Surrender to Temptation (Agent Lovers Series Book 1) (32 page)

Liz and Jennifer jumped one after the other into the black night. They planned to use the HAHO parachuting technique, which involved jumping from a high altitude and opening the chute at a high altitude in order to glide longer toward their target. After just fifteen seconds of stabilized free fall, Liz opened her main chute and looked around for Jennifer. Startled, she saw that Jennifer had gotten tangled up in the lines of her parachute. She was tied up like a package und the chute fluttered uselessly on her back in the wind like a superhero’s cape. “Jenny?” she said, establishing radio contact. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes. I don’t know what happened! I can’t get loose from the damned lines!” Panic rose in her voice as she tried to free herself from the jumble of lines—something that was impossible to do in the air. Without help, she would never get out of this difficult situation.

Gray, Chris and Jeff grew pale as they watched the scene unfold. Mesmerized, they stared at the monitor, which showed the images being transmitted by Liz’s camera. Before their eyes, Jennifer disappeared into the darkness and hurtled relentlessly towards the ground.

“I’m coming!” With a powerful jerk, Liz pulled the cut-away handle of her parachute, which was connected to the two harness straps by two release cables. As her main chute flew off, she found herself in free fall again. Shifting her body position in mid-air, she pressed her arms against her sides and closed her legs to reduce resistance and sped like an arrow toward her friend. Just before she reached Jennifer, she spread out her arms and legs to increase resistance and, in doing so, managed to slowly get closer to her friend.

“Air ambulance to the rescue!” Liz said, but Jennifer didn’t answer. She continued to struggle with the lines that had wrapped around her body like an octopus’s tentacles.

With one hand, Liz seized one of her partner’s legs and pulled her, bit-by-bit, toward her. She worked quickly and soon had released the tangled lines. The main chute was severely knotted and no longer able to serve its purpose, so Liz pulled on the cut-away handle and the useless chute fluttered away. They separated from each another in the air and each pulled on the reserve canopy handle at the left side of her chest to release her reserve chute. At last, they were both gliding slowly toward the ground. Liz laughed softly in relief. “You owe me one now, Jenny!”

“As far as I’m concerned, I owe you a hundred. That was close!”

Looking as white as chalk, Chris leaned back in his chair and stared straight ahead.

Gray turned down his microphone and looked at Chris. “Are you okay?” Chris just shook his head and raised a trembling hand as proof of how he was doing. “Why don’t you get some fresh air and grab some coffee to calm down? They have things under control now.”

Chris nodded and quickly disappeared out of the control room.

“That was really close. Good thing Liz kept a cool head,” Jeff said in a raw voice. Even he sounded disturbed by what he’d just seen.

Gray cleared his throat and turned up the microphone again.

“Well done, you two. How are you?”

“Great! We should have little adventures like that more often. That was an adrenalin rush. What do you say, Jenny?”

“I think I’ll pass.”

Chris walked back into the room with a little more color in his face and put three cups of coffee on the table between Gray’s and his workstation. He sat down and drew a deep breath. “Are you okay, Jenny?” he asked softly over the microphone.

“A-OK. Luckily, I went to the little girls’ room before we left, or that would have been taken care of too.” Chris shook his head, a slight smile on his lips. In silence, they followed the women’s landing.

Liz and Jennifer even managed to keep to the designated landing area—an extraordinary accomplishment, given their struggles mid-air. They came down with perfect precision in a small clearing in the middle of unspoiled trees and underbrush. It was a textbook landing.

Liz slipped the parachute straps from her shoulders, gathered up the material and crammed it into a hole in the ground. Then she covered the area with extra leaves and branches so the parachute wouldn’t be discovered and betray their presence.

Jennifer pushed up her helmet’s visor and pulled impatiently on the straps to release the parachute from her back. When she wasn’t able to accomplish this right away, she tugged even harder, took a step back and tripped over a tree root jutting out of the ground. With a soft squeak and with arms flailing, she fell backwards between two bushes and landed on her bottom in a pile of leaves. Liz watched her, dumbfounded, and then laughed.

“I don’t think we have time to play hide and seek!”

