The Hunter (19 page)

Hawk looked at Brad. “How?”

“I’m slated to go on vacation in about ten days,” Brad told him, “and I’ll take Amber with me. At least, that will be what Dilaver will think. If you take off a week after that, Dilaver won’t suspect Amber’s in on this.”

“A little over two weeks,” Hawk said, thinking quickly. “That should be enough time to get all the coordinates of his dropoff points and map out his gunrunning routes.”

“I’d like you to give me details of the latter,” Brad said. “If your people can’t stop him, I’ll get him for illegal arms-dealing.”

“How about illegal human-trafficking? From what Amber’s saying, I’m assuming you’re helping her because you can’t get him through your laws. Can’t be easy, what with all those peacekeepers being Dilaver’s customers and all.”

This time, there wasn’t any sarcasm in the tone of Hawk’s voice. Amber couldn’t help but admire how quickly he read between the lines and saw the situation for what it was. But she had to defend Brad, who didn’t seem inclined to explain that his hands were tied. “He arranged the interview so an outside party can report the extracurricular activities of some of the peacekeepers, Hawk,” she said.

“It’s a good strategy,” Hawk said, finishing the last of the roast from his plate. “I think it would be even better if you could arrange for an interview inside the
kafena.
Say, the interviewer poses as a client. He’d get firsthand experience.”

“That’s risky to the girls and the interviewer,” Brad said.

Hawk shrugged. “There’s always risk in our chosen line of work. If that guy wants a truly hot story, he’d want to go undercover and take some on-the-scene photos. Technology is so remarkable now, one can use any number of ways to get a photo and put it online.” He drank down more wine and his smile wasn’t very pleasant. “I’ll take great delight in taking some risk and getting the interviewer inside as my friend. That way he’ll have a before-and-after kind of story and perhaps there will be more international outrage to help your cause. I hate that…asshole.”

Amber sat back, a little stunned at how quickly Hawk had taken over. He was volunteering to put his life in danger to help those girls inside the
kafenas.
The other night, when he had persuaded her not to shoot at those men, she’d thought that he didn’t want to make waves and disrupt his covert operation, but now she was no longer sure.

Brad’s gaze was thoughtful. “So why don’t you get rid of him yourself?”

“Why don’t you?” Hawk challenged back.

“Ah…orders from above,” Brad said with a nod. “Looks like we’re in the same predicament. Something else we have in common.”

“Unlike you, I don’t have a whole department under me whom I can send out and cause some havoc,” Hawk pointed out, then muttered, “Not right now, anyway.”

“Meaning?”

Hawk paused, then shrugged again. “I have my connections. Dilaver will be taken care of eventually. Right now it’s essential for me to get the coordinates. If he’s terminated now, I can’t do that, so, in CIA parlance, he’s still an asset. But that doesn’t mean I can’t do a little damage my own way.” He glanced at Amber. “I want to be part of this. Some of those girls are in really bad shape. I couldn’t see how I could get them out of there before without compromising my cover.”

It wasn’t an exact revelation to Amber that Hawk had seen what went on in those places and hadn’t lifted a finger to help the victims, but seeing that look in his eyes, it suddenly dawned on her how much he had been fighting the urge, and the toll it must have taken on his spirit. She had seen the same look in Lily’s eyes, had watched her friend’s seething anger at her own inability to stop the crimes at their roots. Yet she and her friend had really only been standing at the edge, doing what they could. Hawk was in the center of it all.

“All right,” she said quietly, “if Brad and Lily have no objections, and if those newspeople want the inside story, we’ll do it.”

There was a short pause. Where the hell was Lily? Amber wanted to shake her friend, wondering whether there really was an emergency after all. This was so unlike her, especially when it had to do with the girls.

“So we have the next three weeks’ agenda,” Hawk said. “I’ll zero in on the coordinates. Sun will set up the interviews. You and Lily will work out the times for both of them. I’ll bring the men into the
kafenas
at the proper time when Dilaver isn’t watching too closely. Meanwhile, I also suggest that we set up a love triangle of sorts so that it appears that you’ll have reason to spirit Amber away from Velesta. It’ll give me a chance to get a bit upset about it and appear to take off. That should give Amber and me a head start without Dilaver suspecting.”

