No Woman Left Behind (16 page)

Elvis, here I come. Hang in there.

When I opened my eyes, Hands knelt in front of me on one knee. “You holding it together, Keys?”

He was almost unrecognizable with his helmet and night goggles. Gray had told me the SEALs would be carrying about sixty pounds of equipment in addition to the tandem drogue parachute, which was about three hundred and sixty square feet in order to support the weight of two people and decrease our terminal velocity as we fell.

I swallowed. I didn’t want to think about that yet. I still had no idea if I could do it.

Hands snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Keys, focus here. I need to tell you exactly what’s going to happen. We have about three hours until the drop, but I want you to know I’ve got you. I won’t let you fall.”

“Actually, I’m not confident on that part.”

“Well, get confident. We’re on the same team. I won’t let you fall. You’ll have to trust me on that. So, stay with me. About six minutes before the jump, I’ll harness you to me. I’ve asked the crew to do three checks to assure you the connections are secure. When you see the yellow light and hear the words ‘Stand by,’ you’ll know we have less than thirty seconds before the jump. At that point, we have to walk to the open ramp. When you hear the instruction to hang, it means hang your toes over the edge of the ramp otherwise you may rap your shins on the ramp and that hurts. After that, you’ll hear a command ‘Green light, go.’ That’s our signal to jump. I’ll give you a thumbs up and we’ll jump together, okay?”

I couldn’t speak. I just sat there my hands clenched into fists.

“Look, Keys, you cannot fight me. That’ll put both of our lives in danger. You must stay calm. Keep in mind that even a few seconds of delay can cause the team to miss our drop point by a significant margin. Because we’re jumping at night, I don’t even need to pull the ripcord. Our parachute has an automatic activation device that deploys at a specific altitude. All we do is jump and the parachute does the rest.”

I licked my lips. “How long...do we free fall?”

“We’re going up to about twelve thousand feet, so we’ll free fall for about sixty seconds at a speed of one-hundred and twenty miles per hour. When the parachute deploys, you’ll feel an initial jerk, but the rush of the wind will slow things down. Unless someone is shooting at us, we should enjoy a quiet flight to the ground that should last about seven to nine minutes. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good. Then we’ve got this.”

He returned to the jump seat directly across from me, tipped his helmet down over his eyes and went to sleep. I couldn’t imagine how he could do that under these circumstances, but I was discovering everyone had different methods of managing stress. I reached up and touched my earring and thought of Slash. And somehow I dozed, too.

Chapter Thirty

“Keys, wake up.”

I blinked and then straightened as Hands came into focus. Adrenaline charged through me as I leaped to my feet.

“Where are we? What happened?”

Hands put a hand on my shoulder. “It’s the six-minute call. Time to harness.”

My eyes widened. “Ah...”

I didn’t have time to protest as several guys surrounded me, securing me to Hands and pulling on and adjusting straps. I started to shake as one of them tugged my helmet tighter under my chin.

One of the guys gave me a thumbs-up. “You’re good to go.”

“Four minutes,” someone else called through my helmet.

“Check two.” Another SEAL knelt down and re-checked the harness and the straps.

He stood and gave me a thumbs-up, too.

My legs were trembling so badly at this point I could barely stand. Hands mostly held me up. I opened my mouth to protest, but only a croak came out.

A third SEAL did a final examination of the connections. “Check three. Complete. Alpha Star is secure to Alpha One.”

“Com check. Alpha Star, do you hear me?”

I swallowed. “Yes. I can hear you in my helmet.”

“Good. I hear you, too. Alpha One?”

“Check.”

Alpha and Bravo teams all checked in to ensure the radios and mics were all operational.

“Coms are a go. Stand by and good luck.”

As I watched in horror, the lights in the interior of the aircraft went out and the ramp at the back of the aircraft opened. I twisted my head and saw Hands adjusting his night vision goggles over his eyes. As my eyes adapted to the dark, I noticed the dim red lighting in the aircraft. It wouldn’t be visible from the ground like a white light would. It also wouldn’t affect the eyes’ ability to see in the dark, which was unfortunate because I knew exactly what was happening.

