by Liliana Hart
“It’s clear,” she said once she ducked back inside the abandoned saloon that had become an unofficial headquarters. “There’s nothing for miles. And no tracks but ours. But—”
“You’ve got a feeling,” Archer said, finishing her sentence. “And it’s a bad one.”
“Yeah. We should have brought more firepower.”
Archer stood in front of the table where she’d laid out all their weapons. They were each carrying their personal pieces, but there were backups, plenty of magazines, a couple of hand grenades, and the two H&K MP5 submachine guns.
She’d stripped out of her heavy coat, leaving her only in the black ski pants and the matching thermal top. She braided her hair and pulled a black watch cap low over her ears. Archer was dressed identically to her. Neither of them wanted to have to fight with the weight of extra clothing if they needed to move quickly.
The sat phone buzzed against the warped wooden table and Archer hit the button so it was on speaker. Declan’s voice filled the room.
“You’ve got incoming heat, and they’re moving fast. Cyph was finally able to get the satellite imaging up and running.”
“Get off my balls, man,” Cal said. “I had to hack through NASA and the Pentagon to get them, but I’m your eyes now.”
“It looks like they sent a six man team and they’re about five kilometers out,” Dec said.
“Shit, they’re practically right on top of us.” Archer pulled the strap of the MP5 over his shoulder and let it hang in front of him.
Audrey grabbed extra magazines from the table and took the other MP5, though she didn’t bother with the strap because it would only get in her way.
“We can use the area to our advantage,” Archer said. “We’ve been here long enough to get acclimated.”
“We need to split up,” she said, knowing how his mind worked well enough to guess the game plan. “One of the buildings across the street has good coverage. I’ll take point there.”
Archer pocketed the two grenades and checked the magazine in his Glock, putting it in his pocket when he saw it was only half full. He grabbed another and popped it in, chambering a bullet.
“I’m going to set the dogs loose. Joe said they were trained to find their way home. I don’t want them caught here.”
Adrenaline pumped through her system with the force of a thousand men. The dogs were their only transportation. Without them they were going to have a hell of a time tracking down Salt. But there wasn’t time to argue, and she knew he was right, so she nodded and took off out the front door to the building she’d marked on the opposite side of the street.
***
Archer released the dogs and gave them the command Joe had told him to send them home, and he barely made it back under cover before he heard the low buzz of engines in the distance.
“Keep the link open,” Declan demanded. “We can see their shoe size from here and they’re packing major heat.”
Archer could tell as soon as the first snowmobile appeared at the edge of town that these were a different caliber of agents than the ones who had held Audrey in the warehouse. He watched in silence through a rotted hole in the wall, and then swore as two of the agents peeled off and went behind the buildings.
The good news was that everything was in close quarters. He could throw a rock and hit one of the buildings across the street. The lane between the two sides was narrow, and the Russians would be sitting ducks if they came down that way.
“Oh, shit,” he whispered as one of the agents hefted a rocket launcher and settled it on his shoulder.
The Russian didn’t know where he and Audrey were hiding, but that didn’t matter. His goal was to smoke them out, get them out in the open. And it was a pretty effective way of doing so.
Before the man could get a shot off, Archer moved outside of the building and pulled the pin on the grenade in his hand, launching it toward the enemy. He’d just given away his position, but it was sure as hell better to take the offensive than having to dodge rockets.
The four agents scattered like bowling pins as soon as they saw the grenade, and the explosion rattled the fragile building that was his only protection. Gunfire erupted and he knew without looking that Audrey had the sub on full auto and was laying down cover so the Russian with the rocket launcher couldn’t get that shot off.
“You’ve got two heat signals coming from the opposite end of town,” Cypher said through the phone.
As long as Audrey kept laying down cover, he could take care of the others coming in. He caught them by surprise, moving quickly so he was almost perpendicular with them when he took them down. Two quick rounds to the chest and the enemy was now four instead of six.
The Russians were returning Audrey’s fire now, having found their own places for cover, and he made his way back up the strip. A man stepped out in front of him, so close there wasn’t room to get his gun up in time, and he barely ducked back as the blade of a knife swiped toward his middle.
He didn’t feel the cut along his side, but he smelled the blood. Archer grabbed the man’s wrist and twisted, hearing the satisfying crunch of bone as his fingers went limp and the knife dropped to the ground. Another punch to the throat killed the man instantly. He kept moving forward, toward Audrey.
A body lay prone in the middle of the lane, the snow beneath him bright crimson. But Archer’s blood turned cold and his heart stopped in his chest when he heard Audrey’s yell and the sound of the rocket launcher as it fired straight at the building she was using for cover.
He started running. And praying. And he watched with amazement as Audrey’s body shot out of the building just before the rocket hit, curling up in a ball at the last minute so she rolled out into the middle of the lane as the building exploded behind her.
The two remaining agents stepped out of their hiding places, their weapons trained on her, and all he could think was that he couldn’t lose her. Not like this.
