The Princess of the Desert

By Melodie Thomas

Edited by Holly Hart

Chapter 12

Saturday, May 30, 2009
The fifteen minute drive went quickly and soon Ryan parked the SUV along the side of a road in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. It was a moonless night, but we were far enough from any city that the stars blanketed the sky and gave everything on the ground an eerie shadow. We had been without any form of light for the last fifteen minutes, so my night vision was pretty good. In the distance, maybe three to four hundred yards, sat a house at the end of a long drive, which was pretty much by itself. There were some lights on in various windows, but for the most part the area was dark. The shadows around the house showed a couple of outbuildings that could have been storage sheds or something similar.

The radio traffic was light, rapid and to the point as each of the assault units moved into position and reported ready. Smith was coordinating the activity from our vehicle, and once everyone reported as ready, he started a timer on his watch. All units were to sit still, in position, for one hour without moving. From past experience, I knew this was normal procedure, first you get in position, and then you watch for a while to make sure nothing has changed or surprises have occurred, then you move into action. Radio silence was the order, unless something happened that could impact the mission.

“Blue Leader, Blue three.” The radio in my ear crackled after thirty minutes of silence.

“Go Blue three.” I heard Smith answer, both from the front seat and in the ear bud.

“Three Tangos just left the back door of the house, heading towards one of the outbuildings. We are going to move on the outbuilding and see what is going on.”

“Roger, Blue three, stay covert, we are still weapons safe.” Smith responded.

There was a single ‘click’ in the radio which was an acknowledgement from Blue three and no other sound. For the next ten minutes, no sounds were made either in the SUV or on the radio.

“Blue leader, Blue three.”

“Go Blue Three.”

“The outbuilding is a holding cell. There were five vics locked in it. The Tangos took two of the Vics back to the main house. We have eyes on the remaining Vics, request permission to secure.”

“Negative Blue Three,” Smith responded, “mark the vics, but do not engage. All teams, give me a sit-rep, we go in five.”

The remaining teams all reported ready. Smith started a countdown timer on his watch. “Blue Three, secure the back of the house, no one approaches the remaining Vics. On my mark we go in sixty seconds. Four, three, two, one, mark, all teams are weapons free, repeat all teams are weapons free.”

I was watching the second hand on my watch sweep through the sixty seconds, wondering what would happen at the end of it, and why it was moving so slowly at the same time. Stephanie could not get any closer to me and I could feel her whole body shaking, almost like she was cold. I almost wanted to count out loud as my watch got to the last five seconds. When my watch hit zero, I felt like I was supposed to brace or something, but nothing happened. Suddenly there were a couple of loud pops and bright flashes of light coming from the house and the radio came back to life.

“Front door breached, flash bangs in.”

“Blue four, inside”

“Blue Two, Inside”

“Blue One inside and clear.”

“Blue five, taking fire, rear bedroom.”

In the distance, we could hear the sound of gunfire, but it was much suppressed. About ninety seconds passed from the initial reports.

“Blue leader, Blue one. House secure, two tangos down, three tangos and two vics in custody.”

“Roger Blue One,” Smith responded, “Blue three, secure the remaining vics.” Smith turned to Ryan, “Let’s go.”

Ryan started the car and pulled into the driveway. We were almost to the house when loud, unsuppressed gunfire shattered the silence of the night.

“Blue Leader!!” a excited voice came over the radio, “Victims are hostile, repeat, victims are hostile.”

“Blue One, Blue Three, dart your vics,” Smith responded, with an elevated voice.

All of the assault teams carried compressed air dart guns, loaded with tranquilizers. There had been a concern that any victims recovered might be in an uncontrollable state, and we did not have the experts along to deal with them. Now, there was also a concern that someone heard the gunfire and company would be coming. Sleeping people were easier to move than awake and resistive ones.

Ryan stopped the car, quickly, at the front of the house. One of the assault team members was at the front door holding it open as we exited the car. I could hear the radio announcement that we were coming into the building. Ryan and Smith led the way through the door and into the main living area. The first thing noticed were three men, sitting in chairs with hoods over their heads, and hands bound behind them. Two assault team members came into the room from a back hallway, each carrying a woman that appeared to be naked and wrapped in a blanket. The women were taken toward the front door and gently laid on the floor. Stephanie glanced at the faces of the women on our way past, but gave no indication of recognition.