The aircraft lurched slightly as the ramp cranked completely open. I heard a loud whooshing noise. Air rushing past the aircraft.

Holy crappola. The ramp was freaking
open
. I couldn’t see a thing except for the inky blackness outside the plane. I froze in place. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak.

Hands tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a thumbs-up.

I shook my head. Adrenaline, which had been racing around my veins, now gave up and just screamed
no, no, no
!
Hell no!

“Yellow light, go.”

Hands tried to move, but I was frozen to the spot.

“Keys, move it.”

I shook my head more violently now. “No. I can’t. Intellectually, I’m trying, but the bottom line is it isn’t going to happen.”

He gave me a push with his body and we half waddled, half stumbled forward. It wasn’t the right way to get into position, and I knew it. But terror clouded my judgment and ability to think properly.

“Hang.”

There were three guys in front of us. The voice in my helmet said, “Bravo One, green light, go.”

He disappeared silently into the black void. I watched in sheer terror.

“Bravo Two, green light, go.”

He jumped.

“Bravo Three, green light, go.”

He disappeared and now there was no one between the emptiness of space and me.

“We’re next,” Hands said calmly through my helmet.

“No!”
I shouted.

“Get into position, Keys. Hang your toes over the ramp.”

I realized with horrible clarity he would force me to tumble out with him into the blackness if he had to. Panic overwhelmed me. No way in all the depths of all hell was I going anywhere near that ramp. I tried to back up, but Hands didn’t budge. I calculated my chances of being able to take him. Given that he was six foot three inches and two hundred and twenty pounds—plus I was harnessed to him—all I got were odds of four billion six hundred and twenty-four to one that I could pull it off.

“P-please, Hands,” I stammered. “I changed my mind. I’m sorry. We have to think of another way. I just can’t do it.”

“Yes, you can. You said you trusted me, right?”

“Yes, but—”

‘But’ is the last word I said before Hands took advantage of my distraction with the conversation and used his body weight to propel us both out of the plane.

Before I could get mad we hadn’t even gotten the official command to ‘green light, go,’ we fell. The air rushed past me at a ridiculous speed. Hands and I tumbled once before he stabilized us. We went down, down, down at a breathtaking speed. A weird mixture of terror and confusion swept through me. I couldn’t orient myself with a landmark because of the darkness, so it was like plunging into an endless vacuum. Gravity sucked and yanked at me like a greedy child, pulling me to my death.

“Alpha Star. Alpha Star.”

The voice seemed to come from a long distance until I realized it was Hands speaking to me through the radio in my helmet.

“Alpha Star. You’re okay. However, as we are attempting a stealth approach, it might help if you stop screaming.”

I snapped my mouth shut, realizing the air had stolen every ounce of moisture from it. Despite my terror, another part of my brain continued to calculate the fall. The air pressure beneath us was thickening, which meant we were reaching terminal velocity.

Chute time was imminent.

I tried to brace myself, but my disorientation was too great. It seemed as if we’d been plummeting for hours, even if I knew it couldn’t have been more than a minute. Suddenly I was jerked backward and upward. My breath lodged in the back of my throat as we swung around and then steadied.

“The chute deployed, Keys. Now comes the easy part.”

My teeth chattered and my brain felt completely scrambled.

“Don’t try to figure out where we are. It’s too dark to see anything, so just imagine you’re sitting in a chair in your living room, and I’ll handle the rest.”

My heart rate decreased as our descent slowed. I wiggled my arms and legs to make sure they were still connected to my body. I figured we were now falling at a speed of about eighteen miles an hour—a huge difference from the one hundred and twenty miles per hour free fall we’d just finished. Now it felt as if we were hardly moving at all, more like floating.

I squinted at a couple of blinking lights floating through the air. After a moment it occurred to me the SEALs were probably using a small signal light on top of their chutes so that they didn’t run into each other. The lights would have to be on top of the chute so it didn’t mark them from the ground, but would be visible to each other from the air.

