Top Secret Target

by Dana Mentink

  Nothing ever felt quite like this. Comfort, belonging, wholeness, peace.

  But something wriggled in his memory. He flashed back to Jillian, how he’d bared his soul to her, how she’d stripped him of his dignity and his pride. Pain and humiliation and shame all roared back in a split second.

  Not again, not ever.

  He eased Kendra to his side and they leaned against the cold rock, breathing unsteadily.

  “I, uh, sorry,” he mumbled. “Got caught up. Won’t happen again.”

  He thought he heard her sigh. From disappointment? Or relief?

  “It’s okay,” she whispered and he couldn’t decipher the emotion in it.

  Get her through it and don’t let yourself want anything more. Wanting led to yearning, to trusting, to a heart flayed wide-open. His mind remained stone-cold logical, but his heart hungered in a way that scared him silly.

  Cold seeped inside him, wrestling with a warmth that she kindled in the dark places. In agonizing slow motion, the minutes crept by.

  It felt like morning would never come.

  * * *

  The hours wore on and they took turns keeping watch. While Ethan hunkered down somewhere outside with his binoculars in hand, she lay on the ground with Titus snuggled against her back. The unaccustomed freedom that she had finally shared her burden with Ethan gave way to grief.

  Got caught up. Won’t happen again.

  His words were a harsh reminder. Ethan wasn’t interested. He’d said so from the beginning. Her feelings had changed, his had not. Wake up and smell the coffee, Kendra. Besides, why would she have wanted more kisses in the middle of SERE training with threats coming at them from all sides? Was she losing her mind?

  It was her turn to take over the watch, so she sat up. Though it was still dark, she figured it had to be sometime near the end of the evasion portion of the drill. Sullivan wasn’t going to make a move, or so it seemed, but at least they’d survived the SERE refresher, satisfied Masters’s whim and could move on with their investigation.

  She heaved herself up, muscles complaining, back aching from her time on the hard ground. Rejoicing to see that the rain had stopped, she stepped out, and that’s when horror fired her nerves into flame.

  Ethan lay stomach down on the ground, a soldier standing over him with a gun aimed at his skull.

  “Time to die,” the soldier said.

  Kendra didn’t hesitate, she swung her rifle like a club, smashing the soldier in the back of the knees. He went down like a felled tree. Titus was out of the cave in a flash of fur, diving on the man and nearly ripping off his uniform.

  Ethan leaped to his feet.

  “Get him off, Ethan,” the marine hollered, rolling into a ball to protect his face.

  Ethan hollered at Titus, who promptly returned to Ethan’s side and sat, staring down his enemy.

  The soldier sat up and Kendra thought he looked vaguely familiar.

  “Hector,” Ethan said with a smile. “Fancy meeting you here. Out for a stroll?”

  Hector was the marine who’d investigated when she’d been shot at. He was not smiling. He got to his feet. “Not cool to bring your dog along to save your bacon.”

  “He didn’t save me,” Ethan said. “She did.”

  Kendra wriggled her fingers. “Hey, Hector. Sorry about that.”

  He eyed her name patch. “Thought your name was Kendra. How come you’re Jillian Masters all of a sudden?”

  Ethan shook his head. “Long story, but for now, she’s Jillian. You can confirm that with Colonel Masters.”

  “Jillian, as in your ex-wife Jillian?”

  He nodded.

  “Man,” Hector said, “you airmen sure know how to get yourself into a pile of trouble, don’t you?”

  “That’s an affirmative,” Ethan said.

  “Well, anyway, you’re dead ’cuz I got you down on the ground before ole slugger and Fido here saved you.”

  “No, sir,” Ethan said, holding his ancient Timex. “It’s zero five ten hours, Marine. You’re ten minutes past the deadline. We won.”

  Hector laughed. “All right. Leave it to Webb to land on his feet.” His smile vanished. “Lieutenant Masters, I am charged with delivering a message to you.”

  Kendra stiffened.

  “Yes?” she said.

