The Princess of the Desert

By Melodie Thomas

Edited by Holly Hart

Chapter 11

Friday, May 22, 2009
After the Lear was airborne out of Tucson, Smith explained to us that his team had actually broken the encryption of the people watching Stephanie, and were currently listening in on the conversations. Two critical pieces of information had been collected.” First, Viktor Charkov is going to Manila on May 25th to pick up some new recruits, which we assume means some new kidnap victims. This piece of information not only will give us a chance to intercept Charkov, but also tells us they are still actively pulling people off of the streets, and not all of those people are coming from the United States. No information has been gathered that tells us where Charkov is at the moment, but knowing where he is going to be gives us an advantage.” Smith said he already had surveillance teams watching the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila. Of course it was always possible for Charkov to land somewhere else in the Philippines and drive to Manila, but we had to go with what we knew.

Smith also gave us an update on the investigation into the Vasnevs. Not only did Ivan’s sister keep a copy of the notes, but gave those notes to her daughter for, as she said, keepsakes. His Russian contacts also confirmed that an even more detailed set of notes were being kept at the prison infirmary and those notes were also taken during the break in. All of the evidence was pointing toward Anya and Robert Brajovic as being our top suspects, which left Ivan in a terrible place, even if he was not involved. He could no longer approach the situation from an unbiased point of view, which would make all of his actions suspect. Smith was not clear on how that was being managed.

Smith wanted to have Stephanie available in the Philippines to help with identification of anyone encountered, but far enough away from any activity to be safe. The reason for the urgency of our trip came in the second piece of information gathered; a hit was being planned against Stephanie at my house. Though the actual timeline of the attack had not been gathered, the decision was to cut it off early and move Stephanie. However, this time, Smith wanted Stephanie drop off the radar and disappear completely.

The plan was to hide Stephanie and me in plain sight. The idea was the people looking for us had limited resources, and unless they knew where to look, they could never find us, even if we were sitting in a street side café. The Lear, on the other hand, was fairly easy to track. Flight plans had to be filed, even by the government, and flight plans could be hacked. The Lear flew nonstop from Tucson to Edwards Air Force base in California. After touching down at Edwards, the Lear was taxied into a large hanger where Stephanie and I quickly left the plane with our luggage, at the same time two people that were dressed to look like us, got on the plane. The Lear continued through the hanger, back onto the taxi way and took off again for parts unknown, at least unknown to us.

Stephanie and I were ushered to a nondescript car with a Hertz label on the inside. I was handed a pack of papers and the keys to the car and told to drive to Los Angeles International Airport and turn the car in. Inside the packet of papers were passports in the names of Mike and Carol Adams, containing our pictures, along with a flight itinerary on Delta Airlines from LAX to Manila, via Tokyo. The cover story was that I was an Investment Banker and we were travelling, as husband and wife for a two week holiday in Manila. We had hotel reservations at the Shangri-La in Makati City. My wallet was taken from me and a new one supplied that contained cash, credit cards and a driver’s license in the name of Mike Adams, and Stephanie was given a purse with similar contents. They even footed the bill for business class tickets.

Business class tickets or not, that was one long flight. From LA to Tokyo took ten hours, a two hour layover in Tokyo followed by another five hour flight to Manila. We landed in Manila at 11pm and even with a little sleep on the flight, we were both pretty rummy when we went through immigrations with our fake passports. Talk about nerves. After collecting our luggage and clearing customs, we found our driver and were delivered to the hotel, checked in and escorted to our room. Once the bellboy left we fell into the king sized bed and were sound asleep before either of us realized this was the first time we would be sleeping in the same bed.

Morning caught me with a stream of sunshine , right into my eyes past the edge of a curtain. I woke up enough to shield my eyes with my left hand, but immediately felt something different on my right side. Turning my head slightly I caught sight of a pile of hair and identified the weight on my shoulder as Stephanie’s head. Her body was pressed up against mine, with her head on my shoulder and my arm wrapped around her shoulders. I could feel the pressure of her breasts against my side and I could see the peaceful parting of her lips as she slept. As my mind continued to wake and process the information around me, I could feel one of her legs draped over my right leg, basically pinning me to the bed.

