Shattered Mirror (Eve Duncan #23)(108)

“Let him. I’m not leaving you. What do you think this is all about? I’ve got to get you out of this stinking bayou.”

“I’ll go with you. Let me try to swim. Just don’t get close to me.”

“It’s okay,” Darcy didn’t let her go. “I’ll explain later, but Norwalk must have pressed that damn button already. And you’re still in one piece. I think the bastard is probably in a tearing rage and going to focus on Kaskov instead.” She started to swim toward the bank. “Jock will take care of it. I’ve done my part.”

*

Yes.

Jock watched the smoke rise from the sinking motorboat before he swung back to see Norwalk’s reaction. Rage. Frustration. Confusion. Wild rejection. Norwalk was looking at Cara’s head bobbing in the water, and he still couldn’t realize what was happening. He had the detonator in his hand and was pressing the button over and over in disbelief that it wasn’t exploding Cara’s vest.

No way.

But there was still a small danger, and he couldn’t permit Norwalk to continue to press that button. It might trigger some random response in that bomb.

Jock quickly aimed carefully and pressed the trigger. He blew the fingers off Norwalk’s right hand. The next shot exploded the phone he was holding in his other hand. Norwalk screamed, looking wildly around and up at the trees as he dove instinctively for the missile at his feet. But Jock had already targeted the missile, and he blew the firing mechanism.

Now for the head shot, Norwalk …

But Norwalk was no longer there, he’d rolled into the shrubs at the side of the path.

Son of a bitch.

Jock was climbing down the tree even as he called Joe. “Cara’s safe, but Norwalk’s still on the loose. I’ll be there as soon as I can. But I have to get Cara out of that damn vest. Go get Michael. Now!”

He jumped the rest of the way to the ground and ran to the edge of the water, where Darcy was now struggling to help Cara onto the bank. He took Cara away from her, lifting her onto the mossy shore. He took out his knife, cut her out of the vest, and hurled it into the bayou. Then he cut the ropes that bound her wrists. “Is she okay, Darcy?”

“Well, we didn’t blow her up if that’s what you mean.” Darcy boosted herself out of the water. “But I wasn’t expecting that big of an explosion.”

“Neither was I.” Cara was looking dazedly up at Jock as she tried to get her breath. “But then I wasn’t expecting any of this.”

“You should have expected it,” he said roughly. “Do you think I’d ever let anyone take you away from me?” He glanced at Darcy. “Make sure she’s really okay. I have to go after Norwalk.”

Darcy went rigid. “I heard a couple shots. I was hoping we weren’t going to have to worry about him any longer.”

“Well, he has no fingers. I wasn’t sure how foolproof that grenade was, so I made certain that he wasn’t able to keep pressing that damn button. And I made sure his phone was out of action so he can’t contact his men. But he rolled into the brush before I could finish him. If he’s not bleeding to death, he’s probably trying to get back to camp.”

“No!” Cara jerked upright. “He can’t go back there. Michael!”

“Joe and Eve are already there,” he said curtly as he turned and started wading back through the high grass. “And I’ll be there after I take care of Norwalk. Watch out for her, Darcy.”

The next instant, he’d disappeared into the trees.

*

“Watch out for me?” Cara repeated in disbelief as she gazed after Jock. “I’m fine. It’s Michael who’s in trouble when Norwalk gets word to his men to throw him to those damn alligators.” She began to struggle to sit upright. “I can’t stay here and let you pamper me because Jock made a bad shot. I have to get back to the island.”

“I’m not arguing,” Darcy said as she helped Cara to her feet. “There’s no way I want Michael hurt or that bastard to get away. But we don’t have a boat, so we’d better start moving.” She looked her over appraisingly. “You look like hell, but you’ll make it with a little help from your friends.”

“You’re the only friend I have on hand right now.”

“As usual, I’m more than enough.”

“Yeah.” Cara was frowning. “But you look … funny. Something’s wrong with your hair…”

“Nothing’s wrong. It stayed on, didn’t it? I did a damn good job of being Eve. What do you expect when I ended up in that bayou?”

Cara’s eyes widened with hope. “Eve’s alive?”

“I told you how good I was. Never mind, I’ll explain on the way.” She took Cara’s elbow and nudged her deeper into the swamp. “But you should know that wasn’t a bad shot Jock made. He had to make sure that he took out that detonator, just in case the grenade wasn’t foolproof. We didn’t know what to expect. That was an electromagnetic-pulse grenade that I threw into the boat. It was designed to destroy the electronics used to activate roadside bombs and improvised explosives.”

“What? I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

“Jock says the Pentagon has been trying to design a good EMP grenade for years, but the best one that he knew about was an experimental model created by a lab in Mobile. But the lab couldn’t get the Pentagon to pay their price, and they were considering selling it to the highest bidder.” She paused. “So Jock set Kaskov on persuading the CEO to give him a sample grenade to use. It was amazing how quickly he got him to agree and deliver it. Well, not amazing. I think fear had a lot to do with it. We only had to take an hour’s delay before we got under way.”