The Hunter (30 page)

Not turning around, Diamond said, “You’re injured. I can hear you breathing. There’s fluid in your lungs. You’ll need medic care very soon or you’ll get an infection.”

“I’ll take care of myself after the mission,” Hawk said quietly.

“Good.”

The chopper was military-issued. An armed man waited nearby, saluting Diamond as they approached.

“Better you than me,” Marlena whispered to Hawk.

“What?”

“He’ll want to know every little detail about T. She’s determined to avoid him.”

Hawk frowned. “Why’s that?”

“You really don’t know?” She looked at Diamond talking to his man outside the waiting chopper. “He and T. had some kind of falling out and now she won’t see him. She’s my operations chief, so of course I won’t tell him anything I might know when he asks me.”

Hawk shrugged. “I’ll tell him anything he wants to know about T. Somehow, I think she can take care of herself.” He studied Diamond for a moment. There was a certain polished danger around the man that reminded Hawk of T.’s elusive quality. “A woman like that is hard to catch, anyhow. More power to him.”

Diamond turned at that moment. If he had overheard their conversation, he didn’t show it. “We have Jed on satellite. He’s at an international summit where we suspect this bomb was going to be used. It’s small and flat and can be hidden very easily in a tiny suitcase. It’s also totally undetectable because of its covering.”

Amber had been right. That was why Jed McNeil was all dressed up on the video link. “But why this particular bomb?” Hawk asked. This had been bothering him. “Anyone can rig up a one.”

“It’s the mother of all little bombs,” Diamond explained. “Virtually undetectable by all the modern sniffers. Because so many heads of state are attending this summit, it’s going to be very difficult to smuggle any arms or devices into the area. The surrounding streets have been cordoned off to stop vehicular suicide bombers. Air traffic has been reduced.”

“Only a person who is authorized or invited can get in there, then,” Hawk said.

“Yes.” Diamond turned. “Jed will fill you in on the details.”

Hawk’s cell phone buzzed. “Hang on,” he said. Very few people knew his number. He frowned. It was Bradford Sun’s ID. “This is Hawk.”

“Lily’s gone.”

Hawk waved Steve and Marlena over. “What happened? Were you ambushed?”

“No,” Brad said grimly. “She drugged me.”

Hawk’s frown deepened. “What do you mean, she drugged you?” He looked up. All the others’ eyes were on him. “Tell me exactly what happened, Brad.”

“We were followed to my place and, to give you and Amber more time, we decided to stay longer. Everything was fine, or so I thought, until she stabbed me with a needle full of some kind of powerful drug. Whatever it was damn near killed me. She nearly OD’d me. My housekeeper saved my life.” There was a pause. “She tried to kill me, Hawk.”

“Are you certain it was her? We were drugged here, too. But it’s Dilaver who did it.”

“I’m sure. We were sleeping in…my bed,” Brad said. “I…still can’t believe it.”

Jesus. Hawk didn’t need Brad to paint a picture of what had happened. “I’m sorry, man,” he said. “I’m not sure what’s happening. Amber and the bomb are missing, too. Look, I’m meeting my contact via video and have to go, but I’ll bring this up. We’ll figure out what’s happening here. I’ll call you as soon as we have a game plan. Are you doing okay?”

There was a short bitter laugh from Brad. “Barring the fact that I’m still at the hospital, I suppose I am.”

“I’m sorry,” Hawk said again.

“Not your fault. I should have gone after the details in her file more. I had a gut feeling about her CIA background, so I did another check with another source. I found out recently that she was saved by the CIA after being abused for two years in the whorehouses, and the file mentioned that she was part of Program Precious. I had assumed that was the name of the rescue operation, but now I’m not too sure. You do have CIA connections, right? Maybe you can find out what this program is and get a tie-in. There’s something wrong with her, Hawk. I woke up when she answered her cell phone. I thought it might have been you or Amber calling. Then she stabbed me with that thing and…she was muttering the same line over and over again.”

“What was it?”

“It’s that poem. ‘Things fall apart’…do you know it?”

