“Are you Lieutenant Petrov?”
Chase came around to step between Darya and the colonel. “Don’t do this here. These children see him as a father figure. Probably the only one they’ve ever had. He has done everything in his power to protect them so this woman”—he lifted a hand toward Tessa—“could bring them here and then on to the States for an education.”
The colonel took a step closer but Chase straightened to his full six-foot-one height and blocked his path. Zoric stood shoulder to shoulder with his friend.
The colonel’s lips thinned. His twisted snarl intensified as the captain continued to protect the tribesman.
“Stand back, Colonel.” Bonnie, with a soldier at her elbow, pushed into the fray. “I’m Bonnie Finley, Undersecretary of State. Do whatever you’re going to do later after these children are settled. I’m sure Darya can be trusted to turn himself over to you at the appropriate time.”
“But—”
Tessa was a little proud of Bonnie when she held up her hand for silence. “Captain Hunter, please escort these children to the mess hall. They haven’t eaten any decent food since early yesterday.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Chase turned to the group. “Follow me, please.”
Tessa watched the colonel pivot, leaving an angry retort with Bonnie. “If he bolts I’ll have your head.” He snapped at the stoic guard. “Follow them, soldier.”
The children reached out to touch Tessa and Darya. One of the girls grabbed the hem of Bonnie’s jacket when she couldn’t edge closer to the others. She leaned in when Bonnie’s hand came down on the top of her head.
“Tell the children to go with the captain, Tessa, before the colonel changes his mind.”
Tessa shifted Arzo to her other shoulder as the little girl’s legs circled her torso. She leaned into Darya when his hand came up to touch her back, moving her forward.
“We go. Safe here.” He spoke with a quiet reserve, following Captain Hunter.
The girls stumbled several times, gawking at all the activity on the military base. New sounds startled them, but laughter would ensue very much like children being frightened on Halloween. With a pat on the head from Darya or a comforting word from Tessa, the children entered a mess tent like herded cattle. A few soldiers sat conversing with several women in surgical scrubs. They switched their focus to the children, joining the group with friendly faces and soft words. Captain Hunter filled them in and suggested medical exams after the children had a chance to fill their bellies.
Darya’s rigid, solemn presence drew sideway glances from the medical team. His open, penetrating examination of their figures hinted at disdain rather than admiration. The captain introduced Tessa and explained the circumstances of her native dress and caring for a ragtag bunch of orphans. They greeted her with more than a little admiration in their expressions. Darya was introduced as Lieutenant Roman Petrov. Rather than reply, he turned and took Arzo, who had begun to squirm, from Tessa’s arms.
Food and bottled water arrived for the children who sat shoulder to shoulder around a table with benches for seats. They watched Tessa and Darya for guidance before hungrily attacking their meal. The captain sat down across from Tessa between two of the girls. He made an effort to speak Pashto and managed to make them giggle.
Wiping her mouth on a paper napkin, she knew it was only a matter of time before he shifted his attention to her. In spite of her disheveled appearance, the captain offered a comforting, warm gaze.
“Tessa, I need to debrief you. Finish up and we’ll head out.”
“No,” Darya snapped with such force the children stopped munching on their bread and cheese. “This is not proper.”
Tessa slipped an arm around Darya’s back. “I’ll be all right. I need to do this so you’ll be cleared.”
“No.” His voice grew flat and void of emotion. “Stay with children.” Darya swung his legs around to the back of the bench before standing up. Several MPs from the doorway took a step forward, but the captain held up his hand for them to stop. “I will go with the captain. He wants to know about me.”
Tessa reached out to take Darya’s hand in fear. The two men glared at each other like battling lions trying to win a pride of females. She understood that it was her life binding them like cement to the military base.
“Have it your way, Lieutenant.” He waved the approaching MPs off. “There’s no need for that. Right, Lieutenant?”
Darya’s chin came up in agreement.
