Double Vision (9 page)

Then evidently it was lust. Or better yet, indigestion from eating too much sand.

Perhaps.

That possibility made her feel better. Lust she could accept—would accept and cling to with the tenacity Nathan held on to his wife’s photo—because that possibility didn’t leave her with her heart exposed and her feelings hanging out on a line just waiting for tension to snap it and leave her in pieces.

Nathan was looking down at the photo again, and the sadness in him returned.

She had been self-sustained out of necessity, and she should never forget its lesson. Still, to have a man look at a photo of her that way, with such depth and tenderness, she might just risk loving. Someone. Someday.

Yet the need to comfort him arose as naturally as her breaths. “I’m sure she’ll send you another photo, Nathan.”

He looked up at Kate, agony burning in his eyes. “She can’t.”

“Sure she can. They’ll pass it to you in a secure pouch.”

“From heaven?”

Kate went stone still. “What?”

He dragged in a sharp breath, as if the words he was about to speak were heavy blows and he needed to brace to sustain himself against them. “My wife died five years ago, Kate.” He licked at his lower lip. “This photo is all I have left of her.”

Stunned, Kate couldn’t pull her thoughts together long enough to grasp them or to find something decent to say. Finally she managed. “I’m sorry for your loss, Nathan.” And she was grateful for saying it.

He nodded that he’d heard her, but kept his gaze fixed on the dirt, hiding from her the pain he clearly felt so intensely he knew it would reveal itself in his face even now.

Five years? Kate couldn’t believe it. He still acted so…well, married. Still wore his wedding band, still slept with her photo beside his cot, still thought of himself as married.

Five years was a long time for a man to be a widower and still think and act and feel so married.

And that might just make Kate most envious of all.

“It’s nearly 2:00 a.m.,” Nathan said, then stood. “Let’s call it a night, Kate. The storm’s broken. In the morning, let’s take a look at where Douglas went missing.”

Kate stood, dragged the duffel bag out of the debris through an opening and left it in the sand with the other possessions pulled from the rubble. “Okay. I need to go back down where I dove today, as well.”

“No,” he insisted. “Not without a backup team.”

She stiffened and looked him right in the eye. “I have
no choice.” The C-273 had to be located. The sooner, the better.

His aversion to her objecting to his orders surfaced. “Why?”

He wouldn’t like her answer any better. She resisted an urge to sigh. “I can’t tell you that.”

“Can’t?” A speculative gleam lit in his eye. “Or won’t?”

Not the anger she had expected, but why did the man always have to push? She wasn’t sure she wanted to look that deeply herself. “I could,” she clarified, and then decided to be totally honest. “But if I did, I’d have to kill you.”

He gave her a strange glance, one she couldn’t fully interpret, then drove it home with a snort. “I’m surprised you’re not jumping at the chance.”

Feeling just enough pressure not to resist the urge, she teased him. “Mosquitoes are annoying, Nathan, but you don’t kill them with a cannon.”

He laughed.

Even exhausted, standing in the middle of a half-collapsed tent with ringing ears, sand scratching every inch of her body, and worries flooding her mind and fighting for her attention, the sound of Nathan Forester laughing made her smile. She hated that.

“Sir?” Riley appeared just beyond the edge of the tent. “Kramer just radioed in. He’s out at the perimeter, finishing the setup on the trip wire. He reported that someone just left the outpost, sir.”

“Who?” Nathan asked, fully alert.

“He couldn’t tell, sir. But it was a man and he had a red scarf on. And he was carrying a black box in his hand.”

Kate’s heart thud hard and fast against her ribs. “How big was it—the box, I mean?”

“Kramer said about six by six, ma’am.”

“Inches, millimeters—what?” Kate knew she was shouting but, damn it, this information was vital and his description told her absolutely nothing.

Forester sensed something significant was going on with this black box. Kate saw it in his face, and while he shot her an unspoken question, and that importance resonated in Riley’s expression, Kate ignored them both, waiting for an answer.

“Inches, ma’am,” Riley said. “The box was six-by-six inches.”

Knots cinched down in Kate’s stomach. God help them. It could be the C-273 communications device.

