by Justine Davis, Amy J. Fetzer, Katherine Garbera, Meredith Fletcher, Catherine Mann
“How did they know where we were?” Ben asked.
Robert looked straight at Tory. “I’m not sure. But Ms. Patton and her cameraman went up and down the elevator several times.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize the location was secretive.”
“I should have told you,” Ben said. “This one’s on my shoulders.”
As Tory listened to Ben, she was surprised to realize that he wasn’t just part of a military group, but the leader of one. The men’s attitudes as they listened and spoke with Ben showed that they respected him. Tory filed away this new piece of information.
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” Ben said.
Tory nodded and eased her way out of the room. She stayed in the hallway. She called Jay and told him to move the Jeep around to the back. “Be ready to move. Did you see any more police?”
“No, but Shannon showed up right before you called. She knows something’s going on here.”
“Okay, I’m waiting outside the hotel room to see if I can get any more information. I might need the hidden camera again.”
“I’ll get it ready for you. And Tory?”
“Yes, Jay?”
“Be careful.”
The door opened behind her. “I’ve got to go.”
She disconnected the call. Jay’s concern touched her. She knew she could count on him and his friendship.
“What are you still doing here?” Ben asked.
“Let me go with you, Ben.”
“No. This isn’t something fit for network news. We’re talking life and death here.”
“I won’t endanger you or King. I’m an Athena grad. You know they train us how to survive.”
“I don’t care how much training you’ve had. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Tory….”
“Give me a break, Ben. If that’s your only objection, stuff it.”
“Dammit, woman. I take care of my own.”
“I’m not yours.”
He swore under his breath and turned away from her.
She knew she’d pushed him, but she didn’t like men telling her what to do. She wasn’t some eighteen-year-old kid who’d never faced a challenge in her life. She’d been trained to use her wits in tough situations. The entire affair with Tom King was right up her alley. Tory viewed it the same way she would a courier assignment for AA.gov.
“I think I can be of assistance or I wouldn’t have suggested this.”
Ben leaned his head against the wall and she sensed he was running through his options. She stayed silent.
“You can come with us to the airstrip, but that’s it. King needs to be debriefed before he talks to any more reporters.”
“Okay.”
Tory shrugged into her backpack and followed the men. No one was waiting for the elevator, but Ben bypassed the car for the stairs. Robert had done the same thing. She knew it was to avoid walking into a trap.
If she hadn’t seen him in action before, she probably would be staring open-mouthed at him now. It was such a change from the man she’d known since she was a fourteen-year-old girl. This guy hardly resembled Alex’s brother as she’d always known him.
The group moved quickly down the stairs to the lobby. Tory saw Jay standing off to one side. He had the tapes and her laptop, and they’d meet in Miami. He met her eyes and she nodded to him to follow the team of U.S. soldiers. A group of Puerto Isla’s police was at the front desk. Probably to investigate the explosion.
“Robert, you take the decoy team straight through the lobby and out the front door. We’ll rendezvous in Miami. King and I will go out the back. You—” he pointed to Tory “—follow me.”
And Tory followed Ben and Tom out the back door and into the tropical night.
Chapter 8
They left the hotel via a back entrance through the kitchen. Tory was glad she hadn’t eaten any meals at the hotel when she saw the state of the kitchen.
“No wonder I have heartburn,” Tom said.
“Didn’t hear you complaining when you were scarfing down the food.”
“Hey, it had been a long time between meals,” Tom said.
Tory realized that though the men had never met before this mission they shared a camaraderie that she didn’t understand. There was an excited air of energy around both of them. They were a walking army with all the weaponry they had on their persons.
They were similarly dressed in green jungle camouflage. Tory wore a pair of khaki pants and a black T-shirt. Her hiking boots were top quality, and she had a feeling they’d have a chance to prove their durability before she got back home.
“Tory, get between Tom and me. I’ll go first. When I signal you, come on.”
“Okay,” she said.
“What, no questions?” he asked, with that wise-ass grin of his.
Tom might have been half starved, but he still moved with the ease of a trained tiger.
She wanted to talk to Tom in more detail about his mission. Could he have witnessed something that he wasn’t aware of? Why was someone trying to kill a man who’d been in prison for the past six months?
Both men were armed with standard military-issue handguns. Ben hadn’t offered her a piece and she was glad. She knew she didn’t have enough skill to kill with one. But she did have her knife. Quickly she removed it from her backpack along with the ankle sheath. She lifted her pant leg and fastened it on. Finally Ben got a signal on his wireless earpiece. “We’re moving out.”
She waited for Ben to move first. He slipped out the back door. Tory waited for him to signal her. Tom stood close behind her, covering Ben from the doorway.
She recognized that Tom didn’t like taking orders. He took them, but he was used to being in command. It was an interesting observation and she tucked it away for later. She hoped he’d agree to a follow-up interview once they were back in the States.
Seconds later Ben signaled her. Tory moved into the shadows as soundlessly as she could. Skills she’d mastered when she’d been at Athena came to the fore. Once again, she called on Rainy’s presence and felt a little better because her friend was in her head with her.
