Operation Date With Destiny (5 page)

“
Nothing out of the ordinary.
”

“
Everything
’
s still in good condition?
”

He lowered his head slightly to indicate it was, and Destiny gave a curt nod in return. She breathed a sigh of relief and threw her backpack in the rear of the vehicle. She glanced over at Johnny and indicated he should get into the back.
“
We
’
re heading to a base camp we
’
ve set up. From there you can make your arrangements. Ponleu will be able to get you most things and we
’
ve already assembled the majority of stores. You
’
ll only have two days to prepare what you need.
”

“
Two days?
”

“
What you can
’
t get
organized
in that time—we
’
ll do without.
”

She heard him give a gruff somewhat
,
un
-
amused chuckle and shook his head.
“
You
’
re unbelievable, lady.
”

“
So I
’
ve been told—but that
’
s not something you need to worry about, Tupperoni
. S
o stop fretting over things you can
’
t control. We don
’
t have time to plan this out in detail. Deal with it.
”

He took a slow step forward until there was only a whisper between them.
“
Who said I can
’
t control the situation?
”
he
asked
quietly.

For a moment, Destiny was distracted by the view she had of his jawline standing this close. He hadn
’
t shaved and stubble was now scattered across the lower part of his face. It gave him a ruggedness that transformed his clean
-
cut image but took nothing away from his appeal. If anything it made him
look
even more dangerous.
“
I said. Get in the vehicle, Gunnery Sergeant.
”

She liked that the mention of his rank and her order had the desired effect of reminding him that normally he would be the one in charge and issuing orders and in this situation—he was not. She needed to piss him off and make him hate her—she didn
’
t want to like him either, it would only complicate things and she had more than enough complications in her life. No, she didn
’
t need to make friends—she needed to put him in his place and get this over with.

She moved past him and slid into the passenger seat while Ponleu held the backdoor open for Johnny to get in. There was a hard silence for a moment, then finally the sound of a door closing and she allowed a small
,
relieved breath to escape. She hadn
’
t been at all sure they
’
d make it this far and the fact they
had
,
brought with it a tiny amount of optimism. What she needed was a miracle
. A
ll she
had
was Johnny Tupperoni…

****

Tupper glanced out at the rugged terrain as they drove deep into the jungle. He hated the jungle. Hated it with a passion. Every jungle he
’
d ever been in had been a pain in the ass. Leeches, biting insects, snakes and rashes—man he hated those the worst. When you carried a pack that weighed seventy-five plus pounds
, dressed
in full gear
then added the
steamy heat of a tropical jungle
to the mix
, things got decidedly uncomfortable in all kinds of awkward places.

He especially hated
Cambodian
jungles.

He had memories of this place and in particular one nasty prisoner of war camp his unit had extracted hostages from. That whole mission had nearly been a colossal disaster when they
’
d missed the chopper out.

His gaze fell onto the back of the woman
’
s head in the front seat and he cursed again.
How could this possibly work?
He didn
’
t even know what the hell he was supposed to be extracting and he had nothing to work with…maybe he should have just taken his chances back in Manila
.
A shiver went through him at the thought of spending the next twenty years in one of those hell-hole prisons. How did someone do that to another person? Set them up for something like that and just let them take the fall? Obviously they didn
’
t have a conscience
.

You
’
d do well to remember that about her,
a voice that sounded suspiciously like Summer
,
floated through his mind
and he
felt an unexpected pang of homesickness
.

His unit had become his family and when his CO married a small spitfire named Summer Sheldon, Tupper had inherited a sister. Over the last few years the rest of the guys had also gone on to get married and now he had a total of three sisters. Like any family they
had their disagreements, but he knew that every one of them would be there in an instant for each other if they were ever needed.

The thought that this enormous
clusterfuck
might prevent him from ever seeing his family again filled him with a frustrated rage. In his job he accepted that there could be a time that he didn
’
t come back—but that was his job.
His life.
This was not something he signed up for
. T
here was nothing noble and brave about being drugged, tied up
,
and forced to do something as dangerous as this
.
 

This sucked—big time.

