He shook his head. "Oh ye of little faith."
"Is it safe to come out?"
"It wasn't a bom b." She felt like such an idiot. The others
stepped from the shelter of the trees. "Only a branch."
"Cool, then we don't need to have a mock funeral for you two."
"You would've had a funeral for us?" Warren brushed an
imaginary tear from his eye. "I'm too touched for words."
Alesha batted him on the arm. "Let's get going before Johnny
steals all the glory."
Lyraka was all for that.
They were silent as they moved through the woods. Lyraka
went ahead as before. She didn't come across any more booby traps,
but she did spot a small structure, one or two rooms at the most. The
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roof was thatch so it blended in well with the rest of the wooded
terrain. The outer walls were a weathered brown stone, the windows
boarded over.
Her heart began to pound again. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. She slowly backed away until she thought it was safe, then turned and hurried back to the team. This time, they weren't far behind.
She quickly told them what she'd found. "I didn't see anyone
around the cabin."
"It's a trick," Reeka said. "They want us to rush in. Did you see Johnny?"
She shook her head. "No sign of him."
"He could be scouting the area." Ray didn't sound very confident. "I've seen his type in action before. He wants the glory, the medals, and all the hoopla that goes with being an agent, but when it gets down to the nut-cutting..." He cleared his throat. "Sorry. What I meant to say was that when it comes down to why we all chose this profession, then he falls short of the mark. I wouldn't doubt that he's been captured."
A scream filled the air. Lyraka jumped.
"What the hell was that?" Link warily looked around.
"Johnny." Alesha clicked the safety on her gun to the off position.
Lyraka looked at them. "They wouldn't torture him, would they?
I mean, this is just a practice maneuver."
"Nah, we couldn't be that lucky," Warren said with a grin.
"They'll want everything to be as real as possible. They won't hurt him too much, but they'll give him a taste of what it would be like if he ever gets captured."
"Do we really have to save him?" Reeka looked at them. "I'm just being practical. Nerakians are like that."
Lyraka saw the twinkle in Reeka's eyes and knew she teased, which was rare for a Nerakian, especially a warrior. She guessed anyone could adapt and change no matter who they were.
She turned her attention back to their problem. Saving Johnny
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wasn't very appealing to her, either. "Ray, you're better at rescue. Do you have a plan?"
"No, but I bet if we all put our heads together, we can come up with one." He picked up a rock, kicked away the debris to clear a spot on the ground, then set the rock down in the middle. "This is the building." He looked at Lyraka. "What's around it?"
"I didn't get too close when I saw it. I came back here instead, but it sits in a small clearing surrounded by trees." She made a circle on the ground using a stick, then set a smaller rock halfway between the trees and the cabin. "There's an old well right here. If a couple of us move up and use that for cover, then go the rest of the way to the cabin from that point, we'll only be vulnerable for probably less than thirty seconds."
"This is what we'll do then." He quickly mapped out a plan.
They would go in twos and circle the cabin. Lyraka would be with
Ray, Alesha with Link, and Reeka with Warren. The others nodded they were ready and they moved out.
When the building was within sight, Ray and Lyraka crept to the back side. The door was open.
"The door was closed when I was here before."
She glanced at Ray and saw his apprehension. She knew the feeling. It didn't look as if they had a choice other than to check out the cabin.
Ray pointed toward the well, she nodded, and the two of them moved forward. Her hands trembled when they crouched down beside it. She wasn't sure if it was from adrenaline overload, fear, or maybe a little of both.
Her gut instinct told her whoever was in the cabin had already gone, but she couldn't take that chance even though it cost them precious minutes.
Ray motioned for her to take the right side, he would take the left. Alesha and Warren had the front. Reeka and Link would have
their back. Before he could take a step forward, she grabbed his arm.
"I move faster," she whispered.
After only a second's hesitation, he whispered back. "Be
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careful."
She made her move and was on the back porch in a flash. She gripped her gun as she hugged the exterior wall, and listened. She'd swear there wasn't anyone inside. There was absolutely no noise.
She looked toward Ray, then touched her ear and shook her head.
He slunk down as he made his way across the yard and joined her. Once there, he eased around the side of the door and did a quick look, then shook his head.
What was this? Roan had said the hostages were here. She poked her head inside the structure. Nothing. Empty. She frowned.
The interior was dim. As her eyes adjusted she noticed the wires running along the windows and the floor. When Ray started to step inside, she grabbed his arm, then pointed toward the wires.
"Crap, let's get the hell out of here." He didn't wait to see if she followed, knowing she would.
"It was wired with explosives. At least, it would've been explosives if this was a real exercise." Roan had thought of everything. So where had the hostages been moved?
The other four joined them.
"We found tracks," Warren said. "Johnny might have told them we were coming."
"Then we have to find them and fast. That is, if they haven't already simulated their deaths." Reeka spoke in a matter of fact voice. The Nerakian warrior was fi rmly back in place.
