DeliciousDanger (37 page)

* * * * *

They landed on the far side of the uninhabited island, a
coral atoll covered with thick tropical vegetation, setting down on the beach
just as the sun was beginning to turn the sky pink. Mike managed to maneuver
the bird close enough to the shrubs and trees at the edge of the beach to land
where he could hide it, and they covered it with camouflage netting.

The three of them with Xena found a spot not too far away
where they could be concealed from any passing boats or planes, yet not far
from the chopper in case they needed it. Mike unfolded a thermal blanket and
they sat down, stacking their provisions to one side.

“We’d better get some sleep,” Mike said. “We were up pretty
much all night and we’re going to need our wits about us when we launch.”

Rick looked at his watch. “We’ll take turns standing guard.
I don’t think all of us should sleep at the same time.”

“I can take my turn,” Kelly told them. “Xena will guard with
me.” She looked from one man to the other, seeing their objections in their
eyes. “And no arguments. I’m a great shot and I don’t fall asleep on the job.
So no catering to the ‘little lady’,” she insisted.

Rick chuckled. “Okay, Red. You get your turn. But let me
take the first watch. Mike, you flew all the way and Red, I want you fresh. So
everyone make yourselves as comfortable as possible.”

He pulled his Glock from his waistband, racked the slide to
chamber a bullet and checked his pockets to make sure he had extra clips.

Kelly and Mike smeared themselves with insect repellent and
stretched out on the thermal blanket, using backpacks as pillows. Rick lathered
on the liquid and then seated himself on a fallen log. Xena planted herself
right beside him, eyes alert, head pointed inward toward the center of the
atoll.

“You and me, girl. Right?” Rick fondled the dog’s ears.

Xena nudged his hand with his nose.

It amazed Rick that the animal hadn’t made a sound since the
chopper had taken off in Maryland. Even her footsteps were nearly soundless,
almost impossible for an animal her size. During the two hours they stood
guard, Xena never once relaxed, never lay down. She simply sat ready for
whatever happened, constantly scenting the air and swiveling her eyes.

At the end of two hours, Rick shook Kelly gently.

“Time to wake up, sleeping beauty,” he said in a low voice.

“Oh, lordy.” She leaped lithely to her feet and treated
herself to a good stretch. “If I’d known you guys had so much fun and lived so
lavishly I might have hunted you up a long time ago.”

Rick pulled her close to him, capturing her mouth in a deep
kiss. “When this is over we’re going to take some time off and plan our future,
just like I said at the cabin. I have a specific plan in mind and I hope you’re
okay with it.”

Her eyes studied his, searching for something. He held her,
letting everything he felt show for her to see. Then he pulled her hard against
his body.

“I love you, Red.”

Her heartbeat tripped in an uneven cadence. With all the
promises he’d made and all the references to plans, this was the first time
he’d made this declaration. She knew these weren’t words he said lightly. She
lifted her face to him.

“I love you too. Sometimes it feels as if I’ve loved you all
my life.”

“Me too. Must be more of that linking thing we’ve got
going.” He gave her a hard kiss.

“I think you’re onto something,” she told him. “Now. Let me
answer the call of nature. And you should take a couple of aspirins before you
lie down.”

He didn’t argue, shaking them out of the container in one of
the backpacks and uncapping a bottle of water. He kissed her once more before
taking her place on the thermal blanket.

“Watch my back, Red,” he winked.

“And a whole lot more,” she joked, taking his seat on the
log, Xena stationed beside her.

She took a long drink from the bottle Rick had handed her
and tried not to think about how hot it was.

* * * * *

Despite the ache in his chest, the humidity and the hard
ground beneath the thermal blanket, Rick was asleep almost as soon as his eyes
closed. He seldom dreamed, a discipline he’d developed during all his years in
the military. If you dreamed you could be too deep in your sleep cycle and
caught unawares. But fatigue and a weakened condition contributed now to the
lapse in discipline.