B
y dawn, the storm had passed and the dry, still heat had returned with a vengeance.

Kate suited up in her wet gear, and met Forester at the mess tent. They wolfed down a lousy breakfast of reconstituted powdered eggs, instant coffee and some kind of fried bread that the cook referred to as a whole cake.

Between bites, Forester issued Riley orders. “Get my tent moved. Being right next door to where I was, just makes it easier for the insurgents to hit me again.”

Kate didn’t miss his putting the attack off on insurgents, and she was glad to hear it. Informing the entire outpost about GRID wouldn’t be a wise move at this point. Actually, if it could be avoided, it should be. Knowing GRID existed increased their odds of becoming targets.

Nathan wiped at his wide mouth with a paper napkin. “Get an update on Douglas from Search and Rescue, too.”
He paused a second, then added, “Guess you’d better notify headquarters that we’ve had a perimeter breach, as well. Get authorization to move the outpost ASAP.”

Riley scribbled the orders down on his habitual clipboard. “Sir, should I have Captain James start breaking down the camp to prepare for the move?”

“Yeah, James is fine.”

Riley nodded, adding the note. “The boat you requested is ready and waiting for you and Captain Kane at the dock, sir.”

“Thanks.”

“Is that it, sir?”

“Yes.”

Riley passed Kate a new loop of rubber tubing. “For your tags, ma’am.” He shrugged. “I noticed yours was missing.”

Very observant. A valuable asset in a unit clerk. “Thanks, Riley.”

He gave her a shy grin. “Sure thing, ma’am.”

Within minutes, Nathan and Kate loaded their gear into the jeep, and made their way to the dock. The going was slow due to the storm. Sand covered the road, so the entire trip was a four-wheel succession of bumps and jarred teeth.

Finally, Kate spotted the shore, then the dock. Nathan parked and they hauled their gear to the boat. Before boarding, Kate ran a check for explosive devices and bugs.

Nathan likely considered it unnecessary, but if he did, he kept any objections to himself. Kate appreciated that, because in her job, checking was as automatic as dreaming.

It took about thirty minutes to do the job right. Nathan stood on the dock, watching her every move, but never said
a word. When she was done, she looked up at him from on the boat. “Let’s roll.”

He got in and they made ready. Nathan removed the ropes mooring the boat to the rocks and coiled them inside the boat. When he was finished, Kate slipped behind the wheel and took off for the site where Douglas had disappeared.

While she steered the boat, Nathan monitored their position on a handheld GPS that he was careful not to let Kate glimpse. She knew they were in the Middle East somewhere. Judging strictly by the landscape, they were either in Iraq or Iran.

Iran would certainly warrant the no-activation order on her Big Brother positioning system, and explain Nathan’s lacking authorization to disclose their location to her.

Iraq could also warrant the security measure. The political climate there had changed substantially in the past three years, but relations were dicey at best. The newly elected leaders required a lot of “quiet” help in getting the new democracy off and running on stable ground, especially considering the level of opposition to democracy in surrounding countries, yet Darcy hadn’t advised S.A.S.S. of any reports that supported making the entire country a deactivation zone.

A different thought ushered in a different perspective.

Maybe the reason had nothing to do with her and everything to do with Nathan and his mission. It could be that his unit was functioning on a stealth footing for security reasons. But that would mean his mission wasn’t to check out caves.

Maybe Iran’s nuclear program?

Maybe the weapons of mass destruction everyone in the know felt certain Saddam had buried somewhere in the sand?

Nathan tapped her on the shoulder. When she looked over, he motioned for her to veer west thirty degrees.

She turned the wheel, and then made a forward rolling motion with her finger, asking how much further. The rugged hills in the distance, the knuckles of land extending into the water, were familiar to her already. She was very close to the cave where she had found the GRID compound.

Uncomfortably close.

Douglas must have either found the compound, or come close to finding it on his own. That increased the odds GRID had him by at least fifty percent. And that had her flesh crawling.

She slowed the boat to a stop, throttled the engine to idle. “Nathan, this isn’t good.”

