Waiting... On You (Force Recon Marines) (36 page)

“I can carry that,” she offered,
thinking all that gear he was carrying had to be heavy and cumbersome.

“I don’t want you armed.”

“But I’m wearing a bulletproof vest,
too, and I’m pretty sure I could fire something,” she volunteered bravely.

Nick was adamant. “Nothing is truly
bulletproof. Remember that, and stay between us where we can make sure you’re
safe.” He ran the back of one gloved knuckle along her grease-painted cheek.
“Follow my hand signals when we get into the compound. No talking, except on
the headsets when I indicate that it’s okay. I’m going to put our com devices on
whisper mode, but you should be able to hear me just fine. If you don’t
understand a hand signal, watch Kurt.”

Nick had been practicing the hand
signals with her since they’d left Port George, and Hanna thought she knew them
pretty well.

He handed her the small headset that
hooked over one ear and curved toward her mouth. Little wisps of hair stuck out
where she had moved her cap, and Nick tucked them back in before handing her a
small Leatherman knife. It was a familiar multi-functional tool that was nearly
indispensable to a good outdoorsman. She stuck it in the front hip pocket of
her jeans.

“Got your share of the C4 and
detonators?” Kurt asked as he put a suppressor on the end of his own assault
rifle to muffle the noise and flash from the weapon.

Nick gave a quick, “Roger that.” He
checked the laser sighting on his rifles and their silencers, then stuffed two more
grenades into the pockets of his flight jacket.

“I could put a couple of those
grenades in my pockets,” Hanna offered. “How about the flash-bang ones, the
ones that stun, or the chaff ones that knock out electronic equipment. They can’t
be too dangerous for me.”

Nick laughed at the way she put it.
“Okay,” he relented. “Take a few chaff grenades.”

“Got the stuff to make a couple of
satchel charges?” Kurt checked with him.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Thermal goggles all set?” This time
Kurt was checking with both Hanna and Nick, since she wore a set of goggles
over her knit watchman’s cap. She’d already learned how and when to use them.

“Yep.” They both answered the FBI
agent.

“Let’s get going then and get your
brother back!”

Kurt’s exuberance was infectious. Nick
gave him another “Roger that” as he took the lead and motioned Hanna behind
him.

Bringing up the rear, Kurt called
ahead to Nick on the headset. “Just checking in to see if everything is working
okay.”

“Roger that,” Nick repeated into his
mouthpiece. “Can you hear us, Hanna?”

“Clear as a bell… Roger that,” she
laughed softly and heard Nick chuckle.

“Good. Stay close.”

IF THERE WAS A MOON OUT TONIGHT, it
was invisible. It didn’t take them long to reach the ridge that overlooked the
rear of the compound. Nick led them to an area of dense foliage that concealed
their presence, then squatted down and unfolded the map that he’d made of the
compound. It closely reproduced what they’d seen from the air yesterday. His
memory and eye for detail were excellent, Hanna noted as she and Kurt knelt
beside him.

“Beyond the fence,” Nick pointed out, “we
need to take shelter here until the guard patrol passes. Then we make our way
quickly across the first footbridge. We’ll sneak around the warehouse here.
After that, we cross another footbridge to the big house and guest cottages.
We’ll have to be careful to stay out of the lights in front of Chen’s
residence. We’ll make a wide sweep around the house— here.” With his
forefinger, he continued to point to specific locales on his map. “There are
shrubs, rocks, and tall grasses to hide in as we move through this open area.
We’ll be crawling on our bellies, staying low until we get clear of the
patrolling guards.”

Hanna was sure that he was going into
detail on her account. Kurt surely didn’t need to be told to
belly crawl
.
“How many guards did you say worked the compound?”

“As far as I could determine twelve at
night.”

“Is there a back door to the guest
houses?” Kurt asked.

“Strangely, no. The tunnel that runs
off the basement must be the back door.”

“What about the tunnel? Are there
guards down there?” Hanna asked.

