Freedom Does Matter (Mercenaries Book 2) (13 page)

“Yeah. Forecasts,” Dan said. “Your mileage may vary. Along here the water rose about two meters, but it wasn’t a problem. Further away from downtown, north and south, while the rise was less there was more damage, since the banks are lower, too. In the lower-income neighborhoods in particular.”

Kevin met them at the door to Beckie’s room. Beckie wondered briefly, Is that a shoebox? What’s he doing—

“This came while we were over at the meeting. Addressed to Beckie. I’m a little leery, though it doesn’t feel heavy enough to be anything really bad.”

Beckie grinned. “Well, I haven’t ordered any shoes. Do you or Dan have anything we can check it with?”

“No. Sue might be able to slip one of her mini-viewers under the lid and look for trip wires. There’s nothing on the outside.” Sue nodded and left.

Gingerly, Kevin placed the box on the desktop. Beckie peered at it. “Any idea if this is what it looks like?” She pulled him back to look at the brown smear on the box’s end.

“Blood, if I were a betting man,” he said.

“Which, married to Shalin, you’re not,” Beckie retorted. “How about—”

“Yeah, even non-betting, I’m guessing blood.”

Dan was peeking over their shoulders. “More than a paper cut.” He reached to touch the spot. “Hmm. Not dry yet, either. That’s a bad sign.” He sighed. “Let’s cut a small hole for Sue’s camera. Without moving the lid, okay?”

Sue came in holding an instrument case and her laptop. In a matter of minutes, she had the remote viewer hooked up and was ready to slide the camera and its built-in light source through the opening Dan had cut in the lid.

The others crowded around the laptop, watching the image as the camera popped into the interior.

“Not much sense of scale,” Dan said.

“Well,” Sue began, dragging the word out as she examined the image.

“It’s fabric. The box top’s here,” Kevin said, pointing to the side of the screen, “and there’s a cloth or something. Nothing connected to the top of the box. I don’t see anything that could be a trigger.”

Beckie shifted on her feet, peering over Dan’s arm as Sue navigated the camera further along.

“Oh, shit!” Kevin said.

No one needed to respond. At the far end of the box, the almost white cloth was stained dark brown… or red.

“I doubt this will physically hurt any of us,” Dan said in hushed tones. “I think it’s intended to… affect Beckie.”

She stared at him. “Well, I’m not sure what it is, but…”

“Nothing else to see, I don’t think,” Sue said as she finished moving the camera around.

“Yeah. Pull it and we’ll open it up.”

After the equipment had been stowed, Kevin shooed everyone to Sue’s room until Beckie realized what he was doing.

“No way, Kev. I’m staying here when you open it. I don’t want to give Ian bad news any more than you do.” She turned to the others, standing in the doorway. “Go on, get down there. That way, someone’ll be left to tell the tale.”

“Do I have to pick you up and carry you?” Kevin said.

“Yup, you’ll have to do that. And I’ll fight you all the way,” she said, punching his arm with her clenched fist.

“All right. But stand behind me at least, so you can tell Shalin I was trying to protect you.”

“If I was big enough—”

He picked her up and set her down five feet from the table. “I’m pretty sure we can both give whatever messages we’ll need to. At least for today.” He turned his back on her and reached for the lid.

“Could be a cell phone trigger,” Beckie said from beside his elbow.

Kevin jumped and the box slid along the desk a foot. “God
damn
, Beckie, don’t scare me like that!” He took a deep breath and Beckie wondered if he really wanted to kill her, or he just looked like it. With a look, he pulled the box back but before he could grab the lid, she saw the door open and Dan peer in.

“What the hell are you doing, Kev?”

Kevin took a step back and put his hands on the table. “I was getting ready to open this,” he said with exaggerated patience.

“Well, wait. If there’s any chance it’ll go ‘Boom,’ we oughta… That
is
why we went through the exercise with Sue’s camera?”

Kevin glanced at Beckie, who was still frozen from Dan’s entrance. “Yeah… so?”

Dan held up a roll of tape and a length of cord. “I know exactly what Ian would say if you two blow yourselves up along with a piece of this hotel.” He walked in and carefully picked the box up. “And I don’t want to hear it.” His head nod pointed the way. “Com’on.”

Beckie ran ahead to make sure the hallway was empty, and then the elevator. In the lobby, she shooed a tourist couple away while Dan and then Kevin exited the lift and headed toward the garden.

