The survivor, p.10
The Survivor, page 10
“Right.” Riley sat down and reached for her belt. “Since you ask so nicely. But I meant what I said, Maya.”
“I know you did,” Maya said hoarsely, gazing straight ahead. “And we’ll get through it…”
They landed six minutes later, and as soon as the wheels stopped turning Maya was on her feet and headed for the exit. Riley was right behind her.
“Hold it.” Cade pushed in front and was unfastening the door. “Kirby is running a visual scan of the airport. We don’t want any unpleasant surprises. Go to the cockpit and see if you recognize anyone on the runway.”
Maya asked no questions. She was already running toward the cockpit. She was back seconds later. “Open it. It’s Tashi with Dalben, the captain of the local sentries.”
Cade already had the door open, and Maya ran down the steps to Tashi. Riley followed, but Maya had already reached Tashi and was gazing frantically into the housekeeper’s face. “Bailey?”
“Safe,” Tashi said instantly. “Did I not tell you that I wouldn’t let anything happen to her? When I heard there was trouble on the coast, I took her to the temple. Even if she was a target, no one could get past the sentries there.”
“Thank God.” Maya drew a deep breath. “Was she frightened?”
Tashi shook her head. “Only for you. This is Bailey. Though she didn’t want to leave the mountain.”
“She never does. But I can’t deal with her right now.” Maya gestured to Riley and then to Cade, who was coming down the steps with Kirby. “I’ve brought help. Tashi, Rolf Dalben. You remember Riley, and you met Kirby. This is Morgan Cade.”
Tashi nodded. “I told you that you would get him to listen.” Her lips twisted. “And just in time for Nadim to send them a greeting.”
“I have to get to Mabato.” Maya turned to the uniformed sentry. “What’s happening there, Dalben? Something about a fire? Is it the entire village?”
“We don’t think so. Just one area according to the report we got from the village chief. But they can’t get near it to put it out. Nadim set loose a team of his snipers to attack the village and they’ve been picking off anyone who shows themselves. The captain of the local island guard said that the snipers are calling out your name and using it to mock the villagers.” He pointed to the faint wisp of smoke rising to the north. “They seem to be using that fire they set as a lure.” He added grimly, “We’ve got a body count of twenty-two already.”
“Snipers again, Nadim must like them.” Cade’s gaze was fastened on the smoke as he came to stand beside them. “Typical poaching trick used to bring down animals.” His lips tightened. “Only these aren’t animals.” He turned to Dalben. “I’ll need a jeep and someone who can guide me to where they lit that damn fire.” He looked over his shoulder at Kirby. “Get weapons from the plane.”
“I’m on it.” He was running back toward the steps.
Maya shook her head. “My job, Cade. You don’t even have a team on the island yet. They won’t be here until tomorrow.”
“Your people don’t appear to be doing so well at the moment, Maya. I don’t like snipers and I’m hoping one of them might be that other asshole who was shooting at Riley at Eve’s.” He looked her in the eye. “I gave an order, and your sentry here hasn’t moved a muscle. We have an agreement, Maya.”
She hesitated and then said to Dalben. “It’s okay. Get him anything he wants… quickly.”
Dalben turned and reached for his phone as he headed at a run for the vehicles parked on the side of the runway.
“This isn’t the time for you to do this, Cade.” Maya swung back to face him. “You should wait until I can—” She stopped when she saw his expression. “I’m going with you. You won’t need a guide. I know every inch of this island.”
“You might be useful, but I could regret it. I’ll still accept it.” He glanced at Riley. “Because I know I can’t keep Riley away from that village when she might be able to help them. The first time I met her, she was in a first-aid tent bandaging a little kid while she was giving me hell. She’s been standing there and listening, and I’ve been watching the impatience growing.” He tilted his head at Riley. “Right?”
She nodded. “As long as you’re going to go see if you can get your head blown off by those snipers, I thought you might need medical attention.” She added, “And from what Dalben said, some of the islanders already need help… if they’re still alive.”
Dalben brought the jeep to a screeching halt a few yards away, and Maya headed for it. She tapped him on the shoulder. “Out!” When he quickly jumped out, she slipped into the driver’s seat. “Let’s get out of here, Cade.”
Kirby was back with two automatic rifles and gave one to Cade. “Shotgun?”
“No, I’ll ride shotgun,” Cade said as he got in the passenger seat. “You get in back with Riley and guard the rear.”
Tashi took a step closer to the jeep and put a hand on Maya’s shoulder as she was about to leave. “I will go back to the temple and tell Bailey you are coming to her soon. You’ve done well so far. Don’t disappoint me by letting one of those snipers kill you. Let this Cade take care of them. He seems to have the right idea about attending to business.”
“Like Jann Lu?” Maya asked dryly. “I admit while I was worrying about Bailey before we landed, I was thinking that Jann Lu’s methods weren’t entirely unacceptable.” She shrugged. “Though I’ll have to think about it.”
“When you come to that point, you don’t think, you just act.” Tashi stepped back. “But you won’t have to search your soul while I watch over the child. Go and do what must be done…”
“How far is it to Mabato?” Cade asked as Maya drove out of the runway area and onto a rough stone road through the jungle. “I don’t like the amount of time we’ve already had to spend just getting on the road.”
