The Sparks Broker, page 10
part #2 of S.A.S.S. Series
She watched the chopper’s progress and tried to block out the fact that within three feet of her floated seven mines.
“They’re heading straight for us,” Nathan said, wonder in his voice.
“I’m sure it just looks that way. More than likely they’ve picked up the mines on their scanners and they’re investigating them.” The aircraft neared and Kate saw it clearly. It was a Sea Knight assault transport for combat troops.
“Kate,” Nathan’s voice sounded strained to the breaking point. “I’ve got about two feet and then we’re going to know the trigger pressure levels.”
“Ditto.” She watched the gawky-looking chopper move closer and closer until it was hovering right above them.
“I’m seeing a lot of heads up there.”
So was Kate. The side door was wide open and men filled the hole, peering down in the water. “It’s okay,” she assured Nathan over the roar of the beating props. “It’s a CH-46E. They have tons of room.”
“They’ve got at least a dozen on board.”
Kate scanned her memory. “It holds fourteen, plus the aerial gunners.”
The wind off the blades whipped at the water. Fortunately, that pushed the mines further away from Kate and, she prayed, Nathan.
A rescue ladder dropped out of the side of the chopper. Two men shouldered their way in to stand in the wide opening, monitoring Kate and Nathan’s location.
Kate lifted her arms, but the ladder was still just out of reach. Nathan grabbed hold of the ladder, then grabbed her by the hand and reeled her to him.
“Hold on.” He slid an arm around her middle, his fingers digging into her flesh. “I’ve got you, Kate. I won’t let go.”
Quickly removing her fins, her foot slid onto a ladder rung. She hugged Nathan tightly. “Okay. Okay, I’m good.”
“You sure?”
She looked up at him and smiled. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
He smiled back. “Climb on up.”
“I can’t.” Worry flickered across his face. She didn’t like it, and wanted it gone. “You’ve got to let go of me, Nathan.”
“Oh.” He rolled his eyes back in his head, then smiled. “Details. Details. You’re such a nag about details, Kate.” He gave her a squeeze.
“Yeah, that’s me. Resident detail nag.” She squeezed back, her fingers digging into his side. “Um, Nathan. Let go now, okay?”
He released her. “Post-mission stress. Like the flirting.”
“Right.” Kate let him have the lie and took one last look at the water.
Hundreds of mines littered the surface and hundreds more lurked in the clear water just below it. GRID didn’t just mean to scare them away from the cave. It didn’t just mean to slow them down from exploring the cave.
It meant to kill them and to buy itself a healthy chunk of needed time to clear out the compound before anyone else could contemplate an attack.
And, unfortunately, it looked as if GRID had succeeded—but only with half their goal.
While Forester glad-handed their rescuers, Kate contacted Home Base to notify them of the mine dump and to put high priority on getting minesweepers in to clear the area.
Maggie manned the desk. “Okay, Bluefish, I’ve put it in the system and Intel is working the chain.”
Every minute that passed was in Thomas Kunz’s favor. Enough time and he could have GRID clear the cave of any evidence of a compound. The hostages, if they were there, would be moved to yet another undisclosed location.
Kate mumbled her feelings on that thought and leaned back against the vibrating side of the chopper. “We need uninterrupted observation on the landside of those hills, Home Base.”
“Understood, Bluefish, but we’ve got three high-priority target missions currently under way. We don’t have—”
“Find a way, Home Base. Or get ready for a Fourth of July that will light up your world.” That was the phrase. The one that cued Maggie on the weapons cache. Kate prayed her instincts were right or she was going to be in deep and serious trouble over the claim. It was logical, to be sure. The compound, the chatter about bio and chemical weapons. The boats riding low in the water and high when they arrived in port. Every bit of it fit.
But it wasn’t conclusive proof.
And she’d just warned Home Base that it was.
Colonel Drake would have her rank for breakfast and her hide for a snack.
“Roger that, Bluefish. I’ll get Intel on it and resources claimed right away.”
