Lucy lurched up into a sitting position, her heart racing as she shoved the all-too-familiar memories of being suffocated aside. She forcibly slowed her breathing, then switched off the alarm that was about to go off. It was time to get ready.
Throwing back her covers, she padded over to the bedroom door and slowly opened it. Levi was laying on the sofa in the living room, eyes closed. A relaxed expression had replaced the tension he usually carried around his mouth and furrowed brow.
He was a disturbingly handsome man, with dark brown hair and rugged features that she could easily imagine being on a magazine cover. But at the moment, while sleeping, he looked so different … so innocent. She pictured the boy in the man. The same boy that his mother would have watched over as a child.
This man was much more than what he seemed.
Levi stirred and opened his eyes. He turned in her direction and gave her a wave. He then stretched, letting out a loud yawn for good measure. Then he sat up, gave her an appraising look, and smiled. “Do you always stand around naked in front of strangers?”
Lucy looked down at herself and shrugged. After what she’d been through in her life, nudity was not something she gave much thought to. She harrumphed and went back into the bedroom to get dressed.
As she got dressed, Lucy began questioning what she’d just done. Was she giving Levi the wrong impression? Sure, being naked in front of someone didn’t exactly mean anything to her, but it might mean something to him. In fact, it probably did, especially since he mentioned it.
And she’d already been naked in front of him twice. Today made a third time. Until Levi, nobody had seen her naked since her husband was killed. What the hell was wrong with her?
Lucy frowned, knowing that there were plenty of things wrong with her, things nobody would be able to understand or accept.
“Hey, Lucy,” Levi called from the living room. “What’s the story with this apartment? It looks like an exact copy of your place in New York.”
Lucy slipped a brace of throwing knives over her shoulder, shrugged into a Kevlar vest, and walked into the living room. “It’s actually a copy of my penthouse suite when I lived in Hong Kong. It’s hard to explain, but I can’t sleep unless I’m in a familiar setting.”
Levi was lacing his boots, and looked up. His electric blue eyes made her feel self-conscious. As if he could see things about her that she didn’t want anyone to know. He nodded. “I know what you mean.”
He couldn’t possibly.
Levi’s phone buzzed, and he put it to his ear. “Yes, this is Levi Yoder … okay, I’ll be there.” He slipped the phone into his pocket. “My package is on schedule.”
Lucy nodded. “Okay, we’ve got some time. Let’s head over to Chinatown and grab a bite. That way, it’ll be easy to buzz by the office, then back to the airport to get your stuff. And then we’ll be in business.”
Levi hopped to his feet and asked in near-perfect Mandarin. “Will it be authentic Chinese food?”
“Authentic enough for a white boy,” she said with a smile.
###
Levi held the restaurant door open for Lucy, and as she walked past him, she felt his hand touch the small of her back. She hopped forward, trying not to show her revulsion.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Levi whispered. “I wasn’t thinking.”
She motioned dismissively. She knew her reaction was irrational. He didn’t mean anything by it. He was trying to be nice.
An elderly waitress with a big yellowed smile approached. She’d been working in the Shanghai Garden ever since Lucy had discovered the place.
“Two for here lunch?” the waitress asked in broken English.
“Yes. Just two for lunch, thank you.” Levi responded in Mandarin.
The woman’s eyes widened. It was definitely a novelty for the older woman to have a handsome Anglo man speaking to her in her native tongue.
She led them to a table that was set apart from the other customers, then came back to serve them water and hot tea.
Levi pointed at a spot on the menu. “I see here that you have shaved spicy beef tendon. Is it served cold?”
The waitress nodded and responded enthusiastically in Chinese. “Yes, we cook it for a very long time, and then, when it’s done, we cool it so it can be shaved thin enough so that you can see through it. It’s very good for joints and skin.”
“Well, given how lovely your skin is, it’s obvious you must eat it often,” Levi said with a smile, and the waitress gave an embarrassed laugh. “I think I can use some of that magic.” He patted at his stubble-covered cheek. “I’ll take one sliced beef tendon. And…” He looked over at Lucy. “Do you like pickles?”
She nodded. Lucy smiled as she observed the way this mobster charmed the heck out of the waitress, and he was inadvertently doing a number on her as well. When Levi wanted to, he knew just the thing to say to get a girl’s attention. If the waitress was a few decades younger, she’d probably be inviting him over to spend the night.
