by K. T. Tomb
They worked their way along the corridor in that manner, checking each room behind a door. As it became obvious that the rooms were unoccupied, Savannah began to relax by degrees, but the fact that they were running out of time continued to linger in the back of her mind. She was tempted to take another glance at the timer, but fought back the urge and continued to remain focused.
After several more doors were opened and rooms searched, they finally came to the hold. The instant the sliver of light from the open door spread its rays across the floor and came to rest upon the figure inside, Savannah knew that they had finally found Travis.
“He’s here,” she said, a bit too loud and then glanced around to see if her outburst had attracted anyone’s attention.
“Savannah?” Travis called out in a low tone, recognizing her voice first and then her unmistakable golden locks as the light struck them and she moved through the doorway.
“Travis. Are you okay?” She started to rush toward him, but was held back by her guide who quickly entered the room and did a quick sweep before waving her in.
“I’m fine. What the hell is going on? How did you get here?”
“I don’t have time to explain,” she said. The truth of the matter was that she wasn’t particularly hip about telling him that they were working with Monica Chen. “If we don’t get a move on, we’ll miss our ride out of here.”
“Well, I’d love to come along, but I’m handcuffed to the structure here.”
“Handcuffed?” she asked. It dawned on her that his being immobilized was the reason that the door hadn’t been locked. “Let me see.” Though she hadn’t been trained in assault missions, she did have other skills, picking a lock was one of them. She was glad that she had thought to include her collection of picks in her “ditty bag,” as Monica called it. It was actually a fanny pack and contained everything that she thought might come in handy, including a small .38 caliber revolver.
“Always prepared. I love that about you, you know,” he beamed.
“Yeah? Well move over out of the light a little so I can see, then.”
Travis moved over. “So, how did you figure it all out?”
“I had some help,” she replied.
“That Thyri is a wonder sometimes, isn’t she?”
“She sure is.” She would just let him go on thinking that it had been Thyri who had figured it all out and had gotten her there. He’d go ballistic if he knew that it was Monica Chen. With the sliders working into place, Savannah was finally rewarded with a sharp click as the lock opened and the ratchet broke free from the pawl releasing Travis’ wrist. In the same instant that he jerked his hand free, two men appeared in the doorway with pistols leveled toward them.
The hesitation, likely because they had been told to avoid killing Travis if possible, gave Savannah and Travis enough time to roll into the shadows before they fired. Savannah’s guide was able to eliminate one of the threats rather quickly, but he caught a round in his chest in the process.
Confident that the only armed threat had been taken care of, the intruder spoke out. “Mr. Monahan, there is no point to this. We were told not to harm you unless you left the boat. Please be reasonable. If you and the woman will show yourselves, you’ll be treated well enough.”
In the shadows Savannah slipped her hand around the revolver and placed it into the hand of Travis. “We don’t have much time, Travis,” she whispered.
Understanding what she meant and knowing that the shots would certainly bring every crew member who was still on board directly to them, he decided to act fast. He leveled the pistol and emptied it into the silhouette in the doorway. The intruder dropped to the deck. They moved toward Savannah’s guide a discovered that he was dead. Travis scooped up the silenced pistol and handed the .38 back to Savannah. “Stay close behind me. How do we get out of here?”
“We came in on a boat that is tied to the yacht on the side away from the beach about halfway along.”
“Okay. I don’t know how many there are on board, but we’re sure to have company pretty quickly.”
“Our guide there,” she waved toward the dead body of Chen’s man, “took out four up above.”
“Well, that’s good to hear. I doubt there is more than one or two left, but we have to get moving.”
“I’m right behind you.”
Checking both directions, they moved quickly down the corridor in the direction of the nearest ladder to the upper decks. Moving quickly, they were soon on the port side of the yacht and moving in the direction of the ladder that was hanging over the rail.
Savannah moved as quickly as the rope ladder would allow and was soon in the boat below watching Travis begin to descend toward her. I’ve pulled it off; we’ll make it out of this alive.
“We have to go get the diamonds,” Travis said the moment he entered the boat and moved toward the outboard motor.
“Are you nuts? There is a full-fledged battle with automatic weapons raging on the beach, we wouldn’t stand a chance.” She pulled out her phone and looked at the clock counting down. It was under 10 minutes and they still had to make it to the extraction point that was lit up with a green ribbon leading to it. There was an icon on the screen. Of course, right. She no longer controlled the course, so it was very likely the icon wasn’t going away. She put it back inside her jacket and turned her face toward the beach they were speeding toward. He’s too damned stubborn and impulsive. He’s going to get us killed.
Chapter Fifteen
As they neared the beach, he assessed how the forces were arrayed. Those who were on the beach had worked their way to covering positions with their backs to the open sea, Mayer’s forces. The Tigers seemed to be spread in every direction in front of them, keeping them pinned down with heavy fire. Maybe Savannah was right. For them to go charging into that fray without knowing who was who and not being on either side of the engagement was on the side of insanity, but he’d come to Sri Lanka to recover the smuggled diamonds and he was going to do all that he could to get them back.
