Today’s excerpt is from Birth
Of The Asps, Book #1 of the Asps Series. On the first mission of the team, Dusty and
Kye find the al-Qaida encampment on the island of Dominica. Enjoy and have a wonderful day.
m.j.
Then they started up the incline, with Dusty
carrying both equipment bags. Just as he
reached the top, Kye—who had been right behind him—lost her footing and fell
down the incline head-over-heels. Dusty
heard the commotion and turned to look down the incline to Kye, now sitting up
at the bottom. He hurried down and knelt
beside her.
“Are you okay?”
“No.
I hurt all over. Let’s go.”
Dusty smiled, helped Kye to her feet, then
followed her up the incline, giving her a gentle boost from behind. Kye was sore, humiliated, and mad at herself,
but thankful for Dusty just calmly helping her out, without sarcastic
comments—which she was sure would follow at some point.
When she reached the top of the incline, she
saw nothing of any camp and quietly asked, “Where’s this camp?”
Dusty pointed through some of the thick
foliage. Then Kye could see just a
glimpse of what she had been looking for.
Without comment, Dusty started down the not very well worn path and Kye
followed. The further they went, the
more Kye could see of the camp. For the
most part, it was in a clearing in the rain forest.
As they neared the camp, Dusty veered off
the path into some thick vegetation and Kye followed. Dusty pointed to a small place of concealment
and whispered, “You climb in that hidey hole, while I go find a place to set up
our gear.”
“Okay.
Hey, got a question—why are they right out in the open like this?”
“Because they’re al-Qaida…idiots. They must feel sure no one will just come
along this way, and none of our satellites will be wasting time to snapping
pictures of Dominica
Kye said nothing in return, as Dusty eased
off and was gone from sight in less than a minute. The spot Dusty had picked out for her was far
from comfortable—especially with her aches and pains from the fall—but she
suffered on in silence.
Dusty worked his way down to a spot of
concealment and set up the listening device contained in the two bags. It was an elaborate set-up that not only
listened, but also recorded. Dusty could
listen by plugging in an earphone apparatus.
The device only recorded when something was being said. By careful aiming and tuning, Dusty was able
to get the receiver pointed at a tent he determined was the headquarters tent,
after listening in on various conversations from various points.
After two hours of listening, and being
amazed at what he was hearing, Dusty popped out the tape of what he’d heard and
put in a new one. Then he started
working his way back to Kye. To avoid
making noise or giving away his presence in any manner, the going was slow, but
he carefully worked his way back toward her.
Meanwhile, Kye had also been busy. She’d brought along a pad and pen in the pocket
of her leotards and had been busy sketching out a map of the camp’s layout,
which was fully visible to her from the vantage point where Dusty had left her.
She was so intent on what she was doing that
she didn’t see or hear the machete-armed man who was walking down the path from
the original direction she and Dusty had approached the camp.
He, on the other hand, was observant enough
to accidentally spot Kye. He quietly
left the trail and approached her from behind.
Just as he raised his machete, Kye somehow sensed his presence and
turned, reaching for her Asp as she did so.
She realized she’d never be fast enough, and resigned herself to joining
her husband in death.
No comments:
Post a Comment