by Liz Johnson
“I’m sure of it.”
Fear raced up her back until her scalp tingled. Despite the slickness of her hand, she held on to Will’s, following his every step.
A crash of metal resounded from the nearest barrack, and Will slammed to a stop. She had to fall into the wall to keep from running into him. Rubbing her shoulder, she glanced around him, even as he pulled her closer.
A loud shout sounded and a beam of yellow light flared from a window not far in front of them.
“Stay close.” His arm snaked around her waist, pulling her chin into his back as she nodded, and the sharp, tangy soap she’d smelled earlier enveloped her senses. He jogged toward the building still ringing with the early-morning commotion and ran along the wall. They dodged the square of yellow light on the ground, ducking below the window ledge.
“Are we still going to try to get on a truck?”
He responded with a curt nod as he stepped into the open alley between two buildings. “If we can make it to the lab and back in time.”
Jess’s arm was nearly jerked out of its socket before she realized he’d taken off running, his fingers clamped around her wrist. Lights blazed in every window they passed now, and loud voices called to one another. Under the ruckus, Jess heard the sound of heavy, purposeful footsteps marching ever closer.
At least twenty yards from the lab building, Will jerked her against a wall, her elbow scraping the rough cinder blocks. “What—”
In a second he had his hand over her mouth, pressing her into the wall so insistently she felt it might give under the pressure. Her chest was already painfully tight from the excitement and running, and his palm blocked any real air she might find. In the darkness she could just make out Will’s wide eyes, just before the elongated shadow of a hefty, overweight man spilled between the buildings. A guard—one she hadn’t seen before.
Will’s heart thundered against her palm, which she’d flattened against his chest. Pressing a finger to his lips, he took a step toward their visitor.
Her breath caught, and she clamped her mouth closed, praying for silence.
“Raul!” The voice came from several yards behind the armed guard—another of Juan Carlos’s lackeys on night patrol.
Jess pressed her back against the wall, trying to disappear into the night, but Will stood in front of her, far too exposed and vulnerable, with only the corner of a building for cover.
Raul’s shadowy figure turned, waving off his pursuer, who had called out to him, and kept marching right toward Will.
FIVE
Will took a deep breath through his nose and let it out, willing his pulse to slow, trying to make every second last an hour. The lights from the barracks cast an eerie, yellow glow into the darkness he’d been counting on to hide their escape. No matter how tightly they clung to the wall, if anyone got close enough to spot them, he and Jess were sitting ducks.
Five yards away, Raul grunted and scratched his gut. His companion had turned around when Raul waved him off and ambled back toward the courtyard. Raul’s lone shadow moved across the grass path as if he hadn’t even realized Will and Jess were there.
Will wrinkled his nose as sweat peppered the back of his neck. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it spelled disaster.
And he had only two options.
Fight or run.
Will could easily take the guy, especially with the element of surprise. But not without blowing his cover as a mild-mannered scientist. And certainly not without drawing plenty of attention.
Three yards from the corner, the guard must have seen a shadow, because he suddenly shifted his grip on his weapon. He held it tighter, his steps becoming slow and methodical. “Is someone there?”
Will reached for Jess’s hand and squeezed it. Even in the dim light he could make out the tight line of her lips and the rapid blinking of her eyes.
No matter what happened, he couldn’t risk leaving her to face these men alone, so his only option was to run.
He pulled her close and pressed his lips against her ear. “Let’s go.”
She blinked once, nodded and took off.
His shoes slipping on the wet grass, Will stayed on her six as they reached a corner.
“Turn.” With a hand at her waist, he steered her into a passageway between more barracks, but a glance over his shoulder revealed that he’d been a fraction of a second too late.
“Is someone there? Stop! I see you!” Raul screamed after them, his incredible girth bouncing as he chased them. They had to find a hiding place. Now.
Raul’s labored breathing was dropping farther behind, but it wouldn’t take long for him to reach the alley. There was nowhere to hide. On either side there were only gray cinder block walls, leading straight toward the center of the courtyard.
Suddenly Jess slipped into a crevice he hadn’t noticed. They raced between two walls, charging for the big house.
“Up here.” Jess jumped onto one of the plastic trash bins behind the house, grabbed the eave of a small shed and pulled herself onto the roof. There wasn’t time to appreciate her athletic moves as he followed, yanking his foot up just as Raul reached the crevice that they’d used. The heavy-set guard leaned against his thighs and panted as if he’d just finished a marathon rather than a fifty-yard dash.
Will and Jess squatted at the edge of the shingled roof—one of the few in the compound not made of tin—with a perfect view of the path they’d just taken.
Raul looked around the larger alleyway, spun twice and then pointed his weapon down the narrow path.
Another guard ran up to him and swore loudly. “What are you doing? Get back to the truck.”
“But I think I saw someone.”
The taller man made a slow circle and squinted in the direction that Jess had taken them. Her fingernails dug into Will’s forearm as the new guard lingered, squinting toward the big house.
“You’re seeing things,” he finally mumbled. “Go back to work.”
“I’m telling you, there’s someone out there.” The guard’s voice dropped so low that Will couldn’t make out another word, but the other man pushed Raul’s shoulder.