“Also,” Levi continued, “one order of your spicy cucumber, and your house special hand-shaven noodle soup, and that’s it for me.”
The waitress turned to Lucy.
“I’ll take vegetables with barley green hand-shaven noodle chow mein.”
The old woman pointed at the pot of tea. “Anything else to drink?”
They both shook their heads and the waitress scurried away.
Almost as quickly as she disappeared, the waitress reappeared with a silver bucket of pickle spears laced with red peppers, and a tray of gelatinous beef tendon. Lucy had never liked the consistency of the latter, but it was clear that Levi had no issues with it. She watched with fascination as he expertly used his chopsticks to grab the thinly sliced rubbery appetizer and pop it into his mouth.
She grabbed a pickle and nibbled on it. Unlike the pickles served in a typical New York deli, these had a slightly spicy tingle and tasted of the ginger they were fermented with.
Levi leaned forward a bit and whispered, “I don’t want to pry as to why, because I’m sure there’s an important reason that’s probably none of my business, but I wanted to understand. It isn’t a germ thing, I don’t think. You seem to be fine touching things that I’ve touched. It’s only if I or someone else touches you directly, right?”
She studied Levi’s face. Something about his expression pained her intensely. He wasn’t poking fun at her, like so many people in her life had about this problem of hers. He looked like he was sincerely trying to understand. She only wished she had an explanation that made any sense.
Blowing out a deep breath, she forced a neutral expression on her face. “That’s pretty much it. I remember my mother saying to someone that I was even like that as a baby. I hated being touched.”
Levi’s looked thoughtful as he nibbled on a pickle. “That had to be particularly tough when it came to getting married.”
Lucy flashed back to a happier time when her husband was still alive. It truly had been a good time in her life, despite the unusual circumstances of their arrangement. “He knew about it from the beginning. I made it work to his satisfaction. He never had a reason to complain.”
Levi’s face turned dark red with embarrassment, and she barely suppressed a laugh.
Soon the waitress arrived with their food. As Levi ate, Lucy wondered who this guy was that she was sharing a meal with.
###
The cold breeze that filtered through the woods didn’t make things any easier for Levi as he put on Denny’s dry suit. The moon cast a silvery light, and Levi had exceptional night vision, but even so, Lucy’s form was well-hidden. She was dressed from head to toe in a very dark camo pattern that blended well with the mottled backdrop of the woods.
Levi wasn’t quite at the same level of readiness for tonight’s task. He felt Lucy’s gaze boring into him as he stood in the woods, wearing only underwear and trying to squeeze into the thick-walled dry suit. The inner lining of Denny’s suit threatened to pull out every hair he had as it dragged over his skin.
“My kingdom for some talcum powder.”
Lucy looked amused. “Do you want me to help you put it on?”
“No,” he barked. He pressed his bare back against a tree and managed to squeeze his lower half into the heavy suit. Once he finally wedged one shoulder in, the other slipped right through the other armhole. Now only his face was visible, and that would disappear as soon as he lowered the face mask with the attached rebreather.
“Do you think that outfit will really help?” Lucy asked. “I just hope it doesn’t interfere with your ability to move.”
Levi set the thermostat of the suit to automatically match the external temperature. “The whole reason I got this is so I at least have a chance of not being spotted on a thermal camera. If I’m having to move quickly, there’s probably something else going wrong.”
Lucy hitched her dark canvas backpack up onto her shoulders and flipped down a night-vision monocular over her left eye. “Okay, I’m going over the border to scout things out. I’ll let you know what I see when I get there, but I’d expect these guys to follow the same path as they herd the kids south.”
Levi motioned toward the ATV, which was still hidden under a blanket of branches and snow. “Aren’t you going to take that?”
“No. It turns out that the forest presses up right against their compound, and it’s too dense for me to maneuver that thing. I’m better off without it.”
Worried, Levi took a step closer. “No offense, but do you think you’re—”
“Listen to me.” Lucy stepped even closer, so only inches separated them. “I’m not questioning your skills. Don’t question mine.”
Levi winced at the aggressive tone in her voice. She was right: he needed to have his head on straight. He couldn’t worry about what she was doing without compromising his own effectiveness.
