Fire and Ice (Guardians) (39 page)

"In exchange for our release?"

"Just your three friends. I think I'd like to keep you to trade for something else," Gavlik replied, again appraising her body.

"For what?" Maia's eyes turned wary.

"The timing of your arrival is impeccable. You just solved a pressing dilemma. I have a sheik who loves redheads, and you have the most amazing skin." Gavlik lightly caressed her face as she tried hard not to flinch.

"I think I'm a bit past the bloom for the perverts you do business with," Maia retorted.

Without warning, Gavlik grabbed her throat painfully. "I do not want to mark your lovely body, but I have little patience for your backtalk. Ilara will come in and get you ready."

"Get me ready for what?"

"A little incentive I'm sending Viktor Baran."

The situation room at the AGS headquarters was filled with analysts and Guardians.
 

When Jack showed up for the meeting, Viktor pulled him into his office.

"Look, McCord, I'm not surprised that you wanted to take Lockwood's place. I'm used to working with Derek and we're familiar with each other's play. I trust that your years as a SEAL will come in handy, but I will not let you play heroics and get any of my men killed."

"I know what's at stake here," Jack replied curtly.

"Just as long as we're on the same page. We both want to get her back. I know you two were having problems, but I expected that. The question is, is your shit sorted out?"

"It is, Viktor. I'm 100% committed to her," Jack said. "But know this: after we get her back, I'm going to persuade her to leave this life. It'll be easier for her if I were to make the decisions on her safety next time. The further away she is from your influence, the better. But whatever she decides, I'm with her. Got it?"

Viktor smiled wolfishly and said, "Fair enough, McCord."

Viktor was standing at the head of the table with an image of a three-level building on a widescreen monitor behind him.

"Mikhail Gavlik's compound is in the city of Orenburg Oblast, which is on the Ural River, 918 miles from Moscow. The plan is to take a Gulfstream 550 to Germany and from Germany to Kurumoch Airport in Samara, Russia. From there we're using three modified Black Hawks to fly into the Volynsky stronghold to pick up their commandos. There we refuel and fly into Orenburg. The Russians agreed to turn a blind eye to our incursion. But the less time we spend in their airspace, the better."

"How do we know for sure our people are there?" a Guardian spoke up.

"Thanks to McCord Defense Industries here," Viktor pointed to Jack. "We were able to inject our people with tracking serums. They function like a biological beacon that binds to the person's blood stream. It is untraceable by any device right now except the proprietary one made by MDI. We have assets on the ground right now with the tracking device and they confirm that all four of our people are in that compound."

"Viktor," a voice came over intercom. "I have a live feed from Mikhail Gavlik. He wants a meeting with you."

Chatter exploded in the room. Jack felt himself tensing up as he anticipated catching a glimpse of the man who had taken Maia.

"Quiet!" Viktor ordered, and told everyone, except one analyst and another Guardian, to leave the room.
 

"I'm staying," Jack said stonily.

"Fine," Viktor barked. "But you keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking."

Jack nodded as Viktor gave the go ahead.

Mikhail Gavlik appeared on the widescreen.

"Viktor Baran," Gavlik purred. "I believe I have a couple of your people."

"I want proof of life," Viktor said steadily.

"You are in no position to make demands," Gavlik snapped. "You're as arrogant as that redhead."

Jack's mouth tightened. Damn Maia, probably mouthing off again.

"What do you want?"

"I want you to get me the formula for the Rave-IX from the DEA."

"And you'll let my people go?"

"I'll let three of them go. I'm keeping the redhead."

"The hell you are!" Viktor responded acidly.
 

Jack's hands tightly gripped the arms of his chair to keep from reacting.

"Ah, she is important to you," Gavlik noted with interest.
 

"All my people are important to me. How do I know they're even alive?"

Gavlik nodded to someone and the screen split. One showed a cell-block with three of the Guardians whom Jack recognized as Edmunds, Manning and Chavez from Brett's protective custody. Maia was on the other screen and appeared to be in a regular room, but with shackles on one of her ankles. She was wearing harem pants and swaths of silk fabric covering her breasts, but her midriff was bare. Her gorgeous red hair was crowned with intricate beads of a harem headdress. She was shivering, obviously feeling cold in what she was wearing.

