“We have to be patient,” John replied. “Give them a little more time. When he’s clear, he’ll call. He knows we’re up here waiting.”
“It’s just one woman,” William said to no one in particular. “How hard could it be for Buck to take down one woman?”
“William, I think I know what Eva’s doing,” Lauren’s brain was churning at a hundred miles per hour. “We watched as she shot Donovan in the back and then killed the two men on the dock. Eva doesn’t know we’re watching. She killed another man as she made her way up to the house with the money. She’s eliminating all the kidnappers.”
“But why?” William replied. “For the money?”
“Perhaps, but that’s not her endgame. If all she wanted was the money, she could have taken it in Guatemala City when she was with Donovan.”
“Did she come back to the lake to release Stephanie?” William asked, a tiny vestige of hope in his voice.
“The girl,” Lauren said, as it all made sense to her. “I think Eva’s plan is to take the money, the girl, and free Stephanie. To do that, she needed to eliminate her foot soldiers, and, if I’m right, Eva didn’t kidnap Marie Vargas. She rescued her. Now all she has to do is survive Buck and Donovan.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Donovan’s ears rang from the gunshot. The recoil had forced the gun upward. He tried to bring it down, to level the pistol for a second shot if necessary—but it wouldn’t move. Only then did he realize that Buck had an iron grip around his wrist, keeping him from aiming his weapon. His shot had missed Eva by only inches.
Buck snatched the pistol out his hand. “Donovan, it’s under control!”
“Donovan?” Stephanie had curled up defensively at the sound of the gunshot. She slowly turned her head at the sound of Buck’s voice, her blindfold still firmly in place. “Donovan—are you there?”
Frantically, through the bluish smoke that lingered in the air, Donovan searched for Eva’s body. He found her next to the cot, her eyes were wide open and staring at him with a mixture of anger and disbelief. Buck had the silencer of his gun pointed at her temple, her knife-wielding hand pinned to the floorboard by his boot.
Donovan stepped past Eva and went to Stephanie’s side. He sat and carefully pulled off the blindfold. As her eyes fluttered open, she buried her face in his shoulder. He could feel her tears of relief.
“Stephanie?” A small, tentative voice sounded from across the room.
“Marie! It’s okay. We’re safe!” Stephanie sobbed the words over Donovan’s shoulder.
Donovan turned and saw the curled-up form of a young girl huddled under one of the empty cots. A blindfolded face was barely visible in the shadows.
“Get her,” Buck called out to Donovan, as he picked up Eva’s knife and sliced Stephanie’s bonds, all the while keeping a careful watch on Eva.
As Donovan gently helped the little girl out from under the cot, he could feel her tremble. Stephanie joined him and pulled the girl close. Donovan took the knife from Buck, and with great care, freed the little girl’s hands, which instantly shot around Stephanie’s neck in a fierce hug. Both of them sobbed quietly as days and days of stress flowed from them.
“Stephanie said you’d come,” the little girl said, as she looked up adoringly at Donovan. “She promised me you’d save us, and you did.”
Donovan embraced the raw emotion he felt at finding Stephanie alive—that Stephanie had promised the young girl he’d come was overwhelming.
“What’s your name?” Donovan cupped her face in his hand and brushed her long black hair away from her eyes.
“Marie Vargas,” she said, as she peered between Donovan and Stephanie at the scene beyond.
Donovan turned and glared at Eva, then he shifted his gaze to Buck. “Why did you stop me from killing her?”
“Just a hunch,” Buck said as he looked down at Eva, the pain on her face clearly evident. “Are the others dead?”
“Yeah, every one of them,” Eva said without a hint of a Spanish accent. “How in the hell did you get here?”
“There are a few things you didn’t know about,” Buck replied, and then furrowed his brow as he glanced at her injured arm. “How bad are you hurt?”
“I’ll live,” Eva said as she studied the knife wound in her forearm.
“What is she talking about?” Donovan asked, confused, then turned to Eva. “What happened to your accent?”
“Eva saved us,” Stephanie explained softly, as though she couldn’t quite trust her voice or emotions. “She made sure we weren’t harmed.”
