Medusa Seduction

by Cindy Dees

  “She’s approaching the wall,” Vanessa murmured. Brian scanned the deserted expanse of wall eagerly. Any second now, she should pop over it. Jack’s tactic had worked. Undisciplined mob that they were, all of Sollem’s men had run for the gate when the firing concentrated entirely on the west wall. Sophie ought to have a clear shot at escaping over here.

  “Do you see her?” Vanessa asked.

  “Negative,” he replied, startled.

  “She’s outside the wall.”

  He scanned the entire compound again. How in the hell could he have missed her? “No, she’s not. I have no visual on her.”

  Vanessa swore. “Damn. Then she’s still underground. She must be using some sort of escape tunnel.”

  Brian thought fast. “Vector me to her position. I’ll follow above ground until she surfaces.”

  “Ping your position,” Vanessa replied.

  Brian pressed the position transmitter on his personal GPS locator.

  “Gotcha. Her current course will take her approximately thirty yards to your north. She’s moving east by northeast.”

  Brian looked over his shoulder. “There’s a big upthrust of rocks over that way. I’ll make for it.”

  “Call me when you get there and I’ll update your vector.”

  He was already moving and merely clicked his radio button twice to acknowledge the comment.

  I’m coming, sweetheart. Keep running.

  Sophie thought she felt the air growing drier. Colder. The tunnel curved just ahead. Her watch showed maybe two minutes before the nuke behind her was set to blow. That was the other problem with this tunnel. The shock wave from the bomb would travel right up it and make vapor of her. Nonetheless, she slowed down. She tried to control her breathing, to keep it quiet, but that was hopeless.

  Panting, she eased forward. Please God, let there not be guards waiting for her.

  “She has stopped. Twenty yards, bearing zero-five-zero from your position.”

  Brian looked over his shoulder. That might be a cave over that way. Pockets and fissures were plentiful in this outcropping, and he was having to proceed slowly, clearing every one before he passed in front of it. He double clicked his radio.

  Stealthily, he glided toward the possible cave entrance. And froze.

  Was that movement?

  He waited, as still as a rattlesnake about to strike. His night-vision goggles pierced the darkness of the opening, made a gray-green blob out of it. There it was again. Yup. A human shape. Somebody was standing inside that opening. Was it Sophie?

  His first impulse was to dash forward and pull her into his arms. But the soldier in him held him back. He took a slow step forward, trusting his camouflage gear to hide him. Another step.

  Another shape came into view. Two men. Both armed. Both peering into the cave. This must be the tunnel exit. And the bastards were waiting to ambush Sophie. Thank God he hadn’t run up and hugged the first one.

  Fury roared through him. He swung his rifle up and aimed in one quick, smooth movement. Tap, tap. Tap, tap on the trigger. Two quick shots to the back of each man’s head and they both dropped to the ground. He waited for more men to emerge. Nada.

  That didn’t mean there weren’t more men hiding in the cave, though. Crouching low, he crept forward.

  “Sixty seconds till bomb release,” Vanessa announced.

  Crap. He had to find Sophie! He started a countdown in his head. Fifty-nine. Fifty-eight.

  “You’re maybe ten yards from her position, Rip. She’s due west of you.”

  He didn’t acknowledge the call at all, which would signal Vanessa that he was in full stealth mode.

  He rounded the opening of what turned out to be a good-sized cave. No other heat signatures appeared inside. Just the two rapidly cooling blobs on the floor. Forty-seven. Forty-six.

  There was no time, dammit! He had to find Sophie and get both of them under cover! This cave might very well collapse when the bombs and debris started raining down.

  He took a chance. Called out low, “Sophie. It’s me.”

  A sob echoed eerily from the depths of the cave. A black shape stumbled around an outcropping. “Brian!” she cried.

  He rushed forward, crushing her against his chest.

  Thirty-five. Thirty-four.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” they both said simultaneously.

  He released her and whirled, grabbing her hand and taking off running for the exit. “Why?” he grunted.

