Bare Nerve (18 page)

“Are you sure you need me?” Kirk asked. “You seem at home with weapons.”

“What do you mean?” Andreev asked, holding his gun easily at his side. Casually he removed a cloth from the desk behind him. He folded the scarflike garment into the right size and density for a silencer.

Mann turned his back to Andreev, and Andreev lifted the gun and the cloth. Mann glanced over his shoulder at Andreev, eyes widening and hands coming up in an
I surrender
gesture. Mann took a step back. “I wasn’t saying I didn’t want this gig. Just questioning if you needed me. I’m your guy. You’ve paid for my services, and they’re yours.”

Andreev continued to stare at Mann until beads of sweat dotted Mann’s forehead. Then he lowered his gun, tucking it into the back of his pants.

“Make sure you remember that,” Demetri said.

Mann nodded. Demetri would have to keep a close eye on him in case Mann decided to double-cross him.

But for now, Andreev noticed that Mann was focused on getting to the weapons cache, and that was just what Andreev wanted. He like his men focused on the job. Because men who weren’t were sloppy. And sloppy men ended up dead or in jail.

Andreev felt a surge of adrenaline. There was something to be said about being back where he was truly himself. He missed the family he had in the US, but there he had to hide his temper and blend in with the other executives. Here he could be the man he was always meant to be.

Andreev felt his determination to make this latest sale a success just to thumb his nose at Liberty Investigations, who’d ruined what he’d built.

“Yan?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Have you heard from our men yet? Did they take care of the women?”

Yan fiddled nervously with his cell phone. “I’m not sure.”

“What? Why not?”

“I got a short text message saying they had engaged the women…then forty-five minutes later, another that said it was over.”

Demetri knew that wasn’t proof, but the men he’d hired were the best in the business. “Call them.”

Yan dialed the number and a minute later the phone was answered. In the quiet of the room he could hear the voice on the other end. “Are they dead?” Yan asked.

“Yes.”

Demetri smiled. He wanted to kill those women again. He did feel a certain amount of pleasure when he thought of them dead in that hangar in In Salah. That would teach Sam Liberty to meddle where he wasn’t supposed to meddle.

Andreev didn’t want trouble, but he was prepared for it.

Men like Mann had been bought once and could just as easily have sold him out.

“Yan?”

“Sir?”

“Follow him and make sure everything is set up for the demo this afternoon.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Where are the men you hired?”

“They’re still at the cache,” Yan said.

“Make sure someone stays with Mann at all times. I don’t trust him.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll personally take the task. This is going to be the start of a new era for us, and I won’t let anything screw it up.”

“See that you don’t, Yan. I will reward you with more wealth than you can imagine.”

Yan nodded and turned away. It was easier to buy men in this part of the world because wealth was still such a foreign concept. He could trust Yan, but Mann he’d have to be careful with.

He knew it was only a matter of time before he’d have to find men of his own. Men who worked for him for more than one mission—loyal men he could keep employed full time. Maybe after this deal he’d be in a better position to do so.

K
irk planted a GPS beacon at Andreev’s base camp, and Anna picked it up shortly after noon. “We need to leave the vehicles and go on foot to the camp,” she told her team.

“How far?”

“Probably not any more than five miles,” Anna said, pointing. “That way.”

“The terrain in that direction is tough to traverse. It will take at least three hours. But the weather looks nice,” Bay said.

“Okay, we’ll stop up ahead,” Jack said.

“Charity?”

“Go ahead,” Charity said on mic.

“We’re stopping up ahead. Mann’s GPS signal is coming through loud and clear. We’re going to hike in.”

“Affirmative. Have you had a chance to check the weather forecast?”

“Yes, we’re clear. There’s little cloud coverage. We should have nice weather all morning.”

“Great. I’ll pull in behind Savage. Charity out.”

Anna was glad they were here. This had been the longest five days of her life, and she wanted Andreev out of the way, captured, and talking so she could figure out if there was something more between her and Jack than just red-hot sex.

Which had been nice, she thought, glancing at him through heavy-lidded eyes. He was earthy and sensual and made her feel more like a woman than she’d ever felt before.

Jack eased the vehicle onto the shoulder, and they all got out. “We aren’t going to be able to take all the extra firepower unless one of you can carry it,” he said.

“I don’t think we’ll need it,” Anna said.

“We don’t know how many men we’ll be facing,” Justine said. “We need to have at least one launcher and probably a couple AK-47s.”

“I agree,” Jack said. “I can carry an extra bag.”

The Humvee stopped behind them, and Anna had a moment of unreality. Here they were in the Ahaggar Mountains, a place of infinite beauty, and they were about to do something very ugly. She had never thought of her job in terms like that, but that sense that she had been changing was continuing.