“Don’t be stupid. It’s just the guys.” He glanced around one more time. “Who else would be up at this time of night?”
Raul shrugged, but continued spinning in slow circles. “I don’t know. But I know I saw something.”
Raul’s friend shook his head hard. “The boys are restless tonight. Jumpy. They know something’s coming.”
“What’s coming?”
“Shut up and get back to work watching the trucks.”
Raul’s friend was clearly the leader of the two, and while Will could make out only his profile in the darkness, his posture suggested that he expected to be obeyed.
Finally, Raul nodded. “Sí.” He lumbered away as his friend took one more look down each of the paths in the area. Clearly satisfied that Raul had imagined the whole thing, the second guard finally strolled toward the courtyard and disappeared beyond one of the trucks.
Jess’s grip on Will’s arm slowly relaxed, and she clasped her hands around her bent knees.
She glanced at him for a split second, as though she couldn’t risk more than that. Maybe she thought if she looked away from the winding paths and alleys before them, she’d miss Raul or one of his friends returning to find them.
But they were alone for the moment, with no one for at least twenty yards in each direction. A balcony on the big house hung over their hiding spot, blocking the moonlight that poked around lazy clouds. The ruckus within the barracks had settled, lights going dark once again. Every few minutes good-natured yelling from the guards in the courtyard pierced the night, but other than that, all was silent and still.
They were safe. If just for a minute.
Will risked a quiet whisper. “Did you catch much of that?”
She only shook her head, her long braid flopping over her shoulder.
He quickly translate
d the gist of the conversation, and she nodded slowly, never quite meeting his gaze. “What’s coming?”
“Juan Carlos.”
Finally, Jess looked directly at Will and hugged her knees even tighter.
If he hadn’t been so highly trained, he would have been doing the same thing. Juan Carlos’s plan to attack a neighboring cartel had the whole compound off-kilter. And the two of them were in the middle of it.
“So how’d you know about this place?”
Her shoulders relaxed enough that he could actually differentiate them from her neck. “They’ve been making me stock the lab, and a lot of the stuff that we’re unpacking was stored in this shed. I spent the first couple days here digging out beakers and hot plates and all the other ancient equipment I could find.”
“And you remembered that it had a shingle roof and trash cans?”
She lifted a shoulder and shook her head. “I paid attention. I thought I was on my own here. I didn’t know if anyone would find me.”
The words settled, heavy and bitter, in his stomach. “And if I hadn’t come?”
She glanced at the towering wall lined with barbed wire and broken glass. “I was going to crawl up here, jump the fence and face whatever was on the other side.” Her voice wavered on the last word, a touch of uncertainty in an otherwise fearless statement. He had to cross his arms over his chest to keep from pulling her against him and kissing the top of her head, as he’d done a thousand times in their previous life.
Her escape plan would have been a suicide mission. No intel. No protection from the elements. And no training.
He’d been trained by the very best to survive under those conditions, and the thought of landing in the middle of an unknown jungle still twisted his gut.
On the lam from a drug cartel with zero ethics, her escape plan would have ended badly, and she knew it. But it wouldn’t have stopped her from trying.
Her courage made Will smile. It was going to come in handy in the next week.
“I’m glad my dad sent someone.” She rested her chin on her knees, and his gaze joined the motion of hers, sweeping across the winding paths between buildings.
Of course, she hadn’t specified that she was glad it had been Will.
If he’d read her right, she had been surprised when he opened her door earlier that night, even though he’d told her he’d come. Her trust in him was hazy at best, but he couldn’t fix that overnight. Ten years of questions and bitterness didn’t disappear in two days.
“Me, too.”
“Hmm?”
He nudged her shoulder with his own. “I’m glad that your dad sent me, too.”
The corner of her mouth tugged upward in a tiny smile that disappeared an instant later, when a low rumble sounded. She looked toward the balcony above, as though waiting for lightning to follow the thunder. “What is that?”
He nodded toward the hive of activity out in the courtyard. “Our getaway.”
The trucks shook and rattled as their engines roared to life, drowning out the shouting of the guards and likely waking anyone within the compound.
“They’re going without us, aren’t they.” She didn’t ask it as a question, instead angling her head to indicate she knew it to be true. With a squeak and a groan, the front gates rolled open and the trucks lumbered through, disappearing into the blackness. “So what are we going to do?”
He clenched his jaw for a long moment. They couldn’t count on more trucks arriving in the next few days. And even if one did show up, the way the two that just left had been guarded, he couldn’t count on even getting near another one, either.
Taking a deep breath, Will scooted to the edge of the roof. “Everyone’s distracted. Time to get back to our rooms.”
He dropped to the ground, bending his knees to take the impact. Turning, he put his hands up to catch Jess around the waist, but she had already jumped onto the trash bins. With an easy hop and a sly smirk, she joined him on solid ground.
Fair enough. This wasn’t the first time she’d proved that she didn’t need him. And maybe she didn’t. But she had him, anyway. At least until she was safely back in San Diego with her father watching over her. Preferably in plenty of time for Christmas. They had an escape to make and a lot of jungle to cover in just two weeks.
