Redhead Meets Redneck: First Date (11 page)

I
n a few hours it would be over. The extraction team would arrive, remove them from the hunting lodge, and she would be safe in the protective custody of the U.S. government until the terrorists could be apprehended. Life would soon be back to normal.

Laura
slipped into William’s sweat pants, put on his flannel shirt, and headed for the door to go downstairs. She was hungry. Anxiety must be pushing her appetite into overdrive. She reached for the doorknob of William’s room, and just as her fingers touched it, she heard a shriek that sounded like an electronic alarm. She yanked open the door and started down the stairs to the first floor. Looking through the dimly lighted room, she saw the outline of a person running from the sofa to the back window. In his hands was a large gun.

“Laura, get back in your room
. The terrorists have surrounded our cabin.” William’s voice was loud, strained, and hinted of fear.

Laura froze. What happened? She was supposed to be safe. Why didn’t the terrorists just wait a little longer? Then the
y would have to deal with the U.S. special ops team that was going to extract them. It would have been so much simpler if they had just waited a few more hours.

“Laura, hurry, they
’re moving in quickly. You must get to your room, now!”

Laura thought about William trying to pr
otect her from the terrorists. He was certainly out-numbered, but how many were there? Five, ten, or twenty terrorists? It didn’t matter. William couldn’t fight all of them. He needed help.

Laura’s feet pounded up the stairs as she ran back to her room. Once in the room
, she was disoriented. At home she knew where everything was, but here in William’s room, and still not fully awake, the morning’s darkness seemed to fog her mind even more. Where is it? She must find it, immediately. Looking around the room, she remembered. Pulling open the nightstand drawer, she reached in and retrieved her purse. She turned and rushed out of the room and headed back down the stairs.

Half way down the stairs she heard William shouting, “Laura, I told you to go back to your r
oom. Go back up stairs or you’ll get hurt.”

“Tho
se terrorists are going to get hurt, not me!” Laura said as she ran in a crouched posture for the front window.

A loud crack rattled all the windows in the cabin. Laura looked back at the rear window just in time
to see it shatter and crumble into a pile of broken glass splinters on the rug. William turned towards the window and began firing his shotgun at a dark blur that was darting from tree to tree in the back yard.

Laura, still crouched, looked out the front window for signs of movement. Sudd
enly a small dark form grew larger and larger. The quickness of its growth snapped Laura to her senses. One of the terrorists was running full speed toward the front window. The terrorists in the back yard must have been a diversion to draw William to the back, while another terrorist approached the front of the house. In just a few seconds the terrorist in the front yard would have a perfect view of William by the rear window, silhouetted by the morning sun as it rose in the sky, and he would be able to shoot William in the back without any resistance.

Laura
reached into her purse where she pulled out a .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol. She grasped it firmly in her right hand, she used her left hand to pull the slide on the top of the gun rearwards, loading the first round. Then she raised the gun to eye level, and stood slightly from her crouched position so she would have a better view of the blurry image running straight toward her at full speed. She centered the gun sights on the center of his chest, she squeezed the trigger gently, but quickly, twice. The glass in the front window shattered into thousands of tiny slivers and fell to the floor. The blurry image stumbled, regained his balance, and continued racing towards her at full speed.
The maggot is wearing a bulletproof vest. Time for plan B.

She raised the gun sights slightly and
tapped the trigger. A single shot rang out. The head of the blurry figure snapped backwards. The terrorist stopped moving forwards, and slumped over, the upper half of his body hanging inside the window directly in front of her.
Ha, that vest didn’t do you much good, did it?

The noise of her gunshots drew William’s attention, “Are you al
l right?”

Laura turned and looked at William
. “I’m fine. Do you need any help?”

William’s eyes widened as he looked at the terrorist slumped over the window, “Ah, no, keep watching the front window.
”

Laura turned back to the terrorist
who was just inches in front of her. The twilight illuminated a gun that was slung over his shoulder. She reckognized it as an AK-47 and grabbed grabbed the rifle. Then she looked outside for other terrorists. Another blurry figure began racing toward her in the twilight. She took careful aim, and squeezed the trigger. Nothing. The gun was silent. She pulled the slide to unjam the gun, put her finger back on the trigger, and squeezed. A burst of bullets exited the rifle. The first two struck the chest of the terrorist, the third hit his face, and he fell into a limp pile of limbs on the grass in the front yard.

William yelled, “What’s going on?”

“I just took out another terrorist.”

“Oh
, good.” William continued firing at the blurry figure who was darting from tree to tree.

One shot hit the terrorist in the shoulder. “Yeoooow!”

William continued firing. Then he was out of shells, so he reloaded and continued firing. After a few more bursts of fire from his shotgun, he ran to the front in a crouched position. “Laura, I told you to stay in your room.”

“Right. If I had done that
, we’d both be dead.”

Willia
m paused and looked at the AK-47 in Laura’s hands. “Where did you get that?”

She pointed at the figure slumped over the windo
w frame. William lifted his head, and looked at the bullet hole in his forehead. “How did you do this?”

Laura reached in her sweat pants pocket and pulled out her .380 pistol.

“Cute little toy.”

“Toy? I beg your pardon, but this ‘cute little toy’ just saved your life.”

