Terms Of Attraction

His expression was rueful. “I am a man of action. But we must take care first that I live to take that action, true?”

“That’s right.”

De la Reyes peered out the window. “How much longer will it be? I have much to do now that I am back.”

“This is all just routine, but as I said, McCabe is a stickler for precautions.”

“So I see,” he murmured, his gaze returning to the window. “He is, as we say in my country, un hombre de la guerra. A man of war, is he not?”

His words jolted her, they so closely resembled her own impression in the briefing just a few short days ago. A warrior. Ready for battle at a moment’s notice.

For the first time she wondered about McCabe’s background. Not his security business, which she’d thoroughly checked out before calling him. But whatever had prepared him for establishing the business. Military, certainly. Special forces, most likely. It would explain that tough edge he maintained that the most civilized of garments or surroundings couldn’t quite mask.

One of the vehicles pulled up to the aircraft steps. Ava led de la Reyes to the doorway. She and Benton flanked the man as they hurried him to the waiting SUV.

McCabe was behind the wheel, Sibbits next to him. Ava had de la Reyes get in the middle with Benton, while she positioned herself in the third seat next to a large leather duffel bag. The president’s men split up into the remaining vehicles. One of McCabe’s operatives rode in each of them. When one SUV pulled out, they followed, and the third brought up the rear.

Cael turned around. He’d donned a pair of mirrored sunglasses. “The gear’s on the seat next to you.”

Ava leaned over to unzip the bag. Spreading it open, she blinked.

It was packed to launch a small war.

There were several grenades, extra weapons and what looked like a portable rocket launcher. There were rifle scopes, binoculars, night-vision goggles and extra ammunition. Ava looked up, caught McCabe’s eyes on her in the rearview mirror. He’d prepared himself for anything.

She withdrew a pair of German-made high-powered binoculars and trained them out the back window. Cordoba was the capital city of San Baltes, surrounded by mountains on three sides and the Pacific Ocean on the other. The natural beauty of the surroundings was in stark contrast to the Third World squalor they traveled through on the highway heading toward the center of the city.

“I’m a big fan of one of your country’s singers. Mirabel Estaban. Have you ever met her?” Benton asked de la Reyes.

“Ah, Senorita Estaban. She is very talented, yes? She sang at my inauguration celebration. Her music is very popular here.”

“I saw her on YouTube. On the Internet? She was wearing this dress cut down to…” Ava glanced up in time to see Sibbits turn in his seat, directing a look at Benton, who spread his hands innocently. “What? It showed her talents, is all I’m saying. Plus she can really sing.”

De la Reyes gave a deep-throated laugh. “You are a man to appreciate a gorgeous woman. I can assure you, my country has many such beauties. Perhaps you will have the opportunity to meet some of them in your stay here.”

Ava returned to her vigil, tuning out the conversation. There were three lanes of traffic traveling in either direction, separated by a median filled with mud, weeds and debris. Their American-made SUVs stood out among the economysized vehicles zipping by them.

Something caught her eye and she stilled, peering hard through the binoculars. The late-model Jeep coming up fast in the next lane behind them looked familiar.

“Alert car 3, vehicle to their back and left. We saw that red Jeep when we left the airport. Again when we took the last exit. Three occupants. No, wait. Four.”

A radio crackled, and then she heard Sibbit’s voice. “Vehicle three, ready defensive tactics. Red Jeep with multiple occupants. Left lane, coming fast.”

The Jeep drew nearer and Ava felt a familiar spike of adrenaline. “Weapons sighted. At least two rifles.”

Sibbits repeated the information to the third vehicle, while she heard McCabe speaking into his own radio, ordering the first SUV to drop back and exchange places with them. Benton was urging de la Reyes onto the floor, while he grabbed his weapon.

Ava lowered the high-powered glasses long enough to duck out from under the rifle strap, and readied the weapon. Sliding off the safety, she steadied the rifle, sighted, waiting for the command. The third vehicle swerved behind them into the path of the red Jeep, to force it to decrease its speed.

