CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
“Get the duty officer up here,” Jack snapped at the gate sentries. “I got a feeling Captain Danforth’s in trouble.”
“Sir,” one of them said, “I can’t bother the duty officer just because you got a feeling.” Not friendly at all.
Jack clenched his fists There was no time to waste.
His shoulders slumped in apparent defeat, Jack took several steps away from the gate. When he walked behind one of the sentries, he wrapped his arm around the man’s neck and pulled his own pistol from inside his jacket. “Drop your rifles now, or I’ll blow your pal’s head off,” he told the others.
They stared at him – wide-eyed, open-mouthed. “Boys, you got three seconds before I make mush out of this man’s brains. DROP YOUR WEAPONS!”
Two of the soldiers looked at the third soldier – the one with the Sergeant’s insignia. Jack noticed the steel-hard look on the Sergeant’s face and knew this one could be trouble.
He cocked the hammer on his pistol and pressed it against the temple of the soldier he held. The man grunted from the pain. “Don’t fuck around!” Jack shouted. “I’ll shoot this man and then take out the three of you before you can react.”
The guards looked at one another, looking embarrassed and uncertain about what to do. Finally, one of them lowered his weapon to the guard. The others followed suit. They all placed their hands on their helmets.
“Good boys,” Jack said. “Who’s got the keys to the HUMVEE?”
“They’re in the ignition,” one of them said. He sounded as though he couldn’t wait for this crazy man to take the vehicle and leave.
“Okay, lie down on the ground,” Jack ordered. This time they obeyed without hesitation. “You, too,” he told the man he held. “When I’m gone, call the duty officer and tell him a nice man stole your wheels and went off after Captain Michael Danforth.”
Before leaving, he tossed their weapons into the brush behind the guard shack.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Michael bent down, rolled the body over, and immediately froze. He knew he’d made the mistake of his life. The pistol aimed at his stomach and the smile on the man’s face told him everything.
“Remove your hand from inside your jacket and step back!” the man said in a hushed, but firm tone.
Michael showed his hands, slowly straightened up and took a step back. Try to relax, he told himself. Remember your training. He waited until the man began to stand and grabbed his gunhand in both of his own, shifted his weight, and threw the man over his shoulder. The man slammed the pavement with a whomp! Then starbursts of light exploded in Michael’s head and he felt himself falling. Then he felt nothing.
“That was careless, Dimitrov,” Captain Sokic snarled, grimacing at the soldier wheezing for breath. But Sokic wasn’t interested in a response. “Josef, you and Vassily put Danforth in the Jeep. Pyotr, you drive,” he rasped. Sokic then turned to Radko who was standing off to the side of the road. “You’ve got two seconds to disappear before I shoot your ass.” He watched Radko move off the road and go into the trees beyond.
Attila stepped out of the trees and slid down the embankment to the road. He was exhausted from his trek north and the return trip looking for his father. He saw the security lights of the refugee camp entrance far in the distance to his right and started to walk in that direction. But a slight sound distracted him. Off to his left, a vehicle was stopped on the road, just outside the ray of light cast by one of the security lamps mounted on the military camp’s perimeter fence. Its headlights were on. Its engine idled.
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EVIL DEEDS
Misteri / ThrillerEvil Deeds is the first in a 4-book series that follows the Danforth family from the kidnapping of their 2-year-old son in Greece in 1971 to present day. The book (and series) is a roller coaster ride of action and suspense. This book, as with all o...