****

They
’
d been driving
deep
into remote farmland when they finally reached a small village. Looking around Tupper saw that there
’
d been a lot of
recent
construction going on. A school building not far away looked new and all about him, the tiny village seemed to be thriving.

Destiny led the way inside one of the huts and Tupper waited until the Cambodian guy who met them opened his door so he could get out. He saw Destiny bow low and place her hands together as she greeted an older man and woman.

He heard her talking quietly in Khmer and the fact she knew the language fluently surprised him. It wasn
’
t a common language most people spoke. He could speak passingly acceptable Pashto, a little German and Spanish. In his line of work he often found himself in some rather remote and not so friendly places where it may make the difference between life and death to know a few of the basics.
But
why would she know how to speak Khmer
?

He watched her around these people, and saw there was a genuine respect between them
, as though she belonged
.
How did this all fit together?
The questions bugged him. He hated mysteries—always had. He liked to know how and why stuff worked and if it didn
’
t—fix it. This was out of his control and he felt as though he were struggling to piece it together without
all
the right
bits
.

A short while later
she walked across to him and without a word, withdrew her knife and cut the rope, freeing his hands. He didn
’
t thank her even though she
’
d taken care not to bind them too tight
. He
wasn
’
t in the mood to show any form of gratitude to this woman
at the moment
.

“
Aren
’
t you worried I
’
m going to escape now?
”
h
e drawled.

“
Nope.
”

He eyed her warily before turning to take a look outside the window and
realized
why she didn
’
t seem too concerned. A small militia of armed men patrolled the school yard and without any weapons he stood little chance of evading them.
“
Okay so we
’
re here. Now what?
”

“
We eat, and then you get to work. You can freshen up first, if you like.
”
She pointed to a doorway at the end of the room.
“
I took the liberty of packing you some clothes, before we left your apartment. You
’
ll find them inside the backpack I put in the bathroom.
”

“
You
’
re certainly thorough. You must have been planning this for a while?
”

He
noted
her
o
ff hand shrug
before turning away
.
Damn
she
was closed mouthed.
What the hell?
He
’
d never met anyone like her before. She was like
some sort of
chameleon. Last night she was a red hot vixen—today she was a gun toting, knife wielding warrior Princess.
How many sides could one person have?

The bathroom was basic, and true to her word there was a pack with his belongings inside. He took advantage of the shower, and was amazed
how much better he felt once he was dressed and clean again
. He was still hostage, and somehow had to work out how to
retrieve
God only knew what
from
God only knew where,
but his headache was gone and he was now able to think straight.

“
Ponleu will show you what we have in the way of weaponry and ammunition. We have a satellite phone you can use—under supervision of course, to make any arrangements for extraction and insertion,
”
Destiny told him after they
’
d eaten.

“
Do I get to find out where we
’
re going now?
O
r am I expected to just plan this all without any destination
in mind
?
”

“
You may have the coordinates,
”
she said calmly and the Cambodian dude, Ponleu, unrolled a dog-eared map across the table in front of him.

Destiny slid a piece of paper over to him and sat patiently waiting as he read the numbers in his hand.

For a moment he felt as though his
gut
had dropped out of his body. He had to be wrong. He moved the map closer and ran his fingers along the latitude and longitude lines until they met.
No f
rick
i
n
way.
This wasn
’
t possible. Looking up he pinned her with a disbelieving glare.
“
This is some kind of joke right?
”

“
I
’
m afraid not. Now you understand why I needed
you
for the job,
”
she said, watching him from across the table
.

“
How did you know about this place? About me?
”
This was beyond a joke. This was like someone had decided to replay a nasty nightmare on him.

She shrugged.
“
You were involved in a very public scandal not so long ago. It
’
s hardly top secret.
”

“
This
bit wasn
’
t public knowledge,
”
he said tapping his finger on the map forcefully.

“
It doesn
’
t matter about any of that. You
’
ve been there—you know the terrain. Just get us in and back out again. That
’
s all you need to worry about.
”

“
I
’
m not doing anything without an explanation.
”
He folded his arms across his chest and stared her down stubbornly.
This was bullshit.
No one knew about his involvement with a hostage rescue from that damn compound—no one, except the people involved and there was
no way
any of them would have leaked it.