With ice slivers chilling his veins, Zeus calmly nodded. He slipped on his goggles as the aircraft banked left. Turning to Leon, he lifted a tether that extended from his parachute pack. “Ready?”
Agent Stone shimmied down the aisle to get out of their way. Leon crouched, her back to him. Zeus knelt behind her, pressed his chest and hips against the small and compact woman’s back and butt, and tethered her to him with the hooks of the tandem harness—two at her shoulders, two at her waist, and two at her legs. The close, almost intimate contact that came with body positioning for tandem jumping usually prompted a joke or some other tension-relieving comment by the jumpers.
Not tonight.
After finishing with the hooks, Zeus slipped on his gloves as Leon did the same.
“Fifteen more vehicles within a five-mile radius.” Stone, who now faced them, turned his laptop screen to provide a full view to Leon, who was tasked with getting his daughter the hell out of there. “They’re primarily using a ridge along the canyon to the Southeast, though four vehicles seem to be working a two mile perimeter. Not an exact circle, given the topography.”
The DZ was in an area of hills, canyons, sand, and brush. Caves, natural and manmade from now abandoned mining activities, riddled the area. Intel from Blaze, and other sources, indicated the possibility of tunnels to the East, closer to the U.S. border.
Leon asked, “Motorcycles?”
“Possibly. All terrain cycles. Larger vehicles appear to be some variation of a jeep.”
Stone and his thermography measurements should let Black Raven know—hope against all fucking hope—when Agent Leon exfiltrated with Ana. It would also provide intel on when and how his agents could intercept them. Zeus had little confidence that thermography would aid Black Raven’s ability to find Cox or himself, because caves and tunnels could impede the imagery.
The cameras could see through fog, clouds, and brush, but there were limitations. Yards and yards of dense-packed earth blocked heat signatures. If their captors slipped into a cave, or travelled through a deep tunnel, he and Cox would be lost to Black Raven.
From the front of the plane, the co-pilot said, “We’re turning into the second pass now.”
He and Leon would jump at the second pass. Cox would follow only after getting a signal from Zeus once he was on the ground.
Having Barrows’ impersonator jump separately was a major deviation from the instructions. It had been Zeus’s idea, and Sebastian had agreed with the call, because it gave Zeus—once on the ground—a small measure of power with which he could negotiate for Ana’s safety. Another consideration for the change of plan was that to get Barrows, the perps would have to allow Zeus to communicate and give an all clear. In that communication, Zeus would divulge a multitude of information to Black Raven, something that was SOP in the Black Raven handbook.
When the Cessna straightened and slowed, Zeus glanced back at Cox. “Thank you. Again.”
“You’re welcome. Again.” Cox gave a thumbs up. “Good luck, sir.”
Zeus and Leon stood at the door, waiting for the pilot to signal before opening it. “Leon—”
“No thanks needed, sir.” She gave him an over-shoulder glance. Through her goggles, her eyes were calm. Her expression revealed no emotion—the serious look of a Black Raven agent on a mission. “I’m looking forward to returning Ana to you. Thank me then, if you feel the need.”
Her calm expression changed. Worry filtered into her eyes, lines creased her forehead, and an anxious, yet pissed-off frown, appeared at her lips. She looked like a woman fighting valiantly through her fear—yet fear was winning. With a wink, Leon said, “From here on out, I’m no longer an agent. I’m an ex-wife and mother who is frightened to within an inch of her life for her daughter.”
And she damn well looked the part. “Great job,” Zeus said.
On the pilot’s thumbs-up signal, Zeus opened the door. Cold wind whooshed into the plane as he stared out onto an inky black, cloudless sky speckled with stars. In the distance, a thin crescent moon provided a bit of light. Not enough to illuminate the ground below.
“One,” Zeus’s count to Leon was guided by the pilot’s hand signals. “Two. Three.”
Zeus and Leon rolled out, free falling through chilly, dry air. He’d done enough skydiving, including night jumps, that the steps came automatically. With Leon back-bending into him from the force of the drop, Zeus glanced upwards to check that their drogue chute had deployed, then focused on the bright, glow-in-the-dark altimeter on his wrist. At 3,000 feet, he deployed the main chute. Once fully under canopy, he handed Leon the toggles and made a few harness adjustments. Taking the toggles back, he estimated four minutes before landing. The pilots had told him all forecasts indicated negligible winds, and they were correct.
