The Sparks Broker, page 19
part #2 of S.A.S.S. Series
The skin between Nathan’s eyebrows creased. “The two operatives who disappeared off the ship—divers were waiting for them in the water, and they took the men into the cave. That’s how they seemingly disappeared.”
“It fits, Commander,” Douglas said.
Stew in hand, Riley appeared at the door to the cubicle. “Sir, Search and Rescue needs for all of you to come down to the dock. They’ve found a floater they want you to take a look at.”
“Who do they think he is, Riley?”
“They’re not sure, sir. But they believe he’s Thomas Kunz. They know he’s in Leavenworth, but the guys there insist the floater looks just like him.”
“Let’s move.” Nathan slid out of his seat.
Douglas grabbed the bowl of stew and bottle of water, then headed to the tent door.
Kate dragged her weary body outside and slid into the jeep, beside Nathan. “You realize this is an exercise in futility.”
“Yes. At best we’ll be looking at a double, and I’m thinking it signals Sandross skipped out of the compound, too, and they left Kunz’s double to blow things up. Whether or not he knew it, that’s another matter.” Nathan cranked the engine and gunned the gas. “But we can’t very well refuse to take a look.”
They couldn’t. It’d be like sending out an ad that Kunz wasn’t Kunz. And believing Nathan was right about Sandross, as well, had Kate in a totally foul mood.
When they parked at the shore and Douglas hopped out, Kate put a hand on Nathan’s, silently telling him to wait.
“We’ll be right there, Douglas.” He shouted to him over the hood of the jeep.
“Yes, sir.” He walked on toward the dock.
Nathan looked over at Kate and fear flickered through his eyes, but he just waited for her to say what was on her mind.
He sensed it was personal, she realized. And it was. How did he do that? Tune into her that way?
Her mouth suddenly dry, she moistened her lips. “When this is over, I want to spend some time with you.” Her face felt as hot as an oven. What was wrong with her? “Alone, I mean. Well, not alone. Together. With you. Just you and me, I mean.”
The fear left him and a teasing twinkle she might just love replaced it. “Why?”
So much for his reading her. She frowned. “Are you going to rub my nose in it?”
“No, of course not.” He raked a thumb on the steering wheel. “I just want to make sure we don’t have crossed wires here.”
“I am... I think...” She couldn’t talk because she couldn’t think. Nothing sounded right inside her head. It certainly wouldn’t, if she said it. This was insane.
Actually she supposed it wasn’t. He mattered. That was the problem. If a man didn’t matter, you had nothing at stake. But Nathan mattered. A lot. Enough to take the risks. So she plunged in. “I’m crazy about you, Forester. I want to be alone with you. I want us to do something normal, like normal people do. That’s the picture.”
He gave her a slow smile that rivaled the twinkle. “Oh.”
“Oh?” What did he mean by that?
“We can do something normal, like normal people.”
He was teasing her?
He nodded, looking totally pleased with himself.
She didn’t trust him on this. With her life, yes, but not on this. “You’re razzing me, right?”
“I’m serious.”
“Look, Forester, a few days ago you wouldn’t step inside a woman’s tent. You made me stand outside during a sandstorm.”
He got out of the jeep, opened the door for her, leaned over and whispered close to her ear. “But I wasn’t in love with you then, Kate.”
She couldn’t move. Didn’t dare move. He was in love with her? Impossible. Outrageous.
“I figure with your attitude about love, it’s going to take a while for you to accept it. I’m sorry about that, sweetheart.” He stroked her cheek. “But it’s true. I’m not razzing you, and you’re not crazy—you’re asking yourself that, right?”
She nodded, not together enough to consider not telling him the truth.
“You’re not. Sometime when we have time, I’ll tell you exactly when I fell in love with you. You’ll be surprised.”
“Nathan, I don’t think I could be more surprised than I am at this moment.”
“You can be, and you will.” He laughed, hard and deep. “Come on, they’re waiting.”
