by Dale Mayer
“Won’t have to worry about it,” Jerricho said, as he tapped his cell phone. “He’s getting picked up within the hour.”
She looked at him gratefully. “Good. Because the last thing I want to happen is him opening his mouth again.”
“Third-world countries have a very different system.”
“But it’s still the same, isn’t it?” she said passionately. “Women are at the bottom of the list, treated like nothing more than chattel. Used and abused and tossed to the side when no longer wanted. I wanted to be a lawyer for the longest time as well, particularly being in law enforcement. It just always felt like nobody cared. I do.”
“It’s not always like that,” he said. “It’s just, right now, with everything else going on, you’re feeling very victimized.”
“Yeah, you could say that,” she said. She picked up one of the food containers, opened it, and had several more bites, before putting it down.
“You haven’t eaten at all.”
“I will soon.”
He checked his watch, and then a buzz came on his phone. He pulled it out, checked it, and nodded. He walked to the door and waited for a rap three times. He opened it up, and four men walked in, took one look, and the kid was quickly lifted and carried out, and, just like that, they were gone. She slowly put her hand to her heart. She looked over at Diesel. “You can’t just kill him, can you?”
“They won’t kill him. But they will find out who’s on the rest of his team, so they can stop what they’re doing. The cops here aren’t too bad, since the new president took over. He’s a hard-ass, and he’s got rules that most of the Western world wouldn’t agree with, but he doesn’t have any truck with these crimes either.”
She nodded slowly. “Well, I’m just glad the kid’s gone,” she said.
“And our flights have been moved up, so that’s good. I was afraid we wouldn’t get out until tomorrow.”
“Good, I can’t wait to be back in the US.”
“Except we’re heading to Australia first.”
She stopped, thought about it, nodded, and said, “That makes sense. And I don’t really care. That’s one step closer to home, and it’s a good place to be too.”
“Exactly,” he said. “We have to be at the airport in two hours. Before you know it, we’ll be at the airport, taking off.”
“You still expect it to be dangerous?” she asked.
“It’s not that we expect it to be dangerous,” he said, “but we’re always keeping an eye out for danger.”
“Right,” she said. “A small but significant difference.”
“Very significant,” he said. “What you’re really asking is, do we have any intel that tells us if we’re still in danger. And the answer is, no, we don’t, but, because of what happened to Marge, we can’t ever rest. Not until we get you home.”
She smiled, nodded, and said, “Thank you.” And, with that, she looked at her food and said, “I really can’t do much more damage to this.”
“Go rest,” he said. “The food will still be here when you wake up.”
“Fine.” She rose, and, as she went past him, she stopped, looked up, smiled, and said, “Thank you again.”
He just chuckled, gave her a hug, and said, “Go lie down.”
And, with that, she headed to the bed. She turned her back to them, as she laid down on the bed, stretched out fully, and closed her eyes. And, if nothing else, it was just nice to know that she was safe.
Even as she closed her eyes, her thoughts still horrified her. Just coming out of captivity, the thought of going into another was mind-boggling. And the punk had said it so casually, as if it made absolutely no difference to him what happened to the women around him. Didn’t he have mothers, daughters, or sisters? She hoped that one day he learned the value of females. Even if only as a very best friend.
The world needed to change. She just didn’t think it would happen fast enough for her liking. At that last thought she pulled her knees up higher, punched the pillow under her, and closed her eyes to help fall asleep. If she were lucky, she’d wake up, and they’d be at the airport, already heading for the security clearance. And finally, with that drifting through her mind, she smiled ever-so-slightly and let herself sink under the waves of sleep.
Diesel checked in on Eva, but she was sleeping soundly. He walked back to Jerricho. “I don’t like anything about this.”
“Do you want to move?”
Diesel stood, thinking for three seconds, and then nodded. “I absolutely do.”
Surprised, Jerricho looked at him. “Do you think the kid’s really connected?”
“No,” he said, “but anything that brings attention to us is bad news.”
“Yes, I agree with you there,” he said. “We can get another safe place.”
“We’re supposed to be flying out though,” he murmured.
“Let me check in to make sure everything’s running fine.” Two seconds later Jerricho looked up and shook his head. “No,” he said, “it’s not.”
“What’s not?”
“The Manila airport’s been temporarily shut down.”
“Shit!” he said. “Seriously?”
“Yes.”
They stared at each other, both trying to figure out whether it was connected to them or not. In the end, Diesel shook his head and said, “We can’t take a chance.”
“I agree,” he said.
“If the airport is shut down, we could do a small plane, seaplane, or we end up taking a ship out.” He said, “Other than that, we don’t have too many options. We should have gone in the other direction. Shit! Shit! Shit!”
“Don’t go there,” Jerricho said. “We can deal with this.”
“I don’t want to fly back to China, and I don’t want to go in any other direction except toward North America.”
“We might have to backtrack in order to go forward.”
