Deceptive Treasures: Slye Temp Book 5 Read online

  Tanner said, “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”

  “Perhaps you were born under the right stars and were rewarded with ability and luck.”

  Nick shouted, “Hold on!” That was the only notice anyone got before he shoved the controls forward again.

  Tanner threw a hand up to grab a cabinet when the boat lurched ahead and plowed into a wave.

  Jin flailed an arm and slammed into his chest hard enough to knock the breath out of her.

  Tanner caught his arm around her. “Are you okay?”

  She grabbed a handful of his vest and, this time, lifted her chin. The entire movement happened in seconds. She was all up in his personal space.

  No complaints here.

  But he could feel the muscles in her back tighten beneath her ninja outfit. She was uncomfortable, but she hadn’t pushed away yet. A gentleman would help her out of his grasp.

  It wasn’t that his mama hadn’t raised a gentleman, but that he just couldn’t find it in him to push Jin away right now. He’d spent months alone whether he was on a mission or off on his own. Part of him longed for this contact.

  Another part seconded that idea, but he’d let Big John talk him into some bad decisions in the past. One had been named Allie.

  Jin kept staring at him. She probably thought he intended to stay below, too. He’d made up his mind to pull his arm away when she dropped her head against his chest and moved closer.

  Snuggling up for his heat?

  Her shoulders softened.

  If this were any other woman in any other situation, he’d take that as a sign that they were finding common ground. The kind of common ground that ended up littered with clothes.

  Wrong direction, cowboy. In fact, get your hands off her and head to the deck. He could use some of the cold water busting over the bow to hit him in the face. Maybe that would bring his common sense back to the forefront.

  But the boat banged into a wave and jerked sideways. Tanner held on to Jin to keep her from getting battered in the cabin and used his free arm to stabilize them.

  She shook hard. Ah, hell, she was scared.

  He mentally searched for something to take her mind off her fears. “If the stars are guiding us, how come they’re dumping all that rain on us?”

  “What?” She jerked her head back to look at him with confusion shaping her expression. Then she took in his smile as her brain caught up to what he was talking about. “I did not say the stars were guiding anything tonight, but that you may have been born under one that watches over you.”

  “A guardian star, huh? That’d be nice.” But not something he’d ever count on. He’d been the guardian over his three sisters and mother from the age of nineteen when his father died in the military.

  That’s why he traveled across the globe and stuck his neck into some nasty places to make sure the world his family lived in was safe.

  Who had watched over Jin as a child? And now?

  She covered her mouth and her shoulders curved as if she was going to heave. When she took a breath, she said, “I want to go up on the deck.”

  “The movement getting to you?”

  “A little.”

  He’d say a lot, based on her thin voice. If he stayed down here much longer, he’d be tossing his cookies soon, too. He moved back toward the steps, drawing her with him.

  “How far will we go with this boat?” Jin asked and gulped another breath.

  Did she need reassurance she hadn’t climbed into the Titanic?

  He wouldn’t paint blue skies about what would happen once she landed in the US, but he could ease her worries for now some. “Maybe another hour or two. We’ll be fine until then.”

  Someone up top yelled, “Shit. DPRK’s on our ass!” just as the boat lurched forward hard, proving him a liar.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Tanner shouted at Jin, “Grab this counter and hold on.”

  Then he spun and jumped up the two steps to the cockpit, moving Har over into Pang’s space so Tanner could stand next to Nick. “What’s going on?”

  Nick fought to steer the boat with one hand and work the controls with his other one. “We had a radio call for this boat, based on what Har and I have translated on everything I found in the cockpit. I think it’s another patrol boat that passed us as we left the dam and they were headed toward Pyongyang.”

  “What’d they say?”

  “Har said they were asking for our schedule and route.” Nick kept shifting his weight with the rough water in the black sea. “We’ve played the ‘bad connection’ game for the past eight minutes, but they’re demanding we reply or they’ll report us to headquarters. Har isn’t familiar with the military or anything nautical, plus his English goes to hell when he’s stressed so I can’t understand him.”