Not wanting to disturb her, I laid my head back down and relaxed. It actually felt like my right arm was asleep from the lack of blood flow, but nothing was hurting. That situation started to change about fifteen minutes later, when the morning call of nature that I was feeling started to become more urgent. I was able to hold out for another ten minutes or so before the pressure became uncomfortable. As I tried to adjust my position by moving my hips slightly I glanced down at Stephanie, surprised to see a smile on her face, but her eyes still closed.

“Were you just going to lie here all day if I didn’t move?” she asked without moving anything but her lips.

“Well, the thought had crossed my mind, but I don’t think I would have made it.”

Stephanie lifted her head, kissed me softly on the cheek, pulled her leg off of mine, “Go take care of business and come back, please.”

I did as requested, Upon returning to the bed Stephanie resumed the same position she had been in, pressed against my side, with her head on my shoulder. However, she did not replace the leg draped over mine.

“I don’t know,” Stephanie almost mumbled, like talking in her sleep, “if it was the flight or your shoulder, but that was the best night’s sleep I can ever remember having.”

I just lay there, lightly rubbing her back through her night gown. Feeling the presence of her this close and feeling the pressure of her breasts was having an effect on me, one I did not know how to control, and the motion of my hand on her back felt so natural.

“I don’t remember dreaming,” Stephanie continued, “I don’t remember waking up, it was just a sweet, peaceful sleep. Also, if you keep rubbing my back like that, I will probably go right back to sleep.”

“Do you want me to stop?”

“No, I don’t want you to stop.”

Stephanie lifted her head and looked me in the eyes. She inched herself a little higher in the bed so her breasts were pressed more to the side of my chest, and her face was level with mine. My hand rubbing her back was now reaching her lower back, instead of just the shoulder blades. She lifted her right hand and stroked the side of my face, then lowered her lips to mine with a very soft, parted lip kiss. The pressure of the kiss slowly increased until our lips were pressed together and instinctively my tongue reacted; find hers on the other side.

Without realizing I was doing it, my right arm had stopped moving and was pulling her tighter to me with my left arm reaching around to complete the embrace. The combined action of both arms pulled Stephanie more on top of me and increased the urgency of the kiss. My left hand slid slowly off of her shoulder until it found, cupped, and gently started massaging her right breast. My actions on her breast caused a moan to escape from her lips, and stimulated the activity of her tongue. My right hand started working its way down her back towards her butt, and as soon as it crossed her waist, making contact with her panties, Stephanie suddenly froze as stiff as a board. Her left hand shot down and grabbed my right wrist to stop further travel, and she went completely rigid.

“Steph?” I asked, after a few moments had passed and she showed no movement. When she did not respond, I reached under her chin with my left and lifted her face. I could see the tears coming from the seams of her eye lids as her eyes were closed tightly. “Steph?” I probed again.

Without opening her eyes, she slowly shook her head, “I am sorry, Dan, I can’t do that.”

Like a light switch, my brain engaged with a sudden realization. In the heat of the moment that had just occurred, I had seen Stephanie only as a beautiful, sexy and desirable woman. The concept that there was only one way she could have sex had totally escaped me, and that way was an avenue of torture for her. I pulled both of my arms up and wrapped them around her, pulling her to me.

“I am sorry, Baby,” I whispered in her ear, “I got out of control. I am sorry.”

Stephanie shook her head slightly, “No, I wanted you to get out of control. I wanted you to take me and make love to me. I guess I also forgot that I can’t.”

We were both quiet for a few moments before Stephanie whispered, “Dan, I want you so badly. I want to be a woman for you and feel you close to me. But I can only make love to you as a woman; I can’t do it this way. I am so sorry.”

“It is okay, Steph, we will take our time and figure out what to do.”

Stephanie lifted her head so she was looking me in the eye, “Dan, I want to be a full woman for you. I want the final surgery that will turn me in to the woman you want. I want it Dan, I want it.”

