Her heart seemed to stop, then skipped a little in her chest and ricocheted off her ribs. “Annoyance, infuriate, rub raw nerves…” She repeated his words back to him. “Goodness, with all those wonderful attributes, how could you not like me?” She waved an expansive hand, more than a little ticked off. “Hell, it could be love.”
He had the grace to blush. “You don’t understand, Kate.” Staring at the ground, he turned serious, then looked up at her, letting the truth shine openly in his eyes. “I really like you.”
He did. She felt the truth of it ripple across the distance between them and seep into her body, filling it full. She willed her heart to jumpstart and felt it thump with a pinch of relief. Now definitely wasn’t the time to die from heart failure. No man had liked her, not like this. Alan had wanted her, he’d desired her, but he hadn’t liked her because he couldn’t control her. Nathan didn’t want to control her. He just wanted her.
This was new and different—and scary as hell. “I like you, too.”
Nathan’s expression clouded and closed. “Don’t.”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t, Kate,” he warned her. “I don’t want to like you or any other woman ever again.”
His wife. Some pains were too deep to ever heal. “I see.” It figured. He was still married to her in heart and mind. She’d known that. So why had she been so stupid as to let him get under her skin.
As if she’d really had a choice?
Hell, he’d waylaid her. That’s what he’d done. He’d made deliberate moves to sidetrack her, to focus her defenses on work, and then,
bam!
Waylaid her with the personal stuff.
Nathan watched her reaction and obviously didn’t like it. “Just gauging by your expression, I don’t think you see at all.” He seemed to be standing on really shaky ground emotionally, and he clearly hated it. “I know I don’t.”
“That makes it challenging for you to explain it then, but I’d appreciate it if you’d give it a shot.”
“Have you ever loved a man, Kate? Really loved him?”
She could lie. If she had any sense, she would lie. But the idea of lying to Nathan, especially about this, seemed beyond offensive. It seemed repugnant. “No, actually I haven’t.”
“Then I can’t explain. It’s like trying to describe color to someone who can’t see, or sound to someone who can’t hear. I’m a simple man, Kate. I’m just not gifted enough to be able to do that.”
Simple?
There was nothing simple about Nathan Forester.
Riley came barreling out of the command post tent. “Sir?”
Nathan swung around. “Is it Douglas?”
Riley stopped so fast he dropped his pen from his clipboard. “No, sir,” he said, genuine apology in his tone.
“There’s been no sign of him anywhere.” Riley grabbed his pen, then changed topics. “Headquarters is on the horn for you, sir. They say we’re to stay put.”
Nathan grunted his disbelief. “Did you tell them we’re doing time as sitting ducks in a GRID shooting gallery?”
“Yes, sir.” Riley held the pen poised above his board, awaiting a stream of orders. “HQ said to sit tight for now. This comes straight from Secretary Reynolds.”
Nathan glanced over at Kate. “Thank you, Captain Kane.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault.”
“Did you file a report on the compound?”
“The potential compound, of course.”
“Like I said, thank you, Captain Kane.” Nathan walked off, toward the command post’s tent flap. “And welcome to the shooting gallery.”
He stepped inside and his voice carried back out. “Riley! Get in here and get me Search and Rescue on the line.”
Riley shot Kate a “sorry” look, then disappeared inside the tent.
“Pig.” But at least his major concern was Douglas. That redeemed Nathan a bit in her eyes. Still, she muttered a little more on the walk to her tent.
First, she contacted Home Base. Maggie took the report and then got Darcy on the line. In her mind’s eye, Kate could see Darcy sitting alone in a room that deprived her of noise and other sensory input, files stacked three deep on her desk. Worldwide intelligence reports, all of which she would read and put into perspective with all the others, choose what significance each one bore, and who needed to know.
They dispensed with the courtesies, caught up quickly on events and then Kate asked Darcy about Marcus Sandross.
“Not a word on him has crossed my desk.”
The instant recognition she’d hoped for didn’t come. “Strange.” A GRID member, okay. She could understand never having heard of him. But a second-in-command replacement for Reese. He couldn’t be a rookie. They should have something on him.
“Very strange,” Darcy agreed. “I can’t believe he’s that high in GRID’s organization and he’s stayed under our radar. You’d think someone somewhere would have something on the guy. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“Well, I guess there’s no rule that says it has to, but I’d hoped it would.” Good thing sense wasn’t a requirement, considering. “See what you can find out for me, okay?” She paused and then switched topics. “Now, what about Gaston?”
