Enemy Mine

by Lindsay McKenna

  Yes, this was a better plan. Steal the information from the computer and then work out an escape route for Sophie and herself. That seemed daunting to Kathy. Stealing the computer file was nothing in comparison to an escape. There were only two reliable ways to get out of Agua Caliente: by train or helicopter. Even if she made it to Cuzco, she knew Garcia would be alerted, and he had a lot of men there who would cover the airport, which was the only way practical to get out of the Andean city and back down to Lima. No, it was a terrifying task, and Kathy knew she had to plan very carefully or her life would be forfeit.

  First she had to sleep, so she’d be rested. Lying down, Kathy was glad for the overhead fan that moved the sluggish, heavy air around in the room. Even though the window was open, it was still muggy. As she closed her eyes she heard the far-off sound of thunder rumbling. That was the one thing she loved about the jungle—dramatic thunderstorms that would roll across the area at any time, day or night.

  With that last thought, Kathy fell asleep deeply for the first time since she’d arrived at the villa.

  MAC COULTER COULDN’T HELP but chuckle as he stood at the gate. Inside the corral, Kathy led Tiki around on her pony, Harry Potter, named after the famous child magician. Sophie sat on the white Andalusian gelding called General. The little girl had a small smile on her face, which warmed his heart. Kathy had the reins from each horse in her hands as she led them around the large corral at a sedate walk. The early morning air was cool, with gray clouds hanging, as usual, about a thousand feet above the jungle canopy. Resting his arms on the top rail, Mac grinned as Kathy rounded the corral and spotted him.

  “Looks like fun,” he called. He saw her eyes narrow slightly. Was something wrong? Mac hadn’t seen her in a week, since returning from Cuzco. Not that he didn’t want to see her after that life-altering kiss, but Garcia kept him plenty busy flying the chopper.

  Tiki waved gaily. “Look! I’m riding, Señor Coulter!”

  “So you are,” Mac laughed. “You look like a real cow-girl, Tiki.” And she did. Garcia had bought her a cowboy hat, a set of bright red leather chaps and black boots. The little girl laughed and waved one hand, while she gripped the horn of the western saddle with the other.

  Mac shifted his gaze to the white gelding Kathy led. Sophie seemed happy—or as happy as she could be under the circumstances. He could tell she loved this outing. His gaze moved back to Kathy, who smiled at him. She brought the horses to a stop where he stood.

  “You ride much?” she asked. Kathy had seen so little of Mac since their heated kiss. She ached for him. For his company. As she searched his twinkling gray eyes, she found herself snared by his maleness, no matter if he was a drug dealer or not. It was a bittersweet moment.

  “Me? Yeah, I’ve thrown a leg over a horse now and then. Why?”

  “Well, I need a riding partner for about an hour. Interested?

  Grinning, Mac shrugged. “Sure.” Any time spent with Kathy was valuable. He met her clear blue eyes and felt helpless. Her smile reached her eyes, and that made him feel good and strong as a man. “What’s the plan?”

  “Well, these two ladies are doing so well that I thought I’d ride General, the white Andalusian here, and put Tiki’s pony on a longe line so that she could walk next to me. I’d like to ride down to the meadow below the villa here. But I need help. If you could ride the gray Andalusian, Hector, with Sophie behind you on the saddle, we could go. What do you think? Are you game?”

  Any time spent with you is worth it. Mac didn’t say the words. He climbed between the wooden rails. “Sure. Is Hector saddled?”

  “No, but the tack is in the room next to his box stall.” Kathy didn’t want to watch Mac as he moved, but she did, anyway. He had on a pair of jeans this morning, his tennis shoes and a form-fitting polo shirt of navy blue that outlined his magnificent chest and proud shoulders. Trying not to remember how her hands had explored his body, or the pulverizing kiss he’d given her, she managed a twisted smile. “This will take an hour. Do you have it to spare?” She knew he was doing a lot more flying of late. Something must be up with Garcia’s drug ties, but she didn’t know what.

  “Sure. I’ve got a flight in two hours, no prob,” Mac called over his shoulder, heading across the deep sand of the arena to the tack room. “You get the girls ready and I’ll be out to meet you in no time at all.”

