Tamed by Love (Agent Lovers Series Book 2) (16 page)

“Oops – big mistake.”

“Yup. A mistake he won’t make a second time once he realizes he’s made it.” Liz drank the last of her coffee, set the empty cup on the top step and threw Jennifer a questioning look. “Ready to go?”

Jennifer nodded. She definitely didn’t want to wait any longer.

“Hopefully we won’t run into them on the way,” said Jennifer. She ran behind Liz with her backpack shouldered.

“Townsend’s office is at the other end of the base; they shouldn’t spot us from there.”

Liz went into the hangar in front of Jennifer and looked around for a helicopter pilot she could commandeer for a while, but there was no one around.

“They’re probably all in the rec room,” said Jennifer.

They walked to the rec room. Without knocking, Liz pushed the door open and entered. Four men in flight suits sat comfortably around an oval wooden table. When the two women appeared in full combat gear, the peace and quiet was all over for them.

“An assignment?” asked one of pilots.

“Yes,” said Liz. “We were wondering where you all were hiding. Haven’t you been notified?”

Quickly one of the pilots jumped up. “No. We don’t know anything about it! I’ll get the info and we can take off right away,” he said and headed for the telephone, but Liz stopped him.

“We’ll explain everything you need to know, Hiller. That way we won’t be delayed any further.”

“Fine,” he said after a brief hesitation and followed them out into the hangar. The security clearance kept him from questioning their authority. It wasn’t his job to ask why. In passing, Hiller reached for his helmet and went in front of them into the LAKOTA which was ready to go. After they were in the helicopter, Liz leaned forward and gave him the coordinates for their target: an old cement works in Ragland, Alabama.

After a few minutes in the air, Hiller spoke to the women over the headsets. He couldn’t shake the unmistakable feeling that something wasn’t right. “What’s with your
eagle eyes?
They didn’t get in touch with me either. Your husbands again?” he asked laughing. He had heard a lot about the Blackwood-Robbins quartet.

“We’re going without any monitoring today,” Jennifer said.

“That’s pretty unusual. As far as I know, no assignments go without it.”

“This isn’t a typical assignment, Hiller. Just fly us over and drop us out! As soon as we need a taxi back, we’ll check in.” Liz preempted any questions he might have had.

He understood that no further discussion was desired and severed the connection.

“I want you to stay behind me and under cover, Jenny.”

“Why?”

“You know why. If one of us takes on fire, I want it to be me. Chris will chop off my head if he learns you’re pregnant and plunged into the thick of battle and I knew about it. I’m assuming you haven’t said anything to him yet?”

“No. I haven’t had the chance.”

“You’ve had numerous chances to tell him. You’ve lied to him, or at least kept a secret from him about something important that concerns both of you. Every day that makes it worse.” Liz sighed and gave Jennifer an encouraging smile. “But I understand, you know? I don’t think it’s a whole lot different for me. As soon as we’ve gotten your parents out and are headed back, you have to tell him regardless of how inappropriate the situation is. Promise me!”

“I promise. Besides, Chris won’t be angry when I tell him.”

Liz shook her head grinning. “My ass! He’ll lose his composure and lock you up until your child’s born, because he’ll be so worried something will happen to you.”

“That could happen. But I couldn’t care less right now. I just want to get my parents safely home.”

“We’ll make sure of that. I promise.”

“How long do you think it will take them to figure out where we are and what we’re doing?”

“Probably by the time their team shows up at the hangar.”

“We better get ready for a real tongue-lashing.”

“I’m already ready,” said Liz with a smile before she fell silent and checked her gear.

***

A few minutes later the pilot reported over his headset, “Ladies! I was just informed that you’re not supposed to be here and there are no orders for the two of you. What’s going on?”

“Who told you that?” Liz asked.

“Your husband!”

“Shit,” she whispered and looked at Jennifer. They found out sooner than they figured.

“I’m returning to base immediately,” he said.

“You’ll do nothing of the sort. Fly us to the coordinates I gave you.”

“I won’t disobey my orders.”

“Then I’ll see to it that you do!” she said and reached for her GLOCK. Not the slightest trace of fear or anger appeared on the pilot’s face when he saw Liz’s hand on the grip of her semi-automatic pistol.