The man did
love
ordering people around, didn’t he? Amber looked at Brad to see how he was taking Hawk jumping in with all the suggestions. Not that she could tell. He had his poker face on, which meant he was thinking.

She turned back to Hawk. He was looking around expectantly. “What are you looking for?” she asked.

“Dessert,” he said. “I’m hungry.”

Brad opened her back door and she stepped outside onto her deck before he joined her. He closed the door behind him. She had left Hawk on the couch, placing the remote to her television in his hand. He hadn’t said a word, turning the set on.

“Are you sure he isn’t going to come out here just to make sure I don’t lay a finger on you?” Brad’s voice was amused. Their plan was to walk down to the parking lot together, like a couple on an evening stroll.

Amber breathed in the evening air, enjoying its fresh crispness. “He’s got a remote, hasn’t he? I thought that’s supposed to turn a man into a happy control freak.”

Brad laughed. “I’d never have thought you would get yourself a control freak for a love interest, Amber. You’re so damn organized yourself. How are you going to take someone else taking charge, especially during this sojourn into the wilds?”

She frowned. “Love interest? Is that what he is?” she said it more to herself than to Brad.

They walked down the wooden steps. “My dear, I have never seen you as flustered as you were when you came downstairs into your study, trying to explain the whole situation. I can see why you’re attracted to him, though. Good-looking, smarter than hell, and with great taste, I might add.” He turned and touched her arm, then added quietly, “He isn’t from the Agency, you know. I can tell.”

Anyone working for Jed wasn’t exactly Agency, but she didn’t see any need to tell Brad that. It was better to introduce Jed’s world to as few people as possible. “How?” she asked, curious as to how Brad came to that conclusion.

“The way he took over and strategized. It’s very military, assigning different tasks to everyone. He’s used to ordering teams. He didn’t slouch once while he was sitting at the table, even when he was devouring you and your food with his eyes and mouth.” Brad laughed softly. “I’ll bet you a hundred Euros he’s watching from the window to see what you and I are up to.”

Amber stopped herself from looking up to check whether Brad was right. “You’re silly. We’ve just met. I don’t know him that well.” She didn’t elaborate that they had met under very intimate circumstances and that she had flirted with the man through phone and on the computer. “He’s very unusual, that’s all.”

“You know him well enough to trust him. You have been with him a lot more than you’re telling, Amber.”

She knew that not much escaped Brad’s notice, especially when it came to details about people he interacted with. That was what made him an excellent bureaucrat; he studied the behavior of those around him to gauge things going on under the radar.

“We’ve done a lot of unusual things that couples don’t normally do,” she admitted with a smile. He had been practically naked the first time they’d met. She had rendered him unconscious with a drug. His revenge. The romp around the city when she had spent hours chasing him up and down old walls and dark alleys. Their midnight chats. It seemed crazy, but she did feel closer to Hawk than to any man she had known. “But this is Velesta. It isn’t like anything around here is usual.”

“I’m going to do some background-checking anyway,” Brad said. “He’s more than meets the eyes.”

“But so am I, Brad.”

“Yes. I must admit I felt a little envious tonight.”

Amber stopped in midstride, curling a hand into the crook of his arm. “I’m sorry about you and Lily. But you both need to talk this out. I can’t seem to reach her.”

“I can’t, either. What we both need is to make love the way you guys did upstairs today. Seemed to add a lot of private electricity in the air. From where I was sitting, I was afraid of getting zapped by all those sexy looks.”

“Brad!” Amber protested, half laughing and half embarrassed that he saw so much. Had she really acted that unprofessionally? “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he assured her. “I’m glad to see you finding someone after so long. It’s just too bad we couldn’t be a real couple. We both seem to go after those dark-haired and temperamental types.”

“It’ll work out for you and Lily,” Amber said, crossing her fingers in the dark.