She wanted Andreev captured. She wanted illegal sales of arms and munitions to stop because she’d always believed—probably because of her father—that diplomacy was better for the people of the world than armed coups.

But as they manned up and double-checked their weapons, Anna saw that sometimes a show of force was the only way.

“Are you okay?” Jack asked.

She nodded her head. “Yes. I was just getting myself ready for this mission.”

He nodded and then surprised her by leaning over and kissing her. “Stay safe, angel. I’m not done with you yet.”

Before she could respond, he was off, following Bay down the path into the interior of the mountains. Justine was next, and Anna fell into step beside her friend. She checked her weapon and then her technology.

“This is a very different mountain range than Peru,” Justine said.

“Yes, it is.”

The GPS beacon continued to beep on Anna’s BlackBerry. Justine wasn’t a talker, and that didn’t change now. They just kept moving in a rough single-file formation. The path, if it could be called that, didn’t really allow for much side-by-side stuff.

When the path opened up again, Justine slowed her pace until she was next to Anna.

“How much longer do you think we have?” Justine asked.

“Another hour and a half.”

“I hate this part of the mission. Get me in close where I can start using my weapons, and I’m a happy camper.”

“Amen, sister,” J.P. said behind them. “I hate hiking into an op. That’s one nice thing about doing military work. They usually get you in closer.”

“Yeah, but here? I don’t think that would fly,” Anna said. “There are a lot of wind currents on the mountains that would make a chopper hard to navigate.”

“What about a plane? Parachute in?” J.P. asked.

“I guess. But we don’t have one.”

“I know. I just like to figure out different scenarios in my head.”

“Why?” Anna asked.

“So I can make sure we aren’t missing something obvious. I mean, we think Andreev won’t have another way out of the mountains, but what if he does?”

Anna considered that. There simply wasn’t room on this type of path for any kind of large vehicle. “He could have a motorbike.”

J.P. nodded. “If he does, I’ll take it out.”

She realized J.P.’s game with himself was simply an exercise in reassurance, in creating problems before he got into a situation, and in finding the solution.

She liked it and thought about the problems they were facing. But with this many men, she wasn’t worried about Andreev. Despite the fact that he sold weapons for a living, he wasn’t a big bad monster in her book. He was simply a man who’d escaped justice for too long, and she knew there was no way they were going to let him continue. She imagined that Jack and his team would kill Andreev if given the chance, and she knew she’d have to be on lookout to make sure they were able to bring Andreev into custody.

She wanted him captured because that was her mission objective, unlike the Savage Seven who wanted him captured because he’d actually gone after not one but two of their own.

Finally they made it to the base camp. Jack drew them to a halt at a spot overlooking the cave system. There were three vehicles and two motorbikes in the clearing. If they hadn’t had seven of them working the square, Anna really would have been worried about Andreev slipping away. But as it was, her team members were all on and all wired. It was late afternoon, and there was plenty of light to see by.

“We need to split up,” Charity said. “J.P. and Harry, take care of those vehicles. We don’t want Andreev or any of his men escaping.”

“Affirmative,” J.P. said. And he and Harry moved swiftly away toward the cars. “We’ll continue monitoring your channel.”

“There are two main areas down there. It makes the most sense if we work together. My guys and I will head toward the cave system to the left,” Jack said.

“Okay, we’ll handle the area to the right,” Anna said. “Isn’t it odd that there are no sentries?”

“Yes,” Jack said. “Stay sharp and stay focused.”

“Yes, sir,” his team said, one by one, on the radio.

Anna had a new respect for Jack, watching him with his men. She might not always approve of the way he did business, but he did know how to command his troops.

“Be careful, Anna,” Jack said in a whisper-soft tone, and she glanced over at him. She raised her hand to her lips and blew him a kiss before turning and walking away. She had a feeling in her gut that he was saying good-bye,

She switched frequencies on her earpiece and put it back in place. “Justine?”

“Right here, Anna.”

“Did you put that bug in Jack’s piece?” she asked.

“Yes, I did. Why are you asking?”

She shrugged her shoulders to loosen them under her leather jacket. The holster of her gun rested comfortably along the small of her back. Her leather pants were form-fitting and good for both protection from bullets and knives but also allowed her some fluidity if she had to use martial arts. “No reason. Just checking.”

“I don’t like this setup,” Charity said. Their group moved in a loose formation. “I’ll take the front.”

“I’ve got you covered,” Anna said. She kept her eyes sharp as Charity moved down the path toward the cave area. She didn’t concentrate on Jack or his team. She knew they’d do their job.

She also wished liked hell they had some kind of heat image from this place so they knew how many men they were dealing with.

“Justine, you’re clear.”

