Tess Awakening (28 page)

In a short time, SRD grew to become an
international private military company specializing in military
training, logistics, weapons systems maintenance and management
consultancy.

The U.S. Department of Defense hired an
established military training company to train nine battalions of
the new Iraqi army with an option to extend the training to 27
units. They also hired SRD as a subcontractor.

Chapter 45

Tess’s dad, General Turner, adored little
Morgan and persuaded Tess and Jake to let him have the child every
other weekend. The parents usually dropped him at her dad’s
Manhattan apartment on Fridays and drove to Jake’s farm outside
Sleepy Hollow to relax for a couple of days. They picked up the
little bundle of joy on Sunday evenings and spent the week in
Manhattan attending to their business.

This time, her dad got to keep little Morgan
for the week. Tess and Jake needed a longer break. After dropping
off the child into the arms of Grandpa, they got into Jake’s Land
Rover and headed for the farm.

A man observed them from a café across the
street and called someone on his cell phone as soon as they
left.

While driving on the highway, Jake noticed a
black GMC Yukon SUV following them. The car maintained its
distance, but it was obvious that the driver was matching the speed
of Jake’s Land Rover. Trained by the CIA, Jake suspected that
something wasn’t right. As they made a pit stop at a roadside
facility, a second black Suburban SUV joined the Yukon and parked
at the periphery of the restaurant.

Jake shared his suspicions about the two
vehicles, but Tess suggested that his former CIA adventures
sometimes encouraged paranoia. “I hope you are right,” Jake
responded. Without further ado, they resumed their drive north.

Once they got back to the highway, they
passed a deserted strip of the road with steep banks on both sides.
The Yukon had followed them and now accelerated, closing the
distance between them and striking Jake’s Land Rover on the left
rear corner. The driver was attempting to drive their vehicle off
the road. Jake, an expert driver, managed to control his heavy
vehicle and called upon his training by the CIA. He made a sudden
U-turn, preventing the other driver from hitting him again.
Somehow, he managed to keep the top-heavy car from capsizing. The
maneuver was executed so abruptly that the driver of the Yukon kept
going forward. Jake then spun the Land Rover around, burned a lot
of rubber, accelerated and positioned himself behind the Yukon. The
driver didn’t have time to recognize what was happening. Jake
accelerated toward the rear of the SUV. The driver ahead of him
finally saw what Jake was trying to do and accelerated, now
attempting to get away from the Land Rover chasing him. Jake caught
up and clipped the Yukon on the rear bumper, the same way that the
SUV driver had previously tried to run him off the road. Jake was
more precise and sent the Yukon down the steep bank. The driver
could not control the car, capsized, hit a tree and the vehicle
exploded.

Jake and Tess stopped and ran to the burning
car, but the flames were too intense. Realizing that there was not
much they could do, they got back into the Land Rover and sped
away. The other vehicle, a large Suburban, had raced past them, but
made a U-turn and now careened toward them.

“This is nuts!” Jake exclaimed. “These people
are suicidal.”

“He is coming straight for us,” Tess
warned.

“I know. Hold on Tess.”

The vehicles were on a head-on collision
course. The big Suburban was racing straight for them, its driver
apparently not caring about the impending doom. Jake calculated in
his mind what he could do to avoid the collision. He drove towards
the opposing vehicle at high speed, steered the heavy Land Rover at
the last minute, brushing the attacking SUV on the side, forcing
the driver to lose control. The Suburban waved from the impact and
careened into a protective rail, shredding metal with an awful
noise. Jake backtracked and stopped behind the damaged vehicle. He
wanted to get his hands on the driver to get some answers. As he
approached the car, he saw that the driver was hurt. He tried to
open the mangled door just as the driver recovered from the shock.
Jake could not loosen the jammed doors of the SUV. He went back to
the Land Rover to get a crowbar, and then he heard a shot. The
driver had killed himself.

“Who would do this? Why would they want to
kill us?” Tess exclaimed.

