Deceptive Treasures: Slye Temp Book 5 (31 page)

He liked this confident side of Jin
. “Point taken. Can you open it to see if the canister has been loaded yet?”

“I should be able to, but ... that does not make sense.” 

“Why? What does it say?”

Jin reached for one of two metal clasps and froze
.

A woman’s laughter percolated through the silence outside and was followed by a man’s voice speaking too low for Tanner to understand his words. They were entering the hangar.

Lights flipped on overhead in the giant space.

Tanner grabbed Jin and dragged her deep into the plane behind the cargo netting where the rear area was cast in dark shadows
.

“Pang cut this too close,” the woman said, banging a door shut on a metal cabinet
. “We should wait for a better window.”

Jin grabbed Tanner’s hand and squeezed
. One look at her face was all it took to confirm that they’d found her sister, Patty.

“We can’t, doll,” the man said
. “Pyongyang wants this operation shut down as soon as we’re through today. If
they
say we’re compromised, that’s enough for me.”

Had the Orion Hunters back in North Korea decided their operation was compromised because one of their Orion people inside the State Department tipped them off? Or was it because Har was dead?

Or because they knew Jin was here?

The sound of them moving around ceased and footsteps headed around the rear of the airplane, toward the jump door.

Tanner cursed to himself. He’d left the damn thing unlatched.

Patty spoke in a brisk tone that had not a speck of Korean accent. “The jump door is open
. Who was the last one to touch this, Stan?”

“Pang and Lenny
. I’m not busting on Lenny. Poor guy was probably in a hurry to get the canister packed and be done with that prima donna. Pang’s lucky that he came up with this formula or someone would have buried him by now.”  

Stan climbed in through the opening, a fit man in his thirties with short brown hair
. He had no accent.

Tanner placed him as Midwestern
.

Patty grumbled then told Stan, “I’d be more impressed if the prima donna had developed a chemical that could be shot out like a normal cloud seeding.”

“This still works. Once it’s released it’s so fine that the particles will float, giving us a wider spread for the contamination. It really is genius, but don’t tell Pang I said that. Once this toxin is on the ground, all we need is some rain and those babies start expanding and saturating their way down to the water table. Hell, we’ll be able to do more damage this way.”

Jin covered her face with her hands
. Hearing her sister so comfortable with this plan had to be breaking her heart.

Patty groused, “Yes, but I hate to see a fine aircraft abused.”

“I’ll buy you the newer model when we get settled again, doll.” 

Patty dragged metal steps into place that she used to step into the fuselage. She turned toward the cockpit too quickly for Tanner to see much, but she had Jin’s same height and body shape
. A trim five-foot-six, but where Jin’s dark brown hair fell to her waist, Patty’s had been cut in layers that fell loose and free.

Tanner had to tell Dingo this was not about seeding a cloud, but somehow spraying this over an area. He shielded his phone inside his jacket to text Dingo but ... no tower
.

Are you kidding me
?

Stan went to the parachutes and started checking them over while Patty took the pilot’s seat
.

Shit.

The turbo props turned over once and caught.

Jin made a panicked move, but Tanner caught her around the waist and hauled her back next to him
. He covered her mouth at the same time. She jerked around and raised terror-filled eyes to his, shaking her head that she could not do this.

The motor noise covered anything he’d say, but he still whispered next to her ear
. “I know you’re afraid, but he’s got a weapon and will kill both of us. Just stay here no matter what I do and don’t make a sound. Can you do that?”

She pulled his fingers from her mouth and cupped her trembling hands between her lips and his ear
. “We must stop now or we will all die.”

“No, we won’t. You stay back here until we land.”

Jin kept shaking her head. Stubborn woman.

The airplane was already out of the hangar and headed toward the runway
. As Stan closed the jump door and latched it for takeoff, the last blast of wind batted hair around Tanner’s face and blew Jin’s hoodie off, slapping loose strands everywhere from her ponytail.

The plane made the turn onto the runway and Patty gunned the throttle
. Jin clutched at Tanner when the G force pulled her back.

Tanner hooked his arm around her, drawing her to him. With the noise of the motor, Jin’s next words were lost
. Once he had her hugged up tight, she lunged back to talk next to his ear.

