Enemy Mine (20 page)

She couldn’t be sure that the file would make it to D.C., either. What proof would she get? And what would Mac do with the information that she was a U.S. Marine, working undercover? Terror ate at her. And panic. What if he told Garcia? What if he really wasn’t a U.S. agent, but one in the employ of another drug lord, who wanted to topple the Garcia empire?

Scrunching her eyes shut, Kathy rolled onto her side and punched the feather pillow into a comfortable position. The windows were open, the breeze humid and sluggish. It was dawn, judging from the hint of gray along the horizon. She had to sleep!

But was Mac her enemy or her friend? Again she felt a wave of relief that the CD was on its way to the authorities—if she could believe Coulter. How badly she wanted to! Her whole being was now oriented to getting sad little Sophie out of this hellhole and back home.

Her thoughts swung to her own parents. Kathy missed her mother and father. In the past, she’d called them regularly, no matter where she was. Even on deep undercover missions as a Seahawk pilot, dropping off SEALs or Marine Recons in other South American countries, she’d been able to call them from time to time. It had been five months since she’d last made contact. She knew they were worried—especially her father, who didn’t like being shut out of the loop involving any of his children.

“M
IKE
? I want you to look at this photo and tell me what you think.” Morgan Trayhern handed his second-in-command a black-and-white photo made from a JPEG off the computer. He had spent five days going over the hundreds of photos shot by Black Jaguar Squadron pilots on their flights to detour drug shipments. They filmed everyone they came across, most of them tourists from the Machu Picchu area. Others were archeologists, amateur and professional, going to sites within a hundred mile radius of Machu Picchu. That was BJS territory, and anyone in it was filmed for future reference.

Mike frowned and took the photo. It was barely 0900, and he hadn’t had his first cup of coffee yet. “Find something from the BJS photo archives?” he asked, holding up the picture and squinting at it.

“I think so,” Morgan growled impatiently. “What do
you
see? Remind you of anyone we know?”

Mike saw a female hiker with a knapsack on her back. The photo had been taken from about one thousand feet, and it was a side view, a profile. The woman had blond hair, and she’d been looking up at the helo when the photo was snapped. “Kathy?” he asked, disbelief in his voice as he looked over at Morgan’s dark countenance.

“That’s what I think. I’m having our computer section enhance the photo and match it with Kathy’s facial features.” Stabbing a finger at the photo, he snapped, “But I know what my daughter looks like no matter how far away. It’s her.”

Turning the photo over, Mike asked, “Where was this taken?”

“Fifty miles from Machu Picchu. According to Major Stevenson, that particular spot is a jaguar trail that leads from the Urubamba River straight to Garcia’s villa, near Agua Caliente.”

Mike was familiar with all the trails and turf of the area. He’d spent many years fighting in Peru, a U.S. Army combat trainer who had taken his gung ho soldiers into repeated head-on frays with the drug lords there. Locals had called him the Jaguar God, because he seemed to have nine lives, just like the fabled cat that was worshipped by the Incas.

“Yeah, Garcia has a ‘test’ for his nannies,” Mike murmured as he studied the photo intently. “Did you know about that?”

“No, tell me,” Morgan demanded gruffly.

“Garcia likes a nanny to be able to guard his only daughter, Tiki. His wife is a heroin addict and is ‘gone’ most of the time. Last I heard, he had a live-in mistress by the name of Therese. She runs his day-to-day operations for him, plus warms his bed at night.” Mike gave Morgan a cutting smile. “Being the good Catholic boy he is, Garcia isn’t about to divorce his drug-addict wife for this other woman. But he loves his daughter and wants to protect her. To that end he’s been known to put the nanny applicants through a series of tests.”

Mike pointed to the photo. “The last test, the most dangerous one, is that the nanny is dropped in the jungle with no food, no water and no pistol. There was gossip from time to time down in Lima when I was there that the remains of another applicant had been found, mostly eaten by the jaguar.” He raised an eyebrow as Morgan looked more grim. “But if this is Kathy, and it sure looks like her from this angle, she’s got a backpack on, so she wasn’t left without supplies.”

“So the real question is what was she doing on that particular trail?”

Scratching his head, Mike handed the photo back to his boss. “She’s undercover, right?”

“Yes, and they won’t let me in on the black ops. They’ve shut me out.”

“Okay,” Mike said slowly, thinking out loud. “Who
kidnapped Jason, you and Laura? Guillermo Garcia. Carlos is his son.”

Stunned, Morgan stared at Houston. “What are you saying?”

“That maybe Kathy has gone undercover to right a wrong. She’s on a well-known trail that Garcia uses to test his nannies. There’s only one end to this trail—his villa. Is she working there? And if so, why? Revenge, maybe?”