  Hector brushed off his uniform, jammed a hand into his pack and pulled out a piece of paper. He held it out to Kendra, who took it. “Safe travels back to base.”

  Ethan waved and Hector began to clamber down the rocky trail.

  Kendra opened the note.

  I need to speak with you both immediately. Urgent. —Officer Alonso Carpenter.

  THIRTEEN

  Kendra puzzled over the message as they hiked back to the road. She desperately wished her cell phone signal would kick in.

  “We’ll be back in less than an hour. We can call from base or when our cell phones are operation. Whichever comes first,” Ethan said.

  In spite of the adrenaline, Kendra found her legs were leaden as she tried her best to keep up with Ethan and Titus. Muscles screamed for attention, made worse by the cold infiltrating her limbs via her damp clothing. After stopping twice to remove stickers from Titus’s paws, they finally made it to the frontage road that would take them to base. A smooth surface. She felt like cheering.

  Behind them, barely discernible in the gloom, were two other soldiers dragging themselves back to base, tired, hungry, no doubt as relieved as she was that it was all over. Somewhere sprinkled along the road were the rest of the trainees.

  She scratched at a row of mosquito bites on her neck, a new series of welts to replace the wasp stings that had died away. What had the whole exercise gained them? Not much. Sullivan had not showed his hand. Heidi Jenks had proved just as much of an enigma. Kendra had bared her soul to Ethan in the cave, only to have him back away. Now every muscle was screaming for her to stop, but they had a generous three miles to go back to base. She had a whole new admiration for the men and women of the US military.

  A hot shower, she told herself. She’d have a hot shower and a cheeseburger and then call Officer Carpenter. That mantra echoed in her mind as she forced one soggy boot in front of the other. The trail funneled toward a ten-foot bridge that spanned a narrow section of river. Below, the water roared, swollen from the spring rains. Still wet and clammy, she’d had quite enough water for one day.

  She’d moved a couple of feet onto the bridge, Ethan a few feet ahead of her, when a shout cut through the gray morning.

  She stopped, whirled and then she heard it.

  One shot, followed by three more.

  A soldier raced up the road, awkward in his heavy pack and muddy boots. “Incoming,” he hollered. “Guy’s driving crazy. I tried to fire some warning shots.”

  “What?” Kendra yelled.

  Tires squealed and a car with no lights careened past the soldier, who futilely fired another blank round at the tires.

  Kendra froze, staring as the car hurtled toward her.

  “Run,” Ethan shouted. He was beside her now, Titus barking wildly. “Get across the bridge to the woods on the other side.” He took up a position dead center in the road and began firing blank rounds at the car.

  “Ethan, no,” she yelled. “They’ll run you down.”

  “Go,” he snarled. “Now.”

  She ran farther onto the bridge, tossing aside her heavy pack. The car edged closer. Had Ethan got out of the way?

  Her boots weighed her feet down, but she ran as fast as she could, her pulse thundering, lungs straining, gasping for breath. Now the car was so close it kicked up gravel that struck the back of her neck. She turned to look, horrified to see the bumper inches away, the shadow of a figure in the driver’s seat cloaked in darkness, its gloved fingers gripping the wheel. She couldn’t see th
e driver’s face but he emitted the same kind of crazy she’d seen in Andy.

  Crazy, mixed with hatred and a need for vengeance that would only be satisfied with her death.

  With every ounce of energy she could muster, she sprinted for the other side, for the safety of the trees, but the end of the bridge might as well have been miles away.

  Despair hit hard and heavy as she realized she was not going to make it. She would be crushed under the wheels, the life expunged from her in a violent punch of metal on bone.

  No. God, give me strength. Just a little more.

  But she did not have the stamina to escape the car. There was only one way to survive...if she had the courage.

  In one explosive leap, she vaulted onto the bridge railing, sprawling across the rail, folded in half by the force. Time slowed down as she teetered there. The car scraped the side of the bridge, sending sparks, tremors that shook her body as she heaved herself over and plummeted down into the water.