In the far distance, to the west, Zeus saw the lights of Ciudad Juarez. To the northeast, a faint blur on the horizon was El Paso. Below, there was only an inky black sea and above, an eternity of a cloudless night sky, that looked like an artist’s rendering of stars on blue-black paint. Only one thought played in his head as he alternated his glance between the darkness and the bright altimeter reading on his wrist.
Please God, let Ana be alive.
At 1,200 feet, Leon pointed to their right. “Lights. DZ.”
“Got it.” Pushing down on the toggles with his right arm, and lifting his left, he steered them so they had a better view. Vehicles were lighting the DZ, just as the thermographic images had displayed on Stone’s laptop.
As they dropped, more details came into view. Black jeeps had a row of lights on their roofs. Bright light illuminated sandy ground. Scrub brush and cactus, green, gray, and brown when illuminated, looked black as the light faded into shadows.
No sign of Ana.
Eight men stood in front of two vehicles, dressed in black, with ski-masks obscuring their features. They held AKs. Four of them had those weapons trained on their descent.
Hello, fuckers.
“Show time.” Zeus whispered to Leon at fifty feet. “Go for it.”
“Where’s my baby?” Leon shouted, voice just this side of hysterical. “You bastards. Where is she?”
His feet found the ground. Carried by momentum for a few steps, Zeus started stripping off the harness and chute as he moved forward, unhooking Leon first. “Getting hysterical isn’t going to make them bring Ana to us, Theresa.” Zeus shot her a furious look as he pulled off his helmet and goggles and dropped them to the ground. “Shut the fuck up and let me handle this.”
They’d landed in an area where machismo was everything. Zeus was selling it for all he was worth.
After slipping off her helmet and goggles, she threw them in the direction of the men, but missed any one of them by a few feet. Then she shoved both hands against Zeus’s chest. “If it wasn’t for you, Ana wouldn’t have been taken, so don’t you dare tell me what to do!” Zeus grabbed her, pulling her into him. Spinning on her heels, but still in Zeus’s arms, Leon faced the men. “Show me my daughter, you monsters. Now. Where is she?”
One vehicle hung a bit further back, idling. Zeus couldn’t see whether Ana was in it. “Don’t see her. Maybe jeep. Farthest away,” he said, not moving his lips.
Leon gave a small nod before breaking free of his hold. When she lunged towards the men, Zeus pulled her back, closer to him, as though protecting her. Focusing on the eight men who were approaching them, Zeus yelled, “Stop playing games. Give us our daughter.”
Because the men were backlit by the glare from the vehicle lights, it was hard to see too many details.
“I don’t see Barrows, Hernandez. You know the deal.”
“My daughter first.” Zeus demanded, nominally struggling as two men grabbed him by his upper arms. Under normal circumstances they’d be flat on their backs, bleeding profusely. But these weren’t normal circumstances. “Don’t you fucking lay a hand on—”
A rifle butt on the temple cut him off, and Leon was grabbed. Like a wild-cat, she fought and kicked a
t the two men who had her, screaming her head off loud enough to be heard aboard the circling plane.
The man ended her screams with a solid punch to her jaw. “Shut up, bitch.”
Leon, the agent, would never have let him land that punch. As Theresa, Leon did a great job of dodging most of the blow, and a better job of shaking her head in wide-eyed, hurt surprise. She held her hand to her jaw, tears replacing her screams as one man immobilized her with a thick arm around her chest. Another frisked her.
The men were well trained and moved with precision. Their shiny, custom-rigged jeeps looked expensive. They gave the impression of having hefty backing.
With his arms locked down in a vice-like grip by two huge men, a third guy, unarmed, stepped closer. He signaled to a behemoth with a finger directed at Zeus. “Julio. Frisk them. Scan them.”
“It doesn’t take much of a man to best someone when his opponent is being held,” Zeus said, tone mocking. Big and burly, the dickhead who’d gestured for Julio seemed to be the guy in charge. “Don’t trust me?”
“Shut him the hell up.” To Zeus, the dickhead who was issuing orders—a solid, six foot-tall square of a man—became DIC. Dick In Charge. The other men all wore black hiking boots. DIC, who’d spoken in an authoritative, confident tone, wore cowboy boots with shiny, metal tipped toes. “Knock out that smart-ass attitude.”