“Dammit!” Morgan snarled. He tightened his hands into fists as his mind raced with possibilities. There was no way he wanted his eldest daughter
there. Good God.
Swinging a sharp glance toward Houston he rasped, “Revenge? What kind?”

“Garcia has a daughter. Would Kathy do an ‘eye for an eye’ thing? Kidnap Garcia’s daughter just as the three of you were kidnapped by his father?”

Bludgeoned by the possibility, Morgan grabbed a chair and sat down. “She couldn’t…. No, that’s foolish. Dangerous…”

“Deadly,” Houston said sympathetically. “Look, Morgan, don’t dive down that hole just yet. It’s only a theory. Why don’t you get someone on the phone back in D.C. who can blow the cover off this black ops? That way you’ll know for sure what’s going down.” He pointed to the photo on his desk. “For all we know, Kathy may be hiking and nothing more. We can’t go ballistic just yet.” He drilled Morgan with a hard look. “Get ahold of some key players in Washington. Find out what’s goin’ down. Then panic, if you don’t like what they say.”

Gripping the desk, Morgan stood up. His feet felt like thousand-pound lead weights. His heart hurt as he thought of Laura. If this was true, it would tear his wife apart. Hell, it would tear the family apart—again. In a new and different way. “What if she’s down there, Mike? What if Garcia has found her out?”

“Boss, don’t go there. Not yet, at least. Find out where she is, first.” Mike gave him a sympathetic smile, noting the suffering clearly etched on Morgan’s face. “Make some calls?”

I
T WAS HELL ON EARTH
as far as Kathy was concerned. Two days had gone by since her unexpected meeting with Mac in Therese’s office. She’d barely seen him, since he was flying much more than usual for Garcia. She felt jittery and wondered if she should just leave now without Sophie. No, she couldn’t do that. She would
never
leave that little girl in the lurch, as Jason had been left.

Kathy grimaced and tightened the saddle girth on Hector. She watched as Sophie stood in the box stall with General, brushing him even though his saddle was on. Kathy had just delivered Tiki to Garcia, who was going over to see his wife at her caseta. He visited Paloma regularly. Kathy wondered if the drug addict was even coherent enough to know that Tiki was her child. Shaking her head, Kathy tried to focus on something positive in her murky, sordid little world.

At least there was a clear blue sky this morning, which was highly unusual in the jungle. With her nerves raw and screaming, Kathy wanted to escape the villa for just a little while and take Sophie for a ride down in the meadow.

She heard a helicopter returning, and could tell by the sound of the engine that it was Mac. He was approaching at a very high rate of speed, which was unusual. The stable was located down below the landing pad, but she could feel the buffeted air from the helicopter blades vibrating around her as he brought the bird in for a landing within the walls of the villa complex.

Pulling down the stirrup, she took Hector’s reins and turned him around in his cushy box stall, filled with dry, sweet yellow oat straw for bedding.

“How are you coming along?” she called to Sophie over the thick wooden wall.

“Fine, Kathy. I think General likes me to brush his legs. He keeps moving his lips all over me.” She laughed shortly. “He’s giving me horsey kisses.”

It felt good to hear Sophie laugh. Only since the horses had come into her life had the little girl emerged from her cocoon of depression. “Okay, squirt, hold on. We’ll get you mounted up in just a second,” Kathy said, her heart bleeding for the little girl. She’d marveled over Sophie’s riding abilities, then learned she had been taking riding lessons since she was four years old.

As the helicopter landed, Kathy’s mind drifted back to Mac. Her paranoia returned despite the fact that he had had every chance to turn her in and hadn’t.
Was
he a friendly agent? Who did he work for? She’d barely slept the last few nights. Had he delivered the CD to his handler in Cuzco? He’d been gone most of the time since the night they’d accidentally met in the office. And when she had seen him, he’d looked grim. Very grim. More so than ever before.

Something was going on. She could feel it in the air. The last two days the horses had been more fretful and restive than usual. And Tiki seemed to psychically pick up on everyone’s restlessness. She was crabby most of the time.

Only once had Kathy seen Garcia, and he, too, seemed tense. The guards were always on alert. The gate sentries had added ammunition, heavy belts of bullets that crisscrossed their chests. These weapons complemented the two pistols on their hips, not to mention the M-4 rifles. So much protection and anxiety. Why? What was going on? She wished someone would tell her.

As Kathy opened the box stall, she heard heavy footfalls; someone was running full speed toward her. Mac Coulter! His mouth was set and his eyes narrowed on her. Kathy started toward him then hesitated when she heard a sound—like a squadron of droning helicopters flying toward them.

The guards at the gates shouted orders and started scurrying about. Hector whinnied and moved around nervously in his stall. As Kathy tried to ascertain the cause of this commotion, Mac barreled down the hill toward the stable. Something was wrong. Badly wrong.

Tensing, she saw him run to the gate and jerk it open. Sweat beaded on his face, and his brow was furrowed. “Get those horses out!” he yelled. “Where’s Sophie?”