“You know something you want to share?” In his seat beside her, he flicked a thumb on the edge of the GPS. The screen went blank.

“Want to? No.” It’d put him at greater risk. “But I need to,” she said. “If this is where Douglas disappeared, he was within spitting distance of a suspected GRID compound.”

“Oh, Christ.” Nathan’s left eye flickered like crazy. “You found an active compound? Here? Right under our noses?”

The salt spray settled a fine mist on her face. Kate licked her dry lips. “I haven’t been in the compound, Nathan. But I’m just about positive that it’s here. I was in the cave leading to it, when two men intercepted me. I know for fact that they were GRID operatives, and I know for fact the cave was audiocommunications wired to the rafters.”

“Oh, great.” He dragged a worried hand through his hair. The wind had it spiked.

“Not so great.” She frowned. “Kunz, or one of his freaking clones, was talking to the guy holding a gun on me.”

Nathan’s face paled. “Damn it, Kate. Then they almost certainly have Douglas. Why didn’t you tell me this last night?”

“I didn’t know then Douglas had been diving here, and you couldn’t have done anything last night anyway. We were in the middle of a sandstorm.” She threw a level look his way. “Besides, I reported it to S.A.S.S. headquarters. At that point, I didn’t have the appropriate authorization to report anything to you.”

Nathan’s jaw tightened and he slid her a sidelong look laced with steely resolve. “I know Colonel Drake told you to trust no one, Kate. Hell, I relayed the message. But from here on out, you damn well better trust me. They’ve got one of my men—now, I’m convinced of it—and I will do anything to anyone to get him back. Don’t hold out on me again. For all of us, the stakes are too damn high.”

“Okay, Nathan,” she agreed, but not unconditionally. “We work together. From here on out, what I know, you know.” She raised a finger into the air. “But that also means that anything you know, you damn well better tell me.”

She shifted on her seat and chose her words carefully, tasting the slight salty tang in the gentle breeze. “There’s more going on here than you realize, things that don’t pertain in any way to Douglas that I can’t tell you. So anything you know or learn might be exactly what I need to take care of this other business.” She lifted a hand and hiked up her shoulder. “Understood?”

He gave her a brisk nod. “Last night, you told me that you could tell me, but then you’d have to kill me, remember?”

“I remember.”

“Well, what I can share without killing you, I will.” He held her gaze. “That’s the best I can do.”

“That’s good enough. We consider ourselves agreed.” Kate put her hand on the throttle. “Okay, where to?”

“Two minutes straight ahead, to that third knuckle.” He pointed to the exact spot where she had lost the C-273 communications device.

Her stomach soured, but she headed the boat in that direction. GRID knew she had located the cave that tunneled into the compound. There was no telling what new obstacles Thomas Kunz had put in place to keep them from breaching the actual compound.

The sadistic bastard had no conscience, no morality, no humanity and no restrictions. With Kunz, every possibility was fair game, and that made him the most dangerous kind of enemy. He would initiate barriers, and they could be of any nature or type. Biological, chemical, nuclear. One of them
or
all of them. He couldn’t care less about fallout or collateral damage.

Though it was hard to believe such a man could exist, he had proven himself to S.A.S.S. repeatedly. His defense would be deadly and could be in the form of anything.

Which meant Kate had better be ready for everything.

Two hours later Kate and Nathan had searched the area for Douglas, but had nearly tripped over Search and Rescue divers already searching.

Nathan received a quick report from a water-wrinkled member of Douglas’s tactical team who he’d assigned to Search and Rescue. “No sign of him, sir.”

They returned to the boat and moved even closer to the cave Kate had pegged as GRID’s, then dived again. But another hour later, they again came up empty-handed.

Swimming back to the boat, Kate climbed the ladder and got inside, then pulled off her headgear and shook her hair loose.

When Nathan had gotten in and set his headgear aside, she looked over at him. “We’ve got to check the original place I went down.”

“With a team, Kate.”

Stubborn cuss. “No, Nathan. Now.” She sent him her most genuine look. “I need to show you what I saw. I can’t be the only one to physically see it. You said it yourself. GRID knows I’m here. They fear what I know. They will try to kill me, Nathan. Someone else has to have seen this firsthand.”

