Surrender to Temptation (Agent Lovers Series Book 1) (33 page)

With an almost astonished look in their eyes, the two slumped together on the wooden floor. Liz ran to the poor woman, cut her loose, and gathered her shredded clothes from the floor.

“We’re going to finish you, you bitch!” one of the men screamed at Liz in Spanish.

“I’ve heard that before.”

“You’ll die and your people with you!”

“What people? It’s just me. How embarrassing for you!” In a rage, he lunged toward her, and Liz brought him down with a targeted shot to the knee. He fell to the floor, holding his leg with both hands and screaming in pain. Blood ran between his fingers and seeped into the cracks between the floor boards.

“Anyone else need a ticket?” Liz asked the group. When no one answered, she gave a slight nod and pushed the woman backwards out of the small room. At the door she stopped and put her weapon back in her leg holster. She then took a hand grenade from her gear, pulled out the safety pin and threw it toward the men.

Screaming, they tried to get out of harm’s way as Liz reached for the woman’s arm and dragged her down the steps to safety.

A powerful explosion shook the ground, but they kept running and didn’t turn around. Once they were at a safe distance, Liz stopped and looked back to see if any of the men could have escaped. She couldn’t hear any sound coming from the destroyed wooden barracks and no one had taken up the chase.

“Come on!” Again she gripped the woman’s arm and dragged her into the undergrowth that surrounded the camp. They ran down the same path the others had already taken.

“Was that you, Liz?” Jennifer came through the headset receiver.

“Who else?” she said with a laugh. “This’ll be me, too.”

“What?” Jennifer said.

In explanation, Liz pressed the button that would ignite the explosives she’d set. With a powerful report that made the ground under their feet shake again, the charges on the crates of ammunition exploded.

“Where are my husband and my daughter?” asked the young woman. Sobbing, she tried to straighten her shredded clothes.

“They’re fine; they’re safe. What’s your name?” Liz pulled a spare jacket out of her bag and gave it to the woman.

“Karla.”

“I’m taking you to them, Karla. But right now, we have to keep moving.”

***

“My God! She was so stone-cold.” Jeff looked at his brother in shock.

“If she hadn’t been, they could have been followed, captured or worse!”

“I know. I just hadn’t realized there was such a difference between working an assignment and watching it live from your perspective. From here it all looks so harsh—and that’s putting it mildly.”

“It’s as harsh as it looks, Jeff.” Gray gave his brother a mirthless smile.

“No wonder you weren’t thrilled to see them head out on another assignment.” Jeff tried to lighten the tense atmosphere with a laugh. “Did you notice? She followed her gut and not the commands.”

“Of course I noticed. And when she’s back I’ll remind her of that fact, loudly and clearly.”

Gray wasn’t thrilled that, once again, Liz had acted as she saw fit. But he had to admit, he admired Liz’s courage and combative spirit. She had done everything correctly. And she and Jennifer were okay, which was the main thing.

“If they keep moving at that pace, they’ll be at the meeting point with the helicopter in an hour.” Chris was following their retreat on the large monitor on the wall.

“Tell the pilot to pick them up with the four liberated hostages and take them to the American embassy in Guatemala.”

“Consider it done!” Chris established radio contact with the pilot.

***

As soon as they caught up to the small group, Karla ran crying to her husband, who was holding their young daughter in his arms, and threw herself at him sobbing.

“Thank you!” He nodded to Liz as he held his family close.

“It sounded like you cleaned the house again,” Jennifer said.

“You heard right.”

“Helicopter’s on its way. Head to the meeting point and get rid of any unnecessary weight,” Gray said over the radio. It was clear to them what he meant by “weight”: the extra people they weren’t supposed to rescue.

“On our way! Arrival at the meeting point in fifteen minutes.”

With a meaningful look, Liz glanced at Jennifer and gave a slight nod. Words weren’t necessary. They both knew what they had to do. Quickly, they led the group toward the meeting point with the pilot.

When they reached the clearing, Jennifer opened the helicopter door and indicated that the people should climb in.

“That’s too many! I can’t take more than eight,” the pilot objected.

“Seven adults and one child don’t even meet the maximum load of a UH-72A LAKOTA, so you won’t exceed the maximum take-off weight,” Liz said. “So just do your job!” What she meant by that was clear: she and Jennifer would stay behind.