“Let’s see what our options are.” He sat down and checked the airport and agreed. Everything was shut down temporarily. “And there’s no sign of when it’ll reopen,” he murmured.
“Of course not. And then we have the additional problem that we don’t know what security measures they’ll have in place, as soon as it does open.”
“You’re not saying anything I don’t already know,” Diesel said. “Who’s in the ocean around here?”
“Thinking US Navy again?”
“Or private yacht again?” he said. “We can get a helicopter, and we could probably hire a floatplane. But our distance gained will be fairly short for each.”
“We can go to one of the other islands.”
Diesel nodded slowly. It took them an hour, and he looked at their options and said, “I think that might be our best bet.”
“There is a base.”
“I know. I was thinking of that,” he said. “If we can get to the base, then we could get out to the ocean again.”
“And then what?” Jerricho asked.
“We’ll have to take the ship, whichever direction it’s going,” he said. “And it doesn’t really matter, it’s all about keeping her safe. We’re not in a rush.”
“Agreed. Australia is our best bet,” he said. “It might take us a couple trips, but that still looks to be the better end result.”
“We’ll fit in better, and we should have more options for international flights,” Diesel said.
“Do you want to let the Australian government know?”
Diesel thought about it for a long moment and shook his head. “As much as I’d like them on our side, if we should run into trouble, the fewer people who know, the better.”
“I got no problem with that,” Jerricho said. He sat down. “You want to talk to Shane or shall I?”
“I will.” He quickly opened the chat and sent a message, looking for passage to Australia. At that, a question mark came back. He just shook his head. Don’t ask me any questions. Just do it.
He gave a brief explanation, but basically it boiled do
wn to his instincts saying this was a bad deal, and they needed to move, and they needed to move now. As soon as he heard the airport was closed, it was a done deal as far as he was concerned.
Shane agreed. He came back less than eight minutes later. Rendezvous at this dock, this town, within forty-eight minutes.
He swore when he looked at it. “Forty-eight minutes? Not much time.” He sent a message saying, We need a ride.
It’ll be at your door in seven.
He bolted to his feet, quickly packed up what they had unpacked, ditched the food, and looked in the direction of the bed. He glanced back at Jerricho. “She won’t like this.”
“Doesn’t matter what she likes,” he said quietly. “It keeps her alive, and it keeps her safe.”
On that note, his bag at the front door, Diesel walked up to her bed and gently reached out a hand to wake her up.
When she opened her sleepy eyes, he smiled at her and said, “We have to go.”
She blinked several times, got up soundlessly, threw on her dirty jeans, slipped into her flip-fops, and followed him. He didn’t know if it was her time in captivity, but she was almost too acquiescent for his liking.
Jerricho didn’t say a word as she followed Diesel out. But he was surprised when she didn’t say anything. “Eva, are you okay?”
She blinked several times, reached up to her temple, and said, “I don’t even know what time it is, but I’m trusting you.”
He quickly opened the door, and, with a motion to stay quiet, they slipped down the back way, and outside she took several long slow deep breaths of the still sticky air. “Where are we going? It’s not time for our flight yet.”
“No,” Diesel said, “change of plans.”
At that, she stopped and looked at him and said, “Oh. I guess I really wasn’t awake when you woke me up.”
“That’s okay,” he said. “Keep doing what you’re doing.”
“You mean, follow blindly?”
“Yes, and stay quiet.” At that, she immediately clammed up. And he ushered her around to the front, and there was the car. He put her into the back seat and took the wheel.
She leaned forward and said to Jerricho, in the passenger seat, “Do you know what we’re doing?”
He grinned and nodded. “I do.”
“Good,” she said. “Glad somebody does. How long will we be?”
“We have to be at our destination in thirty-five minutes,” Jerricho said.
She stared at him. “Or else?”
“Or else we miss it.”
With that, she took another calming breath and said, “I’ll curl up in the back seat. You let me know if we make it or not.”
Diesel gave a bark of laughter, and she dropped her head on her arms, as he sped through the city streets. He looked over at Jerricho. “Nice to be so innocent in life, huh?”
Jerricho looked around, saw she was apparently sleeping again, and said, “On the other hand, this is the easiest thing for us.”
They needed to get to their destination fast, but he also needed to make sure he didn’t attract any attention, so he didn’t want to be too early, yet he didn’t want to be late. He needed to be just on time, and he needed to make sure that everything was moving at the same time. By the time they pulled up to their destination, they were a whole two minutes early.
He pulled up alongside the wharf, turned off the engine, reached around to the back, grasped Eva’s hip, and gave her a gentle push. She murmured gently. He said, “Wake up. We’re here.”
At that, her eyes opened wide, and she stared at him blankly.
Then she sat up slowly, yawned, and said, “I don’t know where here is,” she said, “but let’s go.” She stepped out of the vehicle. He quickly ushered her around to his side and down to the water. A small fishing boat was there that looked like it had seen much better days, but, as long as it was seaworthy, he didn’t care. She looked at him doubtfully, as they got close enough, and he just shook his head and ushered her on board.
