River of Desire: A Romantic Action Adventure/Thriller (25 page)

He blanched. “Before you say anything more, there’s something I think you ought to know about me.”

Her heart skipped more than one beat. “What is it?”

“I’m not the man you think I am. Not that I haven’t done a few good things, but I’ve also never completed anything in my life.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
I told you about Jason, but what I failed to mention was that after he died, I began to drink heavily, and my life fell apart. Because of that, I was forced to leave the service. Then when Katie broke our engagement, I left school—just weeks shy of graduation.” He released a deep breath. “There, you have it. I’m a perpetual dropout, and I might not be able to live up to what you expect.”

She took his face in her hands. “I don’t know about that. So far, you’ve stuck by me.”

“That’s not because of anything I did, it’s because of you. Because you’ve shown me I’m not necessarily a loser or a bad luck charm. The acceptance I see shining through your eyes has given me the courage to take real risks and not run away.” He hesitated, looking deeply into her eyes. “I have one more risk I have to take.”

“
What is that?” she asked.

“
I need to let you know...I love you, too.”

She wrapped her arms around him and joy temporarily banished her sadness. 

* * *

Leah must have dozed off because a knock on the door startled her awake. Dylan made his way to the door and opened it a crack. Light streamed into the room.

“I vant you should awaken Leah and meet me in the laboratory,
schnell
!” Kruger demanded.

“
What’s wrong?” Dylan asked.

“
Just do vhat I ask.” 

Dylan closed the door and shuffled toward the bed, stumbled over a chair leg, knocked into the table and lit the oil lamp. “Are you awake?”

“It would be tough trying to sleep through that,” she joked. She rubbed her eyes against the light and sat up. “What do you think he wants?”

“
I don’t know, but he sounds serious. Get dressed and we’ll find out.”

A few minutes later, they made their way across the darkened yard to the laboratory. Kruger stood in front of the laboratory table, waiting for them. His hair was uncharacteristically disheveled, his face was as pale as the white-washed walls.

“What’s so important, Doctor Kruger?” Dylan asked.

Kruger gestured at the table. “These vials represent years of vork, of isolation, of secrecy.” He picked up a vessel of clear fluid. “These formulas vere my religion. My children.
mein Leben
.” He placed the vial back on the table. “Until you arrived.”

Still sleepy, Leah shuffled up behind Dylan. “What’s changed?”

“Everything,
mein kinder
. Everything.” The doctor stared out the darkened window. “Before you, I believed I did something important that vould benefit all mankind. Now I vonder if vhat I did vill be used for destruction.”

“
I hope I didn’t make you feel badly about...”

“
Leah, dear, you are not cause for my feelings. You only held up mirror for me to look at myself and my life. Vhat I see, I do not like.” Kruger’s attention had focused on the laboratory table with its rack of test tubes, Bunsen burner, neat stack of microscopic slides, and culture plates. “I prided myself with being research scientist, part of Project Paperclip. I thought vaccines I vould make to save vorld from biological disaster. Now I question vhat happens if wrong person gets hand on vork. I cannot live vith this thought.”

Still half-asleep, she tried to clear her head enough to grasp the significance of what he was saying. “But–”

Kruger looked at her with tears glistening in his eyes. “You are vonderful granddaughter. You make old man proud. Can you ever forgive vhat I did?”

She hesitated for only a moment, then knew what she had to do. Whatever happened, she had to make her peace. “Grandfather…” Her voice broke with emotion. “I want you to know...I forgive you.”

“Thank you, my dear child,” Kruger whispered. He reached for her hand and placed it in Dylan’s. “For my granddaughter I turn over care to you. Now away from here take her. I heard from river people, soldiers are on their vay. I thought Hernandez might be bluffing, but bluffing he vas not.”

The impact of his words shocked Leah fully awake. She tried to wrench her hand out of Dylan’s, but he held fast.

Kruger ignored her. “To confiscate and destroy my vork they come, but I have prepared. I had laboratory wired to explode if my vork was detected. I must to detonate bomb as soon as you go.” With a sweep of his hand, he indicated his resolve. “I have no intention to change mind, so do not question my decision. I must destroy all this before it falls into wrong hands and can be used for more death and destruction. You must at once go and report vhat you know to your government. I vill remain here.”

Leah finally wrenched her hand free of Dylan’s and grasped Kruger’s arm. “You can’t do this. It’s not right!”

Kruger tried to remove her hand.

“
Please don’t do this,” she pleaded. “Your life’s not over yet. I still need you.”

Kruger swallowed hard, but stood his ground. “I vant you should go now.”

Pain knocked the wind out of her. “No!” She clung to Kruger.

Kruger shot Dylan a telling look and pried her fingers free. Dylan gripped her arm.   

“Please come back with us,” she begged.

“
I cannot,” Kruger said with resolve. “Away from here, I have no life. The CIA vill try to silence me. I must vith my formulas remain.”

“
Please, Grandfather, please!” she begged. “Don’t do this, come with us. We’ll protect you.” She wasn’t sure what she meant, but she would come up with a plan later.

“
Too late,
mein kinder
.” Kruger thrust a labeled vial full of solution into Dylan’s free hand. “Take this.”

“
What is it?” Dylan placed the vial in his pocket.

“
I make more potent vaccine than one presently used for menoccocal meningitis. It is all I can offer vorld.” He shoved Dylan’s shoulder. “Now take Leah and go!”

“
Won’t you reconsider, Doctor?” Dylan asked. “You can come with us and still detonate the compound.”

“
If soldiers thought I survived, they vill to follow me and place you in danger. I vant to choose way I die. You should leave now.”

Dylan tugged at Leah, but she struggled to loosen his grip. No matter how hard she tried, he held firm and urged her out the door.