Her intensity surprised me and this was the first time that the final sexual reassignment surgery had ever been mentioned by Stephanie. I am not sure what it was, but I felt there was something out of place here, something that was being controlled. Why did this topic suddenly come up? Why the sudden urgency for a sex change, as the sex change topic had not even been mentioned in months. This just did not feel right to me. Maybe it was driven by this being our first, real passionate encounter, and that encounter drove the emotion. Even though she felt incredible in my arms at this moment, I was hearing alarms.

We lay wrapped in each other’s arms for a few silent minutes while we let the passion of the encounter subside. Slowly untangling from each other, we headed of for the shower. Stephanie went first. We were supposed to be on a vacation, so we needed to find vacation type things to do. Smith had told us that we would be contacted when needed, and in the meantime to keep up our covers. Our plan was to go down to breakfast, then visit the travel/tour office in the hotel to see what we could do on the government’s money for the next few days. Actually, we both got quite a kick out of that concept.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Stephanie developed her custom place and every night fell asleep snuggled into my right shoulder. She claimed that not only were there no nightmares, she could barely remember a dream the whole time and now believed her safety zone was sleeping against me. Personally, I found this closeness to be very comforting as well. Yes, I still went through bouts of the hormones wanting to get in the way, but we avoided allowing our kissing and snuggling from going that far. The one thing I noticed the most was the bed felt very empty when Steph got up for some reason.

Manila, Philippines is an interesting place, what it is not, is an interesting tourist place. Even though we had the government’s money to spend, Stephanie and I had a very hard time finding things to spend it on, to keep up the appearance of a couple on vacation. Beyond a few of the WWII landmarks, such as Corregidor, the nearby Taal volcano, and the expansive, if not underdeveloped, pineapple farms around the city, there is just not that much to see. Manila more revealed the sharp contrast of the have and have not’s than anyplace I had ever seen before. From ten people living in a ten by ten concrete room to massive mansions for two, all within walking distance of each other. Street people were a very common occurrence, and children begging for pesos were encountered daily. After a while, we even came to the conclusion that some of this activity was considered normal living, and a few of the children that would hit us up for whatever loose change was in our pockets, were also wearing shoes that cost more than the ones I had on. Basically, foreigners meant money, just ask for it.

The primary tourist activity for the area seem to come in the draw of males from all over the world to the bars and discotheques between Manila and Angles City, where young girls, young boys and those that were not too sure, plied the world’s oldest profession as a form of sustenance and a way to support families. An evening spent walking around any of these groups of establishments revealed the depths some would go to survive in this world, and those that would take advantage of someone in need for financial and entertainment gain. Though prostitution is illegal in the Philippines, we discovered the police were not only turning a blind eye, but were often involved in it in some form. From what we could see, Charkov would not need to come here to kidnap people. All that would be required would be putting up a sign offering free room and board, and Charkov would have people lined up by the thousands volunteering for whatever degrading things were asked for.

We had been there for four days so far, and had had no contact with Smith, or anyone representing him. The travel agency at the hotel had offered to send us on overnight tours to some the outlying beach areas, but with no idea what was going to happen or when, Stephanie and I needed to stay close. According the information we had, Charkov was supposed to arrive in Manila the day before, but we had heard nothing .

Our breakfast conversation this morning had centered on what we were going to do today, besides continue to tour one of the two nearby malls, occasionally buying something we did not need, just so it would look like we had a purpose. By the time breakfast was over, we decided this was going to be a pool day, just lounging around on the sun deck, and enjoying the tropical drinks that were available. They needed to do something with all the pineapple grown here.

Stephanie took my hand as we left the restaurant and walked to the elevator bank that would take us back to our room. As we entered the elevator, another man stepped on board as well. He politely nodded towards us, and then turned to face the elevator door. The man was nearly six feet tall with a well-trimmed body. He was wearing a well-fitting two piece suit and tie, carrying a briefcase. The most concerning things I noticed was, as he turned in the elevator, I could see the outline of a handgun on his right hip, and the floor he selected was the same one we were going to. When the elevator door opened on our floor, the man stepped out and turned right. I could see he was checking out the room number signs when Steph and I exited with a left turn towards our room.