“How can you be sure it’s the one you’re waiting for?” she asked. “It’s not like anybody’s here to sign you on or sign you off or anything like that.”
“It’s fine,” he said.
She rolled her eyes. “For all I know, you’re stealing it.”
Jerricho chuckled quietly and said, “Nope, it’s all good.” He quickly helped her onboard.
And, with that, Diesel untied from the wharf, hopped into the front, and then gently pushed away from shore.
She watched as they used the long-handled poles to move from the sandy shore. “Looks like you’ve done this a time or two.”
“A time or two,” he said quietly. He looked over at her, smiled, and said, “How was your nap?”
“Not long enough apparently,” she said, “because this still doesn’t make much sense.”
“Do you always sleep until it makes sense?”
“Somewhat, yes,” she said, yawning. “How long will we be here?”
“Long enough, if you want to close your eyes again,” Jerricho murmured.
She shook her head. “This is a unique experience. I’m okay to sit here and to enjoy it for a bit.” And then a question popped out. “Why aren’t we at the airport?”
“It’s closed temporarily,” Diesel said from up front. At that Jerricho stepped forward and pointed out something in the distance. “We decided it was time to change plans.” Diesel sat down beside her, as Jerricho started the outboard motor. Diesel looked at her intently. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” she said. “A little confused but willing to keep going.”
“I get that you trust me because you don’t have much else for options,” he said, “but we really do need you to trust us so, when we tell you to do something, so we know that you’ll do it.”
“Have I not yet so far?” she asked.
Chapter 11
Eva was awake now at least. It seemed like she had been woken and slept, and woken and slept, and it was just this bad dream. As she sat here, she felt the wind pick up. Instantly Diesel wrapped an arm around her and tucked her up close.
She looked up at him and smiled. “You seem to be doing that a lot.”
“What?”
“Hugging me.”
“Just trying to protect you from the wind.”
“Maybe,” she said, “but I like it anyway.”
He burst out chuckling. “Glad to hear that.”
She smiled. “Of course, if it’s just a work thing, then maybe that should be a different issue altogether.”
“In what way?” he asked, tightening his arms and shifting his position.
She snuggled in, as the wind picked up. “How much farther do we have to go?” she asked, changing the subject.
“We’re heading out to that black speck,” he said, pointing.
She shivered. “That’ll mean I’ll get colder.”
“I’m here,” he said. “Just lean against me.”
She smiled. “That’s what I mean. You’re always looking after my comforts.”
“I’m trying to keep you safe,” he said.
She nodded, her body instinctively stiffening slightly.
“Did I say something wrong?” he asked, his low tone against her ear.
“No,” she said, “not at all. I just have to remember that you’re only here to help me out.”
“And is there another reason that you would want me to be here?”
That was a leading question if there ever was one. She thought about it and nodded. “Well, I like you,” she said, “but I don’t know anything about you.”
“What do you want to know?” he said. “I’m an open book.”
She laughed at that. “No,” she said, “you’re dark and mysterious.”
He burst out chuckling again. “I’m so not.”
She smiled. “I appreciate what you’ve done for me.”
“Yep, ease up on the gratitude,” he said. “I wouldn’t want you to confuse that wi
th anything else.”
She twisted in his arms, feeling the shivers as a new body part was exposed to the wind. “And what does that mean?”
His gaze was inscrutable. But he answered readily enough. “One of the things that we have to watch out for,” he said, “is gratitude being mistaken for something else.”
She thought about that for a long moment. “As if I would become infatuated, thinking that you were some big hero in a romance book?”
“Something like that,” he said.
She thought about it and nodded. “I can see how that could be an issue. At least for some people. We’re just so grateful that it’s easy to see you in another light. I, of course, know that you can be difficult, unmanageable, and obtuse at times.”
He burst out laughing yet again. “All of that?” he asked. “Really?”
“Absolutely,” she said with a smile.
“Well, I’m glad you’re perfect.”
“No,” she said, “I’m not at all. And I certainly am not mistaking the interest we have here.”
He was silent for a moment, and then he squeezed her gently and said, “Good, I’m glad to hear that.”
She smiled at that. “Glad we got some of the preliminaries out of the way.”
“Is that what we’re doing?” he asked curiously.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I honestly haven’t done much dating lately, so I feel very out of practice.”
“Hmm,” he said. “Honesty works best for me.”
“You and me both,” she said, nodding. “I much prefer a straightforward conversation and assessment. I always hated that dancing around in a relationship, trying to figure out what the other person really felt.”
“Ditto,” he said, shifting once more.
She immediately twisted and asked, “Am I too heavy?”
“There’s nothing to you, so, no, you’re not too heavy.”
“There’s lots to me,” she said, protesting.
He shook his head, reached out, and pulled her back up against him. “Snuggle up. I don’t want you to catch a chill,” he said.