It was while Travis was assessing the situation on the beach that Monica Chen and her team made their flanking maneuver. Mayer’s forces had to shift positions quickly and in the process, exposed Mayer’s own location. He won’t be far from the diamonds. Then he noticed something else, something very unexpected.
“Is that Chen?”
“Where?” Savannah asked, searching the beach and trying to maintain a position of innocence.
“Leading that team in on Mayer’s flank.” He was sure that it was, but it didn’t make sense to see her there. Remembering the way that Mayer had spoken to her in the restaurant while he was watching them back in Colombo, it was no surprise that the two weren’t on the same side, but what was her involvement? Suddenly, it became a race. “I’ll be damned if I’ll let her get to those diamonds.”
He pushed the small craft forward to the beach, noticing that most of Mayer’s forces had moved away from him and left him alone. As the craft grounded in the sand, he leaped from the boat. “Stay here, we might need this in a minute.”
Staying focused on Mayer, he noticed that the man slipped into a small shed at the edge of the beach. Was he hiding or was he protecting the diamonds? Knowing Mayer, it was likely a bit of both. Travis had learned how Mayer functioned by watching the way that he gambled. He only took risks when he was in a commanding position in a card game, when he was unsure, he tended to fold and wait for things to be in his favor. He wouldn’t leave the diamonds and thus, his position exposed, so it was extremely likely that the small shed also held the diamonds. No doubt, he would be scooping them up and looking for the first opportunity to get out with them in his possession.
Travis worked his way up the beach, staying under what little cover he could find until he was within striking distance of the small shed. He pulled the pistol from his waistband, ready to make use of it. Mayer would have a pistol too and had the advantage of being under cover. He moved quietly around the shed, appr
oaching from the hidden side and sliding along the wall to the door. He could hear Mayer working quickly inside. No doubt he was transferring the diamonds out of whatever they were in and putting them in something that would be easier for him to carry.
He moved quietly into position, grasped the door and pulled it open, leveling the gun at Mayer as he did so. “Just put your hands where I can see them, Mayer.” Travis saw the pistol tucked in Mayer’s waistband and snatched it out quickly before Mayer could make a move toward it.
Mayer straightened up and turned with his hands in the air. The duffel bag was already filled with nearly all of the small pouches of diamonds. “You’re more resourceful than I thought. I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Go ahead and finish filling that duffel bag. I’m going to take those with me.”
“Travis, think about what you’re doing. You can’t take these back to the owner. All U.S. interests here will be weakened and Russia and China will have the upper hand, worst of all, China. That will mean that Chen wins. I know that you don’t want Chen to win.” Mayer was trying to buy time.
“Just get moving. Get those diamonds into the duffel bag.” Travis waved the pistol at Mayer to emphasize his command and Mayer complied.
“You know, this is the perfect opportunity for us to discuss that future partnership that I had mentioned earlier. Things have pretty much got to hell for turning you over to the Tigers at this point anyway. I’m not sure what the hell happened, but my guess is that Chen is behind it. Together, you and I can beat her, Travis.” Mayer knew the history between Travis and Chen and was hoping to use it to his advantage, but Travis wasn’t buying it.
“Zip it up,” Travis commanded, once all of the diamonds were in the duffel bag.
Mayer complied and then straightened up. “You can’t get out of here without my help, Travis.”
Travis knew that Mayer was probably right, but he didn’t trust anything that Mayer said or did. “I’ll take my chances. Now, carefully reach into your pocket and bring out the key to these?” he asked, raising the hand with the one cuff opened and dangling from his wrist. “I don’t need to remind you to play the odds, do I?”
Mayer wasn’t particularly thrilled about the turn that events were taking, but he was one who played the cards he was dealt and didn’t take big risks. He reached into his pocket and fished out the key.
“Open it,” Travis commanded, “and then put them on yourself.”
“Travis, there is really no need for…”
“Do it, Mayer!” Travis snapped. “Unlike you, you are of no value to me and I could simply shoot you and leave you here to die. Lock your hands around that pipe over there.” He waved the pistol toward an exposed structural member on the inside of the metal shed.
“Travis, be reasonable. You’ll walk out of here and right into Monica Chen’s hands. She’ll kill you and take the diamonds too. I can help you get out of here. I can help you get off the beach and far away from here.” Though he was still negotiating, he moved toward the structural member as he had been directed.
“Not interested,” Travis responded, using the barrel of the pistol against Mayer’s temple to get him to move. “If you do as I say, I’ll let you live. Perhaps the Tigers will use you for a bargaining chip instead. You were telling me earlier how cozy things were going to be, so it shouldn’t bother you too badly.”
Mayer snapped the cuffs to one of his wrist at Travis’ urging. “But, Travis, all of that has fallen apart. I’m not sure why, but the Tigers opened fire on us while we were waiting for them to arrive. The whole deal is off. Just let me go with you. We’ll take the diamonds back to the yacht and regroup.”