I hurried Stephanie along to get to our room. I was not sure she was aware of what was bothering me, but she did not question and I could tell from the look in her eye she was nervous, mostly because I was. We reached our door and I inserted the keycard. Just as the door opened, I could see the man approaching down the hall, so I lightly pushed Stephanie into the room, handed her the keycard, and closed the door as I turned to face the man approaching me.

“Can I help you?” I addressed the man when he was about ten feet away. This was not a good position, as I knew he was armed and I was not. I was traveling as a civilian tourist, so carrying my service weapon was not part of the cover. There were no protective structures in the hall and the only hope I would have if he pulled a weapon, was to charge him so I wanted the distance between us to close a little.

“Is this your room?” He asked, nodding towards our door.

“Depends, what can I help you with?”

The man smiled, “I am looking for Agent Dan McNeil, that wouldn’t happen to be you would it?”

No one, outside of Smith’s organization was supposed to know we were here and I had no idea who this guy was. “Sorry, no. However, may I ask who you are?”

Without changing his smile, he slowly reached into his breast pocket and pulled out an ID packet, which he handed to me. I opened the packet and saw the FBI badge and the identification card, with his picture, that said Agent George Styles, FBI liaison to Philippine Embassy.

“Now that we know who each other are,” Styles started, “perhaps we can step into your room so we can have this discussion a little more privately? By the way, who was the girl?”

“The girl?” I asked. If someone knew I was here they would know who I was with, so his question did not sit right with me.

Styles lost the smile, “Yes, you were supposed to be here watching over some transsexual. The girl was not something I was briefed on, so if you have brought a third party in, it could complicate things quite a bit.”

Now it was my turn to smile as I reached up and tapped lightly on the door to our room. The door opened and, true to what I had been trying to teach her, Stephanie did not frame herself in the opening. Instead, she stayed behind the door, and out of sight of anyone coming in. I motioned for Styles to enter the room and followed him.

As soon as he stepped through the doorway, I lunged forward, driving my left shin into the back of both of his knees causing the knees to buckle forward and dropping Styles hard onto the floor. I allowed the momentum of my body to hit him across the shoulders and finish driving him face first into the floor. My right hand slid up under his jacket and removed the Smith & Wesson 10mm for its holster; I pushed the brief case away from him and then checked both ankles for a backup piece. The entire move took only seconds, and Stephanie had barely closed the door before I was off of Styles and backing way.

“What the Fuck!” Styles screamed as he pulled himself off the floor.

“Let’s start over,” I said, as I pointed the 10mm at him, “who are you and what do you want?”

Styles looked at me for a moment, “I told you who I was, and you have my ID. I was supposed to deliver that briefcase to you and show you how to use it.”

“Who sent you?”

“Some agency guy named Smith. He told me you were here and that you were with some transsexual weirdo that you were trying to protect. He didn’t say anything about the girl.” Styles said nodding toward Stephanie.

I tensed and started to step forward but Stephanie stopped me by placing her hand on my arm. “What exactly did ‘your’ Mr. Smith say?” Stephanie asked with a very pleasant voice and smile.

Styles looked at Stephanie like she had no right to question him but answered anyway. “He said, I was to take this over to Dan and Stephanie and show them how to use it. Now may I ask who you are?”

Stephanie walked towards Styles and gently reached out to touch the bump that was starting to form on his forehead, “I am Stephanie, I am the weirdo. I would suggest, Mr. Styles, that you don’t insult me further, or piss him off further,” nodding towards me, “or you may not be walking out of here.” Stephanie walked past Styles and into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

The look of Styles’ face changed from anger, to surprise, to worried, all in the matter of seconds. I motioned him over to the dining table and had him sit on one of the chairs. “What is this?” I asked, indicating the briefcase.

“An encrypted radio that you are to use to contact Smith.”

“Open it, slowly, and show me.” I sat the briefcase in front of Styles and made sure he saw the 10mm pointed at his head.