“She’s in there.” Kathy pointed. “What’s going on?” she demanded, opening the stall door and grabbing Hector’s reins.

“We’ve got Russian Ka-50s, Black Sharks, four of them, coming down on us right now,” he yelled. “A
drug dealer named Navarro is making an attack on Garcia. He intends to wipe this place off the face of the earth!” Throwing a glance over his shoulder, he rasped, “Take the white horse! Take Sophie with you.” He grabbed Hector’s reins. “I’ll ride this one.”

“What—?”

“We’re going for the Blackhawk. It’s our only escape, Kathy.” He opened the door to General’s stall. “Come on. Hurry! There isn’t time to chat. We got about five minutes before those bastards hit this villa with enough firepower to destroy the whole damn thing!”

“Wait! What about Tiki? We can’t just leave her!” Kathy cried.

Mac hesitated, obviously torn. “Where is she?”

“Oh, God, Mac, she’s down at her mother’s caseta with her father!”

“That’s too far away! We’ll never make it in time!” Mac turned and looked skyward. Black dots were coming their way, the blades already starting to buffet the air. He heard Kathy cry out in frustration. Turning, he saw her start toward the gate.

“No!” he yelled. “You’ll never reach them in time!”

Tears flooded Kathy’s eyes. “We can’t leave her! We just can’t!”

Grimly, Mac pulled her to a halt. “Listen to me, will you? You either save three lives here or
all
of us are going to die in a very few minutes, including Tiki and her family. Which will it be, Kathy?”

Fighting back a sob, she stared into his burning gray eyes. “Tiki…”

“I know, I know…I’m sorry, but she’s gonna have to take her chances here. Come on! Let’s get going!”

Gasping, Kathy grabbed Sophie. “Honey, can you ride behind me? Hold on real tight around my waist?” She saw Sophie’s eyes go wide.

The puncturing beat of the double axial blades of the Black Sharks drew closer and closer. The entire villa vibrated with the power of the approaching enemy helicopters.

“Well—sure. That’s easy!” Sophie frowned, looking up at the sky.

“Climb aboard,” Mac ordered Kathy tightly, and he held out his hand to grasp her bended knee and lift her onto General.

Mounting quickly, she watched as he easily lifted Sophie, settling the child solidly behind her on the saddle.

“Now, you hold on,” Mac told her. “Don’t let go, Sophie! We have to get out of here.”

The little girl nodded and wrapped her arms tightly around Kathy’s waist.

General snorted, his eyes rolling as the puncturing noise thundered above them. As Kathy turned the Andalusian around, Mac leaped into Hector’s saddle like a born cowboy. “Follow me!” he yelled over the gathering din.

Everywhere Kathy looked, soldiers were running like rats escaping a sinking ship. As she reined the jumpy gelding around, Sophie stuck to her like glue.
Good!

Mac galloped down toward the gate leading to the meadow. He made a flying dive from the horse as it
skidded to a stop, sending up clouds of dust. Mac swung the white gate open and quickly leaped back onto Hector’s saddle.

Kathy galloped up to him. “Then we’re escaping to the Blackhawk?”

He gave her a tight smile and a short nod. “Damn straight. This is our chance! Let’s ride like hell.” He dug his heels into Hector’s heaving sides. The gelding snorted, leaped upward, landed on his front feet and galloped heavily down the narrow trail.

“Hold on to me,” Kathy told Sophie urgently, then leaned forward and sunk her heels in General’s sides. Instantly, their mount jumped forward.

Oh no!
Kathy caught her first glimpse of a lethal Black Shark as it appeared over the villa. Real terror raced through her, the Black Shark was a flying arsenal. They were in
big
trouble! Leaning forward, the wind whipping around her, she urged the gelding faster.

As they flew down the winding trail, leaves hanging out in the narrow path swatted at her arms, legs and face. Kathy kept dodging and ducking, to avoid the larger ones.

The sucking sound of General’s hoofbeats as he slowed for the curves and corners made her sit up. The soil was red clay and always damp—dangerous conditions for a galloping horse. If the animal slipped, they could all go tumbling.

Kathy heard the hiss of a rocket, then an explosion at the villa. A booming sound rolled over them like a violent storm. They were too close! Slapping the reins hard against General’s withers, she coaxed him to a dizzying speed. More explosions erupted behind them.

Sophie screamed in reaction to the attack. She clung to Kathy’s waist, her arms so tight that Kathy could barely breathe. A fireball rolled across the tree canopy overhead, then the stench of smoke assailed Kathy’s flared nostrils. The heat hit next, and General panicked. Kathy fought him, hauling back on the bit. The horse’s mouth gaped open as he reared crazily, slipping and sliding down the winding trail.

