Brian ignored the rifles pointed at him and kept his on Hamid. “Give me the hostages. You’re not going to get the money anyway. You took too many this time, foreigners. The government has gotten involved.”
He scanned the room, if the place could be called that, walls carved from rock, the crates that stood in for furniture, his eyes hesitating briefly on the only other exit.
“The government doesn’t know its head from its ass.” The leader seemed calmer than his men, his words slow, deliberate. He had a handgun tucked into his waistband, but he hadn’t reached for it. An elaborate tattoo decorated his arm—a leaping tiger with a crown on its head.
“The army has you surrounded.” If there ever was a time to bluff, this was it.
The man paused, his small brown eyes watching Brian sharply. “Why aren’t they here?”
“I’m here. I’m the negotiator.” And the recon team, the main force, and the backup.
“An American?” Hamid said the words with derision and made a dismissing motion with his hand.
But as relaxed as he seemed, tension was thick in the air. Brian looked at the men, making eye contact with one after the other, trying to determine which ones were scared, which ones were angry, if any of them might get nervous enough to shoot without waiting for an order from the boss.
When he turned back to Hamid, he made sure his voice was calm and even. “You kidnapped some Americans. Our governments are working together. Let the tourists go, they don’t matter to you. Why die for them? Stay alive to fight for your cause.”
Silence followed his words, the sounds of gunfire barely filtering down to where they were. Hamid’s men were probably firing blindly into the jungle, but their panicked incompetence played right into Brian’s hands, making it sound as if a good-sized battle raged above.
Hamid tapped his fingers on his gun belt. “What’s in it for me?”
Brian relaxed a little. Good. The man was willing to negotiate. “They’ll treat you like a political prisoner instead of a criminal.”
The man laughed. “One prison is the same as the other. If I let the tourists go free, I go free, too.”
Brian shook his head, determined to play out his ruse. “Not gonna happen.” If he offered something that was too good to believe, Hamid would become suspicious. They stared at each other for a while before he spoke again. “The army came up the river by boat. No place to land a helicopter around here.”
“So?”
“They’ll have to take you back to the river. It’s the middle of the night. If you run into the jungle, they will never find you.”
The man thought on that for a while. “Why are you telling me this?”
“I don’t care what happens to you. I get the American hostages home alive, my government will be happy with me, I get a promotion, the wife will be happy. End of story.”
Hamid watched him closely. “I could give you a promotion.”
Yeah, he probably could. He probably had money stashed away to finance his projects. “No can do, man. I’m the negotiator. I came down here, I have to come up with hostages.”
“You don’t look like a negotiator.” Hamid glanced at his worn clothes.
“I got pulled off another job. Didn’t have time to go home and change.” He smiled at the man. “It’s not your regular nine-to-five type of work. You should understand.”
Hamid waited, looked him over again, shook his head. “I don’t believe you.”
It would have been too easy, Brian thought a split second before the guerilla leader nodded to his men, and all hell broke loose.
Brian ducked behind a metal desk, clipped Hamid in the shoulder on the way. The man went down. Brian let some bullets fly then took cover again. A couple of the men were helping Hamid escape, the rest were shooting back. But Brian was the better shot. He had the room under control in five minutes.
He kicked in the door in the back of the room, grabbed a flashlight, ran down the mineshaft. The hostages were a good three-hundred feet in, tied arms and legs, six Westerners, four Japanese, two Indian and an Orang Ulu man—a local tribesman Brian figured must have been their tour guide. Brian cut the ropes off him then handed him the knife to free the rest while he looked around, hoping to find another way to exit the mine. Nothing. The other end of the shaft was closed in.
“Which one of you is Nicky?” he asked when he stepped back to the hostages.
A petite blond stood up by the wall. He ran the flashlight over her face. She was Audrey’s sister all right, same eyes, same determined set of the mouth.
“Your sister loves you very much,” he told her, then helped the last person shrug off his ropes. “Let’s go, people.”
They followed him into the large room where he had fought with Hamid’s men. Some of the women sobbed at the sight of the bodies that littered the floor. He didn’t have time to worry about them.