Styles opened the clasps on the briefcase and slowly lifted the lid so I could see the contents. On the lid of the case was a large coil of wire and what appeared to be a collapsible antenna. The base portion of the case consisted of a standard telephone handset, a speaker and a number of dials and gauges.

“I need to set the antenna over by a window,” Styles explained, “then we can connect to the secure satellite uplink.”

I nodded and signaled for him to do so. As he was setting up the antenna, Stephanie came out of the bathroom and walked over to me. I could see the redness in her eyes and knew she had been crying. Without taking my eyes off of Styles, I wrapped my left arm around her for a hug. Styles returned to the table and looked at Stephanie. To his credit, it looked like he was trying to figure out how to apologize. However, he turned his attention to the case and turned a switch that brought all the dials to life. There were three LED lights at the top of the case that were glowing red. One by one they switched to green. When the last one turned green, Styles pulled up a retractable microphone and spoke into it.

“Secure link requested, United States Embassy, Philippines, access code “Alpha 1 9 Charlie 0 3 Romeo”

A computer generated voice responded, “Access code validated, secure link established, standby.”

A few moments passed and another voice came out of the speakers, “Embassy switchboard, secure link validated.”

Styles again spoke into the microphone, “Switchboard, encrypted call for Smith and Lattimer.”

“Standby one,” the voice came out of the speaker.

A few more moments of silence passed before a recognizable voice came out of the speaker. “This is Smith, Dan are you there?”

“Yes, I am here.” I responded as I motioned Styles to move away.

“Good, how about Steph, she there?”

“You mean the weirdo?” Steph responded, with ice in her voice and her eyes locked on Styles. Styles lowered his eyes.

A moment pause before Smith responded, “Did I miss something?”

“Only that the embassy may need to new FBI liaison if he opens his mouth again.” I answered. “I am sure Mr. Styles will explain it all when he gets back, especially what happened to his service weapon.”

There was another momentary pause on the phone before Smith spoke, “Okay, I am not sure I want to know what that is about, but we have other issues to deal with right now.

“First off, we found Charkov last night. At 11:45pm an older Antonov AN-12 transport landed at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, and went to the cargo area. The tail numbers on the AN-12 tagged it as having Malaysian registry. Our surveillance not only got pictures of Charkov getting off the plane, but also pictures of three people that were bound with handcuffs and hoods over their heads.”

“More victims?” I asked.

“That is what we are guessing. They were dressed as women and wearing high heels. Reminded me a lot of what Stephanie had described. The scary part was Charkov was met by airport security and three or four members of the Philippine military. From what we could tell no questions were asked concerning passport or about the victims. All of the victims, along with Charkov were loaded into two SUVs and left the airport. The SUVs drove south out of the airport and we were able to track them to Kawit area where we lost them when they entered a long private road.”

“If they are bringing victims here, they can’t be recruiting here.” I commented.

“We’re kind of wondering that ourselves, maybe our encryption boys did not get it completely right. Instead of picking up recruits, maybe they are delivering recruits. If that is true, we might have a training compound here.”

Stephanie had moved up close beside me and I put my arm around her, however, her eyes were still glued to Styles. “OK, so what do we do next?” I asked.

“Nothing right now,” Smith responded. “With the military and possibly some police involved in this we can’t really trust the locals. The Philippines is pretty well known for the level of corruption that can occur here. I have a request back into Washington to do a little covert activity here. Of course the State Department hates the idea, but I already have a team in the area. I need you and Steph to maintain your covers until we are ready to move.”

“You might not want to send anymore bozos around here if that is the case. Mr. Styles thought it best to announce my real name out in the hallway.” I said, staring at Styles, who did not hold eye contact.

“Shit, are you compromised?”

“I don’t think so. There was no one else in the hall, but I have no idea who was behind the various doors.”

Smith was quite for a moment, “Okay, hold on to Styles until I send someone to fetch him. I would like to discuss this with him. Switchboard, break the connection.”

The speaker was quiet for a moment before the computer voice returned, “Secure connection terminated.”

Friday, May 29, 2009
The next two days were a continuation of the adventures of the Adam’s exciting vacation in Manila, which consisted of touring a couple of more malls and lounging by the pool. I decide we were probably going to be totally insane if we had to stay here for the full two weeks.