“Thanks.” Kate shut down communications and opened her eyes.
Nathan sat on a bench beside her, but spoke to a small group of men seated beyond him. “We were very lucky you guys came along when you did.”
That remark snagged Kate’s full attention. He had no idea she’d summoned the chopper by activating her locator system. The crew did a double take, but Kate silenced them with a warning look and a few telling words. “It was a blessing, all right. We were at the point of no return.” They got the message and played dumb.
“What happened to your boat?” a sergeant with more stripes than Kate had ever seen on his sleeve asked.
Kate took that opportunity to shut down questions. “A couple opium freaks stole it.” She turned to Nathan. “Commander, you should get that theft reported.”
“Right,” Nathan said before moving toward the cockpit.
One of the crew, dressed in fatigues with his face greasepaint-smeared, sat beside Kate. Her mind was on a thousand things, mainly on getting the mines cleared before Kunz could clean out the compound.
“Hello, Kate.”
She swung her gaze around to really look at the guy. It took a long second for recognition to sink in. When it did, she gasped. “Gaston?” What was a CIA double agent doing in this Sea Knight?
Maybe it wasn’t a U.S. Sea Knight.
Her stomach sank to her knees. Oh, no! No, it couldn’t be that. Adrenaline streaked through her like the tail off a comet. She swallowed hard as she watched Nathan walk back toward her, looking calm and content.
He had that luxury. He didn’t know Gaston. He didn’t know Gaston worked for the CIA, or that he’d been undercover and inside GRID for over a year. Nathan didn’t know Gaston had been at the Iranian compound when Kate had blown it up and Douglas and his tactical team had handled the mop-up operation.
And Nathan had no idea that, gauging by all the signs, they had just been rescued by the very people trying to kill them.
GRID.
Chapter Nine
Kate unsnapped the strap on her knife sheath.
“Wait.” Gaston stayed her hand, brushing it off her thigh. “It’s not what you think.” Leaning forward on the bench, he crossed his hands at his knees.
Nathan walked up, tense and frowning. “Kate?” He looked straight at Gaston. “Everything okay?”
She stared at Gaston, wishing she knew how to answer that honestly. He shot her a look telling her that she was fine. Since she had no choice, she went with it, giving him a warning glare that she’d better be right, and then swung her gaze to Nathan. “Everything is fine.” She managed a thin smile.
“Major Forester,” a young lieutenant came up behind Nathan. Unlike the others, he wore no greasepaint. His face was clean. “The captain wants a word with you, sir.” Nathan nodded, then walked toward the cockpit.
Deliberately separating them? Kate slapped her hand back on the sheath. “Okay, Gaston,” Kate whispered, “you’ve got five seconds to answer me. Are these people GRID or American?”
He did a quick check to make sure that no one else was within earshot. “American,” he whispered back. “I’ve been extracted.”
Suspicion still ran rampant through her. “How do I know you’re you?” It was a reasonable question. Kunz had doubled U.S. employees in virtually every segment of government service. The CIA definitely wouldn’t be exempt. And Gaston had been with GRID for a long time. In a year, he’d surely had many opportunities to screw up and blow his cover. Lord knew he had been able to report very little to Langley, though in fairness she had to admit that wasn’t for his lack of trying or taking risks. It was Kunz’s fault. He kept everything humanly possible to himself, keeping even his own high-ranking GRID members in the dark. As long as their fat paychecks kept coming, apparently they could not have cared less, though she couldn’t say that applied to his new second-in-command. Since Amanda had killed his old one, Paul Reese, S.A.S.S. assumed Kunz had replaced him, but so far, the new mystery man’s identity had remained under their radar.
This was S.A.S.S.’s main problem with fighting an enemy who wasn’t fighting for a cause. GRID operatives fought for greed, and Thomas Kunz kept them well fed and dumb. With that, they were happy.
