Absolution (22 page)

“I’m going to find out if there’s an update,” she announced suddenly, and when she rounded the couch, Bryn was right behind her.

They stopped at the closed door and shared a silent look. Emily swallowed. “Ready?”

“More than,” Bryn responded.

Ben answered her knock, looking exhausted.

“Hi,” he said, shifting so Sam could see them. She sat at her desk with a headset on, and her eyes were full of strain when she looked over at them.

“What’s happened?” Emily demanded.

“Look,” Ben said gently, and her whole body stiffened at his tone. “Now’s not the best time—”

“We just want to know if everything’s okay,” she interrupted. But they clearly weren’t okay, were they? One look at Sam’s face told her that.

A radio hissed and crackled in the silence, and then Luke’s unmistakable voice came over the line.

“I c-copy.”

Sam swung around so fast her hair swished around her shoulders, and Ben immediately strode over to peer at the computer in front of her. Beside her, Bryn gripped Emily’s hand. Hard. They stood frozen like statues, staring at the couple examining the screen.

Sam’s fingers raced over the keyboard as she typed, her brow creased in a worried frown. “Give us status, Luke.”

More crackling came, then a loud whistling noise, as if the wind blew into Luke’s radio. “P-pinned d-down...M-mortar f-fire...” A clacking sound followed.

Emily’s hands flew to her mouth. Jesus, that 175

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was his teeth chattering, wasn’t it? He was
freezing
to death. Bryn gripped her shoulder to steady her.

Something came up on the screen in front of them. “Shit, he’s alone,” Ben muttered, grabbing the radio from Sam. “We’ve got your position. Can you move to a more secure location?”

“N-negat-tive...Wh-where are o-others?”

“Rhys linked up with Dec and the others.

They’re holed up in a cave three clicks to your southwest.”

Behind her, Emily felt Bryn sag a little, but was too afraid to feel relief on her friend’s behalf. Luke was all alone facing enemy fire, and slowly freezing to death.

The radio crackled, but Luke didn’t say anything else. “Luke?” Ben’s voice was sharp. He raised a hand at her and Bryn to wave them away, but they didn’t move. “Come back.”

The howling of the wind filled the room for a moment before Luke replied. “Em-m-m...” he said clearly.

“Emily?” Sam finished. Both Ben and Sam’s heads whipped around to stare at her.

“Sh-she ok-kay?”

Swamped with pain, Emily stared back into Sam’s sympathetic brown eyes when she answered him. “Yes, she’s fine.”

“Sh-she h-has to g-get bet-ter...”

“She will.”

Emily moved without conscious thought, focused solely on the radio with Luke’s voice coming from it.

“Let me talk to him.” Her own voice was nearly unrecognizable, hoarse and strangled.

Then Luke came back on. “W-weather rep-port?”

Sam swung around, shifting into work mode.

“Storm should clear substantially within the next few hours.”

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Hours? Dear God, he’d be dead by then. Emily raised her hand toward Ben, fingers shaking as she held it out. “Give it to me so I can talk to him.”

Ben’s mouth tightened for a moment and she was sure he was going to say no, but then he held out the radio and keyed it for her.

She grabbed onto it like it was a lifeline. And maybe it was. “Luke? Luke, it’s me.”

“Em-m-m...”

“I’m here, sweetheart.” She didn’t give a shit if they had an audience for this. She needed to make him hold on. “You told me I couldn’t quit, do you remember that?”

“Y-yeah.”

Tears clogged her throat. “Well then I’ll keep fighting if you promise to do the same.” She bit back the ragged sob that wanted to explode from her aching chest. “Hear me? Don’t you give up. You have to stay awake and hold on—”

“B-Ben,” Luke rasped, “g-get her out-ta th-there...
N-now
...”

Emily jerked and clenched the radio when Ben tried to pull it away. “N-no. No, I—”

The wind shrieked in the background. “I’m-m out…” The radio fell eerily, awfully silent.

A loud roaring filled her ears. Hot tears spilled out of her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She was barely aware of Ben taking the radio from her numb fingers, or of Bryn’s words of reassurance as Ben lifted her into his arms and strode from the coms room. Emily covered her face and hid against his wide chest, swallowing the scream of denial crowding the back of her throat.

