Captive Of Fate

“We’ll follow the same procedure at this end.”

The radio chatter ended, and Alanna hung around the radio, occasionally looking out in the darkness that was now turning gray with the promise of dawn. Finally, she heard Matt calling the radioman. In approximately twenty minutes, they would be landing. She closed her eyes, her heart and body responding to his husky voice. How could one man so completely disrupt her complacent life-style?

She became aware of Marines and Costa Rican police gathering outside.

Several stretchers were stacked nearby, and the men waited in the thick fog like dark apparitions. Finally, the flares were lit, and then she heard the puncturing beat of rotor blades overhead. Cauley’s happy voice exploded over the intercom.

“We’ve made it! We did it! Look out, here we come.”

She felt a surge of joy rising in her breast as she returned to the window, watching the unwieldy helicopter slowly lower itself into the muddy area outside the hut. Tears crowded into her eyes as she saw the men running forward with the stretchers to be swallowed up by the wall of fog. Brushing the tears away, Alanna turned and walked back to the bedroom.

She tried desperately to sort out the turmoil of her feelings. All too soon, she heard Cauley’s jubilant words as he entered the hut and several other men’s voices raised in laughter. She drew her knees up, resting her chin on them, and stared at the lone blanket in the opposite corner where Matt had slept briefly. The raucous joking and laughter continued for another ten minutes, and she managed a sliver of a smile as she heard Cauley telling his story.

The major’s voice bubbled with excitement and relief. “As we dropped down the first time, I told Matt to be ready to kiss his rear good-bye if we hit anything.”

“That ring of flares,” Matt interrupted drily, “looked like a dull glow even ten feet up.”

“Yeah,” another voice interjected, “we noticed the left side of the chopper is smashed in. What’dja do, Major Cauley, try to land it on its nose?”

“Hell, no,” Cauley chortled. “Things were so bad I set the girl to the left of the landing circle the first time. We found ourselves in the supply crates. If you think the nose looks bad, you should see the crates! Some new paint and it’ll look like new, right Matt?” Cauley asked.

“It will, but I won’t,” he returned.

Alanna listened as the entire group exploded into laughter. She realized it was one way to relax after the harrowing event. From the sound of it, they were lucky they hadn’t crashed. But her own tension was not so easily relieved. She was upset and unsure of herself due to his unexpected kiss. Humiliation flooded her at the thought of the way she’d allowed herself to be swept uncompromisingly into his arms. She had been frightened for him, and he had taken advantage of the situation!

Closing her eyes and rubbing her temples to ease the nagging headache, Alanna tried to find some acceptable excuse for her erratic behavior. She could hear Paul’s droning voice buzzing in her head: “Really, Alanna, logic should have told you the answer. Push aside your emotions and look at the black and white of the situation. If you do that, then answers become clear, and you don’t knock yourself out with worry and anxiety….”

Sighing, she opened her troubled eyes. Logic and emotion. Did they ever go together? Or were they like Matt Breckenridge and herself—too different to be combined? Alanna knew one thing: she would never allow the Marine colonel to touch her again. His kiss had evoked too many explosive emotions she thought finally controlled.

Chapter Four

She forced herself to go back to sleep, shutting out the noises from the other room. Her anger simmered just beneath the surface until utter exhaustion drew her back down into the folds of blackness.

It was daylight when she awoke the second time. Stretching stiffly, she sat up, feeling the chill of the room. Fog hovered around the small, paned windows, and she rubbed her hands briskly to get the circulation going. The door opened, and Matt smiled benignly, hesitating. “Just wake up?”

Ignoring his genial tone, Alanna frowned darkly and turned her back toward him. She heard him walking over to her and tensed as he halted at her side.

“I thought you might like to know we got the kids down off the mountain. They’re probably in San Jose by now,” he said, checking his watch. “It’s nearly eleven o’clock.”

“I’m surprised you’re concerned about them at all,” she stated icily, standing and folding the blankets. Fervently, she hoped her ruse would throw him off the track. She didn’t want to discuss the kiss or invite further advances on his part. If she pretended not to understand their uneasy truce of the night before, it might keep him stymied so she could complete her investigation. He was much safer to deal with as an enemy. This morning, logic would dictate her decisions.

“What do you mean?”

Alanna stole a glance at him. He looked and sounded puzzled by her accusation. “That radioman was right, you’re all crazy!” And she gave the last blanket a tight fold, throwing it on top of the sleeping bag. “You men remind me of boys who never grew up, Colonel. Little boys in uniform. Well, the uniform might fool some people, but not me.”

He frowned, his gray eyes darkening with an indecipherable emotion. “Of course we cared about the kids,” he snapped back. “What the hell do you think we made that trip up there for?”

She stuffed her feet into her shoes, pointedly remaining silent. Today she intended to count the rest of the supplies and then go up to San Dolega and find out if they were all arriving from the base camp. She heard him walking toward her, and Alanna spun around, cringing away from him, her back against the wall. “Don’t touch me,” she warned.

He halted, glowering down at her. “What’s gotten into you, Alanna? One minute you’re warm, responsible. The next—”

“A bitch,” she finished, grabbing her coat and shrugging it on. “And you’re going to find out the hard way, Colonel. I’m through with all your tricks. I’m only going to say this once—I want to go up to that village later today. You had better provide me with transportation.”

