Morgan's Mercenaries: Heart of Stone (10 page)

“Excuse me?” He frowned.

“Er…your family. You must be missing them?” Maya felt alarmed by the look he gave her. It was one of curiosity and amusement.

Dane saw Maya’s unsureness. It was the first time he’d seen her confidence slip. So, even though she appeared to be like a vengeful warrior goddess, unapproachable and strong, Maya was human after all. That made him breathe a little easier. Maybe…just maybe…they could find a sure footing with one another, where they didn’t have to spar all the time. Lifting his hand, he offered her a slight smile of regret. “I don’t have family—at least, not a wife and kids. I’m still single.”

“Oh…” Maya frowned. So who was he feeling all these emotions for? Certainly, they couldn’t be about her. Maya’s mind raced with more questions. She instantly rejected some of the answers she came up with, knowing York was incapable of such things. Or was he? Confused, she met his thawing gaze and that cockeyed half smile. His face had lost a lot of its hardness, the mask slowly dissolving. Was it because she’d touched his aura, and he realized she wasn’t his enemy, after all, just someone who wanted to be treated with respect? That was too much to hope for.

“Well—” Maya said, lifting her hand from the fuselage “—you looked…sad, maybe like you were missing someone. I thought it might be your family. Six weeks is a long assignment.”

Just knowing she was trying to be civil—even thoughtful—toward him made Dane reel. He’d thought Maya incapable of such a response. Not that he deserved any slack from her. No, he’d more than burned the bridges between them a long time ago and had realized that everything that had happened back then was his fault—not hers. “I see. Well…” Dane cleared his throat nervously and thought about what he was going to say this time, instead of just running off at the mouth like he usually did. Looking out the entrance of the cave at the haze sunlight touching the ever-moving clouds, he let the silence build between them.

Turning his head again, Dane met Maya’s measuring gaze. He saw the wariness back in her emerald eyes, but her mouth was not a slash. No, her lips were slightly parted. Damn, she had a mouth any man in his right mind would want to kiss.

What the hell was he thinking? Startled over the stray bullet of a thought, Dane found himself scrambling. It was a good thing Maya couldn’t read his mind or she’d have decked him right where he stood. Giving her a boyish smile, he said, “Sad. Yeah. I’m sad.”

Maya frowned. She saw York trying to be honest with her. “About what? Being here?”

The sarcasm in her low voice wasn’t missed by him. To hell with it. He was going to risk it all. He had six weeks here with Maya, under her command, and there was no way in hell he wanted to stay on high guard with her all that time. Looking around, he saw that the crews were well out of earshot.

“I’m sad because…” Dane hunted for the right words. “Because I don’t like the tenor between us, Captain. Frankly, I yearn for some peace, but I don’t know how to accomplish that. I’m confused. I’m trying
to figure out how to be here and not be a pain in the ass all the time to you. I don’t want to keep parrying thrusts with you and having you getting hotter than a two-dollar pistol about it.”

Her heart pounded with relief. The expression on Dane’s face was one of earnestness and desire. So that was what the desire she’d encountered in him moments ago was about. He wanted peace between them. Her surprise that he was not married warred with his other words. Why should she care if York wasn’t married? Throwing that question aside, Maya focused on the present problem between them.

“I learned a long time ago, Major, that when there is respect—equal respect—between two people, it makes for a level playing field. And when you have respect, you can begin to build trust. Without respect, there can be no trust.”

Dane leaned back against the fuselage, no more than two feet away from where Maya stood. Watching the sunlight strengthen and then wane as the endless clouds drifted in and around the cave entrance, he crossed his arms and thought long and hard about her words. Finally, he glanced at Maya. To his relief, she was not shutting him out. He could tell by the relaxed expression on her beautiful features and the alertness and curiosity burning in her emerald gaze that maybe she wanted to wave a white flag of surrender, too, so that they could get on with what needed to be done around here.

“You’re right, of course,” he murmured, so that only she could hear him. The echoes of laughter, of people talking, bounced endlessly off the walls of the cave. “I think my men will treat your people with respect. I think you can see that happening already.
Sounds more like a party going on in here than a war between the sexes. Don’t you think?”