Jake held her in his arms and came to the
only logical conclusion. “Tess, this smells like something that
Amir would do.”

“How can Amir get two people to commit
suicide just to kill us?”

“Can you think of anyone else who could do
this? He recruited fanatics to try to stage a fatal accident. They
were willing to die for him.”

Tess stared into space, horrified. “He will
do anything to get little Morgan. I will call my father.”

She got on the cell phone and dialed. The
General answered on the second ring. “Dad, is everything okay
there? Is little Morgan with you?”

“He is at the park with his nanny,
Carol.”

“Dad, call for help immediately. We think
that Amir just tried to kill us using two big cars. He is likely to
come after the baby.”

“Don’t worry, Tess; I will have my security
people there in a few minutes. I am glad you and Jake are okay.
Please keep me posted on what’s going on.”

A few minutes later, Tess’s father called
back. “Tess, someone assaulted Carol, Morgan’s nanny in the park
and took the baby!”

Tess froze. “Jake, I think that Amir’s people
have kidnapped little Morgan.”

Suddenly, another SUV appeared and headed
straight for them. Jake and Tess were standing by the side of the
road and realized that the driver was going to try to run them
over. He waited until the last minute, grabbed Tess by the arm and
jumped out of the way into a steep ditch. The car missed them by
inches.

Jake turned to Tess and to his horror saw
that she had hit her head on a rock. She was bleeding and
prostrated on the ground. She was also unconscious.

Two men left the vehicle and came after them.
They tried to jump into the deep ditch, but one of them stumbled
and screamed. He had broken a leg. The second man managed to get on
his feet and pointed his gun at Jake, who this time was ready for
him. They both took a shot, but Jake hit him first. The man fell on
his back, dead.

Jake turned to the other man, who was
writhing in agony, a bone protruding through his leg. As Jake
approached, the man pointed his gun at his own head and pulled the
trigger. Blood and bone splattered. The man died.

The highway patrol arrived. Jake was trying
to revive Tess, but she did not respond. “Get an ambulance,” he
screamed.

The paramedics arrived and quickly attended
to Tess, rapidly placing her on a stretcher. Jake wanted to go with
them, but the policemen grabbed him. “Sir, the Paramedics are
taking your wife to the hospital, but you need to remain here so
that we can sort things out.”

“My wife is hurt, and I am going with
her!”

“Sir, we need to investigate what happened.
It won’t take long.”

More police officers arrived, and Jake
realized that they were not going to let him go until they talked
with him.

He told them what had happened, and promised
that he would go to the police station to help with the
investigation, but first he had to see how Tess was doing. One of
the cops drove him to the hospital. Jake ran to the emergency room.
A medical team was working on Tess, who was still unconscious and
bleeding from her head.

Finally, a doctor came to Jake. “Your wife
has a concussion. We will need to do a Cat Scan of the head and
possibly an MRI before we know more.”

“How about the baby? Is the baby okay?”

“We don’t know yet. You wife has contusions
all over her body. We will know if there is a problem in a couple
of hours.”

Jake fell on a chair, hands on his eyes.
‘Amir, you will pay for this!’

They eventually put Tess in a private patient
room. Monitors and IVs in her arms made her look like wired for
sound.

Jake called her father and updated him on the
situation. The General was appalled and told Jake that the baby’s
nanny was at the hospital with a broken arm. There was not a sign
of the baby. Local police and the FBI were already on the case. All
local airports had been alerted.

Jake returned to Tess’s room, but she was not
in her bed. Furious, out of his mind with dread, he was ready to
manhandle the nurse in charge until she told him that Tess had lost
the baby. Jake emitted a scream of agony.

Eventually, the medics brought Tess back to
the patient room. She was still unconscious. The doctor showed him
the MRI, indicating a large pool of blood trapped in her brain.

“Doctor, what can we do about it?” he
asked.

“The decision will be up to the neurosurgeon,
Mr. Vickers. She should be here shortly.”

