She's so beautiful.
He wished he could keep this moment from changing, this timeless, moonlit vision. It came to him that he could no longer imagine life without her, not a life he wanted. With the thought came a touch of fear that he could lose her.
He couldn't let that happen.
Nick got up and walked over to where she stood looking out at the Caribbean. A night bird cried somewhere in the darkness. He stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her. His heart was pounding.
"Selena," he said.
She heard something in his voice. She turned to look at him.
"Selena," he said again. "I love you."
She looked up into his eyes. "I love you, too."
"Marry me. Will you marry me?"
Oh my God. He's asking me to marry him. What about children? He could get killed. A cascade of thoughts flooded her mind. She let out a deep sigh.
"Nick..."
He waited.
"Yes," she said. "Yes, I will."
He kissed her. "Come back to bed."
There was something different about the way they made love, something more intimate, more familiar.
Later, Nick fell asleep. Selena lay awake for a long time.
CHAPTER 39
It was the afternoon after they'd arrived on the island. The team met again on the veranda. Clusters of purple bougainvillea and white honeysuckle vines climbed the columns in the front of the house. Sunlight slanting through the leaves of the trees cast shadows of light and dark across the lawn in front of the house.
Selena and Nick hadn't told anyone what had happened between them. It didn't seem like the right time.
Lamont set four No. 10 cans on the table. They'd once held tomatoes. Now each one had a six inch length of cord emerging from a gray, putty-like substance that filled the cans to the top.
"This is what I came up with," he said. "I mixed fertilizer and diesel and packed it tight, with some tacks and nails thrown in. I took the powder from a few rounds and mixed it with a little kerosene to soak the fuses. I gotta warn you though, it burns quick. If you actually have to use these things, you'd better get rid of them fast."
"Will they work?" Selena asked.
"Oh, yeah, they'll work. They're nasty. You don't want to get in the way when one goes off."
"Let's hope we don't have to use them," Elizabeth said. She turned to Stephanie. "Any luck, Steph?"
"I was able to link into our computers and activate the cameras inside the house. They made a real mess of things, but they didn't get into the computers and our files. They trashed everything in the offices but they didn't find the escape hatch or get into the Armory. It's probably the best result we could have hoped for. There's nobody there now."
"What about tracking down their base?"
"I'm working on it," Stephanie said.
"All right. Selena, I want you to call the pilot and put him on standby. We'll want to get out of here as soon as we're ready."
"That's a problem," Selena said. "I tried reaching him earlier. No luck, not even an answering machine."
Nick's ear tingled. "If they grabbed him, they know where we are. If I were them, I'd send a team after us. These guys are playing for keeps."
"I checked out the boat down in the bay," Lamont said. Nick could hear the former Navy seal talking as he spoke, a man who loved the sea. "It's a 48 foot Krogen whaleback. Long range, and the tanks are more than 3/4 full. Nice boat. It's solid and the engine is in good shape. We could reach the mainland in 10 or 11 days."
"That's a long time but it's good news," Elizabeth said.
"Do you think we should leave?" Selena asked.
Harker shook her head. "Not yet. Not until we know more."
"It's better to stay here," Ronnie said. "Make them come to us. That way we have home field advantage."
"With a few pistols and some clunky, homemade bombs?" Nick shook his head. "I love your optimism."
"Hey," Lamont said, "what do you mean, clunky?"
"Don't forget the shotgun," Selena said.
They all laughed. Then Nick got serious.
"I don't think they'll wait very long to make their move. I wouldn't."
Ronnie and Lamont both nodded.
"How do you see it going down, Nick?" Ronnie asked.
"I'd come in at night. I'd time it for when the moon is down."
"When is that?" Stephanie asked.
"Around two in the morning."
"Do you think they'll use choppers?" Lamont said.
"I don't think so. Too noisy. It would alert us and it would raise questions. They'd have to come from one of the nearby islands and too many people would see them and wonder what was happening. They'll come in by sea, probably zodiacs from a boat somewhere offshore."
