by Desiree Holt
“I don’t know. What do I seem to be?”
He led her back inside. “I guess I’m not too old to be surprised,” he told Dan, nodding. “She’s good to go.”
Troy was eyeing her for a fit with clothing when Joey, who they’d all thought was asleep, yelled to them from the bedroom.
“Hey. Come here, all of you. Right now.”
Flashing looks of concern at each other, they rushed to the room. Joey was sitting up in bed, watching the small television hooked to a satellite receiver. Panic flashed in his eyes.
“Take a look at the news.” He pointed to the screen.
Dan stared at the image of a home engulfed in flames.
“A total destruction of the home of well-known author Faith Wilding. Investigators have yet to determine the cause…”
“Shit,” Rick ground out.
Faith moved to look at the television. “What… Oh my God! That’s my house.” She looked up at Rick. “My house is burning down.” She turned to push past him but he caught her arms.
“Where are you going?”
“I-I-I have to call someone. Everything I own is in that house.” She tugged at his grasp. “Let me get my phone.”
He tightened his grip. “First of all, your cell phone won’t work up here. You’d need a satellite phone.”
“Which you have, right?” Her arms were upraised her hands curled into fists as she continued to try to free herself.
“Yes but I’m not letting you use one. Faith!” He raised his voice. “Listen to me, will you?”
She fought back the tears burning her eyelids. This was no time to fall apart. “Please let me go. I have to call someone. My agent. The fire department. Somebody.”
“No.” Dan had moved to stand beside her. “Faith, this is exactly what they want. This is why they did it.”
She stared up at him, shocked. “You mean this was set deliberately?”
“I’d bet on it. They tried to kill you, we made you disappear, now they need to get you out in the open.”
“Dan’s right,” Rick added. “Whoever these people are, they’re obviously pretty powerful. Penny ante crooks wouldn’t do something as drastic as setting your house on fire.”
“And I guarantee you,” Dan picked up again, “they’ve got every place monitored that you might call. They’ll trace you and swoop in to get you.”
Tia had been standing in front of the set, watching with stunned horror as firemen worked to subdue the flames without much success. She turned to her friend. “Faith, they’re right. You’ve obviously pushed some pretty powerful buttons and now you’re a liability. They need to get rid of you before you do any more damage.”
Faith couldn’t stop shaking, hardly able to absorb the fact that every personal possession she had in the world was gone. The first editions of her books, her notes, family pictures and mementoes. God, the list was endless. She realized what people felt like who lost their identities.
“Those are just things,” Tia reminded her. “Maybe you can’t replace them but at least you weren’t in the house. Be grateful for that.”
Rick led her gently back into the living room, sat her at the table and motioned for Troy to pour some brandy in a glass. He wrapped her hands around the tumbler of whiskey. “Drink this, but just a sip, enough to counteract the shock to your system. You’ll need all your wits about you on this trip.”
Shock didn’t begin to describe what she felt. Her body trembled all over and she felt as if her veins were filled with ice. She had to use both hands to grip the glass as she lifted it to her mouth. Even then a few drops splashed onto her fingers.
Dan seated himself across from her. “Tell me again who you talked to about Mark.”
“Only Major Gregorio and Colonel Ryan. But I asked Senator Winslow to help me get into Fort Bragg. The major wasn’t returning my phone calls.” She gave them a brief recap of her conversations, shivering at the look they exchanged. “What?”
“I can promise you the leak didn’t come from Gregorio or Ryan,” Dan said. “That means Winslow is somehow in bed with the devil. He wasn’t fooled a bit by your ploy of wanting to write a different kind of book.”
“Something you said pulled a trigger with him,” Rick pointed out. “My guess is he or someone else had you checked out and found out more about your relationship with Halloran than you’d want them to know. If they’re the ones in bed with the enemy, it was decided you were a liability.”
If possible she began to tremble even more. She quickly lifted the glass to her lips and took a healthy swallow, sputtering as the fiery liquid burned her throat.
Troy handed her a glass of water and smiled at her. “Try sipping it. Goes down a lot easier.”
“Thanks.” She drank most of the water, then turned back to Dan and Rick. “So what do I do now? My life was in that house.”
“I know and I’m sorry.” She could tell he was choosing his words carefully. “I don’t mean to make light of your loss but things are replaceable. People aren’t. But you went through all of this to help Mark. Are you strong enough to put this aside until we do what we need to?”
What she really wanted to do was jump into bed, pull the covers over her head and cry. But overriding it all was the fact that Mark needed her. That she was his only link to a rescue. Rick was right. There was nothing in that house that couldn’t be replaced. There was only one Mark. And she’d just realized fully the depth of her feelings for him.
She took in a deep breath and let it out. “I’ll be okay.” Her voice was shaky, so she swallowed and tried again. “I’m fine. I can do this.”
Dan smiled at her. “Good. Now, let me ask you. Do you trust us?”
She widened her eyes. “What a question. Of course.”
