeff said nothing, she prompted him. "When?"

"You know, I don't have a copy of his birth certificate, yet. It lists it as being outside the USA. He was adopted, grew up in San Diego. I guess that's where he learned his Spanish."

"Born outside the US? How could he get a job with the CIA?"

"He passed the security checks. As long as you're an American citizen, which he is, and the agency believes you can be trusted with national security matters, you pass the checks."

It wasn't much to go on, Dawna decided. "So, as a clerk, there's no reason for him to be here?"

"Nope. He wasn't on a swan like he'd said. He took some leave. But his leave pass says he was going home to California."

With a headache starting to throb behind her eyes, Dawna rang off and rubbed her forehead. She was getting nowhere and there wasn't anything more she could do tonight. And as much as she didn't want to worry about Tay, she did.

But he was a grown man and a fully trained police officer. Still, saying that over and over didn't help. She rarely used her intuition solely, but tonight, in the quiet of her office, her intuition rang out loud and clear.

Something was very wrong.

"Stop the truck. Here at the dirt path."

Tay did as he was told, swinging off the narrow highway and braking hard. Finally, something other than driving on this boring plateau not even heading toward the mountain where Cardon Plata was located as. He pressed his elbow into his side, reconfirming that his sidearm was still snug against him.

But it wouldn't do him much good if he was shot and stranded out here in this desert, miles from civilization.

"Listen, buddy," he started to say. "Whatever you want, you can have it. Just say the word. Money? I can get you plenty of..."

The man's hand flew upward, still clutching the Sig Sauer. The butt caught Tay in the chin. He allowed his head to smack the headrest and then bounce forward. Martin's arm came back down, and again the butt met Tay, this time at the back of his neck.

Tay slumped against the steering wheel.

Chapter Thirteen

"Dawna?"

Dawna jerked upright. Around midnight, after she'd caught up on all her regular work, she'd moved her papers into the coffee room and lay on the couch to reread all the information she had on Ramos. She'd hoped to glean some clue to whether or not he might be behind the attacks. But with her search proving fruitless, she'd nodded off to sleep.

Now, weak, early morning sunlight trickled in through the window behind her. In front of her, gently touching her foot, was Lucy.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," she whispered. "Have you been here all night?"

Dawna swung her legs over to the floor. "Um, yeah. What time is it?"

"Just after five. I couldn't sleep last night, not knowing the ambassador was so sick. So I finally got up and decided to come in. I shouldn't have woke you."

"It's okay. I've got loads of work to do." She gathered up the papers she'd scattered around her, all of Ramos' file. Lucy automatically helped her.

The older woman peered down at the papers, then up at Dawna. She looked pale and worn. "Ramos? Do you think he's behind the poisoning?"

"I don't know. All I know is that he's missing. I just wanted to pull his file to see if there was anything here that could help me locate him." Late last night, she'd sent another
escolta
to Ramos' apartment, but the results were the same as before. No one had seen him for days.

Lucy handed her the papers she picked up. "Anything there that can help you?"

"Nothing I can see." She looked up at Lucy. The woman looked ten years older. "Any word from the hospital, yet?"

"Not to me." Lucy sat down beside Dawna. "It was awful the way Julie looked at you, like it was all your fault. Or that you'd tried to poison the ambassador on purpose."

Dawna stood and stretched the kinks out of her back. "Under the circumstances, it's understandable. Didn't you get upset at someone when you first found out your husband had been hurt? Didn't you want to blame someone?"

Lucy took the papers from Dawna. "I'll file these for you. And yes, I did get mad. But anger's a wasteful emotion. It doesn't do anything." She walked to the door and turned back. "Did you find where Mr. Hastings had gone?"

Worry mushroomed inside of her and within the deepening concern was something else. Hurt. Again, Tay was hurting her. "No," she answered.

"How did you know he was missing?"

"Marconi told me a few minutes ago. Besides he disappeared from the hospital. Are you worried?"

"A little bit, I suppose."

Lucy said nothing more, choosing instead to leave her alone.

