Operation Tropical Affair: A Poppy McVie Adventure (Poppy McVie Series Book 1) (8 page)

Using my binoculars, I scanned the eaves of the shed. No video cameras. In fact, looked like there was no electricity. I thought I heard the faint hum of a generator. Perhaps for lights at night?

I slipped back into the cover of the jungle and, keeping to the harsh, late afternoon shadows, I headed up the hillside on the west side, avoiding the driveway, to get a look from the north. I came across three more trip lines, the same setup, each attached to an old bell.
 

About five hundred yards from the northwest corner of the shed, I crossed a path that disappeared into the dense foliage. I followed it to a ravine where a cable stretched across from which a metal basket hung, large enough to carry two people. It was rigged with a pulley system that allowed the basket to be moved by hand in either direction. On the far side, all I could see was an outhouse. I hadn’t noticed it on Google Earth, but it was small and tucked under a tree. It would be too risky to get in the basket to check it out. If someone came along, I’d have nowhere to hide and nowhere to go. Besides, it might squeak and rattle and bang. I slipped back among the leaves and headed toward the shed.

I stayed on the north side, uphill of the shed, and crossed all the way to the east to a vantage point where I could clearly see the main entrance. Two guards posted there carried 9mm submachine guns, looked like MP-5s. There was definitely something of value in there. I crouched down on my haunches and wondered how I was going to get inside to find out.
 

And how I was going to tell Dalton.

I had to assume that if the place was guarded, it was guarded twenty-four hours a day. I could set up a diversion to draw the guards away, but, working alone, that would likely provide very little time to get inside and back out. I could do a stake out, see what comes and goes. But that kind of operation took more time than I had and required constant surveillance, which I couldn’t do alone, nor could I make excuses for the time away from Dalton. Bribing one of the guards for information was way too risky; I could blow my cover.
 

I decided to pack it in. This was all I was going to get today. I circled back around to the south side of the shed and dropped into the thick brush when a bell rang somewhere to the west of me.
Crap.
I looked down. I hadn’t tripped a line. I was sure the closest one was a good twenty paces to my left.
 

Shouts came from the shed. The guards were scrambling. I had to get out of here. And fast.

A second bell rang. This time closer. Someone was coming my way and closing in fast. If I ran, I’d be spotted. I dropped to the ground and rolled under some ferns. A man went barreling by, laughing as he went. I pushed up on my elbows to get a glimpse of him. He went straight for the next tripwire, jumped up and down on it, causing the bell to clank back and forth. When he turned to listen for the guards, I got a good look at him.
 

It was Noah. I blinked. From the butterfly gardens. What the hell was he doing?

He took off, heading south, then dropped with a thump. He let out a moan.

Crap.
I couldn’t afford to get caught here. But I couldn’t let him get shot.

I scanned the jungle for pursuers, then left my hiding spot and sprinted to him. He was rubbing his right shoulder. “Is it broken?” I whispered.
 

“No.” He got up and brushed mud from his shorts. It took a moment, but I could see recognition set it. “What are you doing here?”

There was movement behind him. I held up my hand in a gesture to be quiet. He turned to look and I slipped behind a tree. A guard burst through the brush and skidded to a halt, aiming his weapon at Noah. “Ah, ha! Te he cogido,” the guard muttered. He turned his head and drew in a breath to shout. I pounced, slamming him to the ground. I knocked the rifle from his hands and with a quick punch square on the temple, put him out cold.
 

“Holy crap! Where'd you learn that?” Noah said, his eyebrows arched all the way to his hairline.
 

“Self defense class?” I shrugged, trying to look surprised myself. “Ha, who knew it would pay off?” I grinned.
 

“Yeah,” he said, staring at the guy.

“I think there might be more coming,” I told him.
Four to be exact. Two heavily armed.

“Yeah.” He turned east. “Follow me.”

I hesitated. I had no idea what Noah was up to or why he was here.
 

“C’mon, trust me,” he said and flashed his adorable smile. “You don’t want to stick around.”

I glanced down at the guard. At this point, my fate was tied to Noah’s anyway. He launched into a full-out sprint, crashing through the brush. I followed as he ran down a shallow ravine, up and over a ridge. Shots rang out behind us and a bullet went zipping by my head. And Noah was headed toward the river. We needed to cut south.

