Missing lynx, p.28
Missing Lynx, page 28
“Cassady!” The word blurted out before she could stop it. Bile rose in her throat and her pulse pounded in her brain as she played the light over the body to get a better look. The face was gone, but she knew it wasn’t Cassady—this victim appeared to be Asian, with short, dark hair.
In a crouch, she made her way down the tunnel, moving as fast as possible in the constraining space. She smelled chemicals just as the passageway made a sharp right turn. Twenty feet farther on, she could see a bright light where the tunnel opened into a room. With her gun held out in front of her and the flashlight beneath it, she continued on, cursing the confining ceiling of dirt above her. When she reached the room, she paused and glanced around the rectangular space.
It was quiet. There was no sign of Owens. But Cassady was there, lying on her back, tied down on a metal table. Jack recognized her by her clothes. She couldn’t see her face from where she was, only the top of her head. But Cassady wasn’t moving.
“Cassady?” she asked quietly.
When Cassady still didn’t move or respond, Jack reluctantly took a step forward, holding her breath, but wasn’t immediately able to force herself any farther toward the table. She couldn’t deal with what could very likely be the truth. That she was too late. Her heart pounded against her chest like a caged animal trying to escape.
“Cassady,” she said again, louder, and this time Cassady stirred and tried to lift her head. Jack ran to her, joy singing in her veins, and the tears she’d been holding back started to cascade down her cheeks.
Cassady was bound and gagged but appeared uninjured. She mumbled something beneath the gag and Jack snapped out of her trance of relief and pulled it free from her mouth.
“Owens?” Jack asked.
“He went through there,” Cassady slurred drowsily, tilting her head toward the smaller, dark tunnel that led out of the room. She looked up at Jack through heavy-lidded eyes. “Thank you.”
Jack untied her hands and feet. “I don’t know what I’d have done if—”
“I’m glad you didn’t go away when I told you to,” Cassady said, trying to sit up.
Jack rushed to her side and put an arm around her shoulder to help steady her. “Thought you could get rid of me that easily?” She smiled and Cassady tried to smile back. “Are you okay?”
“I’ve never been more terrified,” Cassady admitted, her voice breaking.
Jack enfolded her with both arms and hugged her close. “It’s okay now,” she whispered soothingly.
“I was so close to ending up like that.” Cassady pointed to the masks, then started to sob convulsively against her shoulder. “I was so afraid, and I couldn’t stop thinking of you.”
Jack looked up and saw the pair of macabre masks on the wall. “I’m going to fucking kill him.” She gripped Cassady tighter.
“If you hadn’t found me…”
“I did. That’s all that matters.” Jack battled to control her anger. Her initial euphoria at finding Cassady alive had been rapidly replaced by pure rage. The kind of rage she hadn’t felt since she’d gotten back from Israel.
“I need to get out of here,” Cassady said, gasping for air and glancing around as though she expected Owens to return any moment. “Please get me out of here.”
“You got it. Where’s your gun?”
“I…” Lynx blinked several times, trying to clear the fog from her brain as Jack helped her off the table. She was unsteady on her feet, but couldn’t stand to remain in that hellhole one more second. “I remember dropping it. By the hut, before I blacked out. He must have hit me with a dart or something.”
“We’ll check there. Let’s go.” Jack took her hand and led her slowly down the tunnel.
“Don’t look,” Jack said when they got to the end, trying to block the body lying there from Lynx’s view. She helped Lynx up the ladder, and when they emerged through the trap door, she clicked on the flashlight. “Watch out you don’t step in shit.”
Lynx saw the body of a man on the ground, her cell phone next to him.
“He was here to pick up the girl’s remains. I had to get past him,” Jack said without emotion as she stared coldly at the corpse.
“May he rot in hell.” Lynx picked up her cell and walked unsteadily toward where she’d fallen, with Jack on her heels. The beam from Jack’s flashlight glinted off the metal of her gun, lying half hidden among a pile of leaves. Once she’d tucked it into her waistband, she pointed to where she’d hidden the rental. “The car is down the road a ways.” They headed in that direction.