“Vait,” Kruger shouted from behind them. “Take this.” He handed Dylan a velvet sack. “It is her grandmother’s legacy. Now go!”

Against Leah’s utmost resistance, Dylan dragged her from the laboratory.

“Please release me! Let me go!” She fought to free herself, but in spite of her struggles, Dylan marched her relentlessly forward.

As they passed the experimental monkey cages, she dug her heels in and managed to slow their progress. “Even if you won’t release me, can’t we let them go?”

Dylan hesitated, studied the simians for a second too long. In his distraction, Leah saw her opportunity to turn back to the laboratory before it was too late. She twisted away from Dylan, but he grasped her wrist and yanked her toward the dock, refusing to answer her pleas about the monkeys, except to point out they might be infected and could spread disease.

All the way to the launch, she struggled to free herself.

At the boat, he pushed her on board and shoved off shore, keeping a hand tightly clamped to her arm while she clawed at the gunwale, trying to get out. “We can’t do this. We have to stop him.”

Once off shore, Dylan jumped in beside her, breathing heavily. She lurched for the side, but he stopped her escape with a firm hand on her shoulder.    

“It’s too late. He’s made up his mind. I could see it in his eyes. There’s nothing you can do,” he said.

Tears of fear and frustration streamed down her cheeks. “I can’t let him die like this. I just can’t...” She choked on her emotion.

The engine failed to start, but Dylan managed to push the boat away from the island with rapid strokes of an oar while keeping an eye on her. “We have no choice.”

They had only gone about a quarter mile off shore when a tremendous blast shook the boat. Leah sprung to her feet, almost overturning the craft. She let out a horrified scream just before Dylan pulled her down and sheltered her in his arms. Flames and debris shot into the air where the compound had been. Waves on the normally peaceful water rocked beneath her feet. The stench of burning buildings reached her.

Flames licked the sky and crackled close by. She stared helplessly at the inferno, with Dylan’s arms tightly roped around her. When he finally released her, she slid to the seat and buried her head in her hands. She continued to weep until long after Dylan had refueled, fired the engine and navigated beyond sight of the burning buildings.

* * *

Safely downstream, Dylan fingered the black velvet sack by his side, the sack that Kruger had given him. Perhaps this gift would cheer Leah up. “Are you at all curious about what Kruger gave you?”

Leah wiped her swollen eyes. “I don’t remember him giving me anything.” she listlessly asked.

“You were too preoccupied to notice Kruger toss this to me just before we left the lab.”

“
What is it?”   

“
I’m not sure. Let’s check this out.” He released the gold drawstrings holding the sack shut and tipped its contents into a box on the deck. A hail of gold and silver trinkets, red and blue gemstones poured out and clanked against the container’s bottom.

The sun sent rays of rainbow colored light bouncing off the jewelry. “Oh my! I’ve never seen anything like this.” Leah ran her hands through a dazzling array of emeralds, rubies and sapphires. A multifaceted diamond threw off laser-like beams of light. She picked up a broach. “Look at this. I know something about jewelry, and it must be at least fifty years old. They don’t make jewelry like this anymore. It’s out of fashion.” She held it up to the light. “This must be the jewelry Kruger mentioned.”

Dylan fingered a bangle. “You knew about this?”

She nodded. “He told me that he and my grandmother had converted their cash into jewelry in an attempt to smuggle it out of Germany before the Nazis could stop them. This must be the sack she left with him.”

“And now it’s yours.” He reached into the sack to make sure it was empty. “Wait. There’s something more in here.” He pulled out a ring-sized box and peeled back the lid to reveal a delicate filigreed gold ring with a setting of fire opals. A tag dangled from the band. “What’s this?” Turning the tag toward him, he read, “‘To Leah, Your grandmother’s ring. She would want you to have it.’ Signed, ‘With Love, Your Grandfather’.”           

Leah took the ring he held out to her and solemnly studied it. “It’s beautiful.” Tears again welled in her eyes.

Dylan slipped the ring onto her ring finger. It slid on easily and fit. The ring sparkled between them. “Will you marry me?”

She stared down at the ring. “I would love nothing better. As a matter of fact, I would travel to the ends of the earth with you. I’d even brave the Maranon again.”

A big grin spread across his unshaven face. He ran his hand over the stubble. “I thought you had enough of that river?”

“
Why? Many of my fondest memories are there. I feel like I grew up on that river.”

“
And so did I.” He held Leah’s eyes with his. Hers glittered like the jewelry. “I love you more than you can imagine.” He leaned forward and embraced her. She had become more valuable to him than all the jewelry in the world. From this day forth, he would never let anything, not all the jewels in Germany, come between them.

* * *

DEADLY AMAZON DISEASE CONTAINED

by Leah Roberts, Los Angeles Daily News Staff Writer

CUZCO, PERU
— API- The Hermorrhagic Fever that spread throughout the Amazon basin has finally been fully contained according to government reports. The last known case of the disease was an elderly Amazon woman who died three weeks ago.

The authorities have confirmed that an ex-Nazi Brazilian doctor was responsible for spreading the deadly disease that maimed or killed scores of Peruvians in the past two months. Dr. Frederick Von Schotten’s experiments with microbes led to the development of a hybrid of the Ebola and Handovers viruses. He is suspected of using this hybrid in experiments with the indigenous people of Peru, by doing so,  creating the recent outbreak of Hemorrhagic Fever.

Sources say that at the time of his death at his jungle home in July, Von Schotten was working with rebel Peruvian soldiers to sell his secrets to an unspecified terrorist organization. Both the US State Department and the United Nations have appointed inspectors to investigate these allegations. Gail Rutledge, newly appointed special envoy to the United Nations said in a news conference Thursday, “The world is appalled by news that human subjects were being used in such deadly experiments, and we will do everything in our power to ferret out the truth of this matter.”