He was on an island, not unlike the one where they were
hiding at the moment. Moving stealthily through foliage he came to the house on
the far side, a graceful two-story with plantation columns and wide windows. On
a flagstone terrace a table under an umbrella was set with crystal and china
but no one was in evidence.

Then two men walked out from the house, voices angry. In
his dream he strained to see them but their faces were shadowed, diffused. He
could just make out the shape of Greg Jordan’s body but the other man was still
like a smudge on the landscape.

As he tried to move closer Xena was there, knocking him
flat and dragging him by his t-shirt back into the foliage. At that moment a
piece of paper blew up from the ground, floating on the air just out of his
reach. The unknown figure morphed into a gun that began spitting bullets at him
and with a stifled cry he woke up.

“Jesus Christ.” He dragged a shaking hand over his sweaty
face.

Kelly was beside him at once. “Rick? What is it? What’s
wrong?”

“Remember when you told me your dog sometimes invades your
dreams to give you messages?”

“Yes. Why?”

“And I told you she did that to me the other night?”

“Did something happen just now?”

“I think so.” He took the water bottle Kelly handed him and
drained it in great gulps. “We’re going to have trouble when we get to the
other island. Someone’s going to kill me. Or try to.”

“We figured Greg Jordan wouldn’t give up without a fight,”
she reminded him.

“No, not him. Someone else. Someone…” He rubbed his eyes
with the heels of his hands. “Someone I know? Someone I don’t expect? That
thing just at the back of my mind, Red, that’s been teasing me since I came
back from Iraq? The trip just before we shipped the weapons? Whoever wants to
kill me, it has something to do with that. I know at least that much now.”

“How do you know?”

He stared at her, as if he still couldn’t quite believe it
himself. “Xena told me.”

* * * * *

Wakened by the heavy pounding on Rick’s front door, Dan had
thrown on his jeans and shirt and opened the door to find a very angry man in
the person of Assistant United States Attorney John Hopewell. Behind him were
the two agents who’d spent the night sitting across the street in their car.

“Either you produce Eric Latrobe,” Hopewell said between
gritted teeth, “or we’ll charge him in absentia and proceed accordingly.”

“Nice to see you too, John,” he greeted him with heavy
sarcasm. “Were you just in the neighborhood and thought you’d drop in?”

“Don’t get smart with me, Dan. I want your partner and I
want him this minute. You and I both know he’s as guilty as hell so quit
stalling.”

“The first thing I think we should do is come inside so we
don’t wake the whole neighborhood.” He stepped back and opened the door wider.

Hopewell raised an eyebrow. “You’re inviting me in?”

“Why not? I have nothing to hide.”

“Why are you staying here?”Hopewell demanded and looked
around. “This mean’s Latrobe’s not here, right?”

“I’m here because it didn’t seem like a good idea to fly
back to Texas with all this still on the table and Rick’s got plenty of room.”

“Where is he? I want to know exactly where he is.”

Dan held out his hands, palms up. “I wish I could tell you
but I just don’t know.”

“Don’t give me that crap. You’ve got him stashed somewhere
and it’s time to turn him over.”

Dan folded his arms across his chest. “Tell you what, John.
Do you have a warrant? If so, you can bring it to our offices after nine
o’clock and deliver it to our attorneys. If you don’t have one, then you need
to get the hell out of this house. I’m tired of you, the media and every covert
and overt government agency in existence throwing dirt on a man who has served
his country well and continues to do so. You’re dealing with circumstantial
evidence here and that’s all.”

“If you’re so sure he’s innocent, then why won’t you turn
him over to us?”

“Turn him over?” A muscle twitched in Dan’s cheek. “You mean
like a common criminal?”

“I want him,” Hopewell repeated stubbornly.

“Nine o’clock,” Dan repeated. “Our offices. Now I think it’s
time for you to leave.”

He locked the door and reset the alarm, hoping that Rick was
having success on his very tricky mission. Besides the people who wanted to
arrest him, too many people wanted to kill him. They needed to put this thing
to bed and quickly.