He was about to apologize when she patted him on the cheek and smiled. “Go do what you need to do.” She turned and jogged north, in the direction of the Canadian border.
###
Levi was perched on a slight, snow-covered rise with clear visibility to the meandering stream known as Frost Creek. He was approximately seventy yards from where his targets would be.
He was surprised at how well he was able to see through the liquid-lined facemask of Denny’s suit, and the night almost disappeared as he peered through the rifle’s high-quality scope. He shifted his aim toward a fist-sized clump of grass sitting on the bank of the river. He focused his aim, and pulled the trigger.
The clump of grass swayed as a bullet traveling nearly one thousand feet per second and slammed into the muddy bank—right on target.
Levi smiled. Not because he hit the target—any moron with a properly zeroed rifle should have been able to make that shot—but because the sound that had escaped his weapon was no louder than a soft ping.
“Levi.” Lucy’s voice came through clearly in his earpiece.
“I hear you. Send it over.”
“You’ve got a caravan heading straight for you. I count sixty-eight kids. They’re all roped together, ankle-to-ankle, wrist-to-wrist, in two columns. They’ll be snaking their way toward you. Two men leading, two men in the back, and two more walking alongside. They’re all carrying rifles.”
Levi took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. This was going to be a challenge. How to take all six out without them triangulating on him?
He chambered the next round in the rifle. “How much time before they cross the border?”
“They’re about two klicks out, and judging by their pace, figure about twenty minutes. You okay with this?”
Levi sorted through the lessons he’d learned wandering the Outback with an aboriginal trapper. He smiled as he realized he already had what he needed in his pack. “No worries,” he said. “I think I have a few ideas on how to handle our guests. How about you? You’ve got your end all buttoned down?”
“Not quite yet, but I’ll probably be done with what I need to do before you are.”
“Okay, my dear, keep your eyes peeled and let’s do this.”
“See you on the other side.”
###
Lucy focused on the “compound”—which was little more than a single concrete building about fifty feet square, surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. A light pole next to the building lit up the entire area.
She pulled a heavy pair of binoculars from her pack. Evidently, the binoculars were being developed for the military and not yet deployed. According to the label, they used multiwavelength infrared imaging sensors, whatever that meant.
Pressing the power button, the device hummed to life and she peered through it at the building. She smiled. Whatever these things were, they were able to actually penetrate the walls of the building.
She spotted two body heat signatures located in the same section of the building, plus one guard, in glowing detail, walking the perimeter of the compound.
Lucy put the binoculars away and pulled a .22 caliber pistol from her in-waistband holster. She screwed on a long-barreled suppressor and crouched just inside the woods, out of sight of the one-man patrol.
Crouching low, Lucy watched as the guard walked from the southeast corner of the compound toward the southwest corner. Slung in front of him was a gun; its size and shape suggested a submachine gun with an extended butt-stock. The last thing in the world she needed was to get into a firefight with that.
Patiently, she watched as the man crossed no more than a hundred feet in front of her. Still, he was walking slowly, panning his gaze back and forth, looking for anything out of the ordinary.
Lucy shifted her gaze to the top of the light pole next to the main building.
It painted the grounds of the compound with enough light to show anything within the borders of the property.
She glanced once at the guard just as he hit the southwest corner of the compound and turned his attention to the north. She racked the slide of her pistol, took aim at the light and fired two quick shots.
The high-pressure sodium floodlight blew apart, bathing the compound in darkness.
Lucy flipped down her night-vision monocular as she advanced from the edge of the woods. The world through the military-grade device was a hazy green and black.
The guard turned in her direction and cursed as he stumbled on a rock. He was completely night blind.
Two quick shots from her pistol, and he was down.
With her gun still aimed at the guard, Lucy drew a pair of wire cutters from her pack and cut an opening in the chain-link fence. Then she walked over to the guard, pressed the muzzle of her suppressor against the top of his head, and pulled the trigger. A soft thump and a dribble of blood from the nose confirmed he wouldn’t be getting back up.
Lucy smiled as she took from the guard what turned out to be a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun. She checked the magazine, it was full. The weapon had a four-position trigger group, so she set the trigger select to a three-round burst, then slung it over her shoulder.
As she walked toward the entrance of the building, she said a silent prayer.
It was time.