“I’m not relying on anything. You’ve always told me to have a backup plan. The photo is my backup plan.” He stared grimly down at Kadmus. “And I got a photo of the helicopter as it took off. Complete with registration numbers. It could help. Could you have done better?” He turned away and started climbing.
Arrogance, Kadmus thought, trying to stifle his rage.
And he would punish that arrogance as Brasden deserved.
As soon as he could do without the asshole during these next crucial days.
Use him, then kill him.
* * *
“Don’t touch him, Luke.”
Hu Chang’s voice, Catherine realized hazily.
“I said, get away from him,” Hu Chang ordered.
Get away from whom? she wondered. It didn’t matter. Hu Chang sounded … stern. She had to open her eyes and make sure Luke was all right. “Luke…”
Luke was not all right.
His eyes were blazing with pure, searing anger. His entire being appeared to be sending off sparks. His lips were pulled back from his teeth. “Let me
go.
”
Then she saw that Hu Chang was standing in front of him, blocking his way.
And the pilot Hu Chang had called Tashdon was lying on the floor of the copter.
“Luke!” She scrambled to sit up. “What’s happening, Hu Chang?”
“Ask your son,” he said dryly. “Luke, get away from Tashdon and go see if your mother needs water or an aspirin. That’s the only help she needs from you right now.”
Luke hesitated, and the stormy expression gradually abated. He crossed the copter and fell to his knees beside her. “Is Hu Chang right?” he asked jerkily. “Do you need something? Water?”
“I need to know what happened.” She lifted her hand to her temple. The helicopter. They were on the helicopter. They must have gotten away from the mountain. The last thing she remembered was trying to jump out to get to those missiles. They’d been all over Cameron, and he’d—
“Cameron.” Her eyes widened. “What happened to Cameron?”
“Cameron will be okay.” Erin was suddenly beside her with a bottle of water and two aspirins. “We saw explosions while we were taking off. You don’t have to worry about Cameron.”
“I wasn’t exactly worried. I just didn’t want to leave a man behind.”
“And you were right,” Luke said fiercely. “If you wanted to go get Cameron, then Tashdon should have let you. I would have gone with you.” He was glaring over his shoulder at Hu Chang, who was helping the pilot to his feet. “He shouldn’t have touched you.”
“The pilot.” She had to struggle to remember the name Luke had called him. “Tashdon hit me?”
“He had no right to hit you,” Luke said. “No one has a right to hurt you.”
“You made your opinion clear on that subject, Luke,” Erin said dryly. “However, it might be wise to talk before acting.” She turned to Catherine. “But I don’t believe he’s going to listen to anyone but you, and he’s been edging toward Tashdon again.”
“Why? What happened to Tashdon?”
Luke didn’t answer.
Erin shrugged. “Tashdon hit you with the shaft of his gun when you were trying to jump out. Then he took a step back, closed the helicopter door, and tried to say something to Hu Chang.” She made a face. “He didn’t get the chance. Luke tackled him, then was on him like a cat. He bloodied his nose and gave him a karate chop that put him out. I don’t know how much more damage he did before Hu Chang pulled him off.”
“Considerable,” Tashdon said. “I wasn’t expecting it. Keep him away from me.”
“He’s only a boy,” Catherine said. “He’s eleven years old.”
“Who is almost as tall as me,” Hu Chang said. “He doesn’t have a man’s strength yet, but he has skills that made up for it. He was all ferocity and very intimidating. He knew what he was doing once he got his hands on Tashdon.” He looked at Luke. “Didn’t you?”
“Karate?” Luke shrugged. “Of course I knew. Rakovac wanted me to know anything that had to do with killing. He wanted me to kill. But I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do anything he wanted me to do.” He looked at Tashdon. “But I wanted to hurt him, and it was easy for me.”
“You don’t kill someone just because you can,” Catherine said.
“He hurt you.” He paused. “And I didn’t kill him … quite.”
“I have to go back to the cockpit,” Tashdon said. He turned to Catherine. “I’m sorry I hurt you.” He added ruefully. “In more ways than one. I was trying to explain to you when I struck you.”
“Not the time for explanations,” Catherine said. “And I may disapprove of Luke’s taking you down, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t do it myself.”
Luke took an eager step toward him.
“No, Luke, not you.” She said coldly to Tashdon, “Make your explanations and get out of here. It was Cameron?”