“I already told you that I’m not interested,” Travis replied. He held the pistol to Mayer’s temple and reached with his free hand to snap the second cuff closed on Mayer’s wrist and turned away. “Maybe if you’re lucky, one of your men will survive long enough to come rescue you. This is just insurance to make sure that you don’t try anything stupid.” Travis held the key up for Mayer and hung it on a screw in plain sight.
As he started to open the door, he heard someone moving along the wall of the shed outside. He leveled the pistol toward Mayer and held a finger to his lips. Drawing back into the shadows, he kept the gun pointed at Mayer and waited to see who appeared. To his surprise, Savannah slipped in the door.
“Travis,” she whispered. “Are you in here?”
“Yes, Savannah, I’m in here,” he replied, pulling her from the doorway and into the shed.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I told you to stay with the boat. What if something happens to it and we have no way out of here?”
“You could always take my advice,” Mayer put in.
“You shut up,” Travis replied, pointing the pistol at Mayer once more.
Mayer shrugged, but the smirk on his face didn’t change. They were in trouble and he was their best way out of the mess that they were in.
“The boat already took a round and was deflated, but that’s not a problem. The problem is that if we don’t get a move on and make it to the extraction point, Chen is going to leave us stranded here.”
“Who?” He thought that he heard Savannah say Chen, but it was so unbelievable that he was pretty sure that he hadn’t heard her correctly.
“Chen,” she repeated. “Monica Chen brought me in here. She had two assault teams. One team helped get the fight started on the beach. The other team dropped me so that I could come get you and then they attacked the flank. We’ve got about three minutes to make it to the extraction point or we’re going to get left behind.”
“If you think I’m going to let Chen extract me out of here, then you’re crazier than I thought.”
“You’re working with Chen?” Mayer’s tone showed as much surprise as Travis’ had earlier. “That explains what went wrong.”
“I told you to stay quiet, Mayer.”
“I agree, Travis, but you’ve got to listen to me. You can’t let those diamonds fall into her hands. She is an operative for the Chinese MSS. We can’t allow her to win. China will have complete control here. Please, Travis, listen to reason. Captain Singh is waiting with one of the small craft, just down the beach, we can go to him and he’ll take us back to the yacht and we can sail away with those diamonds. You can’t trust Monica Chen!”
“I don’t trust Chen, but I don’t trust you either. Thanks for the information though,” Travis said, an idea quickly formed in his mind. He snatched up the duffel bag and grabbing Savannah’s wrist, he started out the door, looking in both directions to get a quick assessment of the situation outside. Most of the fighting had seemed to have moved further away from their location.
His eyes scanned the beach and found the small craft that Mayer was talking about. No doubt, he and Singh had already made an extraction plan. The only thing that might go wrong with it all was if Singh was armed and shot them before they got close enough to board the boat.
Chapter Sixteen
“Where the hell are we going, Travis?” Savannah protested as she was running and halfway being dragged along the beach. She wasn’t particularly fond of the way that she was being treated and wasn’t about to put up with it much longer even if Thyri had told her to trust Travis when it came to their extraction. What he was doing was completely illogical.
“We’re not going with Chen, that’s for damned sure!” he shouted over his shoulder and kept moving. “I can’t believe you trusted her to bring you here in the first place.”
Savannah suddenly dug her heels into the sand and jerked her arm back, breaking Travis’ grip on her. “What the hell was I supposed to do, Travis? She came to me and told me that you had walked into a trap. I talked to Thyri and THE TWO OF US made the decision that Chen was the best option for rescuing your sorry ass!”
“The bitch shot me twice, Savannah. She tried to kill me! Do you understand that? Does that fit into your logical mind at all? Maybe she just wants to get one mor
e chance at it! What kind of fucked up plan is this? Jesus, Sav! You’ve gone and done it this time!”
“I got your ass off of that sorry ass boat out there, didn’t I?” She waved a hand toward the yacht. “If you had listened to me in the first place, instead of running off on another one of your wild goose chases, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
He tossed the duffel bag at her feet. “What the fuck do you think is in that bag?” he shouted. “We came here to recover smuggled diamonds. Well, sister, there they are. My wild goose chase put those in our possession. Do you want me to put them in Monica Chen’s hands?”
“That’s not why she’s here!” Savannah screamed. “Saving your sorry ass was also in her best interest!”
“She told you that, did she? Well, isn’t it just great that you believed her? She knew that I was onto the diamonds and she decided to follow me to them so that she could shoot me and take them away from me. If I listened to you, I might already be dead!”
Savannah was about to respond, but her words were interrupted by the eruption of gunfire and several gunmen running toward them down the beach. They certainly couldn’t continue their argument on the beach. She started running toward the boat at the edge of the water.
Travis scooped up the duffel bag and followed her, struggling to keep pace with the weight of the bag holding him back.
With the gunmen chasing them and their bullets making the sand spout up around them, Captain Singh was busy making the boat ready to launch into the water rather than keeping guard over the intruders that were approaching. By the time he looked up and realized that the two people approaching the boat were not Mayer and one of his men, it was too late and Travis’ pistol leveled at him kept him from making any more to stop them from boarding.