  “Nuke bomb…armed…at the bottom…of this tunnel…shock wave…”

  Oh, damn. They burst out into the open air. He looked around frantically. The shock wave would come straight out of the cave, then spread in a cone. He leaped to the south, curving back west toward the Sollem compound.

  Twenty-two. Twenty-one.

  “Run!” he urged Sophie.

  They scrambled wildly over the rocks, stumbling and clawing, as he cast around frantically for a hiding spot.

  There. A low, deep pocket at ground level with a heavy boulder stretching across its top. He dragged Sophie toward it. “Hurry!”

  Nine. Eight.

  They dived for the opening.

  Six. Five.

  He grabbed her and rolled, as far back into the crevice as he could wedge them.

  Three. Two.

  The first blast was muffled, more felt than heard. Or maybe it was just that his ears were ringing so badly with panic that he didn’t really hear the noise. The scream of jets overhead came next. A second blast—a cluster of blasts, actually, followed the first one. It was much louder. The ground shook, showering them with dirt and bits of shale.

  The first bomb must have been the bunker buster. The second attack was the big munitions, designed to destroy everything inside the newly opened can of sardines.

  “Was that the nuke going off?” Sophie asked fearfully.

  “I don’t think so. I think the ground would have shaken a lot harder.”

  “I armed it and then broke the computer so it couldn’t be turned off. It’ll explode any second,” she said urgently.

  “The targeting computers are fairly fragile. If an armed one was destroyed, the instructions for the bomb to activate shouldn’t get transmitted. Who knows? Maybe someone down there disarmed it anyway.”

  Sophie sagged in relief in his arms.

  Brian continued grimly, “However, if our bombs breached the containment chambers on the weapons, there could still be a radiation release. I want us to get the hell away from here, now. Can you run some more?”

  “Do I have any choice?”

  He replied with a smile in his voice, “Not really.”

  They crawled out from under their hiding place. A bright orange glow lit up the night. The Sollem compound, the remains of it at any rate, was on fire.

  He pressed his radio button. “I’ve got Sophie. Everyone pull back. There may be a nuclear radiation release. Acknowledge.”

  Jack acknowledged immediately by ordering sharply, “Everyone, back off now. Full speed retreat. No covering fire. Just run like hell. You too, Ripper.”

  Vanessa transmitted, “Rendezvous on me. I’ll have the Teddy R. send in a chopper for immediate evacuation.”

  Brian took off running. “Shed your gear,” he called out, dropping his rifle and backpack as he went. He reached over and helped Sophie wrestle out of her flapping robe and tossed it aside. He grabbed her elbow and propelled her along beside him, sharing his strength and stamina with her as they fled across the desert.

  Thank God for all the running on the beach he’d done with her back in San Diego. Both of them were conditioned for the most important run of their lives. Side-by-side they raced toward the ridge ahead of them.

  Sophie spotted the rest of the Medusas fleeing roughly south across the sand, too. Their paths converged, and as one they all burst over the top of the ridge.

  One of the prettiest sights she had ever seen stretched out below her. A big, twin-rotor rescue helicopter squatted
at the bottom of the dune, its side door open and Vanessa and Isabella standing in it, waving them forward.

  Slip-sliding a good six feet down the loose sand slope with every running step, Sophie called on the last reserves of will she could muster. Almost there. They’d almost made it. And then they tumbled inside the chopper, its rotor blades biting into the air before the door was closed, lifting them off the ground. The aircraft veered hard and picked up speed fast, racing low across the desert.

  Sophie collapsed on the cold metal flooring, her chest heaving. Thankfully, Brian was breathing about as hard as she was. He made eye contact with her, and nodded his approval, apparently too winded to talk. But she’d kept up with him. He’d boosted her along with him, and she’d done it. She’d kept going. No matter what. Pride welled up inside her.

  Jack huffed between hard breaths, “Any radiation being picked up?”

  Vanessa nodded. “There’s been a release. But not from a full-blown detonation. One or more of the bombs must have been compromised in the attack.”

  “How bad?” Brian panted.

  “Bad enough. Thankfully, this is a sparsely populated part of the world. There are no major cities for several hundred miles east of here. That’s where most of the radiation cloud will be blown.”