He nodded. “He was sure at some point you would … opt to stay and join the fray. He said to be prepared and not let you do it when that time came.”
“He told you to knock me on the head?”
“He told me to stop you. I couldn’t think of any other way to do it. I didn’t mean to knock you out. I just wanted to give you a glancing blow that would get you away from the door.” He gazed sourly at Luke. “I’m a pilot. I don’t know any of that other stuff. Cameron wanted it done. So I did it.”
“It’s not always wise to obey blindly,” Hu Chang said. “I heard what you said before you struck Catherine and deduced the reason.” He added coolly, “Otherwise, you would have had to contend with me as well as the boy. You would have found me even more lethal. Luke knows the method but is obviously controlled by passion. That’s sometimes counterproductive. He will have to be mentally and emotionally schooled before he’s fully effective. But you might be a good subject on whom he can practi—”
“Stop, Hu Chang,” Catherine said. “Let him go fly the damn helicopter. And you will not school Luke in anything lethal. It’s bad enough that I’m always worried about you and those poisons.”
Tashdon quickly nodded and fled for the cockpit.
“Cameron did it?” Luke was frowning. “He must be lying. Cameron wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.”
And Luke was willing to blame anyone but Cameron, Catherine thought. Even in the short time that they had been together, Cameron had made a potent impression on her son.
“Not intentionally, Luke,” Erin said. “He would only do it to keep Catherine safe.”
“But she has a right to do what she wants to do. He shouldn’t have told that pilot to hit her.”
“Drop it, Luke,” Catherine said. The last thing she wanted was for Luke to be aggressive toward Cameron when they saw him again. Cameron had far too many weapons at his disposal. She didn’t think he would use them against the boy, but Cameron was unpredictable to say the least. “I agree with you in principle, but I’m willing to withhold judgment until I get an explanation from Cameron.”
“That doesn’t sound like you.”
“No, it does not,” Hu Chang said. “It’s much too reasonable and logical. At last she must be listening to my sage advice.”
Luke shook his head. “I still don’t like—”
“Cameron saved us, Luke,” Erin said. “Forget everything else. Just remember what odds he took on to help us.”
Luke nodded. “I wasn’t sure what was happening at the time, but then everything started blowing up.” He smiled. “Pretty cool.”
“Yeah.” Erin smiled back at him. “Cameron is always pretty cool.”
Thank heavens Erin had managed to distract Luke. Catherine couldn’t be sure of sounding too convincing when her head was throbbing, and she was a hell of a lot angrier at Cameron than Luke. She turned to Hu Chang. “I take it I wasn’t out long?”
“No, but you missed the best part.”
“That’s a matter of opinion. So we should be in Hong Kong in about three hours?”
“That’s a good estimation. However, we may not be going to Hong Kong. We’ll have to transfer to another flight to go to the U.S., and Cameron may have made other arrangements. Hong Kong may not be safe.” He turned away. “But things were in such tumult after we took off that I didn’t get a chance to inquire of Tashdon. I’ll go up and see if he’s regained his composure enough to discuss it with me.”
Erin got to her feet. “Since this is all about me, I believe I’ll go with you.”
Catherine watched them leave before turning to Luke. “I didn’t ask you. Are you all right? Did Tashdon hurt you at all?”
Luke looked at her in surprise. “No, Hu Chang told you that I was the one who—”
“But I didn’t see it happening. I had to be sure. You were wrong, you know. You should have waited and found out—” Luke was shaking his head. “Okay, I’m not sure I would have waited. I have a habit of acting on instinct.”
Luke smiled faintly. “So do I.”
She reached out and touched his cheek. “Probably because you’re my son. I hope you haven’t inherited any more of my faults.”
“Who knows if that’s a fault? Hu Chang would say it is, but I’m not him. People aren’t the same.” His smile faded. “You were angry that I hurt that pilot.”
“No, not angry. It was a mistake. I just wanted you to realize it and correct it.”
He was silent. “I’m not sorry I did it,” he said jerkily. “I’d do it again. He hurt you.”
“Luke…”
“And there’s another reason I’m not sorry. You got to see me like I am. I couldn’t tell you. You had to see it.” He moistened his lips. “I’m not good-natured and full of jokes and all that other stuff. Sometimes when I’m with other kids my age, I just don’t get them. I try, but it’s like I’m from another planet.” He paused. “I felt more comfortable going after that pilot’s jugular than I have since you took me away from Rakovac.”