"Where do you think they'll land?"
"Selena, you know the island. If you were going to try and sneak in here on rafts, where would you put in?"
"There aren't many places where you can get in with a boat," she said. "There are coral reefs around the island that would tear the bottom out of a raft. Even if they got to shore, the growth is so thick that they wouldn't find it easy to make their way through. They'd probably come into the bay, where the boat is. There is only one other place that would work. It's down there, on the west side of the island."
She pointed past Emile's house.
"That looks like jungle," Lamont said.
"It is, but there's a path down to the water from the back of Emile's place. He keeps a small boat there that he takes out sometimes when he wants to catch dinner. There's a narrow gap in the reef."
"How thick is that jungle, anyway?" Nick said.
"Thick. It's not much fun. Lots of insects, mosquitoes, big spiders. The ground is rough underfoot. You have to hack your way through with a machete and there's nowhere to go except to the mountain. That's so steep there's not much point to it, unless you're a glutton for punishment."
"Okay, at least our southern flank is secure. And no one is coming up that cliff behind the house. So all we have to worry about is the two sides of the island."
"I could rig up a booby trap," Lamont said. "I could use a couple of these tomato cans."
"You could hook them up to a car battery," Ronnie said. "We did that once in Afghanistan. Surprised the hell out of a bunch of Taliban. Remember, Nick?"
"Right. We turned the tables on them with our own IED."
"We can set them up on the path in from the bay," Lamont said.
"We should use Emile's house as our command post," Nick said. "We'll leave a couple of lights on in the main house because that's where they'll expect us to be, but we can't stay here. There's no place to go. We'd be trapped. I'd rather be able to fade into the trees if we have to. Besides, the caretaker's house is right on the route from the other side of the island. It gives us good positioning."
"Makes sense," Ronnie said.
For the next half hour they worked out details.
"I'd better get working on that IED," Lamont said. He wiped sweat away from his forehead.
"I'll fill Emile in," Selena said.
"Then I guess we're ready," Nick said.
CHAPTER 40
The assassins came in two silent, black zodiacs, a little after three in the morning. Lamont and Ronnie lay concealed in a grove of trees near the shore. Ronnie watched through an old pair of binoculars he'd found in the main house. The moon was down, but there was enough light from the stars to cast a faint sheen on the water and to show the black shapes of the rafts and the men getting out of them.
"I make it twelve men," Ronnie said. "Machine pistols, no heavy weapons. Night gear, all black. Maybe pros."
His voice was quiet, little more than a whisper. Even if someone had been nearby, the soft sound of his words would have disappeared in the sound of the surf against the shore.
Next to Lamont was a car battery he'd taken from Emile's truck. A wire ran from the hot terminal down toward the shore and the path leading up fro
m the bay. He held another wire in his right hand, the end stripped down to the copper. Two of the homemade bombs were hidden on either side of the path.
"Wait..." Ronnie said. "Wait." He kept the binoculars trained on the men coming up the path. He let the first two men go by the trap.
"Now," he said.
Lamont touched the bare end of the wire to the battery terminal. The two bombs detonated in a double thunderclap that sent startled birds screeching into the air. For an instant the night was lit with a bright, orange light. Then the light was gone. Someone began screaming.
The two men who had gotten past the IED were caught in the instant of paralyzing shock that comes before survival kicks in and turns to desperate action. It was only an instant, but it was long enough. Ronnie and Lamont stood and fired together and took them down. The rattle of automatic fire came toward them from down the trail but it was wide and high. They retreated back up the path toward Emile's house.
In the house, Stephanie, Elizabeth and Selena waited with Emile. Nick was away from the house on the path leading to the other side of the island, watching the other way in. Emile was sharpening a machete. They heard the explosion. Emile looked up from the blade.
"They are here," he said. They all went outside.