“I think there’s a river ahead,” I said. “It’s whitewater. Too strong to cross.”

“I know,” he said and kept running.

“But—”

“Trust me,” he hollered over his shoulder.

The land sloped downward and we burst through some thick foliage at the edge of the river. “Go, go, go!” Noah shouted as he plowed into the water. I glanced around. In a small eddy just downriver, a young woman sat in a two-man inflatable kayak, a paddle in one hand, a rope loosely tied around a tree trunk in the other. She let loose the line and dug in with the paddle, shoving off. “C’mon,” he shouted to me as he launched himself into the kayak. I hit the water and in two strides I was straddling the edge of the kayak, one leg in, one dragging, as it caught in the main current and sent us spinning.
 

He grabbed me under my arms and heaved me up and into the kayak. “Hang on,” he said. “Whatever you do, stay in the boat. Listen to Claudia. She’s a world-class rafting guide.”

Water gushed and roared as it propelled us downriver in a turbulent, angry fury of white foam. I glanced back at Claudia. She looked calm and capable, focused on calculating the flow of the rapids. “Sounds goo—” I managed to say before we rammed a wall of water and white froth crashed over my head. I gripped the sides of the narrow boat with both hands and blew water out of my nose.
 

Noah dug in with his paddle at Claudia’s commands. “Forward, now back paddle,” she hollered over the thunder of the rapids as we spun sideways and rolled up one side of a crest and down the other. “Duck!” Our boat scraped under branches that jutted out from the bank. “Now hard left!” Noah obeyed and no sooner were we facing downriver than we hit a rock and the front of the kayak shot upward, stalling on the rock, jolting us to a halt as water roared past.
 

The back end slowly caught in the current and spun us around, lifting us off the rock, shooting us downriver facing backward, bobbing in the waves. Claudia looked over her shoulder. “Get ready,” she said. Ready for what, I wondered, and we were airborne. Claudia dropped down, clinging to the back side of the kayak, as it flipped. Noah launched into the air. I rolled into the churning maelstrom, my arms flailing, grasping in the air for anything. Then the boat was there and I grabbed hold and heaved myself up onto it, coughing water from my lungs.
 

“Where’s Noah?” His head popped up to our right, then got sucked under again.
 

“Grab him!” she shouted.

I reached out and when he popped up again, I grabbed ahold of his T-shirt and hauled him onto the overturned kayak. He coughed and sputtered.
 

Claudia managed to get us into a backwater at the edge of the river and we got the kayak flipped back over. “It’s not over yet,” she said.

Noah and I got back into the boat. Claudia gave it a shove into the current and crawled onto the back. The kayak bucked and tilted as we hit some big swells, then just as Claudia got her paddle in the water, we slid into a white hole of swirling water. The kayak jerked and spun in a white vortex, water pounding over us from all directions, pummeling us with surge after surge while Claudia shouted commands to Noah. I felt helpless, hanging on to the sides. Finally, the bow tipped upward and we shot out of the hole.
 

The kayak rolled sideways, then with a jolt, rolled the other way as Claudia shouted, “Lean left! Now right!” We countered our weight and managed to keep it upright as we squeaked through a narrow gully, water smashing into boulders on either side of us. “Hold on!” Claudia warned. The nose dipped downward and we plunged over a waterfall. Wham! We rammed into the water, slamming us forward. We hit the water so hard my eyelids yanked wide open and my eyeballs were washed inside and out. I let go to give them a rub and the kayak dipped and spun sideways, tipping to starboard. Somehow, Claudia kept us upright.
 

Then finally, the kayak slowed in a stretch of riffles. Noah got up on his knees, held the paddle over his head, and shouted, “Ha! Take that, you bastards!”

Claudia paddled us around another bend to where the river crossed under the road and they’d stashed a beat up old VW bus. We hauled out, strapped the kayak to the roof, and after three attempts to get the engine started, sped away, Claudia at the wheel and me and Noah on the floor in the back.

As soon as we caught our breath, Noah asked, “What were you doing up there?”