I, on the other hand, was going insane for a different reason. Stephanie is a beautiful woman and having her in my arms every night, and not being able to satisfy certain carnal urges was almost more than I could manage. She loved sleeping on my shoulder, and to be honest, I loved having her there. When we kissed goodnight, we rarely stopped with one, and almost always graduated into full blown necking, petting and, in some cases, partially undressing. It was starting to become painful, and I needed to find a release somewhere, badly.

There had been no word from Smith over the last two days. Before Styles’ well escorted ride back to the embassy arrived, I’d had him show me how to setup, maintain and operate the encrypted radio. I left it set up on the dining room table and set the antenna away from the window. If a call came in, I only needed to move the antenna and press the answer button. Stephanie and I had just returned to our room from breakfast when the incoming call beep sounded.

“U.S embassy, Manila, switchboard, secure call for Daniel McNeil,” came the voice through the speaker.

“This is McNeil, access code Alpha 1 9 Charlie 0 3 Romeo.”

“Access code confirmed, standby one.”

“Dan,” Smith’s voice came through the speaker a moment later, “is Stephanie there with you?”

“I am here.” Stephanie responded.

“Good, we are going after Charkov tonight and I need both of you there. We are positive there are more victims on site, as well as Charkov, and we need your help with identification and help with the victims. I want you to pack your suitcases but leave them in the room. A car will be sent to pick you up at eight pm. Dress like you are going out to dinner. The car will take you to a staging point where we will have clothes and equipment for you. We will be leaving the country right after the operation, so someone will collected your luggage and deliver it to the plane along with the radio. Have your passports and all your papers on you when you meet the car. Any questions?”

I looked at Stephanie and could tell from her expression she had a lot of questions, just like I did, but we both knew we were not going to get them answered now. “No, we’re good.” I responded.

“Alright, see you tonight. Switchboard, break it down.”

“Embassy switchboard, secure connection terminated.”

A few minutes before eight that evening we received a call from the concierge desk that our car was here. We had packed our suitcases and left them inside the bedroom area of the suite. Steph had all of our documents in her purse as we headed down. As we reached the car, I was startled to see Ryan Sloan, one of Smith’s guys that had been at the barbeque, dressed in a driver’s suit and holding the door open for us. Not wanting to give away that we knew Ryan, both Steph and I politely thanked him as we slid into the car. Ryan’s response was just as formal as he bid us a good evening, as he closed the door behind us.

Ryan walked around the car and got in the driver’s seat and pulled the car away from the hotel entrance. Nothing was said until we passed the hotel security checkpoint and entered the main highway.

“How are you two enjoying the spectacular paradise of Manila?” Ryan asked, glancing at us in his mirror.

“I am not sure ‘spectacular’ or ‘paradise’ would be words that I would use.” I smiled back at his reflection.

Ryan laughed out loud, “No, I suppose not. Anyway, Paula sends her wishes along to the two of you.”

“Paula knows where we are?” Stephanie asked, surprised.

“No,” Ryan smiled, “she knows you are somewhere, and she knows I was going wherever you are, so, she asked me to say ‘Hi’.”

Stephanie gave my hand a slight squeeze and I had to smile to myself, more about how my own mind had been changed over the past year and what I was finding myself exposed to, and accepting as normal now. Stephanie and Ryan maintained a steady conversation, but I found myself staring out the window into the night. I should have been thinking about what was coming, what we were going to encounter tonight, instead, I found my mind wandering back to what I had learned about myself, who I had found, what I discovered about her and how much I was in love with her. Especially after this past week, I could no longer imagine being without her, nor did I have any intention of being without her.

I thought through what the doctors has said in the past about Stephanie getting the operation, and Stephanie’s desire to have the operation. There was still something there that was bothering me, but what that just the cop in me, or the residual of my past bias? I was not sure if my concerns were real, but I knew my desire was. We had not come to Manila for a vacation, though that was what we had for the first week, I discovered someone that really fit in my life, someone I wanted to keep in my life. Being with her seemed so natural and simple whether we were on a tour, eating a meal, or just watching the sunset, and I wanted that feeling to continue. I also knew that with me was where Stephanie wanted to be. In my arms there were no nightmares, no sleepwalking, and no crying in the middle of the night, just peaceful sleep. I had no idea how we were going to be able to live any kind of normal life; I just knew we had to find a way to try.

