Redhead Meets Redneck: First Date (4 page)

The
y were silent as they pondered their situation. They were careening down a two-lane country road at eighty miles per hour, passing every vehicle in front of them.

“Laura, we
’re in a bad situation. I need to know how bad.”

After a long pause
, Laura spoke in a quiet voice. “Weapons of mass destruction.”

“You manage databases that track our weapons of mass destruction?”

“Ours, and theirs.”

“Theirs?”

“Russia, France, Great Britain, India, Pakistan.”

“What? No wonder you’
re a target. Some terrorist knows you can tell them where all the nukes in the world are located, and then they can go steal them!”

“We don’
t know about
all
of their nukes. Some of the other countries have nukes that we haven’t identified yet.”

“Sure, but your little d
atabase has the location of enough nukes that the terrorists will be able to destroy half the world.”

“William, I wish you wouldn’t put it that way.”

William looked straight ahead and jammed the accelerator to the floor.

Laura stared straight ahead, oblivious to the high speed that William was driving. Her mind flashed back to the image of her Mercedes atop the blazing mushroom cloud. How had she ended up in a situation like this? She just wanted a nice paying job, a nice car, nice clothes, and someday a nice husband. It never occurred that in the process of seeking these things she would be running from terrorists, hoping that she lived to see another day.

William kept glancing in the re
arview mirror.

“What are you looking at?”

“I’m looking for your friends.”

“Friends?”

“The terrorists.”

“Oh, you think they might be following us?” Laura’s voice was almost a whisper.

“They followed you to Mama’s, planted a bomb in your car, and detonated it at the exact moment that would scare the wits out of you, but not hurt you. Yes, I think they’ll be following you.”

“You said it was an IED? How do you know
that? Maybe my new car had a malfunction.”

“Ha, yea
h, right. How many of your friends have cars that malfunction?”

“It happens all the time.”

“Okay, Miss Harvard, just how often do those malfunctions cause an explosion that tosses their car thirty feet into the air?”

“Well, since you put it that way . . .”

Laura sat quietly as she pondered William’s words. She looked out her side window and finally she spoke. “Why are you driving so fast? The speedometer says you’re doing ninety-five miles per hour.”

Wi
lliam shot a disapproving look toward Laura. “Would you rather I drive slow so your nice terrorist friends can catch up to us?  Maybe we should stop at the next restaurant. Then they can have tea and biscuits with us?”

Laura sank low into her seat and looked straight ahead.

***

William glanced at
Laura. Her facial expression rempinded him of his days in combat. It was the same look that he saw on the new guys when they were in combat for the first time. It came from their combined sense of horror, helplessness, and fear: fear for their lives and disbelief that anything could be so horrible as one person killing another. He probably had the same look on his own face during his first combat mission. Pangs of sympathy surged in his heart as he looked at the sexy, intelligent, and scared adult female sitting next to him.  In her state of fear, she seemed so childlike, so innocent. She didn’t deserve what she was going through.  Compassion and a sense of protection overwhelmed his mind and heart as he once again glanced in his rear view mirror.

***

Laura sat quietly for a long time. She considered her options. The whole evening had tipped her off her guard. The dating atmosphere had distracted her, she had mixed feelings about William, and of course that terrorist explosion had wrecked her new car. She needed to focus on the issue, find the root cause, make a plan, and execute the plan. She wasn’t your average person. She was smart, and could solve any problem set before her, even if it was big problem like terrorists chasing her.

Laura sat up, leaned over, and grabbed her purse from the floor of the truck. She began rummaging through the contents.

“What are you looking for?”

“My cell phone.”

“Good, I was going to bring that up.”

“Bring up what?”

“Your cell phone. We need to ditch it.”

“What!”

“The terrorists could be tracking our position with your cell phone. If we don’t ditch it, it could lead them right to us.”

“I
’ll have you know that I just bought this cell phone. It’s state-of-the-art technology. It has lots of apps that I downloaded. I programmed a ton of names, addresses, and email addresses into it. I bought a new pretty case for it. I will not under any circumstances ‘ditch’ my cell phone.”

“Not even if that ‘
state-of-the-art technology’ with the ‘new pretty case’ is going to get you killed?”

“What d
o you mean? How could it get me killed?”

“These
terrorist friends of yours probably have access to state-of-the-art technology too. They could be watching a blip on their computer screen that’s traveling ninety-five miles per hour down this road.  They’re laughing at how much fun they’re going to have torturing the sexy American woman until she talks.”

Laura stared at William as she choked in a breath of air
. “They wouldn’t really do that, would they?”

“They blew up your fancy new car
, didn’t they?”

“But this is the United States of America. Things like that don’t happen here.”

“Sure, believe what you want. But just remember, before today, you never thought that your fancy car could get blown up in the good old U.S. of A.”

“I’m going to call General Thompson right now and he
’ll fix everything.”

William grabbed her cell phone before she could press a button.

“Hey, give that back. It’s mine.”

“Here, you can have the case, but I’m keeping the phone.
”

“You give me my cell phone back or else I
’ll . . . I’ll, well–“

“What you
’re going to do is sit there quietly while I think.”

Laura cross
ed her arms tightly, looked straight ahead, and pouted.