They finally reached Brad’s car. “I’ll call and let you know about the interviews. You try to talk to Lily. We need her for these meetings.”

“I know. I will.” She stood on tiptoe and his hands rested on her shoulders as she gave Brad a goodnight kiss. “By the way, where are you taking me for vacation?” She teased him to put him in a better mood.

She could hear the smile in his reply. “Somewhere we can get totally naked on the beach. Make sure you tell everyone that part of it.”

Especially Hawk, of course. She smiled and they had another friendly goodnight kiss before she turned and retraced her steps, taking her time as she pondered over what Brad had said. She did like Hawk and yes, she did trust him enough. But where was it going?

“Tell me you didn’t kiss him goodnight,” Hawk said from the couch when she went back upstairs.

“Of course I did,” she quipped. “I kiss Brad goodnight all the time.”

“Brush your teeth, or here, have some wine.” He lifted the glass in his hand. “Bureaucrat breath stinks.”

She flopped down beside him. “Are you jealous?”

“Yeah.”

“Why? We hardly know each other, Hawk.” She wanted to know whether he was feeling as close to her as she did to him. “I mean, was it all just hot sex for you this afternoon?”

He put down the glass. The lighting was just dim enough to add a golden glow to his eyes. “No, it wasn’t just hot sex,” he said, lowering his voice. “Hot sex is for tonight.”

“So this is all just sex to you, then,” Amber insisted. She really wanted the hot sex, too, but she pressed on anyhow.

He studied her for a second, then, flinging an arm around her shoulder, pulled her close to him. He crossed outstretched legs on her coffee table. “Tell you what. To show you that it isn’t really just all sex, we’ll watch TV for a while.”

Amber looked at the screen, finally paying attention to what was on. “Sumo wrestling?” she asked in a faint voice.

Hawk looked down, a grin on his face. “Damn European TV doesn’t have anything on. What’s more entertaining than men in diapers groping each other, hmm?”

“Umm…hot sex?” she ventured hopefully.

He shook his head. “You wanted me to prove it’s more than that, honey. You’ll just have to enjoy some sumo wrestling.”

She laid a suggestive hand on his crotch. “Can I dissuade you?”

He burped rudely. “You can try.” It didn’t take that long to make her point, but his eyes remained fixed on the screen. “My, what big diapers this dude is wearing.”

Amber curled up next to him. Her hand teased him for a while, then her mouth. She was going to make Hawk McMillan always associate sumo wrestling with hot sex.

Brad got into his car. If he smoked, this would be a good time to light up a cigarette and go into deep thought. He wondered whether that was why people did it in their vehicles so much. Twisting a cup of hot coffee in contemplation about life needed two hands. And the image was certainly not quite so world-weary.

He undid the top few buttons of his jacket, then put on his seat belt. He wasn’t lying to Amber when he told her he felt envious while watching Hawk and her together. He wished he had the opportunity to have such a relationship with Lily. Hell, he had to start one first.

He had hoped to talk to Lily privately tonight. No touching. No arguing. Just talk. Why was it so difficult to do that with this particular woman? Her no-show tonight was a message, that she was unwilling to give him a chance.

Brad started his car. He should just back off. He had kept telling himself to give her time, but maybe this thing was just not to be.

Damn it. How could he just let it go when all he could think about was the way those dark eyes had looked up at him?

He checked the rearview mirror as he made the turn. A car had pulled out from the curb, going the other way. It looked like Lily’s car, but he couldn’t be sure in the evening light. Probably just fanciful imagination. Why would she be sitting outside just to avoid dinner with him? That was too melodramatic, even for Lily.

“My end’s secure. Twice in one week. Must
be urgent, Hawk.” Jed McNeil’s husky voice came over the headphones suddenly. Hawk had been waiting for a few minutes as his call was redirected through several channels. “What’s all the noise in the background?”

“I’m supposed to be working out,” Hawk explained as he landed a blow to the made-up punching bag in his room. “I need to work up a sweat because Dilaver wants to do a slow jog around his compound later to see how his leg’s healing.”

