Page 16 of Rescue Me (Tempting SEALs 6.10)

“I counted seventeen soldiers at the compound. If they realized that I didn’t take the Jeep, do you think they’ll send all of them after us? Maybe we should double back and really steal a Jeep. What do you think?”

“First of all there were twenty soldiers. And no. We’re not doubling back. By now Thadiwe has probably called in some of his pal Nkemidilm’s people. Right now we have the advantage. Until they find those five guys back there, they won’t know you aren’t alone. They think they’re hunting a lone woman, unprepared for this environment. That’s a good thing, and to our advantage. Those guys didn’t have radios or any communication devices on them. Stupid. But hey, I didn’t train them. So to communicate they’d have to have gone back to base. We have a little breathing room.”

He tilted her face with a finger under her chin. His hard mouth curved into a smile. “You look like hell.”

“I’m perfectly aware of what I must look like,” she said ruefully. While Sam’s rugged face was bugfree, she must look like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. She’d never been vain, but right now she was grateful she didn’t have a mirror. God only knew what critters had glued themselves to the repellent on her skin.

He removed a cloth from his pack, and applied it—dry—to her cheeks. “This must itch like crazy. Close your eyes. Let me get rid of the bugs at least. Grab the DEET—it’s in the left side of the belt. Yeah, open it while I get rid of your passengers.”

Elizabeth stood still while Sam cleaned her face, then reapplied the chemical to deter the bugs. She wanted to kiss him, but knew they had to keep going if they wanted to get away free and clear.

The blackness of the night had lightened to a deep olive green. Now murky lime-green shafts of light seeped through the dense tree canopy. It felt as though they were walking through algae-filled water. The bodysuit did an incredible job keeping her body temp normal, but her head was exposed to the thick steamy heat and perspiration tickled her skin and attracted insects.

The jungle was a living entity surrounding them; the smell of dead vegetation and wet earth seemed to seep into Elizabeth’s pores. The noise level was higher now than it had been earlier, and she’d long since given up trying to identify everything making such a racket. Monkeys, insects, large and small animals. And her own breathing. Every time a bird called, she flinched. Not only did she hate birds, she discovered she wasn’t that crazy about snakes, bugs, or mosquitoes either. Being in a rain forest wasn’t exactly the best pick for a first time Grand Adventure.

An adventurer she wasn’t. Just because she wanted to be fearless and daring didn’t mean she was hardwired to be so. She’d leave the adventures to Kess and concentrate on her fledgling practice instead.

If she made it back to Montana alive.

SIX

ELIZABETH BUMPED INTO SAM’S back as he came to a stop midstride. She came around to stand beside him. They’d reached the river. Thank God. The water was the color of bad pea soup. Brownish green with unidentifiable lumps of vegetation floating on the surface. The air smelled, not unpleasantly … green, and a little like overripe fruit. Small trees and thick brush crowded the sloping banks. House plants Beth grew in little pots in her condo would thrive and flourish to gigantic proportions here.

A thin, bright yellow snake S’ed on the surface of the water, while dragonflies, their iridescent wings shimmering in the sunlight, swooped and dived over their reflections, and tiny emerald-green butterflies swarmed en masse over the bank. A pair of inquisitive otters sat on a nearby felled tree trunk watching them.

That was the pretty part of the river.

On the bank a crocodile—at least seven feet long, lazed in the sun, and four submerged hippos, small ears twitching, lay like eno

rmous boulders several hundred yards upstream in the center of the river where the water was deep. Both species moved like greased lightning in the water.

And there were birds. Everywhere. Big and small. They swooped, they dove, they fluttered and they perched. They squawked and chirped and tweeted and generally freaked Beth out.

Here the sunlight wasn’t being filtered through the trees, and buttery early morning light sparkled on the murky green surface, while the diaphanous dragonflies danced between the long reeds and grasses lining the muddy bank. If one didn’t know that the jungle pressing against its serpentine shoreline was filled with birds and creepy crawlies, it would be an idyllic picture.

She stared at the pod of almost submerged hippos. One lifted its head, its ridiculous small ears pivoting as it called a guttural ba-ho-ho-ho in a low bass. Hippos were said to be the deadliest animal in Africa, but it was hard to imagine, watching them clustered together like giant rocks in the slow-moving water, that they could actually run faster than a human on land. It was unlikely they’d attack without provocation, but Elizabeth moved closer to Sam and his nice big gun.

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” she asked, dry-mouthed, waving away a dragonfly as it dive-bombed her hair.

“Desi isn’t here with the Zodiac.”

Elizabeth looked out across the murky surface. The whole expanse of the river looked emptier and more dangerous without rescue close at hand. “Maybe he went up or downriver.”

“This is the extraction point. We’re about fifteen minutes late—but he should be here waiting.”

“Are you sure he’s coming? I told you we should have gone back and stolen a Jeep.”

“He must’ve gotten delayed. He’ll be here.”

“How long do you think we’ll have to wait?”

Sam glanced around, clearly assessing the area. “Until he gets here.”

Well, duh. “What are we supposed to do in the meantime?”

“Sun’s up. The animals will be down to drink any time now. We need to get out of their way.”

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