  So, he was a cowboy, too. Was there anything Mac didn’t do well? Kathy wondered as she opened the gate and led the horses out, with her charges on them. She tinkered with the girth on Tiki’s saddle and made sure the little girl traded in her cowboy hat for a safety helmet. She handed one up to Sophie and asked her to put it on.

  The morning was brisk, the sky still gray, and birds were singing in the jungle. Kathy stood between the horses, waiting patiently for Mac to reappear. She loved to ride and this was a chance to get away from the villa and nose around. The outing for the girls was a good excuse to scout the surrounding terrain to see if there was an escape route for her and Sophie later on.

  Mac Coulter reappeared astride Hector, and rode as if he’d been married to the horse forever. Sitting straight and tall, one hand on the reins, he pulled a baseball cap from his back pocket and settled it on his head. Hector was sixteen hands tall, a gunmetal-gray color with silvery dapples across his body. The horse had a lot of fire and spirit, which was why Kathy wouldn’t allow Sophie to ride him. The gelding was a handful and not for a beginning rider. Beneath Mac’s capable hands, however, the horse was collected, lifting his feet high as he danced toward them, and arching his neck.

  “Do I look like a knight in shining armor?” Mac teased as he guided Hector up to them. He saw Kathy grin sourly. “Well, maybe a knight without armor?” he added.

  Laughing softly, Kathy tied General’s reins around the railing and then lifted Sophie out of the saddle. “I suppose you want me to call you Sir Coulter?” She carried the girl over to Mac, who leaned down and settled Sophie behind him. Kathy watched him make sure that she was comfortable, her legs situated properly across Hector’s broad back and her arms around Mac’s narrow waist.

  He looked across his shoulder at Sophie. “You okay back there, honey? You can hold on to me so that you don’t fall off. Hector seems a little frisky today.”

  Sophie looked up and said, “I’m fine, Mr. Coulter. I rode every day at home. I have my own horse, Jelly Bean. Before that I always rode with my dad on his horse, and I’d sit like this behind him.”

  The sadness in her shadowed eyes tore at Mac. He kept the smile pasted on his face, but he felt like crying for the child. “Sophie, we’re good to go, then. And you can call me Mac, okay? All my friends do.”

  “Okay, Mr. Mac.”

  Chuckling, Mac looked over to see Kathy mounting the smaller gelding, General. She did it like a pro and was obviously no stranger to the saddle. Her jeans and white cotton blouse showed off her body to advantage. And he couldn’t stop admiring the glow in her expression. She was beautiful to him.

  Tiki shrieked with delight as she steered her pony alongside General. The movement brought Mac’s thoughts back to earth.

  “I think we’re ready, Sir Mac,” Kathy called to him.

  Grinning, he said, “I’ll lead the way, my ladies.” He turned the eager Hector toward the rear gate. The two guards stationed there quickly opened it so they could ride through.

  As they left the villa behind, Kathy began to feel lighter and lighter. Mac had his hands full with Hector, who was dancing, his legs lifting high as they went down the gently sloping trail. Sophie rode behind him like a pro, her face alight with joy. Tiki was all smiles, her hands clinging to the saddle horn. Fortunately, General was a quiet horse in comparison to the hot-blooded Hector. Mac was a damn good rider. And Sophie, bless her heart, seemed to be enjoying Hector’s dancing antics. Yes, it was turning out to be a wonderful morning in the most unexpected of ways.

  The oval meadow was two miles long, with jungle on all sides. Kathy noted many animal
paths branching off the main trail that ran down the center of the field. Were they paths to freedom? Maybe one would lead her and Sophie out of here.

  Hector finally settled down, and Mac pulled him to a walk next to General. “Nice area, isn’t it?” He saw how light Kathy’s eyes had become. She looked utterly relaxed for the first time.

  “It’s beautiful! I’m so glad we have this meadow to ride in.”

  “Oh, you haven’t seen it all yet,” Mac said, gesturing to the far end. “There’s more beyond this.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah, come on, I’ll show you.”

  The clouds were lifting higher and higher as the sun burned them off. When the riders approached the end of the meadow, Mac took the lead.

