WAR: Disruption (35 page)

“Okay, give me a minute to get this thing started,” she said, ducking under the steering column.

“Damn, woman. You can hotwire a car? Now I know I’m in love.”

Emily chuckled. “All part of the survival skills Father taught us.”

“I really want to meet your father.”

“Um…” The engine roared to life. Emily shimmied into the driver’s seat, executed a fast three-point turn, then sped out of the parking area.

Max grinned as she deftly avoided a tree stump, then increased speed. “Look at your driving,” he said. “Just like a kickass movie heroine.” He took her hand and kissed it. “
My
kickass heroine. I love it.” He paused. “I—”

A Hummer turned off the road and headed right toward them.

EMILY SLAMMED ON the brakes and jammed the Land Rover into reverse. Oh, God. They’d been so close to getting away.

“Shit,” Max said as the Hummer roared toward them.

Emily floored it, speeding backward just as the man in the passenger seat of the Hummer opened his window and fired at them.

“Duck!” Max shoved her head down a second before the Land Rover’s windshield burst into thousands of tiny pieces. Emily felt stinging along her bare arms and face, but was too concerned with keeping the Land Rover straight to worry about it. Using the side view mirror, she aimed for a particular tree. Just before they reached it, she sat up and yanked the wheel hard to the left. They spun away from the road, bullets thudding into the Land Rover’s sides as the back end slid across the carpet of mud and wet leaves. Emily shifted into first, straightened the car’s trajectory, and made a beeline for the thicker protection of the jungle.

“Oohrah!” Max shouted. “Where’d you learn to drive like that?”

She zoomed around the trees. “From my cousin. He’s into the drifting scene in Japan and he gave me a few lessons when the dance company was in town.”

“Well, damn. You can drive my escape vehicle any time you—”

With a roar, the Hummer rammed between two slender trees behind them. The trees bent, then the Hummer muscled through.

“
Merde
!” The rearview mirror had been destroyed by the bullets, so Emily peeked in the side view mirror to keep track of their pursuers. The Hummer was bigger and sturdier than their Land Rover and the driver didn’t seem to care about little piddling obstacles such as trees. He just plowed ahead, while his passenger continued to spray them with bullets. “Max, they’re gaining on us.”

“Don’t panic. We’re more maneuverable than they are. Use that advantage now.” He raised the rifle he’d taken from Dietrich’s camp and sent a burst of fire toward the Hummer.

“Great,” he grumbled.

“What?”

“They’re armored.”

“Hold on.” Emily swerved to the left just before a thick section of buttressed roots. Then she turned back the way they’d come, passing the Hummer racing in the other direction before making a sharp right into a gap between the trees.

She heard the Hummer slam on its brakes. Then the sound of gunfire. Bullets tore through the trees around them and a few more bullets hit the Land Rover.

Red lights flashed on the dash. “Max! I’ve got both the check engine and low oil lights on. Plus, the gas gauge has plummeted.”

“Keep driving as long as you can. Aim toward the road.” Max showed her their location on the GPS.

“Okay.”

Unfortunately, the terrain soon became very dense and difficult to drive through. While she hoped that meant that the Hummer would also have trouble navigating, she suspected that once they picked up her trail they’d simply muscle over the low-lying vegetation. Emily did her best to drive along the path of least resistance, trying to put less stress on the Land Rover. She kept a wary eye on the gauges as the vehicle slowly lost momentum, until finally the engine coughed, sputtered, and died.

Merde, merde, merde
. Emily glanced over at Max. “Are you going to be okay walking?”

He shrugged, grabbed his cane, and shoved open his door. “Don’t have much choice.”

Emily slung her backpack over her shoulder, put her arm around Max’s waist, and together they fast hobbled into the jungle. With the light failing, it was hard to see where they were going and she didn’t have the chance to pull out the night vision goggles. They hadn’t gone very far before she heard the sound of the Hummer. It slammed into the Land Rover, then its engine growled. Emily threw a frightened glance over her shoulder and saw the Hummer’s headlights breaking through the jungle’s dim twilight.

An instant later, the lights abruptly cut off. The vehicle’s doors opened, slammed shut, then an eerie silence fell over the jungle. Great. The men probably had night vision goggles. The fact that she couldn’t hear them move through the underbrush meant they were well trained.

