Bound by Danger (28 page)

“Can you hold up things a bit while I get the release?”

“Sorry, sir. Everything’s ready to go.” The sergeant waved for the teams to move out.

Dave joined Deidre. “I’ll be joining you as soon as I can.” He gave her hand a squeeze in reassurance.

She returned the touch even though she wanted to kiss him as much as kissing in uniform wasn’t allowed while on duty. “See you in a bit, Dave.” Deidre shoved a clip of dummy ammunition into her M-16 rifle. She motioned for her team to move.

For twenty minutes, they trudged through the rocky terrain dotted with junipers, live oak and thorny mesquite trees. They still had three miles to go before they reached the rallying point for the headquarters’ staff when sporadic gunfire shattered the air. The sound of their boots crunching on the dry-crusted soil immediately ceased as everyone dropped to the ground. Deidre closed her eyes as the pounding in her temple gave way to a new vision. One of the enemy team fired live rounds.

It was bad enough she had to deal with the menace, but her heart beat rapidly to think her team members were instantly placed in peril also. Her mind raced as to what options were available to her.

Her leadership skills had taught her many things, but finding out the strength or unique abilities of each of her team members focused utmost in her mind. “Has anyone here been through a real conflict?” Deidre called out to her staff.

“Afghanistan, Ma’am,” one of the specialists responded.

“Did you see any action?”

“No, Ma’am, I’m just a personnel tech. Typed up awards and promotions. That’s all.”

Deidre rubbed her head. “Somebody out there is firing live rounds.”

One of the specialists chuckled. “They’re firing duds, Ma’am.”

“Somebody’s mixed up the ammo. It’s happened before. Just after I completed training at Fort Riley, Kansas, live rounds injured three basic trainees. It happens sometimes.” Deidre knew the other case was found to have been an act of revenge. Now she wondered if the disk in her mail was the manuscript after all. Was Red firing the rounds at her?

Somehow she had to lead the men to safety. Whoever was shooting at them would more than likely hurt someone else in the process to divert suspicion from their attempts to kill her.

She motioned to the private closest to her. “You, head in that direction. Circle around and when you reach the headquarters’ staff, tell them someone out here is firing live rounds.” She twisted her mouth in thought. “And tell them, Dave Carter, who’s getting a pass at headquarters to join us, must be informed at once of our predicament.”

“Aren’t we supposed to stick together?”

“We’re going to have to break up a bit.” She glanced over at the other men and said to another private, “You, go with him, but be sure and travel as far west as you can. He’s firing from the east. Be sure to crawl on your bellies. Don’t rise above that until you’re well out of range.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

The two men crawled off as Deidre slung her weapon over her shoulder. She wanted to send all of the men in that direction out of harm’s way, but she knew not all of the men would leave her alone. She was the senior ranking service member. She was
supposed
to lead them.

The sergeant in the group crawled up to join her. “Ma’am, I suggest we continue to head along the path leading directly to the encampment. A fair amount of trees will cover us.”

She considered the green and brown marks camouflaging his black face. She couldn’t tell if he believed her or not. But she was the boss. It was her call.

He tugged at her rifle. “You should at least hold your weapon at the ready.”

He didn’t believe her. Her heart sank at hearing his words, then she shook her head. “It doesn’t have live ammunition. If it did, it would be ready for him all right.”

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her raw nerves. With determination, spurred on by anger, she had every intention of getting as many of her men out of there alive. “I want everyone to move forward to the next stand of mesquite. Once we get there, stop. If anyone is wounded on the way there, we drag them with us to that location.”

She looked back at the men. A mixture of concern and disbelief stretched across their faces. She nodded and began the low crawl.

When she’d trained as a cadet at camp she’d had to maneuver under barbed wire, never figuring she’d have to squirm along the dirt again like a snake wriggling across the valley. The dust filled her nostrils, choking her, and she marked up another reason for not liking her assignment here.

As soon as they moved beyond the cover of the junipers, shots rang out.

