Page 34 of No Time Off (Lexi Carmichael Mystery #15)
THIRTY-FOUR
Lexi
T he ride to the compound was bumpy in the back of the truck crouched behind the crates, but uneventful. We passed a roadblock, where they briefly opened the door, but no one checked the cargo. I guess they figured it would be unlikely for the prime minister to be hiding in a truck of produce headed for the Chinese compound.
There were no windows in the back of the truck, so we had no idea where we were. When the truck stopped again, I heard voices talking, and we didn’t move right away.
“I think we’re at the compound gate,” Manny mouthed.
I shrugged. A minute later, the back door of the truck rolled up. I froze, not moving a muscle. I heard Sefina saying something, and another clipped voice replied, probably a Chinese guard. The guard seemed to be poking at some of the nearer crates, and one of them suddenly tumbled over, spilling the produce.
A couple of hot green peppers rolled near my feet and came to a stop. My nose started to twitch, so I pinched my nostrils together. I could feel a sneeze coming, so I held my breath and squeezed my eyes shut, holding it back the best I could. Tears started to leak from the corners of my eyes.
Sefina cursed and ordered the guard to climb inside and clean up his mess. Laughing, he rolled the door down, slamming it shut, just as a half-muted sneeze escaped my lips. Manny and I looked each other with wide eyes until I heard a door slam and the truck lurched forward.
We were in!
I kicked the pepper away and let out a deep breath as Manny gave me a thumbs-up sign.
I put my glasses on as the truck rounded a bend before coming to a stop again. After a minute, the door rolled up again. Sefina stepped inside and nodded to us.
“All clear,” she said in a low voice.
We were out of sight from the gate and the dormitory building, behind the main compound building. There was a rear entrance to the kitchen area, and they had backed the truck up close to the door to make the unloading go quickly. It would also make it easy to get an extra person into the truck when we left. Manny and I hopped down from the truck’s deck. I glanced around. If Manny was right, once we were in the kitchen, Slash would be just down the nearest hallway.
So close.
A gated swimming pool and bathhouse were located behind the kitchen. There was no one out this morning, despite it being a lovely sunny day. Of course, it was 0700, so that might have something to do with it. More likely, most of the available guards were already out looking for terrorist me and the prime minister. Little did they know I was right beneath their noses.
We started to slowly unload the truck, carrying the crates and boxes into the kitchen, moving with the pace of a snail. We still didn’t see a soul. The cooks hadn’t arrived yet. They were probably waiting for us to finish our delivery. Ari had been right; there were no guards to supervise us, and the kitchen manager whose office abutted the kitchen didn’t even come out to greet us. We were invisible to them.
Which worked really well for our plan.
I put a crate onto the counter and looked around. No one was in the kitchen but me. It was time to put things into motion.
I walked over to the coffee maker and turned it on. I found some filters and coffee and began brewing a pot. Manny walked in carrying a large box and saw me getting ready.
“Now?” he asked.
“Now,” I confirmed, and he kept watch while I finished my task and poured the coffee into a cup, putting it on a saucer. I took the Taser from my pocket and slipped the strap around my right wrist. I checked the intensity setting, making sure it was at its highest.
“Be careful,” Manny murmured. “Stick to the plan.”
“Like that ever works for me,” I whispered, but I nodded anyway. “I will.”
“Oh, I have one more thing for you that you’ll need, and I almost forgot.” He reached into a pocket and pulled out a set of lockpicks. “I gave Slash my best set earlier, but these should work if you need them. You do know how to use them, right?”
I looked at Manny in surprise. “Why would I know how to use a lockpick?”
Manny sighed. “Because you’re CIA, of course. Oh, never mind. I can’t figure you guys out. Take them anyway. Maybe you can slip them under the door and Slash can free himself.”
I stuck them in a pocket and left the kitchen, carrying the coffee in my left hand. I carefully slipped past the manager’s office. She was sitting at her desk, focused on her computer, and never looked up.
I entered the long, shadowy, and carpeted hallway. The layout Manny had drawn indicated the office where Slash had planted the bug was at the end of the hallway on the left. Catty-corner on the right side would be the locked storage room where Slash might be imprisoned.