“Officially, there is no Gaston. He doesn’t come up on anything, anywhere. No computer entry, nothing. We don’t officially know he exists.”
This could be great news. If they didn’t officially know he existed, then neither did GRID. Net result: Gaston had no double. But Maggie had said
officially.
“What about unofficially?”
“He’s in a unit under presidential lock and key called S.A.S.S. Confidential. No intermediaries and no influence. It’s them and the president. That’s it. Simply put, it doesn’t exist.”
Neither did S.A.S.S. so this didn’t amaze Kate, but the name being so similar tossed her for a loop. “Modeled after us?”
“And adapted to the special needs of the CIA.” Darcy
grunted, amused. “Imitation is the finest form of flattery and all that rot.”
“What does S.A.S.S. Confidential do?” Kate dropped onto her bed, hoping she got a grip on this soon. Her head was starting to throb.
“Anything it must do to protect our national security interests. Discreetly. Quietly. And always without notice.”
“Pretty much on our footing.” Kate rubbed at her left temple, trying to convince the jackhammer banging away inside it to knock it off. “So how are we different? Why not just bring the unit into S.A.S.S.”
“Nonmilitary, my dear. Whole different set of rules. They’re CIA. Limited to protecting our interests outside the country.”
“Okay, so the official call is it’s safe to assume he’s okay and not a double.”
“Officially or unofficially?”
Kate sighed. She couldn’t help it. “Both?”
“Officially, no. It’s not safe to assume anything,” Darcy said. “Unofficially, your orders are to trust your instincts.”
They were honed from her years of field experience, but this order ticked her off. If her instincts were wrong, she’d be left hanging out to dry alone. “S.A.S.S. has no official position?”
“Afraid not. The colonel was specific. She’s relying on your instincts.”
The latitude intended to be a show of support had now become a liability. But Kate couldn’t have it both ways and that sealed the envelope on the matter. “Got it.”
“I spent a few hours checking out the coordinates you beamed up, and did a fairly thorough study of the topography. I’m guessing there are a substantial number of air pockets in the caves that most interest you. Ran a few di
agnostics and those pockets stretch quite high into the hills. Not high enough to get nosebleeds, but certainly above water level. You might want to run a complete check there for your missing man.”
“Will do,” Kate said. “Anything else?”
“Just one thing. Insignificant really, but our friend insisted I pass it on.”
Kate braced, all too familiar with Amanda’s insignificant messages. “She said to tell you she’s having a banana split—double chocolate syrup and extra nuts.”
Kate’s stomach growled and her mouth watered. Her favorite food in the whole world. Banana splits with extra chocolate and nuts—and Amanda’s way of telling her everything was going well with her and Mark Cross. Like Kate, he had no family to speak of, so years earlier they’d pseudo adopted each other, though they’d both kept most details of their lives to themselves. Still, it was a known body across a table at Christmas dinner, when that dinner wasn’t pre-packaged meals being eaten in the field. She was thrilled Amanda and Mark were together. “Tell her she’s a bitch,” Kate said, knowing it was expected.
Darcy laughed. “That’s exactly what she told me you’d say.”
“Later.” Kate paused, then pulled off the mike. Darcy was a good woman. Having perfect recall was a royal—and isolating—pain for her, but rather than taking a medical retirement, which she could have, she worked to keep S.A.S.S. informed. Definitely hard on her, but it had been a gift straight from heaven for the other members of S.A.S.S.
And maybe this time Darcy’s recall and considerable talent for putting seemingly dissimilar bits of information together to gain the very insight needed to make all the
puzzle pieces click into place would be just the magic needed to help Kate and Nathan.
And maybe it’d be the miracle needed to save Douglas.
K
ate returned to the command post and looked around. It was quiet inside, but then it usually was whenever the mess tent was noisy. When Kate had walked by it a few minutes ago, it had been hopping. Getting that fired up over powdered eggs just wasn’t on her list of things she could easily do.
As expected, Nathan’s cubicle was empty. Still, she scanned the tent, but he wasn’t in the command post. Riley was seated at his desk, his nose buried in some report.
She walked over. “Hi, Riley.”
“Ma’am.” He looked up at her, his eyes glazed and not yet refocused. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I need to see maps of the area where Douglas went missing. Preferably ones that chart water currents.”
He looked up at her, wary and unsure of what to do. “Our location is classified, ma’am.”