“Everyone who knows how to shoot a gun, grab one,” he said and riffled through the desk, stuffed handfuls of papers into his shirt before moving on.
He went ahead to check out the main building, but found it empty. Not for long. Soon Hamid’s men would figure out there was no army shooting back from the forest and they would come back for him.
Except someone was shooting back. He stilled. Through the window, he caught a glimpse of a flash of gunfire that came from the bushes, directed toward camp. What the hell?
Audrey.
It had to be her. What the hell was she thinking?
She was no coward, and he liked that about her, but she had to learn to obey orders from a team leader when she was in a team operation. And he was the team leader here, damn it.
“Let’s go. Keep down, get away from this building as fast as you can, too much explosives in here. Go to the right, into the jungle, and wait for me.” He turned to the Orang Ulu man. “You take care of them. Don’t leave.”
“No, sir.”
“What can I do?” One of the American men stepped forward, rifle in hand. He didn’t seem happy that Brian had given lead to a mere native.
“You follow him.” Brian jerked his head toward the tribesman. “Keep quiet, make sure everyone stays together. Your life depends on it.”
“I’ll take care of them. Don’t worry about it. Those sons of bitches out there have it coming—”
“Your job is not to get revenge on the guerillas. You just focus on staying alive. Got it?” He waited until the man reluctantly nodded.
He scanned the rest of the group, noted who took weapons and who didn’t. “Don’t shoot unless you’re shot at. Otherwise you’ll just draw attention to yourselves,” he told them, and hoped to hell they were paying attention.
The night and the rain made for poor visibility, working in their favor. Brian killed the light then stepped outside. Using up the hand grenades in his pocket, he covered for the hostages until they disappeared into the trees. Then he headed for Audrey. Damn it. He’d told her to stay put. Now he had to get her and scatter the remaining guerillas before he could come back to use the radio.
He crouched and just began to cut across the clearing when a group of men came around the side of the building, guns blazing. He threw himself on his stomach and did the best he could, but was nowhere near cover. Bullets slammed into the ground around him. Hard to shoot back without risking hitting the building—he was too close. If the explosives blew, he had a better than good chance he would blow with them.
He crawled backward, using careful aim. Then someone from behind him sprayed the men with bullets, and the next second he was blinded and deafened by a ground-shaking explosion.
He felt a pair of hands on his ankles, somebody pulling him toward the jungle. The gunfire had stopped.
“Audrey?” He twisted onto his back.
She let go of his legs and reached for his hands to help him up. “Are you okay?”
He nodded.
“Did you find Nicky?”
“She’s waiting for us in the forest with the rest.” He grabbed her and dragged her into the woods, into the cover of one of the larger trees, then leaning against the trunk crushed her to him, holding her for a long moment, feeling her heart beat against his chest. She was unharmed. Alive. “What the hell are you doing here?”
She lifted her head, hesitated before responding. “The river took one of the boats.”
AUDREY CRINGED. She should have done more, fought harder against the river. Their lives depended on their ability to get away. But under the considerable guilt, a current of joy spread through her veins, and hope. Nicky was alive and free.
“The other one?” Brian asked as he moved forward carefully.
What? Oh, the other boat. “I pulled it to higher ground. The water is rising fast.” She kept close behind him.
“Must be raining even harder up the mountain.”
“Did you radio for help?”
He didn’t say anything for a while. “You blew up the radio.”
Oh, God. First the boat and now the radio.
He swore under his breath.
She waited for him to yell at her, to tell her she had practically sentenced them all to death. But instead, he stopped, raising his hands to signal for her to do the same.
She listened, but couldn’t hear anything over the rain.
“Don’t shoot,” he called out.
The next second bullets flew into the trees a few feet to their left.
He pushed her down, flattened her into the mud, half-covering her with his body. The forest fell silent. “Don’t shoot,” he said again, his voice clipped with anger.
There was some scuffle ahead, people talking.
“Nicky,” she said, hope making her voice thick.
And she could see a shadow separate from a tree, and heard her name called and she was on her feet, rushing forward into her sister’s arms, the rain washing away her tears as fast as they formed. “Nicky.”
“How did you get here?”
“Are you all right?” They spoke at the same time.