Kate got out of the jeep and, doing her best to focus, walked down to the shore to the small cluster of men. All she wanted to do was to grab Nathan in a ferocious hug and kiss him until his lips were numb.
But duty called. And celebrating would have to wait. She pulled herself back, kicking and screaming, to the reality of what they were doing at the shore, and joined the men.
A tall guy, about forty-five with gray hair and a pug nose nodded. “You Captain Kane?”
“Yes, I am.” Kate extended her hand.
“Sergeant Baker.” They shook, and then he motioned east. “We’ve got the floater over here, ma’am.”
“How long has he been in the water?”
“M.E. says a couple hours at most. He thinks the guy died from a blunt force trauma to the head.”
Kate stopped in front of the body, which was laid out on a stretcher. The medics were preparing to move him. Sergeant Baker pulled back the sheet.
And Kate stared at the face of Thomas Kunz.
“Is this man Thomas Kunz, ma’am?”
Kate sighed. “It could be,” she admitted. “The truth is, I can’t verify that without his DNA.”
“You can’t go on a visual?”
“I’m sorry, no.” She couldn’t say any more.
Nathan stepped forward. “Kunz has a team of men who act as doubles for him, Sergeant. Like most leaders do. This could be one of them, or it could be Kunz. The only way to be certain is to run his DNA.”
“Great,” the sergeant said. “Sorry, ma’am. Sir,” he said to Nathan. “I’ve run into this before with politicians, but I never thought about an arms dealer doing it.”
“Let us know when you get the DNA, would you?” Nathan asked.
“Yes, sir.” He nodded. “I’ll have a copy of the report sent over to your clerk.”
“Thanks.” Nathan turned back to the jeep.
Douglas was already halfway there. Kate walked with Nathan. “It gives me the creeps to see Kunz’s face.”
“I can certainly understand why.” Nathan dropped his voice. “Kate?”
“Yeah.” She glanced over.
“For the record, I wouldn’t mind if sometime you wanted to let me know whether or not you could one day love me, too.”
She smiled. “Yeah.”
“Yeah, you’ll let me know, or...”
“Yeah, I think I could—”
Douglas stepped forward. “Ready to roll, sir.”
Not thrilled with the timing of that interruption, they climbed into the vehicle and took their seats.
The ride back to the outpost was calm and quiet. Kate and Nathan seemed content to just ride and unwind, and Douglas slipped into a doze shortly after climbing into the back seat.
About halfway to the outpost, Kate got a strange feeling. Shivers crawled up and down her backbone. Warnings. Serious warnings.
Wary of snipers, she scanned the terrain, but saw nothing that shouldn’t be there. Nathan had a field phone; Riley hadn’t called. Everything had to be okay at the outpost. Maybe something was going on at Home Base...
You’re exhausted, Kate. You’ve been on the go for four days now. You need rest. That’s all it is. Your body is telling you to take a break and give it some rest.
Kate just about had herself convinced to ignore the warnings when they passed the guard post at the camp perimeter. It was empty. “Nathan—” she started.
“I know, Kate.”
A man didn’t leave his guard post upright or willingly. That this one was vacant had Kate tense as strung wire and drawing her weapon.
Nathan drove into the outpost.
Not a soul was in sight.
They searched the entire post. TVs were on in the recreation tent. There was no sign of Max, but food was burning on the stove in the mess tent. The shower was on, the stall empty.
“I don’t understand this.” Kate paced between two tents. Worry, thick and hot and nerve-racking, burst and strengthened again inside her, souring her stomach. “It doesn’t make sense, Nathan.”
“No, it doesn’t.” His worry matched her own. “No sense at all.”
Checking every tent, every possible place where anyone could be, they found no one.
The outpost was deserted.
Chapter Twenty
Kate stood in the center of the outpost compound, wearing her lip mike. For the first time, when not in the field on a mission, she felt grateful for the ability to connect instantly with Home Base.
“That’s right, the entire unit is MIA,” Kate said, ruffling the hair at her nape. It was hot and her hair was soaked. “I’m all but positive GRID has them.”
