Surrender to Temptation (Agent Lovers Series Book 1) (31 page)

“I noticed that too. I want to take her mind off things. Will you help us get the rest of her things from her apartment?”

“Of course. I’ll jump onto my motorcycle and go get the truck. That way you can drive right up to her apartment.” Jeff jumped up and disappeared into the house. A minute later Gray heard the front door close behind him

“Liz?” As she looked in his direction, Nero jumped up on her and almost knocked her off her feet.

“Yes?”

“We’re going to get the rest of your things out of your apartment today. Jeff went to get a truck.”

“No! You can’t do that. Not yet! Eventually, but not now!” She walked toward him.

“Why put it off any longer? You could get a call from Townsend at any time and then it’ll just get postponed again.”

Liz stopped in front of Gray and looked at him searchingly. His face didn’t betray any of his thoughts, but she knew there was more to this decision. This wasn’t about finally getting the move behind them. Gray had something in mind. Liz sighed and nodded. It really was pointless to have an apartment in the city that she didn’t even live in. In the few hours that she had spent there over the last few days, she hadn’t felt as comfortable as she had before. It was almost as if she didn’t belong there anymore. “I’ll just get my keys.” Liz walked around Gray and disappeared into the house.

***

Two hours later they were standing in her living room and packing up the first of her personal things in boxes when the doorbell rang.

“That must be Jeff. I’ll get it.” Gray went to the door. When he returned to the living room with his brother, he found her on the phone. Gray stopped abruptly and a moment later his premonition was confirmed. He could tell right away who was on the other end of the line.

“Yes, Sir. Understood. I’ll be there in about an hour.” She hung up and looked apologetically at them. “Boys, I have to go!”

“I already figured that out.”

“You can do this by yourselves, can’t you?”

“We’ll have to.” Gray walked slowly to her, stood right in front of her, and pulled Liz into his arms. Holding her tightly, he closed his eyes so that she couldn’t see the doubt in his eyes. Then he looked at her and gently kissed her good bye. “Take care of yourself, Liz. Will you promise me that?”

“I always do!”

After he’d released her, she grabbed her keys and her helmet and disappeared out the door within seconds.

“That wasn’t easy for you, was it?” Jeff asked, even though he already knew the answer.

“Obviously.” Gray pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. Townsend called almost immediately, just as he’d expected. When the conversation was over and he’d hung up, Jeff gave him a questioning look.

“What was that all about?”

“I made sure that Chris and I would monitor and manage all their assignments, moving forward.”

“Do you think that’s such a good idea?”

“At least I won’t have to sit at home and chew my fingernails and wonder if something has happened to them. I can do something if needed, too.”

“True. Do you mind if I look over your shoulder a little? I’ve always wanted to know exactly what you do and see how what we do looks from your point of view.”

“That’s kind of an unusual request, but I don’t really mind.” Jeff had the SFSU-IV security clearance, so Gray didn’t see a problem with it. Together they left Liz’s old apartment and set out for the agreed upon meeting point.

***

Chris was already waiting at the airstrip wearing a gloomy expression, and his hands were buried in his pockets. Without a word, they climbed into the KIOWA military helicopter that was to take them to the base from which they would monitor and manage the mission.

As they walked into the observation room, Chris reached for the fax that had just come in over the secure line and slid into the document tray.

“They’re already on their way to Honduras.”

“What’s the mission?”

“To rescue a kidnapped family of four that’s distantly related to the U.S. vice-president. The captors are demanding the immediate pardon and release of two former leaders of a gang of youths. These men were convicted in West Virginia six months ago of murder-for-hire and drug trafficking, among other things, and sentenced to consecutive terms of life imprisonment.” Chris’s eyebrows drew closer together as he read. “Hm. According to records, the Sanchez brothers are forty and thirty-eight years old, so not really young anymore. But apparently, their supporters haven’t forgotten them, even though they haven’t lived in Honduras for almost ten years and became American citizens through marriage.”

“You forget that these gangs, which terrorize the cities in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, aren’t just made up of youths. Some gang members are as old as the Sanchez brothers.” Gray took the fax from Chris and scanned the information. “The hostage-takers are probably about the same age. Their activities show that they’re still loyal to their former leaders. They’ve probably stayed in contact all along.”