Minutes passed by, and Laura’s arms were becoming numb from holding them tightly.  She relaxed and wondered where they were going. Without turning her head, she did her best to sound calm. “Where are we going?”

“We need food.”

“But I’m not hungry.”

“You will be in a few hours.”

“A few hours?  In a few hours, I’ll be at home where I have lots of food.”

“Laura, you can’t go home
. Not until we resolve this situation.”

“What’s there to resolve? Let’s just call the police, or Ge
neral Thompson, and let them resolve this situation, and then I can get on with my life.”

“That’s a goo
d idea, but not until we analyze our current situation.  We have terrorists that are watching your every move. We don’t know how much they know about you, but it’s safe to assume that they know where you live, and maybe a lot more.”

“But I want to go home.  I’m tired, I have a headache
—” Laura lowered her voice. “—and I’m scared.”

“If it’s any comfort, I’
m scared too.”

As they came over the next hill, William slowed and pulled into a convenience
store that had gas pumps in front. “It’ll take me about four minutes to top off the tank. Take this and get enough food for two days.” He handed her a wad of twenties.

“Two days? But I have to get hom
e. What’s going on?”

“
My hunting lodge is the only safe place for now.”

“But I have to get back and do some work on my databases this weekend.”

“Ha, you and your databases. They’re what got you into this situation in the first place. Now go get some food. By the way, I like beef jerky.”

Laura slowly reached out and took the wad of bills, climbed out of the truck and started walking towards the store.
Two days with Mr. Rich Muscular Dude in his hunting lodge. If I knew him better, I might actually enjoy it.

***

William knew that a terrorist was probably watching a blip on a computer at that very moment; he had to get rid of the cell phone in a way that the terrorist wouldn’t expect.  Somehow, the blip had to continue travelling north on Route 1. As he pumped the gas into his tank he watched each vehicle as it entered the parking lot. Car after car, most carrying families with mothers and children, parked at the gas pumps. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a pair of long slender legs walking towards his truck. Just then, a garbage truck that was headed north entered the parking lot, stopped in front of the store, and two brawny men with overalls and dirty hands jumped out and walked into the store. The gas pump clicked off and he put the gas nozzle into its holder. He jumped in his truck as Laura climbed in on her side.

“Give me that bag.” William spoke tersely.

“You must be really hungry?”

William grabbed the
plastic bag by its bottom, lifted it, and dumped the contents on the seat between them. He stuffed her cell phone in the bag and wrapped a knot in it so the phone wouldn’t fall out. Climbing out of the truck, he said, “Wait here.”

He strode toward
the front door of the store and at just the right moment he used a subtle flick of his wrist to toss the bag into the back of the dump truck. He entered the store and found the coffee machine where he poured a large black coffee.  He then grabbed a bottle of aspirin and a bottle of water and got in line for the cashier behind the two men in coveralls.

“Nice change in the weather
.” William spoke loud enough to catch the attention of the man in front of him.

“Yup
.” He grunted.

“
You finishing up, or just getting started?”

“We’re going to dump this load in Baltimore, then
we’ll call it quits for the day.”

William smiled.

Climbing into his truck, he saw Laura in her favorite pose, arms tightly crossed and lips pouting. He handed her the aspirin and water bottle and said, “This is for your headache.” He started the engine as he saw the garbage truck pull out of the lot.

Laura broke the silence.
“Just one question. Are you going to pay to replace my brand new cell phone that you just threw in that dump truck?”

“The way I see it, you should be paying me for the body
-guard services I’m providing. I just bought us a couple of days to sort this mess out.”

Laura’s pout tightened.

William drove his truck to the edge of the parking just behind the dump truck. When traffic cleared, the dump truck turned north on Route 1.  William pulled his truck onto Route 1 and headed south.

“Where are we going?”

“To my hunting lodge.”

***

Khaleed Hasan and Amir Faraj peered over Tariq’s shoulders, and were staring at a map on a computer screen, as they bounced up and down in the back of a truck traveling north on Route 1.

“Jaish! Can’t you drive
around
the pot holes?” said Tariq.

“
I’m so sorry, I will do better.”

T
ariq’s eyes refocused on the small, round dot that had stopped moving north on Route 1. Now, it was moving again, or rather
they
were moving again. The single dot had mysteriously changed into two dots, one moving north on Route 1. The other was moving south.

Tariq smiled. “Those Americans think they are so smart.”

Laura felt better now that William was only driving seventy miles per hour. She leaned her head back into the soft leather headrest. The virile smell of fresh saddle soap on leather calmed her ragged nerves. The gentle swaying of the truck lulled her mind into a light sleep. As she dozed off, she had thoughts of William in a snug white T-shirt, freshly pressed jeans, polished cowboy boots, and a day’s worth of stubble. His muscular arms were embracing her, and his warm breath was blowing gently into her ear . . .

***

William looked at Laura dozing. It reminded him of his days in combat. His men slept while he watched over them. Many times he had forced himself to stay awake so he could watch over and protect his Seal team. Each man on the team depended on William for his leadership and courage. Based in California, they were always on call for the seven years that he led the team. They saved hostages, protected dignitaries, and killed terrorists whenever the need arose. They were the scariest and best days of his life. In a way, he was glad that Laura needed his protection now. He had forgotten how good it felt to protect someone’s life, and have an adrenalin rush at the same time.