Night Watch (Kendra Michaels #4)(107)
She moved carefully around to the driver’s side. A man was slumped over the steering wheel, his head oozing blood. He was dressed in the same black fatigues as Dyle’s other security men.
She circled around to the other side.
She froze. There was no one in the passenger seat, but the door was now wide open.
Shit.
She whirled around, her gaze flying in every direction. Where in the hell had— “Hold it right there, Kendra.”
She knew the voice immediately. “Biers.”
“Turn around. Slowly.”
She turned to face him. His lips were cut and bloody, his shirt torn.
And he was holding a handgun aimed at her chest.
“This is what it’s come to?” she asked. “No more brilliant scientist and partner? Dyle’s made you one of his mercenaries?”
He flushed. “For the time being.”
She nodded back toward the jeep. “The job didn’t work out so well for your friend there. Guess he should have worn his seat belt.”
“Where’s Waldridge?”
“We split up hours ago. We figured it would make it more difficult for you.”
“Nice try. We saw two sets of footprints back there. Side by side.”
“You must be mistaken. Want to go back and check again?”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll find him. Dyle has called for reinforcements. Anytime now, there’s going to be a small army out here.”
“It’s a big desert.”
“But Dyle has you again.” Biers smiled. “Waldridge won’t let you be—”
A belt snapped around his neck!
Waldridge leaped from the darkness and yanked Biers’s head down hard against a boulder.
And again.
And again.
And again.
The gun went flying, and Kendra ran to pick it up. She spun around with the gun aimed at Biers, but he was unconscious, his head and face a bloody mess.
Waldridge let go of the belt, and Biers fell to the ground.
She drew a deep breath and tried to smile. “Damn. You have become Rambo.” She frowned. “But there’s blood on your cheek.”
“Not mine. Biers’s. He splattered.” He used his sleeve to wipe Biers’s blood away. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, thanks to you.” She walked around the car and with the gun still in front of her, pushed the unconscious driver back in his seat. She unfastened his shoulder holster and pulled out his handgun.
“Is he alive?” Waldridge asked.
“Barely. I don’t know for how long. He’s not going to be giving us any trouble.”
She reached for his phone on the console. The screen read NO SIGNAL.
No surprise there. Few towers in this barren area.
She grabbed the walkie-talkie resting in the cup holder and held it up. “There’s this, but the range is probably only a couple miles.”
“Which makes it only useful if you want to chat with Dyle.”
“Not likely. Too bad we can’t use it to—”
She froze.
“Turn Biers toward the car.”
“What?”
“Do it.”
“I will. But you really shouldn’t order Rambo around like that.” Waldridge turned Biers’s unconscious, bleeding body toward the still-flickering headlight. Kendra knelt beside him and fished through his right pocket.
Let it still be there …
Then she felt it! She dove deep into the pocket and pulled it out. Small, unobtrusive, but as valuable as the Hope Diamond at this moment.
She smiled. “I’ve got it!”
She’d produced the quarter-sized tracking device Biers had taken from her hip. She fished around for another moment until she found the thin battery. It took a few minutes of maneuvering and adjusting, but then she connected both parts together with painstaking care.
“Cross your fingers,” she said. “I think we’re back on the grid.”
“Hallelujah,” Waldridge said softly. “Then we can expect the FBI, the CIA, Interpol, and maybe your friend, Lynch, to be mounting a splendid rescue mission and get us out of here?”
“Not exactly. We’re not entirely certain the tracking message is getting through.” Kendra’s gaze was on the eastern sky. “And if I’m not mistaken, that helicopter on the horizon may be the reinforcements Dyle’s sent for.”
“Shit.” His gaze lifted to follow her own toward the helicopter. “So we run and hide?”
“With all possible speed.” She jumped to her feet. “We definitely run and hide.”
*
JADEN PUT DOWN THE WALKIE-TALKIE and turned toward Dyle. “Koppel’s team is ten minutes out. Eleven men. A copter and three Hummers.”
Dyle stood next to his Range Rover and turned toward the helicopter’s airborne light in the distance. “It’s about time.”
“I thought you’d be pleased once you got used to the idea. It’s the way to go. They should wrap this thing up in no time. His gaze went to the horizon, where he knew the aircraft and Hummers would soon appear. “You’ve increased the firepower since I was last down there with Koppel. What do you have going on down there below the border that you need all that personnel and equipment?”