Cuffed & Claimed

by Lori King

  “When?” he demanded. Joaquin was garbled. He wasn’t making a whole hell of a lot of sense. But one thing was clear. Prisoners had taken over the hospital and were holding Carys and other doctors for ransom, and it was making international news.

  “Why are you just telling me now?” It had happened while he had been asleep, and Bernardo had decided to handle things himself.

  “Sarah, turn on the TV,” David demanded as he started to get dressed. She didn’t ask any questions, found the remote, and stopped on the first channel.

  “Oh my God, David, that’s the hospital,” she cried, pointing to the screen. Then she ran towards the bathroom.

  “Tell me everything, Joaquin.” David sat down heavily on the side of the bed.

  “They are demanding a plane off the island, and ten million US dollars.”

  “They will never get that.”

  “The lieutenant governor called the US Embassy in Panama and your commander. He has also done interviews. He is begging for the United States to give the men whatever they want. Not only are the Doctors Without Borders at risk, but every man, woman, and child in the hospital are now hostages.” David saw Sarah come out of the bathroom dressed in the same bloody clothes she had been wearing yesterday when she had stitched him up. Her intent was clear. He dropped the phone on the bed and blocked her exit.

  “Let me go.”

  “I’m not letting you leave.”

  “I have to get to the hospital.”

  “And what will you do when you get there?”

  “I’ll figure it out when I’m there.”

  “Stay with me. I need to get to the lieutenant governor’s office and find out what he’s doing. You can’t do anything at the hospital but stand outside. Come with me and we’ll see what’s being done.”

  “I have to go to the hospital.” Ah shit, she was starting to cry.

  He pulled her into his arms. Damn that hurt. She stiffened.

  “Stop that. You’re hurt.” She sniffed and wiped her nose with her sleeve. She yanked up his shirt and looked at his bandage. “Looks okay for the moment.” She took a deep breath. “Let me get my supplies.”

  “Supplies?”

  “I brought extra bandages and sutures. I didn’t trust you not to rip your stitches.” Her eyes welled up again. Her eyes turned to the TV. She watched the picture of the hospital and the Breaking News headline. She grabbed her bag, turned off the TV and turned to him. “Let’s go.”

  * * *

  David took one look at Bernardo, and all of his anger left. The man looked like he had aged twenty years since the previous day.

  “You should have called.”

  “You just captured three prisoners and damn near died doing it,” the lieutenant governor said quietly. He was seated behind his massive desk, his arms folded in front of him. Carmen was standing over him, she looked like she wanted to cradle him in her arms.

  “Tell me the situation and what steps you’ve taken.”

  “We think there are ten of them. They’ve been releasing patients for the last two hours. Two have died because they took them off the machines that were regulating their breathing.”

  Sarah’s fingernails dug into his forearm.

  “The others? Where have they been taken? Who is taking care of them?”

  Bernardo looked up at her, his expression helpless. “Almost all of our caregivers are in the hospital. Almost all of our medicines and equipment…”

  “Haven’t you pulled in the personnel from the two regional clinics, they have medicine,” Sarah said.

  “Yes. But right now I’m more focused on trying to get the rest of the hostages released.”

  “Carys and the other doctors?” Sarah asked.

  “Dr. Adams is the one American doctor. They have actually contacted reporters and told them their ransom demands. They are demanding it of the American government. They are so stupid. America will never give into their demands. Nobody will. These animals must be put down.” At last Bernardo seemed to have some life in him.

  “What steps have you taken?” David asked again.

  “Right now they have us running around handling all of the patients they are releasing. We can’t handle anything more. But I have been in contact with the US, they are sending in a team to rescue the hostages.”

  “Carys?” Sarah asked.

  “Yes. There has been an international outcry about the Doctors Without Borders being held captive by our escaped prisoners.”

  “Who are they sending?” David asked.

  “A Navy SEAL team, Black Dawn.” If it had been Army Rangers, then David would have heard of them. SEALs not so much.

  “When will they be here?”

  Bernardo looked at his watch. “Fourteen hours.”

  “Okay, then this is what we need to do. Get that damn hospital cleared of patients. Sarah, can your round up the medical personnel we have on the island and get whoever is available to the hotel? We’ll make that the new hospital.” God bless her, she just nodded.

  “Bernardo, you’re the face of this island, you’ll need to work as the hostage negotiator. Whoever we can get out of that hospital before the SEALs get here, the easier their job will be.” David turned to Joaquin. “Do we have a real count of how many bad guys are in the hospital?”

  “No. We think there are ten.”

  “Then we need a real count. That’s our first priority. We work with the patients. We have prison records, and we know the men who escaped. We have them identify pictures. I want to know who the hell is in that hospital.”

  Joaquin nodded.

  7

  “There’s nine.”

  “Are you positive Joaquin?” The man looked up from the computer screen he had been staring at for the last hour. They were set up in the post office two blocks from the hospital. When David had first arrived on the scene, they had been in an old annex building across the street from the hospital that was used to store old paper patient records. It was one story, and it was obvious the prisoners could pick off the inhabitants.

