by Ali Vali
“We’re sending an elite team located in South Korea as backup, ma’am,” Carl said, and he rubbed his chin when Neil entered. “You’re right that we need to finish this, but we have to try to do it without too many repercussions.”
“You know the North’s regime and what they’ll try to get away with if they can get involved in this fight. We need to avoid giving them an excuse to drop a bomb in the center of Seoul,” Neil said. “But if they’re harboring someone responsible for killing the president, we need to act.”
“What’s the ETA on the backup?” Olivia asked.
“They’ll be there by morning, and with any luck, the SEALs will be in position to have put eyes on our missing,” Carl said.
“Thank you all, and we’ll be ready for anything,” Aidan said, looking at her father. He looked concerned, and she appreciated having his steady presence even if he was thousands of miles away.
“Have your pilots ready, Captain,” Carl said. “If we get the opportunity to finish New Horizons with what our guys do best, we intend to let them clear the field.”
“Yes, sir.” It was a good thing they were all for finding Berkley and the others, and for killing the people so set on doing them harm.
All she needed now was for Berkley to hang on so they could actually save her.
Chapter Twenty-three
The pothole in the road jarred Berkley awake, and she immediately shut her eyes when a wave of nausea hit her hard enough that she took some deep breaths to keep from throwing up. From what she could tell, Harvey was tied to her back, and she couldn’t imagine where Jin was. With luck she was on her way back to the Jefferson.
She kept her eyes closed and listened, surprised when she understood every word the guards were saying as they rode to God knows where. The guy talking about his girl back home had what sounded like a Tennessee accent, and it was surreal to find it here. If they were indeed Americans, this was bad on so many levels.
“Harvey,” she whispered, but got no response. She took a few more deep breaths and opened her eyes again, but could move only her left one. The attack at the house had involved guns, but they’d been aimed at the SEALs behind them. A blow to the head had swollen her eye shut. “Harvey.”
“He has not woken up yet,” Jin said softly as she lay right in front of her. “We have been going for a long time, stopping only for petrol.”
“Where do you think they’re taking us?” She leaned forward to hear Jin better and felt Harvey come with her.
“I do not know. It is still dark so I have not been able to see anything outside the flap. All I know is they are determined to take us somewhere and that they are not Korean.”
“That I got, since I didn’t think I’d understand anything, but from the little I heard, they’re not saying much.”
“I said to your people they were Americans when Chil brought me there. I think they did not believe me.”
She heard the moan from behind her and cursed that her hands were tied behind her. “Harvey?”
“What the hell happened?” Harvey still sounded a little out of it, which probably meant he had a matching knot on his head.
“They cut us from the herd and are going to mount our heads on pikes the first chance they get, so stay quiet and let me think.” The truck stopped, and she heard plenty of doors slamming as all the engines went quiet. “Close your eyes and play dead. We might’ve arrived.”
“This fucking place is getting on my nerves,” a man standing close by said and got a grunt in response, as if someone agreed with him. “Get the guys a couple of trucks down to cut that shit up and clear the road.”
“How’re the idiots doing?” another less-than-intelligent-sounding guy asked. “Matty knocked that big bitch pretty good.”
“Hold on.” The truck bounced some, meaning the first guy was climbing up. “For fuck’s sake. Where’d these morons learn to tie knots?” Berkley kept her eyes closed as he sawed close to her and Harvey’s hands. “Their fucking fingers are blue.”
“Hey, you said tight, so they wouldn’t get away,” the genius said.
“Where they gonna go, Einstein? There’s fifty of us and miles of jungle. They couldn’t walk out of here with a map and a car.”
Berkley let her hands fall limply to her sides, even though she desperately wanted to shake them as the circulation started again, making her hands feel like they were covered in fire ants. “Put a guy outside here until we get going. If they wake up and run, have him put a bullet in each kneecap. It won’t kill them since we don’t want to fuck with what I’m sure the general has planned for later.”
“I almost feel sorry for the poor motherfuckers.”
“You’re going to be even sorrier if those guys come looking for us. I’d bet my ass that was a SEAL team or some other elite force. If Lapry and his buddy hadn’t given us the heads-up to be waiting, those guys would be sunning themselves by now, and we’d be rotting in that sick fucker’s house,” the head guy said, sounding farther away now.
“You think they’ll find us out here?”
The first guy laughed. “What? They gonna use their dicks as propellers and fly after us? Stop thinking and clear the road. We need to get moving. I’ll feel better once we’re in the middle of our five full brigades, but we’re still a couple of hours out.”
The only sound after that were chainsaws, or Berkley guessed that’s what it was, and chopping noises. They’d probably stopped because a tree or maybe more was blocking the road. The sun was up, which meant Jin was right. They’d been riding for at least five hours and had two to go.
There was a slim chance Baylor and his team would find them before she ended up with some bad disfigurement or dead, and even if they did, five full battalions consisted of at least twenty thousand men. That was impossible odds, even with the element of surprise on Baylor and his team’s part, so they stayed quiet for the eternity it took to clear the road. The truck rumbled back to life, and the only good news was that their hands were now free.
