Ashe fought to steady the RIB as a huge wind gust tried to shove it sideways off the spit of land, while Bass ran ahead with a line and tied off the prow to a tree.
Cole moved over to Nissa in her waterproof bag. Weve got to get you out of that thing so you can walk.
She was already flailing around inside the sack to no avail. He realized with a start that she was panicking. Poor girl had been through a lot in the past fifteen hours.
Easy, Nissa, he murmured. Sit still so I can get you out.
His words had no effect on her. And now that he was within arms length of her, he realized her eyes were glazed over and unseeing. She was lost in a full-blown panic attack. Only one fix for that. He wrapped her up in a bear hug, survival bag and all. She thrashed wildly in his arms, but her small frame was no match for his iron strength. He hung on grimly and let the panic attack run its course...and tried hard not to notice how great her body felt writhing against his. He was a total jerk for even registering it, given how panicked she was. He did his best to project calm and comfort to her through his silent touch.
As quickly as shed freaked out, she went still in his arms.
You done? he asked.
Get me out of this thing, she mumbled in chagrin. I cant stand being confined.
Yeah, I noticed, he replied drily. Using the tip of his Ka-Bar knife, he pried loose the water-soaked knot at her neck. Finally, the cord gave way and the top of the survival bag popped open. Nissa shoved it down her body and jumped clear of the thing, giving it a dirty look. She gave the piled bag a swift kick with her combat boot for good measure.
Its dead. You killed it, Cole commented.
Good riddance, she declared.
It would have saved your life if wed gone down at sea.
A shudder passed over her. Id have gone crazy if I had ended up floating around in that thing.
He shrugged. You would have done what you had to in order to survive. It would have sucked, but youd have pulled through. In his experience most people were a lot stronger than they realized. It was just that most people were never put into actual life-and-death situations.
I dunno. I have pretty bad claustrophobia, she disagreed.
Then last night sucked worse for you than I realized.
She threw him a bleary glare that said he didnt know the half of it. His respect for her notched up a bit more. She had been brave as hell to go out with his team into the storm and then to crawl around the Anna Belle in the dark with the big ship trying hard to capsize.
Cmon. Lets get you onto dry land, he said, offering her a hand to steady her as she crawled forward around the saddle seats to the prow.
It may be land but it wont be dry, she snapped.
Shed earned the right to be a little testy after the past night. He helped her over the edge of the boat into Basss arms. The big Cajun set her down into the water and helped her wade ashore to join Ashe, who was depositing a bag of gear on the soggy ground.
Cole passed the remaining gear bags out of the RIB and Bass retied the boat using a loose hurricane tie that would allow it to stay afloat as the storm surge rose.
Now what? Nissa asked Cole as he joined the others.
Now we find shelter.
Any chance we can find a phone for me to report in to my boss?
Dont hold your breath on that. Where theres no electricity, theres usually no phone service.
Cant the Coast Guard or whomever you guys have been talking to relay messages to my people? she asked.
He shrugged. Your call. Personally, I wouldnt be broadcasting that Markus Petrov got away on an open frequency. No telling whos listening in. The way you talk about him, I gather Petrov has spies and informants all over the place.
Good point. Ill need a secure phone line to make a full report.
You may have to wait awhile for one of those. Right now, the priority is shelter from the storm.
Isnt the Coast Guard going to come pick us up?
He snorted. Not with that monster storm bearing down on us. Besides, theyll have their hands full with rescues already. Were on our own to ride this thing out.
Nissa was already pretty pale, but he thought she went a shade or two whiter with that revelation. He said bracingly, Its just a storm. At least no ones shooting at us. Well be fine.
Promise? she asked in a wobbly voice.
Yeah. Sure. It was a lie, but he needed the civilian female not to freak out. If they didnt find solid shelter and soon, they were in serious trouble.
And then we can get some sleep, yes? she asked hopefully.
All the sleep you want.
He and his guys could go five days without much more than a nap now and then. But he realized that most normal mortals were not aware that they, too, could match the feat. It was all about motivation. Find the right one, and anyone, man or woman, would die rather than give in to mere exhaustion.