“Not that I could see. Just security
cameras mounted every twenty feet or so. We can use the chaff grenades to knock
them out temporarily. What I’d prefer, though, is to sneak past them, or rather
under them.” For Hanna’s benefit, he explained. “If you watch which direction
they’re scanning, you can time yourself to move under and past when they’re
scanning away from you. Kurt and I will help you. They will never know we’re
there if we don’t have to tamper with the cameras.”

“Looks like the fog is thickening.
That will help.”

Once Nick’s briefing was done, Hanna rolled
onto her belly, took the night vision binoculars from him and scanned as much
of the compound as she could see from where they waited. The fog made the
security lamps look yellow and hazy, but there was enough light from them for
her to make out the backs of the barracks that served as housing for the
laboratory workers and guards. The long Quonset hut beyond the barracks was too
far away to make out clearly, but she did see a few of the roving guard patrols.
Finally, she handed the small but powerful binoculars back to Nick so he and
Kurt could study the area.

As a doctor, Hanna knew that the
powerful painkiller morphine was made from opium, and that it was also the
first stage in making heroin. The task of making the high-grade end drug was
complex, according to what she’d read. It required more than just mediocre chemists.
The chemicals that were added to the morphine stage to make China White, as
Nick called it, were volatile, and the chemist really had to know what he was
doing. Any mistake could mean a powerful explosion and instant death.

She wondered what kind of people the
chemists were that worked for Lee Chen. Didn’t they care that what they were
making made people addicts for life, even killed them? The money they made must
be significant. She shook her head, knowing that she was surely never going to
understand the evil things people did in this world because of greed.

This big beautiful island was a place
of pristine water, nearly untouched land, and magnificent skies, a place where
spectacular snow-capped mountains met the wild windswept coastline of the Pacific
Ocean. Gray whales, sea lions, and otters made their homes in the sheltered
inlets, like Stormy Harbour. Animals all but driven out of the lower continent
thrived here. Ancient rainforests and magnificent landscapes ruled, not some
foreign drug lord who used the remote area to manufacture death and misery.

Once they got Lance out of here, this
terrible perversion had to be shut down. Kurt said the DEA, the FBI, and the
Coast Guard, in addition to Canadian law enforcement were off shore, where they
couldn’t be seen, waiting to come in once they were given the signal that Lance
had been safely extracted. Hanna prayed everything would go as planned. Nick
looked so confident. She couldn’t imagine him failing. He was highly decorated and
trained; an elite soldier whose skills had been honed to perfection in the
field for twenty years. If anyone could get them through this safely, it was
him.

The plan was to wait another half hour
before going in. The timing had all been worked out in advance by Nick, dependent
on the guard patrols. With nothing else to do except wait, the three of them
sat down against a huge monolith of a boulder that squatted between the trees.
Kurt laid his head back and pulled his stocking cap down over his eyes for a
brief nap. Hanna pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her forearms on her
bent knees. She tried to relax, but after a few moments, she got up and walked
away from the ridge, deeper into the trees.

Nick followed, sensing she was feeling
uneasy. She’d never done anything like this. He shouldn’t have brought her
along. But he’d keep her out of harm’s way— one way or the other, he’d keep her
safe. He’d said that to himself so many times it had become a mantra. Hell, he
couldn’t have left her behind once he’d seen they would have to escape by boat.

She was leaning against a tree when he
reached her. He put his hand on her shoulder.

“Are you okay?”

She turned to him. “I think so...
maybe. Oh, hell! I don’t know! I just don’t know if I can do all this stuff.
And I don’t want to be a burden, or put you and Kurt in danger.”

Nick pulled her into his arms and
cradled her close. “Everything will be okay, Hanna. You won’t be putting Kurt
or I in danger. It’s more likely, I’m putting you in danger, but I’m damn sure
going to do everything I can to keep you safe, honey.” With his hand at the
back of her head, he pressed her face to his shoulder and fervently prayed he’d
be able to keep that promise.

The three of them stayed concealed on
the hilltop for another half hour. Nick watched through his binoculars for
guard activity, then rose and led them to the area where they were going to
breach the fence, giving Hanna a whole set of new doubts. Below the ridge they
were perched on, there was a wicked looking line of concertina wire strung
across the high chain-link fence. Beyond that, there was a wide expanse of
native grass that carpeted the rear of the compound.

