By Honor Bound (28 page)

“Yeah. You know, radical fanatics that stockpile weapons and canned goods out in Utah somewhere for the day the government collapses and there’s anarchy. Only I think this group decided to give things a little push and try taking over the government early.”

“You figured that out in the minute it took me to go get the restraints?” She was amazed at his discoveries.

“Well, he had a tattoo on his ankle that said ‘anarchy’ and another one with two crossed guns on his arm. Makes me think of a militia group, but I won’t know for sure until I see the next guy.”

“Right.The next one. Let’s go.” Annie wasn’t sure how many games of cat and mouse her nerves could take.

The sound of a gun ratcheting made her jump. Mace had the goon’s automatic rifle and was checking it out. The sight of him in hospital pajama bottoms with a knife strapped to his leg and a weapon slung over his shoulder sent a shiver of fear down her spine. He seemed all business now, no longer the sexy lover in the closet.

“Keep that radio on low; let’s see how chatty they get.” Mace swung the gun over his shoulder.

“Well, there’s one fewer to talk now.”

* * * * *

Mace’s gut squeezed painfully as Annie walked down the hall to attract yet another unfriendly. How the hell had these guys managed to take hostage an entire hospital when they were dumb as freaking stumps? This was the third time they’d used the same trick, and the idiots fell for it every time.

It didn’t say much for their leader. So far the radio had remained silent, no one was checking in to see if all locations were secure. He’d managed to defuse two more bombs and incapacitate three of the enemy. It would be a little easier if he knew how many of them were in the hospital.

The squeak of soles trailed back to Mace and he prayed that this wouldn’t be the exceptionally smart unfriendly who shot first and tried to catch her second.

It galled him to use Annie as bait. Prince Charming strikes again. When this was all over, if they got out of it alive, he was going to show her all the manners and charm he had at his disposal.

What was he thinking? They were in the middle of a mission, he shouldn’t be thinking about how to get back into her pants!

“Hey!”

Footsteps thumped rapidly down the hall and Mace prepared to jump out and coldcock the next guy. Crouching by the door, his heart leapt into his throat as he watched Annie get tackled by a black-clad man.

Grabbing the knife Mace jumped out and tried to get a shot at the guy, but couldn’t find an angle that wouldn’t put Annie in jeopardy. Annie was thrashing around, trying to keep him from pinning her to the ground, not making Mace’s job any easier.

Finally, Annie must have got a lucky shot in with her heel, because the guy let out a high-pitched squeal and rolled over, clutching his balls. Mace put him out of his misery with a hit to the temple and helped Annie off the floor.

“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“No, just roughed me up a little. I’ll live. He did radio in though as he was chasing me. They know at least one of us is loose.”

“Shit, I didn’t hear anything.” Mace checked the guy’s ankle for the tattoo that had been on the other guys. Yup, it was here too. Definitely a militia.

“Maybe they’re changing frequencies or something. We better hurry, reinforcements could be coming.” Annie jabbed the guy’s arm with the needle. “How much longer are we going to have to do this?”

“I don’t know, but I think this trick is done.” Mace wasn’t about to tell her his heart couldn’t handle seeing her thrashing under a man twice her size again. He’d have to come up with a new plan, one that didn’t require Annie to be front and center in the hot zone.

The sound of feet pounding down the staircase jolted him back to his senses. “Get in the bathroom; we’ll climb into the ventilation shafts again.”

Annie followed his orders without question while Mace finished tying the guy up. Mace shoved him under a pile of spilled laundry to hide him a bit longer and buy them some more time.

Running into the bathroom he saw Annie standing on the sink working the grille off the ventilation shaft. Wrapping one arm around her slender middle, he pulled her off the sink and wedged the knife in the vent to pry it off.

“I’d have gotten it eventually.” She shot him a disgruntled look.

“Whatever. Just get in.” At least the sink gave him a boost so he didn’t have to strain so much to get up this time. His stitches burned like fire, but he couldn’t check them out again in front of Annie. While she was catching unfriendlies, he’d been stuffing gauze under the strip of shirt she’d tied around his waist. Blood had soaked through the makeshift bandage and he was afraid he was going to leave a trail.