Cole continued, Once the worst of the storm passes, well make our way back to New Orleans and figure out how were going to acquire our target and take him into custody.
I have some ideas
Later, he said, cutting her off. The core of the storm will be here in a few hours, and we need to be under cover before then. How do you feel about running?
Nissa stared up at him, her blue eyes even bigger and wider than usual. She was a looker, all right. The sea-land suit the Navy had lent her clung to her slender legs and girly curves, showing off a slight body any Hollywood starlet would be proud to have. Her blond hair was French-braided back from her face, but it only accentuated her elfin features.
As a rule, Im not fond of running as a form of exercise.
Thats too bad, Cole replied.
I dont have any choice about the running thing, do I? Nissa asked mournfully.
Nope. Lets move out. He grabbed the extra pack of gear meant for her and shouldered it on top of his own pack. It meant he was carrying close to sixty pounds of gear, but no way could Nissa keep up with his team if she were carrying any weight at all. As it was, he suspected she was going to slow them down badly.
It turned out that Nissa could go for about fifteen minutes at a time at a steady, but slow, jog if she got a three-or four-minute break to catch her breath in between. A SEAL team was only as fast as its slowest member, and right now, that was she. But as egressing with a totally untrained civilian went, she wasnt doing half bad. Hed had missions where theyd had to carry out the principal.
The trek was miserable. What solid ground they could find was saturated and spongy, giving way without warning beneath their feet, sinking them knee-deep in black muck and pitching them on their faces. Everybody took at least a few such spills.
Even when they remained upright, the going wasnt great. They caught blowing tree limbs in the face, thorny brambles clutched at their bodies and backpacks, and bouts of driving rain pecked at them like angry crows. The only good news was that the gusty wind was mostly at their backs.
They jogged and rested, jogged and rested, for almost two hours. How Bastien was finding his way through the swampy bayou country, Cole had no idea. The rain was whipping around them now on fifty-mile-per-hour gusts, and the brief hint of dawn had faded into twilight gloom as the hurricane roared ashore. They had to find high ground and some sort of shelter before long, or they were going to be in deadly peril.
They jogged and rested, jogged and rested, for almost two hours. How Bastien was finding his way through the swampy bayou country, Cole had no idea. The rain was whipping around them now on fifty-mile-per-hour gusts, and the brief hint of dawn had faded into twilight gloom as the hurricane roared ashore. They had to find high ground and some sort of shelter before long, or they were going to be in deadly peril.
They jogged maybe another ten minutes before Bass veered suddenly to his right. They had to hack their way through a veritable wall of kudzu vines and brambles, but when they popped out the far side, Cole spotted what had made Bastien change course. A house. Or more accurately, a dilapidated-looking shack.
The one-story dwelling was raised on stilts that, as they approached the structure, turned out to be two dozen massive cypress pilings. The exterior badly needed a coat of paint, and rust from the metal roof stained the gray wood siding orange. But as they climbed the stairs to the wraparound porch, the building looked sturdier than his first impression. They might just survive the storm, yet.
Bass pounded on the front door loudly and long enough for them to be sure no one was inside. Ashe picked the door lock and dead bolt with quick efficiency, and in under a minute, they had all piled inside the cabin.
The dwelling was as rough inside as out with a log-framed couch sagging in front of a small wood-burning stove. What looked like handmade chairs and a crude table were tucked in one corner of the main room. A huge alligator skull hung on the wall above the stove. Cole would have hated to see the live beast it had come from. That gator had to have been twenty feet long or better.
A dilapidated stove and refrigerator flanked a rust-stained sink, and a few cabinets rounded out the kitchen corner.
Ashe called from down the short hall to their right, All clear. One bedroom, one bathroom.
How hurricane-proof is this place? Cole asked Bass.
Windows could use some plywood or at least some boards over them. Theres no time to check out the roof. Well just have to hope its nailed down tight. The pilings look sturdy and theyll take a fifteen-foot storm surge easy.
Is Jessamine forecast to surge that high? Cole asked no one in particular.
Ashe, just returning to the main room, replied, Thats right about what the forecast calls for. Fourteen to seventeen feet.