Grinning ruthlessly, Maya said, “Definitely a party atmosphere. It’s good to hear people laughing, believe me.”

Gauging her from beneath his spiky brown lashes, Dane wanted to say,
What about us? Can you trust me? Can you try?
But he didn’t. Her reserve wrapped around her like thick a blanket. Dane knew she wasn’t about to drop those massive walls she wore with him. He hadn’t proved himself to her—yet. More than anything, he wanted the opportunity to try.

“You know, I’m
really
impressed with your squadron,” he said sincerely. “Dallas gave us one hell of a tour. She said you masterminded this whole plan, using the defunct mining operation and shaft on the other side of this mountain as a ruse to hide what’s going on in here. I found that incredible.”

Maya studied him. She wanted to allow his compliment to wash over her, but she resisted the temptation. York could not be trusted. Not with her or her sensitive emotions, which she hid constantly. Being a base commander meant hiding a lot, carrying a lot, and having no one to cry with, or to tell her own worries and troubles to. She found herself wishing that she could share some of those worries with Dane. More shock rolled through her. What was going on? He was her enemy. The man who had always wanted her to fail, who had tried to destroy her because she was an intelligent and confident woman.

Shaking off her thoughts, she refocused on Dane’s words and said, “The Indians of the surrounding villages knew of this place for thousands of years. An old jaguar priestess took me up here to the mining opera
tion. She showed me the lava tube that extended a quarter mile into the mountain. And then we climbed around the mountain to this cave. When I realized that, with some work, we could open up the back of the cave into that lava tube, I knew we could make my vision work.” Maya gestured toward the cave’s ceiling, wreathed in lights suspended from the lava. “I got a Navy Seabee team down here and they found out that there was only about fifty feet of rock between the cave and the tube.” She smiled triumphantly.

“We use the mining area on the other side of the mountain as a cover for our operation. We use civilian helicopters to ferry in all our supplies so they don’t raise too much suspicion from the tourist trade in Agua Caliente or around Machu Picchu. In fact, the helicopter service in that little town is our undercover way of getting to and from this base. Our people get R and R every two weeks. They climb into
tourista
clothing and fly out on the civilian helo to Agua Caliente to get a few days of rest and partying.”

“It’s a brilliant plan,” Dane said. “Brilliant.”

She arched beneath his roughly spoken compliment. His eyes burned with awe as he regarded her. Maya absorbed the energy, the passion in his statement. She realized reluctantly that she, too, was seeking his approval, whether she wanted to or not. Still, one little compliment was not going to erase their mutual, hellish past.

“This place is inaccessible except by helicopter.” Maya eased away from the Apache and began walking toward the lip. Dane followed at her shoulder. “Let’s walk out to the Eye. From there, you can see the jungle below.”

“Are there villages around this mountain?”

Maya nodded. “Yes, three of them. We’re tight with the village leaders. I, uh, well, I share a common heritage with their medicine people, their healers, so I’ve been able to communicate with them about keeping our presence a secret. Sometimes Faro Valentino will send in a two-man team and start sniffing around the base of this mountain. The villagers know who’s local and who isn’t. I gave each chief in each village an iridium cell phone so that if they spot strangers, they can alert us.”

“And it’s always been drug runners?” Dane asked, wiping his brow. The sunlight was hot, the humidity high. He’d rolled up the sleeves on his flight suit to his elbows, but he was still perspiring heavily in the noontime heat.

Approaching the outer wall, with the Eye directly in front of them, Maya said, “Nine times out of ten. Oh, sometimes a young tourist will have followed the Urubamba River from Aqua Caliente, which is twenty miles that way.” She pointed. “The chief and his people can always tell a real
tourista
from a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” She grinned.

“Iridium phones. I’m impressed.”

Maya snorted and placed her hand on the black lava, which was welted like water ripples. “I went through hell getting my contact to get me iridium phones, but down here, normal cell phones don’t work. The only way we can contact one another is using a GPS—global positioning satellites device—plus an iridium phone.”

“You got them in your helos?”

She nodded. “You bet. In all three of them. If we crash, or if we blow an engine or take too big a chunk
out of one of our rotors, we have that phone to call to base with.”

“That ever happen?”

Grinning, Maya said, “Oh, yeah. You noticed our third Apache at the back of the cave? The dismantled one?”

