CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Who saved us?” The fear she’d been suppressing for way too long tasted sour in the back of her throat. She peered around Draven, trying to get a look at the helicopter pilot.
“Raptor.”
“From the house? Why would he come save us?”
“Because me house is fucking burning!” the pilot whose seat they were pressed up against yelled over his shoulder. “We’re gonna be flying over it in about thirty seconds. Bastards sent three fucking RPGs about half an hour ago.”
Shit. Is that because of me?
“It’s not your fault,” Draven whispered in her ear. “So, stop thinking that right now.”
He was reading her mind because she hadn’t said it out loud. As least she didn’t think she had. She chanced a look up at his face.
“It’s written all over your face,” Draven told her. “I know you well enough to recognize guilt when I see it.”
“I’m gonna drop you at your original exfil point.” Indy heard Raptor tell Wolf when the team leader stepped over them and sat into the copilot seat. “From there, you have a bird to Djibouti.”
“Thanks, man. We appreciate the ride.” Wolf grabbed a set of headphones and put them on. “What can I do?”
“Sit your ass still, this old girl doesn’t like movement too much,” Raptor replied.
The prisoner clearly heard it, as he almost immediately started flailing around, and the helicopter shuddered as if it was going to fall apart.
“Jesus, someone sit on that fucker!” Raptor yelled. “If he makes us crash, Imma gonna be a hell of a lot more pissed than I already am.”
Benny and Abe managed to corral the prisoner, flatten him on the floor of the helo where the seats should have been, and keep him in place.
By the time they were landing at what looked like a disused airstrip, Indy was so relieved to be on the ground she considered kissing it like the pope would.
Don’t you dare. You’ve had quite enough germs over the last few days.
I was thinking about it, not actually going to kiss the ground. Jeez Louise.
Grumbling in her head, she waited for Wolf’s guys to pull the prisoner off the helicopter and half carry him into the belly of the plane which waited for them on what remained of the tarmac. There had been a couple of times over the last few days when she’d been concerned she wouldn’t get out of this country alive. Then Draven and the guys arrived, and her odds had grown big time. But still, Indy decided there was nothing quite like seeing a US military plane filled with soldiers waiting to bring them home. She scrambled to her feet with Draven and paused to thank the pilot. “Thank you.” The last thing she felt like doing was smiling, but she forced her lips to curve upward and prayed it didn’t look too much like a grimace.
“You might want this, Miss. Fox.” He reached down to one side and pulled her ruck sack out of somewhere she couldn’t see. “I had it in my safe and grabbed it along with everything else when the first RPG hit my house.”
She winced in apology. “I’m sorry—”
“Don’t worry about it.” He flipped some switches over his head. “We’ll go back to square one and start all over again. No biggie.”
While she appreciated the reassurance, she knew he was lying. An undercover role like he’d clearly been playing wasn’t easy to set up. Sometimes it took years, and this situation had screwed that up. “They were asking me about you.” She remembered the interrogation, if you could call it that. “They wanted to know who you were and what I was to you.”
“Whatcha tell ‘em?”
“That I was a tourist on my honeymoon.” She could feel the heat building under her cheeks. “I told them Draven knew you and we were just on our honeymoon.”
“Good thinking.” Raptor reached for his pocket and pulled out a small card. “When you get a chance, send me an email with all you can remember, because we don’t have time to go over it now.” He nodded toward where Wolf, Mozart, and Charlie team waited next to the door of the plane with some of the soldiers. “I don’t think they are gonna wait for you to give me all the nitty-gritty.”
She glanced at the blank card and turned it over to find just one line written on it, an email address. “Thank you. If you ever—”
“While I do like to gather favors,” he cut her off with a slash of his hand, “I don’t need any from the CIA.”
“Wow—”
“Dude,” Draven growled in warning. “I’m grateful for the save and all, but rein it in before I have to punch you.”
“Hah, you and what army?” Raptor snorted. “Get the hell off my bird and get your asses back where they belong.” He looked and pointed to the plane. “On that fucking plane before it leaves without you.”
“Thank you.” She laid a hand on his shoulder. “I mean it.”
“I know you do, and you’re welcome.” He nodded to her, then glanced at Draven. “Remember what I asked you to do?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Raptor said. “My location is changing and there isn’t a damn thing Hawk can do about it. Just tell him to let my momma know I’m still standing up straight and that I’m not losing weight and all that shit.”
“You got it,” Draven replied. “Do I tell him…”
“Nothing other than that,” Raptor said. “Now git, because they’re waiting on you.”
“C’mon, Indy, let’s go.” Draven nodded to Raptor once more before he was tugging her to the door and leaving the helicopter. They strode side by side to the plane and up the ramp. Once they’d cleared the entrance, the ramp rose behind them, closing them into the belly of the cargo plane.
“Where are we going?”
“Don’t care.” Draven guided her to one of the red mesh seats which lined either side of the plane. She noted he put them on the end of the opposite row to the prisoner, ensuring there were plenty of men between her and the captive. “I only care that it’s out of here and I’m bringing you home.”
Crap, she didn’t know if home was where she needed to go. That depended on her handlers when she got in touch with them. But she figured that being on her way out of Africa with the papers she’d been tasked with retrieving was enough for now. As the plane took off, she settled into her seat and leaned her head on Draven’s shoulder. Exhaustion and achiness from running, being captive, and being rescued twice, finally hit hard. With the murmur of voices from men she trusted around her, she drifted off to sleep, secure in the knowledge that they could and would handle any trouble which managed to find them at twenty thousand feet.