“Look in the pockets by your knees,” Berkley said softly, “and move slowly in case they’re watching us from the front.”
She did the same and took out the transponder that was usually in the life vests they wore on the plane. With a small press of the top, it turned on, and it represented the only chance she had left that someone would find them. Jumping and running would just lead to a quick death or crippling injury, and that would only save them from the torture that was coming.
“That was damn genius,” Harvey said, and Jin agreed.
“It is if someone checks, but hopefully not too quickly. Maybe they’re taking us to their unfearless leader, and our guys can finally put a bullet through that big mouth of his.” She sent a silent prayer that the Jefferson’s crew found what they looked for only when one of their planes went down.
“We will at least be remembered for trying,” Jin said.
“Don’t make martyrs out of us yet. I’ve got a lot left to do, plenty to enjoy, and I’m taking you with me even if I have to drag you along kicking and screaming,” Berkley said, willing it to be true.
* * *
“General Lapry,” Jonas Chapman, FBI director, said as Homer and his wife walked toward the Capital Grille in DC.
“What do you want?” Homer Lapry asked with as much indignation as Jonas had ever heard.
“I’d love for you to find yourself in front of a firing squad for betraying your country, but for now, get in.” Jonas held the door open as two of his men came up behind them. “You can walk over here and get in, or I’ll handcuff you and throw you in myself. Ma’am, the vehicle behind this one is for you,” Jonas said to Homer’s wife.
“Do you know who I am?” Homer asked but shut his mouth when the agent to his right grabbed an arm and yanked it up behind his back while his partner placed a cuff on it. A series of pictures by media-outlet photographers followed as they practically dragged him to the SUV and laid him on the backseat. “Why are you doing this?�
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“Please, Homer, if you start with stupid questions, there’s no sense in delaying your trip to Gitmo. The news needs another lead story since they’re tired of reporting that Jeffery Chandler was found guilty and received the death penalty. That happened in record time, and we didn’t have as much on him as we do on you. Dick can’t save you from the neck-deep shit you’re in.” Jonas snapped his seat belt on and ordered his driver to the private airstrip outside the city.
“You can’t do this.”
“You played, Homer, and now it’s time to pay. Don’t be sad, though. You’ll have plenty of company,” Jonas said as they got on the interstate. “You’re going to burn, but the president wants to make sure it’s a big blaze before we’re done.”
“That stupid, fucking bitch.”
“There’s only one stupid bitch I see here, and that’s you, errand boy. You got to kiss the ring in North Korea, but Dick is going to leave you flapping in the breeze all by your lonesome.”
“I thought you said I wasn’t going alone?” Homer seemed to be taunting him as if he were indeed untouchable.
“A plane left an hour ago for a secure CIA facility with Speaker Chase Bonner and his entire family on it. Unlike you, he went quietly and kept his mouth shut,” Jonas said as they reached the plane surrounded by agents he trusted. “We don’t need you to talk, though.”
“Oh yeah. Why is that?” Homer’s laugh sounded like it genuinely came from his belly.
“We’ll let the tapes, and your wife, do the talking for you. We’ll give your wife the opportunity to tell us what she knows once we introduce her to the young, beautiful mistress you keep in that great condo downtown. See, both those special women in your life will understand it’s going to be a long conversation or life in prison. That’s how I asked Walby Edwards and his CIA interrogators to handle it anyway. I’m praying a novena you want to keep quiet and burn for your part in President Khalid’s murder. If I get an early Christmas wish from President Michaels, I’ll be part of your firing squad.”
“Wait a minute—I have a right to talk,” Homer said, all his bravado disappearing like frost under bright sunlight.
“You have a right to silence, and I suggest you use it,” Jonas said, once again amazed at how right Walby could be. General Homer Lapry was one of the great cowards in their history, who had picked a bully’s side and would fold once the hero woke up to the fight.
“You’d like that, so you can watch me burn.”
“I’m only interested in saving two people in your family,” Jonas said. “Your wife and daughter, but even that is up for negotiation, depending on how it goes. If your daughter is anything like Rachel Chandler, then it won’t go so good for her.”
“What about my sons?”
“Kindling for our bonfire, Homer, but we’ll need to find them in North Korea first. When Captain Sullivan starts her bombing runs, they’ll probably never see it coming. We’re going to wipe you from the history books except for a small blip on traitors. When people think of a turncoat in the future, I think you might surpass Benedict Arnold,” Jonas said, and the driver laughed. “Start praying, Homer. Your time is up.”
“Wait—just wait.” When the agents opened the SUV door and started to pull Homer out, he sounded like a cornered animal.
“That’s just it. We’re done waiting.”
* * *
“Zookeeper, this is Tiger One,” Baylor said.
It had taken some time, but they’d been able to get the truck Wiley had sent into the ditch on the side of the road righted, and they’d been able to follow the line of trucks back far enough to not be seen. The cab had fit only him and Wiley, and five of his guys lay in the back out of sight. The rest he’d ordered to take cover wherever they could and hang by the radio.
