The Secret Soldier

Chapter 2

Sabine screamed as the helicopter careened toward the ground. She could feel the pilot trying to keep the machine airborne. The roar was deafening. Debris flew through the pod. If it weren’t for Rudy holding her, she’d have gone flying, too. But even he couldn’t withstand the force of the crash. When they hit, she felt the jarring impact and knew her body had smashed against something hard, but she blacked out an instant later.

She regained consciousness to the smell of smoke and stillness. Flickers of fire alarmed her. She didn’t know how long she’d been out. She didn’t think it was longer than seconds or minutes.

Someone stirred beside her. She looked to see Rudy climb to his feet. He scanned the rest of the helicopter. The cockpit was barely visible through darkness and smoke and the tangle of metal.

“Comet!” Rudy shouted. “Blitz!”

There was no answer.

Sabine ignored the searing pain that sliced through her already bruised body and rose to her hands and knees. Rudy hefted a rucksack over his shoulder and stepped over scattered debris on his way to her. She grabbed his arm and used it as a tether to pull herself up. Instead of helping her walk out of the helicopter, Rudy bent and draped her over his big shoulder like a sack of dog food. She withheld groans of agony the pressure against her ribs caused.

Rudy hurried out of the helicopter. When he was far enough away, he lowered her to the ground. She sat on her rear—more like collapsed—and watched him drop the rucksack and jog back toward the helicopter for the other two.

An explosion flipped him onto his back. Sabine cringed and twisted away from the violent flames and rumbling blast. She rolled onto her side and covered her head as debris dropped from the air. A brief moment later, she pushed herself up by one hand and gaped at the inferno. Were the men still in there? They were, but she couldn’t bring herself to face it. She crawled toward the helicopter, half sobbing, too numb to process everything all at once. She only knew she couldn’t leave the men in that helicopter after they just saved her life.

She got as far as Rudy, who swung his arm out like an iron bar and stopped her. His face was stark with shock and maybe a few signs of grief. She didn’t know him enough to read his emotions, but losing what must be his team had to be shattering.

Slowly, he turned his head. His eyes went from disbelieving to expressionless to angry before he eventually covered that, too. Gripping her arm just above her elbow, he hauled her to her feet, swinging the rucksack over his other shoulder. “We have to get out of here.”

Sabine strained to see the burning helicopter. “Are we going to—”

“They’re dead,” he cut her off.

Tears pushed into her eyes. “Oh—my God … I’m so sorry.”

He didn’t respond, just pulled her along. With a will of iron that had seen her through two weeks of unimaginable suffering, she forced her tears away. She stumbled and fell against Rudy, nearly falling. Her legs wouldn’t support her very much longer. She was amazed she could walk at all.

Rudy muttered a curse and hefted her over his shoulder again. She bit her lip against the stab of pain in her ribs. The glowing orb of the helicopter disappeared from view as Rudy walked. His strides grew monotonous. She had no concept of passing time.

When Rudy finally eased her from his shoulder, she groaned as she lay on the ground. Her entire body throbbed. She tried not to vent her discomfort with audible sounds. Rudy had enough to worry about. And she wanted him to get her out of there.

She saw him dig into his rucksack and pull out a handheld radio. He lifted it to his mouth and depressed a button with his thumb.

“Dasher, this is Rudy. Do you read?”

The names he’d called his teammates penetrated her awareness. Comet. Blitz. Was that short for Blitzen? Now Dasher. Was Rudy short for Rudolf? Was that his code name?

“Dasher, come in.” There was a short crackling noise followed by nothing.

Rudy wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.

The radio crackled. “Rudy, this is Dasher. I read you. What happened? Over.” The radio crackled again.

“I’m going to set a flare. You have to get here before anyone else finds us. Over.”

“I don’t see any movement near the crash sight. I’ll find you. Over.”

“Hurry.” Rudy tossed the radio into the rucksack and dug for something else. He stood when he found the flare and moved away from Sabine a few steps. He was efficient and fast with his hands as he lit the flare and sent it into the night sky.

Sabine watched the flare illuminate the landscape. She could see nothing that suggested anyone was after them, but she rubbed her arms anyway, afraid of the possibility, so afraid. She would not survive if she had to face more torture. Not after tasting freedom again.

Her gaze shifted to Rudy. He stood with his feet slightly parted, searching the landscape. Only then did she notice he held a pistol at his side.

The sound of a helicopter broke the silence. Rudy tipped his head back and closed his eyes. She felt his relief, and it sparked hope along with a fresh threat of tears. Were they really going to make it?

The helicopter neared. Soon it tossed up dirt as it landed and Rudy helped her to her feet, carrying the rucksack in his other hand. She leaned against him as they made their way to the helicopter, Rudy bearing most of her weight. He boosted her inside and she crawled into the pod. Leaning against the far side, she watched Rudy climb in as the helicopter lifted into the air.