Will led her to the shadow of the security wall behind the house and slipped to the corner.
“No, really,” she whispered. “What are we going to do?”
A glance around a corner showed that all was clear, and he bolted for the protection of the next building, hauling her behind him. “First, we’re going to take advantage of any intel we can find.”
“Like what? Memorizing the guard rotations?” Her words were still quiet, but marked by panting breaths.
“Yes. And getting our hands on a map of this jungle, if possible. We have to figure out exactly where we are, to get to where we need to be.” He pulled her across another alley, always listening for the sound of footsteps.
“Where exactly are we going?”
“Panama City. If we can get to the U.S. Embassy, we can connect with the DEA and get home.”
She nodded, rested her head against the wall, then shot up straight. “The DEA?”
“Yes. I told you about that.” Her expression told him that she didn’t remember, so he explained. “My friend who arranged for me to be invited here—” Jess snorted at this choice of words “—is DEA. She put a GPS tracker in my shoe. But it pings off of cell towers, and I have a feeling we’re too far from the nearest tower for them to get more than a general location. Even if they do, they’ll have to put together an official op to come for us. We can’t count on that. Especially before Juan Carlos gets back.”
Jess’s eyes narrowed, creating a little wrinkle at the top of her nose. “Why didn’t she put one of those high-tech satellite trackers on you?” The skepticism in her voice rang loud and clear.
“This isn’t an official op, for the navy or the DEA.” He tugged her away from the wall. “She couldn’t afford to lose an expensive piece of equipment, and I couldn’t risk having our hosts find that on me.”
They fell silent as they wound their way back toward her room, but when they reached the door, she stopped just before sliding inside. “So after we gain all this intel, how are we going to get to Panama City?”
“We’re going to use your plan.”
“Mine?” Her dark eyebrows rose in twin arches.
He gave her a little push inside. Just before he closed the door, he said, “We’re going over the wall.”
*
Jess sucked air through her nose and let it out in a slow breath as she stared at the lab equipment in front of her without really seeing it. Even after a mostly sleepless night, and at least a couple hours contemplating Will’s idea to jump the fence, she was no closer to seeing how it was possible.
“You okay?” His voice was right in her ear, and she jumped, nearly yanking the hot-plate cord off the machine. “You seem tense.”
“Really? I can’t imagine why.” She shot him a sharp glare, but immediately regretted her sarcasm. “Sorry. Guess I’m just tired. Didn’t sleep well after…well, you know.”
“I do.” Sparing a wink for her and a glance at Sergio, their lone lab guard for the day, Will dropped his voice even lower. “I was thinking last night, when I was outside your room—”
Despite the muggy afternoon, goose bumps exploded down her arms, and she abandoned all pretense of paying attention to the boiling water in front of her. “You didn’t go back to your cell last night?”
“’Course not.” He was so matter-of-fact about it that she wondered why his words had surprised her.
“Hey!” Sergio leaned against the wall, one knee bent and foot pressing flat to the cinder blocks at his back. He rattled something off in Spanish, waved his gun and returned to picking at a piece of breakfast still stuck between his teeth.
Jess didn’t have to speak the language to know that he wanted them
to pipe down and get back to work. But how was she supposed to concentrate on emptying the metal cans when all she could think about was Will’s cryptic words the night before? He had to have a plan, because even she knew hers had been woefully inadequate to really get to safety. And he was the one trained for these kinds of situations. He was supposed to take charge and get them out of here.
Except…except it was easier to know that in her heart than it was to keep her doubts from surfacing with each of his promises.
By the time lunch rolled around, Sergio wasn’t even pretending to watch them anymore. He yelled something, kicked the door open and then stepped into the midday sun. Without a look over his shoulder, he closed the door on them, and Jess, who hadn’t been unguarded in the lab since she’d arrived, couldn’t repress a low giggle. “I suppose he’s as tired of watching us unpack musty boxes as we are of doing it,” she said.
This earned her a half smile that quickly disappeared as Will hurried across the room and jumped onto the counter. “Will you watch the door? Sergio said he was hungry, so I guess he went to find some lunch. But he’ll be back. Whistle as soon as the door starts to open.”
“What are you doing?”
He pointed to the window that he’d opened the day before. It was barely as wide as his shoulders, which, to be fair, weren’t as skinny as they had been in high school. “I’m collecting intel.”
She rubbed her hands together and walked in his direction. Her thoughts weren’t quite formed when she opened her mouth, the words tumbling out. “Maybe I should do that.” She waved a finger in his general direction. “I mean, you have to squat to keep from being seen. I’m short enough that I could stand there easily.”
He glanced down at his thighs, which were indeed straining to keep him at the right level, and shrugged. “Sure. If you want to.”
“I do.” Accepting his outstretched hand, she let him pull her onto the counter. Scooting in beside him, she gripped the edge of the sill with her fingertips and pulled herself up just enough to peer into the courtyard. The location of the lab gave her a partial view of the grassy common area and the big house, blocked by some of the neighboring buildings. “What should I be looking for?”
