Trinity: Military War Dog (37 page)

A boot sailed into his face.

The afternoon darkened and swirled to black.

Deep in the Hindu Kush
18 Klicks from Chinese Border

Fire and ice. Pain and peace. Tumbling and turning, writhing through her mind amid screams and haunting silence. Running toward people only to see them slip away. Out of sight. Out of existence.

Dr. Colsen. Looking at her, talking and taunting. Then his head exploding.

Jaekus dropping from a ledge with a ravenous scream.

Darci jolted.

White-hot pain speared her side. She drew up a leg, covered her side, and froze. Her yelp strangled by her tears.

“Easy, easy.”

Blinking, she found no difference between eyes open and eyes closed. Was she blind? Or was it dark? Wait—no, there. She could see a differentiation in the shades. She wasn’t blind. So, where was she? Pulling herself up, fire lit through her abdomen again.

“Stop moving.”

Even as he spoke, the memories stumbled through her mind, one on top of another. The campsite. The professor, Jaekus, then getting knocked out—she sucked in a breath. “Toque?”

“Tell me you didn’t forget me.”

She couldn’t laugh. It hurt too much.

“But if one more Chinese person plants his boot in my face …”

She snorted, and a sensation like a live cat trying to claw its way out of her stomach shredded her smile. “Where…?”

“An abandoned shack. Not sure how far, but I’m guessing twenty or thirty miles from the Chinese border. He seems to be heading in a very particular direction. I heard him insisting they stick to the schedule.”

So, Jianyu was meeting someone.

“Look, Darci, I should tell you, I think he’s got some wicked bad allies. I’d wager he’s trying to attack the bases, but that’s a wild guess.”

Pressing her arm to her side, she pried herself up. She ground her teeth, ignoring the throb. Sweat dripped down her face and back. She let out a heavy breath as she pushed herself upright.

“And I think he has plans for you.”

“Why would you … think that?” Bile rose in her throat at the pain.

“He knows you. Knows everything about you. More than you could possibly imagine.”

“Of course he does. His father is Chinese intelligence.”

“No, Darci. It’s worse. He knows
everything!”

As if her mind backfired, a crack in their conversation revealed itself. How did he know her name? “Who are you?”

“Are you that far gone? Peter Toque—”

“Equipment supplier. Who isn’t an equipment supplier.” She steeled herself against the fire in her ribs and for the truth. “Now. Who are you, really?”

Quiet swirled around the small hut. “British intelligence.”

He’d told her. Shoot! Opening their secret IDs and placing them on the table meant the situation was much worse than she could have imagined. “I knew something about you wasn’t right.”

“What,” he said from across the hut, where she guessed he’d been tied up. “Didn’t I do the Ohio country boy well?”

She eased back against the wall, feeling the bamboo poles digging into her back. “What were you doing”—she breathed hard and swallowed—“with the team? Why were you there?”

“When your name showed up on that manifest, I knew something was up. So did my bosses. They wanted to know what you Americans were after, so being the good spy analysts we are, I embedded to steal all your secrets.”

Darci groaned. Ninety percent of intelligence came from assets embedded in innocuous positions, just to monitor goings-on.

The throaty rumble of a vehicle drowned her words as slivers of light streaked through the not-so-weather-proofed walls. Darci squinted against the brightness.

Diesel and loud.

“Sounds big.”

“Really big for this mountain pass.”

Considering she wasn’t up-to-date on their location, she couldn’t gauge that. But his notice helped. “Did Jianyu give any indication of what he’s doing?”

“If he had, I would’ve told you.”

“And I’m just supposed to trust you?”

“We’re captives to the Chinese military. What choice do we have?”

“To keep my trap shut and stay alive.”

He snorted. “We have to get out of here.”

“You’re brilliant, Sherlock.”

“Thanks.”

Crunching pushed her eyes open, and her pulse thrummed to find his shadowy form standing over her. Wait … something … something wasn’t sitting right. Now he wanted them to work together? “I thought you were tied up.”

“No, I just couldn’t see you till the trucks rolled in.”

