Tropical Safeguard (Men Of The Secret Service) (25 page)

“Katrina, please be
careful. You really shouldn’t even be here with me. It’s too dangerous. Maybe
you should go and hide over…”

“No way, I’m here and
I’m doing this,” she insisted.

He kissed her quickly,
“I guess there’s no point in arguing with a spitfire like you, is there.”

Katrina shook her head
in triumph.

                                   
<><><>

The curtains were drawn on all of the
motel windows making it impossible to know which room held Jimmy.

“Wouldn’t the room
coincide with where they’ve parked?”

“Not necessarily, that’s
the problem. We’ll head around back and see if we can find out more that
way.”
 

Cole crouched and ran
toward the side driveway leading to the back of the motel and Katrina followed
closely. Rounding the corner, they walked cautiously through the back grass,
making their way past the many whirring air conditioners and passing each room
like slinking shadows in the night. When they were half way down the length of
the building, Cole eased his eyes above one of the air conditioners and peered
in the bathroom window. The bathroom door was open and in the distance he
spotted an elderly man and woman playing cards on a small table in front of
their curtained front window.

“Not this one,” Cole
whispered and crept to the next room. Looking up, he spied a young man dressed
in a black tank top and black pants leaning over the toilet. His arms were
covered in tattoos and he looked ragged and beaten down from years of hard
living, though he couldn’t have been more than twenty. When he finished his business,
he turned off the light and left. Cole squinted in his efforts to see past the
bathroom doorframe into the next fully lit room. For a moment, Cole saw nothing
but the end of the bed with a floral bedspread. And then he saw movement. An
older, heavier man dressed in black walked around the bed and out of sight. He
was holding a gun.

Cole looked down at
Katrina and nodded. “Bingo.” Taking the machine gun from her, he made sure it
was cocked and ready before placing it back in her hands.

Katrina took it before
looking deeply into his eyes with a shocked expression. “But I can’t…”

“Yes, you have to. Just
in case. You didn’t think I’d give you a gun that wasn’t ready to be fired, did
you?”

She had a moment of
self-doubt as she pondered her choices. They boiled down to one. Go forward or
nothing.

“Only use this in the
worst circumstance. The noise will draw a crowd,” he instructed. “Hug the wall
and stay behind me.”

They doubled back the
way they’d come, with Cole counting each room as they passed to know which room
was the right one at the front. They raced up the side of the motel and
cautiously rounded the corner. They now stood on the front walkway that
stretched the entire front, an overhang covering its expanse. Each door stood
at even intervals. They moved to the ice machine, hiding beside it as a couple
unlocked and entered a nearby door. Their laughter seemed so out of place to
Katrina who’s ears were now ringing in her fight-or-flight adrenaline. Once the
couple shut their door, Cole moved onward, carefully taking one cautious step
at a time. As they passed the couple’s door, Katrina could still hear their
muffled laughter and she wished more than anything to be anywhere else and feel
carefree too. If only she knew what to expect and what the outcome would be.

They passed the first
two doors, then another, and by the fourth, Katrina could feel her mouth grow
dry as if it were full of cotton. Her heart felt like it would beat out of her
chest. She squeezed Cole’s hand tighter, staying as close to him as was humanly
possible without tripping. And then, by the fifth door, Cole stopped and
Katrina did the same. He leaned in, listening at the door but still making sure
not to walk in front of it. They heard men’s voices talking in hushed tones,
and then a boy’s plea to let him go to the bathroom.

Cole turned to her and
they locked eyes. She could tell he wanted to convey the magnitude of the
moment and in some way reassure, but it was irrelevant. No amount of reassuring
looks could calm the internal storm of nerves brewing inside her. She was in
fight or flight mode. “No matter what happens to me, you use that gun and
protect yourself. They’re both dressed in black and by now they’ve probably
become a little comfortable so it’s to our advantage.”
 

Katrina stared blankly,
seeing his lips move yet feeling so numb she was practically deaf to his words.

“Katrina,” he said
again. She nodded, her eyebrows furrowed in worry. “Here we go.”

Backing up from the door
and standing upright with his gun drawn, Cole took a few swift steps forward
and kicked the door squarely in the center. The flimsy lock gave instantly and
the door splintered at the hinges and flew open, surprising the men inside.
Jimmy sat with his knees up on the bed as the two men scrambled to reach for
their guns, but it was too late. Cole took out the first older man with a quick
shot to the kneecap, disabling him. He collapsed to the floor and the sound of
his screams shook Katrina into action. She lifted her gun and pointed it toward
the young, tattooed man as he reached for his revolver on the dresser.

“Don’t move!” she
screamed, moving closer. She brought the gun up, aiming it right at his head.
This didn’t seem to slow him down. “I’ll shoot you, just try me!” she hollered.

As he grabbed the gun
and swiveled on his heels, he made to aim it at Katrina but she was faster. A
gunshot echoed off the walls of the room and the young man fell back in agony,
shot in the shoulder. As he lay on the floor moaning, Katrina kicked his gun
out of the way and reached down to pick it up, all the while keeping her gun
trained on him unwaveringly.

“You shot me!” he
stammered between painful groans.

“And I told you I would.
You should have listened.”

“You okay, Katrina?”

She looked over at Cole
and saw his face beaming, clearly impressed with her marksmanship.