Hawk took out a pen and jotted down the line. “That’s it? Things fall apart? I think I know it. Sounds familiar.”

“It’s from a famous poem. I swear I heard her saying that line as I tried to understand what was happening.”

“Okay. Keep your phone by you. I’ll be in touch.” Hawk ended the call. He turned to Diamond. “There’s another woman missing and I think she’s betrayed Amber and me.”

“Give Jed the details.”

Hawk and the others climbed into the huge chopper. There were two systems technicians, in familiar fatigue greens, working and monitoring the computers.

“We’re clear, sir,” one of them said.

“Good.”

The large LCD screen was state-of-the-art. Jed’s image was clearer than the one Hawk had talked to on Amber’s laptop. Now he could even see the flecks of silver in the other man’s eyes in the close-up. He was back in his usual faded jeans jacket but the background was a sumptuously decorated hotel room. His expression remained impassive as Hawk gave a detailed account of the state of the crates and Brad’s phone call.

Hawk waited after he was done. He was getting used to Jed McNeil’s odd long silences. The others standing with him must be, too, since they kept quiet. He always had a feeling that Jed was computing and simplifying, because when he spoke up after these silences, he always seemed to be able to reduce to bare bones the most complicated facts.

Jed looked down and Hawk could heard him shuffling some papers. “The summit meeting took place successfully, with only one minor incident. A woman was caught with an exploding device. It wasn’t our target weapon,” he said quietly. “Computation of seventy-five percent success of our operation, but that’s without the detail of Llallana Noretski. The woman in custody was obviously the decoy Greta mentioned to Amber Hutchens in their meeting. Llallana was the one going in with the bomb.”

“But the note demanded the target weapon and if they had it, why take Amber?” Hawk asked.

It was just a trick of the camera setup, but Jed’s light eyes seemed to turn colder. “McMillan, you like Miss Hutchens. It’s the only way to get you to do what they want—that is, go back to Velesta without finishing your mission. Meanwhile, Llallana takes off to the summit with the bomb.”

“One question. How’s Lily going through all the security without a pass?”

“There’s a very famous art exhibit unveiling in eighteen hours. I’ll let you make a guess as to who might be part of the entourage.”

Hawk took a deep breath. “Too coincidental.”

“There was a reason they didn’t kill you, Mr. McMillan. While you’re busy saving Miss Hutchens, the bomb will go off. You can’t be at two places at the same time.” Jed looked down at his papers again. “Granted, there’s something else going on here that would explain Amber’s girlfriend’s motives. Bradford Sun dug up something important that had been left out of previous classified files. Project Precious.”

“Brad said he thought it was a CIA-headed operation to rescue underage prostitutes.”

Jed shook his head. “Negative. This was a super-classified project. Very short summary—it’s short for Project Precious Gems. The last word sounds familiar to you? The CIA wanted trained operatives with the same talents unique to GEM operatives, except totally under its control. GEM, as you know, is independent, and the CIA was interested in finding out its secrets. Project Precious failed in copying or modifying NOPAIN, the GEM system, but things don’t go to waste in the CIA. Project Precious has morphed into what I know is a sleeper cell program. Trainees aren’t exactly operatives; they are embedded with sleeper commands that are activated with a repeated phrase.”

“Things fall apart,” Hawk muttered. He was beginning to feel the whole cloak-and-dagger world ought to explode with a certain undetectable bomb. Lily—a sleeper? He couldn’t even wrap his head around it right now. “So she’s been around Amber all these years waiting to be…activated?”

“She probably wasn’t aware of it, or only vaguely. Sleeper commands come in slowly, each one triggering the operative into a deeper state of awareness. By the time she’s fully activated, she’ll be ready to finish her assignment.”

Hawk shook his head in disgust. “I don’t even want to know how they did this to Lily.”

“Project Precious Gems picked up victims who are ideal for this type of program. Sleeper cells are manipulated through their emotions—hatred, fear, and a deep belief in a cause. I don’t have to point out Lily Noretski has all the requirements.”