* * * * *

The man was activating his carefully constructed plan, the
only option his greed had left him. He spent the entire day getting everything
in order, making sure his wife and family would be taken care of when he was
gone. He was sorry about the others who would be affected but not sorry enough
to stay and admit what he’d done. That would destroy everyone.

No, this was the best solution to the problem. He had it all
carefully planned and all the arrangements had been made. He allowed himself
one last moment of regret for what he was leaving behind, then turned back to
the tasks at hand. Everything would have worked out perfectly if any of the
idiots charged with the task had killed Rick Latrobe. Well, no help for it now.

He’d decided his usual bolt-hole would no longer work. If
someone put the pieces together it would be easy enough to find him there. It
wasn’t so much the government he was worried about as al-Dulami’s men and
others who would want to erase all trace of him.

He needed a new place, one completely off the radar and he
had researched some locations. He’d already moved all of his money to new
accounts, leapfrogging so many times he didn’t think anyone could follow the
trail.

But first he had one loose end to eliminate. The only person
left who could tie him to this fiasco. As soon as he left here he’d take care
of it.

* * * * *

The day dragged monotonously, the humid air filled with the
sounds of chattering birds and the noises of insects. The heavy incense of the
tropical blooms like magnolias and hyacinths clogged the still air, at times
making it difficult to breathe. Rick and Mike had been through this in many
corners but Kelly surprised both of them with her survival skills and her
infinite patience when there was nothing to do but wait. They slept in shifts,
or rested if sleep escaped them. And made sure they drank plenty of water.
Dehydration was the last thing they could afford.

Rick and Mike checked and rechecked the weapons constantly
and went over the route to the island and the procedure they’d use so many
times Kelly was sure she could do it in her sleep.

Kelly found it interesting that Xena positioned herself as
close as possible to Rick rather than her.

“She knows you’re the one in danger. She smells it. Senses
it.”

“I keep hoping she’ll find her way into my dreams again so I
can see exactly who this guy is but no such luck. And what the missing piece of
the puzzle is.”

“If anyone had told me that a psychic dog would be sending
you messages in your dreams,” Mike commented, “I’d have told them they were
flat-out crazy. But the past few months I’ve seen so many unexplainable things
I just don’t question stuff anymore.”

“People have been trying to explain psychic phenomena for
centuries,” Kelly told him. “Even when testing is done in labs the results are
often inconclusive. Some things you just have to take on faith.”

“Have you thought any more about Mia’s offer to come to
Maryland with Xena?” Rick asked. “Become part of our new Psi department?”

She smiled at him. “Before the farm burned I’d have probably
given it a pass. But now…” She shrugged. “I’m faced with starting over
completely, so maybe it’s time to make some real changes in my life.”

He put down the gun he was holding and took one of her hands
in his. “That’s part of what I want to talk to you about. After we’re married
we can live anywhere. I told you that. And if Maine is where it’s at for you, I
can handle that. But you might want to look at other locations, since you’re
essentially rebuilding anyway.”

“After we’re married.” A warm feeling slithered through her
body. “That has a nice ring to it. I want to go to Texas too and meet this
woman, Vivi, and the others in her Lotus Circle group there. But let’s get out
of here first, clear your name, then we can make plans.” She squeezed his hand.
“Together.”

The air became marginally cooler as the sun dropped below
the horizon and the first edge of night crept over them. When it was full dark,
they began to clear their small camp and carry their supplies back to the
helicopter.

Mike and Rick unloaded an inflatable boat and the pump to
blow it up. Kelly watched, amazed, as the small package of rubber suddenly
became a craft that would carry the three of them plus Xena. While the men
finished getting the boat ready and loading their gear, she took Xena to the
beach to prepare her. She’d never been so grateful to have a dog who could
obviously read her mind. Xena sat perfectly still, head cocked, as she absorbed
everything Kelly needed her to know. She gave one tiny whine, obviously knowing
barking would not be a good thing and trotted back to where the men were.

Then Mike pulled jungle fatigues out of one of the
backpacks, handing them around. Extra clips for the handguns went into pockets,
along with tiny flashlights and a bottle of water for each of them.