Reeka and Warren led the others to where the tracks were.
"Looks like they left in a hurry since they didn't cover where they were going," Ray said, then looked in the direction the footsteps were headed.
"Then we can catch up to them. At least, I can."
"It's too dangerous," Ray said with a shake of his head.
"It's the only choice we have. I'll be back before you can finish
arguing." Lyraka grinned before she took off.
"Yeah, I'd say she can run the mile in under nine," she heard
Link say before she was far enough away that she couldn't hear them.
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Lyraka was careful to stay off the path even though there might be booby traps. It took her less than five minutes to catch up to Johnny and his captors. She kept her cover.
There were three men with guns. Really big men with ugly snarling faces. Where the hell did the government recruit these guys--from prison? This all looked a little too real.
Johnny's hands were tied behind his back as he was pushed and pulled along. There were three more men with their hands tied behind their backs, but she noticed they weren't pushed quite as hard as Johnny. She'd seen all she needed to see and headed back to the others.
Once she'd rejoined them, she quickly explained they were moving fast and yes, they had Johnny.
"I have a plan," she said. "I'll get in front of them and see if I can pick off the one in front. Two of you bring up the rear and one on each side and we'll have them boxed in."
"Be careful," Ray told her.
She nodded and took off agai n. She moved in place so that she was in front of the men and their hostages. She chose a spot that was just a little elevated, but would shield her in case she was caught in any kind of crossfire.
Then she waited.
As soon as she had the front man in her sights, she squeezed the trigger, hitting him dead center of his chest. He stumbled, looked at the blob of blue paint, cursed and sat down on the ground.
She smiled.
He was dead, and he knew it. The other two quickly took cover behind a hostage, guns to their heads. Their implication was clear--if they went down, so did the innocent men they had captured.
"We'll kill them!" one of them yelled.
"Let them go, and you will live. You have my word." All she had to do was keep them talking until the others caught up and got into position. But after three minutes had passed, she'd run out of things to say and was starting to worry.
"I think you're by yourself," one of the bad guys called out.
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"What are you going to do when you capture us?" he taunted.
"Like she said, put down your guns and we'll let you live." Link
spoke from the side somewhere, but she couldn't see him. Relief
washed over her.
"Back off or they're dead!" The bad guy spun around in the
direction Link's voice had come from.
"You're surrounded," Warren said from the opposite side.
"You don't have a chance," Ray called from somewhere in the
rear.
"It looks as though we don't have anything to lose 'cause no
way are you going to let us go if we free them."
There was a pop and the bad guy's chest was covered in a big
blue splotch of paint. He immediately went down.
"Do you want to be next?" Link asked the remaining guard.
"Yeah, you might kill a hostage, but you'll definitely be going down.
You drop your weapon, let the hostage go, and you at l east have a
chance."
Since the only one left had Johnny, Lyraka almost hoped the bad guy splattered him with paint. She really didn't like the guy. But he didn't, he carefully laid his gun down and stepped away, hands behind his head as he went down on his knees.
She came to her feet, smiling. Mission accomplished.
"It's a good thing I'm not a bad guy or you'd be dead right now,"
Roan spoke from behind her.
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Chapter 19
L
yraka jumped and whirled around.
Roan knew he probably shouldn't have scared her like that, but he wanted her to be aware of all possibilities. Anyone could be just around the corner.
"I didn't even hear you!" She frowned at him, but she didn't look that pissed. After her initial scare, she even looked a little glad to see him.
For a moment he got lost in her eyes and the way she looked at him. Just as quickly, he cleared his throat and turned serious. This was important.
"When you're on a mission, you have to be aware of everything. If there had been someone on watch, you'd be dead right now."
She tilted her chin. "We did save the hostages, you know. Did anyone ever tell you that you really know how to kill a moment?"
"Yeah, they have."
"I thought as much."
There was a burst of laughter. Roan's gaze moved to the trail
where the others were. Gavin had just joined the group of agents
who'd acted as hostages. Roan noticed that he was taking his time
cutting the rope from Johnny's wrists. Johnny was going to make him
regret that later.
"You did very well," he said as he turned back to her.
Her smile widened. "You think so?"
Rookies. "Yeah, I know so."
"What's next?"
She looked like she was ready to shoot more bad guys. He'd
created a monster, but one he was proud of. Lyraka just might make
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a good agent after all.
A very sexy one, too. She definitely filled out fatigues in all the
right places. Whoa, what the hell was he doing? The training session
had barely ended and he wanted to jump her bones. He'd never in his
life been this infatuated with a woman. It made him nervous as hell.
Time to leave while he still could.
"We'll head back so everyone can clean up and grab a bite to eat," he told her. "I've called a meeting at the training room
afterwards so we can go over the exercise. Gavin will lead everyone back to the transport truck. It's not far from here." If he didn't get away soon, he would pull her into his arms and kiss her.
He turned and went deeper into the woods. Just over the ridge there was a clearing where he'd parked the Jeep.