“She’s heading your way, then,” Diamond interjected at this point to Jed.

“Apparently. I’ll be at the art show.”

“Get T. to bring the other weapon.”

Jed’s lips quirked. “I’ll let you know as soon as I take care of Llallana Noretski and have the device in my hands.”

Hawk understood what “taking care of” meant. Jed was Number Nine, the one who finished the job. “I’ll head off to Velesta now,” he said grimly. There was nothing he could do to save Lily. He could only pray that all these crazy calculations were wrong, that it was somebody else.

“Do what it takes to wrap up,” Jed said. “Diamond, there’s a message in your decoder for you. Hawk, any questions?”

He was going back to Velesta for one thing and one thing only. “Permission to take care of Dilaver,” he said.

“He’s no longer an asset,” Jed said, and nodded to someone off-camera. The screen went blank.

“This chopper will fly you to an airstrip by Velesta,” Diamond said. “While we’re on the way there, you can brief me on T. and your activities with her.”

Hawk didn’t say anything when Marlena winked at him as she passed him. “Stash and I will go to our seats and map out an attack plan,” she said.

The helicopter was faster than any he had ridden on. He didn’t bother to ask questions about permissions and international borders. Let them take care of those details. He had a personal war to wage against a certain Slavic warlord and he knew it would just be him, Steve, and Marlena. Three against a small army. He refused to think of what was happening to Amber. He and Steve were SEALs and they would get Dilaver one way or another.

After answering Diamond’s questions to his satisfaction, Hawk looked outside the chopper. He frowned. A familiar blue.

“That’s the ocean we’re heading toward,” he said. “We aren’t heading to Macedonia.”

“We have to make a stop,” Diamond said.

“I don’t have much time,” Hawk said, getting impatient. Amber. “Turn back now.”

“I suggest you sit down and wait. Fifteen minutes won’t make any difference at this point.”

Hawk resisted the urge to punch Alex Diamond and ruffle up his nice white shirt. He didn’t care for waiting fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes could mean getting to Amber in time before…He looked down at his clenched fists. Save energy. He needed to direct his anger for the battle.

The helicopter landed and Hawk was the first to jump out. The first thing he noticed was the smell of the ocean. Fresh. Clean. Something that he had missed a lot the last few months. Then his eyes followed the direction Diamond was heading.

Waiting by the beach was a very familiar sight. A rubber ducky, the boat with which SEALs transport inland from a larger ship or submarine. And by that boat, six very familiar men. Jazz. Cucumber. Mink. Zone. Dirk. Joker. His brothers-in-arms were here.

For the first time since he had woken up from the drug, Hawk felt a measure of relief. Oh yeah. This was going exactly as he’d prayed for.

“Thank you,” he said to Diamond, then approached his team. They saluted him and he snapped back a salute. “About time. Where’s Turner?”

“He’s out of commission for a while. We need you back for a wedding,” Jazz said. “Best man’s missing.”

“Been missing too many damn weddings. Won’t miss this one,” Hawk said. “Are we ready?”

“Standing and ready, sir!”

“I know you can hear me, Amber,” the
voice whispered in her ear. “I know you hate me and I’ll have to live with that. But I need you here. Hawk will come for you and that will keep him from following me. I didn’t give them that high a dose, so he and his two friends can get back here in time. But just in case…I’ve made sure that you don’t feel anything. I know what it’s like to have your legs spread out while they maul you one by one and I don’t want you to feel the pain and anguish I did. I don’t have time to get more of the stuff that puts you out, but this will work just fine.”

Amber felt a jab in her arm. Tied up as she was, she had never felt so helpless. Her eyes flew open and met Lily’s dark ones, except they didn’t seem like her friend’s eyes at all. There was a far-off look in them, as if she weren’t really looking at Amber.

“Dilaver will rape you,” Lily told her matter-of-factly, “and Hawk will kill him. I’ll finally get what I want—the bastard gone. Meanwhile, I’ll be at the art show and I’ll wipe out the rest of those bastards who think they can run the world by selling weapons and women. I’ll show all the CIAs and World Health Organizations and humane watch-dogs how it’s done. They think they run everything, but they are wrong.”