“Did they hurt you?” she asked, holding her breath until Nicky shook her head.
Brian was right there. “We have to move out.”
And she could see the rest of the people now, the darker shapes in the dark of the jungle, coming forward one after the other.
“What the hell did you think you were doing?” Brian was chewing out one of them.
“Hey.” The man stood his ground, not bothering to keep his voice down. “You sent us into the jungle. We didn’t know if you were coming back or not. I have the right to defend myself, same as everybody.”
Brian was silent. Ominously so. He was close enough so she could feel the anger radiate from his body. Audrey detangled herself from her sister and stepped between the two men. “We have to get going.”
“He could have killed you,” Brian said.
She’d never heard his voice so tight. “I’m fine. Everyone is fine.”
He stepped away. “Follow me closely, watch where you step, it’s slippery. Make as little noise as possible. There are still plenty of guerillas out there,” he told the group, then turned and started out.
Nicky came up behind her and took her hand. Audrey squeezed it, as they followed him.
“Who is he?” her sister asked close to her ear.
“Some kind of special forces,” she whispered back. “He saved my life, Nicky. He saved all of us.”
“He’s scary.”
She smiled. She’d had the same first impression of him. It seemed a lifetime ago. She shook her head in the darkness. “He is a hero.”
“Where’s Trev?”
“He sent the money. He’s probably in the country by now. I didn’t wait for him. I was so scared, Nicky,” her voice broke off.
“I’m glad you came. Your guy is more help in this situation than mine would be, anyhow.”
My guy? she thought, but for once, she didn’t mind being teased by her little sister. Over the last week or so, she had regretted every time she’d yelled at her when they were growing up for stealing her clothes or makeup, every time she’d been mean to her, made fun of her. God, it was good to have her back again.
The rain was easing off. It stopped completely by the time they reached the water. The moon was out over the river, giving some visibility at last.
Brian was going for the boat. The water had lifted it while she’d been gone, but the rope had held.
One of the men came forward. “Where is the rest of the rescue team?”
She recognized his voice. He was the same guy who’d sparred with Brian before.
“This is it.” Brian wrapped the rope around his arm and pulled the boat in, fought with the current. A couple of the other men went to help him.
“You gotta be kidding me. Is that the only boat?” The troublemaker was working up his righteous anger.
“Yep.” Brian heaved.
“We won’t all fit. I demand that my wife and I get on.” He raised his rifle without pointing it at Brian, but making his meaning clear. “If anyone should stay behind it’s you. Our taxes pay your salary.”
She moved forward, knowing what was coming, but too late. The next second, the man was on his back in the mud, the rifle in Brian’s hands.
“Take it easy, buddy.” One of the men who was helping with the boat came over and spoke to the one on the ground. “He saved our lives. We need to thank him, shut up and do what he says.”
The guy sat up, looking taken down a peg or two. He had wanted to take leadership of the group, probably. And he knew he wouldn’t now. The rest wouldn’t follow.
“Listen to me, all of you,” Brian said. “There is a fair chance that we can all make it out of here, but it’s not going to be easy. You are going to have to pull together. If you don’t, you’ll end up your own worst enemy. Two rules to remember—don’t fight each other, don’t fight the jungle.”
He stepped back to the boat, tightened the rope.
Audrey moved over to him. “What are we going to do?”
He shook his head, and for the first time she saw something close to defeat in his eyes. And it scared her, more than anything had scared her so far.
“Not much until morning. Nobody can navigate this river in the dark. I was thinking about putting the weakest in the boat at first light. The rest of us can make it on foot.” He shook his head.
“What’s wrong with that plan?”
“Those who are too weak to walk, would be too weak to handle the boat the way the river is now. And it’s dangerous. Guerillas use the river. There are rapids. They would need me with them.”
“Then go.”
“The people in the forest need me, too. And even if I go with the boat, we’ll have to stop to rest, to eat. We’re not going to make it to civilization before August tenth.”
Oh, God, there was still that. Some kind of attack, possibly thousands of lives at stake. She had for a while forgotten about it in the joy of having Nicky with her, safe.