“Very funny!” Swearing, Jennifer struggled out of the undergrowth and glared at Liz while she brushed twigs off of her clothes. Liz ignored the angry look and helped Jennifer get rid of the parachute.

“When you two are done goofing around, we can point you in the right direction,” Gray said, trying to hide the sound of his laughter.

It had really been funny to watch Jennifer disappear into the overgrowth and flail her arms and legs in the air like a beetle on its back. Chris jabbed him in the side for laughing, but he was already smiling again, too, as was Jeff.

The women removed their backpacks, hooked their helmets to them and spread dark camouflage paint on their faces. Liz ran some of the paint through her hair to tone down its color. They put on their wireless headsets and Generation IV night vision goggles, which enabled them to find their way around their surroundings. Finally they secured the small IRC-NG cameras to their clothes again and reestablished radio contact.

“All right, boys! We’re all freshened up again. Where are we off to?”

“The camp is just eight miles northeast of your current position. You’ll have a maximum of four hours to fulfill your assignment tonight, before the sun comes up. If you can’t accomplish your objective within this time, take cover and wait until tomorrow night. It’s too risky to act during the day. The deadline they set is in twenty-nine hours, so even if you can’t free the hostages tonight, you still have time to try tomorrow.”

“I didn’t come here for vacation, so we’ll get this thing done today. Any objections, Liz?”

“None!”

“So, let’s go.” They shouldered their backpacks and started walking at a quick pace, despite the rough terrain. Chris informed them when ten of the kidnappers left the camp in two SUVs. “Too bad,” Liz mumbled. “Now there are only ten for each of us.” Chris and Gray rolled their eyes toward the ceiling while Jeff doubled over in laughter. A warning glance from Chris silenced him immediately.

After one and a half hours, they reached the camp and searched for shelter from which to evaluate the situation.

“Can you give us any helpful info from the satellites?” Liz asked.

“Outside of the camp there aren’t any recognizable heat signatures, so guards are expected inside the camp only. We aren’t able to get any electronic signals either, so there probably aren’t any electronic monitoring devices, either. But err on the side of caution. Above all: be careful!”

“We’ve heard that from you guys before.”

“Well, we can’t say it to you two often enough.”

The women removed their night vision goggles and put them away, then pulled their binoculars out of their backpacks, put them on night vision mode, and surveyed their surroundings.

“Hey, Jenny. Looks like they’ve built up quite a nice arsenal of toys,” Liz said.

"I just noticed that. I assume the hostages are over in that shed—probably crouching on the ground, crowded closely together.”

Liz examined her findings and looked at Jennifer with her eyebrows raised. “There are more than four.”

“I figured that out, too.”

“Gray? Are you sure that only four people were kidnapped?”

“Absolutely sure. If there’s anyone else there, they’re locals and don’t concern you.”

“But what if they aren’t locals? Other people could have been abducted since the first ones. Maybe there just hasn’t been a ransom demand yet.”

“They’re of no interest to us. Your assignment only concerns the vice-president’s four relatives. None of the others are important!”

How could he suggest such a thing? Liz took a deep breath to calm herself. She wouldn’t allow there to be a discussion about this. If there were people in danger, then she and Jennifer would help them—whether Gray approved or not. She looked Jennifer in the eye and could tell that similar thoughts were going through her head. They grinned and confirmed Gray’s order together.

“Understood!”

“Going in now!”

Using caution, they snuck closer to the camp, being careful not to trigger any alarms or fall into a trap. Fortunately, the shed where the hostages were being held was located on the outer edge of the camp. Under cover of darkness they moved quickly and crouched down behind it. Carefully Liz reached through the weather-beaten wooden slats and touched one of the men inside lightly on the shoulder.

“Quiet. Don’t be afraid,” she whispered. “We’re here to get you out.” When the man nodded slightly to show that he had understood, she continued. “Are the four Americans inside here?” She got another nod. “Are the others locals?”

“Yes.”

“How many of you are there altogether?”

“Eight. One child and seven adults.”

“All right. We’ll get you out. But you have to do what we tell you.”

