The Protector (17 page)

Vivi grimaced. “Okay, you win.” T. smiled, her expression brightening a little. “I always do, darling. When?”

“Soon.”

“You won’t lodge a protest if I release you from this contract.” It wasn’t a question. “The survey can go on without you. Besides, they need fresh blood.”

Which reminded Vivi. “I need to talk to you about Juliana Kohl.” When T. narrowed her eyes, she shrugged. “All right, all right, I won’t lodge a protest. But you’ll let me see this new element with the masked man through. I want to know what he has.”

T. nodded. “I’m not going to pull you out immediately, Vivi. You’re still very effective, and besides, there is the joint mission. Plenty to do still, don’t worry.” She uncrossed her legs and stood up. “Now you need to get going. Can Juliana Kohl wait?”

“Yes, she can wait,” Vivi replied. It wasn’t an urgent matter yet. “So tomorrow you’re going to make sure Maximillian Shoggi sees you. I wish I could be there to see his shock when he realizes that you’re alive.”

“Oh yes, it will be a very satisfying moment,” T. acknowledged with a bitter smile. “We have never officially met, but he watched me behind his two-way mirrors. It had amused him to deny me a meeting while watching me refuse to play with his man.”

T. had been dealing with Cash Ibrahim, who was now dead. “Revenge is going to be so sweet for scum like him,” Vivi said quietly.

They both looked at each other, remembering their dead friends. “There’ll be another greatly satisfying moment in the future,” T. promised in a flat voice. “When he finally has no one to turn to, nowhere to go. With Dilaver and the Triads busy with each other, he will have less and less options.”

“Don’t you think Alex Diamond will be there too? Will you be running away again then?” Vivi had never seen her chief avoid another person like this. She noticed the tension around T.’s eyes and pressed on, “Perhaps he’ll let go of his past then, hmm?”

“Perhaps, but we both have one thing in common.”

“What’s that?”

“Our men don’t seem to see us through our disguises.”

They both laughed at the uncomfortable truth. Vivi wondered whether Jazz truly saw her. But she didn’t have as many layers as T., who had enough personalities to rival a schizo.

“Thank you for the session,” Vivi said as she picked up her purse. “It was enlightening.”

“For both of us, darling. It isn’t very often I give in to a probing, but in this case, the desired results outweigh the discomfort.”

Vivi laughed. “I’m afraid to ask what you’ve manipulated my mind into making me do.”

T.’s answering smile was secretive. “Do I ever tell?”

Never. T.’s power of manipulation was like a soldier’s well-oiled weapon. She was a mental sniper. Vivi had never seen her miss when it came to NOPAIN.

“Viv? Is he a good kisser?”

“Yeah.”

“Then, you know what to do when he’s finds out about your disguise. You just start kissing him back and let him know it’s you inside.”

Vivi laughed again, then sobered. “I know you don’t mean me in that old woman’s makeup pushing my tongue down his throat.”

“Well, that would be something I’d want to see, but you know I meant something else. Look at your real self in the mirror and forgive the past, Viv.”

It was an order. Vivi didn’t feel the need to argue anymore. Maybe she was just tired. She couldn’t seem to find a solution to any of her problems. She knew T. was right. A change of venue and jobs would be good for her. But what about…She realized with a start that she was thinking of Jazz in terms of the future, when there probably wouldn’t be any.

The drive back allowed her the luxury to dwell on the kiss. He
was
a good kisser. More like fantastic. She had always been able to keep part of herself detached during intimate moments but during that kiss, she couldn’t think at
all. Everything came in a rush, and she had responded to his lips and caresses eagerly, wonderingly, without a single observation or thought.

Vivi touched her lips with her fingers. She had never felt like that before. It was frightening how just one kiss could churn her insides into such a knot. She had been attracted to men before, of course—charm and attraction were weapons taught at GEM—but she had always been emotionally in control.

The stairwell at the apartment building was silent in the late hour and Vivi was grateful Mrs. Lee wasn’t around to chide about her single status again. She didn’t feel like going another round about not needing a man.

She locked her apartment door and leaned against it, feeling its hard wood against her back. Because she needed. Right now. It was tough to admit it; it had been so long since she had needed a man. T.’s probing had brought that point home.

