CHAPTER 46
The black BMW that contained Eliza and her father had been stopped for about five minutes in a dark spot near one of the factory buildings and I was getting tense. It had nearly been an hour since they took Eliza, and I wanted to go in and retrieve her. I didn't like the fact that they had stopped one fucking bit and neither did Frank. I could see him nervously twitching and I knew I had to act soon, before the tension became too much and we would be in danger of making stupid mistakes.
“Teams, be on standby. We're about to commence extraction." I radioed.
I had clocked the two other cars belonging to Rick, pulling up just a little bit up the road from our target vehicle and I ordered our cars to come closer too. They must have noticed us tracking them by now and I was under no illusion we were here without them realising. I looked at Frank and he nodded, then gave the signal to commence extraction.
All five of our cars screeched forward and surrounded the vehicles, the guys jumped out and positioned themselves behind their cars for cover, guns pointing at the three targets. A tense couple of seconds followed where nothing seemed to happen. It felt like a fucking eternity.
I got out of our van, Frank covering me with his weapon. Then I spotted a flicker of a movement inside the BMW with Eliza in it. A door clicked and I heard Eliza's voice shouting out.
“Don't shoot! It's me, just me! I have a message! Please don't do anything! I'm in danger if you do!”
“Hold fire!" I shouted as loud as I could, to make sure Rick's men could hear too. I didn't know if they were Dullards or Sensorians.
The car door moved slowly further open to reveal Eliza. She stumbled out of the car, and I immediately noticed there was something strapped onto her leg. Her hands were bound behind her back and she was blind folded. The smell of her fear hit me like a brick of tonnes. What the fuck had the bastard done?
“Zack!" she shouted to me, her voice trembling.
“Rick strapped a device on my leg, can you see?”
“Yes, Eliza, I'm just here, only a few metres away from you. Use your other senses, relax." I said as calmly as possible, which was hard as I suspected the device was an explosive.
“What does Rick want?" I asked.
I heard her take a deep breath, to steady herself.
“He wants you to let them all drive off, without anyone following or shots being fired. He wants you to take me and drive away. All of us. The release button on my strap will be activated after one hour and the device will be deactivated. If we fail to follow his instructions, he'll explode the device.”
The last words came out like a sob filled with indignation and anger. But before I could say anything she carried on.
“Zack, listen to me." she pleaded desperately.
“I know the mission comes first and he's dangerous. Do what you have to do Zack. I will live, the device is tiny. It will only affect my legs. Don't let him go! Please!"
My brave, sweet lioness. Willing to lose her legs for the sake of the mission. She was extraordinary. I sighed. Indeed, my mission did come first, before anything else. I sought out Frank, and he nodded. He knew.
“I'm sorry Eliza."
She lowered her head and her shoulders slumped. Fear running off her in waves that crashed into me, almost physically knocking me back, making me feel sick to the stomach. I turned around and gave the command.
“Stand down teams. Get back to your cars and drive back to our compound. We'll meet there.”
I ran up to Eliza, grabbed her by the arm and led her into our van. She hesitated, clearly confused, muttering to herself.
“I don't understand, I thought...”
“Sshh, I will explain in a second." I whispered, untying her blindfold and cutting loose the strap that had bound her hands.
As soon as we had Eliza in the van, and our other cars had started driving away, Rick and the two other cars sped off into the distance. We would get him another day, I vowed.
Eliza was sat straight up in her seat, eyes as wide as plates, her heart racing, still not sure about what just had happened. Her eyes moved to me, questioning.
“I'm sorry I had to ignore your plea to capture your father but do you remember what I promised your mum, all those weeks ago? I would protect you, with my life if I had to. You are my mission, my first responsibility is you. I will never let you get harmed, if I can help it. Understand?”
I held her hands and looked at her beautiful face relaxing. Her mouth slightly open, so tempting, so kissable. Her heartbeat slightly rose again and her cheeks went bright pink. I realised I hadn't been cloaking, and everyone else in the car had noticed, awkward glances being thrown around. I decided to brazen this one out. It hadn't happened.
“How are you feeling, Eliza?” I said, trying to direct the attention away from me.
“I won't lie, I have felt better!" she joked to lighten the mood somewhat.
I noticed from the little flashing red light that the device was still emitting a signal, so it wasn't deactivated yet, which meant we were all still in a very vulnerable position. We only had Rick's word he wouldn't activate it, but I was almost 100% sure he wouldn't harm his own daughter if he could at all avoid it. Still, the quicker we were back at base, the better. The threat could be minimised there, and we could even try to get the device off, before the hour was