About forty five minutes after we left the hotel Ryan put on a pair of night vision goggles, but did not pull them down over his eyes. “Okay, guys, things are going to get a little interesting here, no lights of any kind, please.”

Ryan turned off the headlights on the car and pulled the night vision goggles down over his eyes. The loss of the headlights plunged us into darkness with very little relief. Wherever we were, there were no commercial or residential lighting in the area. We could see lights in the distance but the area around us was very dark. Ryan continued to drive through the darkness, making a number of left and right turns. At times, I could make out the shadows of buildings we were passing but that was all. Suddenly the pitch of the engine changed, like we were inside of an echo chamber. Ryan stopped the car and shut off the engine.

“Sit tight, please.” Ryan asked.

I could hear the grind of gears like a garage door was opening or closing but there was a total absence of light. After a moment the grinding noise stopped and a few moments later, the area was illuminated with a deep red light that was coming from pole mounted light fixtures that were mounted around the inside edges of large warehouse. A half a dozen people could be seen moving throughout the warehouse as Ryan reached up to the dome light in the car and removed the bulb.

“Okay,” Ryan said, “you guys can get out now.”

I just reached for the door when it opened ahead of me. “Dan, Steph, hop on out, we have some clothes for you,” I heard Smith’s voice.

Getting out of the car, we followed Smith to a pair of small dressing rooms. Smith pointed me towards one and Stephanie towards the other. Inside the dressing room was a one piece body suit made of a rip-stop, silent brush, black fabric that almost felt like spandex. It had light weight integrated body armor in the chest and back area. Also in the room were a pair of soft soled black boots, baseball style hat, gloves and heavier body armor. I quickly stripped off my dinner clothes and dressed in what was supplied. I stepped out of the dressing room at the same moment that Stephanie did and we kind of looked each other over for a moment.

“Stylish.” Stephanie smiled just as Ryan walked up and handed each of us a suppressed, S&W 10mm automatic with quick release combat holsters.

“What do we need these for?” I asked.

“In case not having them turns out to be a bad idea.” Ryan responded as he turned away.

I thought about it for a moment and silently nodded my head as I understood his meaning. Needing a weapon and not having one, is a whole lot worse than having one and not needing it. We attached the holsters to the shoulder harnesses we were already wearing, checked the pouches for spare clips and then followed Ryan into a general meeting area where over a dozen people were waiting. Everyone in the group was basically dressed in the same one piece suits, and each had various attachments. Most were far more heavily armed than Steph or myself. However, Steph did have the advantage as the only one in the room wearing three inch heeled boots.

As we walked out of the dressing area, I could feel over a dozen sets of eyes looking us over, sizing us up. I had worked with groups like this before and understood the ground rules. Some may have worked together before, but most had not. No one knew anyone’s name, maybe a cover name, but not a real name. Most wore the black balaclava, so most of their facial features were not visible. Though we were all on the same team, often an individual’s ability to survive depended on his ability to remain invisible.

Not knowing what to do, Stephanie and I walked over to an area that had an easel set up with what appeared to be a handmade drawings of a house. I studied the drawing for a few minutes before understanding what I was seeing. The outsides were drawn with pretty good detail, showing doors and windows, outside obstacles and landscaping. The inside was drawn in much less detail, that I could tell were estimates. This was the surveillance drawing created by some members of the team. The outside could be easily seen so was drawn clearly, the inside had to be estimated, based on what could be seen through windows. This was the closest knowledge we were going to have about the layout when we hit the building.

Ryan brought us a couple of cups of coffee and we continued to mill around the drawing area for another hour or so. Finally Smith appeared from a room in the back and walked over to us.

“You two ready to do this?” Smith asked as he approached.

“As ready as we are going to get.” I responded.

