Page 4 of Keeping Amanda
“I don’t know why they took the girls,” Blair said, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief. She was in her early seventies, if Buck had to guess, and looked way too fragile to be in charge of an orphanage in the tiny South American country. Originally from Texas, she’d apparently decided to do something different with her life after her husband passed away unexpectedly a decade ago. That something was move to Guyana and start a school for orphaned children.
Desmond was a Guyanese man born and raised, who’d been hired as a liaison between Blair and the other locals.
Over the years, the popularity of the school had grown, and the local people had learned to trust Blair. The school turned into a full-time orphanage, and now children were brought there by locals, the government, or they found their way to Blair themselves.
“If we don’t get the children back, we’re done here,” she said tearfully.
Buck couldn’t keep his lip from curling in disdain. She was worried about the reputation of herschool? What about the kids? What about Amanda Rush? The safety of the children whohadn’tbeen taken? It seemed to him there were other things the woman should be worried about.
Desmond patted her hand. “They’ll find them, Blair. I know it.”
“Those kids are innocent. They didn’t deserve this,” she said between sniffs.
“Yes, ma’am. We’re going to do our best to bring them all back to you unharmed,” the captain told her.
“As to a contingency plan,” the colonel said, his tone hard, “there isn’t one. You have to succeed in getting the kids out on your first pass. Otherwise…”
He let his sentence hang.
Buck knew what he didn’t want to say in front of the civilians. It was likely the rebels would simply shoot any younger kids, because they’d be a liability. They might keep the oldest boys, but that was about it.
And Amanda Rush? She’d be as good as dead as well.
They had to use the element of surprise and rescue the hostages. If they didn’t…
Buck knew there was as much point to finishing that thought as there was to the colonel finishing his directive. He was well aware of the responsibility that sat upon his and Obi-Wan’s shoulders. The same one he had every time they loaded up a chopper full of Navy SEALs or Delta Force operatives before heading into any other hostile territory.
He was a Night Stalker. One of the best pilots in the world. It didn’t matter if he was flying into a jungle or the mountains. He could handle the chopper and the terrain…but it was the unknown factors that would make the mission succeed or fail.
And Buck refused to fail. Not today. Not when the stakes were so high. Not when so many innocent lives depended on him and Obi-Wan, and the soldiers they would carry into the jungle. They had to not only find the missing kids and teacher, and get them back to Guyana, but mitigate any threats in the process.
There were a few other details that needed to be discussed, but after another twenty minutes, the meeting had disbanded and Buck and Obi-Wan were standing. They had two hours before they’d be heading into the jungle on their search-and-rescue mission.
Blair stopped them before they could leave. She put a hand on Buck’s arm and said in a low, tearful voice, “There’s a girl. Bibi. She’s the youngest. Only four. She’s like a daughter to me. I want all the kids back safely, but she’s…” Tears spilled onto her cheeks as she struggled with her emotions.
The woman’s white hair was messy, and any makeup she’d been wearing had long since worn off. She had bags under her eyes and it didn’t look like she’d slept much recently. Buck felt bad for her…and a little guilty for his earlier thoughts. The woman’s entire world had shifted, and it seemed she was barely hanging on.
“We’ll bring her back. We’ll bring them all back,” he impulsively promised. It was a stupid pledge to make, as he had no idea if they’d even be able to find the missing children, but he couldn’t stand there andnotreassure the woman in some way.
“Thank you,” she whispered, before Desmond put his arm around her shoulders and led her down the hall, in the opposite direction from where Buck and Obi-Wan would be headed.
“That was intense,” Obi-Wan observed.
“Yeah.”
“Civilian missions are hard. I think I prefer being a bus for SEALs.”
Buck understood where his copilot was coming from. Atleast when they were ferreting military personnel to and from hot zones, everyone knew what was expected of them. What they were getting into. That there were no guarantees anyone would survive the extremely dangerous missions they were sent on.
Kids were a completely different thing. They were precious. Innocent. Unpredictable.
As he and Obi-Wan headed to the nearby hangar to check over their chopper one more time and make sure everything was as it should be, Buck couldn’t help but think about Amanda Rush yet again. Everyone’s focus was on the kids, and rightly so. But that didn’t keep him from wondering how she was coping. If she was even still alive.
If the rebels had decided to use her to assuage their baser needs.
He frowned at the unpleasant thought. No woman should have to experience that. Ever. It was the ultimate degradation.
Even if the teacherhadmanaged to escape that fate, she still had to be extremely stressed. Being responsible for over twenty kids, who she probably thought of as her own children, in some ways. She was in an impossible situation, and Buck hated that for her.
