Fished nodded. “Dingo here caught a bullet through the meat of his thigh. Not life-threatening and with no permanent damage.
“Curved plates would have stopped that!” Stim insisted.
Ben nodded with a shaky smile. “Thank you very much for your efforts tonight. I’m deeply indebted to you guys. And Evelyn, of course!” He pulled her to his side, and she didn’t resist.
“You just get this armor approved for combat missions. It’s pretty spectacular stuff,” Fisher said with a grin. Then he gave Ben a sly grin. “The armor the guys tested for you, do you need it back?”
Ben was still a bit leery about it being relied upon as the only armor they wore. “No, as long as it’s worn with certified armor. As you said, it’s just prototype stuff. I’d like the damaged plates back.”
The man Fisher referred to as Killjoy handed his mangled plate to Ben, then gestured to his chest. “Any chance I can get a replacement? It saved my life.”
Ben looked to Evelyn, and she smiled with a nod.
“I believe we still have a plate or two of the four-layer stuff. I’ll get it for him,” she said.
“How went the zip-line training?” Ben asked, and Fisher chuckled. His men were amused as well.
“I’d say the first run went extremely well,” Fisher suggested, and his men laughed. The ones who were too injured to continue walked toward the Spa. The rest followed Evelyn toward the backyard.
Ben was left standing alone at the end of his driveway, watching the helicopters power up to head back to the air base. This threw up a lot of snow, but Ben shielded his face in the sudden blizzard to watch them leave. Visibility was obscured quite a bit.
Out of this mess, a tall black van drove around the circular court and stopped in front of Ben. Because of the attack, he knew nothing was getting in the neighborhood tonight without being vetted by the soldiers at the entrance, so he wasn’t concerned. The side door opened automatically, and he saw CIA Agent Stephanie Russo sitting on the seat on the other side. She smiled at him.
Ben moved closer.
“Might I have a quick word with you, Ben?” Stephanie asked with a crooked smile. She gestured to the seat next to her, and he scowled but sighed as he knew he had to listen to her. With a glance back at the house, he stepped inside, and the door closed as he turned to face the woman.
Ben didn’t feel the needle inject the powerful sedative into his neck from the seat behind his, but he quickly slumped in his chair.
The black van continued its way around the circle and out of the neighborhood, still partially obscured by the plume of snow thrown up by the departing helicopters.
-=-
As the helos flew over the tower, Evelyn stepped onto the deck and watched them go. She picked up the bag of armor plates, walked to the front deck, and looked down as she knew Ben would be watching them too. He wasn’t there, but it was really late, so she assumed he’d gone to bed. She’d speak to him in the morning.
She turned to smile at the commandos. They’d really come through for Ben tonight, so they were permanently on her friends list. “Courtesy of Ben with his thanks!” she said as she handed out the remaining plates. “I’ll speak with Captain Kendricks to get him to prioritize the certification of these.”
Fisher smiled. “Much appreciated!” he said with a grin. He handed a replacement plate to Killjoy. “Try to make this one last, as we don’t know when we’re getting more,” he said, and the other soldiers laughed at Killjoy’s happy grin. They all had a little post-battle euphoria, but happy is happy.
Evelyn’s cell rang, and she held up a hand as it was General Davis.
“Yes, General.”
“Report, Sergeant.”
“Thank you for the warning, but it was almost too late. The terrorist attack launched just seconds after.”
“Yes, I was speaking to the comm tech at the Spa when they were hit. Any casualties?” he asked.
Evelyn smiled. “Only a couple minor injuries on our side. Fifteen terrorists are dead, fifteen were captured, and they’re on their way to Fort Kortridge Air Base for transfer to Guantanamo for questioning.”
She heard her uncle breathe a sigh of relief.
“What’s the story on this armor?” he asked
“It’s excellent armor, sir, and had a live fire field test tonight. I can personally vouch for its ability to protect against point-blank gunfire,” she said with a grin. The commandos heard her and cheered.
“What? You were wearing untested armor?” General Davis snapped.
“Ben shared your concern, but we wore it over our existing armor. Nothing got through except one hell of a kick.”
“Shit!” he exclaimed. “Was that Fisher’s men? Let me speak to the man.”
Evelyn handed the cell to Fisher, who kept the earpiece open so she could also hear Davis.
“Yes, General?” he said.
“Thanks for protecting Ben and his extended family,” Davis began.
“We were in the perfect location to defend them, from the top of his tower with a zip-line to drop us directly into the middle of the bastards. The Sergeant did her fair share as well,” he said with a smile.
“What’s your take on the armor?” Davis asked.
“In the shooting range, I witnessed it stopping five armor-piercing rounds. It’s better than anything we have. It transfers that energy across the plate, so I imagine it does give you quite the kick, but you aren’t dead.”
