Desert Knights

by Conrad, Linda; Conrad, Linda

  Before they’d come on this mission, it had been the consensus of opinion that in a backward place like Zabbarán, she would need to disguise herself as a bedouin man in order to avoid confrontations with any of the locals. That idea had been fine by her.

  Morgan did not do up-close-and-personal confrontations. Not with anyone. All her deadly confrontations over the last twelve years had happened at a distance of four hundred yards—plus.

  She turned back to Karim in time to see him trying to get a signal on his satellite phone. “Nothing. Must still be interference from the sandstorm.”

  Well, that sucked. “How long do you think it will be until we can reach them?”

  “Maybe a long time. Too long to stick around here. When the sun breaks fully over the mountains, we’ll be too exposed. Both to the elements and to any passing Taj Zabbar patrols.”

  It had taken her a while to get the names of the players straight for this wild and crazy drama her ex-CIA partner had talked her into. The Taj Zabbar would be the bad guys, she knew that much. Really bad from the sounds of things. Apparently they hated everybody, but especially the Kadir family.

  Tarik Kadir, her partner on several interagency task force operations while she was with the CIA, had been the one who’d asked for her help. She owed Tarik. He’d saved her life on more than one occasion.

  So without much of an argument to the contrary, she’d volunteered to work with the Kadir family inside an uncivilized desert country. And already this mission had turned into a royal screwup.

  She figured she would be sorry she’d asked this, but… “What do you propose?”

  “The original plan called for us to head over those mountains.” Karim pinned her with a sincere look. “I say we stick with the plan. Start out. Maybe we’ll be able to catch a SAT signal nearer the mountain’s crest.”

  “You aren’t considering going ahead with the mission if the others can’t meet up with us.”

  He didn’t answer her non-question right away, but the look in his eyes shouted loud enough.

  “You can’t be considering not going ahead with the mission.” He finally made himself clear using a twist on her own words. “Not with what’s at stake.”

  Morgan didn’t wish to think about the stakes. Her missions had always consisted of planning the strike and executing the strike. Plain and simple. Complicated issues like politics and terrorism, even life and death, could never be considerations in her world. Such complications might interfere with her concentration.

  However, this time Karim would not let her shift her focus away from their true goal. “You understand there’s an innocent child’s life at stake, Morgan? A little two-year-old boy by the name of Matin whose parents were murdered in front of his eyes. He’s living a life under a death sentence and will die if we can’t reach him in time.”

  A huge, gripping ache in her chest left her nauseated and dizzy. She hadn’t wanted to consider the “victim.” Only the target. But she drew in several deep breaths and tried to block the distraction.

  Still, even with her renowned mental discipline, could she possibly concentrate on a mission where a child’s life hung in the balance? What if all their efforts weren’t enough?

  “Well, are you with me or not?” Karim held out his hand.

  Straightening her shoulders, she drew herself up into a rigid line and took his hand. “I’m with you. We’ll stick to the plan.”

  It would have to be good enough. She would have to be good enough.

  Chapter 2

  A little later Karim reached out his hand and grabbed Morgan’s forearm, dragging her up the last five feet of steep trail. Then he let her sidestep around him and take the lead again.

  They’d been making good progress up the slope. Half the time he followed her to be sure she didn’t slip. The rest of the time he led, urging her to keep up with the pace he set.

  As the sun rose higher in the crystal-blue sky, he decided it was time for a rest period. It hadn’t taken the desert sun long to begin bubbling off boulders and small rocks along their makeshift path. Heat, throbbing and humming, rippled across stark sandstone spires as the sweat began trickling down his neck.

  But look at her. Calm. Cool. Like ice water must run in her veins.

  He found himself admiring her as he would a complicated piece of machinery. For most of his life, his world had revolved around perfectly attuned electrical or mechanical components: connectors, sockets, integrated circuits, user interfaces and motherboards. Elegant design had always intrigued him.

  This mission was a first attempt at turning his life around. To give in to his long-standing desire to awaken every morning in the real world instead of a world full of avatars and algorithms. He needed to feel a positive existence pulsating through his bloodstream for a change. To be really alive.

  And to mean something. To fight the good fight with his family and avenge his father’s death.

  She meant something. People counted on her to do her job with no fuss, and she didn’t let them down.

  As she took the next tenuous step up an old, pebbled, mountain goat’s trail, her sandaled feet slipped out from under her and she reached forward, trying to grasp any protruding handhold in the stone. He didn’t stop for a consideration of the sweetness of her backside or the fact that his palms were now firmly planted against those material-covered cheeks. He just kept her from sliding backward.

  Later, he might need to take a few deep breaths. But for right now, he jumped up beside her on the trail and gathered her into his arms, balancing them together in the small space.

  “You’re okay.”

  She glared at him. “I am. Now release me.”

  When he drew his arms back, she turned and practically pole-vaulted the next few feet around a switchback. He stayed with her, as close as he dared, determined to be the best possible bodyguard.

  “Let’s take a break,” he said as they rounded a granite outcropping and came upon an overhanging ledge that would provide shelter from the sun.