Elizabeth held a 12 gauge double-barreled shotgun with outside hammers. The finish was worn. The gun qualified as a collector's item but it was clean and tight and well oiled. Stephanie cradled an old, bolt action Western Auto .22 with a long tubular magazine under the barrel. It was a lot like the Mossberg she'd had in Kansas, if not as elegant.
A minute later Nick appeared. "Nothing on that side," he said. "Selena, let's go."
Stephanie and Elizabeth were relegated to a backup role. If someone got through Nick and the others, the plan was for Emile to take them to a hiding place in the jungle.
Selena and Nick moved down the path toward the bay. They heard someone coming. Nick held up his fist and signaled. They stepped off the path into the undergrowth. Selena held her pistol in both hands, the hammer back, her finger laid alongside the trigger. Her heart was beating hard against her ribs. Her palms were slippery with sweat. An insect buzzed close to her ear, sending a surge of adrenaline sweeping through her body. She took deep breaths, calmed the rush.
Nick whistled, a warbling bird call that Ronnie had taught him. An answering call came from down the trail. Ronnie and Lamont emerged from the gloom.
Nick kept his voice low. "How many?"
"A dozen," Ronnie said. "Not so many now, maybe five or six left. Automatic weapons. They're wearing body armor. Go for the head shots."
They have to come up the path," Lamont said. He gestured at the jungle on the sides of the trail. "No one's getting through that. They'll regroup and come after us."
Nick nodded. "You and Ronnie set up on the side of the path, a little farther down. Let the first few go by. Selena and I will stay here. When you hear us firing, take out the rest and come back."
Lamont's breathing was harsh. His face was pale and beads of sweat dotted his forehead.
"You okay, Shadow?" Nick said. It hadn't been that long since Lamont had taken a bullet through his right lung.
"Yeah. Nothing to worry about. Let's go, Ronnie."
Selena watched them trot down the trail. "He doesn't look good," she said.
"He'll deal with it. Let's get into the trees."
They settled in, a few feet apart. In the dark, with the heavy foliage all around them, it was as if Nick had disappeared. Selena couldn't see him. A dangling vine caught her hair. She reached up and pulled it away. Mosquitoes found her. She tried to brush them away without making noise. Then she saw the first man coming up the trail.
He moved with the caution of someone who had walked enemy trails before. He wore a dark colored beret. His face was smeared with green and black grease paint. Mercenaries, she thought. Pros. He held a lethal-looking submachine gun high and close to his body. His head never stopped moving, his eyes trying to see into the impenetrable jungle. She almost felt sorry for him. She reminded herself that he was here to kill her. Not far behind him, another man appeared and then another. The first man was almost past her hiding place. She took aim at the man behind him.
They were outgunned, pistols against automatic weapons. They'd only get one chance.
Somehow the point man sensed her presence. He started to turn toward her, the barrel of his weapon swinging around. The roar of Nick's pistol shattered the night silence. The man went over backward.
Selena fired, twice. Her target flailed his arms in the air and fell back off the path. She heard Nick's pistol again and then Lamont and Ronnie firing, the sound of the shots flat and deadened by the thick jungle growth. She swung toward the man who was next in line and fired at him. He went down. There was a chattering burst of automatic fire down the trail and a pistol shot. Then the night was still again.
Selena was holding her breath. She let it out, releasing the tension. On the trail, nothing moved.
"You okay?" Nick asked.
"Yes. You?"
They stepped out onto the trail. "Just mosquito bites." He walked over to the bodies, reached down and picked up two of the machine guns. He handed one to Selena.
"Czech Skorpions," he said. "They're like a .32 caliber buzz saw on full auto, rip you to pieces. A lot of mercs use them."
Selena examined the weapon. A selector switch on the left-hand side of the receiver let the shooter choose between safe, single shot or full auto. A curved magazine jutted from the front, behind a stubby barrel. The stock was a curved piece of metal that folded up over the receiver. She pulled the bolt partway open, saw the glint of a cartridge and let it slide shut. She flipped on the safety. Cocked and loaded. She hefted the gun.
"Doesn't weigh much."