Taller than Zeus, with shoulders that looked like he could carry a boulder, and wide legs that indicated he had, a behemoth of a man—presumably Julio—stepped forward. He used the grip of his rifle like a club against Zeus’s head. The hard blow to his temple made Zeus stagger and see stars. He’d have fallen, but for the grip of the two goons holding him upright. The behemoth frisked him, landing punches as he travelled down Zeus’s body. Another man came by with a scanner, ran it up and down his body, and also scanned Theresa.
When the stars in his vision cleared, Zeus focused his attention on DIC. Obviously, their leader. The father in him broke through the cool agent veneer he was struggling to maintain. “You slimy fucking coward. Who’s bankrolling you? You can’t really believe the Maximov line of bullshit? Either way, it doesn’t fucking matter, because—”
“Zeus!” Leon shouted, her voice high pitched as she thrashed and struggled in the hold of the two men restraining her. “Tell them, for God’s sake! Tell them we’ll pay whatever they ask. We’ll meet your demands. Anything. Just please let her go. She has nothing to do with you. And she certainly shouldn’t be used to get to…” Struggling against the man who had a firm hold of her arms, Leon glanced at Zeus with disdain-laced fury that only an ex-wife could muster, as though believing whatever bad shit happened was somehow his fault. “…him. Please. Just give her to me.”
DIC stepped forward, “I won’t ask again, Jesus.” Without a trace of a Hispanic accent, he used the Anglo pronunciation of Zeus’s name. “Where the fuck is Barrows?”
“He’ll jump on signal from me. After you produce my daughter to her mother and give them safe passage.”
“Now that I see you in person, Jesus.” DIC looked Zeus up and down, his pale pink lips a thin, pensive slash, visible in the mouth hole of his ski mask. White skin. Light eyes. “What do you think, Julio? Is that cross you built big enough for the crucifixion of Jesus?” Saying it with sarcasm and scorn, as though he was a man who had never believed in a higher power and thought less of those who did, DIC repeated the Anglo pronunciation of Zeus’s name. “Jesus, Son of God, aka Jesus Hernandez, Mr. Big Bad Black Raven Agent?”
Two of DIC’s sidekicks chuckled. Julio—the behemoth—coughed, then laughed.
Zeus failed to see the humor. “We can do this dance all day. Produce my daughter, and let her leave with her mother. Once you do that, I’ll bring in Barrows and we’ll be fucking done.”
“You’re in no fucking position to bargain.”
“Here is why you’re wrong,” Zeus kept his voice measured. “You can kill me—and you’ll get some mileage out of it. You can even kill Barrows, though I know he’s too valuable for you to do that. But you kill a woman and a child? The wrath of God will fall on your fucking head so fucking fast you won’t know what hit you. We know where your families live, asshole. There’ll be no corner in which anyone you know and love can hide that Black Raven won’t find and destroy them.”
For the moment, it was a lie, of course. They had no idea who these fuckers were—and no clue how to find their families. But he was going to go down bluffing to his last breath.
“Your threats mean nothing, Jesus.” Zeus ground his teeth as he listened to the way the man said his name. The disdain managed to be an effective insult to both Zeus and Jesus.
“What means everything is that I agreed to trade your daughter for you and Barrows,” DIC continued, “and I’m a man who lives up to my word.” DIC lifted his right hand over his head and beckoned someone forward.
Zeus trained his eyes on the third vehicle, though the lights that streamed from it were blinding. Car doors opened with a click, and closed with a soft thud. The sounds resonated in the arid air. A small, Ana-sized shadow ran in his direction.
“Ana,” Leon screamed.
Knees buckling with relief, the goons who held his arms tight let him kneel on the sandy ground as Ana beelined straight for him. Yanking himself out of their grasp, he wrapped his arms around his daughter as she threw herself into his chest without slowing. Zeus let his body absorb the energy of her run. The man who was holding Leon let her go, and the three of them huddled together.
“Daddy! Mommy!”
Shaking with the force of her skinny-armed embrace, a touch that he’d thought had been lost to him forever, Zeus held on tight. He buried his face in her loose hair, inhaled the sweet, sweaty smell of her, touched her forehead with his lips, and looked into her velvety dark eyes. “Baby. Oh God,” he whispered. “My sweet angel. Did they hurt you?”
