Undercover (12 page)

Jorge took Ariana swimming in a stream every day. The water was cold, and he watched her as she turned her back to him, and one day, he swam over to her and held her in his arms. They were both naked, and she didn't stop him. He turned her slowly around to face him, admiring the beauty of her body under the clear water, and she was mesmerized by his blue eyes and the angles of his face, and then he kissed her, and she could feel his passion rising up against her, and suddenly all she wanted was for him to hold her and to keep her safe forever. There was something so simple and primal about the life she lived with him, and they made love under the water with all the passion he had felt for her since the first time he had seen her. He was infinitely gentle with her and told her that he loved her, and she believed him. She had come to feel that what he believed wasn't wrong, even if his methods were. He was a solitary warrior swimming against the currents, and life had never seemed as simple or as pure as it did at that moment, and afterward she was breathless in his arms, and told him she loved him too. Her survival depended on it, their life together in the forest was reduced to basics. He was a man and took care of her, defended and protected her. He told her he would never let anything bad happen to her, and she believed him. The fact that he was holding her for ransom no longer seemed important. She wanted to be there with him.

They made love again that night, and after she fell asleep, he went back to his journals. He wrote her a love letter filled with all he felt for her, and all he hoped they would share one day, in a different world, a better world, that he would make for her. He told her she had become his inspiration, and that their lives were fused as one now. She cried in the morning when she read it. He was the only thing that was real to her. Her father was fading from memory, and everything he stood for seemed so wrong now. Only what Jorge said to her made sense.

They walked in the forest together that afternoon, bathed in the stream, and made love again. And suddenly all she wanted was to be with him. He was the embodiment of love and tenderness, and the world she had known before him had disappeared. All that was left was her life in the forest with him. She no longer cared if her father paid the ransom, and Jorge laughed when she said it that night when they made love by candlelight in his tent.

“You may not care, but I do, Ariana. We have thousands of people depending on us all over Argentina. I have a responsibility to them, and your father will help us feed them. He is funding a sacred cause. All we have to do is work out a safe way to transfer the money.” He didn't tell her his brother would help. It somehow made the ransom seem even reasonable. But all she wanted now was to be with him. And he wrote a love letter every night before he went to sleep, after he wrote in his journals. She found the love letters from him every day when she woke up and read them avidly. No one had ever shown her such an outpouring of love. They took all their meals together, separate from the men. They shared a simple life. Ariana had been with him for six weeks, and it seemed like an entire lifetime to both of them.

The instructions as to how the ransom was to be paid came to the embassy this time. The money was to be divided in cash in small amounts, and dropped off at points all over Argentina, each of them in a secure way, that would make it difficult if not impossible to trace. Even the CIA was stumped by their system, which was overly simplistic but had the potential to work and was far more difficult to trace or intercept than a single drop-off.

“They must have thousands of people ready to make pick-ups, and find a way to get it to them. The problem is it'll take months for them to collect the entire ransom. They're obviously not in a hurry. It could take four, five, or even six months to get the whole twenty million to them.” Jorge had been extremely cunning in how he planned it, and Sam Adams didn't like it at all. Jorge was a clever devil.

“And what happens to Ariana in the meantime?” her father asked, looking terrified again. “She could already be dead for all we know.”

“That's not how he operates, from our experience with him. He would keep her alive as his prisoner, to use as leverage.” Sam didn't tell him that they had rescued one kidnapping victim who'd been kept in a box with a breathing tube for eight months, but the man had survived and been returned after they paid the ransom. There were other instances where that wasn't the case, but they had no reason to believe that Jorge had killed Ariana. He didn't say it to her father, but Sam thought her youth and beauty were in her favor. And for now, they just had to believe she was still alive, and start making the payments. Sam suggested a system of accelerated payments, which would deliver the full amount within two months, and Robert approved.