A muffled explosion rocked the house. Dirt and plaster seemed to pour from the ceiling and fell around them.
“Are we under attack?” Eva asked.
“I don’t think so,” Buck said, as it grew even darker outside.
Donovan yanked away the burlap that covered the window. In the hazy air across the lake he saw a curtain of ash descending from the overcast. A series of waves were spreading out across the lake from the epicenter of the blast. Donovan turned toward Buck. “The volcano!”
Buck helped Eva up from the floor and then pulled a tie-wrap from a pocket in his fatigues. “Until I can properly interrogate you.”
Eva turned around obediently, placing her hands behind her back as Buck secured her wrists. He picked up her knife and gun and secured them in his pockets, then propelled her toward the door.
Donovan led the way down the steps, and Buck called out for everyone to stop in the kitchen. Buck pulled the radio from his jacket and transmitted to the Galileo.
“John, this is Buck. We’re all clear in the house. We have Stephanie and Marie. Everything clear outside?”
“Affirmative,” John’s voice crackled from the radio. “I have no other observed people in your vicinity. The helicopter is still trying to get to you, but no firm ETA yet.”
“Roger,” Buck replied, telling the others. “We’ll be safer staying inside for now.”
“Marie and I need some water,” Stephanie said, holding the young girl in her arms. “Is my camera equipment here?”
Eva motioned to a cooler against the far wall, and Donovan lifted the lid and pulled two large bottles of water from inside. Eva then nodded down the hallway. “Your camera bag is in a closet in the front room.”
Relieved, Stephanie tried to put Marie down, but the terrified girl only gripped her harder.
“I’ll go with you,” Buck said as he led Stephanie and Marie from the room. As he left, Buck handed the radio to Donovan. “I think someone up there would like to hear from you.”
“Lauren?”
Buck nodded.
Donovan wasn’t sure what to say. His wife was circling high above him in the Galileo, and he had no idea how she’d gotten there or why. He pressed the transmit key. “Lauren, are you there?”
“I’m here. Are you safe? Is everyone okay?”
Donovan crumbled a little at the sound of her voice—it seemed like ages since he’d spoken to her. “We’re all good. Stephanie and Marie are doing fine. How did you…when did you…?”
“Did Eva survive?”
“So far,” Donovan replied, as he glared at Eva.
“Get us out of here, and I’ll tell you everything,” Eva said defiantly.
“Start talking now.”
Eva’s eyes softened as she lowered her voice to a barely a whisper. “Don’t kill me. I protected the hostages. I shot you on the dock to take you out of the equation, to protect you from those animals. I recruited those men, and then I killed them when I was finished. They’re criminals, and they deserved exactly what they got.”
“Why?”
“Revenge,” Eva whispered.
“Donovan,” Lauren transmitted. “Ask her if her last name is Rocha.”
Donovan didn’t have to ask, the shocked expression on Eva’s face at hearing her name spoke volumes.
Donovan keyed the microphone. “That’s her name. Who is she?”
“Ask her if Hector Vargas is
la Serpiente,” Lauren said.
“Yes, he’s the snake. When I was fifteen, I was kidnapped along with my mother. He killed her, but I escaped and went into hiding. Afterwards, they ruined my father and took away my family’s home. It took me a lifetime to discover who was responsible, and now I’ve made them all pay.”
“We can help you,” Lauren said. “Donovan, you need to protect her at all costs.”
“The kidnapping was all a setup?” Donovan struggled to rearrange all the events of the last two days. “Everything you said and did was a carefully orchestrated lie. The shooter at the hotel, he was one of your guys? Then the demand that I be the one that delivers the money instead of Buck. This morning, as we were driving around, you were making it all up as you went, weren’t you? Everything you did was intended to manipulate me into bringing you here with the money?”
Eva nodded. “I couldn’t have Buck deliver the money—he’s far too dangerous. You, I could handle. My plan was to take the money, and Marie, and vanish—but I needed to leave Stephanie in the hands of people who would care for her. If you hadn’t stopped me, Marie and I would be miles away from here by now.”