  “Follow us,” he called over his shoulder as he urged Hector down a narrow path through the thick jungle.

  Frowning, Kathy positioned Tiki and her pony behind General. The little girl was having the time of her life and, lucky for her, the pony knew to follow nose-to-tail on the narrow trail.

  They walked down a steep embankment, after which the trail curved sharply. The horses dug in their hooves and shifted their weight to their rear legs to keep from falling on their noses. Alarmed at the steepness, Kathy twisted around in the saddle to make sure that Tiki was all right. The little girl was a natural rider and seemed overjoyed at the challenge.

  Suddenly, the trail reached another meadow. As Kathy emerged from the tree line, her attention was fixed on Tiki and her pony. She didn’t see what was parked there until she lifted her head, and then she gasped. A dark green, U.S.-made Blackhawk helicopter sat on a concrete pad right in front of them. Obviously, this meadow had been hacked out of the jungle with a lot of machete work, to make room for this bird. A Blackhawk! Her heart pounded. She knew how to fly it!

  “You recognize it?” Mac asked, staring so deep into her soul that she had to glance away.

  “It’s a Blackhawk, isn’t it?”

  “Bingo.”

  “What’s it doing here? It’s not a commercial helicopter, is it?” Kathy couldn’t believe her eyes. Her heart pounded with excitement. This was her escape vehicle!

  Chuckling, Mac said, “It’s the patrón’s secret escape helicopter. He bought it from a foreign country, uh, sort of on the sly, so to speak.”

  There were no markings on the helo, and Kathy saw it had weapons on board. “Wow,” she muttered. “This is a real surprise.” And it was. The best kind of surprise. She stilled her desire to kick General forward, dismount and check out the bird more closely. No one could know that she was trained to fly a Blackhawk. No one. Yet her hands itched to climb in and refamiliarize herself with the controls. How she missed flying.

  “Yeah, it’s impressive, isn’t it?” Mac had witnessed the look on Kathy’s face when she’d first seen the helo. Shock would be the word he’d use to describe it. And then her face had flushed, her cheeks becoming a bright pink. There was a new, intense interest in her eyes as she examined the chopper, and she couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away.

  “More than impressive.” Kathy gulped. “Do you fly it?”

  “Yeah, I can and do. It doesn’t lift off often for a lot of reasons, but I do maintenance flights to keep everything on-line and up to speed.”

  “Does anyone else at the villa know how to fly it?”

  Mac shook his head.

  “You must have gotten your training in the military to know how to pilot it?” Kathy tried to keep her tone light, but she was dying to know. She saw Mac give her a slight smile.

  “I was in the U.S. Army for a while.” Well, that was a lie, but that was his cover story.

  “And you flew Blackhawks….” Kathy said, awed. Oh, this was too good to be true. She had a way to escape now! If Mac was the only one who could fly the bird, then she only had him to worry about when she made her escape attempt with Sophie. And the helo was armed. That was even better, for the Bell helicopter was a standard commercial type and had no armaments. It couldn’t be used to shoot the Blackhawk down.

  “Yes, well, you know why the patrón bought one with rockets, missiles and a cannon on it?”

  “No,” Kathy said. “I don’t.” She stopped and let Tiki ride around her. The little girl smiled and guided the pony with ease.

  “Remember you asked me about that black, unmarked Apache helicopter you saw on the trail during your test?”

  “Yes?”

  Mac decided to level with her. “There’s a U.S. Army black ops group that flies around this area.” He halted Hector and Sophie seemed content to sit quietly behind him and watch Tiki ride her pony.

  She frowned. “Oh?” A U.S. black ops? Here? She hadn’t known about it. So many operations were compartmentalized on a need-to-know basis. Kathy figured that was why Patrick hadn’t known about it before she initiated this mission.

  “Yeah,” Mac said, “they’re stationed about fifty miles from here. They use a cave inside a mountain as their base. Everyone knows about them, but no one challenges them. The Peruvian government knows they’re here, too.”

  “But why are they here?”

  “They interdict drug flights that originate in Peru, and stop them from flying out of the country.” He saw the surprise in her eyes.