He sprinted to the bigger of the two men and knocked the gun up just as he was about to fire, so the bullet went wild into the sky. This agent was better at hand to hand than the other, and didn’t let Archer get in too close. They were evenly matched and it was only hearing similar sounds of combat coming from Audrey and the other agent that had him taking a chance to reach into his boot and pull the knife, striking it between the man’s ribs and into his heart before he could deliver his own killing blow.
***
Audrey couldn’t show weakness. Couldn’t let her guard down. Blood dripped into her eye from the cut above her eyebrow and she wiped at it quickly as she dodged a punch from the man who’d fired the rocket launcher.
She knew how to fight. Knew that concentration and focus was the most important thing. But something broke through that concentration, and before she could blink the man had her in a headlock, her breath cut off and her lungs burning. Blood rushed in her ears, muting the sounds around her, but she realized with complete clarity what had broken through her focus.
It wasn’t the static of the sat phone from somewhere in the distance and Declan’s frantic warnings. But the pitched tune of Pop Goes the Weasel being whistled in a rather upbeat tempo.
It was that moment she knew she was going to die—the arm around her throat was cutting off the oxygen to her brain, but it was Jonah Salt whistling from just over the hill who would deliver the killing blow.
The man holding her captive jerked behind her and his arm loosened around her throat, so she was able to greedily suck in air. The report of a rifle had been close and she managed to get a glimpse of the man who’d held her, a neat bullet hole right in the center of his forehead.
“Down,” Archer yelled. But her brain and her reaction time was slow. She felt his body jerk as he knocked her to the ground, his body covering hers as the sound of another shot being fired penetrated the fog in her brain.
“Get up! Get up!” She knew he’d been hit, but he had her up on her feet, his body hunched over hers for protection as he ushered h
er back toward the safety of the buildings.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“What the hell was that?” Declan said through the open line once they made it back to home base. “I’ve got six bodies on the ground and then a heat signal comes out of fucking nowhere and starts laying down rifle fire.”
“It was Salt.” Audrey’s voice was barely discernable and Archer handed her a bottle of water. “I heard him.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Dec asked.
“He whistles while he works. He always has. The sound of it broke my concentration and that Russian agent almost snapped my neck.”
“And then Salt shot him and saved you?” Cal asked. “That makes no sense.”
“It’s part of the game,” Archer said, looking at her intently. “He wanted her to know he was there. That he was the one pulling the trigger. He killed the immediate threat so she’d know.”
“That is fucked up,” Cal said, “But I’ve got his heat signature now. I’m following him back to wherever he was hiding. And he’s moving at a fast clip. He’s got a snowmobile. I’ll be able to find his hiding place and then you’ll have the coordinates you need to find him.”
“You guys okay?” Declan asked.
Audrey looked at the blood that covered Archer’s arm and stomach, but he shook his head no at her, telling her not to mention it to Declan. He dug around in their supplies and came out with the First Aid kit and then stripped off his shirt.
“We’re fine. Nothing we can’t patch up with the First Aid kit.”
Audrey raised her eyebrows at that statement, thinking it might be a little overzealous. She moved closer and took the kit from his hands and then pointed with her finger, telling him to sit without words.
He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips, and then pulled back to look at the cut over her eye.
“It’s fine,” she whispered. “But you’re going to need stitches.”
He grunted and sat down where she pointed while she went about gathering the supplies she needed—fresh water and wood for a new fire.
“What the hell?” Cal said, after a few minutes of silence. “No, no, no. This can’t be possible.”
Dread knotted in Audrey’s stomach as the rapid click of the keyboard was heard across the line, and Cal’s unintelligible mutters were interspersed with a lot of fucks.
“He’s gone,” Declan said.
“What do you mean gone?” Archer asked. “He can’t just disappear.”
“And yet, that’s exactly what it looks like from where we’re standing. I was prepared for something like this.”
“Maybe you should fill me in, boss, because I’m confused as hell,” Archer growled out. “Why would you expect him to disappear into nothing? Unless you believe all the bullshit about it being The End of the World.”
“It’s close enough,” Dec said. “I did some digging, and that particular area was once an underground KGB headquarters. It was completely off the books and functional up until 1991 when the KGB disbanded. That coincides with the timeline of the last couple who disappeared from that area—a man and woman who were self-proclaimed adventurers. More than likely they got too close and were captured. The KGB would have made their bodies disappear for good.”
“Jesus.” Archer scrubbed a hand over his face and it came away with dirt and blood.
“Are the two of you secure for now?”
“Unless Salt decides to come back and play some more.”
“Good. Give us a couple of hours to dig out some more information. We’re close. Really close to getting a lock on all of this. Stand by.”
The phone disconnected and Audrey reached over and hit the off button. “I’m sorry I dragged all of you into this.”
“I can’t think of a better choice,” he said, lips quirking. “I’m just glad I found you when I did. You couldn’t have continued to go after him alone. Not without getting yourself killed.”
“No, but I would’ve kept going because the revenge was all I could see.”
“And now?” he asked.