“Then I’m going to draw up a short document for you to sign giving us power of attorney. Write down your insurance information and anything else you think pertinent. We’ll fax everything to our attorney. He’ll act on your behalf and you can get this off your mind.”
“You’d do this for me?” She looked from one to the other.
“It’s what we do for our friends,” Dan told her.
Now she really did want to cry. Then another thought struck her. “My parents. Oh my God, they’ll be frantic because they can’t reach me.”
Rick handed her one of the satellite phones. “Call them but give them no information. Okay?”
She nodded. “I know what to do.”
“Okay.” Dan rose from the table. “Let’s get it done, folks.”
The atmosphere in the cabin was noticeably more charged, as if everyone’s adrenaline level had spiked. Which, Faith thought, it probably had. The fire, added to the importance and danger of the mission, had everyone just that much more on edge. While the men were going through their routine, she was pulled addictively back to the television, unable to draw herself away from the news reports.
“I’m sorry about your house.” The voice was slightly slurred.
Faith jumped. She’d thought Joey had succumbed to the medication again. “Oh. Thank you.”
“It must be like watching your life destroyed,” he commented, with perception far beyond his years.
She had been shocked to see how young he was when Rick had brought her into the room to introduce her.
“I’d think you’ve seen worse things,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, but not quite as up close and personal.”
“Joey, I’m so glad you’re recovering. That you’re going to be okay.”
He reached for her hand and she took it, squeezing gently. “The guys will get Mark back. Don’t you worry.”
Somewhere she found a smile for him. “I know they will. And thanks for saying that.”
In less than an hour they had Faith set up with their attorney, outfitted her with the gear she’d need and checked her over to make sure she knew how everything worked and gotten themselves rigged out.
“What about the wet suits?” Faith asked
, watching as Troy rolled them up into thin bundles.
“Just in case,” told her. “If we have to do a water drop we’ll need them. But we’ll wait on that.”
She noticed the men carried .45 caliber handguns, not the nine millimeter like hers.
“Better stopping power,” Mike explained. “But more gun than you need. You manage that Glock and you’ll be okay.”
“And what are these?” She pointed to the one he was working on.
“That, darlin’, is an AK47. The most dependable rifle ever made. Doesn’t jam. Doesn’t misfire. Easy to field strip. And highly accurate.”
“A killing machine,” she commented.
Mike looked up at her without a trace of humor in his eyes. “In this kind of situation, that’s exactly what you want.”
She couldn’t help the chill that danced along her spine.
In the kitchen Troy was packing a large knapsack with water and granola bars. “Bullets and beer,” he told her.
His jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”
“Two things you carry on a mission like this—ammo so you don’t run out and water so you don’t dehydrate. We throw in a granola bar just in case.” He buckled a wide equipment belt around her waist. “I’ll give you your stuff before we land.”
She noticed Rick working with a gun different from the AK47 and asked him about it. She needed to keep talking to quell her anxiety and nerves.
“This is a Barrett .50 caliber. It’s a long range sniper rifle, the kind my brother uses.”
“And you,” she added.
“Yes. And me.”
“So does this mean you’re planning to set up as a sniper when we get there? What will everyone else be doing?”
“Don’t worry. Everything’s covered.” He studied her face for a moment. “You never did tell me how you dug up all this information about me. Or how you knew to call Phoenix.”
So she told him about Andy and the things he did for her. The unbelievable computer expertise. His ability to hack into any computer, anywhere, anytime. Without leaving cyber footprints. And his absolute loyalty and discretion.
Rick just shook his head. “When we get out of this, bring him to see me. We can sure use a guy like that.”
“All right. I will.”
“Meanwhile, I sent your hate email up here for us to check out. Let’s send it to Andy and get him to track it while we do our thing.”
“Okay.” Using the satellite phone, she called Andy, told him what she needed, then waited while Troy sent the email and Andy let her know he’d received it.
“This shouldn’t take long,” he told her.
Whatever he found would be one more piece of evidence as they tried to identify the people behind this whole mess.
She tried to put the fire at the back of her mind, despite the awful sense of destruction she was feeling. In spite of her efforts, though, she couldn’t stay away from the television, the horror of the scene continued to sicken her.
“It’s…devastating.” She fought back the nausea that bubbled up from her unsettled stomach. What kind of people destroyed a person’s whole life like this?
“The captain…”
Faith jumped, unaware that Joey had awakened. She hurried to bring him some water, which he drank gratefully.
“The captain,” he began again. “He’ll kill them, you know.”
She dredged up a smile for him. “And I plan to make sure he gets back here to do just that.”
Finally, realizing she was just getting in everyone’s way, she looked for Tia and found her in the second bedroom. Pulling on a warm sweater and socks someone had found for her.
“You doing okay?” Tia’s face was filled with concern. “You don’t look so great.”
“I’m fine.” Faith flapped a hand at her. “I’ll be doing a lot better when we find Mark.”
At the mention of his name she was overcome with an urge to reach out to him, to assure herself he was still alive.