Ingenious.

We swung to the left and then the right. I couldn’t see it, but I knew Hands was controlling the steering lines. He deliberately moved us toward a specific location, the prearranged drop spot. How he saw the lines, let alone controlled them in the dark, was beyond me. I had to ask him later what technology he used to determine our drop spot, but for now I simply trusted the method.

No, I trusted
him
.

Yes. After what we’d just been through, I totally trusted him.

I started to laugh.

“Keys? You okay?” Hands sounded worried.

“Yes. I’m fine. That jump was...well, it was something else. Holy Batman. I just fell out of an airplane.”

“We’re not on the ground yet.”

“No, but the worst part is over.”

“Not by a long shot. You’re in much more danger when we’re on the ground.”

“Maybe, but if I can survive a fall from an airplane, I think I can survive anything.”

“Don’t get cocky.”

I laughed again. “Just let me be giddy for a minute because I’m still alive. I can’t even believe I did it.”

We glided through the darkness. It was strange but, although I was completely blind, I could almost “feel” the darkness of the ground getting closer. I noticed that one of the other jumper’s chute lights suddenly swerved around wildly and presumed his chute had just collapsed as he hit the ground ahead of us.

Hands pulled hard to the right on the steering cord and we spiraled downward at a faster rate.

“Ground in about fifteen seconds,” he warned. “Get ready for touch down.”

Instinctively I began moving my legs as if I were walking. Hands stood taller than me, so his feet hit first and mine followed a second later. He unhooked the parachute and then me. I fell to the ground, laughing and kissing it. It’s possible I may have shed a few tears as well.

Hands, however, was all business the moment our feet hit the ground. He detached the chute, deployed an infrared signal light as a marker for the team and then conducted a status check by radio to get an update on the team location.

Thankfully, since the winds were light, the team had all stayed within a short distance of the drop spot. I asked Hands if we had to bury the parachute, but he shook his head.

“No time for that. We’re in and out.”

It seemed a waste to leave behind an expensive parachute, but we didn’t have time to fold it up and I couldn’t see how we could carry it, so it would stay behind.

While we waited for the rest of the team, Hands crossed his arms and studied me, still sitting on the ground. “So, how’d you like the jump?”

“Honestly? It was abso-freaking-lutely incredible. But, just so we’re clear, I’m never doing that again.”

He chuckled. “The first time is always the hardest. Cross it off your bucket list. You’re no longer a parachute virgin.”

I stood on wobbly legs. “Sorry you had to drag me kicking and screaming. Literally.”

“It can be like that the first time. But now you’ve got a taste of it, I bet you’ll change your mind about jumping again.”

I pushed the helmet back off my forehead. “Trust me, I won’t. But it was still an experience of a lifetime. Whatever lifetime I may have left, that is.”

He looked at me for a long moment. “You’re a piece of work, Keys. So, this guy you’re going to save, is he worth it?”

“Yes. He’s my friend.”

“Well, just remember, my mission is to keep you alive so you can stop that virus. Understood?”

“I understand the mission, but I have my priorities, too. They aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.”

“We’ll see. Go get a drink of water. Then get your vest and night goggles out of your pack and put them on.”

“Yes, sir.”

After I pulled on my vest, Hands tightened it and helped me adjust the night goggles until I could see properly. I almost jumped out of my skin when several SEALs materialized out of nowhere to join us.

Hands held up a hand. “Are all team members accounted for?”

“Affirmative.” I recognized Wills’s voice.

“Good. We’ve got a bit of a walk to get to the village,” Hands said. He looked at me. “You ready? We need to move quickly and you’re going to have to keep up.”

My legs were still a bit shaky from the jump, but my resolve was intact. This time when I answered, I not only meant it, I believed it.

“Yes, I’m ready.”

It was time to move.

Game on.

Chapter Thirty-One

We followed each other in a strict formation.