She hid the ripple of shock she felt. Poor Luke. She should have seen beyond her own need and fear and tried to make him talk to her before this. “In an emergency, it’s natural to go back to the habits of your early training.” She smiled with an effort. “And though I didn’t actually see it, I feel that I couldn’t have had a sharper awakening regarding your present mind-set. Am I going to be faced with anything more mind-boggling?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“I just wanted to be prepared.” She hesitated, then said, “Because I did something pretty revealing myself when I got on this helicopter. You’re not the only one who reacted purely on instinct. Once I got you on board, I was going to leave you in Hu Chang’s hands and go back and do my job. You weren’t my first priority. I was going to go get those missiles.” She wrinkled her nose. “Good CIA. Bad mother.”
“Cameron needed you, I didn’t. Besides, I was going to go with you.”
“Which would have scared me to death.” She drew a shaky breath. “So it seems that we’ve both made mistakes, Luke.” She leaned forward and gave him a quick, awkward kiss on the cheek. “But maybe we’ve learned something. What do you think?”
“You’re not mad at me any longer?”
“I told you, l wasn’t—” She added, “But I think you should apologize to Tashdon.”
“No, he hurt you.”
“Not intentionally.”
He stubbornly shook his head.
“Okay, I’ll let it go.” She suddenly chuckled. “And how do you apologize to someone for going for their jugular anyway?”
“I don’t know.” He grinned back at her. “Rakovac never taught me that.” He suddenly frowned. “But I do think that pilot was lying about Cameron. Do you think Cameron’s okay? Kadmus’s men were pouring up that slope. Tashdon should have let you go help him.”
“I thought so, too.” She paused. “And I can’t promise Cameron is okay. If you’ll recall, thanks to Tashdon, I wasn’t around to make any judgments. But Erin and Hu Chang think he has a good chance. And Cameron is very clever about getting himself out of trouble. I believe he’ll make it.”
Luke nodded. “Me, too.” He got to his feet. “I’ve got to go see Hu Chang and apologize. I wasn’t polite to him when he was holding me off Tashdon. Hu Chang doesn’t like discourtesy.”
Catherine remembered that moment when she’d first opened her eyes and seen Luke, looking like a tiger on attack, being held at bay by Hu Chang. “Yes, by all means, I think your behavior definitely warrants an apology.”
Luke moved quickly toward the cockpit.
Catherine let her breath out in a weary sigh as she leaned back against the wall of the helicopter. She was glad to have a few moments of solitary silence. She’d been bombarded by panic, shock, and emotion since she’d regained consciousness.
Besides the start of a nagging headache.
Thanks, Cameron. I needed that.
She found herself waiting for a reply.
Nothing.
She hadn’t expected an answer, she told herself. She’d told the bastard to leave her mind alone.
Besides, he’d had Kadmus’s mercenaries on his trail and was probably having to hide and attack guerrilla style.
So many damn mercenaries.
Erin was Catherine’s job. She should have been there to help Cameron get out.
Cameron, it’s okay if you just let me know, dammit.
Nothing.
CHAPTER
10
NINPAU
AIRPORT
OUTSIDE
HONG
KONG
“Out.” Tashdon moved through the helicopter toward the rear door. “Everyone out. There’s a private jet waiting at the third hangar.” He opened the door and jumped out. “The pilot’s name is Jack Sen. He’s a good pilot and loyal to Cameron. You’ll be okay.” He helped Erin and Catherine to the ground. “Cameron said he wanted the transfer to not take longer than five minutes. Since I didn’t obey his last instructions very efficiently, I’m hoping that you’ll cooperate and let me prove I’m not usually a bumbler.”
“Heaven forbid you get in his bad books,” Catherine murmured. “Hu Chang said that you wouldn’t tell him what our final destination was going to be. May we know now?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know myself. Cameron only told Jack Sen. He said it was safer.”
“He could be right. Luke, Hu Chang. Let’s go.”
Hu Chang jumped from the helicopter, with Luke following. “Luke, I think since you owe Tashdon a debt, that we should strive to accommodate him.” He set off for the Gulfstream jet on the tarmac.
Catherine started after him, then stopped and turned back to Tashdon. “Do you know if Cameron is all right? Have you heard from him since we left the mountain?”