  Now they had someone stationed in the church bell tower that was a story taller than the hospital. It was three hundred meters away, but with a high power scope, it was possible to see into most of the hospital windows. David had been up there an hour ago. The situation was not good at all.

  They had released all of the patients and the Las Flores personnel, but it still left them with eight aid workers and nine escaped prisoners. One of the Las Flores orderlies had been assaulted before being released, so it was deteriorating fast inside the hospital. Dr. Adams was the one woman left. She was also the one American. David prayed they wouldn’t want to harm her because they would consider her their most essential hostage.

  “Joaquin, show me all of the assholes records. I want to see if there are any weak links we can take advantage of.” He glanced at his watch. Three more hours. He sat down at Joaquin’s desk and went through the files.

  “It looks like these two hate one another.” David put the two photos up side by side. They ran two separate gangs. “It’s amazing they are working together.” He got up slowly from the desk. Goddamn, his shoulder, and chest hurt, but if he took anything for the pain, he’d be unconscious, and they didn’t have time for that shit.

  “You shouldn’t be up,” Carmen said as she tried to hand him a cup of coffee. He waved her off.

  “Where’s Bernardo?”

  “The governor’s in that office sleeping,” she said pointing to a closed door. “There’s another office with a couch. You should take a nap.”

  David went over to the office that Bernardo was in. He opened the door and stepped in.

  “Bernardo?” The man didn’t rouse.

  “Bernardo?” David shook him.

  “What? I’m awake. Are the SEALs here?”

  “No, I need to ask you some questions. Come out to Joaquin’s desk.” David helped the man as he stumbled. He showed him the two pictures. “Which one are you talking to? Wh
ich man is making all of the demands?”

  “They both are. It’s always a three-way conversation.”

  Got it!

  “Bernardo. Now I need you to go back to that annex building and talk to only Salazar through the bullhorn.”

  “But Molina won’t like that. They are both in charge.”

  “You’re going to ignore Molina. You’re only going to talk to Salazar. We’re going to start some infighting. I want you to say you can only talk to one leader, and you know that Salazar is the one with power.”

  “Why did you choose Salazar?” Bernardo asked.

  “Because it was Molina’s man who assaulted the woman. I’m hoping Salazar’s gang is better than Molina’s.”

  “They’re both animals. It’s a bad bet,” Joaquin said.

  David knew it was true. But it was the only thing he had to go on.

  His phone rang. He didn’t recognize the number, and he assumed it must be someone on one of the manhunts.

  He listened.

  No.

  It wasn’t true.

  It couldn’t be true. David sank against the desk.

  “Calm down.” He needed the man, no, the boy, to calm down.

  “They killed them. They killed them all. They’re dead.” He was crying so hard it was difficult to understand him. “They butchered them.” A deep rock of dread hit the pit of his stomach.

  “Who’s dead?”

  “My papa. My uncle.” Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. David put the phone on speaker. “Where? Where are you? Are you safe?”

  “They called me. They told me to run. We were in the mountains. I hid in a cave with my cousin.”

  “Who are you? What’s your name?”

  “Juan.”

  Too many damn Juans. “Juan who?”

  “Juan Hernandez, sir.”

  “I need you to calm down. Take a deep breath. You and your cousin, are you safe?”

  “I think so,” came the trembling reply.

  “When were your uncle and father killed?”

  “They called two hours ago. My cousin went and found their bodies. The other three men were dead too. They were cut up. Why would they do that?”

  To make a fucking point. The fuckers were trying to scare the prison guards. Try to get them to stop tracking them.

  David put the phone on mute. “Joaquin, can you get them tracked on GPS?”

  Joaquin shook his head.

  “Why the hell not?”

  “Only have the team leader’s phones set up to track one another.” Damn it! David took the phone off mute.

  “Juan, can you tell us where you are?” David kept his voice calm. Reassuring.

  “We’re two hours from the prison. In the mountains. Can you come and get us?”

  David put the phone on mute.

  “How old are these kids?” he asked Joaquin.

  “Eighteen, same as Manuel,” Joaquin explained.

  Yeah, but they’d just seen their parents butchered. Now they were scared kids.

  David turned to Bernardo. “Call the other team that’s out in the countryside, see if they can pick them up. Even if they can’t, tell them to be on the lookout for these butchers.”

  “I have them on the phone right now,” Bernardo said, holding up his cell phone.

  David thrust his phone to Joaquin. “Talk to the boys. Keep them calm.”

  He grabbed the phone from Bernardo and quickly told the team leader the situation.

  “We’re at least twenty to thirty kilometers in the other direction,” the man explained. “The roads are a mess with the earthquake damage. It’ll take us hours to get to the kids, especially up in the mountains.”

  Dammit!

  “Well make your way there anyway,” David ordered the team leader. “We need to stop those killers.”

  “We’re on it,” the man answered, then he hung up.

  David turned back to Joaquin and motioned for him to mute the phone again. After he had muted the phone with Juan, David asked, “Who do we have at the prison that could get the kids?”

  “Nobody good,” Joaquin admitted.

