Page 19 of Wired Courage

Her Aunt Malee was the only relative she had kept in touch with after she escaped her ex-husband Assan Ang and emigrated to the United States. Did she dare contact her? She was right next to Sophie’s former home. She could check on what was going on over there.

But what if Malee’s phone was tapped? If someone was looking for Sophie, her father and her aunt were both likely surveillance targets.

She couldn’t risk it.

She had to get a message to Connor and Jake about this. Wherever they were in the mission, the Yam Khûmk?n stronghold was now the wrong target.

Momi wasn’t there.

Sophie headed for the computer room.

Chapter Fifteen

Day Twenty-Five

Jake lay curled up on his side in the corner of the large, stone-walled room with a drain in the center of it. Water seeped from cold, rough walls; weak illumination from light penetrating a slit high near the ceiling barely lit the room. He was naked, and he folded his legs tighter against his chest to preserve body heat, pressing against his fellow prisoner’s back for warmth.

They’d already tried to get each other loose, but the ninjas who took them had placed crude brass handcuffs on their wrists—and so far, there was no getting out of them.

Behind him, Connor shivered nonstop. They’d crossed the line a while ago from employer and employee to friends. Jake worried that Connor couldn’t hold out against Pim Wat for much longer. Jake had trained for this kind of treatment. Hamilton, while brave, hadn’t any such background.

Jake looked down at his rope-bound feet. He’d spent some hours working on getting loose by rubbing his ankles back and forth against a rough protrusion on the floor, but he’d only succeeded in abrading the damp skin around his ankles, and now yellowish ooze darkened the coconut fiber ropes binding him.

“This isn’t good.” Connor’s teeth chattered as he spoke. The tropical climate outside the compound might as well not exist in this basement dungeon.

“She’s not going to get what she wants, and she doesn’t take disappointment well.” Neither man used Pim Wat’s name when they spoke of her.

“She won’t kill you, man. You’re too valuable as a hostage—the CEO of Security Solutions ought to be worth a few mil to the Yam Khûmk?n.”

“We don’t know that they want anything but Sophie and the baby.”

“We can’t tell her what we don’t know. Sophie’s safe. But the baby’s gone. Someone double-crossed her. That much is clear from what she’s said.” Jake tried for a bantering tone. “You’ll be fine, Mr. CEO.”

“I don’t think she cares at all about money,” Connor said softly.

Pim Wat had been torturing him and Connor for days: taking turns, making each other watch. She’d played with electrodes and sandbagged their bodies. Yesterday, her ninjas had pummeled their feet with sticks. He was sure there was more unpleasantness ahead.

Jake shut his eyes, regret suffusing him as he ticked over the decisions leading up to now.They should have taken longer to assess the situation.

Waited for a ransom demand.

Got more men.

Anything but imagined they’d be able to sneak up on this fortress!

How long had the Yam Khûmk?n been aware of their presence? Connor had told Jake that he suspected that they had been following their movements the entire time, and had waited until they were close to the compound to take them, just for their own convenience—so they wouldn’t have to walk as far through the jungle.

Jake shut his eyes, trying to close out the memories of the nighttime attack that had resulted in their capture.

Screams and cries. Splattering entrails. Ripe and terrible smells. Sick sound of steel against bone. Blood spray hitting Jake, warm and damp. The wet thunk of good men’s heads hitting the ground.

Pim Wat, a small black spider of a woman, wielding death without a flinch.

They may have been stupid about this op, but at least they’d left Sophie on Phi Ni.

Sophie was alive and free. Maybe she could somehow help them. But when would she know to sound an alarm, contact Bix? They’d agreed the op was for two weeks, and according to his mental count, that was up about now.

Jake felt the vibration of feet walking on the stones, and stiffened. He tried not to give in to nausea as the door rattled.

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