by Dale Mayer
At that, Levi chuckled. “I did say that. But we’ll see. That’s not the issue. I suspect she won’t be the only one who needs rescuing. If she’s been separated from her team, maybe, but chances are the entire team has been taken out.”
“Then the families should have heard something. No one else appears worried.”
“George was always very intuitive of danger,” Levi said. “I’ve known of several of his other research projects. One time, in the middle of the night, he hustled an entire town to move out, against the government and even the villagers’ wishes. Later that entire side of the mountain came down in a mega-avalanche and buried eighty percent of the town.”
Vince shook his head. “Wow. In other words, you trust that if he says something’s wrong, it’s worth checking out.”
“Definitely. We can’t afford to let time slip by. We already have five hours of traveling distance to get there if you could leave this instant. But the time zone change gains us one hour. So the net time change is four hours. Regardless, in those four-plus hours to get you to Houston’s international airport and on a flight,” he snapped, “all kinds of trouble could go down. We might get a trace on her for right now, but, by the time you land, it’s a completely different story.”
“Anybody close by you can haul in earlier?”
Levi tapped the tabletop as if running through his list of jobs and where all his men were.
Vince glanced around. “With your growing team here, you may have this covered electronically, but I almost feel like you need a wall map of the world and colored flag pins to assign to each man and to track who’s in and who’s out, and in what country, or at least what continent they’re all in,” he said with a laugh.
Levi nodded. “We’re getting to that point, aren’t we? We also have time off, holidays, marriages, all kinds of stuff going on,” he said, in deep thought. “Have to make it work though.”
“Are you okay with Johan?”
“I’d take Johan in a heartbeat,” Levi said. “I’d also take his brother Jezeus. Both men are cut from the same cloth. They were raised in war times, turned into guerrilla fighters at the age of ten. Bullard pulled them out at fourteen, and it took until they were eighteen to stop the brainwashing, to straighten them up and to put them to work for him. Once they understood how allegiance actually worked, and the difference between the universally accepted concepts of right and wrong versus the skewed concepts of right and wrong of the man who had taken them prisoner, the brothers turned out to be incredible assets for Bullard.”
“So why are they leaving him?”
Levi shook his head. “They’re not leaving. We’re doing a temporary switch, the brothers for Kasha and Brandon, who wanted to work over here for six months then for Bullard in Africa for six months—like those student exchange programs in high schools and colleges.”
Vince nodded. “I might go for a deal like that too, down the road,” he said with a smile. “It’s a hell of a way to see the world.”
“It’s also a hell of a way to see that, no matter where you are in the world,” Levi corrected as he stood, placing his cup on the table, heading for the door, “it’s all the same.”
*
She pulled the too-tight gag off her mouth, glad to breathe freely again. “Trussed up, tied up, whatever the hell you want to call it,” Vanessa said as she lay on a hard bunk, “we’re in a shit spot.” The rest of her team were in various states of consciousness, tied up around her. All of them had been gagged too, with their hands tied behind them. Like her. To begin with at least.
Only not all of her team was here as she studied those around her. Dr. Laura Sanchez was missing. Vanessa’s heart filled with dread. Vanessa had been alone in the lab when attacked by two gunmen. In the process she’d been knocked unconscious, only to wake up with her team around her—minus Laura.
These gunmen were serious, and they had nothing to do with the research her team was here to conduct. These men were either pirates or poachers. And that just broke her heart. Poachers were the bane of any research group looking to preserve the life of a species.
Species at risk was one of the areas that made Vanessa’s heart bleed. And to see poachers stealing eggs, shooting and killing the turtles, broke her heart and made her realize once again that the most dangerous predators in the world were its humans. Half the time they killed not for food or out of necessity but for sheer pleasure. And humans were one of the few species to kill each other as wantonly as they did everything else.