Considering what they were doing—selling weapons and technology to anyone with the money to buy them and who’d pay for them with American dollars—being in the dark probably helped some of them sleep better at night. Unfortunately for Kate’s side, it also meant anyone who wanted money could be an enemy, and that left the door open to Kunz recruiting a lot anonymous people worldwide with no history or previous arrests to help tag them. “Well?” she asked Gaston again.
“It was an emergency extraction, Kate.” Gaston looked half embarrassed, half furious. “Moss was suspicious of me. He has been for a while, but when I lost the black box, that was the final proverbial nail in my coffin.”
“Meaning?”
“He took his suspicions up the ranks to a guy named Marcus Sandross.”
Already, Kate didn’t like this. She’d never heard of the man. “Who is he?”
“Kunz’s new right-hand man. I don’t know where he came from. Interpol had nothing on him. All I can tell you about him is he’s so vicious he makes Paul Reese look like a gentle kid who played at being a terrorist.” That rattled Kate. Paul Reese had been a greedy, bloodthirsty monster. A coward himself, but he could sure issue the orders for others to commit horrendous atrocities.
Gaston leaned closer, then dropped his voice even lower. “The first day Sandross was with my cell, he killed three operatives.”
Was that unusual? Gaston’s tone made it seem extremely out of the ordinary. “For what?”
Gaston sent her a look that said it didn’t really matter. Sandross would have used any excuse; he was establishing himself as hardcore. “One wasn’t paying attention when he was talking. Another slumped while standing in formation. The third one happened at lunch. A guy spilled a glass of water. Sandross shot him and kept right on eating.”
Definitely making a point. This guy needed to be reported to Home Base. Kate added it to her mental list, which was unfortunately getting to be quite lengthy. Considering it prudent, she’d restricted comments on the chopper to the urgent and essential.
Studying the faces of the men around her, she wondered if Darcy had come across anything in the Intel reports on this Sandross guy. “Do you have art?” she asked, seeking a photo of the man.
“No. Kunz is more than a little camera shy. Carrying one inside GRID is an automatic death penalty. I couldn’t risk it with Moss already suspicious. But I’ve reported a physical.”
“What is it?”
“Medium height, medium weight and build, medium-brown hair and eyes. No visible scars or other identifying marks.”
“Not helpful. You’re describing half of the men in the U.S., Gaston.” Frustration crawled through Kate. Why did it seem the bad guys got all the breaks? “There has to be something distinct about him.”
“There is,” Gaston agreed. “His temper.” Worried, and not bothering to hide it, Gaston looked over at Kate. “I only know one other man alive who loves to kill as much as this guy, Kate. Only one.”
Disgust rippled through her, turned the taste on her tongue bitter. “Thomas Kunz.”
Gaston nodded.
Kate remembered Nathan finding the black box in the water outside the cave, the red bow wrapped around it. “You made sure Forester found the C-273.”
“If the C-273 is that black box near the cave, then yeah. Well, actually, I was making sure you found it. I knew you’d be back for it.” Gaston smiled. “The red ribbon was a nice touch, don’t you think?”
“Hmm.” She’d thought Kunz was lording it over her actually. “So GRID didn’t get access to it?” Kate was afraid to dream it.
Gaston shook his head. “I was pulling guard duty, posted outside the cave. I saw you attach the box to the rocks. I went back and removed it. That’s what landed me in hot water with Moss. When you went into the cave, I didn’t warn him. I thought you might get lucky and take him and Parton out, since there were only two of them.”
She nearly had. Unfortunately, Moss had escaped with a gut wound. “You were on the boat that chased me?” Kate didn’t know how to feel about that, so she just waited to hear his explanation.
“No, I was dragging Parton’s corpse back to a second boat.”
“The one dropping the mines.”
“I don’t think so.”
Then there were three GRID vessels out there and yet she and Forester hadn’t seen any of them. They could’ve come and gone while they were under water, though, so that need not be significant. “Is there a GRID compound at the other end of that cave?”