“Under no circumstances are you to stay there!” Gray swore loudly into the microphone. “Get in the helicopter right now! You can take the woman and child with you, but you need to get out of there immediately! You got the locals out. You can’t do anything more for them. Leave one of the men there!” When Liz and Jennifer kept urging the people into the helicopter, he switched his appeal to the pilot. “Don’t take off! Do you understand me? That’s an order! The child’s weight isn’t enough to matter. But one of the local men has to stay there! Blackwood and Robbins have to get out, no matter what!”

Jennifer shut the door, stepped back and looked at the pilot. But he didn’t make any move to start the helicopter.

“I have been given a direct order to bring you back. One of the locals has to stay here.”

“Forget it! Get out of here with this crate!”

He shook his head. “I have to obey orders.”

“That’s right. And now you’ll get a new order!” Liz pulled her GLOCK 29 out of the holster on her thigh, pulled open the door and pressed the muzzle against his helmet, right between his eyes. “Lift off immediately and get these people to safety.
That
is an order!” She spoke with deadly calm.

With his gaze fixed on her weapon, the pilot gave a barely perceptible nod and started the helicopter. Finally, Liz lowered her weapon and put it back in its holster. She stepped back and stood next to Jennifer. Together they watched the helicopter lift off and fly away.

“You might as well brace yourself for what you’ll face when you get back here,” Gray said.

“You disregarded a direct order,” Chris snapped.

“Yeah, so? We’ve done that plenty of times.” Jennifer sounded amused.

“But you weren’t married to me yet!”

“What difference does that make?” Liz laughed softly.

“You’ll see,” Gray said in an ominous voice. “You’ll see!”

“Can’t you do anything besides threaten people?” When Liz and Jennifer heard a loud roaring sound a moment later, they turned around and lifted their faces to the sky. They didn’t like what they saw there one bit.

The kidnappers had indeed taken up the pursuit. Their helicopter was still some distance away, but it was catching up quickly because it wasn’t weighted down with an additional load, and, unlike the LAKOTA, which was a kind of all-purpose helicopter, this was an attack helicopter, a Hughes AH-64 type. A 30 mm automatic canon with 1200 rounds was standard equipment on an APACHE, and it was also possible that the four stations, each with four AGM-114 HELLFIRE anti-tank guided missiles and four CRV7 launchers, had been fitted with Hydra rockets. Liz and Jennifer watched helplessly as the first rounds were fired at the helicopter carrying the freed hostages.

“Shit!” swore Jennifer. “Did you see a helicopter in the camp?”

“No. If I had, I wouldn’t have left it able to fly!”

“How’d they get their hands on an APACHE? And where did they come from so fast?”

“I have no idea. But I know where they’re going.”

Deftly she slipped her heavy backpack from her shoulders, pulled out a metal container that held a FIM-92E STINGER, a single operator surface-to-air missile, and got it ready to use. She supported the launcher on her shoulder, aimed and pulled the trigger. The infrared-guided anti-aircraft missile sped toward the enemy helicopter, hit the fuel tank and detonated. The APACHE exploded in the air and the burning pieces fell toward the ground. Liz slowly lowered the launcher from her shoulder and looked at Jennifer.

“Well? How was that?”

“On a scale of one to ten, I’d give you a nine.”

“Why not a ten? That hit was awesome!” Liz complained.

“I’ve seen you do it faster.” Jennifer laughed loudly at the sight of her friend’s stunned face.

“I hate to interrupt this fascinating banter, ladies. But has it occurred to you yet that you’ve just made them aware that you’re still on the ground?” Gray spoke with exaggerated politeness. “They’re going to hunt you down.”

The two women looked at each other and shrugged.

“They won’t have to. We’ll go introduce ourselves and bring some surprises. What do you think, Liz?”

“Well, eventually we’re going to need transportation, and right now booking one of our helicopters to come here wouldn’t be the best idea. Who can say what these gentlemen will come up with?”

“Don’t you dare go back into that camp! They’ll have regrouped for sure and are undoubtedly hunting you down as we speak. Find cover and hide until the coast is clear—or at least clear enough for a helicopter to land. For the thousandth time: That’s an order! Do you understand? Do not go back into the camp!” Tensely he waited for their reaction. When Liz started acting like they had a bad radio connection, he closed his eyes and swore.