"Under three pounds. It puts out about 850 rounds a minute. See if you can find some spare mags."
There were four bodies. They found a dozen loaded magazines. Nick picked up the other two guns and slung them over his shoulder. A whistle came from down trail. Nick answered. Ronnie and Lamont appeared. Lamont was limping. They each carried one of the Czech guns.
"Are you hit?" Nick asked.
"Nah. I tripped over a root and twisted my ankle."
"Any of them left?"
"No," Ronnie said. "I checked. We got all of them."
"Let's go find Harker and the others," Nick said. The adrenaline charge was fading. He felt dull, used up. His legs felt like lead. A dull ache started in the back of his head.
CHAPTER 41
Elizabeth and Stephanie moved off the porch of Emile's house into the shadows of the trees. Emile waited with them, his razor-sharp machete hanging down by his side. They listened to the sounds of the firefight down the trail. The shooting stopped and everything became quiet. The normal sounds of the jungle at night began to return, a mix of things rustling in the undergrowth, the flutter of moths and whine of insects, the occasional cry of a bird.
"I don't hear them," Stephanie said.
"That doesn't mean anything," Elizabeth said. "They're not going to come up the trail whistling Dixie."
"I hate this," Stephanie said. "This is what they do all the time, isn't it?"
"Pretty much. I don't know how Selena does it. I know I couldn't."
"I heard something," Stephanie said. "It came from that way."
She pointed at the path that led down to Emile's small boat on the west side of the island.
"Nick cleared that," Elizabeth said. "There's nobody in that direction."
Even so, Elizabeth pulled back the hammers on her shotgun. The double-click of the hammers sounded loud in the humid night.
"Careful," Emile said. "The triggers are very sensitive."
"Oh, hell," Stephanie said under her breath.
Five men dressed in black and wearing berets and body armor emerged into the clearing in front of the house. They fanned out. Two came toward the porch.
Elizabeth put her mouth next t
o Stephanie's ear. "The others don't know they're here." Her voice was hardly a whisper. "They'll come up here and walk into an ambush."
Stephanie looked around. "Where's Emile?" She said.
The old man was gone, vanished somewhere in the growth.
"We have to try and stop them," Elizabeth said.
"How?"
"Wait till you can't miss. I'll shoot at the ones closest to the house. Make it count."
Stephanie lifted the rifle to her shoulder and took aim. The movement caught the eye of one of the men. He shouted. His gun came up.
Elizabeth fired. The 12 gauge kicked back hard into her shoulder. A swarm of buckshot caught the first man in the chest and throat and lifted him off his feet. The tiny report of Stephanie's .22 registered somewhere in the back of Elizabeth's mind. A second man went down. Elizabeth fired the other barrel at the third man. His head vanished in a reddish cloud of blood and bone. The body stumbled and fell. Elizabeth had the shotgun open and was fumbling with shells, trying to reload.
The fourth man swung his weapon toward her. She froze, the shells motionless in her hand. Her mind stopped.
Emile appeared behind him. His machete swept across in a gleaming arc that took the man's head from his shoulders. Blood fountained high into the air. The last mercenary fired. Emile jerked and stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. As the old man's killer turned toward Elizabeth and Stephanie, a volley of shots from the trail sent him reeling sideways. He collapsed into the undergrowth.
Nick and the others ran into the clearing.
"Jesus," Ronnie said, staring at the slaughter. Two of the bodies were headless. The ground in front of the house was wet with blood.
"Selena, you stay here," Nick said. "We need to clear that trail."
The three men disappeared down the path.
Stephanie stood holding the 22, grim faced. Elizabeth looked at the headless corpse of the man she had killed. The shotgun was still broken open in her left hand. She bent over and vomited .
Selena went over to Emile. His eyes were wide open, the front of his chest covered with blood. She knelt by him. He'd been her friend. She had always felt safe with him and now, because of her, he was dead. She had brought death with her to the island. Her eyes filled with tears. She brushed them away.
The Ajax Protocol (The Project) Page 14