Before Darya could take another step Arzo climbed up on the bench, standing as tall as her little body would go. She motioned Darya closer. This act brought a wide grin to his generous mouth as he let her circle his neck with her arms. He lifted her up into a tight hug. She patted his face then shoulders and whispered in his ear. Tessa felt her heart break seeing them together.
“I love you, too, Arzo. Be good for your mother. Do as you’re told.”
“Let’s go.” The captain’s voice, now rich with impatience, brought yet another smirk to Darya’s lips. When the tribesman rubbed the back of his hand on Tessa’s face, she caught an inflamed glare from the captain. She imagined the next few hours would not be pleasant for her Kyrgyz tribesman.
Chapter 28
P acing in a large tent heavy with the smell of sweat, dust, and shaving cream, Tessa glanced again at the clock sitting precariously on the edge of a makeshift desk created from two sawhorses and a piece of warped plywood. A discarded water bottle, a pad of paper, and various tools related to auto mechanics spread across the surface in disarray. Duct tape crisscrossed the clear plastic cover over a computer of the kind she’d had as a kid when she’d played Frogger. She spotted a rolled-up power strip with no way to plug it in, making her question whether or not soldiers ever made contact with their families. Another memory surfaced of Robert, her husband, kissing her good-bye as she headed out the door of their home. Should she call him?
Cots held napping children who’d filled their bellies, followed with exams by a female army doctor then been given what appeared to be their first shower. Their giggles of surprise and delight forced Tessa to laugh at their enjoyment for a short time. Bonnie Finley arrived with clean clothes both for the girls and her. She waited as Tessa slipped into the shower to wash grime and fear away.
“Thank you, Bonnie.”
Tessa felt appreciation mixed with skepticism knowing the woman held enough information about Darya and herself to use blackmail like a Samurai sword. The ambassador, mired deep into the Afghan drug trade, might make it difficult to transport the children to the states. Would Bonnie confess to her lover someone else knew way too much about his thriving business? The continued danger to her life weighed on her ability to process her current situation.
The flap door of the tent pushed back without warning as Bonnie once more appeared with a man following her like a devoted puppy. She recognized him straightaway as Dr. Wu, the Enigma psychiatrist who fancied himself as some Buddhist master of all things true in the world. A fleeting thought of how she’d complained about his constant life lessons surfaced at the same time as the realization those same teachings enabled her to survive the last few weeks.
“Dr. Wu.” It didn’t occur to her to hide the pleasure in her voice.
Dressed in army fatigues, he stood a little taller than her. His hands folded in front of him suggested he might fall down in prayer at any moment. A simple greeting caused his chin-length black hair to swing a little forward, revealing the stripe of gray which trailed from his crown down to his ear. As she stared him down, amusement toyed at the corners of his mouth.
“Undersecretary Finley will stay with the girls while we take a walk, Mrs. Scott.” The emphasis on Tessa’s marital status felt like a slap in the face. He stepped sideways with a hand outstretched toward the exit. “Shall we?”
The disguised request was, in reality, an order. Tired of taking orders from domineering men, she considered refusing, except he wore the unconcerned expression of a man who k
new how to pound patience into his patients. A huff of disgust pushed through her lips as she brushed past him and out the door.
“We have nothing to talk about, so whatever you want to know, get on with it. I don’t want the girls to wake up and see I’m gone.”
“Miss Finley is well-known to the children. I’m sure they will be fine. And we have much to talk about, Mrs. Scott. Lose the attitude and we can move this along much faster.” He moved beside her but continued to stare straight ahead.
Tessa halted, raising a small cloud of dust around her feet. The doctor walked away from her in a nonchalant manner. “Remember. A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.”
“Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from a friend’s forehead,” she mocked. The doctor stopped in his tracks then lowered his head to steal an unconcerned glance back at her with an arched eyebrow.
“You remember your lessons well. Do you also remember what name I call you when we are alone?”