“Roger,” Maggie said. “We’ll be on standby—the colonel’s orders. Keep us in the loop on developments.”
“Will do.” Kate shoved the mike back away from her mouth, and tapped her earpiece.
Nathan stood beside her, seemingly dazed. Strain lined his face. He clearly was having a hard time wrapping his arms around what had happened.
Blessing or curse, Kate grasped it immediately. “Where could they have gone? My men didn’t just vacate the premises.”
“They were taken, Nathan.” She spoke softly, hoping to ease the blow. “This is why we met so little resistance on leaving the cave compound.” Three divers. She should’ve expected something like this. Dang it, why hadn’t she suspected something like this? “While we were there, they were preparing to come here.”
“But sixty men?” Nathan lifted a hand skyward. “You don’t just walk in and take over an armed unit of sixty men.”
“You do, if they’re taking orders from a senior officer.” Realization struck Nathan and he clamped his jaw shut. “The creeps posed as us?”
“I doubt they had time to prepare doubles. That usually requires about three months. But some senior officer showed up here and issued orders to the men. That’s my suspicion, anyway, because it would give GRID the least amount of resistance.”
Kate felt sweat roll down the sides of her face. The air was so hot it almost burned to breathe it, and the glare from the sun had her head pounding. “Remember what the JAG woman said back in the cave about GRID taking the other hostages out? They said Sandross couldn’t have gone far with them because he returned to the compound within an hour or so.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, maybe they took your unit to the same place they took the hostages.”
“Logical.” He dragged a forefinger across his damp brow. “But how do we find them?”
“Same way we always do.” She edged her voice with grit and determination. “One clue at a time.”
The distant sound of a helicopter approaching breached the ominous silence. Kate and Nathan took cover behind the jeep, pulled their weapons and waited for it to land.
Douglas walked out of a tent situated closer to the landing pad and waited for the helicopter to set down. “He must have called it in,” Kate said.
“He did.” Nathan holstered his weapon then walked toward the chopper. “Or he wouldn’t be approaching it.”
Kate did the same and watched five men in fatigues disembark. She recognized them. Douglas’s tactical team. They had been temporarily reassigned to another mission while Douglas was waiting to be thoroughly debriefed. “Reinforcements, finally!”
“Bluefish?”
Hearing Maggie’s voice in her earpiece, Kate lowered her lip mike into position. “Yeah, go ahead.”
“Has the major gone up the chain of command on this latest issue?”
Kate watched the team greet Douglas and couldn’t resist a smile. They were genuinely happy to see him. “Douglas’s escape, the weapons cache being located and the explosion in the cave have all been reported up his chain of command.” Kunz and GRID and the doubles, of course, hadn’t been mentioned. That was selective intelligence and reported only to S.A.S.S.
The chopper stayed on the pad, its props whirling. Douglas and the team came over to where Nathan and Kate stood.
“Commander.” The most senior, a lieutenant with huge blue eyes and perfect teeth, saluted. “Good to see you, sir.”
“You, too, Carlisle.” Nathan nodded toward the chopper. “What is he waiting for?”
“You, sir.” Carlisle cleared his throat. “The colonel wants you to go to the hospital to get checked out. The chopper is supposed to take you.”
“Thanks.” He turned to Kate. “Would you please get Colonel Drake on the horn?”
Kate recognized the steel in Nathan’s voice. He wasn’t a happy major. She pulled down the lip mike. “Home Base?”
“Yes.”
“The major would like to speak to the colonel.”
“Standby.”
Moments later, Colonel Drake’s voice sounded through Kate’s earpiece. “Just a second, Colonel. I’ll get the major for you.”
Kate passed him her headgear. He plopped it on and adjusted the mike. “I appreciate your concern, Colonel, but I don’t need medical, I’m fine. And I’m me, if you know what I mean.”
A pause, then, “The captain will verify.”
Yet another pause while Colonel Drake responded, and then he added, “I need to be at outpost, in case we make contact with my men.”