“Okay, then let’s get it done.” He turned to Ryan, “Round up the team.”

Ryan walked around the warehouse talking to each of the groups, who stopped what they were doing and walked towards us, forming a half circle around the drawing.

“These are our principals.” Smith announced, after everyone gathered, “Mark and Carol Adams. Their job is to help identify the people we pull out of there tonight. They will be staying in the rear of the activity and will function in a support role only. Their call sign will be Blue Ten, as they will be with me. Any questions?”

After a few moments of silence Smith spoke again, “Okay, we have been over the plan dozens of times and everyone knows the rules. Remember, though we are going in hot tonight, our goal is no causalities. I want to be able to talk to everyone that comes out of that house. Don’t risk yourself or your team, but remember the live body count scores the free beer this time.”

There were some random chuckles and various jokes cracked, but everyone dispersed to their own duties within the warehouse. Smith and Ryan approached Stephanie and me. The first thing Smith did was point at the 10mm in the shoulder holster that Stephanie was wearing.

“You know how to use that thing?” he asked with a partial smile.

“Well, not according to him,” she smiled back at Smith while indicating me, “but I know how to make loud noises with it and scare anything close.”

Smith’s smile opened even larger, “That’s what I was afraid of. Just remember, that is for an emergency only. Here are a couple ear bud radios; Ryan will help you set them up. The house is about fifteen minutes from here and you two will be riding with Ryan and me. We are going to let the Snake Eaters go in first, then we will follow. Now, I need to warn both of you, we are working totally ‘black’ here. We do not have support of the Philippine government for this operation so we need to be in and out fast and out of the country as quickly as we can.”

“How are we going to do that, and what happens if we get caught?” I had to ask.

“We have a U.S. Senior Diplomatic jet waiting for us, kind of a junior version of Air Force One. If we can get to that, there will be no problem getting out of the country. If anyone gets caught before that,” Smith paused with a large smile, “it’s going to be on CNN for a long time.”

I was about to ask a few more questions about that part when a voice came over the radio in my ear. “Okay, everyone, lights out in sixty seconds. Everyone mount up.”

Smith nodded to Ryan and turned and walked away from us. Ryan escorted us to a four door SUV type vehicle and Stephanie and I got in the back seats. Ryan got in the driver’s
seat and started the engine. A few moments later the passenger door opened and Smith entered. About a second after that, the room went totally dark as the red lights went out. I could hear the sound of engines starting all over the warehouse, but no lights were turned on. Suddenly, we started moving and I assumed Ryan was using the night vision goggles as before.

There was a lot of chatter over the radio as all of the groups got organized and ordered for exiting the warehouse. There were six units involved, the primary assault teams were call signed Blue one through Blue five. We were called Blue ten and were the last ones to leave the warehouse. As Ryan pulled the SUV out of the warehouse, I felt Stephanie slide closer to me in the seat and wrap her arm tightly around mine. I could feel her shaking so I pulled my arm from her and wrapped it around her shoulders, pulling her close to me.

“You okay?” I whispered in her ear.

“Yes, I mean, no, I mean, I’m scared, Dan.” She whispered back.

I gave her a reassuring squeeze. “’We are all here to protect you, Steph. Especially me, I love you and will not let anything happen to you.”

Stephanie laid her head on my shoulder, “I know Dan, and I love you too. But you can’t protect me from the demons that I may have to face tonight, that we may have to face tonight.”

Stephanie paused for a moment, “This isn’t just about protecting me from people with guns, Darling. This is coming face to face with what I have gone through, the things that I have done, or had done to me. Not only will I have to face them, but so will you.” She softly stroked my face with her hand, “I know you are brave enough to face death for me, I hope you are strong enough to walk through Hell with me too.”

I reached to touch her face in the darkness and could feel the moisture on her cheeks and knew her tears were flowing. I found her lips with my thumb and brought mine to them. I have kissed Stephanie many times, but there was something in the touch of her lips and the tenderness in her hands, a yearning, a need, that I am not sure I had ever felt before. All I want to do was pull her to me, wrap her in my arms and tell the rest of the world to go away.