  * * *

  Ethan scrambled up from the spot where he’d dived with Titus as the car roared past him. “Kendra!” His shout was lost in the grind of metal on metal as the vehicle scraped the rail, crossed the bridge and disappeared.

  His heart hammering and his stomach knotted, he ran. He pounded onto the bridge, scanning, searching, dreading what he would find.

  Where was Kendra?

  He found the impact site where the car had skimmed the side of the bridge. No Kendra. Titus put his paws up over the railing and barked. Ethan threw himself against the rail, staring down into the oil-black eddies.

  “Kendra!” he shouted as loud as he could. Forget the investigation, forget her cover. His heart burned, his soul ached with one thought only.

  He had to find her.

  Reversing course, he met the other soldier and Hector tearing up the road.

  “Sit rep, Airman,” Hector barked.

  “Vehicle headed north on Pine Hill Road,” Ethan told him. “Front and rear plates obscured. She...Jillian Masters is in the water. We need a rescue crew.”

  Hector pulled a radio from his belt and relayed the information. “Water’s moving fast,” he said to Ethan.

  He understood. By the time the rescue crew was in place, she might very well be dead. He got the flashlight from his pack and called Titus.

  Hector reached out a hand to stop him. “Ethan—”

  “I’m going to find her. You and the police get the car.”

  Several soldiers had gathered around.

  “That driver was nuts,” one said. “Like he was gunning right for her.”

  “How’d they pick her out?” his partner said. “We all look like filthy, dirty grunts.”

  Ethan’s gut clenched. The driver knew Kendra was with Ethan and the dog. Titus had been a neon sign. Come and get her.

  “Sir, permission to aid in the search for the victim,” one of the soldiers said.

  Hector considered. “You up to it, Soldier?”

  “Sir, yes, sir.”

  His compatriot chimed in as well. “Me, too, sir.”

  Hector nodded. “Report in every fifteen.”

  “Yes, sir,” the men said.

  Ethan felt a swell of gratitude for his brothers in arms.

  They shoved flashlights in their pockets and Hector handed one a first-aid kit along with a coil of rope and a radio.

  “We’ll take the north bank, Lieutenant,” one of the soldiers said.

  “I’ve got the south,” Ethan confirmed.

  “Good hunting, Marines.” Hector said. “You, too, Airman.”

  Ethan and Titus raced in the direction the current must have taken her. He prayed the water under the bridge was deep enough to absorb her fall without causing broken arms and legs or worse. The roar was intense along the shore. He and Titus pushed through the tall grasses. He was not sure Titus was a good enough tracker to detect Kendra’s scent in the water and the specialty they’d been training for recently wasn’t finding the living. Nonetheless, Titus stuck his nose to every muck-filled pocket and rock, wriggling his way along. Trust your dog.

  Under the dense shadows of the trees, Ethan shone the flashlight and shouted her name with every few feet. He heard the echo of the soldiers on the far bank doing the same. He shouted again and stopped to listen. No answer but the roar of water.

  His flashlight picked out a massive tree trunk, flipped on its side in the water, a mad tangle of roots protruding in every direction. The beam danced over the wet wood, and he was about to pass by when the light caught a flick of white in the darkness. He splashed in up to his knees, fighting the current, rubbing his eyes to be sure. This time he knew he was not mistaken. Curled around an exposed root was a tightly clenched fist.

  * * *

  Kendra was dizzy from her tumultuous journey, numb both from the icy water and her vicious impact into the river. She’d swallowed a lot of water and the cold was beginning to ice over her limbs, loosen her precarious grip on the root or branch or whatever it was that she had tumbled into. She had to hold on, recover enough to make it to shore, or call for help in case Ethan was within earshot.

  She remembered his defiant stance as he faced the car head on, firing shots into the front windshield. What if...?

  Stop thinking and start moving, she ordered herself, but her fingers were frozen into a desperate claw and she found she was shivering too much to even fill her lungs with air to call out.

