Page 44 of Seal of Honor
To her complete horror, Gabe grabbed her arm in a hard grip and flung her out the door. “Go!”
Go? Go where?
Bullets flew, people fell to the ground moaning in pain or ominously silent, and she couldn’t get her bearings. A young guerrilla charged at her, caught her in the left side, and knocked her off balance. She hit the dirt hard, her breath leaving her lungs in a rush. The guerrilla raised his gun, a wild look in his eyes. He pulled the trigger but instead of the expected explosion, there was only a sharp click. Empty. He cursed loudly and lunged towards her with a knife, but he never landed the hit.
Without hesitation, Gabe stepped up behind the kid and stabbed into his neck with the Swiss army knife. Blood spurted, splattering across her face and chest. She wanted to scream. Opened her mouth, and nothing came out.
“Audrey!” Gabe’s voice was all drill sergeant again. He easily spun and deflected a blow aimed at his kidneys from a knife-wielding man-in-black. “Move! Go, go, go!”
She scuttled backward on her butt, watching Gabe in full hand-to-hand combat. He moved like an assassin. Quick. Silent.
Mesmerizing.
And deadly.
Couldn’t forget deadly.
More guerrillas advanced, and the man-in-black broke away from the fight with Gabe to defend himself from them. Gabe blocked a blow from an axe with his forearm, twisted the weapon from the attacker’s hand, and embedded it in his skull. The guerrilla fell to the dirt, twitching grotesquely before going eerily still. Then the man-in-black was back, lunging at Gabe with a viciousness that was almost inhuman. But Gabe was a force of nature. His knife was a blur as he twisted and turned, dodged and weaved in a finely choreographed dance of death.
“Audrey, goddammit, go!” In the millisecond he took his eyes off his attacker to glance worriedly her way, the knife slashed deep across his bicep. He staggered back, stumbling as his bad foot went out from under him.
“No!” Audrey surged forward—but caught herself. What was she going to do to help, paint an unflattering portrait of his attacker? Right. He knew what he was doing. She didn’t, so she had to gather her wits and follow his orders. She was doing nothing but distracting him, dividing his attention and putting him in further danger.
He’d told her to run through the poppy field, hide in the jungle, and wait. Scrambling to her feet in the slick dew-covered grass, she sent one last look over her shoulder. Gabe had straightened himself and sprung back into the battle with a dark, determined expression on his face.
She hated to leave him.
Sending up a prayer for his protection, she ran toward the poppy field.
CHAPTER 15
Gabe saw her go out of the corner of his eye. About damn time—except now that she was out of sight, his heart decided to imitate a heart attack, causing him to hesitate and nearly end up with a knife in his gut.
Unacceptable.
He had to screw his head on straight. Getting himself killed would do Audrey no good.
He deflected another blow. His opponent liked going for the kidneys and the stomach, never varied attacks. Gabe waited until the knife came toward his belly button again, spun out of the way, grabbed the guy’s knife hand, and twisted, all in one quick, fluid motion. Felt the satisfying snap of bone in his opponent’s wrist but kept twisting until the whole arm was chicken-winged behind his opponent’s back, shoulder straining not to pop free of its socket. The man dropped hard to his knees.
The gunfire had slowed, so instead of finishing him off and moving on to the next tango, Gabe decided they’d have a nice heart-to-heart instead.“Who are you?”
He wasn’t a guerrilla. He was better trained but still too sloppy to be professional military. A sneaking suspicion niggled in the back of his mind—a suspicion he didn’t want to entertain. But there was no denying the thought once it had latched onto him.
When the man didn’t respond, Gabe leaned on his arm. “Who are you? ¿Quién eres? Did Mena send you?”
The man in black spat blood at Gabe’s feet, his eyes flaring with defiance. “Vete al infierno, bastardo.”
Movement in the poppy field caught his attention. He turned and saw Cocodrilo sneaking away from the camp, not exactly following Audrey, but there was no way he’d miss her—she was only minutes ahead.
Time to end this fight.
“You first.” He scooped up his weapon and fired a round between the bastard’s eyes, then snagged the dead man’s knife from the ground where he’d dropped it. A Bowie about fifteen inches long with a scuffed steel blade and rubber handle, it made a much better weapon than his little Swiss army knife. Gabe sheathed it in his belt.
Now to get to Cocodrilo before he got to Audrey.
* * *
“I’ll drop you two klicks to the west,” HumInt, Inc.’s local pilot called over the beat of the helo’s blades. Luckily, it only took a call to Tucker Quentin to find one ready and willing to fly without asking too many questions.