Cole glanced back at Bass, who said grimly, Lemme go out and take an exact measurement from the canal behind this place to the bottom of the porch.
The door opened, and wind and rain howled inside until Bass wrestled the door shut once more. Meanwhile, Ashe moved over to the kitchen cabinets to poke around. Theres some canned food in here. Should hold us for a few days.
Nissa surprised Cole by speaking up. Drinking waters going to be the problem. The storm surge will bring in filthy, polluted salt water that no amount of purification will make drinkable.
She had a point. Give the intelligence analyst credit for common sense on top of her book smarts.
She asked, Is there a tub in the bathroom, Ashe?
Yes. A small one.
Lets see if theres running water, she suggested. If so, we need to sterilize the tub and fill it while we still can.
Cole set Ashe to scrubbing the tub with a jug of bleach they found under the kitchen sink, while he went outside to check for a water well and possibly a pump for it.
He met Bass coming up the steps. Seventeen feet, sir. Thats what this place can take before the house floods. Even with a lower surge than that, we may see wave action pushing some water inside.
Good to know. Any sign of a well and a water pump down there?
Theres a well. But the electricitys already out. Pump wont work.
Generator? Cole asked.
Maybe. Whoever owns this place has it decently stocked. Theres a shed, and thats where Id look for a generator. Its locked, but we can break in and have a look around.
They ended up using an axe they found sitting on a ledge over the shed door to break the rusty hasp and get inside. They didnt find a generator, but they did spot a small lawn mower whose gasoline motor Bass thought he could jerry-rig to run the water pump. And they found a toolbox. Armed with a hammer and pocket full of nails, Cole scrounged under the house for pieces of scrap lumber that he hauled up to the porch and nailed across the windows. They werent as good as sheets of thick plywood, but they were better than nothing. The boards would break the worst of the wind pummeling the glass and should catch large pieces of flying debris.
He and Bass stumbled inside an hour later, wet, cold and exhausted. Construction in hurricane-force winds turned out to be strenuous stuff.
Ashe and Nissa had been busy inside, as well. Theyd hauled in a big pile of firewood from the porch and stacked it beside the wood-burning stove, in which they had started a fire. Baked beans were heating in a pot atop it, and the sound of running water came from the bathroom, where Ashe poked his head out to announce that they should have enough water for several days. Hed also filled a dozen empty moonshine jugs hed found with water for flushing the toilet.
As they pulled chairs around the wood-burning stove to warm and dry themselves, Nissa asked in a small voice, Are we going to be safe here?
She looked fearfully at Cole for an answer, and he replied, This old place is sturdier than it looks. Jessamine wont be its first hurricane. He forced himself to give Nissa a smile in hopes that it would encourage her. Well be fine. And even if something unexpected does happen, were SEALs. We take problems as they come and deal with them.
Theyd battened down the hatches in the nick of time, for within the next half hour, the winds outside rose from a roar to a howl and then to an ominous scream. The entire structure shook alarmingly, but it held.
For now.
Chapter 3
Nissa crawled into the only bed in the cabin at the unanimous insistence of the guys. They assured her they were perfectly comfortable sleeping on the floor. Cole set up a watch rotation for himself and his men, and then he urged her to get some sleep before the storm got bad.
This wasnt bad? The walls shivered every time a big gust hit, and she shivered right along with the tiny cabin. The glass in the windows rattled, and she flinched every time something hit the boards nailed over them, sure that this was the time the window was going to shatter and let in the full fury of the storm.
What had she gotten herself into, volunteering for this insane mission? It wasnt supposed to be like this at all! She was supposed to hang out with some super hot Navy SEALS and catch a notorious bad guy, thereby advancing her career, which was rapidly threatening to die of boredom in a beige cubicle. Although, she had gotten the super hot SEAL part of the deal. All of the men with her were extremely easy on the eye. But the one she couldnt look away from was their leader.
Cole Perriman was totally hunkalicious. Shed tried really hard not to fantasize about crawling all over that spectacular physique and keep her mind on business, but it had been rough listening to the inbriefing hed given her and his two guys. She kept getting distracted by how big and rugged he was, but how he had movie-star looks, too. He was a perfect blend of raw masculinity and sheer beauty.