"What the fuck?" Viktor bit out, exactly echoing Jack's sentiments. The screen switched back to Gavlik. "Why the hell is Agent Pierce dressed that way?"

"First of all, she is being punished for her insolence," Gavlik said with a sadistic curl to his lips that made Jack's blood run cold. "Second, if I don't see any proof that you have the formula in your hands in 24 hours, I have a very rich sheik who has been after me to find him a redhead. I must say your Agent Pierce fits the bill perfectly. A little older than our standard virginal offerings, but she more than makes up for it with her exquisite beauty and spirit. My client will enjoy taming this one, such fire... I must warn you, once he gets his hands on her she shall disappear into his harem forever."

With that, the videoconference connection was severed.

Viktor swore violently while Jack exploded out of his chair and started pacing the room barely restraining himself from putting his fists through the wall. He stopped in front of Viktor.
 

"We have to leave now!" Jack growled.

"Calm down. We have to run through a tactical exercise first with everyone involved," Viktor said, although his voice was far from calm—Gavlik had obviously rankled him.

"He better not touch her, I'll kill him."

"He won't touch her," an analyst spoke up. "At least not in the way you think he will. Gavlik prefers young boys."

Jack's mouth fell open. "He's a pedophile?"

The analyst nodded.

"Sick fuck," Jack muttered.

***

The three Black Hawks landed in a huge facility near the outskirts of Samara. Jack, Viktor and six other Guardians alighted from the imposing military choppers and met their Russian host, Alexsey Volynsky. He was flanked by an Italian-looking commando.

"Viktor, I am so pleased to finally meet you," Volynsky greeted them with an anxious look on his face.

As they made their way towards one of the outbuildings, Viktor made the introductions as Volynsky introduced Erik Costa, the leader of their faction.

"I am troubled to hear about Agent Pierce," Volynsky said gravely. "I fear it is my fault that she got into this mess. But she is one of the best I've seen. Fearless, that one."

Jack grunted in disapproval.

Erik glanced sharply at Jack. "I've had the pleasure of working with her, I think you need to show some respect."

It had been a long, tedious trip, and Jack's patience wasn't exactly all there, so he got into Erik's face and snarled, "Look, man, I've worked with Maia and I know her more than you think I do, so back ... the... hell... off!"

"Jack..." Viktor admonished.

Before Erik could retort, Volynksy said, "Jack, Maia's Jack?" Alexsey walked back and clasped his hands.

"Maia mentioned me?" Jack whispered dazely.

Volynsky nodded. "I wanted her to stay longer so we can plan our offensive against Gavlik which would take another few weeks, but she said she had not quite left things right between you two and asked for a week to..." Volynsky saw Jack's stricken face. "It wasn't fixed?"

Jack shook his head, unable to speak. He felt sick. Maia left in the middle of a mission to set things right with him and he broke up with her. How could she forgive him?

Erik clapped Jack on the back, "We'll get her back, man."

Jack didn't expect to get any sleep with all the anticipation thrumming through his veins, but he managed to disassociate himself and find that zen place to regroup and take a restorative break. By the time the men gathered in the courtyard at 1:00 am, his mind was sharp and his heart rate steady.

Viktor was able to keep Gavlik at bay by showing him that he had a copy of the formula of the Rave-IX. After that, he had cut off all communication as they made their way across the Atlantic in the Gulfstream 550.

The choppers were fired up, ready for the rescue mission. There were approximately thirty armed men at the Gavlik compound. Erik Costa was adding twelve men to Viktor's eight. They were slightly outnumbered, but it was believed that the incursion team was better-trained.

"We'll be cruising at 160 miles per hour," Viktor announced. "We should be on target site right before 3:00 am. Our birds are outfitted with anti-radar detection and we'll be flying low to the ground. As a recap of our playbook: Alpha team will fast-rope down to the roof. Bravo team chopper will provide cover fire and will provide backfill if necessary. Team Charlie will fast-rope to the courtyard and will proceed to rescue the Guardians from the cell block. The whereabouts of Agent Pierce in the three-story building is unkown. Alpha team will do that search and rescue. No detainees. Gavlik is shoot to kill. Any questions?"