Mark. She waited but there was no response. She focused her mind the way Aunt Vivi had instructed. She also let herself reach back to the circle in Vivi’s kitchen, the energy circle where the women had infused her with psychic strength.
Mark, she tried again.
Too late. The voice was deep and slammed into her like a steel wall. In an instant she felt an overwhelming presence of evil pressing into her. Her lungs felt compressed as if they didn’t have enough air in them.
Mark! She tried to scream it in her head but what came out was less than a whisper.
Death is waiting for him. Say goodbye.
She grabbed her throat, invisible fingers squeezing her windpipe.
“Faith?” Tia was in front of her, a shimmering image. “Can you hear me? Breathe, okay?”
And then it was all gone. Dispersed, like so much smoke, as if it had never been there.
Faith collapsed back onto the bed, a fine sheen of perspiration on her face, dizziness threatening to engulf her.
“I’m getting Troy.” Tia headed for the door.
“No!” Faith shouted at her, swallowed and lowered her voice. “No, please. Do not get anyone.”
“But…”
“I’m asking you please. If they see me like this they’ll never let me go with them.”
“And maybe you shouldn’t.” Tia’s eyes were filled with worry.
“I have to.” She forced herself to stand up. “Especially now. But first I have to borrow one of their phones and call Aunt Vivi. I need her help.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Let me get this straight.” The man known as Digger was pacing in his library, having left his office to conduct business too volatile to be open to detection. “You burned down her house. She hasn’t shown up. There are police and fire investigators all over the place. And we’re still no farther ahead than we were before.”
Mr. Green popped a Tums in his mouth. At this rate they’d become the staple of his diet. “It was a calculated risk.”
“Calculated risk?” Digger’s voice rose at least ten decibels. A vein at the side of his neck bulged and throbbed and his skin color was a dangerous shade of red. “That’s what you call this unbelievable disaster?”
“We discussed this with you,” Green began.
“No.” Digger banged his fist on his thigh as he walked. “You talked. I listened. I told you it was a stupid idea. You explained to me why it would work. Instead we’ve created a page one news story that could lead to all kinds of other things.”
“They won’t find any trace of arson,” Green assured him, mopping his forehead with his handkerchief.
“They damn well better not.” Another silence stretched. “I’m tempted to tell you to get yourselves back here but I think you’d better stay around another day or so, just to see what shakes out. Someone will show up to handle things for the elusive Miss Wilding. I want to know who it is and where they came from.”
“We’ll handle it,” Green promised.
“Better than you’ve handled everything else so far,” Digger warned. “I should have had you eliminated after the first fiasco.”
The call disconnected.
Green paled as he snapped his own phone shut.
“I take it he’s not too happy,” Brown guessed.
Green glared at him. “I’d say that’s a masterpiece of understatement.” He turned back to the television. They’d seen the bit on the fire at least a dozen times. Now the local news was on, giving it full coverage, interviewing everyone who could put two words together. At the moment they had the arson investigator on and Green leaned forward to catch his statement better.
“We aren’t finished going through everything,” the man was saying. “There are still too many hot spots. But our first determination is faulty wiring was the cause. We have to take a closer look to be sure.”
“The police have said no one was home,” the reporter commented. “Is that true?”
“At least we haven’t found any bodies yet. But we
also haven’t heard from the owner.”
The reporter turned full face to the camera. “Hear that, folks? If anyone knows the whereabouts of famous author Faith Wilding, please ask her to get in touch with the fire department at the number on your screen. Miss Wilding, if you’re seeing this, it’s urgent that you contact the authorities.”
Green punched the Off button on the remote and the images disappeared. Yes, Miss Wilding, where in the fucking hell are you?
“Do we go home, then?” Brown’s posture and tone were good signals of how little that prospect appealed to him.
“No. We get one more chance. Come on, let’s get out of this room for a while and I’ll tell you what we need to do.”
* * * * *
Tia looked at the two men who arrived to do sentry duty, rolled her eyes and whispered to Faith, “Take all the time you want. What a couple of hunks.”
“Tall, dark and deadly,” Faith agreed and indeed they were.
Well over six feet, with jet black hair and eyes the color of coal, they had a grim, lethal look that said, “Don’t mess with me.”
Rick explained that, like Troy, one of them had been a medic and was well qualified to take on Joey’s care.
It took only minutes to load everything into the helicopter, despite the rain that wouldn’t let up, and then they were lifting off, fighting the winds that came in over the ocean and swept up the cliffs, settling down at last as Ed found a smooth pathway. They’d chosen to have him fly rather than Mike because someone needed to be on point with the copter and Mike was needed in the mission.
Faith found the big Bell Ranger surprisingly quiet considering it had been stripped down inside to a bare shell. None of the acoustical cushioning of the fixtures on the trip up. Instead, the space was taken up with firepower, comm gear, other items like NVGs, which she learned stood for night visions goggles, the wet suits and instruments that could read heat signatures. Faith tried not to look too hard at the stash of medical supplies and the litter stowed at the back of the cabin. She prayed hard that Mark would still be alive when they found him and able to make use of those things.