She felt a kind of hope he would help with the darkness inside her head. “Yes. You called me Grasshopper after some Kung Fu show from the 1970s. I thought it pretty ridiculous at the time.”
“And now?” He waited like a patient monk.
“I’m drowning, Dr. Wu.” Her voice cracked, but she recovered by pulling back her shoulders in a show of bravery. “Can you help me?”
He motioned for her to continue walking with him. “To get through the hardest journey, we need to take one step at a time, but we keep moving.”
“That’s it?” She spat the words.
“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” He held his head high and spoke with such confidence; Tessa followed him without further comment.
~ ~ ~
Chase strode across the compound, determined to confront Tessa about the days spent in the care of Darya Petrov turned Kyrgyz tribesman. The man had CIA written all over him. Was he a deserter or embedded with the Kyrgyz so he appeared to be a rogue agent? Had the Taliban been a threat to Tessa in the village? It seemed a little too convenient he chose then to make an appearance. Stories about the Kyrgyz being a part of the drug trade running rampant in Afghanistan could put him in bed with the CIA.
Answers to these questions remained elusive even after Chase threatened his manhood. Darya showed his amusement with a smirk and a casual evaluation of the room where he waited for interrogation. He appeared to take a visual inventory of possible solutions to his confinement. Even the appearance of Zoric failed to shake his confidence. However, when Tessa’s name came up, Darya refocused his attention on the matter at hand.
“If I find out you harmed her in any way, I’ll kill you.” Chase’s stance put Darya on alert as the tribesman eyed his opponent. “Why didn’t she remember me?”
“Maybe you weren’t worth remembering.” Darya’s low, condescending tone drawing Chase a step closer.
“Why did you take her?”
Darya shifted his attention to Zoric who made a show of examining the six-inch blade of his stained knife. “It is curious you are more concerned with the woman than what I’ve been up to for the last five years. Why is that?” He backed up to an unsteady table in the middle of the room and rested part of his hip on the edge. “Why not ask her?”
“I intend to. This is just a friendly conversation between soldiers. She works for,” Chase hesitated, “the State Department. It’s my job to make sure nothing happens to her.”
“And yet you were not so concerned about the Finley woman who is the Undersecretary of State.” A smirk toyed at the corners of Darya’s mouth. “Tessa says she works with you. That doesn’t sound like the State Department to me. You have the look of an ops guy. Trust me I know what that looks like.”
“She’s a low level analyst working at a California university. Tessa has an uncanny ability to see things in geography the rest of us seem to miss.”
Darya tilted his head in acceptance of the explanation. “You plan to take her back.” His focus intensified toward Chase’s with a hint of confrontation.
“She has a husband and kids to get back to.”
“And you, I suspect.” Darya stuck out his bottom lip.
Chase didn’t respond at first. “You’re wrong.”
“Am I?” Darya grinned with amusement. “Whatever was between you two has been forgotten. She can’t or doesn’t want to remember the husband left behind in California. Now she loves me and I married her. She plans to stay here if I am freed.”
Without thinking, Chase lunged at him with a doubled fist, knocking him backwards over the table. Before he could grab him for another punch, Darya jumped up and returned the blow to Chase’s cheek, forcing him back against the table which collapsed under his weight. The tribesman jumped on top of the captain, landing several blows. The two men rolled several times across the floor, punching sensitive areas. Both men emitted sounds of pain and sprays of blood, yet neither stopped.
Darya managed to stagger to his feet only to fall back against the mud brick wall with a gasp. He sucked up his strength and propelled himself forward at the beast of a man rising from the floor. Landing a kick to his chest, Chase felt a rib crack. As he went back down on the floor, Zoric stepped up with his bloodstained knife, jabbing the tip against the tribesman’s throat.
“I’m more of a man of action than my friend here. All this grunting, punching, and rolling around the floor like a couple of schoolboys is a waste of time. I much prefer to do the job and get it over with.” Zoric applied enough pressure so a trickle of blood oozed from Darya’s skin. He took a step back from the Serbian and leaned against the wall, his chest heaving.
