Someone hasn’t been getting their beauty sleep lately.
She looked tired but was trying to power through the fatigue. He’d seen plenty of guys do that on jobs either with caffeine or pill-sized stimulants. She had short black hair, but he could imagine her with a long, flowing mane just a year ago. The obvious Parisian genes were easy to spot and she reminded him a little of Bonnie, the ex-model with whom he had spent a lot of time with back on the Trident. Like the men around her, the woman wasn’t wearing anything that looked like a uniform or a name tag, which made perfect sense if they were indeed Mercer’s men and were out here launching guerilla-style hit-and-run attacks on collaborator positions.
His ruse exposed, Keo gave up pretending to still be asleep and straightened up, or as much as he could manage while restrained. His nose felt as if there were cotton balls jammed into both nostrils, and the hard floor was sticky with fresh mud and dirt and (no doubt his contribution to the mess) blood.
“Where we going?” Keo asked, directing his question at the woman. He had to shout to be heard over the turbine engine that made every inch of the helicopter thrum as if it were going to come unglued at any second.
She didn’t answer him, but she didn’t take her eyes off him, either. The guy behind the machine gun glanced over at the sound of Keo’s voice before returning his gaze out the hatch as the helicopter caught up to another flock of birds.
“Can I get some water?” he asked the woman.
She stared but still didn’t say anything.
“Towel?”
Nothing.
“I smell jerky in the air. I wouldn’t mind some of that. I’m famished. Haven’t eaten all day and most of yesterday.”
“Shut up,” the man sitting to his left said.
Keo ignored him and said to the woman, “Ever heard the idiom ‘You catch more flies with honey?’”
“If I give you some jerky, will you shut up?” the man sitting to the woman’s left said.
“Absolutely,” Keo said.
“Too bad. I finished it off this morning. Chased it down with some coffee and an oatmeal cookie.”
“Sounds like fine dining.”
“It ain’t the Hilton, but it’ll do.”
He turned back to the woman. “Maybe you can tell one of these gentlemen to give me some water.”
“What makes you think she’s in charge?” Beef Jerky Guy asked.
“Oh, come on. It’s obvious she wears the pants around here.”
Something that looked almost like a smile flickered across the woman’s face, but it only lasted for a blink of an eye before vanishing.
“Right?” he said to her.
She ignored him, said instead, “What happened here?” and traced one side of her face with her forefinger. “Looks like it must have hurt.”
“It did,” Keo said, remembering the cold steel of Pollard’s knife as it sliced its way into his flesh. “You should see the other guy.”
“Prettier than you?” Beef Jerky Guy said.
“Not even a contest.”
“Considering how you look, that’s saying something.”
“I still have nightmares about it.”
“I bet.”
“Where we going?” he asked the woman again.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said.
“Give a guy a hint.”
She didn’t answer.
“Then can I at least get some water?” Keo asked.
“You already asked that,” she said.
“Figured I didn’t have anything to lose by asking a second time.”
She nodded at the man sitting next to Keo. The guy produced a canteen and leaned over. Keo opened his mouth gratefully and took as much water as he could, then swished it around to wash away the blood clinging to the walls of his mouth before swallowing the whole thing down.
“Thanks,” he said to the woman.
“Next thing you know Slaphappy Jerry here’ll want a change of clothes,” Beef Jerky Guy said.
“I’m Keo,” he said to the woman.
“Good for you,” she said.
He couldn’t help but smile back at her even though doing so made the entire lower half of his face hurt, as if someone were punching it repeatedly.
“Where we going?” he asked for the third time.
“Ask that again and I’m going to throw you out the hatch,” the woman said.
“I’d like to see that,” Beef Jerky Guy grinned.
“Only if you buy me dinner first,” Keo said.
“Smart guy, huh?”
“It’s my disguise. I’m actually very dumb. Hence my current situation.”
“Yeah, you really bungled that one, didn’t you?” He chortled. “Man, what were you doing showing up by yourself like that?”
Being the world’s biggest idiot, or something pretty goddamn close, Keo thought, but said, “You sure you’re out of those jerky?”
“Pretty sure,” the man said, and smacked his gums for effect.
“Too bad. There’s nothing better than two guys bonding over some meat.”
Beef Jerky Guy stared at him like he didn’t know how to respond to that. The woman next to him, Keo noticed, barely managed to suppress a snort.
A combination of pain and lack of sleep took its toll and he dozed off soon after, and didn’t wake up a second time until someone was nudging him on the shoulder. A gruff male voice half-shouted, “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty!”
Once the haze cleared, Keo opened his eyes to empty seats in front of him, just before Beef Jerky Guy and a second man yanked him out of his own seat and pushed him toward the open door. He stumbled, expecting to fall on his bound legs, until he noticed he was moving freely again, though he couldn’t say the same about his still-bound wrists.
One out of two ain’t bad.
“Don’t fall, princess,” Beef Jerky Guy said. “No one’s picking you up. We’ll make you crawl the rest of the way.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Keo said.
“Don’t say I never gave you nothin’.”
“You’re too kind. I would have settled for the jerky breath.”
“Heh. Funny guy. You a professional comedian or something?”
“No, but I’ve been told I can be a pretty stand-up guy.”
“Oh, funny,” Beef Jerky Guy said. “Now move.”
A third man was waiting for him outside the open hatch as Keo hopped out of the helicopter. It was a mistake, and he grunted against a sudden surge of pain as he landed in a slight crouch. The still-spinning rotors swarmed the area with cold winds that made every inch of his exposed face sting.
They were in a field surrounded by grass that went up to his knees, but all he had to do was sniff the air to know they were next to the ocean. Keo breathed in the fresh breeze and tried not to think about the last time he was this close to the sea and who he had been with at the time.
One of his captors, maybe Beef Jerky Guy, pushed him in the back, and Keo stumbled forward. He ducked his head reflexively, the way people do without thinking when they exit a helicopter. Of course the rotors didn’t come close to slicing off his head, but it made him feel better anyway as he struggled across the hard ground, grass slapping at his legs.
He didn’t have to look far to see where the woman and the rest of his traveling companions had gone. They were up ahead, beyond the field and on a long stretch of beach. The men had spread out to stand guard while the woman had a radio to her lips, one hand shielding her eyes as she looked out into the ocean. He wasn’t sure what she was looking at because he couldn’t see anything out there except blue waters. Given that it was still midday, it didn’t take a genius to know he was staring at the Gulf of Mexico.