Without turning on the light, Vivi walked into her bedroom, unzipping and loosening her clothes carelessly. One could live in the past for only so long, especially when there didn’t seem to be anything with which to feed off from. All these years, she had kept wondering what had happened to her old friend, had agonized over a promise she had made, but since her return, she hadn’t been able to find any trace of her.

All she had found were painful reminders that nothing had changed in this culture, that it had become worse. She rubbed the crick in her neck as she stepped out of her heels and took off her clothes. She reached for the cotton nightie on top of her bed and froze when her hand touched something that was definitely not made of cloth.

Conflict resolution, navy SEALs style. That was the
team’s private joke when they set out to do utter destruction to bridges, roads, bunker complexes, and other big targets. As Cucumber often said, “There are few troubles that high explosives can’t take care of.”

The team had traveled by night up the muddy road, driven by a local truck driver, to the observation point that Jazz had targeted on the map. That was the new Point Zero, where all members must return. The truck driver had given them a thumbs-up after they had unloaded the hidden crates of equipment before driving off into the darkness.

The air was damp from the previous day’s rain, making the humidity even more oppressive. Within minutes, Jazz’s T-shirt was stuck to his body as he and his team moved about silently, unpacking and setting up what they needed.

Hawk had sent out their point man, Turner, the day before to scout the area, making sure the coast was clear and checking the coordinates with the map they had been given. Turner had also returned with a thumbs-up.

From this lookout, Jazz could see the bridge with his night-vision binoculars. Everything was running smoothly. The countdown started the moment they had received the
phone call that the satellite had the target within forty-eight hours of reaching the bridge.

That was both good news and bad news. The good news was that it meant the arrival would be around evening time, with enough daylight left so they could make sure which vehicle was which. The bad news was that it would be evening and what they could see, the enemy could, too. Everyone’s watch was set to precisely at midnight insertion time. The men would be divided into their usual two groups, one to follow Hawk’s orders and one to follow Jazz’s. Hawk would run the team from the lookout point first, making sure each team member covered Jazz’s team as they went under water to string up the bridge for a special welcome to the visitors.

Then Jazz’s team was to move to a safe distance on the other side as Hawk kept watch. Vivi was in charge of communications between HQ and the team. With her calling in to confirm the satellite signals and Hawk’s watch of the vehicles’ progress from his vantage point, Jazz would be able to time what he had to do to the second. His job wasn’t to look up at the bridge but to keep his ears open for Hawk’s signal to blow the baby up. His team was to ensure the safety of the vehicle with the women. Hawk’s men would take out whoever was left on his side of the bank. Except Dilaver, of course.

“What do you see?” Hawk asked from behind him.

“Just checking the bridge. I like to see what it looks like from afar.” Jazz adjusted the binoculars. “The water is high from the rain and the bridge is pretty low. Tricky.”

“I’m sure you can handle it.”

“Yeah, but another big rain tomorrow and we might not need to blow it down. It looks pretty rickety with the mud banks.”

From photos and Vivi’s information, it was an old bridge, very seldom used. The locals were aware of its role in the illegal trades and kept out of its way as much as possible. Bribery was the usual currency for access in this region, and
Jazz wasn’t surprised to learn that the local government turned a blind eye to the activities in their backyard.

“You just don’t want to get mud in your hair.”

Jazz grinned as he handed the binoculars over. “Yeah, that too.” He patted the haversack next to him. “My guys and I will be able to suffer through this while you guys have it easy up here drinking coffee.”

The haversack was loaded with water-resistant explosives, complete with an MC-1 clock, a safety and arming device, and a MK 96 detonator, all designed to provide precision delay and detonation of the main charge. It wouldn’t take very long for two swim pairs to attach the explosives. The trick was to apply it where it would blow the bridge down and not up, causing the least damage to the surroundings. They couldn’t chance too much shrapnel and chunks of blasted heavy wood flying around.

It was going to be more complex, what with the timing as well as the precision of each blast. Jazz didn’t like it when too much depended on Lady Luck. Things could always go wrong, and the need to ensure the safety of a certain vehicle had put even more pressure on the operation. It was tough to leave to chance that none of the female prisoners would be injured.

He hadn’t talked to Vivi since their kiss. “Did Vivi say when she will call again?”

“Negative.”

“We still don’t know her plans. Or did she tell you?”

“Negative.”

“I don’t think she’s just going to call in now and then to update us with satellite feeds.”

