White Dawn: A Military Romantic Suspense Novel (25 page)

“We’re literally dropping the goggles
off?” he asked Nick.

“A low altitude approach so we don’t
startle the Insurrectos on
Las Piedras Grandes
, then drop
and bank and get the hell out of there.” Nick’s voice sounded tinny
through the headset. “Flores knows we’re coming. By the way,
there’s a software application I sent you via email. I want you to
install it on your phone, your computer, anything that runs on
digital fuel.”

“I saw the email. I wanted to check with
you before hitting the ‘execute’ command. What does it do?”

Nick described the absolutely
impenetrable security shield the software provided.

“That would be damn useful in the
corporation,” Josh remarked.

“We’ll sell it to you,” Nick told him
with a grin. “But for now, it’s just for you and others who are
helping us. I’d like to keep the list as short as possible.”

They were out over the ocean now. Josh’s
gaze was pulled ahead to the horizon. Angry black clouds were
banked there, a thick wall of them. Lightning flashed inside them.
“It looks bad,” he murmured.

“I’ve seen worse,” Nick said. “It would
scare the crap out of you if we were up higher, but I’m staying
under the radar.”

“I noticed.” The surface of the sea
looked like it was only a few feet beneath the wheels of the
Cessna, but then Josh spotted a boat heading for the coast and it
was almost microscopic in size, which told him they were higher up
that it looked like.

After ten minutes of flying almost
directly east, Nick banked the plane. “Five minutes, Pedro!” he
called. “How’s it coming?”

The sound of hissing air had been coming
from the cabin for the last few minutes. “I’ll be ready, sir!”
Pedro yelled, for he wasn’t wearing a headset.

Nick straightened up the plane and Josh
saw the compass was hovering over east-south-east. “You mentioned
Las Piedras Grandes
,” Josh said. “Now you’re heading for the
south end of Vistaria. Does that mean what I hope it means?”

Nick gave him a quick glance. “We’re
going to win back your mine for you.”

“In the middle of a hurricane,” Josh
finished.

“The President suggested it would be a
good idea,” Nick said mildly.

“Because launching an offensive into the
middle of a Category 4 hurricane is something heads of state order
all the time,” Josh added.

Nick grinned. “It was Duardo’s idea.
It’s quite brilliant.” He outlined the strategies and risk-reducing
tactics they were taking.

Josh realized that his dash to Acapulco
had been even more vital than Nick had suggested over the phone. He
was glad he hadn’t waited for a moment after they had ended their
phone call last night. “And the President of the United States told
you to get the mine back?”

“Not in so many words. But this is a big
break, Josh. If we can get the mine back, the President will look
favorably upon the Loyalists.”

“I think he already is,” Josh murmured.
“That’s an under-the-table deal he’s made with you. He wouldn’t
have done it if he didn’t want to deal openly with you somewhere
down the road.”

“I reminded him that if we go under,
he’d have to put up with Serrano slopping his soup next to him at
State dinners. We look benign next to Serrano.”

Josh could feel some of the tension in
his chest loosen. “It’s good to know the president is on Astra
Corp’s side. Jason didn’t think he had been heard.”

All the time they had been talking, Nick
had been dropping altitude. Now, Josh could make out individual
waves. Toward the horizon, the coastline of
Las Piedras
Grandes
was a brown smudge. Just ahead, he could see a
collection of boats bobbing on the surface, close together. No two
boats looked alike, but Josh knew he was looking at the Vistarian
navy.

“Get ready!” Nick yelled. “Josh, could
you help Pedro with the door?”

Josh put the headphones over the twin
controls and climbed into the cabin through the narrow doorway.
Pedro had tied a rope around his waist and the other end of it was
tied around the leg of one of the cabin chairs. He cranked open the
long door handle. Josh grabbed one of the other handles and they
slid the door sideways, forcing it back against the air stream
rushing down the side of the plane. The plane wobbled as the air
pressure in the cabin equalized with the outside and Nick adjusted
the control to compensate for the drag of the open door.

