The senator droned on to continued applause. If this was the kind of fieldwork the new team was all about, she couldn’t see herself lasting long. Her feet itched to chase someone. Her fingers kept reaching for a gun that wasn’t there. It had been said before, but the problem with a “secret” agency was that no one knew it existed.
Ironic, eh? She smiled to herself. But when the first shot was fired, she glanced instinctively to her right. The crowd quieted and ducked their heads. The second shot galvanized them to either hit the deck or bolt. On stage the security detail stormed forward, trying to cover the senator. The man himself stood in shock, mouth agape, as if trying to stare his would-be assassin into submission.
Another shot. Another miss, but this time, one of the aides went down, clutching her neck as blood sprayed. All around Alicia there was suddenly a terrible uproar and she was jostled and knocked and almost tripped to the ground.
But she had seen the shooter. In those frozen seconds, she had studied his face and stance and manner.
It just didn’t make sense.
By now, the senator had been wrestled to the floor and the security detail was leaping from the stage and rushing toward the shooter. Alicia maintained her ground, watching it unfold. The man with the gun was the most normal, all-American looking guy she’d ever seen. He was clean, well-dressed and well-groomed. The way he held the gun spoke of training, but the way he conducted himself spoke of something else all together.
His eyes were blank. His movements slow as if he struggled through thick molasses. His mouth hung slackly. Even from where she stood, Alicia could see a string of drool hanging from his lips. The guy looked like a zombie. A real-life, bona-fide member of the living dead.
And as the bodyguards closed in, the shooter slowly turned the gun around, aiming it at his own heart. Without a second’s hesitation, he pulled the trigger and fell to the ground.
Alicia raced toward him, wrestling her cellphone out and appraising the situation on the stage as she ran. Two guards down. The aide down, not moving. And a shaken senator, happy to be alive and nestled underneath his security detail.
Hayden answered immediately. “What happened?”
“I’ve been doin’ this a long time,” Alicia shouted as she ran. “But I just saw some of the craziest shit ever go down. You’d best prepare for a storm.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Hell and high water besieged their every horizon.
First panic and then rage consumed Drake as he struggled to make any progress. Darkness pounded at him, rolled at him, and assaulted his consciousness with waves of disbelief and amazement. Every inch of his body cried out with pain. Water splashed and dragged at him until he learned to see through the salty sting. A continual swell sent him up and down like a nightmare elevator that never stops. His gaze swept the menacing seas.
Where were the others? Where are the Zodiacs?
Dark clouds obscured any faint light that might have shone down from the skies above. Lightning flickered in the distance, marching across the waves like old gods. Thunder rumbled threateningly. His heart sank as he studied the blackness, seeing nothing to raise his spirits.
Kept buoyant by his life jacket, Drake attempted to move. The Zodiacs wouldn’t come to him. He remembered to switch on the shoulder light, but it was like a pinprick trying to illuminate the solar system. With a huge effort, he surged forward, plowing through the gloomy waters. At first, he made progress, but each successive, mountainous wave dumped him back where he started. It was all he could do to keep his head above water.
Then, a shout came, “Move!” desperate and plaintive, barely heard above the sea’s menacing roar. Drake paddled around to see his salvation. A Zodiac, manned by Romero and Smyth, aiming straight for him. The Recon guys had come through. They reached him in seconds, skillfully guiding the light-framed boat through chop and wave crests and a hard, driving rain. The terrible sea clung to him as hard as it could, but Romero and Smyth, anchored by their guide ropes, hauled him out of the water.
Drake collapsed, breathing heavily, feeling utmost relief for about half a second. Then he sat up.
“Have you seen Mai?”
Romero shook his head. “Shit, man, do you know how lucky we were to find you?”
“We can’t leave her.” Drake secured himself through a set of guide ropes and rested his back against the side of the craft.
“We ain’t going anyplace, bro,” Romero told him. “That these goddamn waters don’t want us to. Since you don’t seem to get it, let me explain — this ain’t no rescue mission.”
Drake nodded. Spray showered over the sides of the boat, then a torrent of water poured over him. They crested another wave and plummeted off its back side into an abyss. Drake gripped the ropes until blood began to seep through his fingers, but he couldn’t relax his hold. A cold rain struck at their exposed faces so hard it constantly made them flinch.
Lightning struck the seas a hundred feet from their position, boiling along the waves, drenching the whole scene with an eerie glow. The roar of thunder and water made it impossible to even think clearly.
More peaks and more troughs as the waves rose even higher, five and then six meter summits. And even the wind lent the weight of its fury against them, caterwauling among the peaks and troughs, gusting hard when the boat dropped to its lowest, whipping at them when they topped out.
The Zodiac struggled resolutely onward. Its occupants never stopped twisting and turning in their harnesses, always vigilant, always searching for their lost companion. The minutes passed like hours, and the hours like days.
“Stupid question!” Drake yelled once. “Anyone still got comms? Did you manage to get a message out to Hayden?”
“Shit, just a snatch.” Romero shouted back. “After impact. Smyth?”
“Yeah. Just we’re ok and then the lights went out. Not sure it even transmitted.”
“Sounds about right,” Drake muttered in broad Yorkshire. “If summat can go wrong, summat will.”
As if to emphasize his point, a torrent of water deluged the boat. Drake stopped breathing as the inundation crashed into his face. A few seconds passed and then he lay there panting, exhausted.
It was good they were strapped in. As the onslaught continued, their muscles grew weary and their brains foggy. There were other dangers here, including hypothermia. When a surge of water flooded the boat, the colliding forces came together in a white fizzing froth, relentless and merciless. They braced themselves against each other, against the boat, and closed their eyes as the sky became the mountainous sea and the sea suddenly crashed away to reveal the turbulent sky.
Drake wished he knew what had happened to Mai. If this hell was to be his final resting place, he wanted to go down knowing the truth. But he had no intention of going down at all. He was stronger than that. With Mai fixed firmly at the forefront of his mind, he found the strength to ignore the peril by peering inward. Whilst not avoiding the Japanese agent recently, he had ensured that their relationship didn’t develop.
Might have been a mistake. The thought came a little grudgingly, but it came straight from his soul. If a man gave up the chances that came his way, he would regret it for the rest of his life.
Drake opened his eyes and watched the other two men in the boat. Romero sat easily, a reserved calm smoothing out his features. It took moments like this to find a man you could truly rely on in any given moment of danger, and the Force Recon team leader was one of them. Smyth looked a little scared, a little green, but gazed hard into the tumult as if trying to find the paths of his future.