“Emily—” Max glanced down at her. She saw the determination in his eyes and knew he was going to suggest that they split up.

“No,” she whispered fiercely, tightening her grip on his waist. “I didn’t rescue you just to have you play martyr again. We’re in this together. I’m not leaving you, so deal with it and get your butt in gear.”

He shifted his weight and nodded toward a thick above ground root system. “I was going to suggest that we ambush them. We need their vehicle in order to continue following Dietrich and the buyer.”

“Oh.” She hesitated, then asked, “Are you going to kill them?”

“What? No. I know you think I’m trigger-happy, but I’m not some heartless killer. They’re not holding a weapon on you, so they’re not enough of a threat to kill. But I will disable them. Now, give me the night vision goggles and the pistol.” He handed her the automatic rifle. “Keep this and get behind the tree.”

She did as he asked, adjusting her position until she found a spot that allowed her to peer out between two of the roots and watch Max.

He waited until both men had walked past his position. Then he put his arm around the neck of the rear guy and slammed the butt of the pistol into his temple. Max took him down to the ground, so when the second man turned to shoot, Max wasn’t where he’d expected. Max shot the man in the leg. The man bit back a scream and lunged toward Max.

Emily came out from behind her tree as Max and the downed guard fought. There wasn’t anything she could do to help Max, so she used a loose section of vine to tie up the unconscious man. Then she used his bandana to gag him. By the time she was finished, Max had knocked out the other guy.

Chest heaving, he glanced over at her, then the trussed up guard. “Good…work,” he gasped.

“Are you okay?” She rushed over but when she offered to pull him to his feet, he shook his head. “Just give me…a minute. Gotta catch my breath. Finish the other guy.”

Emily tied up the second guard. Then she confiscated their weapons, their night vision goggles, and their car keys. The small insignia on their uniforms proclaimed them to be Dietrich’s men. Had they been out on patrol when she poisoned the camp? Or were they a backup team called in when most everyone fell sick?

Guard neutralized, she walked over to Max. This time he let her help him to his feet. She could tell from the way he moved that he was in pain, but didn’t comment.

“Need a new cane,” he muttered as he slowly eased his weight away from her. He pointed to a thick branch lying on the ground at the base of the tree and Emily handed it to him. He tested it, then grunted. “It’ll do. Let’s go.”

Emily winced when they reached the Land Rover. The Hummer had slammed into the rear of the Land Rover, crumpling its back end without leaving any noticeable damage to the Hummer. She helped Max into the passenger seat of the Hummer, put her rucksack on the back seat, then took off toward the road.

The Hummer wasn’t as maneuverable as the Land Rover, but she enjoyed the sense of invincibility it gave her.

“What now?”

“Drive north. That’s the direction the convoy was heading. Hopefully, we’ll see their taillights to confirm they’re still on the road.”

She grimaced. “The odds aren’t good that we’re going to catch them, Max.”

“We don’t have to catch them. They’re going to stop at some point. Dietrich didn’t have the second prototype with him when the buyer’s men dragged him out of camp. Which means they’ll either send someone back to Dietrich’s camp to get it or call Dietrich’s men and hope that someone is feeling strong enough to bring the prototype to them.”

“So we just have to keep on their trail and we’ll find the buyer’s camp.”

Max didn’t answer her. He was too busy fiddling with the electronics on the dashboard.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

He nodded at the LCD screen. “I think Dietrich installed a fleet tracking system. Which means his men can see where we are.”

As they bumped along the root-riddled ground just inside the protection of the trees, Max muttered a curse under his breath. “Ah, to hell with it.” He rummaged in the glove box. Emily glanced over and saw him remove an all-in-one portable tool.

Max opened the screwdriver, pried the LCD screen away from the dash and hacked at the insides. Sparks flew. He growled at the mess he’d made, reached deeper into the dashboard, and yanked out a handful of wires. He sliced across them with the tool’s knife, then sagged back in his seat.

“Did you kill the big, bad tracking device oh mighty hunter?” Emily asked, biting back a smile.

“You bet your sweet ass I did.”