She tried once again to wriggle her hands free. They were in front of her now, only because she’d managed to slip them down over her butt and up in front of her legs. She was average height for a woman with fairly short legs, and that made the job a little easier. Across from her, Dr. Willard Walker watched her, hope in his eyes. She tried hard to bite the knots free, but the rope was nylon, and her teeth weren’t cutting through. She collapsed back down, breathing heavily.
They could hear footsteps above them. The boat itself was fairly rickety. She imagined whoever had kidnapped them had taken over their research vessel as spoils of war. And, if that was the case, what boat was she on now? The research vessel was a wonderful ship, and she’d do a lot to reclaim it. The last thing she wanted was to be treated as somebody who didn’t matter. Somebody who was just a means to an end.
She’d spent her lifetime looking for attention from her parents, who were both scientists, so involved in their own work sometimes that she had to be an outright nasty child in order to get them to look up at her. They’d been confused and surprised and never really understood her. Never understood what drove her. But then she hadn’t really understood what had driven them either, until she became a teenager and got hooked on saving as many animals as she could. Then she understood completely.
For that reason alone, she decided there was no way in hell she would have a family. She wouldn’t do to her children what her parents had done to her. She’d grown past that sense of insecurity and neediness but still had no plans to repeat the cycle.
A muffled sound came across from her. Her eyes flew open to see Dr. Walker motioning toward her bound hands again. She stared down at them as she lifted them up. They were already torn and bleeding, but she knew she had to get them loose. She studied the hard edge of the board where she lay, wondering if any frayed edges could saw away on her ropes.
She sat up, swung her legs over the edge and worked the ropes up and down the sides of the wood. She knew at some point it would work, but she didn’t know if she had enough hours or energy. She’d lost track of time. Surely they’d been kidnapped at least twenty-four hours ago, with very little food and water, only what they had on them. If she didn’t know better, she’d think the damn kidnappers planned on letting them slowly die down here.
She knew she and her crew were worth money. But, in order to exchange her team for said money, she’d have to let their kidnappers know her team had value. And that was a catch-22. Because, to gain the kidnappers’ attention, they took a chance on getting another beating.
She wasn’t sure what the kidnappers were smuggling. Because of the location, she wondered if it was turtles. But it could also be that the gunmen were just using a sacred spot to hold and move goods that had nothing to do with the actual habitat. Since the archipelago was shut down for tours right now, it made for very little traffic back and forth. As she thought about it, that was a smart move on the kidnappers’ part.
Tony made a strangled sound in the back of his throat.
She turned and looked at their valuable research assistant. This was his first on-site job, and he’d been thrilled to join them. That it had turned into his biggest nightmare was something she had no control over.
He lifted and humped his butt several times.
She studied his face, and he kept motioning with his head to his side. She hopped off the bunk, hobbled over with great difficulty, her ankles still bound, using the bunk to walk. When she got to him on the floor,
she crouched beside him to see a shape in his pocket, then dove her fingers in and pulled out a penknife. She snapped it open, cut her own ties and then cut him loose and went around systematically cutting everyone else free.
Finally with everybody untied, they stared at each other. She handed the pocketknife back to Tony. “I’m so glad you thought to bring that,” she whispered. “Anyone see Dr. Laura?”
They all shook their heads.
Tony asked, “How do we get out of here?”
She bolted to look out the small porthole window. “There’s only water on this side,” she said.
Tony checked the other side and nodded. “Here too.”
“So, on three sides, we’re looking at endless ocean,” Dr. Walker said. “That leaves only one other direction. We don’t have any tools. We have no weapons except for a small pocketknife.”
She turned and smiled, baring her teeth, holding up the ropes she’d cut off. “And these.”
Tony nodded. “And rope. You’re right. If we can get behind the kidnappers, we could strangle them.”
“There’s four of us and at least two gunmen that I know of,” she snapped, her voice low and hard. “If need be, I’ll be the tease, bring them into the room. You guys will have to go after them.”
The men nodded.
Dr. Walker asked, “Do you really think their end game is our deaths?”