Nick looked from Kurt to Hanna. “The
grass makes it a fairly soft landing on the other side.”

“It’s not the landing I’m worried
about,” Hanna confessed. “If I miss and hit the fence, I’ll be toast!”

Nick tossed her a reassuring smile.
“I’ll go over first and show you how to do it.”

Hanna wasn’t reassured.

CHAPTER 25

NICK TOOK A RUNNING JUMP off the
flat-topped bluff, vaulting over the rolled barbed wire that topped the chain
link fence. Once he cleared it, he tucked, then rolled to

land like a big cat on his feet. His
white teeth appeared amid his darkly painted face as he looked up at Hanna and
grinned. She stared back hopelessly. He’d cleared the electrified barrier so
easily!

She was fairly athletic and in decent
shape, but she really didn’t think that she could do this. She wasn’t trained
to do things like this. What if she missed and touched the charged wire? Would
she survive the voltage of electricity? Would she become ensnared in the coiled
concertina wire? Technically, all she had to do was run and make a long wide
jump down. But it was dark, and she was wearing contacts. Could she trust her
corrected vision to be reading the distance accurately?

Kurt came up behind her. “You can do
this, Doctor. Nick made it okay. He’ll catch your fall on the other side.”

“It’s not the fall I’m afraid of,” she
protested again, her voice betraying her anxiety. “I don’t want to get fried if
I touch the fence going over.”

“Just run and jump out as far as you
can. Pull your legs into a tuck going over. You’ll be okay.”

She groaned. “You make it sound so
simple.”

“Nick wouldn’t ask you to do this if
he didn’t think you could.”

She was scared, but Kurt’s last
statement helped ease her anxiety. Nick wouldn’t ask her to do something that
was too risky or beyond her capability. They had grown up together, and he knew
the extent of her physical skills.

“Okay.” She gathered her courage and
stepped backwards. “Run, jump, and tuck,” she reminded herself. “Here goes
nothing.”

What good were her eyes in the dark
anyway? She backed up as far as she could, then ran as fast as she could. At
the edge of the bluff, she pushed off with both feet, imaging her legs were
springs, and jumped out as far as she could, pulling her legs up into a tuck,
so she wouldn’t touch the fence with her feet. As soon as she realized that
she’d cleared the fence without mishap, she let out an elated breath, then
immediately panicked. Oh, shit! The ground was coming up fast. Get ready to
roll, her brain screamed a bit too late.

She braced herself to hit the ground
hard, but Nick was there to snatch her out of the air. He rolled with her
momentum until he brought them both to a halt. Lying in his strong arms, she
opened her eyes to his darkly painted face and his slashing white-toothed grin.

“I made it!” she said proudly. “Thank
you for catching me.”

“Always.”

She buried her face in his neck for a
moment and hugged him tight, absorbing some of his formidable power and
strength. After helping her to her feet, he reeled her in and gave her a
fortifying kiss, whispering against her lips, “You’re doing great so far.”

Hanna beamed, then suddenly realized
she couldn’t see clearly. “Uh oh! I think I lost my right contact on impact.”
She looked futilely around the ground for it, but in the dark and fog, knew it
was a futile search.

“Did you bring your glasses?”

“Of course.” She bent over and removed
the contact still in one eye, then pulled her dark-rimmed glasses out of her
breast pocket where they had safely survived the jump and the landing.

Kurt came over the fence, rolled,
landed to the side of them, and quickly got to his feet. “See, I told you it
was a piece of cake, Doctor!” he immediately congratulated Hanna.

She smiled. “I’ll try to have more
courage.”

“You’re doing fine,” Nick reassured
her again. “Let’s go before the guard comes around.” He checked his wrist
watch. “Follow me. Stay close. When you’re near the light, Hanna, keep your
head tucked low so your glasses won’t reflect back the light.”

It was getting progressively foggier,
and it was so dark, it made it difficult to see one another, so Hanna stayed as
close to Nick as possible, close enough that her fingertips periodically
brushed the back of his jacket. They got out of the open as quickly as they
could, easily avoiding the guard patrol in the area, and took cover behind one
of the barracks. Nick raised a clenched fist, indicating a halt, and they
stopped there.