Right. He really must think she was the dimmest bulb in the pack. Though her weakened state pushed her to trust him, to
not
have to work so hard, her instincts objected. Pain poked her, and she used it for an excuse not to reply.

“He had one of his men check your ribs.”

She snorted again. “That explains the ungodly pain—they’re butchers.”

“They saw a scar …”

Darci stared out of the corner of her eye. Night blindness made it impossible to read his expression, but that sounded like a very leading comment. The rickety cot creaked, and the air whirled as he eased beside her on the bed.

Alarms blazing, Darci felt the first tendril of panic as she realized she would be in no shape to incapacitate him again or fight him off if he wanted to incapacitate her.

“Is it true?”

At least he had the brains to soften his voice. She was right! Indignation wormed through her all the same. He was digging for information. Most likely working for Jianyu. If that was true, then what was Jianyu holding over Toque’s head to make him do his dirty work?

She’d play along. Let him dig a wide circle around the truth. He’d never know the truth if it hit him in the face, so she had time on her side. “Is what true?”

“I heard him—on the pass. He asked about a baby.”

“Then you also heard my answer.”

“But the scar …”

It made sense now, putting him in here with her. To bleed her courage. Typically, prisoners were kept apart so there was less chance for collaboration, less chance of encouraging each other, more opportunity to break them.

“Appendix,” she said.

A door flung open. Light and soldiers flooded the room, and for the first time, Darci saw that they had not been alone. Jianyu stood in a corner, his eyes narrowed. His expression reeking of fury. Hands behind his back, he stalked toward them.

Toque, who sat beside her, started to rise.

Jianyu shoved him down and did not remove his grasp. “What does he mean to you,
Darci
.“

A new heat swirled through her, sparking adrenaline. She looked to Toque, who hung his head. Traitor. She bet he’d tried to barter his way into Jianyu’s life with a slip of information. But he had no idea the damage he’d done.

Ba.

Jianyu grabbed Toque by the neck and shoved him onto his knees in front of her, then jammed a weapon to his temple. “What does he mean to you?”

She glared at Jianyu. “What, are you going to kill everyone? What will you do after he’s dead? Kill me?” She tried to stand but flopped back down. Pain drove through her side and back like an iron bar. “This is stu—”

Crack!

Warmth splattered her face.

        Twenty-Seven          

Parwan Province, Afghanistan

T
rust is not easily gained.”
Though Haur understood this, had been beaten with this over the last twenty years, he struggled in his present situation to accept that the men around him, seasoned in warfare just as he was, viewed him as an enemy and not an ally. It worked against his purpose, against his mission.

That must change.

And he knew just how to do it. Haur placed himself near the dog handler.

Strongly built with intelligent eyes, the man said nothing.

Haur bent to pet the dog.

“Don’t.” Heath Daniels stepped into his path. “She’s not a pet. She’s working.”

Haur inclined his head. “Sorry. I did not know.” It did not escape his notice that Daniels tucked the photos into his leg pocket. They’d provided him virtually no information on the survey team, which was why he’d gone digging for some. He tugged the heavy, oversized jacket they’d given him closer and started out over the swirl of snow dancing over the scene. “It will be a hard storm.”

“Always is,” Daniels muttered as he gripped his dog’s lead and moved toward the others.

He, too, was an outsider. Though he had more intel and knowledge on this mission than Haur, they had kept him out of the loop. He eased next to the man again.

Daniels shifted a step to the side.

“They are not the most trusting.”

“Trust is earned.”

Haur looked at the sandy-haired guy. “Have you not earned their trust?”

Daniels kept his gaze on the men. The longing, the ache to be included ran through that flexing jaw muscle. “Not this time.”

“As it is with me, both here and at home.”

This time, the man met his gaze. “What does that mean?”

“I see that no one here trusts me.” Haur sighed. “Sent on a mission to retrieve Jianyu, I discover his betrayal and attempt to capture him with American help, yet no one here trusts me past the end of my nose. And because of my father’s treason against China, most of my own people do not trust me.”