We continued toward the three men and stopped about ten feet in front of them. Smith gave a nod to the guards and the hoods were pulled off of all three men. All three blinked rapidly and the sudden change in light. Stephanie locked in on the man on the left end and started walking towards him, pulling me along by the hand. The man looked up at us, as his eyes focused, and smiled broadly.

“Hello, little Stephie,” he said, with a heavy accent and a big smile, “I always knew you were one tough bitch, but you surprised even me.”

Stephanie did not respond, she just walked up to about three feet in front of Charkov and stopped, with me on her left side. Charkov’s eyes shifted from Stephanie to me.

Charkov glanced at the shoulder holster that Stephanie was wearing, “I see they give you toys to play with, have you not told them you don’t need toys, or that you prefer a different kind of toy?”

Again, Stephanie did not respond, she just stood there staring at the man.

“Agent McNeil, it is a pleasure to meet you.” Charkov continued with the same big smile, “I hear that you like the toy we made. She is quite something, don’t you think? You have tried her out, no?”

Charkov held his smile but I did not respond. His facial expressions change to a fake surprised look. “You mean you have not tried out this toy? I can’t believe that, McNeil, you don’t know what you are missing.” Charkov started laughing. “This little bitch can pull a whole football team and not slow down, I have seen it. I have probably ridden her a hundred times myself; no ride at Disneyland can match her.”

I felt my face turning red and the anger boiling within me as Charkov continued to laugh and gloat. I knew he was trying to get under my skin, and it was working. I don’t think I moved but Stephanie must have sensed something as I felt her grip on my hand tighten.

“She really likes it rough and kinky,” Charkov continued, his laugh getting louder, “You should see her when we would bring in a dog. This little bitch would start howling like she was in heat.”

Charkov returned is gaze to Stephanie, “You haven’t told him about that Stephie? How that dog would mount up and you would just howl..."

Even though I was standing right beside Stephanie, holding her hand, there was no indication of what happened next. I felt no change in balance, no tensing, no movement what so ever. Stephanie’s right leg shot out like a Cobra strike, with a speed that was barely visible, and the toe of her boot caught Charkov under the tip of his chin. The impact drove his lower jaw into his upper jaw with enough force to cause a cracking sound and blood sprayed from biting through either his tongue or his lip. His head recoiled from the impact, hard enough to break the top slat in the high back chair he was sitting in. Charkov’s head bounced forward to where his jaw nearly touched his chest, with another spraying of blood and pieces of white that I recognized as teeth. Stephanie’s foot was already back on the floor, again with no body movement or balance adjustment.

“Whoa, score!” one of the assault team announced from behind us.

Stephanie turned away from Charkov, pulling me along with her, as she walked up to Smith. “Mr. Smith, I am assuming you will take care of the garbage?”

“Yes Ma’am,” Smith responded with a smile.

A group of the assault team members were just coming through the back of the house carrying three other victims. One was obviously dead from the blood soaked blanket wrapped around her. The other two were unconscious and in a fireman’s carry. Stephanie released my hand and walked over to the new arrivals. She took a moment to look at all three then shook her head indicating she did not know any of them as she walked back to me.

“Okay,” Smith spoke and pointed at Ryan, “Get Mike and Carol out of here and to the plane. The rest of you, get the cars around here and load up our guests. I want this place bleached and us out of here in fifteen minutes.”

We followed Ryan out the front door and back to the car. As we drove away, Stephanie did not sit close to me; she had slid over to the opposite door and stared out the window into the darkness. Ryan drove with the night vision goggles and the ride was completely silent, no one spoke. I kept playing the kick that Stephanie delivered to Charkov over and over in my mind. It might have been a fluke, but the execution was flawless. Any martial arts master would be proud of that kick, no wasted body movement, no telegraphing, nothing. That type of execution takes years to learn and perfect. Was that just an accident, or was there something else inside of Stephanie that we’d just gotten a glimpse of?

I also could not get my mind off of the scenes that Charkov was describing. My imagination was running wild and I visualized what he was saying. How could the beautiful girl sitting next to me, the one that was in my arms each night, how could she have done those things. The way he described them, Charkov made it sound like she was a willing participant, but I knew that was not true, or did I know that? Now I caught myself second guessing Stephanie. Were these some of the demons she warned me about?