  Tanner glanced at Har. Lights from the dash touched his poncho that was visibly shaking. Yep, that was pretty stressed.

  Shit.

  Jin pushed up next to Tanner. “I will talk to them.”

  Tanner looked at Nick who gave him a she’s-your-problem look.

  Catching their silent exchange, Jin said, “I can do no worse than Har and you two.”

  Nick suggested, “We need a male voice. What about Pang?”

  She huffed. “He speaks as an elite. The military would never believe he is operating a patrol boat.”

  “But they’ll believe you?” Nick challenged.

  “I am good with dialects and I have listened to the soldiers talking often.”

  The radio crackled with a blast of Korean.

  Jin reached over for the radio mic.

  Nick went for the mic at the same moment, but Tanner blocked Nick’s hand and said, “Let her try. We don’t have a lot of options for buying time.”

  Nick lifted an eyebrow then sighed. “Maybe they’ll think she’s a young guy and his nuts haven’t dropped yet.”

  That was Nick logic for you.

  Jin pressed the button, changed her soft female expression to a fierce frown. When she spoke, she roughed her voice and rattled something quick in Korean back at the other boat captain.

  Tanner couldn’t imagine her giving the other captain an ass chewing, but he understood enough to know that’s exactly what she’d done.

  Gutsy or off her rocker?

  She released the send button and said, “I told him I was with General Jeong Yul and we were on radio silence for a reason, and that he did not have security clearance to know why. If he continued to contact us, I would have him reprimanded.”

  Damn. Tanner’s eyebrows had to be up at his hairline. “Did he believe you?”

  “For now.”

  Blade leaned in. “What does that mean? Will they let us go?”

  She explained, “General Yul is reported to be spending today meeting with our leader and the minister of armed forces. The captain of the other boat will have to go through channels to determine if General Yul really is at that meeting or if he is here on some secret mission.”

  “That’s damn brilliant,” Blade said.

  Tanner agreed. But Jin had to go and ruin his moment of hope by adding, “However, they will very likely find out the truth in the next twenty minutes.”

  The boat hit a wave and jarred everyone in the cockpit.

  Jin grabbed Tanner before he could get a hand on her so she didn’t go tumbling.

  He looked down at her face, barely lit by the lights from the controls. She stared up at him with absolute trust, something he hadn’t seen in that face until now.

  Nick backed off the accelerator. “We’ve got to make a hard run. Everyone needs to find a place and hang on.”

  Blade muttered, “I better get double frequent flyer miles for this trip.” Then he headed back across the deck.

  Tanner turned to Har and Pang. “You two go down in the cabin in case we draw fire.”

  Har’s thin eyes opened into round discs. Pang dipped his head, looking through the open hatch to the cabin. “Stinks.”
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br />   This trip couldn’t end soon enough. Tanner warned him, “That’s the safest place to put you if you want to live long enough to defect. My orders are to bring you in alive. You’ve got ten seconds to get down there on your own or I’ll tie you up and toss you down. Matters not to me, but it’s happening right now.”

  Pang scowled and muttered something nasty then stepped down into the dark cabin. Har followed Pang.

  Nick barked out, “Hurry up and put a lifejacket on, Pang. They’re under the bunk.”

  Tanner waited on Jin, who shook her head. “I will take my chances up here. I cannot hold my stomach down there.”

  Technically, she wasn’t their package to protect, but Tanner didn’t want her harmed either. He finally moved her into the position Pang had vacated and turned her to face the windshield. “Hang on to that handrail and don’t let go.”

  She gripped a vertical stainless steel rod on her left and put the other hand on the dash.

  Tanner stepped in behind her.

  Nick stood at the controls like a tsunami ready to explode and bash anything in its way.

  Blade was situated at the aft with his weapon ready.