For the next month, they used every drop-off they were given. Ariana had been gone for almost three months by then, and her attachment to Jorge was growing every day. It increased dramatically when she began to suspect that she was pregnant. She didn't say anything to him until she was almost certain, and then she whispered it to him one night as she lay in his arms. It was their ultimate gift to each other. And Jorge was thrilled. This was just the bond to her he wanted. Ariana thought it had happened the first time they made love, since she hadn't had a period since. At first she thought it was from the trauma, but her breasts had gotten fuller, and her waist was thickening. Jorge said it only made her more beautiful to him, and he was even more careful with her now, and looked at her adoringly. He never left her side for a moment. She was too valuable to him to let anything happen to her.

The day Ariana told Jorge she was pregnant was the day the British and Israeli ambassadors came to the embassy in Buenos Aires, to meet with Robert and the CIA task force that was working to find Ariana. The British suggested an intense reconnaissance flight using infrared units over the forest where the CIA thought Jorge might be hiding. And the Israeli ambassador offered commandos to move in for a rescue mission if they had any sign at all that he was there.

Robert looked at Sam with eyes filled with hope as he listened to them. “Can we at least try it?”

Sam was skeptical about their success, but agreed it might be worth a try, even if a long shot.

“We've got nothing to lose if it doesn't work, and they can't see anything,” Sam said. They had tried everything else by then, but they had everything to lose if they attempted a raid, bungled it, and Jorge killed her.

“Except my daughter,” Robert Gregory said darkly. But a whole new task force was set up for their combined efforts, and the ballroom of the embassy became the command post for the entire project. With the British and Israelis, combined with the CIA, there were forty men working on it night and day.

The first and second reconnaissance missions came up with nothing. But the third one, flying farther south, saw flickering dim lights in the forest. Almost nothing showed on the film they had taken, but the head man sent by Israeli intelligence swore it was a camp, albeit a small one, and Sam told them that Jorge always kept his operation small but spread out. The British ambassador, who was ex–army intelligence, was sure that he could see a tent on the film, but no one else agreed. But the faint lights allowed them to pinpoint a location. It was deep in the forest, and when Sam conferred with the others, they agreed it would be difficult to get into, but the Israelis thought that they could do it.

The plan they suggested was that when they got close enough to the camp they had identified on the map, if they were right, they would start a ring of fire that would engulf the camp. It was a brutal way to flush them out, but it would cause enough chaos and distraction to rescue Ariana, if she was there. Their objective was to rescue Ariana, however they had to do it, and leave no survivors behind. Jorge was of no value to them—he had no information they wanted. He was known to be a small-scale revolutionary with distorted religious ideas, and the country would be better off without him. The Argentine government gave them the green light for the plan as well, since Jorge was the kind of problem that could cause a major disruption in later years, if his following grew. The Argentine advisers to the task force were more than willing to sacrifice him. And the decision was made in the utmost secrecy. The CIA were willing to take full responsibility for killing him, and no one would ever know except the task force. The only survivor the combined forces wanted out of that camp was Ariana—the rest could die in the forest for all they cared. There was no value in keeping her kidnappers alive.

They set a date to put the plan in action three days hence. They ran one more reconnaissance mission the next day and came up with the same flickering lights, and this time confirmation of at least one and possibly two tents. And by that night and the next day, the Israelis were ready to go. They were getting support from the British and the CIA, and had the local government's tacit albeit unofficial approval. They had identified a place in the forest, not far from where the lights were, where they could lower a helicopter, have it hover, and get the commandos and Ariana out after they raided the camp. It was going to be delicate, and everyone involved, including Ariana's father, was aware of how wrong it could go, and the consequences if it did. But they were all uncomfortable about letting the ransom drop-offs stretch out over another month. Too much could go wrong in the meantime, and by the time they finished paying the ransom, Ariana could be long dead. They all agreed it was time to get her out. The whole mission was kept top secret, in the Argentine government as well. They wanted as few people aware of it as possible, to prevent any leaks and anyone warning Jorge, if he had sympathizers among their ranks.