All she could do was nod
as adrenaline coursed through her veins, making her head dizzy with disbelief.
She held up the gun, shifting it from one injured man to the other, unable to
let her guard down just yet.

“Now we can call the
police to help detain them until my team shows up. I’ll have to explain what
happened here.” Cole looked over at her. “I’ll take it from here.”

Katrina nodded again and
reluctantly brought her gun down. She ran over to Jimmy, sitting beside him and
wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He was shaken, but all in all he was in
one piece. “Jimmy, it’s going to be alright.”

Jimmy nodded silently,
still in shock over what had just gone down. Inching closer, he reached out and
hugged her, releasing his fright with deep sobs. Katrina held him close,
caressing his hair. “It’s okay, Jimmy, we’re here now. You’re safe.”

Rounding up the injured
men, their screams of pain a violent soundtrack to the rescue mission, Cole
picked up the phone and dialed the local police. He explained the urgency of
the situation directly to the commanding officer. As he put the phone down, a
stout man with a moustache cautiously poked his head around the corner of the
gaping doorframe. “What the…” he stammered, “What happened here?”

“Sir, I’m an agent with
the United States Government,” Cole introduced himself from a distance. He
didn’t dare move away from the two men. “I’m afraid you’ve been unknowingly
harboring two kidnappers at your lovely establishment.”

Katrina looked over at
Cole’s stern face from the bed, still hugging Jimmy tightly. “We need a first
aid kit,” Katrina demanded, assuming the police and ambulance would take a
while to get here. She was certain a double shooting in an off-the-beaten-path
flea-bag motel wasn’t a common occurrence here in Bermuda.

“Yeah, sure,” the stout
man said before disappearing.

“What now, Cole?”

“We wait for the police.
How are you, Jimmy?” Cole asked, seeing how the boy clung to Katrina for comfort.

“Glad to see you,” he
said honestly.

Cole smiled softly.
“It’ll be okay now, promise.”

“Is my Dad okay?” Jimmy
finally asked. Cole wasn’t sure what to say.

“Agent Nielsen’s team is
rescuing them, so yes, they’ll be okay.” Katrina looked down into his freckled,
innocent face.

Jimmy nodded, content
with hearing that. He had more questions, but he knew they would be answered in
time. For now he held onto Katrina and waited out the rescue, watching as Cole
dialed a number at lightening speed.

“Kirk, it’s Cole. What’s
your status?”

“The entire team is here
and we’re in position.”

“Excellent. The boy is
safe. Two men down.” Cole looked around to assess the damage.

“Any casualties?” Agent
Hannlon asked.

“No.”

“We should expect Wilco
and three others then, right?”

“Yes. So nine hostages,
two of which are young teenage boys.”

“Correct.”

“We’re on it. Any advice
on getting in?”

“The front gate makes
too much noise and you need a code. The stone wall at the far right when facing
the property is your best bet, or a gap in the wall on the private beach, but
that means making a wide circle around the property which might take too long.
I say the wall’s your best approach.”

“And the security
system?”

“I didn’t see any
evidence of it when I broke in to retrieve my gun. They’ve disarmed it.”

“Fine. That’ll make
things easy. There’s no point in a sneak attack when bells and whistles
announce our arrival. Thanks for the info.”

“Let me know how it
goes. I’ll be waiting for your call.”

“Absolutely. And if I
have any other questions…”

“Just call. Good luck
and be safe,” Cole said. Putting the phone away, he looked over at Katrina as
the sound of distant sirens filled the air. “My team is there.”

“Can we help them?”
Katrina asked, though deep down she wasn’t sure if she could psychologically
handle anything else the night threw her way.

“No, they’ll take care
of that end. We have to wait it out.” Their eyes locked. “You did great.”

A moment later, Cole spotted
the blue and red lights of several cruisers pulling up quickly. There would be
some explaining to do.

Chapter Twenty

Agent Hannlon’s call
twenty minutes later confirmed that all was well for the entourage and the
staff. Cole’s team had stormed the mansion, secured the hostages, and there
were no casualties to report aside from Wilco being shot in the leg. All
captors were apprehended and rounded up like a neat little package. The two
that Cole and Katrina had captured were picked up and added to the party of
prisoners now en route to the United States with Cole’s team.

It had been a long and traumatic night,
but the group at the
Winters’ Escape
mansion was on the mend. In the early morning
hours, their things had been packed, plans made, and the private jet at the
airport fueled and ready for take-off.

“Well, I think that just
about does it for me,” Agent Kensing stared off at the distant ocean. He’d
spent the night hog-tied in the darkened wine cellar, isolated from the
experience unfolding on the main floor above.

Cole was struck by the
humbleness of his colleague’s words. Though not defeated, clearly Agent Kensing
was resigned to the fact that his days as a Secret Service agent were numbered.

“I’ve got a few things
to work out in my personal life and frankly,” he looked over at Cole, a half
grin pulling the corner of his thin lips. “I’ll leave these kinds of
shenanigans for you young guys. I’m done with it all.”

“Retirement?” Cole asked
gently.

“In a word, yes. Though
I don’t have to like it.”

Cole grinned. “I’m
looking forward to it one of these days too. You can be proud of your
accomplishments, Thomas. You’ve had a full, brave career.”