One of the Bravo Team took the lead as point man, followed by Wills, me, Hands and the two other Bravo guys. Hulk brought up the rear. There was no visible road and the ground was flat with no signs of civilization. We kept to what little trees and brush there was to give us some illusion of cover. Sand and dirt clogged my nose and throat. I was perpetually thirsty.

The heat was stifling, made more so by all the equipment and gear I wore. Every drop of sweat that trickled down the middle of my back made me curse Broodryk more.

Clouds obscured the moon, providing an extra layer of darkness and protection. I was still adjusting to the green hue of the night goggles. It was disorienting, especially because it eliminated my peripheral vision. Worse, they were heavy and didn’t provide much depth perception. I stumbled a couple of times, but Wills kept close, reassuring me that my brain would adjust to the goggles.

With my luck, it would be the day after tomorrow.

As we approached the location of the village, Hands checked his GPS and guided us so we approached from the correct direction. When the first buildings came into view Hands held up a gloved hand and we all stopped. He quietly deployed Bravo Team, and they peeled off from us, disappearing into the darkness.

I recognized the layout of the village from the satellite pictures we’d seen at the briefing. The meeting building sat at the far end of an open courtyard. Bounding the courtyard on the right were animal corrals made mostly of mud and stone. There were a few clumps of trees near the structure to provide a little shade for the animals during the hot days. I heard the snuffle and shuffling of the animals from where I stood.

To the left of the courtyard stood a garage with a few vehicles parked outside and several old tires and car parts stacked around it. Though I couldn’t see it from this vantage, I knew from satellite photos that an eight-foot cinder block wall ran from the back of the garage to the meeting house, creating a border along the full left side of the courtyard. Why in the heck would someone build a wall on only one side of nothing in the middle of nowhere? The best I could come up with was that it must have been yet another unfinished government project.

Directly to the left of the meeting building, and seemingly connected to it, lay a smaller building, which was our target location. Gray and the other intelligence analysts had agreed this was the most probable location of the village elder, so that’s where we were going. Well, at least that’s where we’d start. If he wasn’t there, this was going to be harder...a lot harder.

Most of the village residents lived in small quarters several hundred yards beyond the meeting house. These were mostly shacks, shanties and more tents. However, a few stone structures and a couple of two-story buildings were evident. In the distance, just beyond the residential area, the water tower rose up over the town. I fixated on the tower, looking to see if I could spot any movement and wondering if Abri Pentz was there waiting for us.

Hands was studying it, too. “Bravo Team are you in position?” Hands asked softly via the radio.

“Affirmative.”

“Release the drone. We’re moving into position.”

“Check.”

Hands motioned for us to follow him as we crept toward the garage, keeping it between the tower and us. We intended to come upon the elder’s home from the garage side. Animals were unpredictable and we couldn’t afford the risk of stirring them up and alerting people prematurely to our presence. The only problem I saw was that Broodryk and Pentz would know that, too, and expect us to come from the garage side. That didn’t give us that much of an element of surprise in terms of our avenue of attack, but I didn’t see an alternative.

I tried not to worry about that as I fell in behind Wills. I had more pressing matters to think about right now, like staying on my feet and out of the way of the SEALs. We ran at a crouch to the near side of the garage, trying not to trip over tires and debris. I felt like I clanked and rattled with every step and was sure that even deep sleepers in the village could hear me.

I replayed the mission briefing in my head as we huddled against the back of the garage. Going in, we were most vulnerable to sniper attack when looping around the garage and running along the cinderblock wall toward the elder’s presumed living quarters. Pentz would have at least twenty seconds for a clear shot at us assuming he was on the tower or in the village. For a sniper of his skill at that range, nailing us would be even easier than hacking credit card info from Home Supplies Warehouse. Although Gray had assured us we probably wouldn’t be targeted going in, we weren’t taking any chances.

I closed my eyes. Even if Pentz didn’t go after us on the sprint to the house, the doorway in would be a perfect spot for him to pick us off one by one. We couldn’t congregate there. Instead, we’d run past the door, around the corner of the house to a little niche created by the corner of the building, protecting us from the line of sight to the tower. We’d have some protection there from Pentz, if he were indeed on the water tower.