Although her mouth was taped, Amber tried to say something. The sounds she managed to make were weak and took too much effort. Lily shook her head.

“You can’t do anything, Amber. No one can stop this. I have to do it. Things fall apart, you see. Even friendship. The ceremony of innocence is drowned. There is anarchy. I will destroy the slouching beast. It is my duty and my revenge.”

Amber blinked. The drug must be affecting her. Lily was murmuring some familiar lines that sounded like one of her father’s speeches when he preached. Things fall apart…yes, she remembered now. It was Yeats, her father’s favorite poet. Her brain was getting addled. She was hallucinating Lily talking like her father.

“That’s right.” Lily’s voice was growing soft and drifting. “Don’t fight the drug. Let it take you somewhere so you won’t see or feel anything. I wouldn’t wish that on you or anyone. I don’t want you to end up like Tatiana. If Hawk is too late, you won’t remember more than blurred images. No pain. Not like me, always remembering the pain. Always seeing their faces in my head. I wouldn’t want you to not let Hawk or Brad or anyone make love to you again without feeling like you’re a helpless victim. I wouldn’t do that to you. This way is better. You won’t need to constantly want to be in control of everything, even sex.

“Listen to me. Hawk is coming for you. There is hope. Don’t let me down, Amber. You and he belong to each other. Maybe I’m selfish, but I don’t want you to think of Brad. Just remember, what they do to you is nothing. Dilaver will be killed and so will every one of those bastards who hurt us and our girls. You will finally be one of us, Amber.”

Amber shook her head, but even that felt like it took too much energy. It made everything spin around, as if she were at the edge of being drunk. The sensation wasn’t unpleasant at all. Part of her mind was screaming, trying to stop what was happening, but the floating sensation was so soothing, so relaxing. She wanted to tense up. But why? It was nice not to feel anything. She knew what was coming. Dilaver. His men. And she should be…She didn’t even feel it when Lily kissed her forehead.

“Things fall apart. The blood-dimmed tide is loose. I must do this, Amber.”

“The countryside looks like the Middle Ages here,” Jazz noted. “Oxen-drawn carts and wooden wheels. Not quick enough transportation to the city. Look at those walls. Are they guarded? Once we’re inside, we have to find transportation to the target area.”

Hawk looked at his best friend. It was definitely good to stand beside him again. He had missed the easy camaraderie between them. His fake “friendship” with Dilaver only emphasized how much his friend meant to him.

Jazz was the strategist in their team, always mapping out a plan of attack, always looking for the weakest points of the enemy. With his quick foresight, he protected his team from surprises ahead of them.

“Dilaver has chosen one of his favorite
kafenas
for the exchange,” he told his team quietly. “Not the compound, which is fortified by an even bigger wall. What does that tell you?”

“He wants you to get to him easily,” Cucumber replied.

“These
kafenas
are crowded with UN soldiers,” Hawk continued.

“He’s also making sure he’s surrounded by the blue army so you can’t simply throw in grenades,” Dirk said, referring to the blue uniforms of the UN forces.

Hawk nodded. He had supplied them with details of his capture and escape.

“He wants an exchange and then he’ll have his men capture me again. This time, he has Amber.” Hawk paused, glancing away for a second before meeting his men’s eyes. “Look, this is personal to me. It’s not for glory or country or any of that stuff. My woman’s in one of those whorehouses and…and if anything happens to her, I’ll kill every fucking one of them, blue army included.”

Cucumber spat to the side. “If they’re in there doing what I think they’re doing, then they have no right to hide behind any uniform. Let’s go get them. I’m with you.”

Jazz laid a hand on Hawk’s shoulder. “We aren’t here just to help you destroy those caches, buddy. We’re here for you. We’ll go save Amber and you can take down Dilaver any way you please. Just save a little piece of action for me. He owes me something for the wallop he gave Vivi.”