Everybody grunted their agreement as they dispersed to their respective choppers.

***

Maia wrapped herself with the only blanket available to her. It was winter in Russia and she was dressed like Jabba the Hut's harem girl. Damn Gavlik and his perversions, and her own smart mouth that had earned her this punishment. She tried to bury her cold nose in the pillows. It was damn hard to sleep when one was shivering with cold.

At first she thought she was dreaming when she heard the blunt rhythm of the rotor blades of a chopper. Temperature-controlled torture had been known to cause hallucinations. Then she heard shouts, rapid footfalls and bursts of gunfire. And then the alarms went off.

What was happening? Who was attacking? Erik?

Volynsky must have procured some helicopters for an air assault, because from what Maia had seen, the 30 foot walls of the compound were hard to breach.

Wide awake now, Maia tugged on the cold chain that was attached to the manacle on her ankle. She knew she may be used as a shield or as blackmail but she was prepared to fight.

Jack and Viktor led the assault of the Alpha team on the roof. Bravo team was doing a good job of keeping the shooters down to a minimum by raking bullets on the hostiles with their M4-carbines on fully-automatic. Jack fast-roped onto the roof, landing with more than 40-lbs of gear strapped to his body. As each man landed on the flat roof, they formed a loose line along the wall leading to the entrance of the building. One of Viktor's men knelt and set the breaching charge over the metal door. Everyone hunkered down as the portal was blown apart.
 

Bright light broke through as well as a spray of gunfire. Jack flicked up his night-vision goggles as another Alpha team member threw a grenade into the entrance to pave the way for their assault.

As soon as the grenade exploded, there was a brief stoppage of gunfire inside and that's when Alpha team swiftly moved in.

 
A man on Jack's team provided cover fire while he and the other five men disappeared into the building. Once they were clear, the man assumed sniper position.

Viktor took the top floor with one man while Jack headed down to the second floor with another, a guy named Brock. The fifth guy guarded the stairwell to backfill just in case. Erik, the leader of Charlie Team crackled through comms to inform them that they had also breached the first floor.

Jack ran into a hostile at the base of the second-floor stairwell. A bullet zinged past his head, which pissed him off, but he calmly squeezed two shots off to take down the other guy.

 
A barrage of bullets followed from the opposite side of the hallway, raining bits of plaster on them. Jack snuck a look down the hallway to check the number of doors. Three on the left, four on the right; it was a long-ass hallway.

Gavlik's men were not using suppressed firearms which would make their muzzle flashes easy to detect in the dark, so Jack pointed out the florescent lights on the ceiling to Brock indicating what he intended to do.
 

Jack shot out the lights and plunged the hallway into darkness. He and Brock quickly flipped down their night-vision goggles.
 

Jack signaled to Brock to cover him while he advanced along the hallway. At his nod, well-aimed shots took down the hostiles systematically at the other end. Jack quickly kicked down the door of the first room on the right. When it was cleared, his partner moved forward as he provided cover fire.

As expected, the hostiles became easy targets when their muzzle flashes revealed their positions.

After a couple of minutes, it was down to the last gunman.

There was a lull in the shooting when Jack heard a door crash, a distinct female voice curse and the sound of a scuffle. The commotion was happening in the last room on the right, from which light spilled into the hallway.

"Let go, you sonofabitch!"

Maia! Jack's heart leaped to his throat. He looked at Brock and nodded for him to be on the lookout. Jack slung back his carbine and drew his semi-automatic pistol. Flipping his night-vision goggles up, he concentrated on his pistol's front sight and turned into the room with his gun raised in a modified-weaver position. The remaining hostile had a gun to Maia's head and was screaming that he would shoot her if he didn't back off.

Jack vaguely registered Maia's startled gasp as she recognized him, but her eyes were calm. She suddenly flashed her three fingers over her abdomen and then started to count down three, two... damn it Maia...

... one...

She broke free and dropped. Jack squeezed the trigger.