We had a lot riding on Hands’s and the analysts’ guesses of Pentz’s location. If they were right, they each had a nice dinner in their future, assuming I got back to take them out. For now, I knew Bravo Team was planning a distraction to support our sprint to the house. I hoped it lasted long enough to make the subsequent run from the corner through the door. I just hoped to hell there weren’t armed men inside waiting to ambush us.

Right now I was breathing so hard, I was sure Wills or Hands would motion for me to shut up. But they were completely in the zone, focused, coiled and ready for action. I squeezed my hands together as tightly as I could and tried to stay calm.

The radio cackled in my helmet. “Alpha Team we have a visual. Confirmed MAM on the tower.”

I leaned over to Wills. “What’s a MAM?” I whispered.

“Military-aged male,” he whispered back.

“Pentz?”

Wills shrugged.

I leaned back against the wall. Oh, God. It was game on.

Right freaking now.

“Stand by Alpha Team.”

It seemed like we waited forever behind the garage, but it was probably no more than two minutes tops.

“Alpha Team, you are a go in three, two, one.”

Hands suddenly sprinted from behind the garage. We followed him in formation. As I rounded the garage along the cinder block wall, I saw silent plumes of smoke going up around the water tower. Smoke grenades, I presumed, probably dropped by the drone. Silent, but hopefully effective in obscuring the sniper’s view of us. I might have marveled more at the ingenuity if I hadn’t been so damn scared.

Go, go, go,
the voice in my helmet urged.

No one had to tell me twice. I ran like I’d never run before—well at least since the last time I was wearing combat boots, a two-pound helmet with night vision goggles and full body armor. We raced to the small house, past the entryway door, and dashed around the corner. They jammed me into the corner with all three SEALs pressing against me. I couldn’t see a thing except for the stone wall. As far as I could tell no one had been shot and we were all still alive.

So far.

My heart was pounding so hard I thought I might keel over.

“Alpha Team in position,” Hands said softly.

“Stand by, Alpha Team.”

Seconds ticked past.

“Alpha Team, MAM is on the move. Go.”

The SEALs instantly acted. Hulk moved into an outer protective stance while Hands gave me a signal to stay put. He went around the corner, got down on his knees and reached up for the door handle. It was unlocked. He held up three gloved fingers and began to countdown silently.

Three, two, one.

He went in low, followed by Wills. Hulk stayed out with me. I realized why they’d moved now. If the sniper was on the move for a reposition, he couldn’t shoot us. That made us temporarily safe, relatively speaking. I strained to listen, but heard only faint sounds from inside the house. Adrenaline coursed through my body and it seemed like each of my senses strained and stretched on overload. After about a minute and a half I heard a noise and the radio cackled.

“House clear. Target acquired. Do we have a location on the MAM?”

“MAM is still moving.”

“Alpha Star, enter the house.”

Hulk moved in front of me as I rounded the corner and pushed open the door. I slipped inside while Hulk remained outside and disappeared back around the corner.

Wills took my arm. We stood in a lit room partitioned by sheets. I caught the faint scent of onions and garlic. Hands had pulled aside all of the curtains and left them open. A glance to my right showed a young woman and two small children, probably no more than three or four years old huddled together on a mattress. To the right of me, a man, perhaps the father of the children, sat backward on a chair, his hands bound behind him. Hands had his weapon trained on a gray-haired, bearded man wearing a long gray gown, probably his nightclothes. He stood in what looked like the kitchen. Hands motioned to him with his rifle and the man moved toward me.

“I am Abdou Ngobogo. Who are you?”

I pulled off my helmet. My ponytail was plastered to my head. “I’m Lexi Carmichael. Do you speak English?”

“Yes.”

“Are you the village elder?”

“Yes. I am expecting you. You look like your picture.”

“That’s a miracle. I’ve looked a lot better.”

He smiled a bit at that. “However, I must confirm it is you.”

“How do you propose to do that?”

