[Harlequin] - Lindsay McKenna - A Man Alone (txt), Ksiazki, txt
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A Man AlonebyLINDSAY MCKENNASILHOUETTE SPECIAL EDITIONChapter OneTwo minutes until contact! The thought raced through Captain ThaneHamilton's mind, spurring him to run faster.Gasps tore from him. He was damn well going to make it, or else."Keep going!" he shouted hoarsely.Ahead of him, a fourteen-year-old girl stumbled and ran brokenly. Thehard desert terrain, the precipitous walls of the canyon surroundingthem, were clearly taking their toll on her. And him.With his desert fatigues, flak jacket and weapons, Thane's identity asa U.S.Marine was clear. Rifle in hand, he jerked a look over his shoulder.He knew the drug runners weren't far behind them.There! Helicopters! Help was coming! Gripping the radio in his otherhand, he growled at the floundering teenager."Move it, Valerie!"The red-haired girl sobbed and flailed her arms like an off-balancewindmill in order to keep from slipping and falling on the unstablesurface, strewn with gray and cream rocks.Thane felt sorry for the senator's daughter. But it was necessary tokeep her going. She was slowing, winded by the mile-long run. The sunwas high, making him squint as he watched her in front of him. Thecanyon they ran in was just inside Bolivia's borders, and his lungsburned from the brutally high altitude. Sweat rolled down his face.The rest of his Recon team was dead. They'd risked five lives torescue one girl. Thane was the last of his team. And he might notsurvive, either.The sky was blindingly blue. He could hear the approaching "spook"--CLA-owned--helicopters, coming their way. Their rotors punctuatedthe air like a boxer punching him in the ears, the flat, choppingsounds reverberating through the area. At a prearranged checkpoint, heand Valerie were to be picked up. Up ahead, a desert plain appearedjust beyond the mouth of the steep-walled, snakelike canyon. The heloswould land only if he signaled them. The crew on the helicopters wereexpecting to rescue five people-and now there were only two. Thanewanted to cry. His team--his men--were dead, killed in that violentconfrontation at a drug lord's estate."Move it!" he snarled.Valerie sobbed."I can't! I'm tired! I want to stop and rest!" She gave him a poutylook and started to slow down.Cursing softly, Thane jammed the radio into his web belt.Surging forward, he gripped the girl's thin, flabby arm. She was asoft norte americana used to living the good life. She had a rich andpowerful daddy in Washington, D.C.And even at such a young age, she was already a snob. Well, she was inover her head on this one.Oh, it wasn't Valeric Winston's fault that she'd walked ignorantly intoa drug lord's carefully planned trap. She'd been with a church group,touring Machu Picchu in Peru, when she'd been kidnapped. Thanecouldn't be angry at her."Ouch!" she shrieked, trying to yank away."You're hurting me!"Towering over her at six foot four inches compared to her five foottwo, he nailed her widening hazel eyes with his own sharp gaze."Tough it out, little girl. You and I are making that checkpoint. Nowstretch those legs of yours. If you don't, we're dead meat. Is thatwhat you want? A bullet in your back? Your brains splattered all overthe rocks here?"Defiant tears shimmered in her eyes. Her hair, long and naturallycurly, hung about her shoulders, wild and uncombed."No!"Hamilton practically lifted her off her feet, steadied her on the rockysurface, then pushed her ahead of him at a faster clip."Then move!"It was June in Bolivia. Winter. And at fourteen thousand feet, colderthan hell. His breath exploded out of his mouth in white clouds eventhough the noonday sun burned overhead.Lake Titicaca was only thirty miles away, the largest lake in the worlddespite the ungodly altitude. Thane heard the helos laboring mightily,the rotors grasping for oxygen that wasn't there. That alone madeflying up here to rescue them decidedly dangerous.Thane had no idea who was going to pick them up. He'd been told that aBoeing Apache attack helicopter and an old, antiquated Cobra from theVietnam era were on this mission.Right now, he thought as he jerked another furtive look across hisshoulder, he hoped it was the Apache that he heard in the distance. Heneeded that kind of firepower to protect them from the oncoming drugrunners.With the echoing shouts of their assailants surrounding them. Thaneand Valerie rounded the final bend in the canyon. Above them werenaked, barren walls of yellow ocher and gray granite, weathered by thefierce winds that scoured the Andes.Gasping, his heart feeling like it was going to explode in his chest.Thane kept up the