Over their headsets, Hanna heard him
point out an eight by ten foot metal shed ahead of them. “That’s one of the
places where they keep their ordnance,” he informed them. “Put one of the
satchel charges at the back of the building,” he directed Kurt over their
communicators. “And make sure you conceal it well. We may or may not need to
detonate it, and I don’t want anyone finding it.”

Standing side by side, pressed up
against the wall, Nick and Hanna watched Kurt complete his task. While they
waited, Nick reached down for Hanna’s gloved hand and squeezed it. She smiled
at his blackened face, and in response, he brought her hand up to kiss her
leather-covered knuckles.

There were two more sheds beyond the
armory. They used them as shelter to conceal themselves as they crept past the
barracks. At the last one, they stopped again. Nick tapped his watch and
whispered guard over their headsets, indicating it was time for a guard to
patrol past the area. Silent and still, they waited. Eventually, the dark
shadow of a solitary man passed by, between them and the fence. Satisfied that
nothing was amiss, he moved on down the fence line.

The first footbridge was ahead of
them. Nick made sure the open area was clear, then signaled them to follow him.
As Hanna crept across, holding onto the guardrail, she looked down into the
deep fissure beneath her. She could hear the ocean waves crashing underneath,
beating against the sheer walls of the narrow canyon. The deadly view paralyzed
her for moment.

“Hanna!” Nick’s commanding voice came
over her headset. She hurried toward him.

On the other side, he directed her to
a low outcropping of boulders between the cliff’s edge and the warehouse. The
three of them squatted behind the rocks, which barely concealed their bent
forms.

Nick turned to Kurt. “I’m going to put
some C4 just under the lip of that footbridge,” he informed them, pointing to
the bridge they’d just crossed. “I’ll wire it with a remote detonator. I think
it would be a good idea to blow it later if we are pursued. It will limit the
number of guards that they can send if they discover us.”

“Roger that.” Kurt gave his friend the
thumbs up in the dark.

Nick returned moments later,
surprising Hanna with his quick efficiency. Emerging carefully from behind the
boulders, the three crept slowly to one dark corner of the Quonset hut. Still
in the lead, Nick brought up his fist to bring them to a halt until a
patrolling guard duo disappeared around the other side of the big metal lab.
When he was sure it was clear, he circled one hand a couple of times to
indicate a
‘follow me’
signal. Hanna and Kurt were in close formation
behind him as they traversed the second footbridge.

On the other side, Nick signaled for
Kurt to set the remote charge this time, while he and Hanna took cover behind a
stand of spruce. “Now we head for the guesthouses and the main house,” Nick
informed them both over their headsets as soon as Kurt returned. “Stay low and
close. Drop to the ground if I do. We’ll be out in the open, but in the
shadows. Stay sharp on our six, Kurt.”

“Gottcha.”

The three of them carefully stayed out
of the security lights illuminating Chen’s residence. There were several guards
posted around the house, but Nick had planned in advance how to avoid being
seen by them. Seeking cover behind rocks and shrubs, sometimes dropping to
belly-crawl across the damp rough ground, sticking to the shadows, they finally
reached the rear of the first guest house. Luckily, it was utterly black and
dark behind the cottage.

Still, Hanna’s stomach felt like it
was fluttering with a million butterflies as she stood pressed to the wall
between Nick and Kurt, waiting for one of the perimeter guards to pass by. The
fence line he followed was only a few feet away. The dense, swirling fog helped
to conceal their presence, but she still felt extremely vulnerable. There was
no cover, other than the darkness between them and the guard. When he finally
moved past, she released the breath she’d been holding.

Nick looked at her and gave her
shoulder a squeeze. “You did good,” he whispered. “Now I want you to go with
Kurt.”

“Why? Where are you going?”