“Good. Updated Madison about your plans with Ambrosia and he agreed it was a good risk. Checked up on Sun. He’s ninety percent. He’d be a good cover for Ambrosia and you.”

Madison was Admiral Madison, Hawk’s SEAL commander. It was good to know that his leader and McNeil were in direct contact. All this skulking around within organizations had made Hawk wary about third-party communications more than ever.

“What’s the missing ten percent?” He was curious about Bradford Sun, not just because of his special friendship with Amber, but he wanted to make sure the CIVPOL chief posed no danger to Amber and her friend.

“He has an interest in Llallana Noretski. Her credibility is at twenty-five percent.” All these numbers didn’t mean a thing to Hawk. He preferred concrete evidence, but GEM and COS operatives had been trained that way, memorizing codes and percentage factors to save time as well as preserve secrecy. At twenty-five percent, the file on Llallana Noretski would be thick with evidence of criminal background activity. Hawk had known about Brad’s interest, but this evidence about Lily was a new surprise. As if he read his mind, McNeil continued, “The CIA has had dealings with her before, so that upped her percentages. But we don’t know exactly what Sun’s and her relationship is, since they keep it tightly under wraps. We aren’t worried about her yet, but she’s an unknown factor.”

“So Llallana is with the CIA? Does Ambrosia know?” Hawk and Jed always used Amber’s code name.

“Negative to both. Noretski was picked up by the Agency before. The information we have pointed to perhaps an interrogation, so her experience with them might not have been a happy one. You’ll have to find out yourself.”

“Okay.”

“Ambrosia doesn’t appear to know much more. What we know of Llallana also comes partly from her when they first met. She’d checked her out then.”

“They are best friends now,” Hawk told Jed as he dodged the swinging bag and turned to execute a flurry of punches.

“What does she think of you?”

“We get along.”

“What do you think of her?”

Hawk recalled her letting him carry Amber into her room. Their conversations this past week had been brief. She hadn’t questioned his sudden appearance in her and Amber’s plans; in fact, she had seemed subdued. “She has attitude,” Hawk said, stopping the punching bag with a taped hand, “and a lot of secrets.”

Amber had asked that his description of her and Lily’s side project be as minimal as possible. Jed, she had said gravely, would use that information for his own ends. She had added, with sarcasm, that it might pull down her percentage statistics with COS Command. Hawk hadn’t said anything, although he was privately amused at her direct heat.

“What’s new, then?”

Hawk put the punching bag in motion again. “Be ready for an upload of coordinates.”

“All of them?”

“Not sure, but enough info to map out where each drop point might be.”

“Good. Then we have to figure out which load has our target.”

Hawk started his routine again. “Ambrosia and I start our journey as soon as we have a map from your end.”

“Fax it to her?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sleeping with Ambrosia?” Jed’s sudden question made Hawk pause in midstrike and the bag bumped into him. He reached out with both arms to hug it to a stop, as Jed continued in polite tones, “Got the air knocked out of you?”

“Is there a policy against that?” Hawk asked, nursing the shoulder that had borne the brunt of the hit.

“We have only one policy. Do your job.”

“I’ll get it done,” Hawk said.

“I expect no less from one of the admiral’s Standing and Ready SEALs. Call me again when Sun is ready for his vacation. I should have the map and key positions ready for you and Ambrosia. I’ll also give you the name of the contact that will pick up the merchandise once it’s in your hands.”

After Jed rang off, Hawk gave the punching bag a quick kick for revenge before putting away the headphone. He’d forgotten what good interrogators those commandos were. By invoking his STAR status, Jed McNeil was reminding him to keep his focus on his job, which was to stay as close to Dilaver as possible, and not to a certain blonde with a sassy mouth.

He had to admit, he had been going to Amber’s place too much. Even Dilaver was teasing him about it, commenting that Hawk had finally rediscovered his libido. Which brought the focus back on the main problem. He did enjoy spending time with Amber, but he was also avoiding going to the
kafenas.
It was good to get away from
that
for a while.