“I could not read all of it, but I saw the word explosive.”

Tanner wrenched around to see Stan on the port side now, holding onto a strap anchored to the cabin roof, and tinkering with the machine.

Now Patty’s conversation about abusing a fine aircraft and Stan’s reply that he’d buy her a new one clicked and made sense.

They intended to put it on autopilot, set the bomb timer and dive away while the aircraft exploded, dispersing the chemical. No one would ever figure it out.

The wind at that altitude would spread a fine mist of chemical for miles
.

He had to stop them before they jumped
.

Chapter Forty-Two

The aircraft had leveled off and was cruising at what Tanner estimated to be around fifteen thousand feet above the ground
. But the wind ahead of the storm was beating the fuselage, causing the craft to shudder and jerk.

Jin was curled into herself, shaking.

He kissed her and said, “Don’t move, no matter what.”

Patty unlatched herself from the pilot seat and braced herself on the cabin wall as she stepped around to stand over Stan as he unhooked her parachute from its moorings
. He stood and helped her into the yellow harness and loaded the pack onto her back, then unlatched the jump door and rolled it up out of the way.

Wind and engine noise sharpened and cold air lashed through the fuselage.

Patty caught Stan’s arm and yelled, “What about the timer?”

Stan gave her
a thumbs up, then turned to reach for the green harness and parachute.

Now or never
.

Tanner eased up, hunched over as he unlatched a clip on the heavy-duty cargo netting strung like a web across the rear compartment
. He led with his weapon.

Patty had just snapped her helmet strap and turned around to face the jump door when she and Stan noticed Tanner
.

Stan dropped the pack and yelled, “What the fuck?”

Tanner said, “Hands up. We know about your plan. It’s done.”

Patty took a step toward the door.

Tanner shouted, “Freeze or you’re dead.”

“How could you?” Jin screamed beside Tanner, yanking his attention away from Stan for a second.

Jin clung to the netting, trembling, with tears pouring down her face.

“Put the gun down or she dies,” Stan shouted.

That split second Tanner had let his guard down was all Stan needed to draw his Glock and point it at Jin.

Tanner held his weapon on Stan, but he didn’t want to kill the one person they probably needed to disarm the thing
.

Or risk a stray bullet striking the bomb.

Patty stared at her sister. “What are you doing here? You’re helping
him
? An American? You’re a disgrace to our people.”

Tanner used the time while Patty ranted to figure out his next step, which was
what
? Hell if he knew. If he took his gun off Stan, he risked Jin being hit.

“Me?”  Still clutching the swaying net, Jin stood up straighter and grew a steel backbone
. “I do not murder people. How can you do this?”

“These are Americans
. The man who left us to be sold was American.”

“Mother did not sell us.”“Yes, she did and I thank her spirit for it every day.”

Stan warned Patty, “Six minutes. Do something.”

She nodded and told Jin,  “How can you care about Americans who are not Orion Hunters
? They are our only family. The
Korean
Hunters fed and raised us. They educated us and how do you repay them? By betraying all we stand for. You are not my sister. You are nothing more than a wasted sperm.”

Jin shouted, “You are not
my
sister.”  

Stan shouted, “Fine. Nobody is anybody’s sister. We’re done here, Patty.”

The plane hit a patch of turbulence and lurched up and down hard.

Patty bounced against the side once and fell out the jump door.

Tanner flew sideways toward the door, but twisted and lunged for the floppy netting that Jin was using to stay upright.

Jin shrieked, “No!” and grabbed his arm, yanking him to her with more strength than he’d have thought possible.

Good thing or he’d have missed the handhold and slid out the door behind Patty.

Stan grabbed his parachute as he tumbled back toward the machine
. He stabbed an arm through the shoulder strap and tried to stand at the same time.

The airplane dipped and he tripped, sliding across the cabin floor and half out the jump door.

Tanner lunged with one hand and grabbed the free strap on Stan’s pack, jerking it back.

Stan swung around wild-eyed, gripping the single strap as he fell all the way out the jump door, dragging Tanner with him
.

Tanner held onto the strap with one hand and the netting with his other. His shoulders screamed with pain. He prayed the netting wouldn’t break.