Ryan drove back to the warehouse where we changed back into our evening clothes and stuffed the equipment into a fifty five gallon drum outside of the dressing rooms. Ryan did not explain what was going to happen to it, just told us to put our stuff there. Within fifteen minutes we were back in the car and after about another fifteen minutes, Ryan turned the headlights on as we merged into traffic on one of the main highways for the forty five minute drive to the airport. As we approached the security gate at one of the side entrances, Ryan flashed his headlights one time and the gate opened without us stopping. I guess the bad guys are not the only ones that can buy allies. Ryan pulled the car up to a Boeing 747 with a U.S. flag on the tail and no other markings that I could see. We all exited the car and Ryan handed the keys to another man, who looked to be Filipino, which got in the car and drove it away as we climbed the stairs into the plane.

We entered the plane through the forward galley area that is standard on most 747s. However that was the only thing about this plane that was familiar. The compartment forward of the galley, the area normally reserved for First Class, was closed off by a wooden door. In the main body of the aircraft, the first area was a large conference table with ten fairly plush chairs bolted to the floor around it. After the table were twenty or so standard first class airline seats arranged two per side, with a table mounted between each pair. About two thirds of the way down the plane, another wall with a single door could be seen. Ryan opened the door to what would have been the first class area and indicated that Steph and I should to enter.

Entering the forward part of the plane was quite a surprise; it looked like a small apartment. Tucked against the bulk head, at the very front of the plane was a queen sized bed. The bed was isolated from the rest of the compartment by a wardrobe closet on one side and an airplane bathroom on the other. The main part of the compartment consisted of a couch, two plush chairs, a coffee table and two floor lamps. Sitting on the floor next to the couch was our luggage. Stephanie led the way into the room with me following. Ryan closed the door behind me, leaving Steph and me alone. She walked over and grabbed her smaller travel bag off of the luggage pile and went into the bathroom, while I found one of the plush chairs and more or less fell into it.

I leaned my head back in the chair and closed my eyes, trying to relieve some of the anxiety and pain that I was feeling. The images in my mind were still there, and I was fighting with them. I just could not get my mind wrapped around the fact the woman that had been sleeping in my arms for the past week, the woman that I was no doubt in love with, had been part of that, and maybe even willingly. It just was not coming clear to me. It was giving me a headache and a very hollow feeling in my chest. I didn’t want any of it to be true, but I knew that some of it was. More than anything, I wanted to be assured, somehow, that Stephanie had been forced into it.

I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I lost track of time and failed to notice that Stephanie had not returned from the bathroom. I was jarred back to reality by a loud thump coming from the forward bathroom.

“Steph, you okay?”

When she didn’t answer, I stood and walked to the bathroom door. “Steph?” I called, lightly tapping on the door.

With no answer, I placed my ear to the door and could hear the sound of sobbing. “Steph, please open the door.”

Again, no response from within, I stepped back and studied the bathroom door to see if it was a standard airplane door, which it was. I pulled the penknife out of my pocket, inserted the blade under the ‘Lavatory’ sign, and popped it off the tape holding it in place, which exposed the locking handle for the door. I unlocked the door, pushed on the center bi-fold, and slowly opened the door. Stephanie was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall. Her left hand was lying on her lap with the palm up and the back of her right hand was supporting her forehead as her head leaned forward. There was a piece of metal in the fingers of her right hand, and from the scattered pieces of plastic on the floor, I knew it was a razor blade from a safety razor.

“Steph?” I asked cautiously, as I knelt beside her. I slowly reached over to take the razor from her, which she let go of without an issue.

“I am such a worthless coward,” Stephanie whispered, “I can’t face you, I can’t face myself and I can’t even kill myself.”

I tossed the razor into the trash container and tried to pull Stephanie into my arms. She resisted and remained pushed against the wall.

“Why do you want me? How can you stand to look at me?” Her whisper cracked. Though I could not see her face I knew that tears were flowing.

“Stephanie, I love you and you know that.”

“Why?” she almost screamed as she slammed her head back into the wall, “I did all that, Dan. Everything Charkov said, I did! It’s all true. How could you love a piece of trash like me?” Her tears were flowing at full force.

I pause for a moment, not sure I wanted to ask, “Did you do it willingly Steph, or were you forced to do it?”

“I don’t know, God Damn it, I don’t know!” She screamed as she rocked her head forward and then slammed it back toward the wall. This time I got my hand between her head and the wall.

The door to the room opened quickly as Ryan charged in. He stopped and looked at me; I shook my head for him not to come in. He backed slowly out the door and closed in behind him.