Dawna walked over to the coffee machine, trying to remember her conversation with Marconi. Yes, she'd asked something about Tay, but thanks to the fog that was her morning brain, she couldn't remember what it was.

She needed caffeine. Instead of using the opened can of coffee grounds, she pulled a brand new can from under the cupboard. Absently, she put on a full pot of coffee, inhaling the deep, dark aroma, all the while wondering how Tay could still manage to hurt her. Then, staring at the door, she tried to remember what she'd said to Lucy about Tay, but her words seemed lost. Like Tay. Lost, and hell, it left her feeling as though her back was exposed.

Tay didn't move. He felt Martin fumbling through his jacket. As the man reached toward his left side, Tay allowed himself to slump against the window. His head cracked against the glass.

Martin swore softly, and tried to drag Tay back upright, but Tay kept deliberately falling back. With another curse, Martin climbed out of the truck and stalked around to the driver's side.

He threw open the door.

Immediately, the ball of Tay's left hand connected with Martin's chin in a sharp uppercut. The man staggered backward as Tay sprang from the truck. They both hit the scrubby grass together, Tay discovering that the stiff blades were far sharper than they looked. He knew he was the stronger of the two, but the young man's wiry frame proved tougher to hold still.

When Tay rammed his forearm into the man's throat, he leaned down. "Didn't your mother teach you any manners when you were young?"

The reaction was clear. A blurring wave of anger contorted the man's face and again, he looked familiar. But the sweep of recognition was too quick for Tay.

"No!" Martin flexed his body away from him. Tay managed to roll back on top, but as he lifted his fist to plow Martin, the man delivered a sharp right hook.

Tay fell backward and braced himself for the next attack. A hard blow from a foot caught him in the left side, but as he swung out to seize the man's foot, the man jumped back nimbly and bolted for the truck. Tay scrambled upright, but it was too late. The truck roared to life. Grinding gears and spraying gravel cut through the noise of the revving engine. The lights winked on and Tay froze. He was directly in the truck's path.

Martin gunned the engine and the truck jumped forward like a jack rabbit.

Tay ducked to one side, then dove to the other. Martin was unable to compensate quickly enough for the fake. Tay rolled away into the dark, stiff grass. Before he was upright again, he had his sidearm out.

He fired, smashing the rear window. Martin straightened the wheels and gunned the engine. In the next second, he was on the road, racing away.

Leaving Tay alone in the middle of a plateau high in the Andes, with only his gun and one nasty set of bruises.

The good news came just after lunch. Julie Legace called the embassy to say the ambassador was fully conscious and his heartbeat had stabilized.

At her desk, Dawna dropped her head into her hands.
Thank God
. The embassy staff had been huddled around the coffee room waiting for a report, all them except Dawna and Robert Taylor, the ambassador's assistant. She and Robert had been jogging back and forth between the Department of External Affairs calling every fifteen minutes and a band of reporters who'd appeared out of thin air at the embassy's front gate.

She left Robert to supply the media with the good news. He'd already handled the press earlier this week after the bombing and the sniper attack. He and those reporters must be old friends by now.

Rotating her neck several times, she tried to ease a kink. It had been a long day. Before DEA started their phone marathon, she'd also had to review procedures for the replacement
vigilantes
and
escoltas
.

Then the medical examiner who had performed the autopsy on Cabanelos called. In broken English, he explained that he'd been asked to check the contents of the tea Camile had brought it. It was the same tea that had killed Cabanelos.

This time Dawna shut her eyes. The embassy was facing an attempted murder investigation.

The phone rang again. It was probably HQ, already flying in a replacement for her, and wanting to tell Tay to remain there and train the new arrival.

Steeling herself, she picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Dawna? It's me."

Relief washed through her. "Tay? Where have you been?"

He was panting, obviously winded. But when he coughed, she knew where he was. On the plateau above them. Someplace  higher than Cochabamba. "It's a long story," he began, "and I promised the storekeeper here I'd keep this brief. How's the ambassador?"

She sat on her desk to stop her knees from liquefying. "Better. Julie called a few minutes ago to say his heartbeat is regular now and he's been taken out of the ICU. But they tested the tea."