“I was out birding and kinda got turned around, I guess.” I conjured some surprise and added a helping of fear. “Then you ran by and scared the crap out of me. Who were those men? They were shooting at you! At us!”
And why were you purposefully ringing the bells to get them to chase you?

Claudia glanced back at Noah and something passed between them.
 

“I guess I’m lucky you came along,” I said.

“I’m pretty sure it’s the other way around.” He shook his head. “Claudia, you should have seen her take down that guard.”

I winced, but he didn’t notice. That was an unfortunate complication and could be a problem. “He’s making it sound like more than it was,” I said, trying to produce a blush. “He scared me is all. I just reacted.”

“Sounds like he got what he deserved.”
 

Noah gave her a quick shake of his head. He looked at me and grinned.
 

If they were organized activists, they’d be cautious. Too many questions right away would cause suspicion. But I had a thousand. What did they know exactly? How had they found out about the shed? Did they know who was involved? I had to be careful. I wouldn’t force him to give me an explanation. Better to act the flirt, see how things played out.
 

“All I know is we stumbled onto something.” But I didn’t want to look like an idiot. With narrowed eyes, I looked to Claudia and back to Noah. “Wait a minute. Are you cops or something?”

“Ha,” he huffed. He shifted his weight and leaned forward. “Do we look like cops?”

I smiled and shook my head. He was looking mighty scrumptious with wet hair and his damp T-shirt clinging to his chest. If Claudia was his girlfriend, I needed to be extra cautious. I think he read my mind because he said, “You’re shivering.” He held out his hands, gesturing for me to scoot over and lean against him. “C’mere.” I flipped around and cuddled into his embrace. “You should come to the bonfire tonight, meet the gang. Claudia’s boyfriend will be there and Jack’s doing a fish boil.”

I grinned. “I’d like that.”
And all the intel you can give me.

I wondered how the agency governed undercover affairs, what was allowed, how one handled
relationships
. I fully understood the risk in becoming emotionally involved, but a little fun while getting information couldn’t hurt, could it? The agency had no authority over my sex life anyway. Maybe some fraternization clause, but civilians were none of their business. Besides, I needed to work this informant for all I could, right?

 
All this flashed through my mind when Claudia hopped out of the van, leaving me alone with Noah, his warm breath on my neck. He ran his hands up and down my arms. “We should get you out of those wet clothes,” he whispered in my ear, his voice husky. My breath caught in my throat and all I could manage was to nod.
 

The back doors of the van flung open. “Looks like Jack’s already got the fire going,” Claudia said.
 

“We’ll be out there in a minute,” Noah said as we piled out of the van.
 

The sun hung low on the horizon. The surf rolled on the beach, its lapping mixed with the happy sounds of friends gathered near the crackling bonfire.
 

Noah took me by the hand and led me down a narrow sandy path, swatting palm leaves out of the way. He came to a halt at a clearing and spread his arms wide. “My humble abode,” he said. Nestled in the branches of a tree was a tree house. An actual tree house. Okay, it was partially supported by poles, but it was the coolest house I’d ever seen.
 

Tiny solar powered lanterns lit a spiral staircase leading up to the rail of the balcony where a hammock hung.
 

“Nice digs,” I said.

“Be my guest.” Noah gestured for me to climb the stairs.
 

As I reached the top, my mouth dropped open at the view. I leaned on the railing and took it in. An amber glow lined the horizon. Pink clouds streaked across the sky. The bonfire below us sent rosy sparks into the air, soaring skyward.
 

Noah came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “You like?”

“It’s beautiful,” I said, steadying myself.

He nuzzled my neck. I held my breath.

He pressed his lips to my ear. “Your heart’s racing.”

“Yeah, I just, you know, I’m just a little on edge. It’s not everyday I get shot at.”

“I know.” He flashed a conspiratorial smile. “Isn’t it invigorating?”

He gently turned me around to face him. One hand on my hip, he reached up and caressed my cheek, then slipped his hand behind my neck. He paused, inches away, his hungry eyes lingering on my lips. I ran my hand up his arm, across his shoulder to his neck and pulled him toward me. Our lips met. His tongue touched mine and made my insides twinkle.