The smell of rotting trash mixed with the warm sea breeze. She remembered her lessons and slowed her breathing.
She moved cautiously across the alley and then stood behind Ben as he surveyed the open area. Tom joined them.
The LASER team had two Jeeps. One was parked two blocks from the hotel in an abandoned garage. The three of them were to make their way to that vehicle.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” Tom said.
“Yeah, but what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Tory, go to ground behind that trash can.”
She didn’t argue, just slipped away from the men and crouched behind the large trash container. She took her knife from the sheath at her ankle and waited. Tom covered Ben as he stepped into the mouth of the alley. Ben surveyed the area and then motioned for them to come forward.
Before Tory could move from her spot all hell broke loose. Ben and Tom were facing four rough-looking men with submachine guns and nasty attitudes.
Tory shrank back against the wall as a flashlight played over the alley. They were saying something to Ben, but Tory couldn’t make out the words. The men took the guns from both Tom and Ben and forced them to their knees. Tory knew she’d have only a second to make her move. When the leader raised his gun and pointed it at Ben’s head, she drew back her arm and let her blade fly with deadly accuracy.
Ben and Tom both attacked when the man fell. Tory ran down the alleyway. Her hands were trembling, but she focused on the job at hand. She raced at another man and hit him with a surprise roundhouse kick to the neck. He staggered and she brought her other leg around in a hook kick. She caught him behind the knees, and he fell to the ground.
She gave him a short punch to the jaw. His head snapped back. And then she finished him w
ith a side chop to the neck. She put her foot on the small of his back, unsure what to do with him now that he was unconscious.
“Catch,” Ben said.
She glanced up in time to see a pair of plastic handcuffs coming at her. She grabbed them and bound his wrists. She stood up and clenched her fingers together. She needed her knife back.
Ben grabbed the guy she’d taken down under the shoulders and dragged him back in the alley where Tom had taken the other two. The fourth man was dead. She started toward him only to stop.
“I’ve got it, Tory. Get over there with Tom.”
Now that the moment of danger had passed, she felt a fine trembling start deep inside. She’d never been in a situation quite like this before. Sure, the women’s prison had been scary when she’d gone undercover there. And Scarface and Jose had been a shock. But she’d known deep inside in both cases that she wasn’t going to die.
Ben retrieved her knife and moved the dead body out of the open area and into the shadows. Tory was shaking so hard now that she wasn’t sure she could continue on with this. Maybe she should go back to her hotel room. But at the same time, a part of her knew that if she hadn’t been there, both Ben and Tom would be dead.
“Athena women can do anything.” Rainy had said that to Tory more than once when Tory had called for advice from her mentor.
Tom held his M-9 in a steady grip. He had one of the submachine guns slung over his shoulder along with an extra ammunition clip. Tory bent down and picked up one of the other guns. It was beginning to look as if they’d need an arsenal to get off the island in one piece.
Tom patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. Tory couldn’t even mutter her thanks to him. Oh, my God, she thought, I’m going to be sick. She swallowed several times and then realized she was breathing too quickly. She closed her eyes, but all she could see was the fallen man. She’d taken a life. Another person’s life. Something she’d never been prepared to do.
Ben joined them, squeezed her hand and then handed her the knife. The blade had been cleaned. She bent and replaced it in the sheath at her ankle.
“There weren’t that many exits out of the hotel. They were probably watching them all,” Tom said.
“Nice job, Patton,” Ben said, his eagle eyes on her.
She straightened, took a deep breath. She had to show him that she could stay with them. “I am an Athena grad, Ben. We can take care of ourselves.” Apart from the fact that she was this close to puking. She hoped she’d kept the tremors out of her voice. She knew he was looking for a reason to leave her behind.
“Good thing,” Tom said.
Ben stooped and picked up the remaining man’s gun and searched the bodies for extra ammunition.
“What the hell does Tom know that they are willing to kill for?” Tory asked.
“Search me,” Tom said with a grimace.
“I think they already did that,” Ben said. He turned to her. “Thanks for saving our asses.”
“No problem.”
“Let’s move out,” Tom said. “Obviously someone already knows the decoy isn’t me and they’re determined not to let us get away.”
“In a minute,” Ben said. He turned to Tory. “You okay?”
She nodded. She couldn’t talk anymore. She just couldn’t do it. She needed to gather her thoughts and figure out how to keep both men from guessing what was going on with her.
“Ever killed a man before?” Ben asked.
She shook her head.
“Come here.” He pulled her into his arms, rubbing his big hands up and down her back. The chills started to recede, and in a minute she stopped shaking and pushed herself away from him.
He gave her the once-over and then nodded. “Let’s go.”
“Should we be seen with all these weapons?”
“I’m not walking into another situation like this one.”
Tom nodded his agreement. “Can you handle that gun?”
“I fired one for a piece I did on illegal guns on the street. Street gangs in L.A. A lot of them used guns like this one.”