“Maybe,” Gaston admitted. “I honestly don’t know. I’ve never been allowed anywhere near it. Today is the first day I’ve been permitted to dive there, and it wouldn’t have happened now except that Sandross got the flu.” Gaston shrugged, lifted his palms upward. “You know how tight Kunz holds the reins. No one knows anything about an operation—even when it’s over. Only what’s essential for their part in the current mission.”
Kate leaned against the wall of the chopper, letting the vibrations massage the exhausted muscles in her back.
“So if you weren’t there, working at the compound, what were you doing?”
Again, Gaston checked to make sure no one was listening. They weren’t. The men were busy gabbing between themselves and keeping an eye out down below. It was post-mission decompression. Pre-mission, they’d been in focus mode. You’d have been able to hear a pin drop. Now, the drone of chatter combated the drone of the chopper props.
“Two suspected GRID operatives were aboard a vessel the Navy searched late this afternoon,” Gaston said. “Before word came down through the chain of command to hold them, the men were gone. They disappeared not far from where we found you. No sign of another vessel, no sign of them in the water. They just weren’t there anymore.”
Divers intercepted them, she figured. What else could it be? She asked the clean-faced guy for a drink of water and then looked back at Gaston. “So you’ve had a busy twenty-four hours, too.”
“Oh, yeah.” The bags under his eyes proved it.
Still not sure she had Gaston and not a double, she held back, keeping her distance and her information to herself. But she thought she knew now who had attacked her and Nathan in his tent.
Red ribbon on the box. Red scarf.
Black box found and returned in the water. Black box supposedly stolen from the compound. Douglas hadn’t done it to prove he’d changed sides. Gaston had fired on her and Nathan.
The question was, had he meant to kill them?
The tent pole had been cut in two near the top of the tent, but nearly everything inside had been shattered and destroyed. Still, the gunman had fired a lot of rounds into the sand, endangering no one.
“Commander Forester and I will check things out,” she said, reserving opinion until she had time to absorb all the facts. “I’ll let you know if we come up with anything.” Still unconvinced that Gaston truly was Gaston, she searched for a way to prove it, and finally lighted on one. She dropped her voice yet another pitch and then put him to the test “Exactly where are we?”
“Don’t answer that.” Nathan glared down at her, not bothering to even pretend to be subtle or not be disappointed. “You know better, Kate.”
She hadn’t heard him return. Now he towered over her. She glared at him. She did know better, which meant he should have given her credit and known she had a damn good reason for asking.
“Walked right into the middle of that one, Kane.” Gaston laughed. “Not that I could tell you, anyway.”
Anger heated her neck and flooded her face. She shrugged and slid Forester a chilly half smile. “No offense, Major. Just doing my job.”
He wasn’t amused, and still didn’t see that she’d had just cause for requesting the information. “Ask again,” he said, “and I’ll do mine and court-martial you.”
Gaston grumbled a curse.
Kate turned up the wattage on her smile. “Don’t worry,” she told him. “The major and I actually get along very well. We have a lot in common.”
Nathan looked more stunned than Gaston.
By a hair, Gaston managed to keep his chin up off the floor. “You’re kidding.”
He clearly remembered that Kate didn’t get along well with anyone. She always held back and went it alone. She was prickly around other people, and Gaston as well as most others thought she liked it that way. Truthfully, she did. Alone was safer. She was used to it. And being just like every other human being on the planet, she liked what she felt most comfortable with. Everyone opted for whatever felt normal to them. Not that Gaston or anyone else knew what her normal was like, or ever would know.
“Kidding? Me?” She gave him a look that said he should know better. “No, I’m not kidding. Not at all.” She spared Forester a look laced with unbridled challenge. “Isn’t that right, Major?”
Nathan looked mortified and, considering his policy about female subordinates, she imagined he was mortified. Apparently the few breaches he’d indulged in with her weren’t destined for public knowledge. “Um, yeah. Absolutely. We have a lot in common.”
Definitely as uneasy as a trapped animal. But he covered for her. And Kate decided right then that he might be a pig, but he was a pig who’d stepped over his own personal/professional line to back her up.