“Neither do I,” Maya said. “And it’s at least another forty minutes. I want to contact Jelsko, the village chief, and get all the info I can before we try to go after the snipers. I have to go around the back of the village the long way so we won’t be noticed. It’s driving me crazy.” Her hands clenched on the steering wheel as she gazed out the windshield. “Because I’m thinking that Nadim is probably looking up at that wisp of smoke and enjoying what his men are doing to those people. I want it to stop.”
“It hasn’t begun yet,” Cade said quietly. “And you stay at the village until Kirby and I scope out the area for any possible prisoners and decide where to position ourselves to take out as many of the snipers as possible.”
She shook her head. “I’ll have to see how many of the soldiers we sent are still able to help you. I might have to lead—”
“You stay at the village,” Cade interrupted. “Or I go back and get on that plane and that’s the end of our deal.”
“Listen to him, Maya.” Riley leaned forward from the backseat. “He knows what he’s doing. I’ve seen him in action. Do you think I’d let him go if he didn’t? Look, this is what I was afraid of when you decided that you had to involve Cade. But you wouldn’t have it any other way. So shut up and let him do what he does best. Get the hell out of his way.”
Maya stared at her for a moment. Then she looked straight ahead. “We’ll have to see what the situation is at Mabato.”
The situation at Mabato was hideous, Maya thought as she drove toward the back of the village. Bodies everywhere, weeping women and children. The island guard was nowhere in sight. Where the hell were they? She saw Jelsko, the chief, kneeling beside a young man dressed in guard fatigues. She stopped the jeep, then jumped out and ran to fall to her knees beside him. “Jelsko. What’s happening?” She looked down at the soldier. “Can I help him? Let me get—” Then she stopped as she saw what two bullets had done to the young man’s head.
“No one can help him.” Jelsko lifted his eyes and she saw the pain and tears in them. “It is my son, Calar. He was so proud when he was old enough to join the island guard. Even as a child he wanted to be a soldier and help people.” His voice broke. “He was only twenty, Maya. Why two bullets? One would have done. The second must have just been for their pleasure.”
She put her arms around him. “I share your sorrow. How can I help?”
“You cannot help my son.” He pushed her away. “But you are here. Maybe that will make them stop. Those beasts kept calling out and asking where you were and why you didn’t help us. Are you not the caretaker?”
“We will help you.” Cade and Riley were suddenly beside them. “You don’t know me, Jelsko,” Cade said, “but Maya will tell you that I’m a friend. Will you permit us to take your son inside your home while you tell us what we need to know? And Riley has medical skills that will heal your friends and neighbors.”
“Heal?” Jelsko repeated, looking down at his son. “Will we ever heal?”
“I know it doesn’t seem that way.” Riley’s hand tightened on her medical bag. “But we can only do what we can. I noticed a young woman over there by the fountain tending a soldier who might need help. I’ll go over there and see after we get you and your son settled.”
“Tell me how many of the island guard are left,” Maya said. “I need numbers, old friend.”
“They sent a unit of thirty-six when I called after the attack. There were nine of us who had already been killed by the snipers by the time they got here. They fought them off the village and then followed them into the forest. I was so proud of my son. He was like a lion.”
“I’m sure he was,” Maya said gently. “Perhaps that was why there were two bullets. They thought one would never put the lion down.”
“I didn’t think of that,” he said. “It might be true.” His face twisted. “But when they followed the guard into the forest, it was a trap. The snipers had double their number waiting in the trees and they started cutting them down. The guard fought well, but it was useless, there were too many. Eleven finally fell back to the village to protect us. I thought my son might be among them.” He shook his head. “But he was one of those cut down in the forest. After dark I went after him and brought him back. I’ve been sitting here with him.” He was rocking back and forth. “I was listening to their mocking and watching the fire they set in the trees. They seemed to be tending that fire as if it was a burial flame.”
“How many of the guards are left?” she asked again.
“Only eleven or twelve. But it seems to be enough to keep the snipers from attacking the village. They appear to want to wait until it’s easier to gather us up and finish us.”
“You said they were calling for me,” Maya said. “Did they do that very often?”
“I don’t know. It seemed as if they did.”
She looked at the wispy smoke floating up over the trees. “I can understand calling it out once, but why repeat it?”
“Because you’re the caretaker,” Jelsko said wearily. “Why else? They knew you had to come to help us.”
“I’m just wondering.” She got to her feet. “Now we’ll take your son inside if you don’t mind. He shouldn’t be lying out here.”
“We’ll do it.” Kirby knelt beside the boy’s body. “Cade?”
Together they carefully lifted Calar’s body and carried it into Jelsko’s hut.
Riley and Maya watched until they disappeared inside. Then Riley turned toward the wounded man by the fountain. “I’ve got to go see what I can do for that soldier. Do you want to come and help?”
