Pushing the Limit (15 page)

“Yup. Always do.” David sucked a bit of food from his tooth and grinned. “You got back to the hotel okay?”

“Yup, I always do,” Matt mimicked, “especially when I get to drive your target car.”

“Oh yeah, I wondered where my keys and phone were.” He took a gulp of coffee.

“The phone was switched off,” Matt said, still trying to keep an even tone.

“Awww, don’t be mad. I just wanted some drinking time with my buddy.”

Matt suddenly didn’t believe him. Didn’t believe Nitro had his back, didn’t believe he wasn’t involved somehow in Harry’s situation. A fist of betrayal jabbed in his stomach. They were brothers… closer than blood brothers, and David being a part of what he was trying to protect Danny’s wife from was… incomprehensible, and utterly comprehensible at the same time. David’s need to drink, his “living the dream” life here with all the weapons and booze he could manage. Some ex-military loved the security contractor life. All the action of the military, none of the rules, and much, much more money. He’d thought more of David, but maybe he shouldn’t have. It was an easy trap to fall into. He fought to keep his face impassive, didn’t want to tip his hand. Keep your friends close…

“Well I’m keeping your car, dude. You forfeited it when you were the first to pass out.” He tried to put a grin on his face, and he covered his less than stellar attempt by taking David’s coffee cup and swigging from it.

“I already have another one being delivered this morning. No sweat.”

Matt really wanted to get back to Harry, but he also needed time to figure out what David was doing. He raised his hand to the waiter and asked for eggs, toast, and coffee, making a point to have it put on David’s bill.

David laughed. “I don’t mind. We have deep pockets. What are you doing today?”

“Not much, just putting some archaeologists on the first aircraft out of here.” He watched David’s reaction.

It was a relieved one. “Good.” He breathed a heavy sigh and put his fork down. “Good, man. It worried me having her here. That’s good. That makes everything”—he stopped and shook his head—“Well, it’s safer for her, right? Takes a load off.”

Matt just nodded. David’s complexion flushed a little, and it made Matt realize how pale he’d been before.

A woman approached the table. Around thirty maybe, long braided dark hair, and a very athletic build. She slid into the booth next to David. He continued to eat. “Matt, Maggie, Maggs, Matt.”

Matt wiped his hands on his napkin and reached across the table to shake her hand. It was dry and strong. “You MGL, too?”

“Yup,” she said waving down a waiter. “And you must be his unit buddy from EOD, right?” She was sizing him up as she spoke. She also had a heavy London, England, accent.

“British?” he asked.

She grinned at him. “Sometimes.” Then she continued in a very convincing deep Southern accent, “And sometimes I’m really not British at all, y’all.”

David laughed. “She’s ex–British M.I.,” he said. “A real catch for MGL, in my opinion.”

Maggie didn’t accept or deny the compliment; she just ignored it.

“Military Intelligence? Why did you decide to leave? I hear that’s pretty much a lifelong career if you want it.”

She looked at him and cocked her head. “The question is, why haven’t you left yet? David tells me you were a crack combat troop, the best in your field. And now you’re what? Digging up dead people?”

Fury flashed through him. He recognized a deflection when he saw it, but he wasn’t biting. “And you went private because… a mission gone wrong? Killed someone you weren’t supposed to?”

Her mocking face closed up.

“Oh, I’m right. Was it a colleague? Better watch your back, David.” Matt couldn’t resist. Two could play at her game. He wondered what branch of Military Intelligence she had been in. How dangerous she could be.

“Don’t piss her off, Matt. She’s not as nice when she hates you.”

“Don’t worry, just dishing her own medicine back, seeing if she can take it.” He grinned at her. “We’re cool, right, Mags?” He deliberately used the familiar name David had used. Fuck. He had to get out of here. He was just meeting people and making enemies when he needed all the friends he could get.

She rolled her eyes at him.

“Okay, gotta go.” He wiped his mouth with the napkin and stood up. “Doing anything fun today?”

David glanced quickly at Maggie, a look she didn’t see, but Matt did. Was it a warning? “Just patrolling. Nothing fun. See ya later?”

“Sure. Thanks for breakfast. Maggie, it was nice meeting you.” He held out a conciliatory hand, which she made as if to shake, but picked up her coffee cup instead. She looked at him blankly.

Okaaaaay.

Mueen got back to the hotel before Matt, and rather than waiting around for the police to pounce on Harry, he suggested they go to the site, where at least they were closer to the sheik’s residence in case anything happened. It was a good call. She stashed Rapson’s satchel under her bed for safety, left a note for Matt telling him to meet her there, and jumped in the truck.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go home with Molly? I have a concern that everything is going bad,” he said.

She sighed. “Not you, too. I just want to finish the job, file the report, and…” And make sure the millions of dollars get to the right people. It didn’t matter that she’d been fired; she needed to be able to say she filed a report in case a prospective client asked. Then it hit her. She remembered what Malcolm had surmised. The first thing he’d surmised. That it wasn’t money on board, but a weapon, or a missile, or even a nuke. Maybe that’s what this was about. A chill went through her. How could she have forgotten to mention that to Matt? She suddenly wished she’d waited for him at the hotel. Crap.