Hawk recalled how hard Dilaver had punched Vivi, which reinforced his urgency to get to Amber. “I’m very familiar with all the back alleys and pathways in Velesta,” he said. “During the months here, I had thought of destroying these whorehouses before I finished up, so I’ve explored a lot in the dark, waiting for this moment. I have C-4 and wires ready in certain weak spots. All I need is to activate the fuse and every fucking one of the walls will fall down like cards. We start doing this at the same time except for the target area.”

“Surprise attack,” Jazz said, nodding. “Everyone would panic inside. Each of us will go to different points and will keep in contact through intercom and wire.”

“Estimated time thirty minutes,” Hawk said. He showed them the map he had drawn. “I’ll use a word when I give Dilaver the decoy. Pick one.”

“Kaboom?” Mink suggested helpfully.

“Make it a phrase to be sure,” Jazz said. “How about ‘It’s over’?”

It’s over. “Yeah,” Hawk agreed.

“Let’s party! We’re going to have what the Americans call a freebie. A
very
special freebie. Some of you might even know her and I’m going to be the first to show you how to have a good time with a blond bitch. Bring her.”

“Hey, it’s the café lady!”

Amber felt light as a bird. The voices didn’t frighten her. She recognized one of them but couldn’t quite place it. She didn’t care, although she knew she should. Something bad was going to happen to her, but it was all right. She wasn’t afraid.

“Hey, Dilaver, that’s our boss’s woman you’re doing, man. We can’t let you do this.”

“You’re going to have to. Look around you. You’re all surrounded by my men. And what’s more, you’re going to watch and report back to that son of a bitch what happens to people that raid my places.”

“Fuck this, I’m here for a good time, not to watch you rape a woman.”

A shot rang out. “There, you’re no longer watching. Gentlemen, you’re young. Got to toughen up a little. This woman is nothing. There will be more of her kind. After I show you what she’s got underneath those clothes, after you hear her moan from my taking her right here on our favorite whore table, you can all take turns. Who’s going to complain? Look.”

Amber tried to focus. Something was happening.

“You’re all gathering around, aren’t you? Come on, get closer. Come and watch. See? Lovely breasts. And you can all have her for free tonight. Let me get to the pants now. Don’t you want those long legs spread for each one of you? Amber, can you hear me? You’re going to feel something big and hard inside you.”

It was as if she were floating above somewhere watching herself on the table. She should struggle. But she just lay there. She focused on Dilaver’s hand pulling at the zipper on his pants. She wanted to kick him in the groin, but she couldn’t remember how to move her legs. And she didn’t feel a thing. Shouldn’t she scream, like that girl she had seen not so long ago? Then she thought she heard more shots.

“Well, if it isn’t another one of Amber’s men. Good to see you again, Hawk McMillan. How do you like my hand on your girlfriend’s breast?”

Hawk! Hawk would come and save her. Didn’t Lily say that? Hawk was here. Amber moved her head, trying to see, but there were arms and legs and blue stuff in the way.

“Let her go.”

That was Hawk’s voice. She would know it anywhere. She strained upward.

“Oh, look, she heard her lover. Come get her, lover boy. She’s lying here all lovely, waiting for you. Or me, ha! She can’t move very well, though. The other bitch delivered her full of drugs, something I hadn’t agreed to. Should have known I couldn’t trust a woman. These pants have got to go, what do you say?”

“Make another move and I’ll detonate this and everything here will be gone.”

“Sacrificing yourself for a woman? What kind of warrior is that? Aunt Greta said you’re probably a Navy SEAL. You know what? This is for your killing two of my best men. I’m going to fuck your woman and kill her in front of you. Here, let me hold her head up and you can see her pretty face one last time. Take him, men. Shoot his legs.”

Amber still couldn’t see what was happening. Gunshots reverberated around her. “Nooooooo!” she managed, struggling against whatever that was holding her down. He was here for her. And suddenly panic rose in her and everything seemed to speed up, even her heartbeat. Hawk was in danger. “No!”

It took every ounce of her energy. She turned her head. And bit down hard.