  Mac didn’t want to say much more. “Anyway, the reason I’m telling you this is that it’s also known that, to counter their presence, some drug lords have bought Russian made Ka-50 Black Shark combat helicopters, and hired mercenary pilots who know how to use them. They even the odds against the Apache gunships.”

  All this was news to her. Gulping, Kathy said, “I’ve never seen any of them around here except on that trail.”

  “You probably never will.” Mac pointed behind them, in the direction of Agua Caliente. “No one plays out their stealth and dagger games around a global tourist spot like Machu Picchu. All the war games go on down below, about thirty miles from here. No one wants tourists going home and telling the newspapers they saw armed helicopters from the U.S. or unmarked Russian ones flying near the temple complex.” He grinned wryly. “Wouldn’t be good press for either side, you know?”

  Swallowing her surprise, Kathy couldn’t tear her gaze from the Blackhawk. “That makes sense, I guess. But I had no idea…” She waved helplessly toward the bird.

  In truth, she wanted to yell, to jump up and down for joy, but she didn’t dare. Mac Coulter was her enemy, whether she wanted to remember that or not. If she tried to make a break and escape, he would be the only person who could stop her.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  IT WAS TIME. Dressed all in black, Kathy tiptoed along the hallway toward Therese’s office. It was 0200, deep in the night. The villa and its inhabitants, save for the guards on the perimeter walls, were asleep. The guards that hung around during the day didn’t stay in the building at night. That made it easier for Kathy to sneak into Therese’s office.

  Heart thumping hard, adrenaline pouring into her veins, she slowed as she came to the closed door at the end of the hall. Yesterday, Therese had left a small notebook open on her desk. Kathy had seen the words Computer Codes written at the top of the page. In the woman’s absence, Kathy had memorized the five passwords scrawled inside. One of them had to open that file she wanted. It had to!

  Two weeks had flown by since her stay in Cuzco. Life was settling down into a happy routine for everyone. Buying the horses had been a stroke of genius, Kathy thought as she flattened her back against the wall and waited. Garcia was spending more time with his daughter as she practiced on her pony. Even more surprising, he was riding General from time to time, with Tiki in front of him on the saddle. Father and daughter had never laughed so much or been so happy. It further eroded Kathy’s determination to get even. Looking into that child’s happy eyes, how could she want to hurt her? She didn’t. And she couldn’t.

  Kathy had resolved to avenge her family another way: by getting that file with the drug dealers’ names and handing it over to the DEA or the CIA. Maybe i
t wasn’t the revenge she’d envisioned originally, but it was a way to take Garcia down.

  Keying her hearing, she heard no sounds out of place. She pulled the key out of her pocket and hesitated. Was she hearing things? A muffled sound, nothing sharp or noisy. Just…Frowning, she continued to listen. Had the noise come from within Therese’s office? It was windy outside and thunderstorms were marching across the jungle tonight.

  Wiping her mouth, Kathy glanced back down the hall. No sign of movement. No guards…Good. She eased the key into the lock and gently twisted it. Holding her breath, she reached out with her other hand and grasped the cool brass doorknob. Very slowly she turned it. Releasing a slow breath, Kathy slipped into the room and shut the door behind her.

  “Hold it….”

  Kathy gasped and whirled around. Her eyes widened.

  “Mac!” she whispered. “What are you doing here?” He was dressed in a black, form-fitting suit. Though he wore a balaclava over his head, she recognized him from his eyes, the only part of his face that was visible. He was holding a pistol—pointed at her. Pulse pounding, she pressed herself against the door. Kathy had no weapon. Her heart thudded heavily in her chest. Mouth dry, she repeated, “What are you doing here?”

  Mac eyed her. She was frightened, no doubt. He saw no weapons on her. Pushing back the balaclava so that it fell behind his neck, he kept the pistol trained on her. “I should ask you the same thing.”

  Kathy saw that the laptop on the desk was open and running. Her gaze flicked to it and then to his grim features. There was a night-light that barely broke the darkness. The light from the laptop made his glistening features look hard and ghostlike. “You’re breaking into Therese’s laptop.” Why? Who was he? She saw his eyes narrow, and the gun didn’t waver. Would he shoot her? She saw a silencer on the weapon. He could shoot her and no one would hear the bullet being fired. Oh, God…