Up in the warm, brightly lit kitchen, Ben set her down in a chair and crouched down at her feet.

“Okay, you need to look at me,” he said in a low voice.

She focused on him with blurry eyes. Luke was 177

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alone. Suffering. Dying. No one could get to him to help. “He’s hypothermic.”

“Not yet, and he’s going to be okay. The weather’s going to lift and the temp will go up. As soon as it’s clear enough, Rhys will be going to him with Dec and his team.” He took her chilled hands between his and rubbed them, sending a glance at Bryn. “Get her some tea, will you?”

“I don’t w-want tea.” She wasn’t going to sit in a warm, comfortable kitchen and drink hot tea while the man she loved was freezing to death out in the desert.

Her mind spun. Did Luke believe he was going to die and hadn’t wanted her to know when he did?

Is that why he’d cut communications?

“Luke’s a tough sonofabitch,” Ben added. “He’s been through worse than this before, I promise you.”

Oh God.
She curled her fingers around Ben’s, so warm and strong. “They’ll get him out, right?”

“Absolutely.” His voice rang with conviction. “As soon as the storm clears enough the others will find him, and we’ll send in a chopper. The crews are already standing by, waiting for conditions to improve.”

It helped a bit, but not much. Bryn set a cup of chai tea next to her despite her refusal, and the sweet, spicy aroma brought a flood of fresh tears.

Luke had bought that for her. And now he was dying out in the cold while a cup of it steamed in front of her. The thought of drinking it turned her stomach.

No way in hell would she take a single sip. She pushed it away, wanting to throw up. “He didn’t want me to know.”

Ben caught her hands again. “He didn’t want you to hear him like that. Because he knew it would upset you, and he’s already worried about your health. I’d have done the same thing if it was me out there and Sam on the other end of the line.” He 178

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looked to Bryn for help, and her friend slid into a chair beside her.

“Go on back downstairs,” she said to him. “I’ll stay with her.”

But Emily grabbed his arm when he got up.

“Swear to me you’ll tell me if something happens.

Good or bad. Please.”

He nodded. “All right, but at least go upstairs and try to rest. That’s what he’d want you to do.”

Bryn placed a comforting arm around her shoulders and Emily leaned into her embrace. “I can’t stand it,” she confessed.

In answer, Bryn wrapped both arms around her and held on tight. “Yes, you can. We both can. And we will.”

Closing her eyes, Emily sent up a prayer for Luke. Sitting together in the silent kitchen, all she and Bryn could do was wait for one of their men to re-establish communications.

****

Luke...

Fighting to keep his eyes open, he focused on that far away voice calling his name.

Luke...come in...

His breathing was shallow and fast. His heart beat sluggishly. He peeled his lids wide open and shook his head, feeling like he was coming out of a general anesthetic. Desert. He was in the desert, crammed into this dark hole in the rocks because of enemy mortar fire.

Jesus, had he lost consciousness? He’d never been so fucking cold in his entire life. His limbs didn’t respond when he tried to move them. Damn 179

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he wished he’d have put on the cold weather gear before inserting.

“Luke!”

He grunted at the shout in his earpiece, fighting to bring his arm up in the tight space. Couldn’t feel his fingers. They were like lumps of ice as he fumbled for the button on the squad radio.

“Luke, come on you ugly bastard, say you copy.”

Dec. Dec was talking to him. His body shuddered uncontrollably as he managed to key the mike. His brain was sluggish, slow to turn over. Like a computer coming back online after a power outage.

“I c-c-copy,” he managed, speaking into the boom mike.

“‘Bout frigging time.”

He was too cold to smile. His limbs were numb, but everything else ached like a bitch, and his teeth were rattling so hard he wondered if he’d broken them all. The wind was calmer now, and he didn’t hear any rounds going off. How long had he been asleep? Another few minutes and he could have died.

“Storm’s lifting, buddy. We’ve got your coordinates. Any action where you are?”

“N-ne-g-gative.” Not yet, anyway.

“Can you move?”

No, but he had to. “Y-yes-s-s.” If he didn’t get moving he’d freeze to death. He had to keep his blood circulating.
Move, dammit.

“Make your way southwest, and we’ll find you.”

“W-wilc-co.”

“Cobra Team leader, out.”