She didn’t even know what exactly she was biting on, but Dilaver’s howl sliced through her consciousness like a wakeup call. Her head was shaken back and forth, but she refused to let go. Another hand grasped her throat, cutting off her air.

There were more shots. She could hear men shouting. Gunshots. She didn’t care about them. She concentrated on Dilaver instead. He had hurt Hawk and he was going to pay.

Hawk had been told fury could fuel a human bomb ticking and he would always remember the moment of explosion. That was all he could recall for debriefing, even months later. The moment he laid eyes on Amber on that table, everything important ceased to exist except to get to the man standing there, his filthy hands mauling her.

He had hated that table worse than anything else in the
kafena
. There were so many times he had to walk by it, following Dilaver out, and not look at the girls left there after a “free” night. Sometimes, when he did look at an empty table, he would still see glimpses of faces and hear the screams. And there had been nothing he could do then.

Not now.

Not this time.

It didn’t seem possible, but somehow he reached Dilaver across the expanse of the room without getting shot. Maybe some of the UN soldiers present had their conscience pricked at seeing a woman they knew laid out there on the table for them. Maybe someone up there was protecting him. He got to the big Slav as he was bending over Amber, screaming, trying to shake her off. A part of his mind registered that her mouth was clamped on some part of Dilaver’s hand.

Hawk curled an arm over Dilaver’s beefy throat from behind and snapped his head back. The snarling man immediately released Amber to pry Hawk’s arm from his throat.

“It’s over, pig,” Hawk said into Dilaver’s ear. “My turn to show you how to have fun.”

The Slav was strong, pulling at Hawk’s arm as he jammed his elbow into his injured ribs. Hawk felt the pain but forced himself to apply more pressure.

The roar of multiple C-4 being set off added to the confusion around the table. There were shouts as people fell to the ground, covering their heads in fear. Screaming girls ran out from the back. Hawk felt the ground shake from so many explosions around the city. His SEAL brothers were doing what they did best.

“I’ve wired every one of your places in Velesta and they are coming down tonight,” Hawk said as he swung a punch into Dilaver’s face. He punctuated each blow. “Every. One. Of. Them. Gone.”

Dilaver wasn’t going down easily. He matched Hawk’s blows with several of his own. He had gotten free of Amber, blood splattering all over as he went for Hawk’s throat, pushing his thumbs inward.

Hawk let out a roar and rammed his body against Dilaver, pushing forward until the other man hit one of the supporting beams in the room. The blood made everything slippery and the hold on his throat loosened. Dilaver landed a vicious fist on the side of his face. Hawk straightened up and resumed punching at his target like he did to his punching bag in his room, going for the face and neck area. He cut upward into the groin. He head-butted him. Dilaver roared and struck out one last time. Hawk smashed a fist into his face so hard, the other man’s head whipped backward and hit the beam with a loud crack. Even then he continued pounding as Dilaver slid down the beam.

He was still beating and kicking when someone pulled him off. It was Jazz, holding him from behind, cuffing him from the underarms.

“It’s over, buddy, hey, it’s okay, he’s done.”

Hawk finally stopped. He looked down at Dilaver. He had just killed a man with his own bare hands. “Let go,” he said. “I’m fine. Where’s Amber?”

Jazz released him and he turned to the table, stumbling over debris and bodies. He caught sight of her blond hair.

“Amber! Amber!” He turned her over. There was blood all over her chin and the front of her shirt. Her eyes were open. He pulled his precious package into his arms, hugging her tightly. “Where are you hurt?”

“I’m…okay. I think I bit off part of Dilaver’s thumb. Hawk…Lily…oh God, Hawk—”

“Shhh…it’s going to be okay. I know, I know,” Hawk told her, wiping her face and mouth with his sleeve. She wasn’t hurt so far as he could see, thank God. He lifted her and started to head out toward the entrance. “We’ll talk as soon as we get you taken care of. Jazz, we’re snatching a vehicle and going to the hospital. Call headquarters. They can land something at the UN base or wherever, I don’t give a fuck. Get them to transport her out of here!”