  Dammit! Think Sloane. They needed to get to those kids.

  “I have an idea.” He’d read their files, and they were good. “Riggs and Harrison.”

  “They’re prisoners,” Joaquin protested. David gave him a hard look. “Fine, you’re right David, but it’ll be better if the lieutenant governor calls Luis and suggests it.”

  “He’s not going to suggest a goddamn thing. He’s going to call Luis and tell him those two be armed and released. Then they’re to be sent out with whatever useless fuck there is who knows the area. Do you hear me?”

  “Agreed.”

  He turned to Bernardo. But it was Carmen who spoke up. She held up her cell phone. “I have the acting warden on the phone. Governor, he’s waiting for your instructions.” God love the woman.

  * * *

  It was déjà vu all over again, here he was at the airport with Carlos and the bus. But he wasn’t going to be seeing the love of his life, he was going to see steely-eyed professionals who would hopefully save people he had come to know and respect.

  Love?

  He watched as the plane taxied, and realized that was exactly the right word. Love. He loved Sarah Kyle.

  He watched as the men walked down the steps. Warriors. Nothing escaped their gaze. Carlos squirmed under their scrutiny.

  The man who came forward carried the mantle of leadership and had a definite air of confidence.

  “Captain Sloane?”

  “Lieutenant Tyler?” David asked.

  “Grayson Tyler. Call me Gray. Let me introduce you to my men.” He pointed to the big man who stood beside him. Hell, they were all big men. He had piercing blue eyes that could look right into your heart. “This is my second-in-command, Senior Chief Aiden O’Malley, he’s our medic.”

  “The giant beside him is Jack Preston.” Jack nodded. “To the left of him, is Griffin Porter. Then you have Dalton Sullivan and Dexter Evans.”

  “I’ll brief you on the bus.” Gray nodded. They all climbed aboard with their duffels. As soon as they got on board, they checked their weapons.

  “If you give us one more hour, I think we can get some of the targets eliminated. These are gang members, and right now there is infighting at the hospital.”

  “Explain,” Gray demanded.

  “The two leaders are Salazar and Molinas. They hate each other. They’ve been working together because they want off the island. All of their demands have been made with both of them on the same phone line. It’s clear they don’t trust one another. The lieutenant governor has been demanding to talk only to Salazar for the last three hours, saying that he knows he’s the leader. We don’t have listening equipment, but our man on the bell tower, who can see into the hospital, says they’ve come to blows.”

  “That’s good.” Gray nodded in appreciation. “What are your expectations?”

  “We expect Salazar’s men to make a move on Molina’s men. That should result in fewer men for you to have to eliminate.”

  “Excellent.”

  “What about the hostages?” Aiden asked.

  “They are scattered in different rooms around the hospital. We don’t have all of them accounted for,” David admitted.

  “Dammit,” Aiden O’Malley muttered.

  “It sounds like you’ve done a good job. Who have you been working with, the local police force?”

  “The police force is corrupt. He has very few men. He has done almost everything on his own,” Carlos piped up from the driver’s seat.

  “Is this true?” Gray asked.

  “Unfortunately, it is. You won’t have a lot of people to rely on. The few good men we do have are securing the perimeter of the hospital. We’re using locals for the manhunt.”

  Gray must have heard something in David’s voice.

  “What? What happened?”

  “We still have thirty-three prisoners at large, and they
just butchered five men who were in a search party.

  “Fuck,” the big guy named Jack said quietly.

  “How many men do you have searching for these escaped prisoners?” Gray asked.

  “I don’t know anymore,” David admitted. “After the attack, some of the men have abandoned the search. After the hospital situation is handled, I can get back to managing the manhunt.”

  The truck lurched as they ran over rubble.

  “How did you get involved again?” Gray asked.

  “I got here the day of the earthquake. I’m an MP. Two Army NCO’s were charged by the corrupt police force for assault. I was here to find out what the hell was going on.”

  “Our lieutenant governor appointed him the Chief of Police for Las Flores.”

  “You’re a member of the United States Army, right?” Gray asked raising his eyebrow.

  “Tell me about it. It’s a long fucking story, and I pray to God we can drink a whole hell of a lot and laugh as I tell you about it.”

  “So do I, captain. So do I.”

  8

  “Thank God you’re here,” Joaquin and Bernardo said in unison. Both of them ignored the six men behind him and started talking at once.

  “Hold up. I can’t understand you. Bernardo, you go first.”

  “Salazar shot Molina and one of his men,” Bernardo said excitedly. “It worked perfectly. “We’re down to seven of those bastards.”

  “Salazar is the worst,” Joaquin said. “But Juan and his cousin called. They can hear the men who killed their fathers.”

  “Tell them to stay off the goddamn phone! Those men will hear them, find them, and kill them.” David thought his head would explode.

  “I did.” Joaquin looked sick. Those boys were going to end up dead unless Riggs and Harrison could get to them.

  “Have you called Riggs and Harrison?”

  “They’re not answering,” Joaquin explained.

  “Good for them. They’re maintaining radio or cell phone silence. Maybe that means they’re close.” Please, God, say they’re close.