Though my left hand hurt like hell, being smashed between Stephanie’s head and the wall, I used it to pull her head towards me. This time she let her back slide until her head was on my shoulder.

“Steph, you warned me we had to fight these demons. You said we had to fight them together, hand in hand, you warned me.” I could feel the tears forming in my own eyes. “We have to walk through hell together, girl. Stay with me, please, I don’t want to do this alone either.”

Stephanie reached her left hand around my head and pulled it tighter to hers. Her crying became full out hard sobbing as I could feel her body shaking with each breath. There was no more talking or even trying to talk, as her whole being was trying to wash the pain way with tears. I was having difficulty controlling my own tears, as if for the first time, I could truly begin to understand the terror she had gone through. I twisted around to get on my knees. She wrapped both of her arms around my neck as her tears remained at full force. I pulled her full body up into my arms and struggled to stand in the small compartment. I backed out of the bathroom, and carried Stephanie over to the couch. Instead of lying her on the couch, I sat down and continued to cradle her in my arms with her face buried in my neck as her body continued to be racked with sobs.

Stephanie cried herself out after about twenty minutes and neither of us moved during that time. The only thing I could think of doing was to hold her, so that is what I did. When her sobbing started to subside into sniffles, the whole front of my shirt was wet nearly to my belt, but she did not act like she wanted to move and I didn’t want to let go. We continued to sit there for another twenty to thirty minutes with neither of us moving or speaking.

“I have no idea how I can ever repay you for what you have done for me.” came a soft voice from my neck.

I had no idea what to say so I didn’t even try, I just held her a little tighter in acknowledgement.

“I would have never lived through this if it weren’t for you.” Stephanie continued. “I fell in love with you the minute I laid eyes on you and I have no idea why. I never wanted to be a girl, Dan. I never asked for any of this, I never wanted any of this, and I will never understand why I had to go through it.”

Stephanie paused for a moment, “I will also never understand how ending up in your arms seems to be the most natural place for me to be, and why I crave being there so much, but I do, and I never want to leave these arms.”

For some reason, that sentiment I understood, there was no place else I wanted her to be, except where she was now. I wanted the pain to go away, but the girl to stay. This was where she belonged, and this was where I wanted to keep her. I still had no idea how to accomplish the dream, or how to make the demons go away, but there was no doubt I was going to try and I was never letting go.

There was a soft knock and the door started to open. Mr. Smith looked through the opening and saw us sitting on the couch. He raised his hand in acknowledgement and started to close the door.

“It’s okay, Mr. Smith,” Stephanie said, again without moving. “Please come in.”

Smith paused and looked at me and I nodded. Closing the door behind him, Smith sat in one of chairs opposite us. Stephanie lifted her head from my neck, kissed me softly on the cheek, stood and straightened out her dress, then sat beside me.

“I am sorry for my appearance,” Stephanie said, “but this has not been one of my better nights.”

Smith gave a half smile, “No a problem, I was worried about how you would manage tonight.”

Stephanie smiled and took my hand, “It was tough, but I have a rock to lean on. What did you come to tell us?”

Before Smith could speak, I felt the plane start to move. “We are leaving here now and are going to Hickam Air force base in Hawaii, where we will refuel. From there, we are headed to DC. We have our friends onboard and I would prefer you did not interface with them until we get into a better environment.”

Stephanie nodded her head, “Actually, I would just as soon to avoid that for right now.”

“Good,” Smith answered, “Three of our victims are fine, just asleep, one is wounded, but will be okay, and the other, unfortunately, didn’t make it. We will try to get more information on them by the time we reach D.C.. Mr. Charkov, seemed to have a small accident on the stairs and has a fractured jaw and three broken teeth. We will get him medical attention at our first ‘convenient’ opportunity. I would like you two to stay in here in your cabin until we reach Hawaii, then we will move you to a different flight, probably commercial, for the trip back.”

Smith paused, as if he was expecting a comment, but did not get one. “I have asked the Vasnevs to meet us in D.C.. We need their help with the victims.”

“Does that mean you have cleared Ivan?” I asked.

“No, not completely, but we need their help, and we will be watching the situation closely.”

The flight from Manila to Hawaii was just over 9 hours and Stephanie slept the majority of the time. Ryan brought us some food from the galley after Smith left and shortly after eating, I put Stephanie to bed. That night she acted as if she could not get close enough to me, and to be honest, I did not feel like could hold her close enough. I woke up about two hours out of Hawaii with Stephanie still tightly wrapped around me. With some careful planning, I was able to untangle myself from her and ease my way out of bed without waking her. I closed the privacy curtain to minimize the chance of disturbing her before turning on one of the room lamps. After dressing, I slipped out of the room into the galley to see if I could find some coffee.