But Hawk could avoid it only for so long. To be close to Dilaver meant being with the Slav while he committed crimes that made his stomach turn. Thank God the big thug had the sense not to do hard drugs for recreation. Hawk had been trained on how to best avoid ending up an addict, if, in case, such a scenario cropped up, but it was tough for an inexperienced covert agent not to get into trouble when confronted with the unexpected invitation of joining the “fun.” Many had ended up addicts themselves, and some had lost the fight to get clean.

Oh yeah, he was one lucky devil, standing there like an idiot and not lifting a finger when a young woman was being beaten. Or, even worse, sexually humiliated. It made Hawk ashamed of his own sex when he watched the depraved things the men made the girls do. The first time he had accompanied Dilaver to one of his “training sessions,” it took every ounce of control he had not to pounce on and kill the scum who was doing the training.

He had the satisfaction of thinking that he had finally got-ten rid of one of them that evening during the battle by the hillside. That man was one of Dilaver’s closest aides and had been particularly vicious when it came to breaking in the new girls. Hawk had mentally killed him dozens of times in the last few months. However, he hadn’t found much relief in the act; the images of the girls still haunted him.

Amber. Hawk smiled every time he thought of her. She made him forget, at least for a while, what he had seen. Either his abstinence had sharpened his senses or she made him feel like never before. He couldn’t seem to get enough of her. Every time they made love, he craved more. How was it that he could want a woman so badly? Even now he wanted her.

But he couldn’t. Not tonight. He had to get back to playing Dilaver’s new friend. A knock on the door interrupted his reverie.

Hawk pushed the punching bag into a swing again. “Come in,” he said as he started punishing it. He knew it would be Dilaver, meeting him to go jogging. Without stopping, he continued, “Ready to run?”

“Fuck, no. I can’t believe I’m going jogging.” Dilaver still walked with a slight limp and sometimes needed his walking stick after being on his feet too long. He kicked his leg out. “It’s taking me longer to heal.”

“Yeah, they say it’s the feet that go first, then the face,” Hawk quipped as he stopped the moving bag.

Dilaver chuckled. “You’re just saying that because you’re a pretty face,” he said. “If you had pretty legs like mine, you’d say it’s the face that goes first.”

Hawk started to untape his hands. “Well, let’s see how your pretty hairy legs keep up with mine today.”

Dilaver tapped his foot. “I bet they are just as pretty as Amber Hutchens’s, eh?”

Hawk pretended to give it some thought. “To be honest,” he said, “my attention isn’t focused on her legs much, but I know hers are a hell of a lot less hairy.”

Dilaver laughed. “You know what I like about you, Hawk? You aren’t afraid to make me laugh with the most absurd observations. I can’t imagine talking about my leg and comparing it to a woman’s with anyone else but you.”

That was because Hawk had set out to talk to Dilaver as he would to any of his SEAL teammates. It was drilled into him to be as natural he could be, as he would be with his own best friends. It was the last thing he wanted to do; by acting with the same familiarity, it felt almost like betraying his own friends. But he had succeeded, just as his GEM trainer in NOPAIN had said it would, in gaining a measure of friendship from the gunrunner. Nonphysical persuasion and innovative negotiation, a system most GEM operatives he’d met seemed to practice, both repelled and fascinated him with how good it was at manipulating human minds.

“Yeah, well, I don’t know whether to feel insulted or special now,” he drawled.

“Oh, special,” Dilaver said. “And especially special since I have been hearing about our CIVPOL chief having a public argument with your Amber this morning.”

“Is that right?” Hawk tossed the tape into a nearby pail.

“Seems like someone has informed our Mr. Sun that a certain American has been sharing Amber’s bed every night for a week.”

Hawk cocked an eyebrow. “Is that someone in your pay, perhaps?”

“But of course. Revenge is sweet. Mr. Sun has raided a couple of my sites and cost me quite a bit of income. This is just the beginning. One day…” Dilaver’s voice trailed off and he shrugged. “But not yet. Can’t keep ridding every one of them so quickly. I’ll wait awhile till that sanguine outlook of his wears off a bit.”