Hawk finally looked away from the binoculars. “Why not? Somebody has to do that.”

Jazz cocked a brow. “I thought you were the expert on these GEM people. Even I can tell they aren’t the type to sit back and let things happen. No, they are up to something and not telling us.” He couldn’t see Hawk’s expression in the
semidarkness but he knew his friend never liked surprises in a mission. “I know you talked to her more than I did about the operation. Did she give you any hints at all about orders from her side?”

“Negative.”

“You’re doing that deliberately to goad me, aren’t you?” Jazz asked in a mild voice. “What were you doing then?”

“Not puckering lips.” Hawk walked away so the men could put up “window dressing,” as they called it, camouflaging the opening of the lookout with plants and twigs. “We discussed the weather. Most boring. And she was asking about coordinates and detonation power. I suspect she was concerned about how we’re going to get some vehicles and not another.”

That made sense. Vivi’s top priority would be the girls. “Yeah, that complicates things.”

“I mostly asked her about Dilaver and his trip here. Curious about his future plans and why GEM and Admiral Mad Dog didn’t want him dead. Dilaver flew from Europe to do some sort of business in South East Asia, then decided to take a road trip in the darkness to meet up with the Triads. Obviously, he couldn’t fly again, not with a load of captured women. I wanted to know what he was after.”

Jazz shrugged. “Couldn’t be anything good. I can imagine a reason why Mad Dog is letting him go. It’s a joint mission, so it’s easy to assume GEM wants him loose and the admiral obviously agreed to the reasons.”

“You’ve been thinking about this too, huh?”

Jazz heaved the case with the squad communication gear onto a small portable table. “I’d say every man in our team has been thinking about it. It’s not everyday we’re told to shoot around a big target like Dilaver. They’ll obey orders, no questions asked, but they aren’t robots. They want to know, believe me.”

He handed Hawk the squad radio for testing. Then he pulled out the compact SATCOM radio. They would be communicating until the final moments in case of any changes be
fore the strike time and then everything was to follow as planned. Hopefully.

“Yeah,” Hawk said. “The good thing is, they know Mad Dog will tell them sooner or later.” Unlike other top brass, Admiral Jack Madison had always been straightforward with his special-designed teams. He had never been one to play fast and loose with the men.

Jazz glanced at his friend briefly. “Are you going to tell me before he does? Is it that big?”

“It’s…big.”

“It’s got to be, to involve another group we haven’t heard of before. That envelope Vivi gave you, with the instructions. That’s a first I’ve seen a courier between the general and us. What does GEM actually provide, Hawk? They gave us the Intel, I know that, but surely there’s more to that.”

Hawk smiled. “Maybe if you stop sucking Vivi’s lips with your eyes closed, you’ll see a lot more.”

“Maybe you don’t know yourself,” Jazz countered.

Hawk chuckled. “She’s running a side show,” he said quietly.

Jazz went still. “Are you saying she’s going to be in the theater out there?” He shook his head. “Not a good idea, Hawk. We don’t have any experience with her or her people, and with their penchant for secrecy, things are bound to go awry.”

That was something he wasn’t going to allow. No one was jumping into the fray without his permission. Not even Vivi.

Hawk’s voice lowered, keeping the information for his ears only. “The only thing the admiral would allow me to say is that GEM is going to start a mini-war between the different big dealers and he’s all for it. You know we lost four men to Dilaver last year because of the leaks from D.C. Mad Dog isn’t forgetting that too soon. With Steve working as liaison between our side and the other agencies, I guess the admiral is comfortable with this joint mission. He knows what’s going down and he approves. If the men press for more information, tell them about our fallen comrades. They’ll understand then.”

Jazz nodded. Leaks had been the killer in their covert operations the last few years. There were too many coincidental ambushes from behind, too many disappearances of targets before their arrival, and with the loss of a whole STAR Force fire squad in a particularly bloody mission that should have been an easy search and destroy, Admiral Madison had vowed to get to the bottom of the leaks. Four dead SEAL brothers. That had pissed off many frogs all over the world, especially when they had heard about the way it had happened. SEALs had long memories and Dilaver’s name was etched in their brains.

The admiral had inserted Hawk’s cousin, Steve, into the Intel section in D.C. It took a while but he had been successful in finding out one of the big rats in the system. In the course of things, Steve had left STAR Force to be liaison between the admiral and the different agencies. They had learned that many sources were better than just one. GEM must have proven to be very reliable or Mad Dog wouldn’t allow a joint mission.