Kathy wrestled with the Andalusian, knowing that in a quarter of a mile they’d reach the meadow. Then it would be a straight run to the Blackhawk. What if the Black Sharks found their helicopter? They’d sure as hell destroy it!

“Come on,” Kathy crooned. “General! Settle down, dammit!” She took command of the careening horse, until he was once more under her control. She reined him in as they came to another sharp bend in the path. It was steeper now, and more slippery. Wrenching back on the reins, her legs pressed against his sweaty barrel, she used all her strength to control the panicked horse. Instantly, General sat back on his haunches, his rear hooves skidding beneath him along the red mud trail.

“Hang on!” Kathy cried to Sophie. Ahead, she caught a glimpse of Mac on Hector. The gray gelding, too, was sliding and scrambling, red mud splattering up his legs and across his underbelly.

This was the dangerous part! The trail became exceedingly steep. Everywhere, tree roots jutted out, and if a horse hit one the wrong way, they could flip end over end.

“Slow!” Kathy yelled at General.

The horse snorted loudly, his ears twitching back
and forth. His sides were heaving and sweat made his white body shine. Behind her, Kathy heard another explosion, then another. The Black Sharks were wreaking hell at Garcia’s villa. Kathy worried for Tiki’s safety, but there was nothing she could do. Tears flooded her eyes and she sobbed. Oh, poor Tiki! She didn’t deserve this! She was an innocent!

Finally General reached the bottom of the slope and the jungle opened up to reveal the meadow. Kathy leaned forward and again whipped the reins across his withers. The Andalusian strained forward, his neck straight out, ears laid back. Ahead, Mac rode Hector hard, bent over the horse’s gleaming, steel-colored neck. The gelding’s black mane and tail flew like flags in a strong wind, and clouds of dust rose as Hector raced toward the end of the meadow.

Suddenly, Kathy heard an ominous sound behind her. Jerking a quick look across her shoulder, she felt her heart freeze.
Oh, no!
A Black Shark hoved into view, flying about a thousand feet above them—and straight at them!

“Mac!” she cried.

He didn’t hear her! Kathy knew she had to take evasive action. If they stayed on the trail, the Black Shark could target the Blackhawk and destroy it before they had a chance to escape.

“Hang on, Sophie!” Kathy knew she had to become a decoy so that, at least, Mac could get to the Blackhawk. As she glanced back, she saw six different fireballs mushrooming skyward from the villa. Two other Black Sharks hovered there, firing repeatedly into the place.

Jerking General to the right, Kathy veered off the trail. The horse leaped through the knee-high grass and jumped over small bushes. She steered him toward the jungle, a half mile away. After hearing the Black Shark change course, she realized it was now following and targeting them. Could she outmaneuver the pilot?

One thing Mac had told her was that only one pilot was on board the lethal monster. He had all the work of flying as well as targeting, whereas the Apache held two pilots—one to fly and one to fire. Was this pilot too busy flying to aim at them? Kathy prayed it was so.

She leaned low over the horse’s neck. Wind whipped them, making her eyes water, and General’s mane repeatedly slapped her face. Sophie was hanging on, thank God, her face pressed hard against Kathy’s back.

Seeing a small opening in the jungle wall, Kathy aimed for it. But then the helicopter stopped and hovered. It was drawing a bead on her.

At the last possible second, she wrenched General to the left—back across the meadow. The horse grunted, flexed his rear legs and leaped like a startled jackrabbit. Kathy dug her heels into his sweaty flanks, asking everything of him.

She heard the pop of a rocket. Gritting her teeth, she kept General swinging to the left.

Seconds later, the rocket exploded behind them.

General whinnied hysterically and ran even harder. Heat rolled by them. Rocks and dirt pelted them.

“Come on!” Kathy cried to the gelding. She lay low on the horse, urging him on with her hands, her legs and her pleading voice.

The Black Shark shifted. She could hear it. Was it stalking her again? Fear gutted her. Risking another look over her shoulder, Kathy saw to her surprise that it was turning around and flying back to the villa! The pilot must have thought they were poor pickings compared to the damage he could do at the villa.

The end of the meadow was coming up fast. As she guided the wild-eyed General to the jungle trail that would lead to the second, smaller meadow, Kathy gripped the horse with her legs to keep from being pitched off. Sophie continued to cling to her.

As they broke out of the jungle, she saw Hector running away from the Blackhawk, riderless. Mac was in the helo and had it started up, with the rotor turning!
Good!!
Kathy brought General to a sliding halt two hundred feet away from the whirling blades. The horse was wild, obviously scared of the noisy helicopter. Wrestling with him, Kathy gripped Sophie with one arm and lifted her off, setting her safely on the ground. Then she leaped off in turn. Hooking the reins over the saddle horn, Kathy spooked General by throwing up her hands. The horse took off at a gallop back up the trail, following the fleeing, panicked Hector.