They had decided to make their move at night, using infrared devices, and the entire task force set up camp far enough away from the forest so as not to attract attention, but close enough for the helicopter to land once they got her out, if they did. The men involved in the mission wore similar garb to Jorge's group of bandits, so no one would notice them locally.

The Israeli commandos set off on schedule. There were twelve of them, equipped with all the gear they needed for their mission. It took them an hour to get to the camp on foot. They moved with the utmost stealth, imitating the sounds of the forest, advancing in total darkness but fully able to see with the infrared devices. And what they saw once they were in deep enough were the three tents of Jorge's camp. They sent the information back to the task force by text. And then they backed away far enough to begin to lay the fire ring, with hand signals they made to each other.

By then everyone in the camp was asleep. There was only light in one tent from a candle. Jorge had finished his journal entry for the night, and was writing his nightly love letter to Ariana. He placed it next to her cot, kissed her, blew out the candle, and slipped into the cot beside her. Ariana was sound asleep, as he held her. Just as he had written to her many times by now, he believed that she had been sent to him by spirit forces to allow him to complete his mission, like an angel, to bless his people.

Within half an hour, the circle of fire had been lit. The commandos were wearing asbestos suits so they could go in and get her and pull her out. They had identified their escape route. The only thing they weren't sure of was which tent she was in. They were certain that the largest one belonged to Jorge, but they had no idea where Ariana was being kept, nor under what conditions—if she was manacled, or tied up in some way. They were prepared for almost anything. The first tent caught fire from the blaze, and half a dozen men came running out naked. One of them was wearing clothes that were on fire. They had slept as their tent turned into a blaze, and there was no way for them to escape through the ring of fire blazing around them. They were trapped, and the burning men screamed to the others, as their tent caught fire too. And then they saw a man and a woman come running out from the larger tent—the fire hadn't reached it yet. There was a rapid exchange between the man and the woman, as he handed her a box of some kind and rushed to help his men.

Ariana ran back to their tent for an instant and put Jorge's love letters in the box. She had been keeping them tied with a piece of fabric in her pillow. She quickly put the letters in the metal box Jorge had handed her, and ran back outside. She could hear the men shouting and screaming in the fire, and saw Jorge dart among them, helping those he could. One commando signaled to another then and pointed to Ariana. It could only be her—they were sure there would be no other women in the camp. And all the men in the camp were distracted by the blaze and not watching her. And without a sound, three of the Israeli commandos plunged through the ring of fire and grabbed her, wrapped her in an asbestos blanket, and carried her out. She fought them and was screaming for Jorge, while she clutched the metal box to her and wouldn't let go.

She had no idea who the men were, and they couldn't have told her. With their fire masks covering their faces, they couldn't speak to reassure her or identify themselves. They pointed to a distant part of the forest, as she tried to fight them. She kept screaming Jorge's name, and he couldn't hear her. He was fighting the fire with his men, and before any of them knew what happened, she was gone, being carried to safety by the commandos, as she tried to fight free. She pulled out of the asbestos blanket for an instant, just in time to see a burning tree fall on their camp and crush Jorge. His entire body was on fire, and she thought she could hear him calling her name. She struggled fiercely, but the men holding her wouldn't let go. The last Ariana saw of Jorge was his body lying under the tree, and the entire camp in flames, as she clutched his box to her chest.

She was glad she had put his love letters in it for safety when they fled the tent.

She had no idea what was happening as one of the Israelis raced through the forest with her, holding her in a viselike grip so she couldn't run back to the camp, which it was clear she wanted to do. And the others followed closely. No one had seen them come or go, and they had no doubt that all the men in the camp were trying to fight the blaze or dead by now. They carried Ariana to the clearing, who fought them with all her strength. All she wanted was to go back, and as the helicopter came down out of nowhere and hovered, they threw her in, and climbed in after her. The helicopter was gone again in less than a minute, and from the air they saw the blaze spreading through the forest. But the mission was successful—they had rescued her. The senior officer in command took off his fire mask then, as did the others, and they rapidly explained who they were.