  Without saying a word, she ducked into the shade and perched her bottom on a flat rock. Shrugging out of her pack, she worked her shoulders, as if every millimeter of muscle ached. His shoulders were plenty stiff, too, but that couldn’t matter. He dropped his pack and squatted down on his heels.

  “You need to rehydrate.” Using the quick release on his chest strap, he removed one of the bladders of his CamelBak hydration system and handed it to her. “It wouldn’t hurt us to take in salt and protein at this point, either.”

  He felt another bead of sweat appear on his forehead and shoved his head scarf back out of the way. Morgan looked askance, disapproving of his bare head, but then ignored him as she raised the bladder to her lips and drank.

  She didn’t need to remove her scarf for him to remember the heavy mass of chestnut hair she’d twisted into a prim knot underneath. That hair had become a vivid feature starring in all his dreams for the last few weeks. Sleek. Silky. An image of those satin strands trailing across his belly as she leaned over his chest rudely interrupted his thoughts at inopportune times, as though he’d accidently come across a porno ad on the web.

  “You’re an idiot,” he murmured under his breath.

  She could never know what he’d been thinking—dreaming. He wanted this mission to go right. For more than one reason. And it would never be right if she knew he’d been lusting for her since the day they’d met.

  Digging around in his pack, he found the Nitro-Tech high-protein bars. “Here you go. Sodium and high protein in one almost enjoyable package.”

  “Hmm.” She gave him a wry look but took the bar he offered. “You going to try phoning home again?”

  He needed her on his side. It was more than a possibility that they would have to accomplish this mission without backup.

  “In a moment.” He took a drink and unwrapped a bar of his own. “You know,” he began by way of making small talk. “I’ve been watching you. You move quietly. Like a panther. E
xcellent moves.”

  “What you mean is I move quietly. Like a panther—considering I’m a woman.”

  Shaken by her words, Karim swallowed the tasteless protein bar, wondering if they were true. He hadn’t spent a lot of time around women and definitely no time around a woman as strong, skilled and determined as this one. Still, he didn’t believe he was prejudiced either for or against women in general.

  “No,” he offered after a moment. “I don’t mean that. I mean, I respect your abilities and I’m impressed with how you make the best out of trying circumstances.”

  “I expected this mission to be difficult.” She eyed him carefully. “Three days across the desert in an inhospitable land is not like a walk on the beach.

  “What I didn’t expect was to be hustled out of the helicopter in the middle of a sandstorm and end up with only one other person on my team.”

  She’d said the last as though she didn’t believe he could handle the job by himself. But he could. He knew his capabilities as surely as he knew the sun would set behind the mountains in a few hours. She had no way of knowing that, of course. So he’d cut her some slack.

  “I’ll try the phone again.” He rose, moved out of the shade and into the sun in order to get a clearer signal from the satellite.

  The woman fascinated him. Good thing, because they would be spending a lot of time together over the next seventy-two hours. He had a feeling she was just as curious about him, though he wasn’t positive they were in sync over the type of curiosity they each felt. For sure, they would have to work hard at overcoming their differences and becoming comrades in arms.

  And he would have to work a lot harder at setting aside his lustful desires long enough to accomplish the mission.

  Morgan slowly chewed her protein bar and watched while Karim captured a satellite signal and spoke into the phone. From what she could ascertain by his side of the conversation, the two of them would be on their own for most of the mission.

  Now that she’d made the decision to continue, she would need to find a way to make the best of things. Somehow, she would have to forge a working relationship, perhaps even a sort of field friendship, with the man. It would be tricky, becoming his friend when she still felt a sensual chill at his every glance. But she was a professional. She imagined she could even handle a little desert flirtation, if it came down to that. Not that she ever had in the past. But this mission was proving to be quite different from the others.

  He hung up and swung back under their rock ledge and into the shade. “Good news and bad.”

  Time for her to get on with what she needed to do.

  “I gathered as much. Do we have a new plan? New timetable?”

  His deep eyes quietly studied hers quietly for a moment. “They’re working on the timetable. It seems this section of desert is suddenly swarming with Taj Zabbar patrols. But headquarters doesn’t believe their radar tagged our copter entering their territory. The sandstorm apparently covered our flight trajectory better than we could’ve hoped. And from satellite photos, it also didn’t look to Tarik as if the enemy troops were seeking out a commando raiding party. Their movements aren’t in a search grid. Like they don’t know we’re in the territory.”

  “So we continue?”

  “Tarik is working to get through to some of his covert agents in Zabbarán to find out what’s going on. Meanwhile we’re supposed to keep up with the plan as long as we can, but we’re to check in tomorrow night, if we can get a signal.”

  He waited, as though holding his breath and hoping she wouldn’t make a stink over the change. It was plain to see the time had come for her to make her first big attempt at having a friendship.

  She nodded once and reached for her pack. “We’re about to hit the twenty-minute mark on this stop. Time to move.”

  Desert survival training taught them that successful rest periods lasted more than five minutes, but any more than twenty minutes usually meant stiff muscles on the next leg. They had a long way to go before a planned sleep period. She would have to forge their budding friendship along the trail.

  “Well…” He blinked a couple of times and then set to work, tightening his own pack. “Yes. And it’s midmorning, too. Time for the sunglasses.”