“Inside the last guesthouse to get
Lance. I’ll probably need to take out the guard at the front door and a couple
of others inside. I want you away from that, with Kurt.” Turning from her
startled wide-eyed expression, he gave the FBI agent directions. “I want you to
get us a fast boat. The two of you will need to get into this guesthouse or the
next one. Both were empty last night. Go to the basement. It opens to the
underground tunnel. At the far end, going south, there’s an elevator that takes
you down the cliff to the dock.” Nick was giving all his directions over his
headset, which reduced the chance of being heard. “Be sure to watch the
surveillance cameras in the tunnel. When you get to the bottom, leave Hanna in
the elevator, door locked and closed. When you’ve taken the guards out at the
dock and secured a boat, give me a call, but use code. Voice silent. Just in
case.”

“Just in case of what?” Hanna
whispered into her tiny mike.

Nick hesitated a moment. “Just in case
I get caught and they’re listening on my radio. I don’t want them to know who’s
with me, or where you’re located. Once we separate, coded messages only.”

“Shouldn’t you at least take Kurt, so
you don’t run the risk of getting caught? And do I know the code you’ll be
using?”

He looked at Kurt. “Use Morse code so
Hanna can signal if she needs to.” Then he turned to grin at her, a slash of
white in his darkened face. “Do you still remember it?”

They’d learned it from Sean and played
around with it as kids. “I hope so.”

He refreshed her memory on a couple of
signals, like SOS and all clear. “Anything else you forget, ask Kurt.”

She put her gloved hand on the side of
his stockinged head. “I’ll stay here, out of sight, if you want to take Kurt
with you. You can pick me up on the way back, after you get Lance.”

Nick took her hand and kissed her
gloved knuckles again. “I can handle Lance’s extraction alone. I want Kurt to
get us a speedboat. Follow his lead. We’ll meet up at the docks as soon as I
get Lance.” She nodded, reluctantly agreeing. He pulled her into his arms for a
quick hard embrace. Over her head, Nick pushed his mike aside to speak
privately to his ex-Recon buddy. “Take care of her, bud. Keep her out of any
dangerous situations. Remember to leave her in the elevator while you disable
the guards at the dock. There might be a guard posted somewhere along the
tunnel. Hide her in a box or a closet if you have to.”

Kurt nodded. “I will.”

It was obvious Nick was worried about her.
She heard it in his hushed voice, felt it in his tense body. “Plant another
satchel charge on top of or under the elevator so that I can detonate it with a
remote after Lance and I come down, just in case anyone decides to follow us or
is hot on our heels.”

“Copy that, Colonel. Good luck.”

Hanna hated leaving Nick. She caught
his hand and gave it a final squeeze, then turned to go with Kurt. Nick waited
until they got to the back of the second cottage.

Through the dark and fog, Hanna just
barely managed to see him give them a thumbs up signal before he crept to the last
cottage. She wondered anxiously if he would slit the guard’s throat with that
awful looking knife he carried, or if he’d just knock the man out. It wasn’t a
thought she wanted to dwell on. Just come back to me, my love, she petitioned
in a silent prayer.

Kurt tugged on her sleeve and motioned
her to follow him around to the front of the second cottage. At the door, which
was thankfully unguarded, she plastered herself to the wall and waited for Kurt
to pick the lock. They were inside within seconds.

The interior was vacant and dark. It
was also cold enough to indicate no one had been in it for quite a while. They
looked around quickly to be sure they were indeed alone, then found a narrow
stairway that led down.

At the bottom, Kurt held up a fisted
hand in the “freeze” signal. She froze on the last stair step, while he
inspected the two tiny basement rooms. When he was satisfied no one was in
either of them, he went to a door on the back wall and opened it slowly to peek
through the sliver of light he’d created. A few seconds later, he motioned
Hanna to him.

“The tunnel to the elevator,” he
whispered. Then he pointed silently to a small rotating camera mounted near the
ceiling, in the hallway.

Made of cinder block, the corridor was
lit by bare, low wattage bulbs that left shadows and created uneven light. Big
wooden crates and odd pieces of discarded furniture littered the hallway here
and there, stacked at various heights along the walls. The corridor itself was
long and straight. It was obviously a connection from the three guesthouses to
the main house to the lab to the elevator. It was very likely the way they
transported their containers of refined heroin from the warehouse to the
freighters that anchored in the sound.