The farther they went, the thicker the tree canopy became, reminding him of a rain forest. Even if they’d been able to follow by helicopter, they would’ve lost them hours ago in the dark.
“Tiger One, go ahead.” He recognized Aidan’s voice.
“Ma’am, we have them in sight, but we have a problem.” The tree they’d climbed gave him a great view of the two massive ones that had fallen and blocked the road. “The party they got invited to is crowded.”
“Can you keep with it?”
“We plan on it, but we’ll keep sending coordinates,” he said, trying to see any sign of Cletus, Junior, or Jin. “According to our maps and the GPS, a few more hours and we’ll be swimming.”
“Make sure to check in so we can figure out where the party is,” Aidan said. “We started on the party favors you sent back.”
“Anything interesting yet?” The trees blocking their way started to resemble firewood since these guys were really going after them, so they didn’t have a lot of time left.
“Not yet, but I’ve got the guys working overtime.” Aidan stopped talking and addressed someone else. “How many in your party?”
“The compound had about twenty, but I’m looking at double that now. They’re well-armed and organized, and too many to chance the health of our people with them.” A group of the soldiers gathered around a guy who walked from the front of the caravan and seemed to listen intently. It didn’t take long, and the ten men started toward their truck. They were almost to the ridge, and on the other side was their ride out of here.
They’d covered the truck as best they could, but Baylor looked into his binoculars and saw a lot of walking in their future, especially when they heard the gunfire. Whoever these guys were, they didn’t care about any consequences since they’d shot up a North Korean government vehicle. He wasn’t worried about his men, since they were on the other side in attack positions in case he gave the order.
“What the hell?” the guy who’d sent the trigger-happy soldiers yelled. “Get back to your rides, you morons.” His men hesitated but followed the order, and he stayed behind to look inside the truck before scanning the area. “Move out.”
The front truck started rolling, and it took the large number of what appeared to be American-trained soldiers all dressed in black with it. Their only problem was their ride was sitting with three flat tires and no spare. Wiley covered him as he climbed down, and the heat of the day, even though it was still early morning, was making the sweat soak his undershirt.
“We’re fucked,” Wiley said as they were enveloped in silence.
“That we are, but where can they go out of here?” he said as his guys quickly moved across the road and joined them.
“You’d be surprised. I spent a lot of years in South America in hellholes like this. Sometimes people can disappear into the bush, but that many guys and trucks might take some time.” Wiley shouldered her weapon and leaned against a tree. “We need to call the Jefferson back.”
Baylor got his radio guy to connect to the ship again. “Go ahead, Tiger One.”
“Zookeeper, this is Nest Leader,” Wiley said as Baylor stood close by.
“Go ahead.” Aidan was back.
Wiley gave her a rundown of what had happened and their dilemma. “We need a ride out of here since our only chance is to backtrack and find another vehicle. I really don’t see that happening, since this is like a thick sauna filled with plants on steroids. There’s no people or vehicles to be found.”
“You don’t have any way to follow?”
“Black Dragon is only my nickname, ma’am. Believe me. I wish it wasn’t and I could flap my wings and go.”
Aidan was silent, then loudly she said, “Shit.”
“What?” Wiley asked.
“Sit on that location. I’ll send a cab to pick you up. Once you’re clear, we need to formulate a new plan from new information we have.”
“Something good?”
“It’s a step in the right direction, but hopefully not for everyone.”
“What do you think she meant?” Baylor asked, sharing a granola bar with Wiley.
“I don’t really know Captain Sullivan well,” Wiley said, taking
a bite and chewing slowly, “but Cletus and I go way back. That’s someone you shouldn’t take for granted. A lot of guys we went to high school with did just that and ended up bleeding on their shoes when they missed the right hook to their nose. I can’t imagine all that much has changed about her personality and ability to handle fools well.”
“Oh, I know Cletus, and my nose remembers her too.”
“Let’s pray she pulls some magic out of her cap on this one, and Captain Sullivan’s reaction might be that she just now found Cletus’s rabbit.”
* * *
Aidan held the radio as if it were a talking snake ready to deliver another piece of bad news. It was time for karma to change the direction of their luck. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she thought about what Baylor had told her and what Wiley was asking her for. A ride out was a ride away from Berkley and the others. The fear of Berkley getting beyond her reach was as real now as the sky was blue.
“Ma’am,” one of the younger guys on the bridge said as she was about to tell Wiley sarcasm was unnecessary.
“Yes,” she said, holding the receiver away from her mouth.
“Three transponder signals just came on radar. We thought it was a mistake, but they’re ours.”
“Shit,” she said loudly and got Wiley off the radio until she could compare the radar to where Baylor and Wiley were right now. “Where’s the rest of Baylor’s team?”
“They landed somewhere remote and are awaiting orders, ma’am,” Devin said. “And we’re on our way for Baylor and the others.”
“Wait on that,” she said, radioing Wiley again. “Do you remember how we found our lost sheep before?” she asked in case someone was trying to listen in.
“Recently?” Wiley asked.
“Yes,” she said, trying to avoid spelling it out.
