Chapter Eighteen

      Wednesday, September 16th, 11:00 a.m.

      “Let’s do this,” Kate said as she pulled out her gun, checked the chamber and holstered it. She turned to look at him with zeal for the assignment alive in her eyes. There was a confidence about her that was all about succeeding, and that confidence was contagious.

      They’d spent the earlier part of the morning scouting the terrain backing into the oasis. There had been no sign of the last man who had shot at them, but they’d been prepared if he had showed up. When they got back to the tent there was nothing to show that it had been disturbed. No footprints, no evidence that anyone, other than them, had been there.

      “Looks like our guess was right. I doubt if their sniper even knew what he was shooting at. He couldn’t see much in the storm,” Kate said. “They know someone’s here. I don’t think they had a visual, but sound travels. It’s clear that they had a watch.”

      “I think you’re right,” Emir agreed.

      “It’s rough terrain. I doubt if we’ll be able to make anywhere near the average 2.4 miles an hour. So...” She looked at her watch.

      “We leave in an hour,” he said as he pocketed the compass, loaded his Glock and stuffed two spare magazines into his pocket. He shifted his knapsack where she knew he had another couple of magazines, just as she did in hers. They were both prepared to hold off an army if necessary.

      “Let’s do it,” Kate said less than an hour later.

      “Kate,” he said, taking her into his arms and kissing her hot, brief and full of promise.

      They both knew this would be the only reference to what was growing between them. After, it would be all business.

      And as if to confirm that, he let her go as quickly as he had pulled her against him. It was like they’d never been intimate. It was what they had to do, for they needed to be focused. One mistake could jeopardize everything and everyone.

      For the moment it appeared they had the advantage. The kidnappers didn’t know that she and Emir were out here. At least so they hoped, for just ten minutes ago Zafir had contacted them to let them know there had finally been another ransom demand, this time with specific instructions. They wanted a helicopter drop with an unarmed pilot at an oasis thirty miles to the south of the location where they now had them pinpointed. That wasn’t going to happen. Now it was just a matter of getting Tara out.

      Unfortunately, the kidnappers knew someone was here, it was only a matter of time before they put the pieces together.

      “If we come in from the northwest corner, there’s what I believe is a crevice that leads to a tunnel through a cave and goes straight through and into the oasis, hopefully near where they’re holding her. I don’t know how big it is, but I know the children, when the oasis was a settlement, used to use it,” Kate said with an almost breathy excitement in her voice.

      “How do you know this? You have no access to internet, no...”

      “At the village. El Dewar. The women had more to say than what I told you.” She shrugged. “An old lady I met was born here, in these very hills, on the oasis we’re heading for.”

      “Anything else?”

      “No one uses the oasis anymore, at least, not to live. In fact, she said it was mostly forgotten. Dried up when she was a child. She thought that there was some water, enough for a traveler or two. I’d say that makes it about perfect.”

      He smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

      The valley was narrow and surrounded by low-lying sandstone hills. The oasis was on the other side of the valley and, from what she had gleaned from the atlas, backed two steep hills at the end of the chain that served to protect it from outsiders.

      “From what that woman said and what I’ve calculated,” Kate said hours later, “we should be close to the break in the rock that would take us in.” They’d been moving carefully through the valley throughout the afternoon. Now, the sun was setting and spilling a vibrant orange across the valley and up into the hills that stood like ancient sentinels, protecting the valley from intruders.

      “We go up from here and through the rocks there,” Kate said a few minutes later as she pointed to her right and about two hundred feet up.

      They began to make their way up the narrow, steep path that wound between the rocks. Within twenty-five feet the path became smooth, almost worn, making it clear that at one time it had been a well-traveled route.

      “The tunnel that leads into the oasis shouldn’t be much farther,” she said.

      The rock rose on either side as high as Emir’s shoulders, then the path narrowed and he found himself occasionally clipping his shoulders against outcroppings.

      “They must have used this path to get water or maybe for defense. I believe they more frequently came in from the other way,” Kate said. “From the oasis.”

      They both knew it was irrelevant what the path had been used for. What mattered was that it was there and that they knew of its existence.

      He was glad that she had been in El Dewar to listen to the musings of an old woman. Between that and the other women who had spoken to her, in the end, despite her unease, she’d succeeded. In an odd way, the women had trumped the men. He wondered what Tara would say about that and, at the thought of Tara, the old fury rolled in his gut. They were so close.

      We’re here, Tara, he said silently, as if his sister were privy to his thoughts.

      “We’ll get her out, Emir,” Kate said. She stopped and took his hands in hers. “We’ll get her out,” she repeated and rose up on tiptoes to kiss him.

      He took her in his arms and kissed her with all the emotion he was feeling. When he let her go, somehow he felt better, more centered and less angry.

      That was something Kate did for him, among so many others. He felt like he’d known her forever and, as much as he wanted to find Tara, he dreaded the moment when he’d have to let Kate go. He pushed the thought out of his mind, for it was those kinds of thoughts that got one killed or worse, got one’s partner killed. That would never happen. He wouldn’t let it.

      “Let’s go,” she said and they continued to make their way along the trail as it rose up and then began to go downward.

      Finally they came to a dark hollow, a cave that Kate claimed the old woman had told her tunneled through the cliff and straight into the oasis. It was a long shot, but it was all they had. The light was scant as the penlight flickered off the rocky path. They had more powerful flashlights but this was all they could chance without risking the light might be seen.

      “Cover me,” he said. “And I’ll go in.”

      “You won’t fit,” she replied.

      “You don’t know that.” The opening was five feet high by four wide, plenty of room. He bent and entered the tunnel, but within seven feet it became drastically smaller. He shone the light ahead to see that the tunnel curved and realized that he would never get through. This tunnel was made for a smaller person. Reluctantly he backed out.

      “We can go around...” he began.

      “And let them know we’re here. Ring the doorbell before entering—so to speak,” she said and didn’t tone down the sarcasm. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “Let me, Emir.”

      “No...”

      “Think