  “How about us?” Sophie asked grimly.

  “They’ll have to test us when we get back to the ship. But our exposure should be minimal. Dirt and rocks stop most radiation. If everyone was behind some sort of rock structure at the time of the blasts, most of the initial radiation wave should have missed us.”

  Sophie looked over at Brian. She saw in his eyes that he was remembering the crevice they’d dived into at the last moment. He smiled reassuringly at her.

  She looked back at Vanessa. “What about the people in the compound?”

  Vanessa threw her a regretful glance. “The first bomb damage assessment won’t be done until daylight. But I expect anyone who survived the air strike won’t survive the radiation.”

  The interior of the helicopter went silent for a moment. They took no pleasure in having killed the entire Sollem clan. Sophie thought of Grandma Sollem and Freddie’s wives and children. They’d known the risks. They knew who and what Freddie was, and they’d known they were protecting him. It was a tragic loss. But at the end of the day, it had been their choice to share his fate.

  Brian leaned against the front bulkhead and held out an arm to her. She cuddled up against his big, warm body, as he drew her close.

  “We did it,” she murmured in awe.

  “No, you did it,” he replied. “You saved thousands or maybe even millions of lives tonight.”

  “I wasn’t talking about that, silly.”

  He craned his head to look down at her questioningly.

  She answered slowly. “You turned a legal secretary from Utah into a commando. I lived through the mission that was supposed to kill me. You didn’t lose your job. We stopped a terrorist. And despite it all—maybe because of it all—we found each other.”

  A smile spread slowly across his face, gathering momentum and turning into a full-blown laugh.

  A cheer went up around them and Jack slapped Brian on the shoulder. “Congratulations, buddy. You’re now an official member of the Frazzled Significant Others of Medusas Club.”

  Sophie frowned. “But I’m not a Medusa.”

  Vanessa leaned forward. “Do you want to be? After the way you conducted yourself tonight, I’d be happy to continue your training and bring you on board when you’re ready.”

  Sophie blinked. Looked around in shock. Everyone was smiling and nodding at her. It wasn’t a joke! She glanced up at Brian. “Do you think your nerves could take it?”

  He rolled his eyes. “As long as you swear never to go on anymore solo suicide missions.”

  Sophie looked over at Vanessa, who was grinning. The Medusa team leader answered for her. “I think that could be arranged. We Medusas generally prefer to work as a team.”

  Sophie met Vanessa’s gaze. “I would be honored to be given a chance to join your team. But I don’t want any free rides. I want to earn my way on to the team fair and square.”

  Vanessa laughed. “You can count on that.”

  “Do I get to pick my trainer?”

  Jack spoke up. “As long as it’s Brian Riley, you do.”

  Sophie grinned. “Then we have a deal.”

  Brian’s arm tightened around her and he smiled down at her in joy so bright it nearly blinded her. “And to think,” he murmured. “I was satisfied with a single perfect moment before. But now I have an entire perfect life to look forward to. We have it to look forward to!”

  She stared up at him. “Really?” she breathed. “Do you mean that?”

  He gazed deep into her eyes and said soberly, “Yes, I do. There’s something I wanted to say to you before you went out on the op—”

  She interrupted, “There’s something I wanted to tell you, too—”

  Simultaneously, they declared, “I love you.”

  They stared at each other in shock. Then laughed. Then everyone in the chopper was laughing.

  She wrapped her arms around him and held on tight. Tight enough to get through the rest of the helicopter ride out of the desert. Tight enough to get through continuing to train with him until she could join him in his work. Tight enough to stick beside him, through thick and thin, for the rest of their lives.

  They really had done it. She’d been sure she’d fail in her training, but with Brian’s help, she hadn’t. She’d been just as sure she was going to die on the mission, but she’d lived. And there was no way an exciting, dangerous, sexy man was going to burst into her quiet boring life, sweep her off her feet, and fall madly in love with her, either. But he had. Oh, how he had.

  Maybe Brian was right. Maybe nothing was impossible, after all.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-1010-7

  THE MEDUSA SEDUCTION

  Copyright © 2007 by Cynthia M. Dees

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