“How much water have you had in the last twenty-four hours?” Tony asked.
For that, Dr. Walker had no reply.
She checked her pockets. “Everybody see what you have. Phones, lighters, anything.”
“What would you do with a lighter?” Dr. Walker asked curiously.
“Torch the boat,” she said.
Just as she said it, they heard footsteps overhead once again. They stopped talking to listen, their ears strained to hear if anybody would come down below. So far they’d had one visitor the whole time, that they knew of, and that was to put a bucket of water down. And that was it. It was pretty damn hard to drink when your mouths were gagged, and you were tied up.
Vanessa dropped down, picked up the bucket and very gently sipped from it. She wrinkled her nose. “It’s not the best, but it’ll do.” She handed it around to the others until everybody had had a drink.
“You wouldn’t burn the boat, would you?” Dr. Walker asked.
She shot him a hard look. “If it’s our only way to get out of here? Yes.”
“That’ll throw us into the ocean,” he said, “where we could be ten times worse off.”
She smiled at him. That was the difference between her and Dr. Walker. He was all about the research, all about his glass of port in the evening and his lattes in the morning. Whereas she was all about Mother Nature. And, if there was one thing she understood, Mother Nature was a bitch. And she was very unkind to some animals. When your time was up, your time was up. But Mother Nature also allowed each and every animal to fight to the end. And, if that was the case right now, Vanessa had absolutely no trouble taking these assholes down with her.
“If it’ll be us or them, and we’ll die anyway,” she added quietly, “I’ll make sure I take them with me.”
Tony nodded. “I hope it doesn’t come to that—not to mention that Dr. Laura could be up there, captive as well—but I agree.”
They looked over at Jasper, another research student who was working on his PhD thesis. He was still out cold, but then he’d taken a heavy blow to the head, whereas the others had been not quite so bashed. Something about Jasper’s size always seemed to get him into trouble. Everybody wanted to challenge him, to see if they could beat him. That was hardly fair, but it didn’t really matter. Some things were a cross to bear. Jasper was at least six feet, five inches tall and weighed 280 pounds. But he was all teddy bear. Now if they could only get him to wake up.
She crouched beside him and smacked his cheek lightly. “Jasper, come on, wake up.”
He moaned gently.
She bent down, placed her mouth against his ear and said, “Don’t talk. Don’t make a sound. We’ve been kidnapped by a pirate ship or a bunch of poachers. We’re being held in the hull of their boat. But we have now cut all our ties, and we’re loose. You’re the only one not conscious.”
His eyes fluttered open, and he stared at her in confusion.
She smiled down at him. “You’re mostly all right. You got hit on the head though. Sit up slowly, and see if you can move around.”
He blinked several times. It took another moment for him to focus and then to react. He sat up slowly, wincing as the blood flowed again through his body with his movements. With her help and the bunk beside him, he stretched to his full height. He let his breath rush out and half closed his eyes. “It’s not too bad,” he muttered. “I’ve always had a hard head. I don’t know what they hit me with, but it hurts like hell.”
“Likely they hit you with the butt of a rifle because you wouldn’t go down. You always were someone who didn’t know when to quit,” Dr. Walker said.
Jasper’s lopsided grin slipped out. “Yeah, that’s not my style.” He looked around, and his gaze narrowed. “Man, my head hurts.” He rotated his head gently on his neck and groaned slightly.
“As long as you live through this, you’re good,” Vanessa said, “but there’s no sign of Laura. She’s not here with us. That’s all we know.”
He stared at her in shock.
She reached an arm around Jasper and hugged him close. He was only twenty-two, one of those real brainiac overgrown boys. But he was steady. And that, she needed. She glanced at the other two. “We need a plan,” she said.
“One that doesn’t involve burning the boat,” Dr. Walker said drily.