“It’s out of the question and you know it. You’re stuck here whether you like it or not.”

She felt her fury slipping as she watched the puzzlement grow in his eyes. Good, let him get into a quandary. It was his turn. “You’re going to find out just how much political clout I’ve got behind me,” she gritted coldly and walked quickly out of the room, wanting to be as far away from him as possible.

* * *

The rain began again at two o’clock, just as she finished counting the crates in the final building. Resting momentarily, she felt the weariness but ignored it. It was time to confront Colonel Breckenridge. In the makeshift building that housed Costa Rican police personnel, she was provided with dispatches she had been expecting from Washington. Armed with them, she went directly to the Colonel’s quarters, feeling the tiredness slip from her shoulders to be replaced by a sense of power.

She found the Colonel back at his desk poring over several bills of lading and attempting to handle an argument between two Costa Ricans who were squabbling noisily. Alanna leaned back against the door momentarily, a grim smile on her face. He looked absolutely frustrated. Finally, he looked up, his eyes lighting with pleasure at the sight of her.

“I need your linguistic ability,” he coaxed. “Come over here and interpret for me, will you? Either that, or I’m going to throw both of them out the front door.”

She hesitated, thinking of the fiery kiss he had placed on her lips the day before. She hadn’t forgotten it for one hour or one minute since then. “It will cost you, Colonel,” she warned as she sauntered over.

“If you can get these two off my back,” he answered grimly, “you can have the moon if you want.”

“What I want will be close to that,” she promised sweetly. Within a few minutes, the entire matter was set straight, and she had to smile to herself, watching Matt’s face take on a look of relief. He looked harried, running his fingers through his hair more than once. After the pacified drivers left, he leaned back in the straight-backed wooden chair, sizing her up. He pointed at the yellow papers in front of him.

“You wonder why we have missing supplies? Here’s part of the answer.” He waved three sheets of official but tattered papers at her. “The truck driver receives a set of these when he picks up his load at the ship or airport. Then the warehouse provides another set which are invariably modified by the time the driver leaves the front gate.” His voice tightened with frustration. “I guess it’s too difficult to call a crate a crate instead of a carton, box, or container. When our men inventory the contents, we have four sets of numbers attempting to identify the same shipment.” He shook his head, slowly getting to his feet and stretching.

“I have my own set of numbers, Colonel,” she assured him briskly. “And I believe you owe me one.”

He nodded, moving around the desk and pouring a cup of coffee into a tin mug. “You want some?” he asked. “It’s instant, but it tastes a hell of a lot better than halizoned water.”

“No, thank you.”

“Oh, you like stronger stuff? Wine? Maybe Scotch. I understand that’s the ‘in’ drink up on the Hill: Scotch on the rocks.”

She put a chain on her temper. “I prefer a light claret, Colonel. As I’m sure you don’t have any here, it’s pointless to discuss the subject. Anyway, I want you to look at these orders.” She stressed the word “orders,” because that was exactly what they were. Orders from Marine Corps General Frederick to Colonel Breckenridge. She watched with satisfaction as he languidly unfolded the crisp white papers and sat back down at the desk. Taking a sip of his coffee, he frowned as he read through them. The skin across his cheekbones tightened, and his mouth thinned into a single line. He looked up slowly.

“So, Senator Thornton got the brass over at the Pentagon to issue these orders. Your ability to manipulate impresses me,” he said in a dangerously low whisper. “Do you realize what you’ve done?”

“I’m keenly aware of what I’ve done.” Her heart skipped erratically, and it wasn’t from anticipation. Her feelings bordered on fear as she saw the violent glint in his gray eyes.

“You didn’t have to do this,” he murmured. “Not this way and not now. I would have got one of the jeep drivers to take you up just as soon as the fog lifted. It wasn’t necessary, Alanna.”

She heard a note of hurt in his voice. Or was it disappointment? “The only thing you seem to understand and respect is power, Colonel. And that’s exactly the game we’re going to play here from now on. Politicians versus military. Dove versus hawk. Call it what you like. I want results. And I’m working for a senator who wants them now. You’re ordered to personally take me up to San Dolega. Right now. I’m sure you have an aide who can take over here while you drop me off. It should only take an hour or two of your time.”

Matt deliberately set the orders down, staring up at her. “I don’t believe this is the real Alanna talking to me. What’s happened? What’s gone wrong? Did Senator Thornton call you and start screaming at you to get some results? What?”

She felt the blush sweeping over her cheeks and silently cursed the telltale sign. “If I told you, you wouldn’t understand. You didn’t this morning, and I don’t think you ever will,” she said defensively. “We’re two different breeds of people. And all I want to do right now is finish this job and get as far away from you and this place as possible.”

He studied her for a long time. Finally, he stared back down at the orders. “Are you sure this is what you want? If you can’t wait twelve hours more until this fog lifts, I’m not going to be responsible for you or my actions.”

Alanna’s eyes widened at the softly spoken threat. He looked absolutely emotionless. His voice was as hard as tempered steel. A ribbon of fear jolted through her. What did he mean? Her throat ached with tension, but she forced the words out. “You’re not making sense. You have your orders, now carry them out.”