Chapter 4 #2
“Patrol six six, this is Sun God. Send. Over.”
“We’ve got a man injured,” Radar reported. “Need immediate evacuation.”
“Negative,” base responded. “We have requests in. Base en route. Lay low. Check in on the down low.”
Mila glanced at him. “What does that mean?”
Dobby growled. “Ship’s en route, but they won’t send a chopper until they get permission from the Indonesian government. We need to check back every half an hour.” Fucking politics.
If Hawk wasn’t injured, they’d easily be able to lie low in the jungle for a couple of days. They had enough rations and they’d camped rough before. But Hawk’s injury was too severe to move him more than they had to. Dobby turned to Axle. “What does Hawk need?”
His gaze was bleak. “Surgery. The best I can do is stabilise him and give him some pain meds. The door is good because it’s hard, stable and manoeuvrable, but it might be too wide in the jungle.”
“Is there a medical centre in the village up the hill?” Dobby asked Mila.
“No. People come down here if they need help. The medical centre is first class thanks to Agus.”
He stared down the road. The jungle blocked the view to the coast, but it would be suicide to go back now.
“Tell them I need to know the moment it’s safe to go back,” he barked at Radar. There’d be more waves to come.
He didn’t want to move Hawk more than was necessary so the car was probably the best place for him to stay for now.
But he needed to plan for eventualities.
If Agus survived, he might head this way.
“Axle, stay with Hawk. Radar, show me to the others.” He turned to Mila.
“Stay here for me. I need to check in and devise a plan.”
He waited until she nodded and then followed Radar into the pitch black of the jungle, thankful he had night vision goggles.
About twenty metres in sat Joker and Vance. “Hawk?” Joker asked.
“Broken pelvis. He’s in the car.”
Vance stood. “Are you in charge? When are you getting me out of here?”
“Not tonight,” Dobby told him. “You might as well make yourself comfortable.”
“Here?” Vance sounded incredulous. “I’m not sleeping in the jungle.”
Seriously? “I didn’t say you had to sleep, but extraction isn’t likely until daylight.”
“I should have stayed at the house,” Vance grumbled.
“You’d prefer to be with the kidnappers who threatened to kill you?” Dobby asked.
“No, of course not.” He glanced away.
Dobby’s bullshit metre went off the chart. He strode over to Vance and stood right in his face. “Why weren’t you tied to a chair when we arrived?”
Vance stumbled back. “What?”
“In the ransom video your parents received, you were tied to a chair. Why did Agus let you out?”
“Ah…” Vance glanced around as if looking for a solution.
Which meant he didn’t have an honest answer. Dobby’s eyes widened.
“Did you fake the kidnapping?”
Vance’s chest puffed up. Before he said anything, Dobby growled, “No bullshit. I have an injured, immobile soldier to protect.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be protecting me?”
“You are currently safe and uninjured. You are no longer my priority.” He stared into the man’s eyes, daring him to argue further. “Answer the question.”
Vance stepped back. “Yes. No. At first.”
Dobby clenched his teeth. “Explain.”
“I needed money, and my selfish fiancée refused to marry me so I had to come up with something.”
A flash of anger swept through him. “Mila Watkins?” He kept his voice deceptively light. “Your ex-fiancée?”
Vance nodded. “Yeah, well she’ll be regretting turning me down now.”
Dobby gritted his teeth. “You don’t care she was caught in the wave?”
“She chose to be here.”
He clenched his hands. How much trouble would he be in if he punched the man they’d rescued? It would probably be worth it.
“What did you come up with?” Joker asked, getting back to the point.
“When Mila said she wouldn’t marry me, I told Agus my parents would pay crazy ransom money. All he had to do was send them a video of me tied up and when the payment came, he’d take a portion and I’d keep the rest.”
Dobby almost laughed. “You thought he’d let you have anything when he could walk away with several million dollars?”
“He’s rich. He doesn’t need the money, but he wanted to help me.”
Sure he did. “What happened after you sent the video?”
“We waited. I didn’t think they’d send you guys in. I figured they’d just pay it.”
The man didn’t deserve his parents who obviously cared deeply for him.
“Then the earthquake hit. Scared the shit out of me. I’ve never been in an earthquake before.
” Vance hugged himself. “Agus told me to chill. He’d built the house to the highest standards, whatever that meant.
Anyway I chilled until one of his men ran in talking about a tsunami.
I wasn’t waiting around. That’s when Agus locked me in the bedroom.
He said the house would be fine and I shouldn’t panic.
He threatened to tie me up if I didn’t behave.
” Vance shrugged. “There was something creepy about the way he said it.”
Which was probably when Vance finally realised Agus wasn’t as benevolent as he appeared.
“And now you’ve escaped?” Dobby asked. “Will he come after you?”
“He probably thinks I’m dead.”
“He saw us rescue you.” A couple of million dollars might be enough for Agus to search for him. “If he finds you, would he force you back to his house?”
“You guys won’t let him take me.”
“That’s not what I asked. Is Agus likely to laugh it off as a joke, or shoot you for making a fool of him?”
The blood drained from Vance’s face and Dobby had his answer. He turned to Joker. “We need to make a thinner stretcher.”
Then they needed to ditch the car and hide.