“Yeah, it looks pretty well cannibalized.”

“With good reason.” She frowned. “My contacts weren’t giving me the necessary budget to fly in replacement parts for my birds. I ended up having to sacrifice one of them to keep the other two flying. One time, Dallas blew an engine during a run for the border after some of Faro’s civilian helos, which were carrying coke. She had to land in some heavy jungle terrain. About one-quarter of one rotor was whacked off during landing. So we ended up taking the replacement rotors from the third aircraft. Once that happened, we began taking other necessary parts when I didn’t get the money to resupply and outfit my Apaches.”

Dane watched the wisps of clouds form and dissipate with incredible rapidity. The sunlight, he was realizing, was a force to be reckoned with here. As they stood at the opening of the Eye, he watched a thick wall of clouds form below, just above the dark green jungle, and then move slowly upward to eventually block the view.

“It sounds like you’ve been doing a helluva lot of juggling over the years to make this base work.”

Again Maya saw respect in his eyes. Twice in one day. She was on a roll. Compressing her lips, she muttered, “I’d rather fly, if the truth be known. The paperwork’s a real pain.”

Chuckling, Dane said, “Spoken like a true squadron commander. I don’t know one who wouldn’t trade his,
er, her desk, for sitting in an Apache and flying instead.”

Pleased that he didn’t just use “he,” Maya gave him a partial smile. “Well, I get plenty of airtime, too. I’m the twelfth pilot around here. I fly every third day, just like everyone else.”

“How long are the missions?” Dane knew that keeping a place like this on line and functioning, an incredibly heavy responsibility, would take every scrap of a person’s energy and focus. For Maya to also be flying combat missions every third day was an incredible demand on her. Admiration for her crept into him.

“We’ve developed flight plans based upon Faro Valentino’s usual patterns of trying to run for the Bolivian border with his coke. The range can mean a three-hundred-mile flight radius at times. And when he’s running, it can mean we’re flying until we need to return to base. Once here—” Maya turned and gestured to her right where the fuel depot was located “—my crews can refuel an Apache in ten minutes flat. If they’ve used ordnance, it’s replaced as soon as the refueling is done. And then they’re back in the air again, trying to locate and chase down the bad guys.”

Shaking his head, Dane said, “I didn’t realize that.”

“Just wait,” Maya said grimly. “I think you and your I.P.s should hang out with us for about three days and get a feel for the demands on our time, our schedule, which is nothing short of chaos usually, before you try and set up a training program for us.”

It was a wise request, Dane realized. He watched as a massive cloud closed in on the Eye. In moments, they were surrounded with fog so thick that he could no longer see into the cave complex.

“With these kinds of IFR conditions,” he muttered, “you’re really riding the edge.”

“Tell us about it,” Maya chuckled. “The cloud cover around here is constant. My pilots don’t take anything for granted, especially visibility. Usually, we’re flying on instruments alone, coming and going from this place.”

Just as quickly, the cloud dissipated and Dane could once again see the maw of the cave. “This place is like magic,” he murmured, looking around at the massive facility. “Now you see it, now you don’t. It’s phenomenal.”

“Yeah,” Maya said, laughter in her eyes, “you’re right about the magic part.”

Dane walked at her shoulder as they moved back into the cave. Sunlight suddenly streamed through the Eye once again, embracing them with radiance and warmth as they went. “I’ve noticed something,” he told her, catching her distrustful gaze. “And if this is personal, just tell me to back off.”

Maya went on guard. “What?”

“A number of your crew people have made the same remark about you, and it has me curious.”

“Oh?”

He heard the brittleness in her tone. They slowed their pace as they neared the new D model. The rest of the squadron was still on the other side. Dane heard Joe’s enthusiastic voice as he continued to explain all the innovations to the engrossed crews.

“Yeah…they all used the same word to describe you.”

“What have you been doing? Polling my people about me?”

Dane held up his hands. “Whoa. Easy. We didn’t
pump anyone for info on you, if that’s what you think. No, we’ve just been talking to them about the D model. They’re excited and can’t wait to get their hands on it. But every one I talked with mentioned how you’d lobbied the U.S. government to get these new Apaches down here. They clearly think the world of you.”