“I’d much rather work with you than against you, Tanner,” Duke said.
Tanner raised up a finger.
“For me, you’ll work for me, not with me.”
“Whatever you say, I’m just glad that you two aren’t still trying to kill each other.”
Sara suggested that they move back onto the balcony and, once there, Duke told them what little he knew.
“As you can guess, Guambi isn’t exactly a place where I have a lot of contacts and so the two of you will be going in blind.”
Tanner stared at Sara.
“The two of us? You’re not planning on coming along after we get there, are you?”
“Of course I am. This is my sister we’re talking about and I think you know that I can take care of myself.”
“Yes you can, here in the city, but the jungle is different and as a woman you won’t be able to keep up.”
Sara’s eyes blazed.
“That’s sexist!”
“No, that’s a fact and simple physiology. I’m faster than you, Blake; my legs are longer and I have greater stamina. I may need to cover long distances quickly without resting and if I do, you won’t be able to keep up.”
Sara made a face of displeasure, followed by a nod of assent.
“That’s all true and I may lag behind, but I’m still coming with you to find my sister, and I’ll be responsible for myself. Your only job is to find Jenny and get her to safety, agreed?”
Tanner didn’t appear pleased, but he nodded in agreement and spoke to Duke.
“Fine, now what about weapons?”
Duke grimaced.
“I do have contacts in Jakarta through an old friend and he says that the con artists and thieves in the region outnumber the legitimate gun dealers. So be advised, my friend says that this arms dealer in Telunas can be trusted, but not always and that you’ll have to check your weapons carefully to make sure that he’s not trying to sell you junk.”
“That’s not reassuring,” Tanner said.
Duke shrugged.
“It is what it is.”
“How well armed are the rebels?”
Duke brightened, as he rubbed his palms together.
“There’s one piece of good news there. When they attacked the capital, they were unable to breach the armory and the military there remains loyal to the government. Few of the rebels will have guns and most of them will be armed with machetes or knives.”
“What about the passports?” Sara said.
Duke reached into an inside pocket of his suit coat and his hand emerged with an envelope that contained two complete sets of phony ID’s.
He laid them out on a glass-top coffee table before Sara and Tanner and after reading them, they both jerked their heads up and asked Duke the same question.
“We’re supposed to be married?”
Duke grinned.
“It will arouse less suspicion.”
His hand went into a side pocket and this time it emerged with two gold bands.
“I guessed on the sizes; I hope that they fit.”
They tried the rings on and saw that they were about the right size and then they both removed them until they would be needed.
Duke typed on Sara’s laptop for a few moments and brought up a map of Guambi. Afterwards, he pointed towards a large section of the northwestern part of the nation, which was bordered on two sides by the Indian Ocean and the country of Telunas.
“It’s believed by some that most of the rebels are based in this area, although satellites have been unable to verify that and they’ll likely move their camp frequently. Aside from the kidnappings, they’re also suspected of pirating small pleasure craft. The area is just a mess right now.”
“How do we get to Guambi, by plane?” Tanner asked.
“The airfield is still closed and the State Department is advising all Americans to stay away, so you’ll have to travel in on foot. This chaos all broke out while Sara’s sister was in the air, and if she had left a day later, her flight would have been cancelled.”
Duke looked up from the screen and stared at both of them.
“What you two are planning to do is hopeless. A native of the country would have a problem locating the rebels and if you did find a group of them, there’s no guarantee that they would be the ones that took Sara’s sister.”
“What do you think Jenny’s odds are, Duke?”
Duke sighed loudly.
“The truth, fifty-fifty, and that’s only because your father is willing and able to pay. Most of the time, the negotiations fall apart because the rebels ask too much, but luckily for your sister, your old man is loaded.”
“I’m not willing to sit back and just hope for the best,” Sara said, and looked at Tanner. “I studied you when I was tracking you down and over the last few weeks I’ve seen you do some incredible things, including today inside that freezer. If anyone can find and free my sister, it’s you.”
Duke looked at Tanner and then Sara.
“What happened inside the freezer?”
“Tanner got free from the cuffs and rigged a trap. Once I stepped inside, he could have killed me.”
“And she could have stayed outside the freezer and shot me to death, but she didn’t,” Tanner said. “Instead, she gave me her gun.”
Sara leaned towards him.
“I need you to trust me again. I really think you’re the only chance my sister has.”
“I’ll do my best, Blake, but honestly, a team of Mercs might be a better option.”
Duke cleared his throat.
“Not so, I heard a news report on the way here. The father of one of the other hostages is Conrad Burke, as in Burke, the multi-national, the defense contractor. He allegedly assembled a team of ten men and sent them in after his youngest daughter. One of them stumbled out of the jungle today with third-degree burns and said that they were ambushed and slaughtered, as far as they know, he was the only survivor.”
