Page 42 of Wired Courage

Jake followed the healer out into a courtyard.

Rows of ninjas practicing their martial arts routines filled the area. The purple-eyed man, dressed in his signature white, paced back and forth at the head of the lines of shaved-headed recruits, his eye upon the trainees for any imperfection.

Jake’s gaze was drawn to a man in the back row, taller than the rest.

A white man. With blue eyes and a shaved head.

Connor.

Fury rose up in Jake—Connor had made some kind of deal. He’d sold off information to send Jake on his way. And worst of all, he hadbetrayedhim. Kept him in the dark. Lied to him! God only knew what the man’s real relationship was with Sophie.

All lassitude fell away as adrenaline flushed through Jake. He broke from behind the healer and charged across the open area of the square, headed straight for his target like a heat-seeking missile. “I know who you are! Whatever deal you made, you made with the devil, you cheating bastard!”

Ninjas engulfed Jake in a black-clad wave, swarming over him and burying him in sheer numbers. Of course, he didn’t make it through all of them to pound Connor out, but he at least made it far enough to have the satisfaction of seeing fear and devastation in the man’s ocean-colored eyes.

“I know who you are!” Jake bellowed as he was borne bodily away, a cluster of ninjas clinging to every limb as they hustled him out of the courtyard. “And I’m gonna kick your ass, count on it, if I have to wait a lifetime!”

The dustup invigorated Jake at last, and he welcomed the ongoing scuffle as his own personal mob of ninjas, directed by the healer, escorted him unceremoniously through the compound and thrust him bodily out through a great wooden gate.

Jake stumbled and fell to his knees onto the dirt road outside the compound. The gate slammed shut behind him.

He stood up. Dusted off his clothing. Turned back and looked at the compound.

A row of unfamiliar faces stared down at him from the parapets. He didn’t see Connor, Pim Wat, the healer, or even the purple-eyed man. Just a row of mocking faces, yelling insults at him in Thai.

“Eat shit and die, assholes.” He flipped them the bird and turned away, heading down the muddy track into the jungle at a ground-eating lope.

Chapter Thirty-One

Day Twenty-Seven

Watching from the window above, Sophie saw Pim Wat grab Malee by the throat.Pim Wat must have guessed that they were hiding in the house, and now she was killing her sister.“The jig is up,” as Marcella would say.

Sophie thrust Momi, who’d given their position away with her fussing, into her portable bassinet. She drew her weapon and flew down the stairs. She was sure the sound of her running footsteps on the wooden stairs would alert Pim Wat to her presence, but her mother was staring too intently into her sister’s darkening face and bulging eyes to pay any attention as Sophie barreled through the unkempt yard. “Mother! Stop!”

Pim Wat looked up at last. Her eyes dilated in shock—and Sophie used all the momentum of her running force to slam the butt of her pistol into her mother’s head.

Pim Wat dropped like a bag of dirty laundry to the ground, unconscious. Malee fell too, as Pim Wat’s hands left her throat.

Sophie shoved her mother aside with her foot and dropped to her knees beside Malee, feeling for a pulse at her aunt’s throat.

Yes!Malee’s heart was still beating!

In her anxiety, Sophie couldn’t remember what exactly she was supposed to do next, but found herself leaning over Malee’s body, blowing into her mouth.

A couple of moments later, Malee came around, choking and coughing as her breathing reflex activated. Sophie sat Malee up, holding her cradled in her arms.

“Ahhhh!”

That powerful cry brought Sophie’s head up.

The sound had burst from Armita’s lips as the nanny ran toward them from the house. She carried a butcher knife in each hand, and she was barreling toward Pim Wat’s supine body.

Sophie stood up and stepped into the maid’s path, extending a hand with her palm up to stop Armita’s headlong rush. “No! I can’t let you kill her. I want to trade her for help from the CIA.”

Armita stood over Pim Wat’s crumpled body. “Please. She doesn’t deserve to live. I understand if you can’t do it. Please just let me kill her.”

Sophie put her hands on Armita’s shoulders and gave a gentle shake. “I can’t imagine what your life, living under her thumb, has been like all of these years. She is truly a terrible person. I’m not stopping you from doing this because she deserves to live, or because she’s my mother. I’m stopping you because she’s more valuable to us alive. And, if it’s a consolation, they will make her suffer in Guantánamo when they interview her for information on the Yam Khûmk?n.”

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