Chapter 8 #2
In a way, they both wanted to prevent bad things from happening. Was that enough in common for two people to make it as a couple?
A couple? Where had that idea come from? She was an asset to him. Nothing more. Once he handed her off to the State Department, he’d move on to the next mission, the next asset to rescue.
Marta would go back to a lab somewhere and study another virus, another killer disease.
Her heart felt incredibly heavy at the thought. She’d miss Crusher and his larger-than-life presence. She stared out the van window as tree-covered mountains whooshed by.
The trip was long but thankfully uneventful. By mid-afternoon, they slowed, along with other vehicles, as they neared the border crossing.
A dark SUV was parked along the side of the road ahead.
“Madre de Dios,” Raul said softly. “These are not border personnel.”
Crusher nodded. “Looks like trouble.”
Marta’s pulse quickened. “What kind of trouble?”
“Four armed men in black tactical gear are checking each vehicle as it passes through the border checkpoint.” Crusher unbuckled his seatbelt.
“Make that six,” Raul said. “There are two more ahead of the four on my side.” He glanced in the side mirrors. “I can’t turn around. Too many cars lined up behind us.”
They were trapped. Marta’s gut clenched as she glanced through the rear window of the van, her breath coming fast and ragged.
Crusher turned to Raul. “Any combat experience?”
Raul nodded. “Ten years with Dirección Nacional de Fuerzas Especiales.”
“The units that specialize in high-risk urban operations and counterterrorism?” Crusher asked with a cocked brow.
Again, Raul nodded. “We trained with US Special Forces.” He tipped his head toward the men in black. Two of us. Six of them.”
“It’s possible,” Crusher said.
Marta didn’t like the way they were talking. “What’s possible?”
Raul turned in his seat toward Marta. “We need you to drive.”
Marta looked from Raul to Crusher. “They’re looking for me. If I drive, they’ll find me.”
“That’s the point. They’re looking for you, not us.” Crusher said. “Just keep the windows rolled up, the doors locked and act like you don’t understand a word they’re saying.”
Raul shifted into park and unbuckled his seatbelt. He rose from his seat and passed through to the back of the van.
Crusher nodded from Marta to the driver’s seat. “You’ll need to get up here before they see us moving around.”
Marta stepped between the seats and slid behind the steering wheel, her heart racing. She studied the controls, resting her hand on the shift, her foot on the brake.
Crusher leaned across, lifted Marta’s chin and pressed a kiss to her lips. “You’ll be okay.”
“Wait,” she said, panic rising. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going out the back.” Then he followed Raul to the back of the van. They opened the rear door and stepped out onto the pavement, quietly closing the door behind them.
Marta glanced in the side mirrors, but she couldn’t see either one of them.
Her heart pounded so hard she couldn’t hear herself think.
When she looked ahead, the vehicles in front of her had moved forward a few car lengths. Three cars had made it through the checkpoint. The six men in black were working on the two vehicles in front of her.
Two of the six men rounded to the back of the sedan in front of Marta.
The trunk popped open. The men looked inside, shoved a few pieces of luggage around and closed the trunk.
Then they turned toward Marta as the sedan eased forward.
The other armed men walked alongside the sedan while speaking to the driver and peering inside.
Her heart lodged in her throat, Marta eased forward, glad she’d worn the hat. They might recognize her immediately, giving Crusher and Raul time for whatever plan they were about to enact.
The men in black carried rifles. Some of them had slung them over their shoulders. Two stood back from the others, their weapons held in their hands, ready, but focused on the men and vehicles ahead of Marta’s.
Please don’t shoot, Marta murmured beneath her breath.
One man walked up to her side and said something in Spanish, motioning for her to lower her window. The other man walked along the passenger side and peered into the van.
Marta kept moving slowly forward.
“Alto!” the man beside her demanded.
Marta shook her head and said. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand you.”
The man slapped his palm against the door. “Detente! Alto!” He slapped the door again.
Marta kept driving, albeit slowly, raising one hand palm upward. “I don’t know what you’re saying.” She was getting closer to the vehicles in front of her. The other men were still checking the drivers and interiors.
When she’d caught up to the vehicle ahead of her, she stopped.
The two men beside her van gave her angry stares and walked around to the back.
A flash of movement caught her attention in the side mirror.
Raul and Crusher yanked the men behind the van. The van rocked as a body slammed against it.
The sedan in front of Marta moved forward, following the vehicle ahead through the border crossing.
The four remaining armed men turned their attention to Marta and the van.
“Here goes,” Marta murmured to herself as she eased her foot onto the accelerator, sending the van forward.
One of the men frowned as he neared the driver’s door and Marta. Like the other man, he motioned for Marta to roll down her window.
Again, Marta waved her hands and called out from behind the closed window, “I don’t understand.”
Suddenly, Crusher burst into view in the side mirror. He came in so fast that the two men carrying the guns had no time to react.
Crusher bulldozed into the two on the driver’s side, sending one flying backward to land flat on his back, with the wind knocked from his lungs. The other guy half-raised his rifle.
Before he got it high enough to be effective, Crusher slammed a fist into the man’s nose. Blood spurted out. The gunman dropped his rifle and clutched his hand to his nose.
The man he’d knocked onto his back scrambled to get up.
Crusher landed a side kick into the guy with the broken nose, sending him staggering backward, crashing into the man reaching for his rifle.
The two men landed in a heap, the one on the bottom shoving the guy with the broken nose to the side.
Crusher grabbed the rifle the broken-nose guy had dropped and brought the butt of the weapon down hard into the side of the uninjured man’s face. The man dropped, unconscious.
Crusher applied the same force to the guy with the bleeding nose.
Once both men were out, Crusher darted in front of the van and helped Raul finish off the other two.
Marta pressed her foot down on the accelerator, sending the van through the checkpoint, while looking for any more men who might jump out and accost her. As she passed through, she saw the bodies of two guards lying on either side of the road, unconscious, possibly dead.
Her heart squeezed hard in her chest as she glanced in the side mirror, praying Raul and Crusher were okay.