“Do you want me to take you back to the hotel?” Jack asked as she got behind the wheel.
Now that they were out of the tunnel, the fear that had gripped Lynx had dissipated, to be replaced by fury. “I don’t care if I never sleep another day in my life. I will not rest until I get that sick SOB.” The hazy confusion from the drugs had nearly gone, and she was feeling more herself with each passing minute. Unzipping her rucksack, she dug out her tracker.
“I’m with you.” Jack looked at Lynx as she started up the car. “And yes, whether you like it or not, I’m coming with.” She sounded determined and Lynx could tell from her tone that she expected an argument.
Lynx met her eyes and smiled. “Good.” She turned on the tracker and it immediately began beeping. “It looks like Ajay is on the move. He’s five minutes away and headed away from here.” She handed the device to Jack.
“My guess is that Owens had him pick his sorry ass up from somewhere nearby.” Jack glanced at the display and stepped on the gas.
Lynx knew they had to get to Owens tonight, before his friends helped him disappear yet again.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Lynx had to listen to the message twice to make sure she’d heard correctly. She’d checked her cell phone as soon as they were en route, debating with herself whether she should call into headquarters. She knew they’d ask whether she’d eliminated Jack, and what would she say? But the voicemail waiting for her mooted the question. Turning to Jack, she said, “It looks like you’re off the hook, Harding.”
Jack glanced her way, clearly confused.
“That was Monty,” she explained. “He left a message to abort Arthur’s order concerning you.”
“Looks like they want me brought in alive.”
“That’s not what he said. I wonder why they changed their mind.”
Jack’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. “Who knows? But I’m not going to argue.”
The signal on the tracker led them to Hung’s villa. It came to a stop while they were still a mile or so away, so by the time they arrived whatever occupants it had held had gone inside.
Jack parked a short distance away behind some brush and the two of them got out.
“As far as Hung knows, we have nothing to do with what just happened to Owens,” Lynx said. “He never saw you, and he probably thought I was just a lost tourist.”
“We’ll still have to sneak in. There’s no way we can explain showing up at two a.m. on business,” Jack said. “And we have to move fast. I wouldn’t be surprised if they eliminate Owens. If he gets caught, this could bring Hung down.”
“Well then we’d better get to him first. I need him alive.” Lynx knew Jack had different interests, so she looked pointedly at her when she said this to gauge her reaction.
“I know,” Jack reassured her. “Look, I’m here because I don’t want anything to happen to you. This isn’t about me saving my head. I’ve gotten used to running. It just means I’ll have to keep at it. The only reason I’d want to kill the son of a bitch with my own hands is because of what he did to you. You good to go?”
“Ready when you are,” Lynx replied.
Jack put her hand on her shoulder. “Lynx, be careful, okay?”
It was the first time Jack had ever called her by her op name. She might have been away for eight years, Lynx thought, but she was still an ETF at heart—she’d automatically reverted back to EOO protocol. They were on a job, after all. “Backatcha…Phantom.”
“That was kinda weird,” Jack said. “You calling me that.”
“For you and me both.”
“Any chance we can get in the same way you did?”
“There’s only one way to find out.” Lynx led them to the back and climbed up the corner brickwork to Hung’s second-floor balcony. Jack had her M1911 out to cover Lynx as she made her way up.
Lynx checked the balcony door again, and this time found the red light at the edge illuminated, which meant the alarm had been activated. Entering the house from here would require getting to the wiring to deactivate it, which would be too risky and time consuming. She climbed back down. “No access from this point,” she told Jack. “The alarm’s on.”
“I could pull the power and give you a few seconds to break in, but considering the high-strung situation Hung is in right now, he’ll have his goons looking out here and all over the house in seconds,” Jack said. “We’re going in through the front door.”