“You still haven’t told me much about GEM.” He needed to know what Vivi was up to, although he wouldn’t bring it up specifically.

“Just think of them like we are—except we’re a brotherhood and they are women.” Hawk laughed. “And they use gems as their insignia. I’ve seen Steve’s pin. He claimed he got it from one of them.”

“Gems?”

“We have mean looking frogs on our patches, man,” Hawk pointed out.

“So they have snarling gems on theirs?”

Hawk shook his head. “This is from Steve, so I’d take it with a grain of salt, okay? Marlena’s thing is pearls and I think they send it out as gifts, like a call of distress or some kind of code. There’s a huge secrecy about what GEM really is. I suspect they are part government, part civilian.”

“Interesting.” So Vivi had some kind of jewelry symbol of
her own? He had to find out whether that was true when he saw her next.

“Think of it as a very expensive group of Charlie’s Angels,” Hawk said, his voice rich with amusement. “And I ain’t kidding. When I was in D.C., Steve’s chick bought the whole squad expensive suits and took us to the opera. We had the best seats. She wore this thing that stuck to her like second skin. The hotel suite they lived in was makeout palace, with butlers and maids. High maintenance.”

“No wonder your cousin opted for another job.”

“It has its perks.”

“So are you telling me all this just to satisfy my curiosity about Vivi or to hint there’s something about her I ought to know?” They’d been friends long enough for him to realize that Hawk never parted with information unless he had something up his sleeve. It was the nature of McMillans to compete. “Are you saying Vivi might expect to be maintained like Steve’s Marlena?”

“I’m saying there are many sides to these women. I’ve seen Marlena in that opera fluttering her eyelashes at my poor cousin and he was putty in her hands. And I’ve seen the same woman take my weapons and calmly mow down enemies with her back to mine while coolly telling me I didn’t taste as sweet as her lover and that she was going to kill me for pretending to be Steve.” Hawk paused as he adjusted his nylon belt, making sure everything was in place. He looked up at Jazz and added quietly, “You haven’t seen the real Vivienne Verreau till you see her in action. Then you make up your mind whether that’s the woman you want, buddy. What you see the rest of the time is merely some outer layer. Marlena is reputed to be an assassin. Who knows what Vivi is?”

An assassin. He couldn’t picture Vivi as a cold-blooded killer. He was a soldier and understood the essentials of killing as part of his resume, but the mental picture he had built of Vivi didn’t include that. But Hawk was right, of course. She was an operative.

“Can you handle it?” Jazz asked as he tucked in his weapon. “Knowing and loving a woman like that?”

Hawk smiled, his teeth gleaming in the dim lighting. “Well, it all depends on whether she likes my kiss.”

Jazz thumped the radio against Hawk’s chest. “As long as you don’t pretend to be me this time, son.” He knew he couldn’t sound too challenging or Hawk would be even more competitive. He really didn’t want Hawk’s lips anywhere near Vivi’s.

“I can’t possibly look as ugly.”

Jazz grinned. “Your loss.” He checked the watch. “Two hours, forty-five minutes.”

Hawk double-checked his watch and nodded. “Here’s your earpiece. Don’t lose it while trying to beat back the ’squitoes.” They were to communicate via the tiny mikes as each team went their separate ways, so it was important to check with everyone so they could hear their channel. It would be pitch black while they worked, and any lost communication pieces might cause a problem.

At exactly midnight, Jazz watched as the men gathered around to listen to Hawk’s quiet instructions. Faces smeared with war paint. Backs straight. Toys all ready for play.

“You know what your job is. Keep your eyes alert for women. Those of you who have seen Marlena Maxwell in action will bear in mind that Vivi Verreau is GEM, too. That means you report back anything that catches your attention, do you hear?”

The men rumbled their obedience in one voice. They didn’t need to ask any questions. Each of them knew exactly what they had to do and the rest would be training taking over.

Jazz gave his instructions. “Make sure channel four is open for all-way communication. If there is any change of plans while we wait, Hawk and I will use that channel. If you are unable to communicate for whatever reason during the operation, you signal your partner for confirmation. Get the bridge. Get the fuckers. Then get the women. In that order.”