Dan found an open area and placed the box in the middle. He ripped off a piece of tape and fastened the cord to the lid. While Kevin and Beckie moved away to ward off unsuspecting guests, Dan paid the cord out until he reached a fountain. He ducked behind it and after a quick look up and down, yanked the cord.

When nothing deafening happened, Beckie ran to the box, picked it up and reached in. She felt through the stained cloth, dropped the box and ran for a nearby planter. In her mind, her retching went on for hours.

In a moment, however, Kevin was at her side, comforting her. When her convulsions and tears had slowed, he said, “Want to talk about it?”

“You… d-d-didn’t lo-ok at… at it?” He shook his head. “Felt… felt li-like a…” She raised her arm. “… ha-n-d… a kid’s… hand.” She broke down again.

Kevin helped Beckie to stand and move. Trailing them, Dan carried the box. Back in the room, Beckie washed her face in cold water and then joined the others at the desk. The open box lay baleful where Dan had placed it, contents still wrapped in the cloth.

Kevin reached for the box, but Beckie caught his hand. “It’s addressed to me.” After a look, he withdrew.

Beckie scooped the cloth wrapped contents out of the box and slowly unwrapped it. When the pale flesh first showed between the folds of cloth, she almost dropped it, but carried on until she had exposed the whole of the hand, severed wrist away from her. A piece of Beckie’s sat phone had been roughly taped to the middle finger.

“Noorah…” She dropped the cloth and forced back her gag reflex. “Sue… is… is this fatal? I mean, could she be alive after this?” She touched the broken plastic. “And does this mean…”

Sue reached out, but Beckie drew the hand back. “I gotta look at the cut, Beckie,” Sue said softly. “See how it was done.” Beckie relinquished it.

“A single blow from an ax, or a heavy knife. Knew what he was doing, too, right between the bones. Earlier today, judging. Yeah, if they stopped the bleeding, she can still be alive. In shock, for sure if she watched, but alive.”

Dan’s voice broke into their reflections. “We missed this.”

Beckie turned to see him holding a piece of paper with a pair of tongs.

“It was on the bottom of the box, under the—”

“Yeah,” Beckie said. “I was focused on the… the hand. I didn’t see anything else. Do we need a translator?”

Dan unfolded the paper. “Nope.” He read, “‘Go home. If you stay, more will come to you.’” He let go, allowing it to flutter to the desk.

“More what?” Beckie took the note and read it herself. “Pretty short, eh?”

“Well,” Kevin said, “I was about to suggest we leave anyway, at least till the next meeting, but this gives the idea some urgency.”

Beckie twisted her hair around her hand. “You think they did this because…” She choked back a sob. “Because I gave her the phone?”

Kevin put his arm around her shoulders and walked her to the chair. “From the little I know, I think they… The hand was because she failed. The phone is to make us feel guilty and—”

“We should let Shen know. They might figure out where Ian is!” Beckie’s voice rose as she talked.

“Relax,” Kevin said. “I’ll take care of that, though I doubt it’s an option for them.” He rubbed her shoulder, but his eyes weren’t following. “Your phone… I’ll check with Else. She might be able to retrieve location data from the servers.”

While Kevin was talking on his phone, Sue wrapped the hand back up and put it in the refrigerator. “Till we figure out what to do with it, exactly.”

“Well,” Kevin reported, “Millie’s already fended off one attempt to interfere, though Shen’s sure it didn’t originate here. No matter, he’ll increase the watches.”

“I assume—”

“No one got through, Shen said. Everyone’s okay.”

Beckie felt her face relax. “Cool. Thanks!”

“Yeah. And Else will send the location data from the phone. She thought it’d take an hour or two.”

“So let’s grab some lunch,” Sue said.

With guilt weighing heavy and the contents of the refrigerator on her mind, Beckie found even her salad unappetizing. None of the others seemed concerned. Else bettered her estimate; Kevin’s phone signaled a message an hour after their talk and the team gathered around his laptop, looking at the string of numbers in her mail.

“Well, those aren’t real interesting,” Beckie groused. “I was hoping for a map.”

Kevin laughed, joined by Dan and Derek.

“We have the map,” Sue said. She handed Derek a large-scale map of the Matrouh Governorate.

He spread it out and Kevin began reading numbers off. With a glance at the edges, Sue began marking the corresponding location.