“How were you going to get out of here?”
“The pilot was supposed to fly the three of us to Mexico.” Eva shrugged. “His services were easily bought. What I didn’t expect was for him to try to kill me and take the money for himself. When I saw in your eyes that you were going to go for your gun, I knew there was going to be a firefight on the dock. I had to shoot you first, so no one else would, and then I killed the other two men. In fact, I killed them all.”
“Where did you get the gun?” Donovan asked, attempting to piece together everything Eva had done.
“It was taped under my seat in the plane,” Eva explained. “I put it there several days ago. That’s all I’m telling you until we’re safely out of this place.”
Donovan’s jaw hardened as the ramifications of her actions came into focus. He didn’t know if he wanted to kill her or hug her. She’d protected Stephanie, but she’d also kidnapped her to begin with, which left a hundred unanswered questions.
“I hear a helicopter.” Eva tilted her head as she listened.
Above the rumble of the distant volcano, Donovan, too, thought he heard the distinctive thumping of rotor blades.
“Everyone, heads up,” Lauren’s urgent voice came over the radio. “You’ve got a helicopter coming in fast, hugging the shoreline to the east, and it’s not ours.”
Donovan pulled Eva to her feet, just as the aging, military-green Huey flashed over the house, pulled up, and then came around and hovered briefly over the open area between the dock and the house. A dirty cloud of ash and debris blew outwards and upwards from the rotor wash as the helicopter settled firmly onto the ground.
“They’ll focus on the house,” Eva said. “We need to be outside.”
Without a word, Donovan herded Eva out the door and eased them both, unseen, down a path into the thick overgrowth. He turned his attention to the first man out of the chopper. He could clearly see the white tape across the bridge of his nose. To his right, he recognized the next man as the one Eva had kicked when they’d escaped the Learjet. Mounted near the door was a heavy machine gun, the gunner had it trained on the house. Donovan drew the Sig from his belt.
“They won’t shoot into the house for fear of hitting Marie,” Eva whispered.
“Who are they? How did they find us?”
“They’re Vargas’ men,” Eva said. “I’m thinking our pilot must have been bought all along. He probably radioed our destination to Vargas.”
Donovan stayed low as the two men approached. Behind them, the blades of the helicopter were still turning, the pilot planning on a quick departure. Donovan couldn’t shoot from where he stood; the sound of his gun would no doubt bring a hail of bullets from the helicopter. In the doorway of the house, unseen by the approaching men, Donovan spotted Buck. Using hand signals, he gestured for Donovan to stay put and that he’d handle the intruders.
Donovan gripped and re-gripped the pistol—his palms had grown wet with perspiration. He could hear each individual footfall as the first man approached. It was the guy with the broken nose. Eva crouched down to make herself as small as possible. Donovan expected Buck to kill both men without making a sound. Instead, from the far side of the house, came a barrage of gunshots, followed by the muffled report from Buck’s automatic weapon.
The guy with the taped nose was now running for the door of the house. Without hesitation, Donovan raised the Sig and fired twice in succession, then once more as the intruder staggered. All three rounds hit their target, the impact from the heavy bullets spun the man into a crumpled heap on the stairs.
“Follow me!” Donovan pulled Eva to her feet to make a dash for the house when the heavy machine gun from the helicopter began to fire. The noise was deafening as large-caliber rounds exploded the ground in front of them. Donovan pushed Eva backward and shielded her from the incoming fire. At the same time, the helicopter’s engines spooled up, and the chopper lifted off.
“Donovan,” Lauren’s voice sounded from the radio. “They’ve got you and Eva cut off. Turn around and run west. If you keep going there’s a path you can use to work your way back to the house.”
Donovan stayed low and moved as quickly as he could through the underbrush as the helicopter returned. Hovering over the shore, its machine gun ripped up the ground all around the concrete structure.
“We need to get closer to the helicopter. We can’t do anything with a pistol,” Eva said.