“Nooooo. Daddy. Da—daddy.” Face against his shoulder, she started shaking with sobs. “Da—”
“Honey,” he kept his voice low. “Listen to me. I need you to go with your mom.”
“No. No. I’ll stay with you.” Ana pulled back and glanced at Agent Leon. Now that she had a close-up view, she wasn’t fooled. She glanced at Zeus with a confused look. “She isn’t mom—”
Fuck!
“Shhhhhh. Honey, pretend. Make believe,” Zeus whispered. “Go with her. She’ll take you to mom.”
“Well, this is about as sweet as the taste of a virgin’s honey pot,” DIC said. “But as we all know, the sweetness, eventually, comes to an end. Just like this reunion. Get Jesus away from her.”
Immediately, his two captors returned to grab his biceps and, with force that rippled down his spine, jerked him away from Ana. She screamed and tried to hold onto his belt. “Nooooo! Daddy!”
Two men pulled Ana and Leon further away. Zeus stood, as his arms were yanked behind his back.
“Don’t hurt my Daddy,” Ana, looking back, screamed. “Daddy! Daddy! Don’t hurt—”
“Shut the fuck up, kid!” DIC yelled. “Make it happen, Pablo.”
One of the men—presumably Pablo—prodded Ana with the butt of his AK, which only caused her to scream louder.
“You bastard—” Zeus howled, the sight of the assault weapon touching his daughter making him momentarily lose his cool. He yanked one arm free, and would have yanked the other one free as well, except Leon leaned over, glancing at him as she shielded the little girl with her own body, and whispering to Ana as they walked. Caution signs flaring in Leon’s eyes made him calm-the-fuck down.
He and Leon against assault weapons? A fight he’d take on if his daughter wasn’t in the crossfire.
“Cuff him,” DIC said.
As Ana’s cries reached a manic state, Zeus didn’t dare fight. Leon was a professional. Lifting Ana in her arms, she let his baby sob against her neck, comforting her, and keeping her close. Leon was here because Zeus trusted her with his daughter’s life. He had to let her go and get
Ana far, far away to safety. That was her job. Ana was his everything, but this was much, much bigger than a loving father and his baby girl.
Tonight I have another agenda. I am Black Raven.
What these men were doing would ultimately provide a roadmap to Maximov—or, if Maximov was dead, as Stollen claimed—whoever was goddamn playing the Maximov card and terrorizing the world.
With Ana’s wailing drifting back to him, he narrowed his eyes as one of the goons wrenched his arms up behind his back. Metal cuffs snapped on his wrists, clicking as they closed tight.
“On your knees.” One of the three goons who had surrounded him issued the order.
A solid kick in his lower back encouraged him to move faster. The business end of an AK was jabbed into his forehead, providing a close-up of the fully-hooded sight, and answering the question as to which AK variant the men were using. AK-56, a Chinese copy of the Russian AK-47. Blaze had told them the TRCR were known to smuggle Chinese AKs into the U.S.
He felt a glimmer of hope. If these men were the TRCR, maybe some of Blaze’s intel would prove useful to Ragno and Sebastian and the search and rescue effort. DIC reached into his pocket, then held a phone aloft. “Go hold it for Jesus.”
One of his men grabbed the phone and walked over to Zeus.
“Give him the number. And don’t screw around. There are AKs trained on your baby’s head. It’d be a real shame to give you a close-up view of her brains. You have three words. If Barrows isn’t here in ten minutes you’re all dead. Including your daughter.”
Zeus shook his head. “I’m not giving the signal until Theresa and Ana have driven away.”
DIC chuckled. “Well, that’s nice, Jesus, but I’m not letting them drive away until Barrows is in my hands.”
“Let them get in a vehicle, then I’ll give the number. As he lands, let them drive away.”
“I expected a little more trust from a man named Jesus.”
Zeus promised himself that if he lived through this ordeal, he’d personally find this fucker, fire a bullet into the man’s cocksure mouth, and watch him bleed out. He’d do that, after seeing that the bastard was tortured into giving up the people who had funded this operation. Keeping his voice calm, he said, “You want Barrows, or not?”
Jigsaw (Black Raven Book 2) Page 40