“Whatever you are not telling me, it isn’t worth your life, I promise,” he said in his lilting accent that had become so familiar to her.

She stayed silent. She didn’t have a good answer for that. She was scared. She thought she was scared. She couldn’t remember being scared of anything after Danny died. A heaviness in her stomach, making her appetite disappear, making her shoulders bunch up. It was either fear or constipation. The only time she didn’t feel that way was when Matt’s arms were around her.

“How’s Ain?” she asked.

A lightness came over his expression. “Making a nest for the baby, I think. Everything in the house is being changed and cleaned. It’s a mystery to me. But she seems happy.”

“I think that’s a normal hormonal reaction to being ready to have the baby,” she said. At least, that’s what she’d heard. No one she knew well had had a baby. She realized that her life wasn’t really normal. Her closest friend was Sadie, who did something with the government that they never talked about, and there was Molly, but she hadn’t been really close to anyone in years. No weddings, no baby showers. Was she even living a real life? Work and… what? Casual hookups that by design didn’t mean anything? She shook her head. She would think about it when she was home. Alone.

They arrived at the site, and as they drew closer to the trailer, she viewed the dunes. Could there be three servicemen under the sand here? Sorrow descended as she thought about their parents, or maybe wives and children. She shivered even though the air was dry and hot.

“Miss Harry? Did you give anyone permission to dig here?”

She rummaged around in the backseat for her bag. “No,
I
don’t even have permission to dig. Why?” She straightened to see two figures dressed head to toe in black in the distance. They were too far away to see any features or how big they were. Sand was a lousy place to try to identify anyone’s height or weight. “Maybe they’re just passing through? I mean we only planted flag stakes to mark out the site. Because we’re not digging I didn’t put up any
KEEP OUT
signs,” she said.

He climbed up onto the trailer as he usually did. “I will keep my eyes on them.”

“Thank you.” Harry opened her laptop and loaded the geo-phys program she had been using the day before. With everything that had happened, it felt like a week before. But it was really just yesterday that Molly and Jason had found the void in the electromagnetic pictures.

She mapped the points more carefully on the laptop, then searched for the maps she’d roughly marked up the day before. They were usually tucked in the laptop case, but they weren’t there.
Huh?

How could they have disappeared? There was no way they could have fallen out, as they fit snug against the PC. She dropped onto the cooler and tried to piece together where they could have gone. The only time they could have been taken was while she was dining with Malcolm.

For a frightening second she wondered what would have happened if she’d gone to get something while the thief was in the room taking her maps. Might she have been killed, too? Her thoughts flitted to Molly. Thank God she was out of this.

She looked up at Mueen. He had some kind of scope that he held to his eye. “What do you see?”

“They are not Iraqi,” he said simply.

“How can you tell?” She stood and peered into the distance.

“Only in American movies do desert people dress like that.
The Mummy
or
Sahara
maybe. Not here.”

Harry stifled a laugh but failed to keep it totally in. She giggled at the thought of Western people dressing up like they’d seen people do in the movies, but as her teeth clattered together, she worried her mirth was verging on the hysterical.

“Get into the trailer and stay there until I come to get you.” Seems he was just about as much of a bossy-pants as Matt was. But she didn’t argue.

A few minutes passed with Harry crouched under a window, gnawing her nails. A strange adrenaline flooded through her. Not the same adrenaline as when she had canoed the Amazon in the night, nor when she had traversed two peaks in the Alps, only a thin rope keeping her from plummeting to her death.

This adrenaline was tempered with something else. Something new. Something that made her insides itch with… she shook her head. It was just an alien feeling, but it made her want to run from whatever was happening here. And she’d never run from a rush before, never turned down a life-threatening stunt.

She eyed the large blue cooler that usually housed water and doubled as a stool. She could probably fit in there if she needed to hide. She may never straighten out properly again, but yeah, she could fit.

Mueen sneaked back into the trailer. “I’m taking you to His Highness. It’s the only place I can protect you. Both those people are carrying guns and a map. They are looking for something that they will obviously shoot to get at.”

A coldness coursed through her blood. She trusted Mueen; at least she thought she did. But he’d never mentioned taking her to the sheik before. Never suggested they go somewhere together, alone. She fought her conflicted thoughts into submission.

“No… no. We’ll stay here and wait for Matt. At least then he’ll know where to find us.”

“We must go now. I insist. For all I know, one of those people out there is
Matt
.” He spat out his name in a way she’d never heard this gentle-voiced man speak before. It terrified her.

Suddenly he barked some Arabic words into a radio she’d never seen before. She was virtually paralyzed with the turn of events. She wondered if she’d be safer with the men outside. Her fists clenched as she tried to judge how quickly she’d be able to get to the door.

The sound of a diesel engine outside made her jump up. “He’s here. It’s okay.” Before Mueen could react, she’d flung the door open. It was like she’d triggered an explosion. Incredibly loud bangs came from the Suburban that had just pulled up. Was that David? She cringed and ducked as the trailer door swung closed behind her.
Crap
.