“Will that have an impact on Liz’s and Jennifer’s mission?” Jeff asked. “The fact that they won’t be dealing with youths, I mean.”

“It’s possible. For more than twenty years, these guys haven’t had anything to do with each other beyond murder, robbery, burglary, rape and abduction. What do you think their threshold is for violence?”

“It’s got to be pretty low.”

“That’s right. They’ve never exactly been reluctant to use force, so negotiations don’t make a lot of sense. There’s no way to predict how they’ll react. Who knows what they’d do if they thought we were trying to delay them with our negotiation efforts? We’ll have to keep calm, plan not to negotiate, and accept the terms they set. We can’t let them find out how valuable their hostages are. If we do, this whole affair will become even more catastrophic.” Gray ran a hand over his neck, handed the fax back to Chris and sat at his two computer monitors.

Jeff sat in a swivel chair and centered himself behind his brother and Chris so he could peer over their shoulders while they worked. He leaned back, stretched his legs out in front of him and crossed his arms over his chest.

“First we check out the coordinates of the signal to see if they’re still at the abandoned guerilla camp, like the fax says.” Gray nodded at the huge monitor that took up almost the entire wall in front of their workstations. “Pull the satellite image up on the big screen, Chris.”

A few seconds later the satellite image appeared before them. The camp was completely dark; only a few isolated light sources suggested that someone could be in the camp. Gray entered a command on his keyboard and the heat signatures of the people at the location became visible.

“Thirty-four people,” Chris counted. “So, four kidnap victims, and thirty abductors. That’s a lot. Jennifer and Liz will have to extract the hostages at a time when only a few guards are making their rounds and the rest are sleeping. I don’t see any other way for them to be able to complete their mission without confrontation.”

Gray nodded. “I agree. Where are they, anyway?”

Chris zoomed out from the satellite image and all of Central America appeared on the screen. With a few strokes of the keyboard, he accessed the signal for the aircraft that was carrying Jennifer and Liz into the area and pulled up the information on the large flat-screen wall monitor. The prop plane, a Bell-Boeing CV22A OSPREY, was a tilt rotor aircraft that had vertical takeoff and landing abilities, as well as short takeoff and landing capabilities. It was represented on the screen by just a small moving dot.

“They’re almost over El Salvador. They should reach the target area in Honduras in an hour.”

“Well, then they’ll report in soon.”

Chris nodded and put the receiver on the loudspeaker. Together they waited for the women to check in. Once the OSPREY was over El Salvador, they heard the sound of static and then Liz’s voice resonated loudly and clearly in the observation room. “Agents Gibson and Langner…Sorry! I mean, agents Blackwood and Robbins reporting for duty. Who’s on the other side?”

Jeff grinned at Gray, who couldn’t suppress his own smile. So, Townsend hadn’t said anything to them. Well, fine; he’d do it. “Likewise: Blackwood and Robbins. Who’d you think you’d be working with?”

“Chris?”

“Gray?” The women sounded surprised.

“But, of course! How about we activate your cameras so we can see you and not just hear you,” Chris suggested. Fuzzy images flickered on Gray’s monitors. He changed the signal frequency so they could see the women more clearly.

“Hello, beautiful ladies! Do you still recognize me?” Jeff added his greeting.

“What are you doing there?” Liz was flabbergasted. “These assignments are secret, Gray! Outsiders don’t belong here. You know that!”

“Jeff isn’t an outsider. He does the same you two do, and he’s one of the other ten in your little outfit.”

“Thanks for telling us,” Jennifer said sarcastically. “Now I suppose you’ll tell us you’re on the team, too!”

“Not really, but you aren’t far off, dear.” Chris laughed softly. “Before we transferred to monitoring and administration, we had the same jobs you do.”

The women’s expressions of disbelief provoked serious laughter in the central command room, but the men quickly grew serious again. “You’ve received the particulars?” Gray asked.