Luke gritted his chattering teeth and pulled upright. His legs were like lead weights attached to his torso and he couldn’t feel his feet at all, but he forced himself to shuffle painfully out of the rocks toward the opening. At the entrance he paused, listening for signs that the enemy was still close, but only the wind answered him. It was still stiff, but 180

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nowhere near what it had been, and the snow had almost stopped. The eastern sky showed a line of turquoise lightening the indigo horizon. Had to be close to dawn. Struggling to raise his forearm, he squinted down at his watch. He’d been trapped in there for almost three hours, and he’d been asleep for probably twenty minutes or more. It scared the hell out of him to know how close he’d come to succumbing to hypothermia. His thighs would be covered with bruises because he’d kept pinching them to stay awake, but he’d fallen asleep anyhow, even after two decades spent serving in special ops.

He was lucky to still be alive.

Move, you dumb bastard
.

Staggering because he couldn’t feel his feet, he dug his ruck out of the snow and finally put on some cold weather gear. Already a bit warmer, he managed to get the ruck on after struggling with the straps. Then he contacted Sam back at the compound to let her know he was still kicking and intended to link up with the rest of the team. All except one. “Any w-word from D-Davis?”

“Negative, and the Agency can’t confirm his location either.”

“T-tell Em to g-go to b-bed.” As he disconnected, a wave of uneasiness washed through him. Davis was a pro. He’d never missed a rendezvous yet. Until now. What the hell had happened? The blizzard hadn’t blown up until after his scheduled insertion time.

Shifting his slung rifle around, Luke shuffled ahead for the first few meters until he got a renewed sense of balance. His movements were wild and jerky at first, but soon his respiration evened out and warmth returned to his core. The sky lightened enough for him to push the NVGs up onto his helmet and slog forward. If the enemy was close by, there was no way they could miss the tracks he left in the 181

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snow. Sensation came back to his arms and legs, bringing a stinging rush of blood, but his hands and feet remained numb. Thawing them out was not going to be fun, and it’d be a miracle if he didn’t have frostbite on a few of his digits.

Moving toward the original RV point in the growing light, he hugged the base of the cliffs to maintain what cover he could. Since the snow and wind had died down, he was able to make out the topographical landmarks and match them to the terrain detailed on his map. The worst of the shivering seemed to have subsided, but he was still wracked with them. He thought of Emily talking to him over the radio during the night. Shit, he wished she hadn’t heard his transmission to Sam. Sure as hell she’d been up all night waiting for word about him, worrying herself sick.
Sicker
, he corrected himself angrily.

A few minutes later Dec came on the squad radio. “We’ve got you in our sights.”

Good.

“No enemy contacts observed, but we’ll keep you covered. We’re six hundred meters from your present position, south-southwest behind the rise.”

“R-roger that.” With friendly eyes on him and their weapons covering his movements, Luke pushed his body into a jog, his bones feeling brittle enough to shatter like glass with each step. About fifty meters from the rise, Dec appeared at the bottom, his white teeth a slash in the middle of his camouflaged face.

He grabbed Luke’s shoulder. “Glad you could make it.”

A rusty laugh was all he could manage. Dec led the way to a more secure location where the others hunkered around a small warming fire, apparently convinced the enemy had left the field in order to warrant it. Rhys stepped out of the shadows, a 182

Absolution

towering figure holding a steaming mug.

“Coffee,” he said as he handed it to him.

Luke let out a low chuckle. “I’m out th-there f-freezing my a-ass off while y’all’re h-hav-ving a f-fucking tea p-party?”

Rhys cracked a grin. “Pretty much.”

Nice.

Holding the metal mug with both hands, some of it spilled as he brought it to his mouth. The coffee burned his lips and scalded his mouth, searing right down his esophagus to his stomach. He chugged it down anyway and gave a heartfelt groan of appreciation. Dec helped him pull off his ruck and the SEAL medic came over.

“Better sit by the fire, sir.”

“D-don’t mind if I d-do.” He squatted down in front of it and held his gloved hands out to the flames. The warmth against his frozen face was bliss, and stemmed the shivers that continued to plague him. After a few minutes feeling came back to his nose and lips. The medic pulled the Nomex gloves off and examined his hands. They were pure white, but at least the skin wasn’t hard and waxy.