She stared straight into his lenses, though she couldn’t see his eyes, only her own reflection, and didn’t back down an inch. Let Nathan court-martial her ass. It’d be worth it. “Yes, it is. But if you don’t get me those charts, by the time I can get to Captain Douglas, he might just be dead.”
Torn, Riley’s eyes stretched wide behind his rounded glasses. “But, ma’am, I have orders—”
“Riley, stop it.” She’d had enough of this. “I’m declaring this a matter of national security. Code Two priority. Got it?” A stray thought hit her. “You know what a Code Two is, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He shrugged. “Of course.”
“Then get me the damn charts.”
“Can you do that?” Riley looked over her shoulder obviously wishing Nathan would suddenly appear.
“Kramer said he’s in the shower,” she said, letting Riley know she was aware of what was on his mind. “But don’t worry. I can do that, and your commander will have no objections to me reviewing the charts.” At least, he wouldn’t after she shared her last Home Base report with him.
“Yes, ma’am.” Riley walked to the far end of the tent, skirted around a long, flat table and then opened a wooden crate full of rolled-up maps. “There you are, ma’am.”
“Thank you.” She turned away from him, bent down at the crate and went through the maps, not seeing anything inside that surprised her. Iraq. Iran. Kuwait. Pakistan. India. The Persian Gulf. Maps of all the countries surrounding the Gulf were rolled up inside.
She pulled the one on Iran, pressed it flat across the long table and started studying it, using Bubiyan Island as a point of beginning. It had been the insertion point on many a mission in the region. It was the perfect place for an outpost.
After giving the maps to her, Riley had eased out
through the tent flap, presumably, Kate sighed, headed toward the showers.
She couldn’t blame him. When Nathan learned she knew their location, he would indeed be on a tear. But he’d have to get over it, just as Riley would have to get over his fear of Nathan’s reaction. It was a shot at saving Douglas, and they could just accept it. Supposedly, the entire reasoning for keeping her blacked-out on knowing the location was to protect her. Well, she had no choice at this point but to take on any additional risks.
Putting them both out of her mind, she plotted Douglas’s coordinates and focused on the current patterns.
The initial results looked promising. She worked another thirty minutes, and things still looked promising. She permitted herself to feel encouraged but no more. She’d been down this road before too many times and had the outlook turn on a dime and head south. Not on this. It was too important.
Another twenty minutes and she was still encouraged.
Unfortunately that’s when Nathan came in, looking ready to kill. “Captain Kane.”
“Don’t bother, Nathan. I know the drill.” She stood, crossed her chest with her arms and frowned. “Write me up, if that’s what’s in your mind to do. I’ll even sign off on it. But give me a few minutes before you have me shipped off to the nearest brig. It looks like I’m on to something important.”
“Excuse me?” He had a full head of steam and didn’t look eager or even inclined not to unload it.
“Look.” She pointed to the map. “Douglas went down here. Look at the proximity to the cave. I mentioned this when we were in the water, but it’s even closer than I suspected then.” She hoped he picked up on the potential
GRID cave without her having to mention it specifically. They were in the same spot. “There are air pockets inside. I’ve been there.”
“What’s your point?”
She looked up at him, hoping to hell she was right and not engaged in wishful thinking. “My point is that Douglas could be in there.”
“In one of the air pockets?”
She nodded. “They were about to end the dive, right?”
“Yes, but—”
“He was low on oxygen.” She shrugged. “What if he saw something and went to check it out? What if he got there and he didn’t have enough oxygen to get back out?”
“He wouldn’t do that. He was an experienced diver.”
“What? Experienced divers can’t make mistakes? Maybe he misread the gauge. Maybe he saw something he
had
to check out. Maybe he had to hide and didn’t have a choice, Nathan. There could be a hundred reasons, but the only one that matters is that it’s possible he’s stuck in there without sufficient oxygen to get out.” Her theory would have fallen apart of course if he’d gone missing at the beginning of the dive, but he hadn’t. “According to the incident report, the team had less than five minutes left in the water before mandatory surfacing.”
“It’s possible.” The starch went out of Nathan’s shoulders and the heat left his voice. “He could’ve been lured there.”
“Or trapped,” Kate said, warming up to that theory. It seemed far more likely that Douglas had gone hunting and what he’d found had kept him pinned down and unable to move without being exposed to GRID. “Maybe when I came in, I surprised him. Maybe he observed the trouble between me and the two GRID agents and stayed put. Maybe he’s still down there, waiting for us to rescue him.”