Except it didn’t slow down. The Jeep slammed into the SUV, and there was a screech of metal on metal. Gunfire was exchanged between the two vehicles.

“Do you have a shot?”

Ava peered through the rifle’s site, readjusted position to make up for the trajectory through two windows. “Yes.”

“Take it.”

The Jeep rammed the third SUV again, sending it spinning into the side rail. Ava saw the man in the Jeep’s front passenger seat swing his rifle toward their vehicle as it raced toward them. Ignoring him for the moment, she concentrated on the driver, and squeezed the trigger once. Twice.

The Jeep’s windshield shattered and the vehicle jerked to the right as the driver slumped over the wheel. The shooter’s shot went wild. Ava saw the passenger in the front seat lower his weapon to wrench at the wheel as it veered into the far lane of traffic in front of an open-bed truck hauling a load of caged chickens.

“Vehicle one dropping back.”

The bullet hole through their back window sent out a spiderweb of cracks, ruining her visual. She reengaged the safety and swung a leg over the seat to kick the window out with one booted foot. Their SUV picked up speed, lengthening the distance away from the Jeep. She saw the other SUV’s occupants returning fire with the shooters in the Jeep before it careened into the median, flipping over on its top.

Ava could hear Cael snapping orders, Sibbits trying to raise vehicle three’s occupants on the radio. De la Reyes was on the phone commanding a police helicopter to contain the scene. But then the Jeep burst into flames.

There would be very little for the police to investigate once they finally arrived.

“I owe you thanks once again, Senorita Carter.”

Ava shifted uncomfortably, sliding a sidelong glance toward Cael. “It was a team effort, sir.”

They stood in the sitting room of de la Reyes’s opulent personal quarters on the third level of the presidential palace. Antonio stood at a wet bar tucked in a corner, pouring himself a glass of wine. For the first time since she’d met the man she could read weariness on his face.

“It was, yes.” He gave her a small smile as he offered her a glass of wine. Because she could think of no polite way to refuse, Ava took it. “And I have already conveyed my gratitude to Senor McCabe.”

“Have you compiled the list I asked for?” Cael accepted the wine Antonio held toward him.

“I have. It is there for you, on top of the desk.” De la Reyes raised his own glass and drank deeply as he turned to face them. Lowering the glass, he added, “It includes every person in my government, along with their position. I do not like to suspect any of the names on it.” He gave them a grim smile. “Only one of them learned the date of my arrival from me.”

Cael crossed to the desk and picked up the paper, scanning it quickly before lifting his gaze to meet the other man’s. “The men you had in the States with you…I collected their cell phones prior to them boarding. It would have been nearly impossible for them to communicate our plans prior to boarding the plane.”

“So that means Rafael Gonzalez has betrayed me?” De la Reyes dropped heavily into an ornately carved chair that looked to be centuries old. “He has been with me since before I won the presidency. I would have trusted him with my life. I have done so, on countless occasions.”

Lifting a shoulder, Cael said, “We have to take precautions. I’ll want to interrogate him, of course. We’ve already got him placed under house arrest. He’ll be detained until we can be certain.”

Antonio’s head jerked up, the hopeful expression on his face impossible to miss. “You think he could be innocent? How can that be?”

“The pilot had to file a flight plan. It could be someone in the airport. Hell, someone in the tower might have been paid to tip off your enemies whenever your flight plan was received.”

“Then we still have no way to be certain who has been disloyal, or whom they alerted. I do not see that we are any further ahead then we were in Metro City.”

Cael gave a feral smile. “Leave it to me. Our investigation is already under way. I’ll need access to the bank accounts of every name on that paper you compiled for me, as soon as possible.”

De la Reyes nodded. “You shall have it. I’ll make the calls first thing in the morning.”

“Then I’ll have some answers for you in a matter of days.”