  He tossed her a pair of high-tech glasses with special nonglare lenses. The CIA had designed them for fieldwork in Afghanistan. They cut the glare for the wearer and ensured no enemy would spot sunlight bouncing off them in the mountain passes.

  During their survival training, she’d noticed Karim’s biggest interest seemed to lay with the technological innovations. Perhaps that would give her a place to begin.

  As they started up the trail, she dug into the pocket of the rifle case and came up with her laser triangulation GPS. She’d programmed the maps and their route in before the team started out. The handheld device was specifically designed for her use in the field. No one else in the world had one of these babies yet.

  “Looks like we’re only one hundred and twenty-three yards from the summit.” Without letting him know, she checked his expression and found she’d been right. His eyes were glued to the device in her palm. Men and their toys. “Unless there’s an obstruction in the path, we’ll be at the top in record time.”

  “Nice piece of equipment.”

  “What, you mean this?” She handed it over. “It’s a prototype. But I understand it will shortly be in use by the military. Do you need a quick tutorial?”

  “No, but thanks.” He beamed all over as he punched a couple of buttons. “Very nice.”

  Wasn’t it interesting that a man with more bulging muscles than a human had a right to possess could understand the intricacies of a highly technical piece of equipment at first glance? Who was he, really?

  The trail widened out enough to allow them to walk side by side. “Since we’re going to be spending so much time together, maybe we should learn a little bit about each other’s backgrounds. You probably know more than I would wish about me, but I don’t know anything about you, yet. Wanna start?”

  Karim handed the handheld device back, wondering whether it was a good idea for the two of them to get to know each other better. He’d been daydreaming about getting to know her—intimately, not as the comrade on a life-and-death mission.

  So yeah, he’d like to know her a whole lot better in one way, but could he settle for finding out what made her tick?

  Before he had the chance to learn anything, he supposed he would have to open up about his own life first. “Well, I’m a Kadir. That just about sums up my life.”

  “Oh, no, you don’t.” She threw her hands on her hips. “I don’t know much about the Kadirs, except what little Tarik told me. And even if I did, that wouldn’t tell me anything about you. Spill.”

  Ah, hell. He hated talking about himself. But there didn’t seem any way out of it now without making her an enemy instead of a comrade.

  Grimacing, he cleared his throat. “The Kadirs are an ancient tribe—originally nomads—bedouins. We don’t belong to any particular country, but most countries have welcomed us over the centuries because we’re fair tradesmen. A few hundred years ago, Zabbarán was on our family’s trade route and we ended up in a drawn-out battle with the local savages, the Taj Zabbar.”

  “So you still hate them? Wow, now that’s holding a grudge.”

  “We don’t hate them. They hate us. Um…” The family feud was based on a long story that she didn’t really need to hear. “I guess you know that a few years ago, the Taj Zabbar rebelled against their neighbors, the Kasht, and retook control of their country—then they struck oil and got rich.”

  “I think I heard about that on the news, yeah. And didn’t I also hear something about the international community warning them not to proceed with their plans to go nuclear?”

  Swallowing past his dry throat, he nodded. “What most people don’t know is that the Taj Zabbar have sworn to destroy the Kadir family, in any way they can. They kicked off their little ven
detta against us by causing an explosion in America that killed a handful of members of our family. And, by the way, that explosion also killed and maimed a couple of dozen innocent people. And to top it all off, the Taj made it look like the explosion was our fault.”

  He lowered his voice, not sure he could get past the rest of this part of his life story. “My father was killed that day, too. The surprise attack alerted my entire family to the danger. And changed my life forever.”

  “I was about to tell you to skip over the family and get down to your story.” Her eyes filled with sorrow. “But you just did. In a huge way. I’d heard about the explosion a while back. I’m so sorry about your father.”

  “Me, too. His death taught me a lot more about revenge than I ever wanted to know.”

  They walked on in silence for a few minutes, allowing him time to push the images of that horrible experience back into his memory banks. Glancing up the trail, he spotted the summit and automatically turned his head to check the secondary peaks surrounding their position.

  There. Unexpectedly, just off to their left, he spotted something that gave him a chill down the back of his neck. A glint of sunlight—which had to be bouncing off binoculars or a rifle scope.

  Chapter 3

  “Run!”

  “What the…?” Morgan didn’t have time to take a breath. Karim jerked her around, pulling her behind him as he tore up the last incline to the peak.

  At the summit and out of breath, she planted her feet and reared her arm back out of his grasp. “Stop. Before I go another step, tell me what’s wrong.”

  Karim dragged in air as his lips spread in a wide grin. “Someone was watching us.” He pointed back the way they’d come.

  “What?” Spinning three-sixty degrees, she sent quick glances to the various sandstone ridges and spires surrounding them. “I don’t see anyone.”

  “I did. Someone had us in their sights, watching us through binoculars or a scope.” When she raised her eyebrows at the idea, he went on, “Look, you’re going to have to learn to trust me. I’m the designated bodyguard. I’ve had specialized awareness and cultural training. From now on, if you’re going to succeed with your mission and live to return home, when I say jump, you hop to it.”