“Yes. We’re supposed to extricate and safely bring out four people who were working as volunteers at a church-based re-socialization project for former gang members. The people are the vice-president’s fourth cousin, his wife and their two grown sons. As always, we’re supposed to avoid trouble, not cause a stir, and prevent direct confrontation if at all possible. Sound about right?” Liz sounded bored.

“Sounds like you’ve got the gist of it. We’ve reviewed the information and it looks like the previously abandoned camp is, in fact, being used again—and, judging by the weapons they’re carrying, not just by a group of boy scouts. The coordinates are accurate. We see 34 heat signatures, so there are 34 people in the camp, including the four hostages. Have you got it all so far?”

“Yes. Understood. Perfectly,” Jennifer said.

“We’ll set the target coordinates on the visors of your helmets via GPS. But this time, forget
Plan S
, or you’ll get into a lot of trouble with us. That’s not a threat; it’s a promise.” Gray was emphatic. “Do you understand that, too?”

“We’re aware of your promises. We understand,” Jennifer said. “Perfectly.” She gave a grimace of irritation.

“I saw that!”

“Then stay at home in the future, if you don’t like it, Chris!”

“Men!” Liz mouthed the word and Jennifer nodded back.

And
I
saw
that
, Liz,” Gray said. “How’s your equipment? Do you have everything you need?”

“Oh for crying out loud. This isn’t the first time we’ve done this. Of course we have everything! More than we need. Now we’re going to disconnect for a while. You’re getting on my nerves.”

“You better not! Do you hear me? Liz!” But she had already severed the connection.

“Shit!” Chris and Gray both said.

“They’ll check in again,” Jeff tried to reassure them. “When they have to jump, at the latest.”

***

“Did you know about that, Jenny?”

“Did I look like I’d had any idea that they were going to do this job themselves?” Jennifer raised her eyebrows at Liz.

“No. I didn’t, either. I knew there were twelve people in the unit, so six sets of partners, but I don’t know the other ten because we’ve never had an assignment with them,” she said. Then she corrected herself, “I mean,
didn’t
know. We know one of them now. And it’s my loopy brother-in-law, of all people. Now at least I know how they were able to take us by surprise and how Gray got ahold of those stupid monitoring bracelets.”

Just then the pilot checked in from the cockpit by radio. “Blackwood? Robbins? There are two extremely pissed off men in management who want you to reactivate the radio connection that you terminated—immediately.”

“They can wait patiently for another minute. We’re enjoying our peace and quiet,” Jennifer answered.

“Should I really tell them that?”

“Go ahead!” She grinned and began to test her equipment one last time.

“Ladies?” the pilot said a minute later. “Your
husbands
insist that you report in, or they will abort the mission.” He spoke more emphatically this time. Reluctantly the women established radio contact again.

“Damn it! What were the two of you thinking by doing that?” Gray roared into the microphone. The women cried out and pulled the headsets away from their ears.

“Are you crazy?” Liz said back into the microphone. “You just about burst my eardrum. I didn’t invite you to monitor this mission. Switch jobs if you don’t like it!” Liz, looked into Jennifer’s camera as they put the headsets back on.

“If you did what I told you to do, I wouldn’t need to scream,” he said. More quietly he added, “You’re almost at the area where you’ll jump. Get ready!”

“Already there!” Liz and Jennifer removed the small IRC-NG cameras from their clothing and the headsets from their heads and stowed them in their backpacks for later use. Then they put on their gear, which weighed around ninety pounds, and strapped on their parachutes over that.

They checked each other’s readiness one last time and put on their special pilot helmets with the visor displays that would direct them via GPS through the drop zone to the landing zone. The audio units in their helmets allowed them to communicate with one another. They activated the Standard IRHC Infra-Red Helmet Cameras, which were somewhat larger than the IRC-NG and were secured laterally on their head protection. Gloves, oxygen bottles and oxygen masks rounded out their gear. After they’d checked the functionality of the altimeter they positioned themselves in front of the loading ramp in the rear of the OSPREY, which opened slowly and gave them a clear view of the black night. They could feel the airspeed decrease as the pilot tilted the rotors slightly, a hint that they would soon receive the signal to jump. At last, the light on the signal lamp changed from red to green; the sign that they were over the target area.