She smiled and knelt down by the fire, lighting the tinder and listening to the wood crackle a moment before she answered him. “And now things are a little clearer. I’m grateful for the help. You’re a good partner.”
“You’re not so bad yourself, Sharpe. Just think how good we’ll be together twenty years from now.”
Her hands froze inside the First Aid box and she didn’t have the courage to look up at his face to see what he meant by that statement. Instead she relaxed and pulled out bandages and a needle and thread. “If I’m still working in the field twenty years from now, I give you permission to go ahead and put a bullet in my head. The body can only take so much wear and tear.”
She’d put the bottles of water next to the fire, hoping it would warm them some, but it wasn’t going to be warm enough.
“Like I said, I’ve got this great little place down in Costa Rica. A private beach and a view unlike any other. Let me know the second you start thinking about retirement and I’ll buy the plane tickets.”
“This is going to be cold,” she said, grabbing one of the water bottles and a clean cloth. The wound on his arm and across his stomach had to be cleaned before she could sew him back up.
“I’ve had worse,” he shrugged. “Just get it done.”
So that’s what she did. She cleaned the areas as thoroughly as she could, relieved to see the bullet had passed through the outer edge of his tricep, barely a scratch mark really. But it was still deep enough to need several stitches. The cut along his stomach was long and red, but it would be fine with butterfly bandages and antiseptic.
“Thanks for pushing me down.” Her throat was raw and it was harder for her to speak than it had been just a few minutes earlier. The area around her throat where the man’s arm had been was swollen and tender to the touch. “I knew the second the bullet was fired and hit the man holding me that there’d be another one for me. I thought that was the end, you know? I was just waiting for it.”
Audrey took a long drink of cold water, hoping that would soothe the burn. Archer’s hand came up and cupped her cheek gently and she leaned against it.
“It’s never over until you give up.” He brought his lips to hers, rubbing softly, his tongue licking along the seam until she opened for him. It wasn’t a kiss of high passion—the flash and bang of what they’d shared the night before. This was an easing into each other—an acceptance. He pulled back and smiled. “I wasn’t ready to give up yet. Not when I’ve just found you.”
She nodded because that’s all she could do, and then she went about the task of sewing up his arm. It didn’t take long, but it was never an easy process to stick a needle through flesh over and over again without deadening the area. By the time she was finished and wrapped gauze around the wound, sweat had beaded on Archer’s brow and he was shivering from the cold.
“Get some clean clothes on and get warm.”
“I will if you’ll let me take care of that cut above your eyebrow. You’ll keep opening it up and bleeding if I don’t close it.”
She nodded in agreement and passed over the supplies. His hands were gentle as he put butterfly bandages across the cut.
“I’ve got a confession to make,” he said once he was finished. His fingers trailed down her jaw and glanced over the line of bruises across her neck, and she watched his face darken with anger.
“What’s that?” she croaked out.
He met her gaze and the heat there almost knocked her over with its intensity. “Watching you dive out of the front of that building as it exploded was one of the hottest things I’ve seen in my entire life. If you weren’t injured right now, you’d be flat on your back in the dirt.”
“Promises, promises,” she said, mimicking him from the night before.
“You’re trouble, Agent Sharpe.”
“Punish me later.” She leaned forward and nipped at his lower lip just as the sat phone started buzzing again.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“It’s time to lock and load,” Cal said excitedly on the other end of the line. “I cracked that bitch wide open. This is the moment where you all should be congratulating me.”
“Why don’t you tell us what you did first and then I’ll send you a fruit basket,” Archer said.
“Why do you want me to explain? You won’t understand any of it anyway.”
“You and I are due a round in the ring, my friend.”
“Bring it on, buttercup. I’ve got youth on my side.”
“You’re only two years younger than I am. You’re not exactly the picture of youth.”
“I’ll take whatever advantage I can get. Your fists are like ham hocks. Hurts like a bitch.”
“I’m sorry,” Audrey interrupted. “But you were talking about breaking a bitch wide open. Maybe you could expound on that a bit. Unless Archer is the bitch.”
Archer shot her a look of retribution but she just grinned back. Dec had made the right call. She’d fit right in at MacKenzie Security.
“Damn, I think I’m going to love you, Agent Sharpe,” Cal said. “Now listen close, because we’re going to be working on a time clock here. Salt has set up the system at the KGB base to piggyback off the CIA’s mainframe. It’s actually an ingenious way to go undetected. He knows the codes and the timing, so if those bombs detonate, it’ll be traced back to U.S. soil. He’s got worldwide catastrophe at the ends of his fingertips.”
“So how do we keep him from blowing the tankers? I’m assuming he’ll know the moment we get near. He has to have infrared technology in a place like that.”
“I’ve got you covered. I was able to piggyback off his piggyback, if that makes any sense. I’m running the shots as long as I’m tapped in. But here’s the problem. The detonators are set to explode automatically if he doesn’t log in and type in a password every six hours. It’s a failsafe in case something happens to him.”
“Lovely,” Audrey sighed out.