He lay on his back and draped his arm over his forehead, his massive chest rising and falling from more than exertion. Sabine knew he was thinking of his men. Remorse overwhelmed her. It was so unfair.

She folded her arm over her ribs, wishing the pain would ease. She closed her eyes to ride it through. Hearing movement, she opened her eyes and saw Rudy rolling to his hands and knees. He stood and crossed the small space of the helicopter.

Crouching before her, he asked, “How badly are you hurt?”

He must have noticed her holding her ribs. “I’ll be all right.” As long as she was away from those terrible men, she was fine.

Rudy pulled her arm away from her body. “Is anything broken?”

“I don’t think so.” She had her big-boned grandfather on her mother’s side to thank for that. She’d never met her grandparents on her father’s side. “Except maybe my ribs.” Her injuries would fade. It was what she’d witnessed that would haunt her the rest of her life. The memory of Samuel.

She winced when he tested her ribs with his hands, unable to suppress a moan.

The furrow between his eyebrows deepened, and he pulled her T-shirt up to her breasts in a purely clinical maneuver. Only the tightening of his mouth revealed anything of his reaction to the expanse of bruises on her torso.

“Did your captors want anything specific?” he asked. “Did you hear any of them talk?”

“We never were told why we were being held,” she breathed through the sharp throbs in her ribs.

Dropping her shirt, Rudy stood and moved away.

She watched him reach into the rucksack and pull out a canteen. Wordlessly, he handed it to her along with two pills. She studied him as she took the pills and popped them into her mouth. Next, she took the canteen and lifted it to her mouth with an unsteady hand. He seemed to notice and crouched in front of her again. His hand covered hers as he helped her hold the canteen. She met his eyes while she drank, the striking gray of them momentarily capturing her. He didn’t have his helmet on anymore, and she realized she didn’t remember when he’d removed it. He had thick, dark hair. Something about it struck her as odd. Didn’t military men have close-cropped hair?

She wiped her mouth after she finished drinking, and he took the canteen from her.

“Who would want to keep you from leaving this place?” he asked.

The question gave her a jolt. Did he wonder if it could be someone other than her kidnappers? “I don’t know.”

“Someone must have. And it wasn’t your captors.”

She took a moment to absorb that. If not her captors, who would want her to die like that? Had they known she and Samuel were being held? And done nothing? Everything inside her rebelled against the idea. It was too awful.

“That helicopter wasn’t in any of the images I saw,” Rudy continued, his mouth a tight line of anger. “They knew we were coming.” And that missing piece of information had cost him three good men.

Who would go to such lengths to see her and Samuel dead? She didn’t have any enemies like that. Her father, but he had no reason to want her brutally killed. And if anyone had the means to orchestrate her rescue, it was he. She glanced at Rudy’s longish hair.

“Who sent you here?” she asked more briskly than she intended. “Who are you?”

His anger disappeared behind a guarded mask. He unfolded his legs to stand. “I’m bringing you home. That’s all you need to know.”

“Was it my father?” she asked anyway.

“No.” He turned away and went toward the cockpit of the helicopter, ending any further questioning.

Dust billowed into the air and the whine of engines drowned any other sound. Sabine hooked her arm over Rudy’s shoulder as he carried her to a waiting plane. The airstrip was crude and deserted. The plane was painted white with a horizontal blue stripe and no other markings. Rudy climbed some steps and took her inside. There were no seats and darkness filled the row of windows. He put her down and she sat on the floor, leaning against another metal-sided wall.

Rudy turned to speak to Dasher, who was apparently an accomplished pilot, since not only had he flown the helicopter, but also he was going to fly this plane out of Afghanistan. For the first time in two weeks, she felt her shoulders sag in relief. Soon she’d be home.

Home. That seemed like a foreign place to her now, where everything was normal. She felt anything but normal. She didn’t know the woman who’d survived what she had. How was she going to move on as though none of this had ever happened?

Samuel would never go home. He’d never see his wife again. The last conversation she’d had with him would stay with her always.

In the darkness of their cell, they’d talked well into the night. Sleep had been patchy and filled with nightmarish dreams. Like every other night.

Sabine had learned a lot about Samuel in the weeks they’d been held captive. He was steady and family oriented. He loved his wife to the depths of his soul and hated the time he had to be away from her; he wanted to build a house for her and the kids they’d planned to have. It was the reason he’d taken the contracting job.

Dasher headed for the cockpit. Once again, she was alone with the man who’d rescued her.