“Sanguine?” Hawk wouldn’t use that description for Bradford Sun at all.

“He’s optimistic that he can clean this region up,” explained Dilaver with a humorless smile. “I find that extremely comical.”

“And you say I make absurd observations?” Hawk commented as they headed out.

“You don’t find it funny that the man thinks that and yet has a girlfriend who sells his secrets to people like me?” Dilaver laughed nastily, glancing at Hawk craftily. “And today his sanguine outlook was just a little dimmer when he realized that she isn’t all sunshine. I heard he’s taking her off for a vacation to get her away from you, my friend. What are you going to do about it?”

So far, so good. Fed information was being passed on as planned. Hawk feigned surprise. “That’s news to me. When?”

“My sources say in a couple of weeks, but hell, the way you’re over there all the time, it might be sooner. I don’t think any man would let a woman like Amber go so easily.” Dilaver nodded at his guards as they passed them. The latter kept a distance, keeping an eye on their boss and the surroundings. “So you had better spend as much time with her as you can before she’s whisked off, my friend.”

“I’ll do that,” Hawk promised. Maybe he could spend tonight with Amber after going out with Dilaver. “Better warm up first or your pretty legs might cramp up.”

Even the guards behind them snickered at Hawk’s joke. But his mind was already on the day’s agenda. He had to ready the file to be uploaded. He wasn’t sure he could get away to go with Amber to that interview. He wanted to. Tonight, at the
kafena,
he had to see which of the girls could speak enough English for the interviewer. It would be tough; they all lived in fear. He would have to think of some way to persuade them without blowing his cover.

Amber poured tea for everyone in the room. There was an anxious excitement in the air as the three girls who had agreed to do the interview sat on the big sofa, eyeing the two newsmen with suspicion, cynicism, and hope. They were young, but they had been through enough to know that promises didn’t mean anything. It was also decided that no doctor was needed to examine the victims until the girls had met the reporters and felt comfortable.

Amber and Lily had been very upfront about it. This interview was meant for them to tell the world what was going on, in their words. The reporters would try to sell the story to international cable news and other agencies. It would do
some
good—not for them, but maybe for those other girls who were still in the
kafenas
.

Of the girls they had in the safe houses, only three could speak enough English to give personal accounts, with a little help from Amber and Lily. They were also the few who were old enough to have something to say. The others were too young to give extensive interviews; some of them weren’t comfortable with telling their stories to adult men. Amber had told the two men that she had compiled a list of what these girls had told her, about what had been done to them after they were kidnapped.

Brad was standing by the fireplace. He had already briefed the reporters that under no circumstances were the identities of Amber and Lily to be revealed, or their pictures taken. In fact, he had introduced them as Anna and Ludmilla.

Amber watched Hawk question the two men as they set up the taping and photo devices. He was speaking in a low voice, but she heard enough of the conversation to know that he was asking for a direct copy of the interview as well as the reporters’ final copy.

“I want to compare what was said and what was written,” he told them. “And if I feel you have done a poor job, I’ll release my own copy of the interview as well as your direct copy.”

To her surprise, Hawk showed them a recorder the size of his palm. He hadn’t told her about this. Again, she was struck at how prepared he was for this sort of thing. She exchanged glances with Brad.

Lily was giving last-minute encouragement to the girls, each in her own language. They were all from different countries and Lily was the only one who understood the cultural horror of so many girls being traded like international souvenirs. Amber had sighed with relief that her friend and Brad had been very cordial with each other. Maybe they had come to some sort of understanding. She had tried to talk to Lily about it, but her friend’s replies had been oddly cool.

Not that she had spent that much time talking to Lily, Amber acknowledged wryly. She had been kept very busy with Hawk showing up at her place at the oddest hours. Lily must have gotten the clue that she wasn’t alone too much because she had practically been living somewhere else, only showing up during the day to help with plans and business.