Just then they heard footsteps coming down the stairs and panicked. Dr. Walker and Tony collapsed onto their bunks where she had cut their bonds, drew up, as if tied still, and pretended to be unconscious. She couldn’t do anything about their gags. She motioned at Jasper to do the same. He lay on the floor again and tucked his feet under a bunk to hide that his feet were no longer bound. And he lay with his hands behind his back as if still unconscious.
She was the one who would have a harder time hiding her lack of ropes on her wrists and ankles. And, if she couldn’t surprise her kidnappers, then there wasn’t a whole lot she could do otherwise. She scrunched down to the lower end of the bunk, dropped her feet off the back side and crumpled sideways. All she needed was a chance for somebody to get in far enough for her to attack. Because, once she did that, no way in hell would she let them take her down. She wasn’t vicious by nature, but she sure as hell wasn’t someone who would give up, lie down and let them kill her just because they wanted to.
The door opened, and an unarmed man walked in.
Her eyes slitted open, looking under her eyelashes, she watched him as he stepped inside, looked at the still-full bucket and snorted. “How long are you guys planning on sleeping?” he asked with a snort. He picked up the bucket and tossed water into Jasper’s face on the floor.
Instantly she exploded off her bunk and, with a rope in her hands, wrapped it tight around his neck and pulled it and twisted it hard. He hardly made a sound as he struggled forward, but Dr. Walker pulled his knees out from under him, and he went down—yanking Vanessa to the floor with him. She let go of the rope before it further tore up her hands and rolled away. Meanwhile, Jasper grabbed the bucket and slammed him hard over the head. And, just like that, they had one man down.
Slowly she pulled herself toward him and checked his pulse.
“Did you kill him?” Tony asked, his voice harsh, yet hopeful.
She shook her head. “No. More’s the pity. Because we should. You know that, right?”
She hated hearing those words coming from her mouth, but the only way they would get out of this alive was if they picked off each and every one of their captors to make sure they couldn’t get back up again.
Jasper had a different answer. He picked up the bucket again and hit the ma
n over the head once more. Jasper then grabbed the ropes, tied up the man’s hands behind him, and his legs, then joined his bindings with another rope and pulled his legs tight up against his back. He stuffed a gag into the man’s mouth so he couldn’t make a sound. And then, with help, the man was shoved under a bunk. These were attached to the wall with hinges, allowing them to be lifted and lowered.
She stared at their captive and realized it was the best they could do. He would survive, or he wouldn’t. But then that was the same story for themselves. With the door open, Vanessa slipped to the edge and peered around the corner. Another room was up front and a kitchen. Then the deck above. She had no clue how many men were here.
As she looked back, she saw Jasper going through the man’s pockets. She smiled. Too bad he hadn’t come down with a gun. Jasper pulled out money and his ID, shrugged, put everything into his own pocket and dropped the bunk down over the man. Then he picked up the bucket and one of the other ropes and motioned at her.
She nodded, looked at the other two, who stood in line behind Jasper. Then again, that was probably the best place to be. He was an indomitable force that would be hard to get through. She slipped forward, keeping her back against the wall as she checked out the first room, which was a storeroom and empty of humans. But there was food, and that was good. Who knew what they might need as they moved on? Knowing she didn’t have the time, but still looking for weapons, she stepped inside to search for something.
She came up with an old cast-iron frying pan on the bottom shelf. She handed it to Dr. Walker. He frowned, then hefted it and smiled at her. She went back in the storage room to search for more. But there just didn’t appear to be anything else suitable for defending themselves. She came back out, shrugged at Tony and kept going. She stopped just ahead of the kitchen area, peered around the corner and smiled. It was empty.
She slid inside around the table area and over to the kitchen. There she grabbed three big knives and came back. She traded Jasper’s bucket for a big butcher knife. She gave a filet knife to Tony, and for herself she had a chef’s knife. In her other hand, she carried a cleaver. She smiled. “I don’t know how many men are up above, but we need to find out. The sooner we’re back in control, the sooner we’re out of this nightmare.”