“How is she?” Ryan asked from one of the chairs at the table next to the galley. He was positioned so he could see the main cabin area as well as the door to our room.

“I’m not sure. Sleeping right now.”

Ryan nodded his head and pointed at a canister attached to the wall in the kitchen. I grabbed a cup and filled it, taking a seat next to him.

“I can’t imagine how tough that has to be on her,” Ryan said, “From what Paula has told me, she has been through hell.”

I was a little surprise that Paula had been telling him about Steph, but I just nodded as I sipped the coffee. “Yeah, it has been a pretty rough road the last eight months or so.”

We sat silently for a few minutes and I decided to broach the question, “Ryan, you mind if I ask you a personal question?”

Ryan smiled into his coffee, “Yeah, I already know about Paula, if that is what was on your mind.”

I felt kind of embarrassed, “That was what I had in mind. Do you mind if I ask…”

Ryan started before I could finish, “I am not really sure how I feel about it. I found out on a date after the barbeque at your place. Paula was honest with me and told me up front. She was scared to death doing so and I was pretty shocked. However, by then I had already decided that I liked her, but it was a shock.”

We were both quiet for a moment before Ryan continued, “We have been out once after she told me, and to be honest, I have a great time with her. I don’t know what else to say. How about you?”

I chuckled, “Obviously, I have known from the beginning, but something happened, something between us. Now I will openly admit that I am in love with her. I know she was not born a girl, but I have never known her as anything but. I guess I know what I want, just don’t know how to get there, and honestly, not a lot of people want to talk to about it.”

“Well, I would be happy to be your sounding board, as it looks like I am kind of heading down the same path, though my path is a lot different than yours.”

Ryan and I sat there at talked about Paula and Stephanie for about forty five minutes, or until I got nervous about leaving Stephanie alone. I excused myself and entered our room, only to find Stephanie still sound asleep. I’d had enough coffee that I need to use the restroom, so I quietly closed the door and took care of business. As I was starting to leave the restroom, I spotted Stephanie’s travel bag and could not overcome the urge to look. Opening her bag I found the normal assortment of girl things, but I also found a large brown pill bottle with no label. Carefully removing the bottle from her bag, I opened the lid. The bottle was about half-full of various different kinds of pills. I dumped some out in my hand and counted at least ten different kinds of pills. I stood there for a couple of minutes and finally decided I needed to find out what these pills were. Without labels, the only think I could think of was to take some of them and see if I could get them identified by someone, maybe Paula. I sorted out the pills, setting one of each kind on the counter and ended up with eleven different pills based on shape and color. I returned the rest to the bottle and put the bottle back in Stephanie’s bag. I didn’t have anything to put the loose pills in, so I brushed them into my hand, exited the bathroom and then the room to return to Ryan. I found a plastic bag in the galley and gave the pill collection to Ryan, asking him to get them to Paula as soon as he could, and to keep it quiet.

By the time we touched down at Hickam, Stephanie was dressed in shorts, blouse and sandals. She had her hair in a ponytail, perfect makeup and that radiant smile that had mesmerized me months before. The jet was parked outside of a large hanger and Stephanie and I were escorted to a waiting car for the drive around the complex to the Honolulu International airport terminals. Before we landed, I had a discussion with Smith concerning Stephanie being needed in D.C. right away. I explained to him that I was concerned about how she’d handled the confrontation in Manila and told him I really wanted to disappear for a couple of days and make sure she was ready to face it again. Though he was not really happy about not having cover on us, he agreed to the need if we would continue to use out Adams cover, since he was the only one that knew about it.

We were dropped off at the departure terminal with a flight itinerary departing later that afternoon. We immediately made our way back to the ticketing area where I had the itinerary changed to depart a few days later. At the bank of hotel reservation phones, it only took a couple of attempts before I was able to reserve a fairly quiet bungalow on the north shore of the main island. The final stop was the Hertz car rental counter.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The next two days were very restful and relaxing. Stephanie seemed to be back to her normal self, and we spent quite a bit of time on the beach and just talking. We talked about what she could or could not remember, she told me in great, and painful, detail about the events that Charkov described. Each story came with a huge amount of tears, pain and embarrassment, but Stephanie insisted that she had to tell me so I knew the truth. After the first couple of days, it was as if a load had been lifted off her. She said she had told me her worst and I still held her at night. The pain that I felt with each telling was horrific, but at least my imagination was put to rest, as she told me about the beatings, the drugs and the torture that she had to endure through each experience. No, Stephanie had not been a willing participant, and anyone would have done as she did to survive, to end the pain, the suffering.