My heart drumming in my ears, I flattened myself against the wall and peered into the shadows at the end of the hall. I heard a scraping sound and a slight noise and realized there was someone standing at the end of the hallway. I saw a quick flash of light and realized someone had lit a cigarette.
A guard. That was good news, because a guard standing in the hall in the general area of the locked storage room made me feel more confident that Slash was there. At least I hoped so, because in a minute or so, I was about to find out one way or the other. Thankfully, it looked like just one person. That was a good sign, since I was certain one guy would be all I could handle.
I suddenly heard shuffling and footsteps behind me. I slid into the small indentation of the closed door to the room next to me. I sucked in my breath, pressing myself as tightly as I could against the door, the coffee cup digging into my stomach. The kitchen manager left her office and strode left into the kitchen without even glancing my way. Maybe she smelled the coffee.
“Crap,” I whispered. I waited another two full minutes, frozen in the doorway, until the manager strode back into the office. Indeed, she was carrying a mug of coffee.
I exhaled softly. That was way too close. I couldn’t wait any longer. The plan needed to go into action now.
I summoned my courage and then walked out into the open and down the hall toward the guard. I was carrying the cup and saucer in one hand, and the other was slightly behind my back. Luckily, the darkened hallway helped with my deception.
“Excuse me?” I called out softly as I got closer. I tried using the best imitation of a New Zealand accent I could manage. It sounded horrible to my ears, but I hoped the Chinese guard wouldn’t be able to tell. “The woman there”—I pointed back to the kitchen manager’s office—“said I should bring you coffee.”
The guard turned toward me, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. I noticed the gun in his holster. At least he hadn’t drawn it.
He grunted and reached out to take the coffee. As his hands touched the saucer, I pushed the Taser forward and got him right in the gut. I held it firm as he dropped to the floor, shaking and grunting. The cup and saucer fell to the carpet and broke, but the carpet masked the sound.
I kept my finger on the Taser button and reached down and removed the gun from his holster. He was twitching on the ground, but not making any vocalizations. I stomped on the cigarette that had fallen and turned to face the door he was guarding. It was a heavy steel door with an electronic keypad.
I tried the handle, but it was locked. “Slash,” I whispered as loudly as I dared, leaning close to the door. “Slash, are you in there? Slash?”
For several agonizing seconds, I heard nothing. Then, faintly, I heard a voice on the other side. “Lexi? Is that you?”
Relief flooded me. “Yes, it’s me. I’m trying to get you out of here. I don’t have the code, though. What do I do?”
Slash spoke again, low and urgent. “Do you see a small sensor panel near the top of the door?”
I looked up. “Yes, I see it.”
“I watched them punch in the code—once. I couldn’t see the last number, but the first ones are three, three, seven, four, and I don’t know the final one. You’ll have to try them all.”
“Got it.” My hands shook as I tapped the keypad with the first code, adding a one at the end. My breath hitched when the red light blinked. I tried again and again until I reached the number six. Suddenly the keypad chirped, and the door clicked open.
Slash flung it open with his shoulder and stepped into me. I threw my arms around him, realizing he wore no shirt and his hands were tied behind his back. It didn’t matter, because I was so relieved to see him, I couldn’t breathe.
“You came,” he murmured.
“Of course I came,” I whispered heatedly. “But I freaking told you so. You got caught.”
“At no fault of my own,” he whispered back. “I never expected there to be a deranged bird planted in the office as some kind of biological alarm.”
“I’m still right.”
“You are,” he murmured, but he didn’t sound upset, only relieved. “Come on, we have to move now, cara .”
He glanced at the guard on the ground and then the Taser in my hand. “Good thinking, but you better activate it again,” he said.
The guard had started to sit up. I’d taken my finger off the button in my excitement at seeing Slash. He was opening his mouth to holler when I zapped him again. He went down like he’d been shot.
“Get his knife and free my hands.” Slash motioned toward a knife resting in a sheath on the guard’s left hip. I grabbed it and quickly sawed through the plastic ties.