“Wait,” Derek said. “It should be the last one, right?”

“I suspect,” Kevin said. “Else said the data ends about five hours ago. Like the phone was turned off, she said.”

“Yeah,” Beckie snarled. “With a big fucking axe!” Kevin gave her a look, but she wasn’t going to take it back. I don’t fucking care if she tried to kill us. She didn’t succeed. She deserves help! We can give it. “So, yeah, that should have been the last place the phone reported. What are the chances we have imagery there?”

“Not likely, I’d guess. Sue, what do you think?”

“Not unless Else subscribed after looking at this. No need, up till now.”

“Okay,” Kevin said. “I have the coordinates loaded. If we’re gonna go, let’s do it.”

“Wait, ‘ow?” Derek said. “We can get Jean-Luc to fly us over there, but we also want ‘im to fly us out of ‘ere, right?”

“Yeah,” Beckie said. “That’s pretty close to where Haleef took us… whenever it was. If we don’t fly, even by road it’s at least fifteen hours round trip, since most of the way back will be after dark. Even flying, it’s gonna be a couple or three hours, depending on what we find there.”

Another round of conversation, including Jean-Luc this time, and they were soon aboard a rented helicopter with permission to fly to Siwa Oasis as tourists.

Several minutes before reaching the mark, Jean-Luc brought the altitude down. Beckie found there was more than sufficient light to worry her about the tops of the dunes they were skirting.

“Kevin,” Jean-Luc said over the intercom, “this all looks too sandy for landing. We passed a rocky place a minute or so back. I’ll drop you and wait there.”

At the mark, Jean-Luc brought the copter to a hover.

“Okay, goggles on. Scarves or whatever over your mouths. Keep low and get out from under the rotors.”

“Back well away,” Jean-Luc added, “in case—” A gust rocked the copter, taking his attention.

Beckie didn’t wait; she dropped the seven feet from the skid to the sand, tucked and rolled. Worse than Hawai’i, she thought, as sand infiltrated everything. Even with the goggles, she kept her eyes closed as she rolled down the slope until she couldn’t feel the prop wash. She sat up, then stood and hurried over to help Sue, Derek and Kevin to their feet, brushing sand from their collars and faces.

Kevin reached into a zippered pocket and pulled the GPS out. After a moment’s observation he grouped them together and started the march.

Beckie fell in step with Kevin as he made his way, following the GPS’ directions. Mindful of the hazards of noise, she kept silent, shuffling alongside, with Sue and Derek a yard or two behind.

After a half hour, Kevin stopped short and opened a pocket, reaching inside for his phone. After he put it away, he gathered them close. “Else is looking at current images of the area. There’s a small group of tents ahead, and about four hours ago, activity which the analysts interpret as the tribe leaving. Since they didn’t take everything, they’re expected to return.”

“Are we ’eaded right, then?” Derek asked.

“She gave me new coordinates. The latest image she could get, the tribe didn’t show up, but the tents did.”

Beckie pushed her hair back under the headband. “So, we don’t know how long we have?” He nodded. “We should get going then. Maybe they left her to die. If she’s even still there.”

They slogged for another half-hour before tents loomed ahead, much closer than she expected. She came around the side of a dune and here was a tent, then another, and another. As Else had advised, the area was deserted, no people, no animals. Just the tents.

They were larger than the ones Beckie remembered from her few camping trips. About twenty feet square but barely high enough to stand in. In the gathering twilight, they appeared dark gray; she thought they might have originally been white, or tan, with a dark cord trim at the top.

She’d taken a second or two to make these observations, during which Kevin had come up beside her.

“We’re here, I guess,” he whispered. “What next?”

“Dunno. You think they’re all gone?”

“Looks like.”

“Do you smell trap?”

“I would, if the intelligence hadn’t said they’d all left.” He scanned the area. “Still, careful is the word.”

A noise from further ahead brought Beckie’s head around and she took a small step back.

A boy of nine or ten came around the side of the tent before them. He was trying to carry a rifle, but the butt dragged in the sand.

Kevin jumped, but then went still as he watched the boy. After Beckie shoved her heart back into place, Derek bumped her arm. She pushed his weapon down and gestured to both men to hold.

With a nod to Sue, Beckie took a step toward the boy, then a second. She was close enough to see fear in his eyes, and embarrassment that he couldn’t thwart her. Could be regret, too, she thought.