Dawn was breaking over the horizon. The beach was a few streets over, and the sidewalks were lined with palm trees and tropical plants. The dichotomy of the tropical-paradise foliage and the life-threatening situation made her want to laugh. She knew it was nerves and forced herself to breathe deeply.
Ben took the lead again, and this time she noticed he didn’t seem reluctant to have her along. She still felt shaky inside and hoped they could get off the island without further incident. But she knew if they didn’t, she’d do what needed to be done.
“Wait here.”
The garage was run-down like most of the buildings on the outskirts of Paraiso, but the windows were still in place and at some time in the not so distant past someone had whitewashed the walls. Ben disappeared inside.
Tom stood ready, tension in every line of his body. Tory mirrored his readiness, determined to be prepared for whatever came next.
“Well, hell,” Ben said, his voice carrying over to them. Tom pushed past her and entered the car bay. The hood of the Jeep was up, and the engine lay in pieces on the floor around the vehicle.
“Either of you know how to reassemble an engine?” Ben asked. He crouched next to the engine parts and picked up two of them.
“I don’t,” Tom said.
“Me, either, but I can call and get someone at the network to talk us through it,” Tory said.
Ben pushed to his feet and pulled his Colt .45 from the holster and checked the magazine. “Forget it. It’s time to drop back to Plan B. We’ll go on foot. Tom, can you walk about fifteen miles?” Ben asked.
The older man paused in his search of the back seat of the Jeep. He was loading a standard-issue backpack with the rations and water that had been stored there just in case. “Yes.”
“Good, let’s move out. We need to get out of the city and into the jungle area before people start moving around.”
They said little as they worked their way through the city streets that were just now waking up. Tory was aware of an energy buzzing through her veins that felt not unlike the kind of high reporting usually gave her.
Tory knew that something was changing deep inside her. For the first time in her life she was out of her element. It was an odd feeling, and she didn’t like it. Because she never could tolerate being out of control.
The interior of Puerto Isla was a dense jungle terrain that she knew, from a trip to Brazil the previous summer, made the Amazon rain forest feel like a nice day at the spa. Tory was drenched in sweat before noon. Ben moved as if he was accustomed to the damp heat. A dark sweat stain appeared between his shoulder blades. She stared at his back as she walked, her mind alive with images of him from last night.
His black pants pulled tight across his backside with each step he took. His arm lifted high to slash hanging vines out of their path with a machete he’d produced from his pack.
“Anyone need a break?” Ben asked over his shoulder. They’d been walking for about two hours. Ben had estimated they would reach the airport the following day. The jungle growth was dense and thick, slowing their progress.
He noticed where her gaze was and quirked one eyebrow. She shrugged at him. What could she say? The man was worth staring at and she suspected he knew it.
“I’m fine,” Tom said.
“Me, too,” Tory said, taking a sip from her water bottle. Despite being so sweaty, she was enjoying herself.
“Aren’t you a little old for active command, Tom?” Tory asked. The question had been bugging her. He was forty-five, and she knew today’s military was trying to be more politically correct, but young tough guys were usually who they wanted on the front lines.
“Yeah, I’m a mustang.”
“A tough wild horse?”
Ben laughed. “It’s a navy term for a guy who was enlisted and then later became an officer.”
“They should teach a course on military language.”
“You
should be familiar with some of it. Didn’t they teach you about the military at Athena Academy?” Ben asked.
“I knew I was going to be a reporter early on. So some of those classes I didn’t pay attention in.”
“What made you decide to be a reporter?” Tom asked. He tipped his face up toward the sun. Tory wondered if she would be able to survive what he had. Months locked away from human contact, fresh air and sunshine.
“Barbara Walters. I mean, she was the only woman on television when I was growing up and she always got the best interviews. She had a lot of respect in a male-dominated field.”
“Makes sense. But why not go into government work? Athena trains for that, too,” Ben said. He tipped his water bottle to his lips and took a long swallow. She watched his Adam’s apple bob.
That was what Alex had done. Used her Athena training as a jumping-off point for her career in the FBI. But not all of Tory’s friends from those days had chosen the military or government work.
“I don’t know. My brother is in the DEA. I needed to be different. I like to be the best at whatever I do.”
“I know what you mean. My dad was a marine so I chose the navy,” Tom said. When he smiled you could really see the man he was beyond the scars and bandages.
“What about you, Ben? Why are you still in the military?”
“Because there’s still a job to be done.”
“Patriotism?”
He shrugged and refused to answer.
She knew that was it. Ben Forsythe, scion of the upper crust, was doing a job that few men from any walk of life would risk their lives to do because he believed in freedom and his country. He should have been jaded. Hell, he probably was jaded, but he still did his job.
They continued walking and Tory thought about what her mom had said before she left. About her always having to win.
Tom held his hand up and Ben drew his gun. “Get down.”
Tory hadn’t heard anything, but she ducked into the thick foliage surrounding the rough path that Ben had cut. Soon the sound of a helicopter filled the air. Tory held her breath, then realized she was being ridiculous. No one would be able to hear her breathing over the noise.