Donovan found the path that Lauren had described, but instead of turning right, which would lead him to the safety of the house, they went left, toward the lake. Branches slapped at his face as they pushed down the hill. Donovan calculated the distance. It wasn’t far now. As they reached the edge of the foliage, they stopped and crouched in the brush, hidden from the helicopter. The dock was only twenty yards away. In the shallow water, where Eva had sent the body of one of her men, was an automatic weapon.
“We need a diversion,” Donovan said, pulling the radio from his pocket. “Michael, can you hear me?”
“We hear you,” Michael’s voice crackled through the speaker. “You’re down by the lake, close to the dock, right?”
“Yeah,” Donovan replied, understanding that they’d been watching via the Scimitar. Eva looked at him, perplexed at how they’d been observed by an airplane she couldn’t even see. “How about a little diversion?”
“The Scimitar is going to arrive in thirty seconds, which should distract them for a moment.”
A small grin came over Donovan’s face. “Perfect.”
“Roger,” Michael replied. “Get ready.”
“What’s happening?” Eva asked, as Donovan balanced on the balls of his feet, getting ready to sprint to the dock.
“That diversion we were looking for? It’s about to arrive in the shape of a jet-black Predator drone.”
“You’ve had a goddamned drone all along?” Eva rolled her eyes and pursed her lips as if a great many things suddenly now made sense.
Donovan nodded as he recognized the high-pitched whine from the Scimitar’s turboprop engine, closing fast.
“There it is! I see it,” Eva said.
The Scimitar flew directly toward the cockpit of the helicopter. When the pilot saw the threat, he hesitated, caught off guard, then he overcontrolled. The helicopter swung abruptly left, banked and climbed away. At the last possible second, the Scimitar peeled off, narrowly missing the helicopter. With all eyes on the Scimitar, Donovan took off running downhill, the uneven ground treacherous; he clenched his teeth at the pain in his back.
Low over the lake, the helicopter gathered speed, recovered from the evasive maneuver, and banked toward Donovan as he reached the water. He waded in waist deep, and then dove under, swimming to where he thought the gun would be. Forced to surface and take a breath, the sound of the approaching chopper told him he was running
out of time. Ten feet more and he spotted the weapon lying on the bottom. He grabbed it by the barrel, surfaced, and swam close to the dock. He ducked under the wooden structure as the helicopter roared overhead.
Donovan fixed the front sight on the cockpit. Through the Plexiglas, he could see the pilot, both of his hands on the controls. Donovan leaned into the stock, pulled the trigger, and held it down. The rifle jumped in his hands as a stream of bullets ripped into the target. He saw a dozen holes splinter and then demolish the Plexiglas. The helicopter staggered hard right and spun away from the shore, its blades sending loud shock waves across the water.
Donovan held his breath as the helicopter flew low as if it were going to hit the water, but it righted and continued a wide turn until it was once again headed in his direction. As he aimed to fire again, he saw the orange flash from the barrel of the machine gun. The bullets hammered into the water twenty feet left of him and shredded parts of the dock. The helicopter continued to bear down on Donovan. The gunner had the range and there was nowhere for him to hide.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Even though she knew it was coming, Lauren felt her stomach drop as the Galileo plummeted from the sky. She’d raced to the cockpit the second the Scimitar had flashed past the helicopter. Michael had put them into a steep dive. She braced herself between Michael and Craig, the roar from the slipstream making conversation impossible as she strained to see out the windshield. They broke out of the overcast directly over the lake with Michael’s eyes fixed on the shore. He banked the Gulfstream hard and pointed it directly at the circling helicopter.
Lauren could see the helicopter make a wide arc, the disk from the spinning rotor blades visible ahead of them. “Go faster!”
Michael fine-tuned the thrust from the big Rolls-Royce engines and ignored the pings from the falling debris slamming into the Galileo. He allowed the Gulfstream to descend until they were only ten feet above the water.
Lauren watched helplessly as the helicopter completed its turn, slid into position, and once again approached the dock. As the Galileo thundered closer, just above the waves, Lauren could see muzzle flashes from the dock. The helicopter returned fire, its heavy-caliber weapon throwing up explosions of water and pieces of the wooden dock.
Aftershock: A Donovan Nash Novel (A Donovan Nash Thriller) Page 22