hard, pounding pace. He heard Valerie sobbing. Heknew she wasn't used to this kind of demanding exercise. No one was atthis damnable altitude!Thane saw the end of the canyon bleeding out into a natter area, astark moonscape free of rocks, scrub and trees. That must be thelanding zone! The punctuating rotors of the rescue helos lifted hishope. Behind, he heard shouts in Spanish. They were coming closer.Damn!Turning, Thane saw ten drug runners hightailing it in their direction,less than half a mile away. The drug runners began firing. Turning onhis heel, Thane sped toward Valerie. Arms flailing weakly, shecontinued to run, all the while slipping and stumbling on the rockyground. He saw the helicopters approaching Both were black. And bothwere coming in fast from high above, zeroing in like two attackinghawks on the landing zone below.Jerking a canister from his web belt, he positioned himself directlybehind Valerie. Bullets were whining all around them now, andricocheting off the rock walls. Ducking as one screamed by his head.Thane kept himself between the girl and the drug runners. Under nocircumstances could Valerie be hurt! They'd have to go through him andhis Kevlar, bulletproof vest first.Reaching the end of the canyon, he pulled Valerie against the rockwall."Stop," he rasped. Flipping off the handle to the smoke grenade, helobbed it expertly toward the landing area two hundred feet in front ofthem.The canister sailed through the air and plunked on the flat, yellowearth, which had hardened into a drum like surface from lack ofrainfall over the years. A puff of dust rose briefly as the canisterbounced and came to a standstill.And then bright red smoke began to belch from it, forming thin, pinkishcolored clouds. That was the signal for the choppers to land.Turning, his nostrils flared, he brought the rifle up to his shoulderand sighted on the drug runners."Valerie, move to the right, but stay along the wall," he ordered.The girl nodded jerkily, her eyes huge. She quickly moved away fromhim and crouched down, her back to the wall for protection.The drug runners were going to catch up with them just as the heloslanded, Thane realized. He squeezed off several shots to slow them,and it worked. Gripping the radio, he jammed the button down."Black Jaguar One. Black Jaguar One. This is Checkerboard One. Over."His breath came in gasps. His chest burned from over exertion Sweattrickled into his narrowed eyes. He waited impatiently for a responsefrom the big, black Apache that was thundering in toward the landingarea."Come on!" he snarled."Answer me!""This is Black Jaguar One, Checkerboard One," came a woman's low,steady voice."What's your status? Over.""A hot LZ," he warned."I've got the package. And I've got ten bad guys, less than half amile from us, comin' out of that canyon in front of you. I need somefirepower. You got it? Over." "Roger, we have them in our sights.Suggest you move back."Stunned momentarily, Thane realized he'd been talking to a woman. Awoman! Not a man, as he'd expected. And then, feeling stupid, heremembered that there were women Apache helo pilots in the U.S.Army. But behind the lines on spook-initiated missions?CIA?That, he'd never heard of.But now was not the time to ask questions or ponder the subject."Read you loud and clear, Black Jaguar One. Thanks.You're a sight for sore eyes. Out. "Relief shuddered through Thane. He gave a tight, vengeful grin. Oncethat Apache released a deadly Hellfire missile into that bloodthirstypack of cutthroats who wanted him and the girl dead, it would be allover. He silently thanked Boeing for making the battle-ready Apache.This aircraft, above all others, often made the difference between histeam living or dying in behind-the-lines missions like this.He saw the unmarked Apache "A" model helicopter suddenly lift upwardand hover, preparing to take a shot at the drug runners. The secondone, the old Cobra gunship, was coming in low and fast. Within thirtyseconds, it would land.Glancing to his right. Thane saw Valerie crouched down into a ball offright, her back to the wall, her arms tight around her drawn-up knees.Good, she was out of the way and protected.His concern was the drug runners, who were moving at full speed towardhim. Again, Thane snapped off five or six well-aimed shots. Two ofthe drug runners fell.Then he spotted something that made his heart stop.NO!Thane's green eyes widened enormously. Ahead of him, he saw that oneof the drug runners had a LAW--a hand-held rocket launcher! And thebastard was aiming it directly at the hovering Apache, which was poisedto fire.Damn!Thane leaped out from behind the wall, ...
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