I had received no word of what was going in in D.C. or from Paula on the medication I’d sent with Ryan, but honestly was not expecting o. The only person that knew where we were was Smith, and unless he traced the credit card, he didn’t even know what island we were on.

The bungalow that we were renting was actually a couple of blocks from the beach, and set in a ways from any main road. We saw very few people walking around and even less traffic on the access road.

Stephanie and I were sitting in the living area enjoying our morning coffee and talking about the day ahead. She took a sip of her coffee, “What time is our flight in the morning?” almost a hint of sadness in her voice.

“The flight leaves at eleven in the morning, we will need to leave here about eight. You okay?”

Steph smiled, “Yes, I am fine. I just enjoyed these couple of days and don’t want them to end.”

I returned the smile, “Yeah, me too. We will just have to do it again. Maybe with a little less stress involved.”

The sound of a vehicle surprised both of us. I stood and stepped to the window, looking through the slatted blinds. I was even more surprised to see a UPS truck pull up in front of the Bungalow and a very striking blonde exit the truck and start walking towards the front door. I felt all of my senses go on high alert as no one should be delivering anything here, unless they had the wrong address. I started to step away from the window, when I felt Stephanie slip up beside me.

She glanced out the window and instantly recoiled away from the window, pulling me with her. “Dan,” she said in an urgent whisper, “That is one of the girls. I recognize her!”

I am sure the stunned look on Steph’s face matched the one I had, as we both stood there, not moving as we heard the knock on the door. I motioned Steph to move to the hinge side of the door as I flattened myself against the wall on the opening side. Again, we did not have a weapon with us and I had no idea if the girl was armed or not, but had to assume she was.

“UPS, delivery,” came the announcement through the door with a second knock.

Neither Steph nor I moved and a few moments later I could hear the rattling of the door and a sliding of the bolt as the lock was picked, the door started to slowly open. The first thing I saw coming through the door was the barrel of a Ruger .22 caliber semiautomatic with a silencer attached. I held tight against the wall as the door continued to open and more of the hand and arm could be seen as she slowly entered the room. As soon as I could see the elbow of her gun hand, I made my move by grabbing for her wrist. It was almost as if she knew what was coming, for I no more than started my grab when the gun withdrew from the room and her right fist shot around the corner, catching me in the chest with enough force to drive me back a step and almost knock the wind out of me. Before I could recover my balance, the blonde was through the door and had the Ruger leveled at my head, only a few feet away.

I saw her trigger finger starting to tense, when her right leg collapsed sideways as Stephanie delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to her knee. The automatic fired as she fell and the bullet passed a foot or so above my head. Even through her right leg had to be broken; the blonde maintained enough control to rotate herself during her fall, landing on her back, with the gun now pointed in Stephanie’s direction. After Stephanie delivered the kick to the knee, she planted her right foot back on the floor and continued a full backward crouching spin, with her left leg extended, catching the blonde in the forearm of her gun hand. The impact of the second kick was enough to dislodge the gun and send it sliding in my direction.

The blonde reacted immediately, spinning on her back, swinging her left leg at Stephanie’s leg while reaching for the gun with her right hand. Stephanie performed an amazing aerial maneuver by jumping from a crouched position, over the top of the blonde, and rotating from face down to face up while in the air, landing back first on the blonde driving her left elbow into the blonde’s forehead. I could hear the smack of the elbow hitting the forehead, and the hard thud as the blonde’s head bounced off of the floor. The blonde’s body went completely slack, and stopped moving. The entire fight was over before I could reach down and pick up the gun that was lying at my feet.

Stephanie was on her feet and closing the front door, while I picked up the gun and moved to the blond. I could tell at a glance that her right leg was broken. Checking her pulse verified she was alive, just unconscious. I stood and looked at Stephanie for a moment.

“Where did you learn to do that?” I asked, in complete shock.

Stephanie looked at me for a moment, “I honestly don’t have a clue. It was all reaction, I never thought about it.”

I stood and looked at her for a couple seconds, not sure what to say or do next, before my brain was able to re-engage with the situation around me. “We need to find something to tie her up with.”