A moment later he passed the handset back to Kate. His expression was tense, his mouth pinched tight, and his left eye twitched harder than ever before. “She wants you to vouch for me,” Nathan told Kate.
Oh, boy. The commander was supremely offended. Kate put on the gear. “I’m on, Colonel.”
“Are you certain he’s himself?”
And not a double. She looked at Nathan. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Okay, then. I don’t expect he’s going to like these orders much, but if he has a problem with them, he can take them up with General Shaw. He issued them. I’m merely the messenger.”
“What orders, ma’am?”
“The outpost is off-limits to all personnel. Tactical’s positioned to guard the perimeter. No one is to enter the camp until forensics is done with it. They’re on the way there now.”
Why would Nathan have a problem with that? “I’m sure—”
“I’m not done yet,” Colonel Drake interjected. “The general has also ordered the two of you to get on that chopper—the one that dropped off the tactical team.”
“Whatever for, Colonel?”
Colonel Drake ignored the question. “You’ll eventually be taken to a hotel where you’re to remain sequestered on quarters until the preliminary investigations are done. That should be late tomorrow.”
Kate swallowed hard. “Sequestered? Now? Is that necessary, Colonel?”
“The general says yes, and the secretary agrees with him. I’d say it’s a done deal, Bluefish.”
“Yes, ma’am.” This bit of news, Nathan wouldn’t appreciate or take lightly. Both General Shaw and Secretary Reynolds. “I’ll tell him.” She dreaded it, but she would pass the order along.
“Anything else for me?” Drake asked.
“No, Colonel. Nothing else.”
Seconds later, Maggie came back on the radio. “Do you want us to remain on standby? I’ve received notification that tactical is onsite.”
“No, Home Base. Thanks. They’re here.” Kate took off her headgear and attached it to her belt. “Commander, may I speak to you privately, please?”
Noting the formal address and clearly figuring it was due to the men, Nathan stepped away. “Of course, Captain.”
They walked over two tents, and Kate stopped and turned to face him. “Nathan, General Shaw has banned everyone from the premises. We’re to go in the chopper to a hotel.”
“What?”
“We’re sequestered until they finish investigating. At least until late tomorrow.”
Nathan swore. “Why did he do this?”
“Who knows? But he’s the general and Secretary Reynolds is backing him up on it.”
Nathan stilled, grunted, then looked into Kate’s eyes. “Well, you got your wish. We are going to get to spend some time alone together.”
She snorted. “I didn’t exactly want to spend time with a raging bull. Jeez, Nathan, you look so very pleased at the prospect. Careful, my knees are knocking so hard they might crack. I can hardly stand this kind of elation.”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” He gentled his tone, softened his expression. “It’s just that I want to be here for my men.”
“Well, you can’t,” she said, dropping any pretense of sugarcoating. “Accept that which you can’t change, Nathan. And enjoy that which you can.”
“You’re right.” He looked at the still waiting chopper. “That’s our ride, right?”
She nodded.
“Let’s go, then.”
Kate walked over to the chopper, a little miffed and a little bemused. She even liked Nathan ticked off, and if that wasn’t enough of a worry, she had to deal with mental images of him looking at her with that tenderness, too. Pleasant though they were, she’d rather have them when she wasn’t ticked.
They buckled into the chopper, and the pilot lifted off.
The hotel turned out to be a private hotel in Kuwait contracted by the U.S. government to house visiting military. The floors were cool marble. White columns stretched to the ceiling, three stories above, and ornate murals of gardens and oases adorned the walls. Colorful silk sofas littered the lobby in intimate groupings, shielded by strategically placed potted greenery. Few people in the lobby were not wearing some type of U.S. military uniform, though most were a far cry more tidy than Nathan’s or Kate’s.
It was also a far cry from battlefield conditions. Looking scraggly and worn in sweaty fatigues, Kate felt out of place and self-conscious. Nathan, who honestly looked worse with dusty bandages on his face, seemed perfectly at ease. She envied him. Was it a woman thing—to want to feel appropriate to her environment? Or a Kate thing—never feeling good enough? And at this point, did it really matter?