“He has a goon standing guard there,” Lynx pointed out.
“You approach him from this side,” Jack said, signaling right. “Distract him and I’ll do the rest.”
“You need to be fast. Like you said, he’s not going to buy me dropping by at this time of night.” Lynx started around the villa to the right, while Jack went left.
Hung’s blue-suited guard stood casually on the front steps, facing the road. He was smoking a cigarette and had an M16 strapped around his shoulder.
Lynx rounded the corner from the side of the villa and immediately spoke to get his attention. “Hi, sir, I was here earlier today…”
The guard turned and pointed the rifle in her direction. That was all he had time for.
Jack chose her moment and sprang at him from behind. In an efficiency of movement, she covered his mouth, pulled his head back and to the side and slit his throat, then held on to him so his fall wouldn’t make noise. Lynx ran to her and helped her drag the body around the corner.
They went in through the front entrance. Voices speaking in Vietnamese could be heard coming from the den down the hall. They crept closer. The door to the room was half open and another goon was just inside, blocking the entrance. Jack heard Hung say they needed to get the American out of his house. Ajay argued that he didn’t know where else to take him.
Hung, obviously upset, said they should kill the American because he was jeopardizing them all. Then she heard the voice of an old man. The blind guy who sat in on our conversation? In a calm, slow voice, he said their guest was bringing them a lot of money and needed to stay alive.
The room fell silent for several seconds. Then Owens spoke. Though he couldn’t have understood their conversation, the traffickers were obviously in disagreement. And no doubt they were looking at him warily, so he had to know they were discussing his future. “I didn’t know the girl wasn’t alone,” he said. “It was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”
“You fool,” Hung replied angrily. “We supply you with everything you want. You were not supposed to take anyone on your own. That was the deal.”
“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again,” Owens repeated. “She was there looking around and I panicked. I didn’t mean for her to be a ‘giver,’ but then I saw her face and I couldn’t help myself. She was so perfect.”
Jack gritted her teeth. All she wanted right now was to walk in there and rip his head off.
“So what happens next?” Owens asked.
“The tourist and her friend should be talking to the police by now,” Hung said. “It won’t be long before they show them to the tunnel.”
“Maybe we have time to get my masks.” Owens sounded hopeful.
“We are not going to risk that,” Hung replied firmly.
If they had any doubts before that Owens was a liability, they had to be certain of that now, Jack thought. He was clearly too disturbed and obsessed to know he was putting everyone in danger, including himself. They’d have to move him soon.
In Vietnamese, Hung once again insisted that they get rid of Owens immediately, and this time the old man didn’t object.
It was the Indian who spoke next, his voice calm and polite so that Owens wouldn’t suspect his fate had just been decided. “Mr. Stikes, we are going to hide you somewhere until we can take care of the problem you’ve created,” Ajay said. “Then we’ll arrange new accommodations for you. I’m calling an associate to pick you up and take you somewhere safe.”
Lynx, who was a few steps closer to the den, turned and signaled Jack to open the door to the room she was standing next to. Jack twisted the knob and looked inside; it was a utility closet that contained the main electrical panel, so she knew immediately what Lynx had in mind. Nodding in understanding, she waited for Lynx to move into position.
Lynx put up her hand and counted down from three with her fingers. On three, Jack pulled the lever to the fuse box, cutting power to the house, as Lynx threw her switchblade and got the guard in the doorway in the throat.
He had barely dropped when the two of them burst into the room with guns blazing. Lynx stayed close to the ground, and Jack covered her back. The room had two large picture windows that were letting in the moonlight, so it wasn’t as dark as Lynx expected. They could see well enough to make out where everyone was.
Hung was on his feet, shooting in their direction from behind a large stuffed chair. Ajay was half hidden behind him, dialing on his cell phone. Lynx couldn’t let the Indian call for help and bring others back; she was about to take a shot at him but Jack fired first from behind her, and Ajay fell.