Once I freed him, he flexed his arms for a second before grabbing the guard’s gun and then my Taser. The five-minute duration on the Taser was ending, and we were going to have to do something with the guard. Slash turned off the Taser, but before the guard could recover, he reversed the gun and delivered a hard blow to the guard’s head. The crack was audible down the hall, and I worried the kitchen manager might check. I watched for her as Slash dragged the guard into the cell, but she never appeared. Slash closed the door and locked him in.
I stripped off my top white jacket and handed it to him.
“You’re wearing two jackets,” he said, observing me. “Smart.”
“I thought that’s why you love me,” I whispered.
“It’s a definitely a turn-on.”
I didn’t have to explain the plan to him. He slipped on the jacket, hiding the gun and knife beneath the jacket and handing me back the Taser. I gave him the extra hat and he pulled the brim low over his head.
“I need to get the recording device and my phone,” he said. “They’re in there.” He pointed to the office at the end of the hall.
“I thought you said you planted two recorders.”
“I did, but the one in that office is the only one I need. I don’t know if anyone is in there right now, but if there is, I’ve got a gun to deal with it. However, I do know there’s a loud and annoying parrot there that’ll surely give us away. I’ll have to wring its neck before it squawks.”
I looked at him in horror. “What? You’d kill a poor, defenseless parrot?”
Slash raised an eyebrow. “That parrot doesn’t like me. If it wasn’t for that parrot, we wouldn’t be in this predicament in the first place.”
“Ha! Now you know how it feels.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the peapods. “I’ll give him these instead.”
Slash’s eyebrow lifted even higher. “Do my ears deceive me? Lexi Carmichael, protecting an animal?”
“Just this once,” I muttered, but he had already started moving toward the office. I followed, practically standing on his heels as he turned the knob.
It was locked. Slash cursed under his breath and turned around.
I held Manny’s lockpicks by two fingers. “Need these?” I asked.
“Damn, I love you,” he whispered, taking the lockpicks.
“I know,” I whispered back.
He picked the lock with scary efficiency, pushing me behind him as he entered the room, holding the gun out.
The room was empty except for the parrot. I immediately tossed a peapod toward the bird, and it landed on the windowsill nearby. The pod distracted the bird long enough for it to recognize the treat, hop down, and begin munching.
I glanced over my shoulder as Slash grabbed something from inside a statue on the desk, stuck it in his pocket, and then crawled under the desk.
“Hurry,” I urged him. “I don’t know how long the peapods will distract him.”
“Good, because we’re done here,” he said.
I tossed the remaining peapod at the parrot as we headed toward the door. Just as we reached it, Slash put his hand on the small of my back. “You go first,” he said. “If something happens, you don’t stop. Get out of here any way you can, understood?”
I nodded and stepped out into the hallway, followed closely by Slash. My heart thundered so loudly I was sure it could be heard throughout the entire compound. I crept down the hallway, past the locked storage room with the guard inside, and past the kitchen manager’s office. The manager was on the phone with her back facing me. Still, every word she said was magnified in my ears one hundred times over as I slipped past.
I tried not to shake, but my teeth were chattering, so I had to clamp them shut. Thank God, no one was in the kitchen, so I picked up an empty crate and started heading for the exit when Slash entered the kitchen behind me.
I tensed in case the kitchen manager came running out, but she didn’t. Breathing a sigh of relief, I continued to the door with my crate. I could hear Slash’s footsteps behind me. The air felt thick with tension, but only a few more feet and we’d be in the delivery truck.
I reached for the door, but it opened first. Standing in front of me were three people in white uniforms I had never seen, and they were Chinese.
I was so startled, I froze. Before I could respond, the first person, a woman, pushed past me into the kitchen without a word. Two men followed her, paying no attention to either me or Slash. It suddenly occurred to me they were the kitchen staff arriving to start breakfast.
Ari had told us we would be invisible to them, and thankfully, he was right. I slipped out behind them, followed closely by Slash, and we headed directly to the delivery truck, where Manny and the others were slowly loading the empty crates and boxes to buy us time.