“I have a device. You will press your index finger to it and it will confirm your identity.”

Hands listened to something and I assumed there was chatter on the radio. I no longer wore my helmet, so I couldn’t hear it.

“Where is this device?” I asked.

“In that top drawer.” He pointed to a dresser.

“Get the woman in here,” Hands said to Wills. “Have her retrieve it.”

Wills came back with the woman. She was clearly terrified. I wanted to tell her it would be all right, but I didn’t know if that were true. I said nothing.

Abdou murmured something to her, then she walked to the dresser on trembling legs. The kids stood nearby crying for her. If it were possible, I hated Broodryk even more for dragging children into this. He would have known the elder’s family lived with him and that children would be put in danger.

The woman carefully reached into the drawer while Wills kept his gun trained on her. She pulled out a small device about the size of my palm. She tried to hand it to Wills, but he motioned to me with his gun, so she walked back to me and handed it over. Tears were pooled in her big brown eyes. I took the device gently. She ran back to the children and hugged them to her breast. I flipped the device opened.

“It’s a biometric reader,” I said, examining it.

“Are you sure?” Hands asked. “Can you work it?”

“Probably. Give me a minute.”

It was easier to figure out than I’d expected. “Got it. I press my finger here. Confirmation of my identity should be instantaneous. Broodryk’s probably already got my fingerprint in here, so it will just be a matter of confirming the match.”

“Are you sure it’s safe?”

“I think so. That’s the best answer I can give you.”

“Do it,” Hands said. “The clock is ticking.”

I pressed my finger to the spot and waited. Two seconds later a green outline appeared around my finger with a word in French. I angled it at Wills, who read it. “Accepted. You’re confirmed, Lexi Carmichael.”

I took the device over to Abdou and showed him. “I’m me, so let’s deal.”

“Not yet. There is one more test.”

“Test?”

“Yes. Here.” He started to reach into his pocket, then paused when Hands pressed the gun against his neck.

“Take it slow, buddy.”

Abdou carefully pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. He handed it to me.

I took it and unfolded it.

“What does it say?” Hands asked.

“I don’t know yet. It’s in code.”

“We don’t have time to play games.”

I looked up from the paper. “It’s not a game. It’s a test, just like he said.”

Abdou nodded. “You must solve it, Lexi Carmichael. If you do not, than I am unable to provide the information you seek. He said you would be able to solve it.”

“I will.”

His hands shook. “Please. If you do not, he will return and kill my family.”

I met his gaze. “I will provide the answer. I promise. Just give me a minute.”

“We don’t have much more than a minute,” Hands warned. “So make it snappy.”

I dug in my cargo pants for a pen. I found it and moved over to the table, starting the calculations.

It was a standard ASCII code, which was good because I was really nervous and that made it hard to think straight. Plus my fingers were sweaty. They kept sliding off the pen, making it hard to form the numbers I needed to make. Regardless, it only took me about three minutes to break the code.

“I did it,” I said.

“Great,” said Wills. “Tell him the answer and let’s go.”

“It’s not that simple.”

Hands sighed. “I had a feeling you were going to say that.”

“I broke the code, but it’s a riddle.”

“A what?” Hands let out a stream of curse words. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“I’m not. This is what it says. ‘I exist for the young, but the old can use me, too. I’m a thief, but I’m a welcome guest to those who don’t wish to pay. I capture sound, although I make none. What am I?’”

Hands lifted a hand. “What the hell does that mean?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“Well, you’d better a get an idea soon or we’re going to need a new plan of action.”

I closed my eyes to think. But instead of trying to solve the riddle, I thought about its purpose. Broodryk had used a biometric scanner to ensure my presence. But biometric readers could be fooled, if we had come prepared and considered that possibility. So, just in case, he’d want to have a backup plan, another way to ensure I’d truly come on the mission and not sent someone else in my place. Therefore, it was logical to assume a code and subsequent riddle would be one only I could solve. The code was the initial layer, but the answer to the riddle would have to prove to him I was indeed Lexi Carmichael.