“What did you say, Gray?” she shouted, pressing on the small receiver in her ear with her index and middle fingers. “We should go back to camp again? But that’s what I just said!” Jennifer turned her head to the side so the men couldn’t see her laughing. “Check the connection, Gray! I can barely understand you. We’re on our way now.” She tapped Jennifer on the shoulder so she’d follow. Then they headed back in the direction from which they’d had just come.

***

“Have you considered the possibility that your wives have problems with authority?” Jeff asked casually, earning a ferocious glare from both sides. As if the thought hadn’t occurred to Gray and Chris some time ago. “Sorry! I won’t say anything else, but you know I’m right.” This got him a smack on his head from his brother. Grumbling, Jeff rubbed the sore spot.

“Prepare yourself for the consequences, Liz! That was the last time you’ll ignore one of my orders!” he promised her softly. He glanced in Chris’s direction and almost had to laugh. His friend was staring straight ahead, seething, as he imagined the punishment he would give his own wife.

The three men followed along via the wall monitor as Liz and Jennifer returned to the enemy camp. Once they got there, they took cover and checked out the lay of the land.

More men were running around nervously as one barked out orders. Gray had been right. They were regrouping and preparing to go looking for Liz and Jennifer.

Jennifer pointed to a group of armed men who were walking out of camp in the same direction they’d taken the liberated hostages a few hours earlier.

“Let them go. We’ll wait for a little while and then pay the rest a visit.”

They huddled together behind a mound of dirt and waited. After about an hour, the camp had calmed down again. No one was expecting them to head into, and not away from the camp, and only a few guards were posted.

“How many surprise packages do you still have, Jennifer?”

Jennifer poked around in her backpack and pulled out her last C4 explosive with its corresponding fuse. Liz added her four to it and nodded toward the vehicles.

“You put the explosives on the cars and I’ll take care of the guards.”

“And just how will we get away, if we blow up all the cars?”

“Using the motorcycles, of course! They’re made for this terrain and maneuver better.” Liz gnawed on her lower lip, thought briefly, and decided to take a potshot at Gray. “Do you know what else is made for this terrain?”

“What?”

“Gray’s SUV. It’s too bad we already totaled the GL. We could’ve used it here. Now
that
thing could really haul!”

Jennifer’s eyes flew open wide and she pressed her hand to her mouth to smother a laugh.

Chris peeked cautiously at his friend out of the corner of his eye. Gray looked about to explode. His lips formed a narrow line and his chest rose from breathing heavily.

Jeff, on the other hand, was greatly amused and showed it. He held his stomach and squirmed in his chair. “That was a good one!” he gasped between fits of laughter, and in return received a powerful blow to his shoulder that knocked him and his chair backwards, onto the floor.

“Stop laughing or I won’t have a brother much longer!” hissed Gray dangerously. But Jeff just laughed harder, making sure he was out of Gray’s reach. Once he’d finally calmed down again, he wiped his eyes.

“Don’t take it so hard, dear brother! She’s only trying to annoy you.”

“Well, she succeeded beautifully.” Gray turned to his friend. “Chris, zoom out on that satellite image and see if you can find the best way for them to get out of there.” Chris obeyed, immediately reducing the zoom of the satellite with a few keyboard strokes.

***

“The presents have been distributed and are ready to be unwrapped, Liz!”

“Good. You slip off towards the motorcycles. I’ll be right behind you,” Liz answered over her radio, letting the lifeless body of the guard slide to the ground. That was number three. One left. If she and Jennifer wanted to get out of here alive, she couldn’t afford to be seen by one of the guards. Liz knew that if she and her partner were captured, they wouldn’t be shown any mercy.

She snuck up to the last guard and stabbed the back of his neck, killing him. He never saw it coming. Liz dragged him by the arms to the side of one of the barracks and then made her way back to Jennifer.

Her partner already had a portable M72 LAW one-shot weapon in her hand. Jennifer opened the cover that protected the grenade inside. When she pulled apart the two tubes that were nested together, the sight unfolded automatically. She lifted the M72 on her shoulder and took aim at the new headquarters. Just then a man appeared in the doorway. When he saw Jennifer with her grenade launcher he shouted out a warning. The other men poured out of the barracks like rats from a sinking ship, pushing their way through the door and jumping out of the windows to get to safety.