“An ambush that was set up that quickly tells me that they have eyes everywhere,” Tanner said.
Duke nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, Burke’s group had been headquartered in the neighboring country of Telunas, which is where you’ll be staying after your night in Jakarta, at their resort area, and the extremists are gaining ground there as well. Someone on the hotel staff, a taxi driver, or even someone at the airfield could have tipped the rebels. Trust no one.”
Tanner pointed at the map.
“From what part of the country was Blake’s sister kidnapped?”
“She and two other hostages were at a relief center in the eastern part of Guambi,” Duke said.
“How certain are you that she and the other hostages are being marched northward?”
“I’m not certain at all. This is all just extrapolation from known facts, but the mercenaries were attacked north of the area where the hostages were taken, which does indicate that they’re moving in that direction.”
“That’s good; it means that we’ll have a chance of intercepting them.”
***
Duke wished them luck before leaving, and soon after, Tanner and Sara left the apartment and climbed into the limo that would take them to the airport.
Sara offered Tanner her phone.
“Do you want to call someone, maybe Laurel?”
“No.”
“Why not? You should let her know that you’re alive.”
“I’ll do that if I live through this, otherwise, what’s the point?”
Sara turned in her seat until she was facing him.
“You’ll find my sister and then we’ll go our separate ways. I hated you for a long time, Tanner, but I never doubted your abilities. I locked you in a room with your feet shackled and your hands cuffed behind your back and I returned to a death trap. Most men would have surrendered, one or two might have gotten free of the cuffs, but only you could turn the tables like that. Use that devious brain of yours to find my sister and bring her home.”
Tanner said nothing in return and Sara shifted back in her seat until she was staring forward once more. Five minutes passed before she spoke again.
“I don’t hate you, not anymore. I don’t have the strength for it and it was my hatred for you that caused Johnny’s death. I have to live with that.”
She cried softly, as Tanner watched her impassively, but as the taxi drove onto the Grand Central Parkway, he offered some advice.
“You’ve stopped hating me, now stop hating yourself.”
“That’s easier said than done,” Sara said.
“Yes, but then, what isn’t?”
Sara pondered those words, and despite her somber mood, she smiled.
END OF FREE SAMPLE OF SUICIDE OR DEATH – TANNER – BOOK 7
A PLEA
Thank you, precious reader, for spending time with Tanner. I hope you enjoyed the book. If you did, please consider writing a review. Without reviews, an author's books are virtually invisible on the retail sites. Let other readers know what you thought! You can leave a review by visiting the book's page and I will greatly appreciate it.
Thank you!
—Remington Kane
ALSO BY REMINGTON KANE
The TANNER Series in order
INEVITABLE I - A Tanner Novel - Book 1
KILL IN PLAIN SIGHT - A Tanner Novel - Book 2
MAKING A KILLING ON WALL STREET - A Tanner Novel - Book 3
THE FIRST ONE TO DIE LOSES - A Tanner Novel - Book 4
THE LIFE & DEATH OF CODY PARKER - A Tanner Novel - Book 5
WAR - A Tanner Novel - Book 6
SUICIDE OR DEATH – A Tanner Novel – Book 7
TWO FOR THE KILL – A Tanner Novel – Book 8
BALLET OF DEATH – A Tanner Novel – Book 9
MORE DANGEROUS THAN MAN – A Tanner Novel – Book 10
Also
DESOLATION LAKE
And written as Donald Wells
TAKEN! - LOVE CONQUERS ALL
TAKEN! - SECRETS & LIES
TAKEN! - STALKER
TAKEN! - BREAKOUT!
TAKEN! - THE THIRTY-NINE
TAKEN! - KIDNAPPING THE DEVIL
TAKEN! - HIT SQUAD
TAKEN! - MASQUERADE
TAKEN! - SERIOUS BUSINESS
TAKEN! - THE COUPLE THAT SLAYS TOGETHER
TAKEN! - PUT ASUNDER
TAKEN! - LIKE BOND, ONLY BETTER
TAKEN! - MEDIEVAL
TAKEN! - RISEN!
TAKEN! - VACATION
TAKEN! - MICHAEL (Available October 31)
REDEMPTION - Someone's taken her
LEARN ABOUT NEW RELEASES FROM
REMINGTON KANE
http://www.remingtonkane.com/contact.html
TO CONTACT:
www.remingtonkane.com
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Did you love The TANNER Series - Books 4-6? Then you should read Suicide or Death by Remington Kane!
Sara Blake offers Tanner a no-win proposition.
Meanwhile, Joe Pullo must cope with the aftermath of tragedy, as war looms on the horizon.
Read more at Remington Kane’s site.
The TANNER Series - Books 4-6 (Tanner Box Set Book 2) Page 41