“There are some plastic tie wraps in the kitchen.” Stephanie said as she started walking that way, “How did they know where to find us?”

“Smith was the only one that even had an idea where we were,” I said as I started looking through the pockets of the blonde, “and even he did not know the details.”

Stephanie suddenly stopped in mid step and turned back to me. “No, Dan, he wasn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“Dan, I’m sorry, I call Vivian the first day we got here.”

I guess my shocked look was enough to make her nervous.

“I needed to talk to her about what happened in the plane, with the razor and stuff.” I could see the anxiousness in her eyes.

“Where did you call her from?”

“Here, in the room, while you were out exploring the back.”

“So, she would have gotten the number off of caller ID and from there it would not have taken much to figure out where we were. Get those tie wraps, I need to call Smith.”

Fifteen minutes later we had the blonde’s hands bound behind her back and I had Smith on the phone. I explained to him what happened along with the fact that the Vasnevs could have known where we were.

Smith was silent for a few moments, “Okay, shit. Are you two safe right now?”

“I think so.” I responded.

“Okay, I am going to make a few phone calls and get someone to get you out of there. Probably a military transport to get you back here and bring our new girl with you. Okay?”

“Alright, but we will need some medical help traveling with us, her leg is busted up pretty bad.”

“I will take care of it.” Smith responded, “That girl of yours is just full of surprises, isn’t she?”

I was watching Stephanie as she sat and looked at the blond; I was thinking the same thing. “I think that’s an understatement.”

I hung up the phone and just sat there watching Stephanie. She turned and looked at me, raising her eyebrows in question. “Help is on the way, better get packed.”

She nodded and started to stand, “I am sorry I didn’t tell you about the call, Dan. I just needed to talk to her, I felt I had too.”

“It’s okay; we will get past it, but please tell me those things going forward. I am not sure I would have done anything different, but it would have been nice to know.”

Stephanie nodded, looking at the floor and walked off to the bedroom to start packing. I just sat there watching the blonde, letting my mind run. How had Stephanie learned how to fight like that? Nothing had ever been mentioned in any of her sessions, dreams or memories. Why had she felt ‘compelled’ to call Vivian after returning from Manila? She had not had a desire to talk to either of the Vasnevs for a couple of weeks, why now? I just could not get the feeling out of my mind there was more going on here than I understood, and I was pretty sure I was only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

A half hour later, Stephanie had both of our bags packed and I hauled them out to the living area. The blonde was still unconscious and we still had not heard from anyone concerning help. Stephanie had gone back to the restroom while I watched out the front windows. I heard a moan come from the blonde, turning I saw her looking at me with a great deal of pain showing on her face.

“Your leg is broken,” I said, “and I am sorry that I don’t have anything to help you with that right now. Someone should be here soon.”

The girl just sat there looking at me, without another sound. Then I heard Stephanie’s voice from behind me.

“Hello, April.”

The girl turned her gaze from me to Stephanie and the look on her face went from passive to total surprise. “Stephanie?” the blonde girl asked with a strained but surprised voice. “We were told you were dead.”

Stephanie walked over to a chair in front of April and sat down. “Not yet, April, but Mistress Anne keeps trying.”

“Stephanie, I didn’t know you were here, I was not told.”

“What were you told, April?”

“I was told there was a man and a woman here, I was to kill the man and leave the woman.”

“Why leave the woman alive?” I asked, stepping away from the window.

April just turned and looked at me with a blank stare and did not answer.

“Darling,” Stephanie said, “She was ordered to leave me alive because none of ‘us’ girls are allowed to kill each other. It would have violated her programing.”

Being a little slow on the uptake, I looked at Stephanie, “I don’t understand.”

Stephanie looked at me with a smile. “None of the girls are allowed to kill each other. That means, my love, that April here was to leave me alive, wounded maybe, but alive. That also means someone else is going to come in behind her to deal with me. There is someone else either coming, or already here.”

I stood there, frozen, for a moment while what I just heard sank in. Finally, my mind engaged and I rushed back the window, but could not see what I wanted from here. I ran to the bedroom, hoping the angle would be better. Looking out the window what I saw made my heart skip; the back of the UPS truck was open. They were already here.

I ran back into the living area, “Who was in the back of the truck?” I questioned April.

She just looked at me with blank eyes.

I pointed the Ruger at her, “Who was in the back of the truck?” I asked with a lot more force.