Evelyn’s face registered the shock as her mind caught a little detail she’d missed.
Fisher saw her freeze. “One moment General, the sergeant just thought of something.”
Evelyn leaned closer to the phone. “It was something one of the prisoners said. He was cursing Ben for inventing armor for the Russians. We only brought the new plates out tonight, and the only civilian who might have seen it was the owner of the gun range.”
“Take him into custody, Sergeant,” Davis growled.
“Yes, sir!” she said with a wicked grin and hung up. She saw matching smiles on the commandos.
“Any volunteers to collect a terrorist?” she asked, and all hands went up.
-=-
A sleek and fast jet waited for its passengers at a small airstrip outside the city. When the van finally arrived, the occupants stripped Ben and moved him into the aircraft. Soon, they were airborne and traveling at their top speed. They had no time to waste.
Ben would have to wait until they arrived at their final destination to be awakened and filled in. Stephanie knew he would be pissed by this extraction, but time was of the essence as a long-term mission was about to fail if she didn’t pull off a miracle. Lives were at stake.
Quickly getting Ben to the other side of the world was just part one.
When dawn broke, Tina woke and discovered Ben hadn’t come to bed. This wasn’t anything to be concerned about, as Ben often spent the night with one of the other ladies in his life. After the attack, he’d gone out to speak to Evelyn and the commandos, so Tina sent Evelyn a quick note asking if she saw where Ben had gone after he left her.
Seconds later, Evelyn’s response came back with a question. “Didn’t he spend the night with you?”
Tina blinked at the screen of her cell. “No,” she sent back.
“Okay. Last sighting was in front of his house. Will check surveillance tapes. One minute.”
Tina did her best to remain calm as Ben might have walked over to Gabriella’s to check on her as she was the first person he called the night before.
Her cell beeped with another incoming text. It was Evelyn. “Checking with Spa. One moment please.”
Tina’s nerves began to buzz.
“Good morning, Tina,” Lucy said sleepily as she walked into the kitchen. Her expression froze as she caught the look on Tina’s face. “What’s going on?”
“Ben didn’t come back to the house last night, and Evelyn said she thought he was going to. She said she was checking something with the soldiers in the Spa,” Tina explained.
“Aren’t they only watching the west side of the court?” Lucy asked, also beginning to feel concerned.
Tina squeaked as the doorbell rang.
She rushed to the front door with Lucy behind her. Evelyn was standing there looking worried. “What’s happened? Where’s Ben?”
“The surveillance footage shows Ben standing at the end of his driveway. He was watching the helicopters leaving. They blew the snow around like crazy. In that mess, you can just make out the taillights of a tall black van that stopped at Ben’s driveway. It moved on, and when the snow settled, Ben wasn’t there. I think he got into the van,” Evelyn reported. “I called the Spa, but the new squads are now in place, and the soldier who vetted the arrival of the van last night didn’t make a record in the log. He’s in transit, so we can’t reach him to ask. I tried calling Ben’s cell, but it went right to voicemail. Either the phone is off, or the battery might be dead. I’m going to do a trace on the logs of the local cell towers to identify his route.” She looked into the frightened eyes of Tina and Lucy. “I will find him.”
When Tina nodded, Evelyn stepped back outside and ran home. Tina closed the door, and Lucy gathered her into her arms.
“She’ll find him and bring him home,” she said gently.
-=-
A gentle and warm breeze blew across Ben’s body, carrying with it the scent of flowers and salt. Sunlight was warming his bare skin. Hmmm… he couldn’t feel his clothes.
His brows furrowed as these sensations didn’t match his expectations at all.
It was winter. There was snow.
He tried to open his eyes, but the sunlight was stabbing into his brain. His vision was much too sensitive to light! He moaned and raised his hand to shield his eyes.
“Good, you’re finally awake.”
The voice was familiar, but her tone had an unexpected tension.
“Russo?” he asked, and his voice cracked.
“Sit up. I’ll give you some water.”
That’s when his body told him how much he wanted some.
He was lying on a mattress, so he pushed himself up to a seated position and tried his eyes again. His vision swam for a moment then he saw a glass of water before him. He took it and raised it to his mouth.
Then he froze as he suddenly remembered Stephanie Russo sitting in a van, getting in to sit next to her, then nothing. He glanced at the water suspiciously.
“There’s nothing in the water. I need you awake,” the agent said. She was sitting on the edge of the bed.
His eyes locked on hers, but she wasn’t giving him her usual sly smile.
His need for the water won out, and he drank everything in the glass.
“What… what did you do to me?” he finally managed to ask once he handed the glass back.
“I expedited your transfer from your home to where the CIA needed you to be,” she said.