Maya shook her head. “Perhaps later. I want to go over to the edge of the village and take a closer look at that fire. Something Jelsko mentioned caught my attention.” She held up her hand as Riley started to protest. “I’m not going any farther than the edge of the village. This has nothing to do with my argument with Cade.” She turned and headed toward the stone wall that encircled the village.
“You know that one of those snipers could have you in his sights right this minute?” Cade said as he joined Maya twenty minutes later. “Riley didn’t like you this close to the forest. You shouldn’t worry her.”
“And having Riley not worry is paramount?” She turned to face him. “But the wall was so high where I was standing that a sniper would have had to be almost standing on his head to have a good shot at me. I’m not stupid, Cade.”
“But if you’d moved two feet either way you would have been vulnerable.”
“I had no intention of moving. I could see what I wanted from here.”
“And what did you want to see?”
“I wasn’t sure. But it had something to do with that fire they built in the forest. It obviously wasn’t intended to start a destructive forest fire because it was small and well contained. Yet it’s not a campfire to keep those bastards warm. From here it appears to look almost like a tent enclosure, but no one is going inside except to keep the fire burning. Why did they build the damn thing?”
“You tell me.”
“I have no idea except that I believe it has something to do with me. Jelsko said they kept mentioning my name. They did terrible damage that first night, but now they seem to be sitting around and waiting for something. Why haven’t they attacked again?”
“It’s your puzzle, solve it.”
“I think I will.” Her eyes narrowed intently. “You stay right here and keep your eyes sharp and that rifle ready.”
Cade stiffened warily. “What the hell are you going to do?”
“I’m going to move that two feet to the right.” She was turning to face the forest and looking straight in the direction of the fire. “That should do it…”
“Shit!” He pushed her to the ground and lifted his rifle.
The bullet from the trees crashed into the stone wall next to her!
She rolled back to her former position beneath the protection of the taller wall as Cade returned the gunfire. She heard a scream from the direction of the forest.
“Satisfied?” Cade asked her.
“Not yet. But now I’m certain they got a good look at me. If I’m one of the targets of this attack, they know I’m here.”
“And you could have gotten yourself killed,” he said roughly.
She shook her head. “You promised Riley that wouldn’t happen, and you had to keep your word.”
“It would help if you gave me a little assistance.” His gaze was raking the area where the snipers were clustered near the fire. “They’re not rushing us. They appear to be carrying that sniper I shot deeper into the forest. Still, they might come back once it gets dark.”
“Or they might not,” Maya said quietly. “They missed their chance at me. Maybe they’re going on to phase two.”
“Phase two? Would you care to elaborate?”
She shook her head. She was trying not to shudder as she looked at that fire. She didn’t want to talk about it. She could hardly force herself to think about it. “All this killing may only be the opening gambit.” She didn’t take her gaze from that twisting curl of smoke over the fire. “Are you as good as I’ve heard you are? I think you must be or Riley would not have such faith in you.”
“I’m very good,” Cade said. “So is Kirby. What do you have in mind?”
“You wanted to go out and locate those snipers and perhaps get rid of any strategic command posts you find. I’m not going to argue with you about it now. Wait until dark and then grab a few of the island guards and go do it, but first I want you to take a look at that sentry post near the fire. I want you to tell me why they built that fire. I have to know.”
“You’re not going with us?” Cade asked flatly.
“No, I’m not. I’ll rely on you.” She smiled sardonically. “See how much I trust you? I think you’ll know if I should show myself again to those bastards.”
“That will be a definite negative.”
“We’ll have to see.” She turned and headed back toward the center of the village. “In the meantime, I’m going to go help Riley with the wounded and try to find a few of Jelsko’s relatives to stay with him.”
And make an effort to block this growing sense of sickening dread as she waited for darkness to fall.
Cade showed up at the makeshift first-aid hut that Riley and Maya had set up close to sunset that night. Riley had just finished bandaging the throat of a young island officer when she saw him standing in the doorway watching her.
She carefully hid the relief she felt at the sight of him. “How nice of you to drop in,” she said. “After what Maya told me about releasing you to go after those snipers, I thought you’d be on your way.”
He shook his head. “Not without telling you. It’s been fairly chaotic since we landed, but that would never be an option as far as I’m concerned. You might take it as an example of how I want you to behave. That would drive me crazy.” He crossed the tent and cupped her face in his hands. “You realize this isn’t the way I wanted this to work? So far, the only thing I’ve been able to do is try to keep Maya from getting into trouble.”
“I don’t know what you mean. She’s been doing a great job,” Riley said defensively. “She’s been helping me, checking on the villagers, and talking on the phone to get more guards sent here. They should be here by midnight.” She gazed into his eyes and tried to ignore the heat that was beginning to build at his touch. “You could wait for them and not go out there after those snipers with a crew the size of a postage stamp.”
“A small crew is sometimes better.” He kissed her, hard. Then he let her go. “And I’m curious to see what Maya calls phase two.”
“Phase two?”
“Maya didn’t mention it to you? Maybe that was only meant for me. Never mind. She was a bit erratic today.”
“Can you blame her? All I noticed was that she was on edge,” Riley said. “But then these are her people.”
“Including her daughter? You never mentioned she had a child.”
