That made the Peruvian pull back sharply, staring at her assessingly. Didn’t expect her to call his hand, did he? The recklessness that had roared through her when she lay on the ground about to be beaten to death faltered. Maybe she shouldn’t have brought up the idea so casually of him offing her family. Best to keep that thought out of his head.
Backtracking quickly from her mistake, she took a significantly more conciliatory tone of voice. “Look, Geraldo. I came here to work with you. I expected that our initial negotiation might be fraught with certain misunderstandings. I’m willing to forgive and forget all that’s happened tonight. Send my family back home, and I’ll gladly hand over the entire formula. Vito and I can work together to tweak it, and you’ll get rich beyond imagining when you introduce the synthetic drug of the twenty-first century to the world.”
Huayar stared at her.
It took every ounce of willpower she had to keep the expression on her face pleasant and open as she waited for his answer. After all,
A male voice breathed in John’s ear, “What in the hell are you doing, man? You can’t walk in there by yourself and get her out!”
Shock rendered John completely speechless for several seconds. The weight rolled off of him, and he looked over at the familiar face of Brady Hathaway. His boss. Out here in the middle of Nowheresville, Peru.
“How-What-I thought you were out on a search-and-rescue!”
“I am. You’re the S &R.”
“I’m not lost,” John replied, stymied.
“The way I heard it, you were.”
“Jeez. You mean the noose back at Pirate Pete’s? I’m over that. Mel talked me out of killing myself.”
Speaking of Melina, John’s attention turned back to the scene playing out below. He stared, stunned. She was back on her feet and talking to Huayar again. How in the world had she pulled that off?
“I dunno,” Brady replied. “Looked to me like you were planning to march down there and get yourself killed.”
“He was hitting her.”
Brady’s eyebrow cocked. “And you’ve never seen a girl get hit before?”
“But…it’s Mel…”
“Ahh.” His boss packed a world of understanding into that single syllable. Comprehension that John had a more than strictly professional interest in her. Much more, dammit.
John closed his eyes in chagrin. Then he spoke urgently. “She’s a doctor and a chemist. She’s invented a formula for a new drug to replace meth. Huayar kidnapped her family to force her to give the recipe to him. We’ve got to get her out before she talks.”
“Her family still alive?”
“They were as of last night. Mother and father in their late sixties, younger brother in his mid-twenties. In good health and fully mobile.”
“Ahh yes, the wannabe drug dealer. And general screwup, Michael. We have quite a file on him.”
As he’d thought. The brother was the leak of Melina’s research to Huayar. He’d wring the kid’s neck when he caught up with him-
“Where are the hostages?” Hathaway asked, interrupting his furious train of thought.
“They were in that third building on the right yesterday, but they weren’t there when I took a peek an hour ago. I don’t know where they are now. I’d guess Huayar’s quarters on the left-that partially buried structure-or the meth lab on the far right.”
Hathaway asked sharply, “You’ve been down in the camp?”
“Yeah.”
“I’d ask if you have a death wish, but I already know the answer to that one. That place is way too active for operatives to penetrate safely.”
“I’ve been working outside the usual boundaries of safety a bit on this trip.”
Brady snorted. “We noticed. You’ve been a bear to track, dude.”
“We?” John asked hopefully. “Who’s here with you?”
“Bravo Squad.”
“All of it?” If so, that would mean a dozen Special Forces operatives were here, within striking range of Huayar and his men.
“All of it. Plus a few men from Charlie Squad, and Scottie, Stoner and Ripper from your Alpha Squad. Turns out you’re a popular guy. When the Scooby gang heard I was going to try to save you from yourself, I couldn’t stop them all from coming. It’s a bloody convention out here.”
“Hot damn,” John murmured in fervent relief.
Brady turned his attention to the camp below. “From the look of it, this still isn’t gonna be a walk in the park. Huayar’s got at least a hundred troops down there, and those are his elite guard. They’re tough, smart and armed to the teeth. Some of those guys are ex-Special Forces. Peruvian Army types. We trained them a few years back. They won’t be pushovers.”
John nodded, his exuberant relief tempered by the reality of the dangers still before them. But at least there was hope now. Plan B could go back onto the back burner for the moment. “Have you got any spare weapons I could lay my hands on?”
“I think we might be able to scare up a grenade launcher or two for you.”
John grinned over at his boss. “In case I haven’t mentioned it yet, damn, I’m glad to see you.”
“Likewise, old man. Likewise.”
Melina followed Huayar’s man across the camp to a building whose side walls were partially buried in mounds of dirt. She paused just inside, allowing her eyes to adjust to the dim light of a kerosene lamp sitting on a table off to one side of a narrow central room. After the bright campfire, it took a few seconds to see anything except darkness and that tiny flame of light.
Three shadows stepped away from the wall and materialized into armed, grim-looking men. She pulled back from the threat on their faces.
“What’s she doing here?” one of them growled over her shoulder at the guard behind her.
“The boss says to let her see the prisoners.”
The questioner nodded silently and jerked his head toward the back of the room. The first guard nodded and prodded her in the back with the tip of his rifle. Her head whipped around, and she glared at the guy until he actually took a step back from her. Score one for the weak little lady whom the men talked over as if she wasn’t there.
Prod-free, she headed for the closed door the guards indicated. They went back to lounging around the shadowed walls from whence they’d emerged. Creepy bunch.
As she reached the door, one of the guards stepped forward and inserted a key in a padlock holding the door firmly shut. It rattled loudly, and she heard shuffling noises from the other side. The panel swung open. The guard stared at her impassively, neither giving her permission to enter, nor preventing her.
Abrupt indecision filled her. She eyed that padlock. This could so easily be a trap. Tell the American chick she can see her family, and then lock her up with them. She’d be as helpless as her parents and brother. Although ultimately she was already Huayar’s prisoner. Lock or no lock, she couldn’t exactly stroll out of this camp and live more than a few minutes or hours. The ease with which Huayar’s men had found her before was clear proof of that.
She shrugged and stepped through the door.
“Melina!”
She rushed forward, embracing her mother almost as fiercely as her mother embraced her.
“What in the world are you doing here, child?” Her mother’s hands roamed over her face frantically, reassuring herself that Melina was really standing there in the flesh. Her father wrapped his arms around both of them, saying nothing, but clearly no less delighted to see her in his own quiet way. Her mother exclaimed, “Don’t tell me these men kidnapped you, too!”
“Not exactly, Mom. How are you? How are all of you?”
Her brother hung back in the shadows a moment longer, but then pasted on a smile and stepped forward. “Hey,