“That won’t help, Dan.” Stephanie turned to April, “April, it is okay to talk to Dan, he is a friend.”

April started babbling like a plug had been released from a bottle, “I don’t know who was back there, I was told not to look back there or go back there. I was just told to come here and kill you.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the glimpse of something bright reflecting off one of the table lamps. It was just a red flicker, but it was enough to launch the reaction portion of my brain. I dove for Stephanie, knocking her and the chair she was sitting in, sideways and to the floor. The instant we hit the floor, the sound of shattering glass filled the room followed by the muffled popping sound of a suppressed automatic weapon. The room became a calamity of noise as the bullets started striking and bouncing around the room. I smashed Stephanie to the floor beneath me as I tried to squeeze both of us behind the overturned chair. The burst probably only lasted seconds, but felt like hours, before silence once again took over.

I peeked over the side of the chair, the Ruger leading the way, pointing at the window, it was empty, the door was still closed, and what I could see of the bedroom window was also empty. The room was a shattered mess with broken glass, torn fabric and sheetrock dust everywhere. I looked at April and saw three growing red spots on her chest and blood soaked blond hair. I felt a momentary touch of guilt, but there was nothing I could have done. I felt Stephanie move beneath me.

“Are you okay?” I asked without looking down.

“I’m okay, where are they?”

“I don’t know.”

At that moment my ears registered a new sound, the steady thump, thump, thump, of an approaching helicopter. My mind was racing through the situation, if the gunman had been here all along, why wait so long to attack. What were they doing? Suddenly the answer hit me in the form of sheer panic, I grabbed Stephanie’s arm and pulled her to her feet.

“We have to get out of here!” I said, not even trying to disguise the panic in my voice.

I pulled Stephanie to the front door and pulled the door open. I quickly stuck my head out the door and pulled it back to see if anyone would shoot, but no shots came. The sound of the helicopter was getting closer, almost sounded like it was behind the bungalow. The UPS truck was just in front of the bungalow and I knew we had to get to the other side.

“Run!” I screamed at Stephanie at the same time as I pulled her and made a dash for the truck.

I reached the front corner of the truck in a half a dozen strides, stopped and pulled Stephanie around the corner of the truck and then pushed her further toward the back. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a Blackhawk helicopter beginning to flare into a hover about fifty yards from the bungalow, with someone throwing coils of ropes out the side door. Stephanie stumbled due to the uneven ground and her high heels, falling forward beside the shrubs that lined the driveway. The instant she fell, the glass of the side window of the truck exploded into fragments, followed by the pinging of metal as bullets tore through the side of the truck where she had been standing. I dove to the ground beside her and the bullets continued to tear up the side of the truck.

Just as I hit the ground next to Stephanie, the ground moved as a deafening explosion rocked the world, forcing a hot air blast to pass under the truck and engulf us in a barrage of rocks a debris. The UPS truck bounced a foot closer to us and tipped as it started to roll over. The air blast under the truck shoved me into Stephanie, pushing her deeper into the shrubs. The UPS truck tipped on two wheels and seemed to pause there for a moment, before dropping back down on all four tires. Flames were coming out of the cab of the truck and I could see the grease and oil under the truck start to catch fire.

As the blast receded, the flames under the truck started to increase in intensity. The only thing I could hear was a loud ringing in my ears as I started trying to crawl along the shrubs toward the back of the truck, pulling Stephanie with me, trying to escape the burning truck. Suddenly, the brush in front me began disintegrating as a hail of automatic fire ripped through it. I ducked backward and tried to change direction when I spotted a man twenty yards behind us with an automatic weapon in his hands. He spotted me at the same time, bringing the machine gun up to his shoulder as he aimed at us. I tried to roll onto my back to bring the Ruger up to return fire, but discovered that somewhere in the explosion I had lost the gun. I helplessly watched the man bring the barrel of his weapon to bear on us. Then he suddenly jerked, flying backwards, dropping the weapon. I was still watching were the man was, in shock, as a pair of hands grabbed me by the shoulders and I was hoisted into the air like I was weightless, and thrown across a shoulder. Whoever grabbed me took off, running away from the UPS truck. Behind me, I could see another man dressed in military combat fatigues, a boonie hat and black face paint, carrying Stephanie in the same manner that I was being carried. About fifty yards from the UPS truck, I was dropped, not all that gently, back to the ground just as the UPS truck went up in a ball of fire.