Wind battered Stan’s body. He fought to push a hand up and get a double grip on his side of the pack. His terror-ridden gaze whipped into view just as the plane hit another air pocket and dipped.

The tension on the pack was slack for a microsecond,
then Stan’s weight plunged down in a vicious yank on Tanner’s muscles.

That broke Stan’s hold on the strap.

His scream died in the brutal wind whipping his body through the air. Tanner had lost his HK in all that, but a weapon wasn’t going to save him and Jin.

He dragged himself and the parachute backpack over to her and yelled, “Help me put this on.” 

Her eyes glazed with shock.

Oh, hell
. He was not losing her now. He roared,
“Jin.”

When she snapped out of her daze, he shouted, “Help me put this on.”  With her hands shaking so hard every effort took twice as long, they managed to get him strapped in
.

The airplane leveled off.

Tanner had to get to that machine now. It was on the other side of the jump door. Only a few feet away, but one bump and they’d both slide out the door.

He grabbed Jin’s arm and started toward the machine
.

“No!” Jin had a death grip on the webbing
.

He didn’t have time to coax her
. “Do you want to die?”

That might have been the wrong question considering she had a look on her face that said she was ready to end this terror
. He asked, “Are you willing to let
me
die?”

A strange look came over her face and she finally let go of the webbing
. He held her arm in a grip that would probably leave bruises, but if he got tossed out the jump door, she was coming with him.

He pulled her to the machine and lowered her to the floor, keeping her on the cockpit side of him so she couldn’t fall out of his reach. “Open this thing up and take out the canister.”

“I don’t know if I can do it without setting off the detonation.”

He’d lost the chance to save Martina and now he was going to have to watch his family and everyone anywhere close to water influenced by the Ogallala Aquifer lose everything
.

What had Margaux said?
You can’t save them all, cowboy.

“If we can’t take the canister out, then I’m getting you out of here.” He started to stand.

Jin gripped his arm, pulling him back down. “I will not live just to let all those people die. You would never forgive yourself if we did not try.”

That’s how he’d be looking at this if he were alone right now
. He’d move his family to save them, but he’d move heaven and earth to protect Jin. “I won’t forgive myself if anything happens to you.”

“I love you, cowboy.”

What a time to find that out. “I love you, too, sweetheart, but I’ll love you even more if you’ll get moving.”

“Let me try to do this.”  She reached for a latch
.

He put his hand on hers before she opened the machine and she smiled at him
. “Have a little faith, cowboy.”

This was the woman he wanted by his side forever
. If he could just keep them both alive. He took a look at the timer. “You have ninety-eight seconds.”

Without another word, she turned into the determined ninja he’d fallen in love with
. She read the Korean scribble, then unhooked each latch. She continued, reading quickly and moving her hands just as fast.

She was so precise about every movement that he could feel his heart slamming up against his chest with every second that flew out the jump door
.

“Eighty seconds, Jin. We’ve got to go.”  They still might not survive the explosion
.

She pulled out a silver canister and held it like a newborn. “I have it
. Now what?”

“We jump.”

Her face fell and she started shaking.

He grabbed her by the shoulders
. “Do you trust me?”

She stared up at him with those silver-blue eyes
. “Yes.”

He stood her up
. “I trust you to hold that canister so I can hold you. I won’t let you go.”

She cupped the canister to her chest
. He picked her up beneath her elbows. “Wrap your legs around my waist.”

He wrapped his arms tight around her and dove out of the airplane, and her throat-ripping scream split his left eardrum as he let them free-fall to put as much distance between them and—

Ka-boooom!

Yeah, that
.

As they fell faster, Tanner buried his face in Jin’s shoulder to shield her as the wave of heat and concussion from the explosion knocked him sideways in the air
. When he looked up, far beneath the line of thunderheads, a streak of sunlight was trying to peek over the horizon. Tanner had no freaking idea where they would land, but they’d gotten out of the plane in time.

Jin’s words popped into his mind
. .
.. the Orion Hunters said that my sister would die and she would never see it coming.

What if they’d planned Stan’s death, too, and the parachutes had been sabotaged?