Hung ducked down, taking cover, as Owens peeked up briefly from behind the couch. Lynx could see someone else hiding next to Owens, but only the top of his head was visible.
Hung said something in Vietnamese to whoever was with Owens. “What do you want?” Hung called out from behind the chair. “If it’s a better deal, then let’s talk.” Apparently he’d recognized his new American buyer and her girlfriend, but was mystified what they were doing here.
“We want your client. The one you’re hiding,” Jack said.
“What do you want with him?”
“You mean aside from the fact that he almost ripped my girlfriend’s face off tonight?” Jack was continuing their ruse as buyers, keeping the actual reason out of it. Lynx thought it a good tactic.
“That was your woman?” Hung asked.
“Yes,” Lynx replied. “And we’re not leaving without him. Alive.”
“It was a mistake,” Owens said in a calm voice. “She shouldn’t have been there.”
“How did you know he was brought here?” Hung asked suspiciously.
“You implied that your clients are given accommodations and provided with merchandise in the jungle. I saw what he’d done to the Asian girl he left behind in the tunnel. The freak could only be yours,” Jack replied. “And like my lovely girlfriend said, we want him alive. I’m going to make sure hell will seem like bliss to him by the time I send him there.”
“If we give him to you will you leave us alone?” Hung asked.
“Yes,” Lynx answered. If she could have Owens, she’d leave the rest alone. She’d photographed enough material to bring Hung down, and the feds were probably already on their way to do just that.
“You can take him,” Hung replied.
Lynx put her hand on Jack’s to lower her gun, but kept her own trained on Hung.
“Bring him here,” Jack said. “We won’t shoot.”
“She’s lying,” Owens shouted. “They’ll take me and shoot you anyway. You can’t trust them. Do you know these people, really? Maybe they’re with the police or FBI.”
Owens’s warning apparently gave Hung pause. “How do I know you’re not lying?” he asked Jack.
“You know who I am,” Jack responded, as though the idea was preposterous. “You checked me out. Do I look like a fucking fed to you?”
“How about your girlfriend? She didn’t seem the type to be holding a gun earlier either.”
“I’ve taught her to take care of herself. You know the business. Trust no one and especially not with your loved ones.”
“How do I know you won’t shoot?” Hung insisted.
“I have no issues with you. Besides, I need you for business. But I will kill you if you get in my way. Just like I did with your guards.”
“Okay, partner,” Hung said, apparently trying to reassure Jack they were on the same side. “I will give him to you. He has already caused us too much trouble. We were going to take care of him ourselves anyway.” Hung slowly got up from behind the chair. Both his hands were up to show his intentions, though he still held a gun. “Don’t fire, Jack.”
Lynx and Jack both had their guns on him, waiting to see what he would do.
Hung slowly stepped over to the couch, keeping an eye on them, his hands still in the air. When he got there, he put his pistol to Owens’s head. “Get up, Mr. Stikes.”
The next thing Lynx knew, Owens had Hung’s gun and Hung was screaming in pain. Hung clutched at his hand and held it up, and Lynx could see the scalpel shining in the moonlight. Owens had managed to lodge it so firmly in Hung’s hand that it protruded from both sides.
“I cannot allow you to be so generous with my life,” Owens said coolly, firing twice at Hung point-blank. Hung fell and lay still.
“You’re not getting out of here alive, Owens,” Jack warned.
“You know my name. How quaint.” Lynx could hear amusement in Owens’s voice, like he was actually enjoying this. “But you can stop your empty threats. I know you want me alive. If that were not the case, you would’ve shot the couch full of holes by now. The question is, why am I still alive? Maybe you fooled Hung into believing that you were here for business, but Jack, Jack, Jack, do you honestly think I got this far by trusting others? Who are you and that angelic creature working for? Can it be that the feds came all the way here to find me?”
“Fuck you,” Jack yelled, her voice lethal and threatening. “Don’t you fucking call her that.”