“Damn!” one of the men said as the bullet hit the dirt next to him sending a spray of earth flying. “They’re firing live rounds!”

Chapter 19

Dave paced across the headquarters floor as he waited for the paperwork to be approved so that he could join Deidre. “Government bureaucracy,” he mumbled under his breath as he furrowed a brow at the specialist. One government agency could never work with another no matter what the cost.

Yet he knew if he didn’t get the proper authority, he could jeopardize his being with Deidre for the rest of the time he served on the case, especially since the case was over, as far as
his
headquarters was concerned.

He took a deep breath trying to settle the impatience churning in his stomach like a storm broiling at sea.

“Can’t you hurry this up?”

“Sir, we haven’t gotten confirmation yet.”

Dave waved for him to get on with it. More than anything in the world, he hated bureaucracy.

***

Deidre wrinkled her brow at the soldier. “That’s what I said. The bullets are live rounds.”

When everyone reached the mesquite trees, she turned to them. “Everyone all right, so far?”

The sergeant shook his head. “Being in the personnel business, I never thought I’d get killed in the Army on a training exercise.”

Deidre calmed her ragged breath and pointed to two more men. “I want you to pull off your blue vests. They’re too easy to spot. Both of you are to do the same as the privates did earlier. The rest of us will continue on ahead as before.”

This time the two who were to leave the party showed relief as the anxiety drained out of their faces when she picked them.

“When you get far enough out of range, I want you to run like hell to headquarters. Don’t let anyone stop you. If the ‘enemy’ attempts to capture you, tell them what’s happening here.” Then she thought of Josh Henderson. He was somewhere in the field this week, too. If she could only get word to him, he’d certainly know the truth of the matter.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Ma’am.”

The two men slithered west. Deidre considered her dwindling party of six. The sergeant said, “Why don’t we all head that way, Captain? This idiot apparently doesn’t know he’s firing live rounds—”

“Okay, we’re a team, right?”

The men all nodded.

“This is the situation. This man is trying to kill me. Unfortunately, he will also hit some of you to make it look like the whole thing was accidental. If I can get some of you away from our main party to safety, that’s what I’m going to do. If we all head west at the same time, he’s going to come after all of us.”

“That’s crazy,” the sergeant said. “Why in the world would someone want you dead?”

“I’ve been under the FBI’s protection. They thought the whole thing was over. Apparently it isn’t. He still wants me dead, and he won’t deviate from our path if we go straight. This gives the others a chance to make it to safety. Do you all understand?”

The men exchanged glances, concern etched into their dusty faces. She leaned her right elbow forward and motioned to a juniper several yards away. “The juniper.”

A specialist spoke up, “Why don’t we let him come for us? Then we could jump him.”

“I believe he’d walk toward us firing. How many would he injure or kill before we could stop him?”

She moved forward. A bullet hit the top of her helmet sending a chill of fright through her body. She ducked her head instinctively, temporarily immobilized. Gathering her courage again, she snaked forward until they arrived at the tree. Five of the men gathered beside her. One of the men had stayed behind.

She looked back as he waved for them to go on. She motioned for him to join them. He shook his head.

“What do you think, Sergeant Washington?” she asked, as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

“Maybe we ought to leave another of the men at this tree, and we’ll continue on.”

“All right.” She picked another of the men to stay behind, then said to the other two, “You’ll head west now. Hopefully the cavalry will arrive soon.”

They yanked their blue vests off, and Deidre said to the man that was to stay behind, “You remove your vest, too. Just the sergeant and I’ll go forward.”

This time when she scooted across the ground only the sergeant accompanied her and bullets fired at random but fell short kicking up the dirt. She and the sergeant rolled into a low ditch.

“Ma’am, if you’ll crawl into the open, I could try to rush the guy—”

“He must’ve gotten one of our military rifles and probably didn’t site it properly. But even so, rushing him would be suicide.”

Crunching footsteps on the soil nearby made Deidre close her eyes. It wasn’t Red. It was someone else, blond, male, wearing BDUs. The nametag said Smith.

How original.