“You should go alone, that would be fastest.” Resolve filled her, as the idea blossomed in her mind. “We’ll stay and you’ll send help. You taught me enough so I should be able to keep everyone alive for a couple of days. We have weapons. You can help us get to a cave then leave.”
She wished she felt a tenth of the self-confidence that she forced into her words. “Or you could take the strongest of the men with you,” she added when she thought of the perils of the river.
He looked at her as if she’d just given him a million dollars, kissed her on the lips, just like that, in front of everyone, and strode to the group of hostages, but not to the biggest and tallest men. He went to the shortest one.
“How far is your tribe?”
“A day’s walk down the hillside,” the man responded in a lilting accent.
“How big is it?”
“About fifty men.”
“Friendly with the guerillas?”
The man spat on the ground.
“Would they protect these people until I send help?”
“They don’t have much, but they would share. It’s the way of the jungle. We have fine witch doctor.”
“Will you take them there?”
“I owe you my life. I do what you tell me.”
Brian hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Listen up,” he addressed the others as the first light of dawn crept across the sky above them. “Your guide will take you to his village. It’s one day of walking, everybody can manage that. I’m going down the river and will send help as soon as I can.”
The man who had given him trouble lurched forward. “You’re taking the boat and leaving us behind?”
But he couldn’t rile Brian. He was perfectly calm now. “Which would you rather do? Walk for a day led by a man who grew up in the jungle and knows more than any of us about surviving in it? Or spend five days on a river that’s flooding out of control and is controlled by guerillas, a plain target in a small boat where anyone with a gun can pick you off from shore?”
The man made some noise, but backed down.
“When do we leave?” another one asked.
“Now. If you run into the official Malaysian rescue team, or anyone at all with a radio, you have to let the authorities know that there is a credible terrorist threat for Kuala Lumpur for the tenth of August. Given where you spent the last week or so, they’re going to believe you.”
Another man stepped forward and shook Brian’s hand, and then more came with their thanks and handshakes, wishing him speed down the river, some asking him to send word to family if he got the chance. Audrey wanted to move forward to do the same, but Nicky was hanging on to her hand just as tight as she could.
“Is this a good idea?”
“There just isn’t an alternative.” She hugged her, still getting used to them being together, that Nicky was alive, unharmed.
“When did you get to be so tough?” Nicky asked when they pulled away. “I thought I was the family daredevil.”
“Oh yeah, and look where going on a jungle tour got you.”
“When we get home I’ll be sticking to kiddy parks with stroller trails.”
“Exactly. Don’t make me have to come after you again. You’ll be an aunt soon. You’re going to have to act responsible and dignified.”
“Oh, man, you’re kidding.”
God, it was good to joke like that again. It made things feel a hell of a lot more normal, which they were still not. But the banter at least took some of the fright out of the night.
Brian sought her out at the end. “You’ll be all right. I’ll have the army up here in no time.”
“You must take someone with you. You need someone to watch your back.” The sudden worry about him going alone seemed ridiculous. If anyone knew what they were doing it was him. He had a vast knowledge of jungle survival. And still, she hated to see him go.
“I doubt any of the men would want to leave their wives.” He ran his hand down her arm in a gesture of farewell. “And they wouldn’t be much help anyway. They don’t know anything about the jungle. I’d be watching out for them.”
“Take me then,” she said, and pulled away from Nicky. “You can’t go alone. I know the jungle. You taught me. You’ll need help with the boat.”
“Audrey, no.” Nicky pulled her back. “This is crazy.”
She turned and gave her sister a fierce hug. “He saved my life, and yours. I can’t let him go alone.”
Nicky hugged her tighter, but after a while nodded against her shoulder and let her go. She glanced from her to Brian. “Why do I think I’m missing something here? You two are not—”
“I’ll be fine.” Audrey cut her off.
“Take care of yourself,” Nicky said with a bittersweet smile. “Take care of each other.”
“Will do. And you, too.”
“A walk in the park.” Nicky picked up the rifle Brian had taken from the man with the big mouth, slung it over her shoulder and gave Audrey an if-you-can-do-it-so-can-I look, that was way too familiar.
She shook her head as she hugged her one more time, then she turned to Brian. “I’m ready.”
“You are not coming,” he said, his voice hard, his face serious.