The carton of goggles was sitting inside
the big plastic bag and the mouth of the bag had been sealed with a
plastic ratchet tie. Before sealing it, Pedro had blown compressed
air into the bag, swelling it up like a balloon, so the plastic was
taut. Attached to the bag was a second bag, also inflated, but
quite empty. It would provide more buoyancy to the carton, in case
it was too heavy for the bag it was inside. Attached to the neck of
both bags were four glow-sticks, which Pedro had cracked and shaken
up. Their ghoulish green glow would help Flores find the bags in
the water.

“Now!” Nick called.

Josh helped Pedro wrestle the awkward
bags and carton over to the door and without hesitation, they
tipped the parcel out into the air. Pedro immediately pulled the
door shut.

Nick banked the plane sharply and Josh
grabbed at the arm of the nearest chair as the floor tilted hard.
He looked out the window. There was a tiny dinghy setting out from
one of the bigger dories, heading for the goggles. Josh couldn’t
make out where the goggles were as the plane was already too high
up and too far away, but that wasn’t his problem now.

The plane straightened up, then did a
little shimmy, the wings waggling up and down. The air pilot’s form
of goodbye.

Josh let out a heavy breath. “And good
luck,” he added, to himself.

It was nearly one in the afternoon when
they reached the ramshackle and abandoned motel that Nick had
directed them to. By then, Téra was carrying one of the smaller
children, as were most of the adults, including Calli who walked
beside her. It was a very subdued line of people that traipsed
tiredly into the weed-covered parking area of the motel.

The wind had been growing steadily
stronger throughout the morning. Now it was moaning and whistling
around them, plucking at their clothes and tearing loose anything
that wasn’t tied down. It wasn’t just tumbleweeds rolling across
the gravel road they were following. They had watched weeds and
small uprooted bushes roll and bounce across their path and once, a
sheet of corrugated iron.

Calli had watched the iron flip and rise
up into the air, almost floating for a moment. “We have to go
faster,” she’d said thoughtfully and reached out for the nearest
child and picked him up. “Everyone, pick up the pace. Pass it
on.”

The murmur had travelled back along the
long, drawn-out line of people trailing behind them. As the
children had been lifted up, the adults had increased their
speed.

When they reached the motel, Calli
turned to Minnie, who was one of the few adults not carrying a
child. Calli had flatly refused to let her. “Assign rooms, please,
Minnie. Téra, could you help? And Rubén, too. The sooner we can get
everyone inside and locked down, the happier I’ll be.”

Minnie had conversed swiftly with Rubén,
as they counted out the number of rooms the motel offered. Then
they started moving down the line, grouping people into the right
number, then giving them a room number. People started streaming
along the verandahs and up the stairs to the next floor as they
were assigned a place, most of them walking with one shoulder
turned into the wind to stop themselves from staggering.

Téra watched them struggle to move
against the wind and wondered how the rest of the army would
fair.

Minnie touched her arm. “We’re in the
command center,” she said, lifting her voice. “The motel reception
area.”

Téra nodded and held out her arm. “Hang
on to me. You’ll get blown away otherwise.”

Minnie laughed, but took her arm. “I’m
just glad we can stop walking. My feet are hurting.”

“You’re the one who got knocked up,”
Téra pointed out.

Minnie didn’t respond to that, but her
smile was warm and small. Being pregnant suited Minnie down to the
ground, which had been a surprise to Téra. Her first impression of
her future sister-in-law had been a petite woman far too interested
in her own appearance to match Duardo’s obvious infatuation. But
Duardo had been right all along. Minnie had hidden depths that Téra
was only starting to learn. The way she organized the supplies for
the big house was astonishing. They had wanted for very little
since she had taken over the task.

“I hope they left behind the furniture,”
Téra added. “Then you’ll have a comfortable chair to sit in.”

“Any flat surface behind a vertical one
that stops the wind is all I need,” Minnie said. “I never thought
wind would drive me crazy, but it never stops, does it?”

The reception area and the offices
behind it had been stripped of anything useful. All that was left
was fixtures that were nailed down or built in, like the big
reception counter. There was carpet in the area that had been a
lounge bar, off to one side of the reception area.