“What, you’re gonna shoot me? I know about your approach, Blackwood. It doesn’t matter who or what you want, you can’t intimidate me. Besides, your husband is the authority, not you. We’re turning around!”

After a brief glance at Jennifer, who nodded, Liz changed her tactic. She gave him an abbreviated summary of what had gone on in the last few hours and that they were now on their way to rescue Jennifer’s family. When she was done with her explanation, Hiller steered the helicopter back toward Alabama.

“I hope you can stop your husband from lynching me for this. I’m going to have an investigation on my hands now.”

“Don’t worry. Gray will be much too busy tearing off my head to bother with you,” she comforted him. “If he should check in again, tell him I forced you at gunpoint.”

The pilot nodded and steered the helicopter toward Ragland, Alabama. When Gray got in touch with him again, he said exactly what Liz had suggested and heard Gray swearing on the other end.

***

“This is unreal!” said Gray, slamming a fist on the table. “It wasn’t enough that they had to defy us again. No…” His voice dripped with sarcasm, “…Liz and Jennifer have each stolen gear, “confiscated” a helicopter under false pretenses and are holding one of our pilots at gunpoint.”

“We can’t send a team after them. I’m afraid they might get in each other’s way and neutralize each other,” said Chris, concerned, and he looked from Gray to Townsend. “If they were to contact us, that would different.”

“Elizabeth and Jennifer will be in very big trouble when they get back here! Up until now I’ve tolerated their unconventional methods. After all, they’ve worked more often than not. But I can’t condone their acting so injudiciously in this situation. That’s enough! Finished! I won’t let them disrespect me any longer! Where would we be then? Making arrangements for pony rides and promotional excursions?”

Townsend was extremely pissed off. Two of his TDAs acted rashly and jeopardized others. Outraged, he marched back and forth in the tiny monitoring room. A useless endeavor because Terence, Jeff and his team partner, Joey, stood not even four steps across from him and he had to turn around. “Have they completely lost their minds? They’ve fallen into such an obvious trap.”

“I can only answer in the affirmative,” said Gray. Then he contacted the helicopter pilot again. Gray still hoped to be able to convince the women to contact them. After a while they received images from their cameras. Obviously, somewhere in their heads there was still a little piece of sanity.

“Have you thought once lately? About us? Or at least about yourself, Liz? We’re taking over the operation. Did you fail to notice that? Besides, I’m sure they’re expecting you.”

“No. Don’t do that! They’re expecting Jenny, not me.”

“And you seriously think you alone can fight against such superior numbers?”

“What do you know about them?” asked Liz, completely calm.

“You really don’t expect me to give you any information, do you? Jeff, Joey, two more teams and an additional unit are going to take over this operation. Turn around, Liz!”

“No way. Either you tell me what you know or we’ll jump into a shark tank. It doesn’t matter to us.”

Gray gave in and offered her the requested information then passed the microphone to Chris. “Why didn’t you stay where I left you, Jennifer?” Chris sounded deeply disappointed.

“My family’s at stake.”

“And my family’s at stake, too. Jesus, Jenny! Is it wounded pride because we left you back with Harold? Is that it? Or do you think no one can work as well as you?”

“I never said that! But I won’t sit idly around until someone attempts to rescue them.”

“I’m not just
someone
,” said Jeff. “I’m a TDA, just like you. And I’ll do my job professionally, as it should be done.”

“I believe you. But these are my parents. And I can’t…” Jennifer ran her hand over her eyes and swallowed with difficulty. “I’m sorry, Chris,” she finally mumbled and severed the radio connection.

With grim faces, Gray and Chris stared at the monitor for several minutes. They could see Liz and Jennifer talking to one another, but they could no longer hear what they were saying.

The telephone rang and Townsend took the call. His expression darkened with every passing second. As soon as he ended the call, he turned to his men and said, “Bad news. Two more families have been abducted, a total of five more people. Our people got there too late.”

Gray made contact with the pilot again. When Liz and Jennifer checked in, he informed them of the new situation. He knew the operation wouldn’t run smoothly. He hadn’t counted on these superior numbers.