  Dingo stood on the other side of Nick where he could hold the Sat phone protected from the water. He’d been on the phone to Logan and Margaux who were in Seoul, South Korea hopefully coming up with a way to help Tanner patch up an exit plan that had sprung more holes than a gunshot skiff.

  He asked Dingo, “What’s the word?”

  “Home base assures me they’re working on a plan, but I haven’t heard back from them yet.”

  Nick looked around and said, “Hold on to your asses,” then shoved the controls forward hard.

  Tanner stood behind Jin. He gripped the handrail above her grasp and bent his knees, taking the shock of pounding wave after wave. He’d only thought Nick had opened up the engines before this. Based on the battering they were taking now and the waves breaking over the bow, Nick had pushed the engine only two-thirds of the maximum speed before.

  He hoped Nick understood the navigation system enough to keep them from hitting a weather buoy or an island. They ran with no lights again, but should see the lights of any other vessel.

  Had Nick made it twelve miles offshore to reach international water yet?

  Would it really matter since North Korea didn’t recognize the twelve-mile break for the international traffic lane?

  Nope. Not any more than the DPRK acknowledging the Northern Limit Line, an invisible division between waters claimed by North and South Korea.

  But that was the direction Tanner had told Nick to head while Dingo called in support from Logan and Margaux.

  Nick rode the waves hard, the bow bashing one after another for the next sixteen minutes. That was when Tanner looked over and caught Nick’s nod. He acknowledged, “We just crossed the NLL.”

  The radio erupted with angry shouting.

  Jin’s gaze snapped toward Nick and said, “They know we are not who we claim and have ordered us to stop or they will fire on—”

  “We got company,” Blade shouted from the rear.

  Tanner searched the dark night spread behind the boat and saw two... no, three sets of lights.

  How close were they?

  One set of lights increased in intensity over the next minute. That threat was coming quickly.

  Dingo had his elbow hooked around the cockpit’s canopy support bar and used that hand to cover one ear. He clutched the Sat phone against his other ear, shouting, “Come back again!”

  Nick pushed the controls the last tiny bit.

  Tanner yelled at Dingo, “What have you got?”

  “Home base has a ride on the way that has us on radar, but they’re eleven minutes out.”

  Water exploded a hundred feet behind them. That was only a warning shot. The next one would land in the middle of the deck.

  Tanner had to squeeze out another eleven minutes.

  He told Jin, “Get on the radio and tell them we’re stopping.” She hesitated for an instant then lurched over to grab the mic with Tanner holding her arm. She started talking in that same deep voice.

  Tanner gave the order for everyone to put on lifejackets and prepare to abandon ship. Then he told Nick, “Cut the speed back to where we’re going just fast enough to keep the nose in the wind.”

  That was the first time Nick looked at Tanner the way they usually looked at Nick when he had a crazy idea. Nick laughed with an edge that held a touch of insanity to it. He yelled, “I got a feeling I’m going to be disappointed this wasn’t my idea.”

  If Nick meant that to sound supportive, he’d failed.

  Tanner was running on faith and hanging by his fingernails with this plan, but it was the only way he could see to keep his team and their guests alive for another ten minutes.

  Even then, if they were spotted before the ride Logan sent showed up, they were done.

  The DPRK naval unit chasing them could see this patrol boat on their radar, too, but they’d have a harder time spotting a raft.

  Until daylight.

  Or unless they came close enough to use high-powered spotlights.

  Flipping on the interior lights in the cabin, Tanner dove past a terrified Har and silent Pang to find the hard case he’d located as soon as Nick had driven the boat away from the bank in Pyongyang. Tanner wrenched up the oversized-looking briefcase that held the life raft system.

  Rated for twelve men. Hot damn, that’d work.

  He hurried back up top, ordering Har and Pang to follow him. Har was moaning as loud as a cow calling to its lost calf.

  Blade handed Nick a life jacket he hooked over one arm.