Téra helped Minnie settle down at the
back corner of the lounge, where the two walls would give her back
some support.

“Don’t stay near the windows,” Calli had
warned as everyone spread out, looking for a comfortable spot.
There were about ten people, including Rubén Ray, Mama Roseta and
other key personnel who helped run the big house, who Minnie had
assigned to the office and reception area.

Téra would never say it aloud, but she
was relieved that Rubén had been left behind. At least one man with
a gun strapped to his hip was a comfort. There were two privates
who Rubén was supervising, who had mild injuries and were in
recovery. They were also armed, but they had been equally helpful
with the children.

Téra moved over to the heavily-carved
teak bar at the back of the room. There were no windows nearby, so
she stepped around the bar and studied the narrow area. The floor
was vinyl tiles, but it looked clean.

She settled herself on the floor, her
back against the shelves under the bar. There was nothing on the
shelves but dust, but there was just enough room to extend her
legs. Later, she could swing herself around and lie on the floor.
The bivouac would give her some privacy. Possibly, it was the most
luxurious accommodation anywhere in the motel.

So she rested her head back and closed
her eyes and let out a deep sigh.

A squeak of shoe leather jerked her eyes
open and she saw Rubén Ray at the end of the bar. He had moved
around it to check behind, but raised his hand when she looked at
him. “I see I’m not the only one that thought this would be a good
idea. I am sorry I disturbed your sleep.”

“No, wait,” Téra told him. “You’re
welcome to hang out here too, if you want. As long as you don’t
mind me snoring next to you.”

He hesitated, his dark eyes behind the
glasses studying her. “I wouldn’t presume—”

“Come and sit down,” Téra said shortly
and closed her eyes again.

“Téra,” he said quietly and much closer
to her.

She looked. He had moved silently and
was now crouched down just in front of her. He was studying her
again. “I wish you wouldn’t do that,” she said tiredly.

“Do what?”

“Examine me, like I’m a line of code or
something.”

“You’re neither code nor something,” he
said. He rested his arm on his bent knee. “That’s why I don’t think
I’ll stay here in this little nest of yours.”

Téra sat up straighter. The exhaustion
she had been feeling had fled. Her heart was thudding. “I don’t
understand.” But she did understand. She could see it in his eyes.
If she played dumb it would delay what she thought he wanted to
say.

Rubén smiled. It was a wise expression.
He knew she was being deliberately stupid, too. Then he bent closer
and touched his mouth to hers.

As a kiss, it barely qualified. But her
heart rate zoomed anyway.

As he pulled away, she found her voice,
which had momentarily fled. “Rubén, I—” she began, but he touched
her lips, silencing her, then shook his head.

“I know,” he said softly. “I know more
than anyone. You’re still hurting over his betrayal. For dying. For
making you fall in love with him. I know, Téra.”

She swallowed. His quiet words made all
the sick, hard feelings swoop back into her chest. Her eyes
stung.

“When you’re ready,” Rubén said, “you
can give me that kiss back. I can wait. I will wait as long as it
takes. But that’s why I won’t stay here with you. You need your
space.”

He got to his feet again.

Téra reached up and slid her hand into
his. He had a big hand and his fingers looked too big for the
keyboard, but they always moved gracefully over the keys. Only now
did Téra realize that she had been watching Rubén far too much. She
had noticed details that a more casual observer would miss.

She looked up at him. “You’re right,”
she said. “I’m not ready to kiss you. But…I would like you to stay,
anyway. If you don’t mind.”

His smile was warm. “I don’t mind.”

Téra realized she was smiling, too, as
he settled on the hard floor beside her.

Duardo studied the fence through his binoculars. The
chain-link ran around the perimeter of the compound and the wind
was making it ripple and bow. It had been put up hastily and he
doubted it would last out the storm, but he needed it gone
now
, not in twelve hours.

“Jasso?” he asked. There was no need to
keep his voice down. The wind was roaring around them, bending the
trees over and picking up anything lose and hurling it along the
ground. It plucked at their fatigues and made their eyes water. And
this was the early stages of the storm.