***

“You can throw us out there, Hiller.” Liz pointed past the pilot to a clearing some distance away. “We’ve gone far enough.” Then she turned to Jennifer who held a small monitor in her hands. “Have you been able to pick up any kind of a signal?”

Jennifer looked up from the monitor. “No. Nothing of significance. Only radio signals in the area of the cement works. At an abandoned industrial park ten miles west, everything’s quiet. No radio signals.”

Her findings were confirmed by Chris. “No radio. He could only detect heat signatures in the outside areas. Six people. And as far as weapons are concerned, everything’s possible. We spotted large caliber and fully automatic guns. As far as grenade launchers and MANPADS, no positive confirmation.”

“Understood.”

“Turn around!” Chris said one last time. “We have too little info, much too little, for you to be able to accomplish anything. And there are only two of you, for Christ’s sake!”

“You know I can’t leave my parents like this.”

“The teams are almost complete. They’ll start in an hour at the latest. Besides, your parents would never want you to put yourself in this kind of danger. You’re running to your death, sweetheart. Please, consider that!”

Jennifer owed him an answer and Chris pressed his lips tightly together.
Damn, his wife could be stubborn
. With mixed feelings he watched her on the monitor as she left the LAKOTA with Liz and ran to the edge of the woods.

“Get into position at the old quarry!” Gray instructed the pilot. “We have to be able to react quickly if something unexpected happens.”

“Understood, Sir.”

At least one person obeyed his orders. “Liz, I’d like you to wait for Jeff and the other teams.” Gray ardently hoped she would finally be reasonable and listen to him. “While you’re waiting, you can scope out the lay of the land. The raid will follow immediately as soon as you’re all back together. Wait for reinforcements.”

Apparently Liz considered following his order, as she stopped and turned around to Jennifer. She looked at Jennifer for a minute and reluctantly nodded. “Fine. We’ll get the lay of the land and go into standby mode.”

“Liz? What’s the point of that? What about my parents? We have to get them out of there.” Jennifer looked like she was about to panic. Alarmed, Chris sat up.

“You’re right, Jenny. That’s why we have to wait.” Without further discussion, Liz jumped over a rotten tree trunk and ran double quick toward the abandoned cement works. Jennifer followed.

***

Townsend rubbed his chiseled chin and furrowed his brow. “Something’s not right,” he said and voiced what had also crossed Gray’s mind.

“What do you mean, Sir?” Terence’s eyes wandered over the monitor. Liz took the lead and Jennifer followed. Nothing unusual. Nevertheless. The Lt. General was right. It seemed as if Liz was acting as a shield to block Jennifer from any possible attack from the front. Liz looked back at Jennifer repeatedly and was vigilant about staying right in front of her.

But before one of the men could wrack their brains about Liz’s unusual behavior, Jeff sidetracked them with an, “Oh shit!”

With lips pressed together, Gray followed what was going on at the site of the old cement works. The number of people had tripled. And they obviously had MANPADS. In this particular case, they were dealing with FIM-92 STINGER personal anti-aircraft guided missiles. That answered one of their questions. An assault from the air would be impossible, at least until the hostages were taken to safety. Only a raid from the ground was worth considering.

“We now have eighteen people patrolling the outer areas,” Gray told Liz and Jennifer. “And their weaponry has increased. MANPADS are a part of it.”

“We understand.” Liz confirmed the information as she ran. A quick glance at the GPS told her they had just under three miles until they reached the abandoned cement works. They blazed their way through piles of rubble and thick undergrowth until they finally crested the last hill that separated them from the site. They took up a prone position beside each other, to get the lay of the land in the twilight.

“There are still eighteen of them,” said Liz as she lowered her high-resolution binoculars. “We can’t even begin to assess how many might be hunkered down inside the building. The walls are too thick for the satellite to pick up any kind of heat signatures.”

“We have to go in either way!” Jennifer said, thinking only of her parents. Nothing was more important to her than freeing them and getting them to safety.

“We’ll wait, Jenny. There’s no helping it.” Liz reached for Jennifer’s hand. But Jennifer pulled away with a jerk.