Rudy closed the door and the whine of the plane’s engines increased. He sat at her feet on the floor, leaning against the adjacent wall that divided this compartment from the rear of the plane. With his eyes half closed and his hands resting comfortably in his lap, he had an outward appearance of calm. Hovering alertness. Physical strength at rest but ready to move. And clever gray eyes. He was a dangerous man.

Her father wouldn’t have sent any other kind.

Sabine didn’t want to believe her father had sent Rudy. She didn’t want to owe a man like Noah Page for something as precious as her life, especially after almost losing it because of him. All those years she’d wasted striving to prove she was worthy of his respect had gotten her nowhere. It made her sick to think she’d allowed him to influence her like that, to know that, at least on a subliminal level, she wanted his recognition.

She closed her eyes. No. Her father hadn’t sent Rudy. This was a military operation. It had to be. Rudy didn’t want to reveal his identity because of the nature of his covert operations and the press her rescue would shake up once word got out that she was on her way home.

Exhaustion overpowered her worry, and she lay on the floor. She woke briefly when they landed for a fuel stop, then again when she felt the plane begin its descent for another. Moments later the tires touched the ground.

The plane slowed until it stopped. Like the last time they’d refueled, the pilot left the plane while Rudy watched from the doorway.

“Where are we?” Sabine asked.

“An airstrip in Egypt,” he said without looking at her.

Then his body went rigid as he peered through the door. Sabine pushed herself up to sit.

He looked at her over his shoulder. “Wait here.” Then he leaped from the plane.

Sabine crawled to her feet. The crack of gunfire sent her heart skipping faster. Someone was shooting at them again. Who? More gunshots exploded.

She stumbled toward the doorway, searching the plane for a weapon on her way. Seeing Rudy’s pistol sticking out of his pack, she slipped it free and leaned against the wall of the plane next to the door, breathing hard from exertion and fear. Peering outside, she spotted Rudy running back toward the plane, a man chasing him with a gun. In the distance, she could see a body lying on the dirt runway.

Forcing her fear down, Sabine lifted the pistol, aimed and fired. The man chasing Rudy dove for the ground, dirt spitting near his feet. Another man appeared in her view and fired at Rudy. She covered him as best she could, until he leaped into the plane, bumping her shoulder on his way. She stumbled as he slammed the door shut, then pounded it once with his fist.

Bullets hit the door. Sabine jumped back at the loud sound.

He turned and she saw the anger in his eyes before he hurried to the cockpit, his strides long and his feet thudding hard on the metal floor.

She followed, jumping again as bullets hit the plane once more. “Where’s Dasher?”

“Dead.” Rudy sat in the pilot’s seat and worked controls, his face tight with fiery emotion. “They were waiting for us.”

Again. How could it have happened again? Who didn’t want her to escape her captors?

Sabine clumsily fell into the copilot’s seat and fastened the shoulder harness. Darkness stared back at her through the window of the cockpit. The plane rolled down the dirt runway, picking up speed. The sound of bullets hitting metal faded. The plane lifted off the ground.

“Who keeps coming after us?” Who had fired at them in the helicopter, and who was firing at them now?

Rudy didn’t answer, his face intense and focused on flying the plane. She let him for a while.

Looking out the window to her side, she saw only darkness. “Where are we going?”

“We have to get to Athens.”

She turned her head toward him. “Do we have enough fuel?”

“Probably not,” he said, still looking straight ahead and at the controls.

“But … don’t we have to fly over the Mediterranean to get to Athens?”

“Yes. And we have to fly low.”

Staring through the dark front window, she took several calming breaths. “We’re going to die.”

Rudy turned his head toward her, his eyes fierce with determination. “Not if I can help it.”

As much as she’d have loved to fall into the warmth his energy stirred, Sabine gripped the armrests of her seat and remained tense.

He must have noticed because he said, “There are lots of islands off the coast of Greece. We’ll find one and land there if we have to.”

Did he actually think they’d find a lovely Greek island and have a nice little landing as if they’d planned it all along? She sat with tight, aching muscles for long, unbearable minutes. Each second felt like her last. At any moment the plane would roar down to the water and it would be over.

“We’re getting close,” Rudy said at last.

“Really?” She couldn’t let herself believe it.

The plane gave her a jolt. The engines cut then roared to life. Cut. Roared.

Her heart thudded sickly in her chest. A lump of fear lodged in her throat.

They were running out of fuel!

“I think I see something,” Rudy said.

Sabine strained to see through the night but saw nothing. Was he hallucinating in the face of death? The plane lost elevation as it sputtered along. She gripped the armrests tighter. They were going down. She didn’t think she was lucky enough to survive two crashes in one day.

“Do you see it?” Rudy asked. He sounded excited.

She turned to look at him. How could he be enjoying this? He glanced at her and smiled, then jerked his head toward the front of the plane.