She wanted to reach out and pat his leg, but even though the Hummer had power steering, it still took both hands to keep it steady. Instead, she batted her eyelashes and said in a high-pitched, breathy voice, “My hero.”

Max just snorted.

THE RAIN STARTED up again, hitting the Hummer’s roof with a driving rhythm despite the leaves overhead. Still, the rain created a sense of intimacy inside the vehicle that Max found soothing.

“Tell me what’s been going on since I left you,” he said. “Where’s the briefcase? Why did you follow me?”

“Why did I—?” She muttered what he assumed was a curse or three in Japanese. “I—” She slowed the Hummer to a halt. “Max, look.”

Light filtered through the trees ahead of them. “What’d I tell you,” he said. “I bet that’s them.” He reached behind him for Emily’s pack, groaning at the pain.

“Wait. What do you need? I’ll get it. Don’t irritate your ribs.”

“The binoculars. I’m going to investigate.” He shot her a glare. “You will stay here.”

She sighed and reached into the back seat. “Yes, Max.”

“Wait. What was that? Did you actually agree with me? Can I hear that again?”

Rolling her eyes, Emily pulled out the binoculars and slapped them into his hands.

Max gave her a quick kiss. “While I’m gone, you can check for an external tracking device.” He explained what to look for and where.

“Oh joy, I get to crawl under the car in the rain.”

“It’s a tough job, sugar, but…”

She rolled her eyes and reached for her door handle as Max let himself out into the rain.

It didn’t take him long to reach the spot where the buyer’s men were setting up camp. Like Dietrich, they’d brought a few tents, although theirs were smaller. Men were in the process of raising the tents when Max took up position behind a tree. A few minutes later, two guards hustled a man wearing a trench coat out of one of the Hummers. They held an umbrella over his head until he disappeared into the largest tent. Probably the buyer.

Not long after that, one of the guards dragged Dietrich out of the Land Cruiser and threw him inside a four-person tent.

As the rest of the tents went up, the guards unloaded equipment from the vehicles. Based on the frowns and angry hand gestures, some of the men weren’t happy to be setting up camp in the rain and dark. Unprofessional of them. Say what you like about Dietrich, his guards were well-disciplined and didn’t tolerate such grumbling.

The buyer’s men moved their vehicles to form a perimeter around the tents, then strung a series of wires outside the circle of vehicles. Probably an alarm system. Yet they apparently didn’t expect serious trouble tonight, because they only stationed two men to guard the encampment. One inside each of the Hummers.

Yeah. Not impressing him, here.

So far, all the men he’d seen were wearing the buyer’s uniforms. But between Dietrich being kidnapped and the fact that the two men Max and Emily had disabled would fail to make any scheduled check-in, he figured Dietrich’s men were bound to show up at some point.

Once the camp had settled down, Max headed back to Emily.

“It doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere tonight,” he said once he’d explained the situation to her. “They’re close enough to the edge of the jungle that if we move to the other side of the road, directly opposite, we should have good eyes on them. Did you find anything?”

“Yeah.” Emily nodded and started the Hummer. “Just one, in the engine compartment, stuck against the firewall. I crushed it like you told me to and buried the pieces in the woods.”

“Thank you.”

The point opposite the camp where they took up their new position not only provided him and Emily protection from observers in the camp, but also had a wide tree they could climb to get a better view. Assuming he could haul his ass up there given his wounds. The fight had set his ribs to throbbing and might have broken open the stitches in his thigh.

He sighed. “I need you to do some reconnaissance. Check that no one is moving around in the camp. Then you’ll need to play doctor again.”

She studied him, then nodded. “I figured you’d taken more damage during the fight.” Leaning forward, she kissed him on his cheek. “Thank you for asking for help, rather than hiding the fact that you’re hurting.”

As she slipped outside, he realized that it felt right sharing the work with her. That they’d moved into that rare state of partnership he’d experienced with very few people. He trusted that she’d take care of herself and get the information they needed. While the panic he used to feel when she left his sight was still present, it was a fraction of its previous strength.

“They still appear to be hunkered down for the night,” Emily said when she returned a few minutes later.

“Okay. We’ll need to check on them every half an hour.” He handed her a peeled banana. She threw him a grateful smile before biting into it.