“For Christ’s sake, get back in the trailer!” Matt shouted from the vehicle.

She shook her head. No way was she going back in there alone.

He flung the driver door open and jumped out, simultaneously grabbing her by her jacket and shoving her behind the truck. “It’s bulletproof.”

Her spine went to water as the sound of gunfire erupted around them. She froze in place, watching the two men emerge from the desert firing on them. They did look exactly like they were out of a movie. She tried to figure out who they were and if they were in some way connected to Mueen, but the noise was too loud to allow her to piece together the puzzle. And then a burning feeling flashed through her skin, like she’d pressed up against a red-hot iron.

* * *

Goddammit
. Why hadn’t she just stayed put like he’d asked her to? He couldn’t tell what exactly the two men were aiming at until one of them virtually emptied his clip into the side of the trailer.

Amateurs.

Matt used the car door as protection. The targets were so far away, and obviously had better weapons than he did with the range they were getting, but they were firing from the hip, something only thugs did, unconcerned about who they hit.

He shot first at the man on the left. One round missed. Matt adjusted his aim, his heart slowing in time with his deep breaths. With the next round, the man fell to his knees, to get a lower profile. It obviously wasn’t as much fun being shot at when you were emptying your clip.

“Is there anyone else with you?” he shouted at Harry. There was no answer.

He ducked and looked around. She was looking back at the trailer. There must be someone in there. “Go get them, get in the car. They’re shooting low, I don’t want a bullet to go under the car and get you. Okay?”

She nodded.

“After three, I’ll give you cover. Okay?” Shit, what was wrong with her? She looked as if she’d seen a ghost.

She nodded back at him again, strangely impassive, blank. Was she going into shock? “Come on, Harry. I need you.”

“On three,” her reedy voice came back.

That was his girl. “One, two… three.” He jumped up and started firing around the two figures, keeping them from advancing. Although, if they got a bit closer, he might have a chance at hitting them. Damn David and the shit weapon he’d loaned him.

He heard the trailer door slam, and seconds later, a fast look revealed Harry reemerged with Mueen at her back. “Get in the car!” he yelled.

Mueen opened the rear door and virtually threw her in the backseat. Matt jumped in the driver seat and revved the engine. He jumped the clutch, and the wheels spun out behind them, spraying sand against the trailer.

“Go that way,” Mueen said, pointing through the gap in the seats. It wasn’t a pathway he’d been along, but he trusted him to get them to safety in the desert.

As they raced along the path perpendicular to the gunmen, he took a couple of extra shots. Just to make him feel better. And he definitely felt better when the one on the right spun around, arms splayed, with the force of the bullet.
Booyah
.

Within seconds they were out of sight. His mind raced in the knowledge they were safe. Who were they? And who ordered them to take Harry and Mueen out? Or had they only started shooting when he’d arrived? He couldn’t remember now. He guessed this meant that the subterfuge, bugs, and rifling through the rooms were over, and the open hostility had begun. He was fine with that. He always did better with an enemy he could see.

“Okay, let me get you guys back to the hotel. We need to figure out who that was and how we can secure the site.”

“That won’t be possible, I’m afraid.” Mueen’s voice seemed as soft as the gun he pressed against Matt’s neck was hard.

“What the…” Matt began. “Harry? Harry, are you all right?” He tried to look in his mirror, but when he couldn’t see her, he tried to turn in his seat. Mueen increased the pressure on his neck.

“Don’t tempt me,” Mueen said. “I’ve been wanting to hurt you since you arrived.”

Matt couldn’t figure him out. He hadn’t seemed
that
angry before. Was he just that good of an actor? “Why? What have I ever done to you?”

Mueen laughed deliberately and without humor. In the rearview mirror, Matt saw him swipe at tears in his eyes. Oh, shit. This wasn’t going to be good.

“I’m concerned about Harry. Is she okay?”

“She was shot. I think she’s going into shock.”

“What? You bastard. You fucking…” Matt punched the steering wheel, and Goddammit, he wanted to kill Mueen with his own fucking bare hands. He stomped on the brake. He needed to get out. Needed to see her. Oh, sweet God, please let her be all right. He tried to turn, was afraid to turn and see her. If she died… if he’d somehow not protected her, not kept her safe… His anger and fear swelled in his head until he thought his skull could no longer contain the emotions reeling through his mind.

The gun pressed against his jugular again. “I suggest you keep going. The faster we get to the sheik’s home, the faster we can get aid for her.”

Matt’s breath staggered in and out. Utterly torn between stopping anyway and doing as he was told, he eased his foot back onto the accelerator. Being dead or delaying treatment wouldn’t help her at all.

“How long until we get there?” He looked in the rearview mirror and saw that the gun’s safety was still on, which he took as a good sign. Even as he thought it he realized he was grasping at straws to find the positive.

“Turn right here,” Mueen answered.

There was a crude sign in Arabic staked in the middle of the sandy road. It pointed in the same direction they were headed. He wished he knew what it said.