They waited until he was only inches from their location, then Deidre jumped from the ditch and swung her rifle at him. The force knocked his rifle from his grip. Before he could recover, she swung her leg and kicked him in the abdomen as hard as she could with the heel of her boot.

The sergeant scrambled to his feet and grabbed the rifle loaded with live ammo as the killer collapsed to the ground. Their attacker still gasped for air when she kicked him in the side of the face, knocking him out cold.

She waved behind her and reached for the loaded weapon. “Go get our other men.”

“Don’t you think I should stay here with him, and you should—”

“No, I can handle him.”

The sergeant ran back for the men as Deidre studied the killer. His eyelashes fluttered. Her heart skipped a beat. Before she could step away from his feet, he kicked her with his size-eleven combat boots.

Deidre fell to the hard-packed soil with an “oof.” She didn’t want to kill the attempted murderer. The agents needed a live one to question.

He lunged for the rifle. She fired. The slug in his chest didn’t slow him. He shoved the rifle up. She fired again, the bullet propelled heavenward.

Still holding onto the rifle, he yanked her to her feet. She thrust her left foot between his legs and wrapped it behind his right leg. He shoved the weapon toward her face. She pushed him forward, knocking him off balance as her leg anchored behind his. He fell with a thud, then he pulled a gun from his boot.

The remaining members of her team pounded the rocky soil behind her as they ran to her aid. It was too late. She fired again. The killer dropped his head and gun to the ground.

“Damn!” one of the privates said as he kicked the gun away from the killer’s hand. “Something to write home about.”

The sergeant shook his head. “They told me they were sending a woman to lead our staff section. Figured we’d get captured right away. Never thought we might have really been killed by the enemy.”

“Well, truly, I’m sorry about all of this. I had no idea the guys behind this were still at it.” She tried to calm her rapid breath.

The noise of vehicles headed for them made them turn. Three jeeps full of enlisted personnel and one officer bounced over the rough terrain heading straight for them. The vehicles sent the dust flying as they screeched to a halt in front of the dead man.

The lieutenant jumped from the jeep. “Ma’am, are you all right?”

She handed the rifle to him. “The safety’s on, but it’s loaded with live ammo.”

“The general’s on his way.” The lieutenant rubbed his brow. “Division safety officer’s going to have to file a report on the dead soldier.”

“He’s not one of ours.” Deidre headed back across the valley to the staging area. Her body trembled as adrenaline still pumped through her veins, the recent fight still vivid in her mind.

“Where are you going, Ma’am?” the lieutenant asked.

“The FBI will handle this one. I’m going home to take a hot shower.” She pulled off her helmet and poked her finger through the hole. “Don’t even get combat pay for this.”

“Ma’am, you can’t leave the exercise!” the lieutenant hollered.

She smiled. She could and she would. “Sorry, lieutenant, I’ve had enough exercise for the day.”

Several of the men chuckled.

“But, Ma’am, the general’s coming.”

“He’ll be in charge then.”

“Cpt. Henderson from the enemy unit was coming to see you, too.”

Deidre turned. “What?”

“The captain had to find someone to run his unit, but he told me to tell you he was on his way here right after that.”

“Ah, well tell him, I’ll talk to him at the end of the week.” She continued to walk, but turned as footsteps ran toward her. She glanced over her shoulder. “What’s up, Sergeant?”

“You’re our personnel commander in the field.”

“I release you from my command.”

She smiled broadly as the other members of her team ran over the uneven terrain to catch up to her. “Ma’am,” one of the privates she’d sent for help first said, “I’m sorry, I told the lieutenant that you were crazy.”

She raised her brows. “I wish I had been, truthfully.”

“Well, he said even if you were crazy, he had to check out the allegations or get his butt in a sling if someone was really firing live rounds, and he did nothing to stop it.”

“Good notion on his part.”

“Then the other team members you sent to gather help finally arrived, and they said the guy really was firing live ammo.”

“What took you all so long then?”

“You weren’t headed straight for the encampment. We searched for you along that path first, then detoured when we couldn’t find you.”