Jake, a man of action, had to control
himself; in his frustration he was ready to hit people who, in his
judgment, were not exhibiting the requisite sense of urgency.

Tess’s father arrived and hugged him. “Jake,
I will not leave a stone unturned until the hospital does the right
thing for Tess. I also have a squad of my investigators on the
case; they are working with the FBI to find the baby.”

Jake looked at the general with fury in his
eyes. “I am quite sure that Amir is not in the country and that he
has built firewalls to make sure that this mess will not point to
him in any way. We may believe that he engineered this, but it will
be impossible to prove it. This has gone too far. The authorities
will be powerless. We will have to deal with this situation
ourselves.”

“I definitely agree,” said the General.

Chapter 46

Kemal broke the news to General Amir
al-Saadi. The operation was not successful. The men that chased
Jake and Tess were dead.

Amir fulminated: “How could this happen? All
they had to do was to box them in their car, take Tess and
eliminate her husband.”

Kemal was philosophical. “General, they tried
to do their duty and died while attempting to fulfill your wishes.
They did not expect the woman’s husband to be skilled enough to
turn the tables on them. In any case, we have arranged to take care
of the men’s families.”

“What do we know about Tess Turner? Is she
going to be okay?”

“All that we were able to find out is that
she is in a coma. They have security people guarding her.”

Amir was furious. “Your men were supposed to
capture her and what happened— they probably killed her!”

“I am sorry General, but I wasn’t there, so I
don’t know how it happened. There is one bit of good news, however;
we have the baby.”

“Where is he?”

“Our people have taken him to an apartment in
Manhattan. We have arranged for a reliable woman to tend to the
baby’s needs. We have three men guarding him, but they have to lay
low for now. It seems that General Turner and the FBI have placed
alerts at all local airports and are scouring the city to find him.
They even have posted surveillance at the Iraqi Embassy. We can’t
risk making a move until things calm down.”

Amir grabbed the edges of the desk, clearly
upset. “The only way to get the baby out of the country is to use
one of my private planes, but I would wager that my Falcon at JFK
is already under surveillance.”

Kemal was looking at a message on his
smartphone. “Our people say that they can’t afford to move the
child at this time for fear of being discovered. They are going to
stay in place until it’s safe to get him out of the country. They
are looking at all options, including going to Canada or
Mexico.”

Amir was upset that Tess got hurt, but at
least he had the boy. All he had to do is bring him out of the
country at the first opportunity.

“Kemal, I am sure that everyone understands
that the child must be kept safe under all circumstances. Also,
make sure that someone keeps tabs on the woman Tess and keep me
informed about her condition.”

“We will do everything we can, General.”

Chapter 47

Chief Warrant Officer Carmen Cabrera had
completed another round of training for new Iraqi pilots on
helicopters. She was less than pleased with the progress of her
students but was confident that eventually they would achieve
proficiency.

She kept running into Nicola Orsini, the
local representative and trainer for AgustaWestland, a
multinational helicopter design and manufacturing company that
provided some aircraft to the Iraqi Army.

Carmen smiled alluringly at the tall,
handsome man. He reciprocated and they had dinner together.

“I suppose that this place does not agree
with you. You are an Italian that is probably used to the Dolce
Vita.”

“I am afraid you are correct, this place does
not suit me very well. I miss Italy. I travel overseas too much.
Mostly, I train people on the use of equipment made by my
company.”

Carmen’s agile brain sourced her internal
database. “You guys make the A129 Mangusta. Nice chopper.”

“It’s a lower cost alternative to your
expensive American equipment. It’s state-of-the-art, and we feel
that it is competitive.”

Carmen volunteered: “I spent a lot of time
shooting it out in Iraq.”

Nicola told her a little about himself. “I
was in the military myself and have been in Iraq for a while,
piloting a Mangusta helicopter to provide air support for the
Italian forces in Nassiriya. Previously I was in Afghanistan to
support Italian and Allied forces operations. Now I am a civilian,
but I pretty much do the same work, except for the shooting
part.”