“I’m moving. Anna, watch the back path.”

“I am.”

“I’m in,” Charity said in a near-soundless voice. “There are two guards watching several crates that I can only assume have weapons in them. And the sentries are moving in ten-minute rotations.”

Anna crossed to Justine’s location, and together they used hand signals to move into the cave.

“Charity?”

“Behind the large cache of boxes.”

“We’re moving on three,” Justine said.

But before they could take a step, Andreev entered from the back of the large, cavernous room. Anna signaled for Justine to wait.

“Were you followed?” Andreev asked in Arabic to someone the women couldn’t see.

“I shouldn’t have been. Tamanrasset was quiet this morning when I left. And it’s not hard to watch my back trail,” came a male voice.

Andreev was slimmer than Anna remembered him. But otherwise he was the same.

“Good. Then everything is in place?” Andreev asked.

“Yes, sir. The buyers will be here at first light.”

Andreev turned, and Anna ducked back out of his line of sight.

“Should we wait?” Justine asked as Andreev and the man moved off.

“No. We aren’t interested in his buyers, only in him,” Charity said.

“Agreed,” Anna said. “I think we should disarm these weapons and take out the guards. Is anyone else going to join us from the direction Andreev came?”

It was dark in the cave, and Anna finally felt her eyes adjust completely.

“I don’t know. I’ll secure the area back here,” Charity said.

“We’re on these two guards. We’ll join you when this room is clean.”

“I’ve got the one on the right,” Justine said.

“Affirmative,” Anna answered. “We move on three.”

“Three, two, one.”

Deliberately Anna stepped into the path of the guard closest to her. He pivoted toward her, raising his gun. She stepped toward him, grabbing his wrist right above where the meat of his thumb and wrist came together. Her hand didn’t make it all the way around his large wrist. But she used forced to push his hand down. He punched her with his left hand, hitting her in the cheek. She hit him with a roundhouse kick to the gut. He snarled some curse words at her.

She didn’t loosen her grip on his gun hand. Finally Anna was able to grab the gun by the barrel and pull it from his grasp. He jerked his arm away as she snagged his weapon. He came at her with a front snap kick aimed at her chin. She twisted to the left, and he hit her shoulder instead. It ached.

She’d had enough of this guy. Coming around behind him, she knocked him on the head with her gun hand. He grunted but didn’t fall down. She grabbed his meaty neck and felt around for his carotid artery, hoping to put him out.

The guard elbowed her in the gut and turned on her. He gripped her neck with both hands, lifting her off her feet and closing his hands. She struggled for breath.

Lifting both of her feet against his chest, she pushed back with all her might, and he tightened his hands for a second before her leverage gave her the advantage and she broke free. He fell backward, and so did she, landing on her ass with a jarring impact.

She stood quickly, bringing the heel of her foot down on one of his hands and twisting the other one behind his back. Anna forced him to roll over, and then she bound his wrists and feet. “One guard down.”

“Mine, too. Let’s find Charity and then go after Andreev.”

Jack hoped Kirk wasn’t incapacitated, but because they hadn’t heard from him, Jack had to assume that was the case.

It was time for their briefing before the men moved forward with their mission. He also had to make sure they understood the ROEs. Jack didn’t want his guys going Rambo on Andreev.

“We’ll go in quiet and quick. There are four targets,” Jack said, restating their mission objective for Tommy and Hamm. “Tommy, you will provide cover from here.” He indicated a small ridge less than fifty feet from the main cave.

“Hamm, how many sentries did you observe?” Jack asked. He’d had Hamm keeping watch while the snipers had been scouting for a good location to set up.

“A two-man unit, sir. They’re making rounds every forty minutes. We should be able to slip by them without notice.”

“I think we should take them out. So we don’t have to worry about them,” J.P. said, joining them.

“The vehicles are inoperable,” Harry said.

“Good.”

Jack felt the tension in this group. They wanted their team members back together, and he knew they were ready for blood. They’d been waiting too long for action, and now they were ready to move.

“Agreed. We’ll take the sentries on the way in.” The smoother and quicker they could get this done, the better it would be for all involved. “We’re going in soft. You need a confirmation before you make a kill. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Let’s check our radios, and then we’ll move out.” Jack waited until he was sure each man had placed the earbud in his ear.

“This is one,” Jack said.

“Two,” J.P. said.

“Three,” Hamm said.

“Four,” Harry said.

“Five,” Tommy said.

“We’ll be on silent until we reach the target. J.P., I want you to come in from the north side and take care of the sentry patrolling on that side. Hamm, you cover us from the west. Tommy and Harry, you’ll take the east. Cover the path leading into the cave. I’ll take out the guard on the south side. Let’s move out.”