  Nick had slowed the boat, but kept it moving southeast into a whipping wind from the storm. On the radar, it should look as if this patrol boat was just holding steady against the current.

  Tanner located the painter, or connection line, in the briefcase and tossed the container overboard, snatching hard on the line attached to the gas cylinder release.

  The raft began inflating immediately.

  He pulled it to the rocking boat and ordered Blade in first. Blade handed Tanner the last lifejacket he held and waited five seconds on the next high wave then jumped into the raft. He landed hard, but was up on his feet and grabbing the side of the boat to hold the raft close as Tanner fed first Har then Pang and Jin into the raft. Dingo jumped down after handing off the Sat phone and his weapon to Tanner.

  Tanner passed that all back to Dingo and counted heads to insure he and Nick were last.

  Every second pounded loud in his head.

  Nick had found a tie-down rope he used to lock the patrol boat wheel so that it continued to drive into the wind. Tanner took Nick’s weapon and handed it to Blade who was fighting to hold the raft close to the boat.

  Nick latched his life jacket closed as he stepped up next to Tanner and said, “You need to cut the raft rope and let me get this thing moving away then I’ll jump over.”

  “No!” Tanner and Blade yelled.

  Nick scowled. “Turn on a light. I’ll find you.”

  “No!”

  Dingo yelled, “Logan’s people are two minutes out, tops.”

  Nick roared, “If we don’t send this thing far enough away the chase boat’ll see us as soon as they get close. What the fuck is the point of the life raft if that happens?”

  “Get in the fucking raft,” Tanner ordered. When Nick hesitated, Tanner said, “Now. I’ll run the boat away from the raft.”

  Blade cursed.

  Tanner ordered, “Move it, Nick. Dollar waitin’ on a dime.”

  Nick leaped into the raft, falling into a mass of bodies, then Tanner passed his weapon down. He handed the line to Blade and said, “Count to ten and turn on a light.”

  As soon as the next wave shoved the raft away, Tanner rushed over and jammed the accelerator forward. He used the momentum of the boat flying away from him to dive off the back and started swimming toward where he thought the raft shou
ld be.

  A moment of panic rushed at him. He was disoriented and not sure which way to turn with everything black.

  The wet wool was dragging at him, and the damned water was freezing his balls off.

  He could hear the patrol boat powering away from him.

  Saltwater slapped him in the face and he dug in harder, swimming.

  “Over here!” called from his left.

  He treaded water hard, pushing up to locate the light. There. Shit, he’d been swimming away from them.

  The whine of the patrol boat motor was getting faint.

  He tried to yell, got a mouthful of water, floundered, and started swimming again.

  Then he heard Jin’s high pitched and frantic call. “Where are you, cowboy?”

  She was worried about him.

  Why that made him smile when his entire day had turned into a shit storm made no sense, but he felt a burst of energy. He dug his arm strokes deeper, plowing harder through the waves.

  He could swear they were tossing him backwards as fast as he moved forward.

  A flickering light bounced into view.

  He was getting closer, right? Or was that just wishful thinking. This would only work if the current was sending them toward him.

  An explosion boomed, sending a flash of fire and pieces flying into the air.

  The DPRK had sunk the patrol boat.

  It had to have made a quarter of a mile in that time. Was that far enough away?

  Raining debris slapped the water near him.

  “This way, Bo!”

  Someone on the raft had spotted him. Tanner kicked his feet hard and caught a flash of light then dove toward it, swimming hard.

  “Catch,” yelled from the raft.

  Something hit hard close to him. Tanner reached blindly. His hand hit a life ring. He yelled, “Got it.”

  The line went tight as they pulled him against the waves.

  He reached the raft, but climbing into a raft on a rough sea with drenched clothes sounded easier than it was. He couldn’t haul his sorry ass up over the side. Blade and Nick dragged him in.

  His heart was hammering to the beat of a metal rock band and his skin pebbled with chill bumps. The cold dug into his body with icy claws. He shivered, but this beat being out there.