“‘This’ being the cave?”

“‘This’ being the gouges in the rocks that led me to find the cave,” she corrected him and then goosed the engine. “Catch that anchor, will you?”

He tugged the anchor up out of the water and set it on deck. “Why are you moving the boat?”

“It’s a flashing beacon that we’re here. I’d rather not advertise it.”

He nodded and took his seat.

Kate shoved the stick forward. The engine whined and the boat nearly stood on end, then shot off across the water. On an angle with the large boulder, she backed off and again went to idle. “Here’s good.”

Nathan dropped the anchor.

They readied and then slipped over the side into the water.

By late afternoon they had been in the water for hours. Kate had pointed out the weathering on the rocks, the deep gouges just above the waterline—all the oddities that had led to her dive. They had explored, deliberately skirting the
mouth of the GRID cave. Behind a large rock on the bottom, Kate pulled her binoculars out of her fanny pack, adjusted the setting, then looked through the lenses. The cave’s mouth was clear. She passed them to Nathan and hand signaled.

He took the binoculars and looked, then scanned a bit back and forth. Looking at her, he shrugged.

Not surprised he didn’t recognize it, she stood closer, backing against his chest, then set her sights on the cave’s mouth again. Then she dipped her chin to her chest, holding the binoculars steady.

Nathan came closer, clasped his arms around her to hold himself in place, and again looked.

Kate’s face felt like fire. How could a man snuggling up to her in a freaking wet suit turn her on? Every nerve in her body was on hyperalert.

He moved away and gave her a thumbs-up.

She frowned at him. He seemed so unaffected? How could being close to him rattle her to the bone and he be totally unaffected?

He motioned for them to move on.

A bit off and out of sorts, she swam on.

While Nathan hoped to find some sign of Douglas, Kate hoped to find some sign of him
and
the C-273 communications device. So far, they had failed to meet either objective. An hour later their luck hadn’t improved.

But since the day wasn’t over, she held on to hope.

Something odd snagged her attention and Kate paused outside the mouth of yet another cave opening for a better look. She closely examined the face rocks around the mouth, letting her fingertips drift over the rugged surface.

The tide and current shoved water against them, and
here too, there were gouges that cut into the rock far too deep to be attributed to water action alone.

These gouges were also manmade. Her stomach curled.

She kicked off to go inside, but felt Nathan tap her shoulder. This last time, they had dived with a mask rather than headgear to give them greater visibility. The tradeoff was their limited communication. She raised a questioning hand.

He pointed to her oxygen tank and then to his watch.

It was time to surface. Kate nodded that she understood and kicked upward.

The sun was sinking, casting a glare on the water. Taking off her mask, she squinted against it, smelled the fresh air and waited, but Nathan didn’t surface immediately.

Kate was just about to go back down to check on him when he finally broke the surface near her. “I was getting worried,” she told him. A swell rolled over her and a whitecap splashed in her face. “What took you so long?”

“I found something.” Nathan raised his arm out of the water. In his hand, he held a six-by-six black box.

And wrapped around it was a red ribbon tied in a bow.

“Oh, God.” GRID had found the C-273. “Let’s go. I’ve got a report this to Home Base immediately.”

“What is this thing?” Nathan held it up. “Are the contents lethal?”

Kate went to take the box from him, but he held on, staring at her, waiting for answers to his questions. “No, it’s not lethal in the way you think. There’s nothing in the actual box that will hurt you.”

“Then why do you look is if someone’s jumping on your grave?” He nodded to the C-273 device. “Kate, what is this thing?”

How the hell did she answer that without breaching se
curity? Finally she found a way. “It’s experimental and top secret, and that’s all I can say about it, Nathan. Except that it doesn’t have anything to do with Douglas. I give you my word on that.”

His whole attitude changed, and Nathan let go of the device. “Then you’d better let Home Base know we located it.” He turned to swim to the boat.

Kate tucked the device into her fanny pack, then turned to join him—and slammed smack into his shoulder. Pain shot through her chin and her breath swooshed out. “Oomph!”