“You’re right. Thanks for the back-up.”

Laura smiled and nodded.

“We need to get out of here. There may be others. Take two minutes to grab anything you need and then we’ll leave.”

Laura picked her purse up from the floor and went upstairs. She grabbed a few things, took one last look around William’s room, and walked down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs she realized she was still clutching the AK-47
as if her life depended on it.
I just killed two people.

William looked down at her shaking fingers. “It’s okay. You did the right thing. You h
ad to do it. It was either them, or us.”

“I know, but I
’ve never killed anyone before.”

“The first time is the worst.”

“Mm, I can’t imagine that it gets any easier.”

“I know how it was the first time I killed someone
.” William glanced out the window. “I wish we could talk more, but we need to get going.”

Laura looked into William’s eyes. She wished she could go home and forget about the last two days.

“When I open the front door, I’ll run to the truck, start the engine, and pull up to the door. Then, if all is quiet you can run to it and we’ll head out,” William said.

Laura nodded and waited for him to run to the truck. When the truck stopped in front of the door, she darted to the passenger door. She moved quickly and crouched low, looking around for more terrorists, still clutching the AK-47 with her finger resting next to the trigger. Opening the door, she jumped in, and slammed the door shut. William pressed a button on the dashboard and she heard the locks click.

William floored the gas
pedal and the truck wheels squealed as they accelerated down the driveway.

“Where are we going?” Laura asked.

“We’re going to my sailboat.”

Laura watched the mileposts wiz by. William was driving ninety miles per hour, and she didn’t care. She also didn’t care that her hands were still shaking.

“Laura, what did you grab before you left the cabin?”

“I don’t know. I don’t care. Nothing matters except that I just killed two people.”

“We have more important things to think about.”

“I wonder if they had families.”

“Laura, they
’re somehow tracking us.”

“Those two
terrorists will never grow old with their wives and children.”

William raised his voice.
“Laura, listen to me.”

Laura’s eyes slowly drifted to William’s face. “What did you say?”

“The terrorists are tracking us somehow.”

“But you trashed my cell phone.”

“Yes, but they must have a backup tracking device.”

“But how?”

“Empty your purse on the seat.”

Laura slowly turned her purse upside down. The contents fell on the seat:
lip stick, makeup, three ink pens, wallet, loose change, sunglasses, car keys, a bottle of aspirin, and her .380 semi-automatic pistol in a mini-pocket holster with a spare clip. William pulled over to the side of the road and glanced out the windows before rummaging through the contents.

He picked up the lipstick and broke the bottom off and looked inside, nothing.

“Hey, I need that!”

“
I’ll buy you another after this is over. Right now you need to sit there and be quiet while I figure out how they’re tracking us.”

Laura wanted
to glare at William, but she was too exhausted. She leaned back and rested her head on the leather seat.

William broke open the make
-up case. Nothing. He broke the three ink pens, sunglasses, and bottle of aspirin. Nothing. He removed the ammo from the pistol and looked inside. Nothing. Then he picked up the purse and looked inside. “What’s inside this zippered compartment?”

“Nothing
. I never use that.”

William pulled the zipper and peered inside. Reaching in, he pulled out a plastic button. “What’s this?”

“I don’t know. I told you, I don’t use that compartment.”

William reached in his pocket and pulled out a knife.
Flipping the blade open, he used the tip to pry against the edge of the button.

“What are you doing?”

The button popped, and the top went flying across the cab of the truck, leaving behind the bottom of the button. Laura looked inside and saw a tiny electronic circuit board. “What’s that?”

“
That’s a miniature GPS tracking device.”

Laura leaned forward and looked at William through narrow eyes. “So, you
didn’t have to trash my new cell phone after all!”

“Hold on. I said this was the back
up. They were using that fancy new cell phone of yours with the pretty case as the primary tracking device.”

Laura sank back into her seat with pouted lips.

William pressed a button on his dashboard, and Laura’s window rolled down. He threw the button out the window, and rolled the window back up.

“Now what?”

“We go to my boat. They’ll never find us now.”

William relaxed a bit since he now knew how the terrorists were tracking them. He should have found the second tracking device. He needed to be more careful, especially when someone else’s life was at risk.

“By the way, Laura, thanks for covering my back when we were being attacked.  I had no idea you were carrying a weapon.” William glanced at Laura. “When were you
going to tell me about the pistol in your purse?”

“Oh, probably never. It usually scares people when they find out, so I
’ve gotten in the habit of keeping it quiet.”

“Just one question.”

“Sure.”

“Why does a database manager carry a semiautomatic pistol in her purse?”

“The CIA pays me a monthly bonus based on the training I have. So I take all the courses I can. After I took the small-arms course, I thought that it might be handy to carry a gun, and it’s easy to get a gun license in Virginia.”

“So, it always comes back to money?”

“William, please stop acting like money is a bad thing. If I remember correctly, you’re pretty well off yourself.”

“Right, but I make money so I can help my friends.”

Laura turned away from William and looked out the truck’s side window, “Why do you lecture me after I just saved your life?” A large tear drop ran down Laura’s cheek.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I really am thankful for what you did back there. If it hadn’t been for you
and your pocket pistol, I’d be dead now.”