“Shh, I can hear them in the hallway.” Annie had scooted a few feet down the shaft and was listening at the next opening.

Mace belly-crawled his way over to her trying to keep the weapons and radio from clinking against the shaft.

With her finger to her lips, Annie motioned him over to the grille.

“Jud?Jud? Where are you?”

Mace turned his stolen radio off just in time as the guy on the ground keyed his up.

“Command, this is Terminator, I can’t find Jud anywhere.”

 “How many times have I told you not to use names on the air? These bastards have all sorts of devices for intercepting transmissions.”

Yeah, Mace called them ears.

“I don’t give a shit. We’re the ones with the weapons and the ones with the hostages. Let them listen and fear.”

Annie rolled her eyes and twirled her finger around next to her head with the universal gesture of crazy.

“You don’t know what these brainwashed commies are capable of. Now where is Jud― Justifier?”

“I don’t know. He isn’t at his post. I didn’t catch his message, either. I think there’s someone out there.” The guy looked around nervously. “I think we should pair up.”

“Negative, that’s a negative, Terminator. I’m Command, and I say remain at your posts. Our example has been made and the demands delivered. Hold steady to the mission.”

“What about Jud?”

“In every war there must be some casualties. He’ll be remembered for eternity for his sacrifices.”

The Terminator looked like he was going to throw the radio against the wall, but didn’t. “Roger. Over and out.”

Mace craned his neck to try to follow Terminator’s progress. Motioning Annie to stay where she was, Mace slid back down until he could crawl out of the shaft again. If he’d timed it right, the guy should be checking out the room next to the bathroom right about now.

Every thump and clank against the walls of the shaft sounded like thunder to his ears. Good thing he was still barefoot or it would be even louder. Mace had just climbed down from the sink when the bathroom door slammed open.

Terminator pointed his gun, and Mace saw his life flash in front of his eyes. Diving to the side, Mace swiped the guy’s legs out from under him and wrestled for the gun. If the automatic rifle went off in the tiny bathroom the ricochet would kill them both.

His side burning; Mace fought for possession of the gun, struggling to keep it from pointing at the ceiling where Annie was hiding.

Or should have been hiding.

“Hold it right there, Terminator, or you’ll be the one splattered across the floor.” Annie had one of the stolen weapons pressed against the guy’s neck and her knee was pushing his shoulder down.

“I thought I told you to stay up there.” Mace carefully got up off the floor and grabbed Terminator’s weapon.

“Yeah, well, I don’t take orders from subordinates. Are you going to bitch about me coming down or are you going to question this guy?”

 “I’m not telling you anything. You’re just a bunch of communist sellouts! It’s because of you we have fags and weirdoes running all over the country.” Their prisoner looked almost proud to be defiant.

“Yup, that’s me, risking my life so that the communist takeover can be completed. You’ll talk, Terminator, or my friend here will dose you up with truth serum.”

Annie caught on quickly and pulled a syringe and more Demerol out of the towel she’d put them in.

“Now this won’t hurt a bit.” She held up the syringe so that light glinted off the point.

Terminator’s face paled and he started to sweat. When Annie pushed a little spurt of fluid out of the tip, he gulped audibly. His eyes were rolling in his head as she grabbed his arm and aimed.

“I’ll tell you everything! Just get that thing away from me!”

He carried a gun around like it was a water pistol, but was afraid of a needle? There was something wrong with these guys. Mace waved her off and faced his victim. “How many men are in the hospital itself?”

“We’ve got fifty men spread through out the hospital. Two are guarding each set of prisoners.”

“How many doorways are rigged with bombs and where are they?”

The Terminator shut his mouth tightly and Annie pushed the needle into his arm.

“Don’t touch me with that thing!” His face was positively green as he looked at the syringe.

“Then tell me what I want to know.”

“All the stairways to the main building are booby-trapped.” His eyes were darting from side to side as he tried to pull away. Mace got closer to keep him from hitting Annie.