  Cold.

  It was all she could think of.

  So cold.

  When something landed in the water near her she was too chilled to look.

  “I’ve got you,” a voice said.

  Ethan. Where had he come from? She wanted to fall into his arms but she could not move, could not let go. Her body would simply not obey.

  Titus grabbed hold of her uniform sleeve and began to tug.

  “Stop,” she whispered. “I’ll drown.”

  Ethan’s face swam into view through the spray. “Let go, honey. I’ve got you now.”

  Can’t. Cold. Scared.

  He put his face closer and kissed her. His lips were soft on hers, and she wanted to disappear inside the tenderness, the comfort, the warmth. The kiss was all she could feel. It was everything.

  “It’s okay,” he said, his eyes riveted to hers. “Trust me. I’m going to get you out of here.”

  Out of here. Trust me.

  He pried gently at her grip. “Put your hands around my neck. Here. Like this.” He prized her fingers from the wet wood and she almost screamed, but he placed them around his shoulders. She clung to him, his body strong and steady against the current.

  Trust me.

  She pressed her face to his, her lips against his stubbled jaw as he yelled to someone on shore. A rope splashed down in the water and Ethan fastened it around them. After a tug, a lurch that made her want to cry out again, they were in the thick of the current, being pummeled by the raging water.

  Sensing her rising panic, he pressed her head to his neck. “It’s okay. You’re okay. They’re pulling us out.”

  Ethan called to Titus, and when the dog did not follow quickly enough, he grabbed him with the arm that wasn’t fastened around her. Inch by inch, they were loosened from the iron grip of the water until she heard the mud squishing under Ethan’s boots.

  The others, soldiers, too, she realized, took her arms and moved her away from the water onto a flat rock outcropping. She felt rather than heard the man next to her snap to attention. “He’s gone back in.”

  She jackknifed to a sitting position.

  “Ethan? Why?” She thought she screamed the words but only a whisper came out.

  The soldier raced back to the water’s edge, running alongside the riverbed, shouting something she could not hear. She tried to crawl, but the other soldier held her back.r />
  “Stay here, ma’am. They’ll handle it.”

  “Handle it?” she gasped. “The water is a roller coaster and he’s wearing boots and gear. You have to help him. He’ll drown. Why would he go back in? Why?”

  “The dog, ma’am.”

  “Titus?”

  “He couldn’t make it out. Got loose and the water sucked him back in. The lieutenant went after him.”

  She stared. He’d risked his life for her and now he was doing the same thing for a dog. Not just a dog, a fellow soldier, a brother.

  “I want to help,” she said, trying to get her wobbling legs to cooperate as he unfolded a metallic blanket and draped it over her. She pushed it away.

  “Ma’am, stay here. You’re nearing hypothermic.”

  “I’ll warm up.”

  “No, ma’am.” He unclipped the radio from his belt. “Medic will be here shortly.”

  “I have to help Ethan. Titus...” She pictured the big goofy dog, stained with blackberry juice, trying to persuade Ethan that it was bedtime. Ethan’s best friend.

  She made it to her knees when the radio squawked.

  “Is he... Did they find him?”

  A funny look came over his face and he pointed upriver. She sank back to the ground, fear thick as the night air.

  Ethan clomped over the rocks, the other soldier at his side, Titus draped over his shoulders, a still, dark shadow. Her heart twisted into a knot until Titus raised his head and barked, a throaty, beautiful, raucous sound.

  She blinked back tears.

  Ethan knelt and eased Titus to the ground.

  “Nutty dog thinks he’s an Olympic swimmer. I told you to get out of the water. Didn’t you hear me?” He pressed his nose to the dog’s wet head. Titus slurped a lick over Ethan’s forehead. Ethan ordered him to a sit next to Kendra. She reached out a tentative arm. Ethan did not correct the dog, so he snuggled up next to her, shivering. She wrapped the silver blanket around them both, cuddling as much as she could of the wet animal.