Cardinal looked back over his shoulder. “They’ll have alerted someone by now. Let’s just hope that we make it to highway before they find us.”
“We’re a good ten minutes from the highway,” said Sam. “If it were light out, I could speed up, but in the dark I’m just as likely to put us wheels-up in a dry river bed.”
Bright red tracers tore out of the dark night sky, hitting the ground just in front of the Rover.
Sam turned off the track out into the desert. Right away, their Rover began to bounce up and down like a bucking bronco as it hit every rock in its path. Cardinal held on for dear life as the Rover rocked back and forth.
Another blast of machine gun fire hit the ground in front of them, sending rocks and dirt flying into the air.
“That was close,” said Sam. She turned off the jeep’s lights, plunging the world around them into darkness.
Cardinal craned his head over, trying to see where the fire was coming from. He had no doubt that a helicopter was hunting them. He wanted to know what type it was just in case he had to fire on it. Not all helicopters were armored, and he knew that might work to his advantage.
Swiftly, like a darkened prehistoric beast, the helicopter dove out of the sky and came to a halt, hovering just above the ground directly in the path of their vehicle.
Sam jammed her foot on the brakes. The Rover came to a sliding halt. Dust thrown up behind it washed over the top of the vehicle for a second before clearing. Through the windshield, Cardinal could see they didn’t stand a chance. Floating in the air was a fully armed, Soviet-era Mi-24 attack helicopter. Rocket pods hung from her wings while a nose-mounted, 12.7mm Gatling gun trained on their Rover.
“Get out of your car,” said a voice in English over a loudspeaker.
Sam bit her lip and turned to look over at Cardinal. “What do we do now?”
“We can’t outrun an Mi-24. I suggest we do what they say,” said Cardinal with a resigned shrug of his shoulders.
Slowly opening their doors, Sam and Cardinal climbed out of the Rover and stood there with their hands raised. From behind, a couple of jeeps packed with Mongolian soldiers came out of the night, speeding at them. Within seconds, they were surrounded.
A young officer with a broad face and short legs walked over. “You speak English?” he asked.
“Yes, we speak English,” replied Cardinal.
“You will have to come with us,” said the officer, motioning to the jeeps with his hand.
“Why?” asked Sam.
“You have been inside a quarantined zone. You will need to be decontaminated,” replied the officer curtly.
“There’s no sign of contamination out there,” said Cardinal. “You needn’t bother with us; we were just on our way back to our hotel for a nice, hot shower.”
“There is no time to debate this, you are coming with us,” said the officer. Before they could say another word, Sam and Cardinal were manhandled onto the back of the waiting jeeps. A few seconds later, with a soldier behind the wheel of the Rover, the officer ordered his men to head back to their base.
In silence, Cardinal looked over his shoulder at Sam sitting in the back of the other jeep. He gritted his teeth in frustration. There was something going on out in the desert that was larger than he had first suspected. He sat there, with an AK jammed into his side, hoping that they hadn’t stumbled into something that would cost them their lives.
Within hours, he would have his answer and it would be one he wouldn’t like.
18
Mitchell and Jen sat at a quiet table in the corner of the complex’s cafeteria, enjoying a quick bite of lunch together. Over the past few days, they hadn’t seen much of each other, as Mitchell had been in Washington being interviewed by a half-dozen different federal and state police forces with a stake in the Satomi kidnapping. After a while, the questions all seemed to blur together. Mitchell was relieved when they said he could return home until they deemed it necessary to interview him again, which he hoped was never.
“When do you go back to work with the UN?” Mitchell asked Jen as he took a swig from his Diet Coke.
“I was due to go back to work tomorrow, but since you’re back from D.C., I took a few days off. It’s one huge bureaucracy. Trust me, they won’t miss little old me.”
“I’ve never asked before, but are you going to stay with them?”
“For now. I’m still getting used to life in New York City. I may apply to teach at a university, but that’s a while off. I’m just happy that we can spend some time together.”
“I was thinking of driving over to visit Fahimah after work, would you like to come long?”
“I’d love to. Since I have the jeep, I’ll kill time by doing some shopping in town after lunch. What time would you like me to pick you up?”
Mitchell smiled. Jen March was the best thing that ever happened to him, and he counted his blessings every day that she felt the same way about him. He was about to say something when he spotted Mike Donaldson with a serious look on his face, weaving his way through the cafeteria, heading straight for their table.
“Don’t look now, but I think lunch may have just ended,” said Mitchell under his breath.
“Sorry to bother you at lunch,” said Donaldson apologetically as he stopped at their table. “I tried calling a dozen times but got no reply.”
“That’s because I turned my phone off,” said Mitchell. “I’m having lunch.”
Jen stood up, smiled, and then stuck out her hand. “Since Ryan is bad at introductions, my name is Jennifer March.”
“Mike Donaldson, my pleasure,” he said, shaking Jen’s hand
Mitchell cringed and then looked up at Jen, realizing that he still wasn’t used to being part of a couple. “Care to join us, Mike?”
“Sorry, but I don’t have the time.”
“Another day then,” said Mitchell with a forced smile.
“Sorry to say this, but neither do you, Ryan. A couple of things have come up and General O’Reilly has asked us to meet him in the briefing room right away.”
Mitchell let out a deep sigh. “This has to be important.”
“Trust me, it is. Sam and Gordon have gone missing.”
As if struck by lightning, Mitchell bolted out of his seat. “Say again?”
“We have had no communication with either Sam or Gordon for over thirty-six hours. Therefore, in accordance with our SOPs, I declared them overdue and personally informed General O’Reilly, who has called a meeting.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I tried, but you turned your phone off.”
“Right,” said Mitchell, feeling like a complete fool.
“We had best get going. The general is already there and is none too thrilled that I couldn’t contact you. Jackson has been paged to meet us there.”
Jen stood and gently squeezed Mitchell’s arm. “You had best get going. You can make it up to me by buying me a nice supper from a restaurant of my choice after we visit Fahimah.”
Wondering just how much that was going to set him back, Mitchell leaned over, gave Jen a quick kiss on her cheek, grabbed what was left of his sandwich, and then fell into line behind Donaldson.
A feeling of unease seeped into Jen’s heart as she watched Mitchell leave. She wondered if this was how the wife of a soldier, firefighter, or police officer felt every time they left home. Sitting back down at the table, Jen decided to put on a brave face and finish her lunch. She reached into her purse and dug out her iPhone to read the news while she nibbled at her food. She was surprised to read that the South Korean president and his prime minister had both just tendered their resignations. The media didn’t have all the details, but were reporting that it had something to do with a sex scandal. She could visualize the media like so many hungry sharks circling their prey, watching it bleed until the right moment for all of them to strike and devour the carcass. Shaking her head, Jen wondered what drove middle-aged men in positions of power to seek out mistresses. It seemed that a month didn’t go by without someone being forced to resign because they couldn’t keep it in their pants. Not sure what a Korean prime minister did, Jen was certain that both of their resignations did not bode well for the nation.