After Chase splashed water on his face, he applied a bandage to the small cut on his cheek. When he confronted Tessa, he didn’t want her to start asking too many questions as to how he received a bruised eyelid and several cuts.
Darya hadn’t fared any better than him. He had to hand it to the tribesman, he could give as good as he got. The man managed to bait him into a fight, with Chase realizing too late, if Tessa got wind of the beating, she’d take her rescuer’s side.
“Chase.” Dr. Wu’s raised voice drew him back to the present. The doctor marched up to him. “Chase. Tessa is in my quarters.”
“Is she okay?” Chase turned toward the doctor’s tent.
“Traumatized.” Dr. Wu stopped and squinted up at the captain. “She killed a man up there in those mountains.”
Chase stared down at his boots for a long time before speaking. “One of the Taliban said as much, but I thought I misunderstood.”
“No. She wouldn’t tell me why. She didn’t even appear to care she’d done it.”
Chase lifted his head and couldn’t hide his surprise.
“This is not the Tessa we knew. Whatever happened up there scarred her to her very soul. You must be careful when you speak to her.” Dr. Wu stepped in front of Chase as he took a step toward the tent. “She is not like us. Her coping skills are different. Although she may not feel remorse for her actions, in her mind, she has sinned against God and is unworthy to return home to her old life. If I am to help her, I need to know everything. You need to convince her to talk to me.”
The darkening sky made Chase wonder about evil in the world and wonder why God allowed bad things to happen to good people. “What makes you think she’ll tell me? Our relationship was…” He stopped himself because he didn’t understand their relationship. Before he left her in the States, he’d promised to discuss things when he returned. When she showed up in Afghanistan and found him being stitched up, he’d planned his seduction of the honorable Mrs. Scott. He needed to get her out of his head once and for all.
“Yes. Your relationship is suspect at best. I don’t know what is going on between the two of you, but I do know she listens to you more than anyone. To confess your interest in a romantic relationship would confuse the already-dangerous ideas filling her head.” Dr. Wu took a deep breath. “There’s a good chance she had to
compromise her self-respect with the man she calls Darya. I believe she is suffering from Stockholm syndrome, Chase.”
“Did he rape her?” Chase glared toward the tent where Tessa waited.
“I’m sure it doesn’t seem like that now to her. But I don’t know. Don’t belittle him or confess what you’ve already attempted to do to him.” Dr. Wu pointed to his bruises. “She’ll defend him and threaten you.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time.”
“This time is different. I promised her I’d get the children some dinner. Her concern borders on hysteria when it comes to those girls. Remember”—Dr. Wu stepped aside—“tread lightly if you want the old Tessa back.”
“So you want me to lie.”
“Whatever it takes to move forward.”
Even before he opened the flap of the tent, Chase planned to use his own methods to reach the woman he admired.
Chapter 29
T he doctor occupied the tent reserved for US Congressmen and other visiting dignitaries. With a wave of a piece of paper bearing an important signature of the Secretary of Homeland Security, the base commander decided the doctor would be spared roughing it along with everyone else. A netted screen window on each side allowed the late afternoon sunlight to filter through. The interior, compared to everything else on the base, resembled a room at the Holiday Inn. Even the door, fitted with a doorknob and push-in lock, seemed luxurious in such a wasteland.
Chase ducked his head in the low doorway and spotted Tessa sitting on a folding chair next to a cot dressed to appear as if it were a twin bed instead of an army-issue piece of equipment. He removed his helmet and stuck it under his arm before shifting his weight to the less-painful hip. Nightfall would engulf the land soon, drenching them in breathless darkness, the kind that scared the hell out of you and forced you to keep a weapon under whatever you used for a pillow.
Tessa rose to her feet in slow motion, their cautious gazes locked. Her eyelids didn’t flutter, a detail he’d learned meant her fear level peaked.
The Enigma Series Boxed Set Page 96