“Then how have you been able to get around?”

“The bombs only work on the timer, not on contact. You can open the doors without getting blown to hell.”

“Where are the prisoners being held?” He wanted to get the noncombatants to safety if he could.

“The military personnel are being held in a meeting room. The civilians are in the cafeteria.” He was sweating profusely now, and his body was shaking.

Mace nodded to Annie and she gave the Terminator the Demerol.

“I told you everything! Truth serum isn’t going to help.”

“It isn’t truth serum. Night, night, Terminator.” Annie pulled the needle out of his arm and checked his pulse as his eyes slowly closed.

“What are we going to do? We can’t take out fifty of these guys. And now they’ll be looking for us.”

Rolling the Terminator in with the other unfriendly, Mace racked his brain for a way out of this situation. They had to do something soon or they’d all be dead.

“Too bad we can’t do something with all the bombs you defused,” Annie tied the remaining vials of narcotics back up inside the towel.

Do something with the bombs. Hmm.

“That’s it! You’re brilliant!” Mace gave her a hard kiss on the lips.

“I am? What are you going to do?”

“Set off the bombs.”

Chapter Six

“I’m sorry; I must not have heard you right. I thought you said you were going to set off the bombs.” Annie looked hard at Mace wondering if the strain had gotten to him.

“I did. We’re going to collect the other bombs and plant them somewhere.” His emerald eyes were shining brightly at her. “The enemy will think they’re being attacked and rush to that area and we can rescue the prisoners and get the hell out of here. Once the hostages are taken out of the picture, we’ll let the forces on the outside deal with these guys.”

“Isn’t that a bit risky?”

“And you running down the hall with two tons of fanatic chasing your ass isn’t?”

He had a point; this whole situation was out of control. “Where are you going to put the bombs?”

“I hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.”

“Maybe you should.” Good lord, she was actually encouraging him in this insanity.

“Let’s collect the bombs, defuse them and while we’re doing that I’ll think of a plan.”

“And you think these guys are just going to
let
us collect all their explosives?”

“I wasn’t planning on asking their permission.”

Annie rolled her eyes. This was crazy. They were going to end up blowing up themselves and the whole damn hospital by the time they were done. And she’d thought Iraq was dangerous!

* * * * *

Keeping her weapon at the ready, Annie guarded Mace’s back. They’d already had two more skirmishes trying to collect the bombs. She didn’t want any more. At least there were two fewer goons to fight.

That was two less to try and kill Mace. Her stomach clenched at the thought of him dying. Her makeshift bandage had held so far, but how much more abuse could his stitches take? Annie resisted the urge to check his bandage again. Time was running out.

Mace’s muscles rippled as he hefted the bag of bombs over his shoulder. Annie forced the jolt of lust that shot straight to her core into submission and tried to focus on the problem at hand.

“Why don’t we plant them in the garage? It’s far enough away from the meeting room and the cafeteria to keep the prisoners safe, but will be loud enough to get their attention.”

He appeared to think on her suggestion for a bit. “It could work; we’d have to be careful where we did it and how much we used. The garage might be unstable after already being hit. We should recon the noncombatants first and plan our strategy there before we set off any explosives.”

“Let’s go to the café first. It will have the most people, and they aren’t used to dealing with volatile situations like this.”

Annie tried to remember the best way to get to the café without going through the main lobby. They had to backtrack twice when she took them into older parts of the building, but eventually they made it.

“Are you going to unload that somewhere?” Annie indicated the bag of bombs he was holding. She knew in her head that it was stable, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be inches from enough explosives to blow up a city block.

“I’ll stash it in that closet over there. If anything happens, take it and run for the exit.”

“I’m not leaving without you!” Her heart dropped into her stomach at the thought of losing Mace.

Irrational as it was, she’d formed a bond to this man and she couldn’t fathom leaving without him.

“Hey, I’m not planning on dying anytime soon, but I can’t concentrate if I’m worried about you getting killed. I know it sounds crazy, but I-I have feelings for you I can’t explain.”

Hope surged within Annie’s chest. Maybe he felt the same way that she did?