“Sure are a lot of maybes in this, Kate. Supposition is rarely an asset in our line of work.” Forester didn’t dispute her, he just wasn’t sure they’d made an accurate conclusion.
“True, but sometimes supposition is all we’ve got and it can lead us to the facts.” She hated to be brutal, but this was a time to be totally frank. “His body should have surfaced by now, Nathan.”
“Unless GRID has him.”
“Unless GRID has him,” she conceded. “But what if it doesn’t? What if he’s just stuck and waiting?”
“Do you really consider that possible?” Nathan grimaced, his finger tracing the points on the map. “Search and Rescue have every piece of electronic equipment known to man at their disposal, and they’re using every resource they’ve got to locate Douglas. If
they
can’t find him—”
“Nothing takes the place of human intelligence and you know it, Nathan.” She pointed to the map. “Look at this.” She let her fingertip flow over the paper, marking a trail on the map. “These caves are constantly flooded. We think GRID is off-loading illegal cargo at sea. Now look at the currents. They’d bring the weapons right up to the caves and they’re heavy enough. They could be gouging the rocks.”
“Weapons are heavy. They would sink,” he said. “For Christ’s sake, think, Kate. A crate of metal weapons wouldn’t float.”
“What if they didn’t sink and they did float? What if GRID receives the weapons, moves them through the caves and then moves them out through the other side that’s on dry land? From there, they could truck or fly them to the end buyer.”
“The crates would’ve been seen at sea. The Navy would have gotten a visual.”
“What if they didn’t?”
He was losing patience fast. “It’s pretty damn hard to hide crates of weapons floating in the gulf, Kate.”
“But what if GRID somehow did it?” she persisted. “Look, you’re thinking like a normal human being. Don’t. Think like Thomas Kunz. He hid at least sixty men and women—high-ranking, top-level, security-clearance, card-carrying people—in plain sight. If he could do that, then he could find a way to move weapons, damn it.”
“Okay, okay.” The fight went out of Nathan. He lifted his hands, giving up on simple reason. “What do you want to do?”
“I want to explore these caves.” She pointed to them on the map. “At dawn,” she added. “That’s when the current is strongest.”
Forester stepped back from the table. Legs spread, he folded his arms across his chest. “And GRID is just going to let you walk in there and take a look around.”
“Of course not.” She stared up at Nathan, wondering if he’d be nonplussed or repulsed by what she next said. “I’m going to have to kill the men guarding the gate first. Then explore the caves.”
“Oh, I see. That simple. You think?”
“That difficult,” she contradicted him. “Which is why I need you to come with me.”
“Kate, I’m good, but I’m not an expert diver. You need an expert.”
She stared at him a long moment. “I don’t need your diving skills, Nathan. I need someone to watch my back. But if you’d rather not, just say so. I can just as easily go in alone. I’ve done nearly everything in my life that way
and watched my own back. I can certainly do it again now.”
He gave her a stoic look. “Then why did you ask me?”
“Honestly, right now, I have no idea.”
“Five minutes ago, then.”
She looked up at him. “Because I trust you and I know what I’m walking into down there. I’ve infiltrated GRID compounds before.” She shifted on her feet, half turned away from him. “Just forget it. I’m fine on my own.”
“Whoa. Hold on.” He softened his voice and clasped her arm. “I never said I wouldn’t go, Kate. Only that one of my divers might be better.”
“He can’t.”
“Kate, they’re more experienced. They’re the experts. I’m just the man who commands them.”
“I said he can’t, and I meant it.”
“You’re not listening. You don’t know—”
“Yes, damn it, I do know.” She exposed a stubborn streak a league long.
“How?”
Her gaze softened and she tilted her chin up to look him in the eye. “I know because it’s you I trust, Nathan.” It was hard to say and harder to feel. But it was right and it was time to say it out loud. Maybe then her feelings for him wouldn’t seem so strong and powerful.
“Trust is a fragile thing,” he said. “It shouldn’t be put at risk needlessly.”
She nodded.
“I could fail you, Kate.”
“I could fail Douglas, too.” She hiked her chin. “But just because I know that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.”
Nathan’s expression turned sour, but he didn’t pop back with a witty or even a dry remark. “All right. You win, and
I hope to hell you don’t regret it. I hope neither of us regrets it. At dawn we explore the caves.”
She smiled, lifted a hand to his face and stroked his jaw, earlobe to chin. “Thank you.”
He grunted, not at all happy with developments. “Thank me tomorrow—if we live.”