Manny caught sight of us, and the look of relief on his face said it all. He signaled to the others to get into the cab. I reached the truck and loaded my crate in the back. Manny extended a hand and pulled me up into the truck.
Slash dumped his crates in the back and hopped up. Together he and Manny rolled down the back of the truck from the inside. The engine fired up and lurched once before the truck pulled away.
We hid behind the empty crates, Slash sitting next to me, putting an arm around my shoulder. I leaned my head on his shoulder and held my breath as we paused at the gate.
I could hear Amiri call out to the guard, “We’re all set. See you Friday.”
There was a pause, and then the truck started rolling again. I closed my eyes for a moment, grateful we’d made it this far.
I turned to face Slash. His face looked bruised and swollen. I touched his cheek gently. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. These are all surface wounds. Nothing time, and you being alive, won’t heal.” He pressed a kiss against my forehead. “Thanks for coming for me,” he said. “Both of you. I presume you heard the conversation I had with Jiang Shi.”
“Partly,” Manny confirmed. “Your phone cut out in the middle of the conversation. We assumed it died. But we heard he intended to take you to China this afternoon.”
“That was his plan.”
“It’s crazy that Shi is here,” I said. “How is that possible?”
“Fate,” Slash replied. “But no worries, he’s not getting away this time.”
“Do you have the recording device?” Manny asked.
Slash reached into his pocket and held it up between his fingers. “Right here.”
“Excellent,” Manny said. “But we’re not out of the woods yet. I told Amiri to stop a mile ahead near a scenic overlook so we can get out. Motorbikes have been left in the woods for us so we can finalize our escape. It won’t take the Chinese long before they find you’re gone and put the pieces together.”
“No, it won’t,” Slash said. “But we’ve got the evidence we need to blow this coup wide-open.”
“That we do,” Manny agreed.
The truck rumbled over the road, every bump jarring my knees painfully against the crates. Shortly, the truck rolled to a stop at the side of the road. Manny and Slash pulled open the back, and we hopped out. I took off my white jacket and hat, laying them in the back of the truck before I handed Sefina back her glasses. Since Slash didn’t have a shirt beneath his jacket, he kept his on.
Sefina tucked the glasses in an inside pocket. “Now what?” she asked.
Manny held up some rope. “We tie you up, so you have plausible deniability in this situation. Your story is that you heard banging coming from the back, so you stopped the truck to check it out. Two men jumped out and ambushed you. They tied you up, left you here, and ran into the woods going in that direction.” He pointed north toward the city, the opposite direction we were really heading.
Slash walked over to them. “Thank you both for helping us.”
“If you’re friends with Ari, Manny, and the true prime minister, then you are friends of ours,” Amiri said.
“Absolutely,” Sefina agreed. “We’re not fans of what the Chinese are doing to our country, so, all the power to you. If you can help us against the Chinese, then do it.”
“We will,” Slash said. “But right now, I need you two to sit back to back over there, away from the road, and we’ll tie you up. The bonds will be loose enough so if there’s any real reason you need to get away, you should be able to slip free without much of a problem.”
“Just stick to your story, no matter what, okay?” Manny said. “Ari will back you up. They should release you right away. You won’t be of interest to them.”
They nodded and sat without protest. Slash and Manny tied them up and we said a quick goodbye before plunging into the woods. I felt worried about leaving them there, but I also knew that it wouldn’t be long before the Chinese found them.
After a minute, Manny whistled. “Over here. We got a couple of bikes waiting for us. Yours is right there.”
Manny had already pulled his bike upright and sat on it. A moment later, he started up the engine.
Slash pulled ours up and climbed on. I got on behind him, wrapping my arms tightly around his waist. Slash started our bike, and Manny gave us a thumbs-up.
“Follow me,” he said. “Time is ticking.” He drove off and Slash followed.
“What the heck do you think Jiang Shi is really doing in the Cook Islands?” I said to Slash as we drove cautiously through the jungle.
“Skimming, cheating, laundering money, and trafficking,” Slash responded. “Along with orchestrating the Chinese geopolitical strategy in the area. But he’s also giving me a chance to finish him once and for all. And trust me, I’m about to do just that.”