“Please help my wife. They hauled her out of here a while ago and took her away. Please help her!” The man spoke urgently in a heavy Spanish accent. His voice sounded choked, as if he were close to tears.

“I’ll take care of it.”

Liz turned to Jennifer, who had squatted with her back to Liz and was vigilantly surveying the surrounding area. Without a word, she opened her backpack and took out three packs of C4 explosives and the corresponding electronic time fuse.

“You get the people out and head toward the meeting point we decided on back in the helicopter. I’ll be there soon. I have to take care of something first.”

“Okay. Be careful.”

“Aren’t I always?” Liz turned around, crouched low and headed into the darkness.

While she attached the explosive devices to the large crates that were filled with various types of weapons, Gray checked in. “What are you doing? Jennifer has the family already. You need to pull back before they discover you.”

“I’m just creating a little atmosphere. It’s such a dull party.” Liz snickered quietly. “Anyway, I’m just doing someone a little favor.”

“Liz! You know the orders. Pull back!”

“I will soon. Quiet down or you’ll spoil my surprise,” she whispered while she was busy affixing the fuses to the explosive devices.

Gray was tempted to read her the riot act over the radio, but then as he watched what she was doing he pursed his lips and acknowledged to himself that she was right.

“They don’t come any more headstrong than that,” Jeff said.

“Or more reckless,” added Chris. This earned him an angry sideways glance from Gray. Wisely, he held his tongue after that and watched the images coming from Jennifer’s video camera. His wife distanced herself from the camp followed by the captives. Cautiously they pushed their way through the dense woods as Jennifer remained vigilant, looking in every direction for potential pursuers.

“Liz? Where are you?” Jennifer asked over the radio.

“Keep going! I’ll be there soon,” came Liz’s gruff, whispered reply.

Wordlessly, Jennifer shooed the people on.

***

Moving quickly and being careful to stay concealed, Liz moved through the camp to the noisy wooden barrack where a small party was taking place. She took cover behind the side wall and peered through the opening that served as a window. Twelve dangerous-looking men sat inside, pressed tightly around an old wooden table and drinking together. The woman Liz was looking for was serving them drinks. Fear was written all over her face. One of the men stood up and tore her blouse. The men roared loudly at that and banged their mugs on the table.

Ask yourself where the other four are, Liz.
While scouring the surroundings, she found two more men sleeping in a separate barrack. Silently she slid into the building and before they’d had a chance to awaken, she’d immobilized each one with a skillful blow. When they finally did regain consciousness, their heads would be pounding!

Liz darted back to the barracks where the “party” was booming and swore softly to herself when she saw what was happening inside. One of the men pulled the young woman against him and was blatantly fondling her breasts. Another tried to give her alcohol. Again the group hooted. The woman screamed and fought back, but it didn’t help her much. Liz closed her eyes against the woman’s desperate screams, but she couldn’t help her yet.

Liz slipped back out of the building and searched for the remaining two men. When she finally found them on watch, she penalized them with the same severity as she had their sleeping friends. Then Liz ran back to the wooden barrack. As she ran, she grabbed her compact HK MP7 sub-machine gun from its holster over her shoulder. The woman inside was screaming desperately as the abductors cheered each other on noisily.

Taking two steps at once, Liz leaped up the wooden steps and stormed into the room. “Hands up, you pigs, and get away from her!” she shouted.

One by one, the startled men complied reluctantly with her command. They crowded into a corner and kept a look out for possible back up, except for two who had their pants down around their ankles.

“You don’t need to wait for them. And now get away from her, you miserable pigs!” Liz shouted at the two men closest to the young woman who was still tied to the table on her back. These two had shamelessly tied her down so that each of the lousy guys could help themselves to her unimpeded.

Liz tried to ignore the woman’s relentless, desperate screaming and helpless crying for a minute. She needed to keep a cool head now. The woman turned on the table and struggled desperately against the ties. When the two men didn’t make any move to follow her order, Liz shifted the submachine gun from her left to her right hand and pulled out her handgun, a GLOCK 29 with a higher magazine capacity, from the holster that was strapped to her thigh. Her arm swung up and with an icy glance, she fired two shots in rapid succession to the assailants’ heads, killing both instantly.