Escape From Dinosauria (Dinopocalypse Book 1) (4 page)

“Drop the knives, Kresevich,” the man holding her demanded.

“This is the best you come with?” The big Russian held out his hands, and in each there was a simple, bloody knife.

“Drop ‘em, or I break her neck!”

“We both know you wouldn’t do that, comrade. You’re the last one standing. Even if my darling Rock hadn’t intervened, my men had the drop on your friends. What did you hope to accomplish?”

She couldn’t help but think of a backwoods uncle who had spent most of his life training kids how to hide from bears; Kresevich pointed his knife at the man as if it were his finger, and he winked to emphasize his words, the smile on his face betraying a sense of friendship when there was nothing but a killer instinct inside of him.

“Back off!” the soldier shouted back.

“That won’t be necessary. I don’t need to let you live, either. Any one of your comrades can be interrogated. A smart man would know he has nothing to bargain with. If you were going to kill the girl, you would do so.”

And as Kresevich had pointed with one knife, so easily did his other hand dart out as if expecting a handshake. She felt warm fluid leak over her neck and down her shirt, and the man holding her relaxed his grip until she could easily break off.

A knife buried up to the hilt in his eye, the soldier was dead.

On the roof of the airport terminal, men wearing suits were disarming men in combat gear. Dmitri’s people had won the day, but at great cost to their enemy. Bodies lay scattered along the tarmac, and two armored SUVs were riddled with bullet holes. There had been a very short, pitched battle, and she had missed it.

In the cage, battles seemed to last a lifetime.

Jamie scuttled over to Jordan and ripped the bag off his face. His eye was badly bruised, and his pained groan allowed Jamie a chance to feel relieved that he was alive.

“What…?” Jordan tried to ask.

“I don’t know.” Jamie tried to think. She had to catch her breath, let the adrenaline slow down. The fight was over. There was nobody left standing for her to hit.

Except for Kresevich.

Her hands were slick and red with blood. There was blood on her face, on her chest, on her clothes. There was blood in her hair.

She had just killed a man. She had just used a machine gun. And these bastards had nearly killed Jordan. For what?

“Kresevich!” Jamie was on her feet and rushing toward the big Russian, who had plucked the knife from the soldier’s eye and was carefully wiping the juices clean from the blade on his jacket.

“Hmm?” Kresevich raised one eyebrow and gave her a sideways glance, returning his attention to the blade. “What you have witnessed was unfortunate, to say the least.”

“That’s it? That’s all you got?”

“How would an explanation help you now, Ms. Rock? These men are dead. They are terrorists. They believe that our operation here is against the laws of nature, or perhaps these men think it is against God…? I don’t know which group this is. This has been the first deliberate attack, and they have grown bold. They have grown desperate.”

“Because they don’t think you should be cloning dinosaurs? That’s what this bullshit was about?”

“I apologize if my explanation is not good enough, Ms. Rock. I am sure Jordan will tell you that there was indeed a certain danger in coming here. The fact that he did not tell you is none of my concern. Your safety is.”

A rush of emergency vehicles were already screaming onto the tarmac, wheels squealing, doors opening and closing. Paramedics circled Jordan.

She whipped her head back around to the Russian and met his cold, blue eyes.

The sly smile that touched his lips caused her fingers to clench into tight fists.

“This place is going to be shut down,” she said.

“On account of you, Ms. Rock? I think you and Jordan should speak privately when he is more cognizant. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I won’t be able to finish escorting you to the hotel. You’ll be going along in a more heavily armed caravan than the more private, personalized drive I had hoped for.”

It would be nice to have a moment alone with this smug bastard, but she knew better. The fact that Jordan hid something from her wasn’t surprising, because he had his own reasons for coming out to the dinosaur resort; he was an internationally-renown journalist, and people read his words. People analyzed his words, and his perspectives had influenced legislation and political campaigns. Whatever boyhood fantasies he harbored about hanging out with extinct reptiles wouldn’t be enough for him to come all the way out here to endanger his life while bringing her along for the ride.

Kresevich was an expert soldier, and she was a professional athlete—no matter how tough she was, she had never experienced anything like this before. In America, people have nightmares about terrorist attacks when they become brief news headlines, and now that violence had become her reality. She was confused, her mind a tormenting whirlwind of thoughts and emotions that she couldn’t decipher.

She would give anything to be back on the plane.

What could she say to Jordan? She didn’t have a right to feel betrayed, did she? His work was often a secretive and risky enterprise; the man had made his bones during the Afghanistan invasion in 2002. He was a professional, and he had confessed to her before that the bullets that had whizzed over his head and the dust in his eyes felt like nothing more than television special effects. None of it ever seemed real because he was working. The danger was fiction. Life was a Michael Bay movie. Just a bunch of CGI bullshit later inserted into his green-screened reality.

Kresevich was already on his phone relaying orders in his gruff Russian accent. Jamie turned around and was approached by medical staff, all of them wanting to put their hands on her and inspect her. She wished she had her own staff here with her.

She watched as Jordan, stretched out on a gurney, was shoved into the back of an ambulance. Why didn’t they have an armed escort like this in the first place if there was such an imminent threat? What the hell kind of security chief was Kresevich?

The world champion turned to look over her shoulder again at Kresevich, and she caught his eye one last time. He waved to her, and removed the phone from his chin to relay one more message to her.

“I hope that you enjoy the rest of your stay, Ms. Rocky.”

Oh, fuck this place.

4

In the ambulance, Jamie kept replaying the previous hour in her head. No fear. She hadn’t been afraid. She had never been afraid of any man or woman. Not since she began fighting.

Bloodstains beneath her fingertips.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. The attack would be all over the international news, and they were right in the thick of it. Jordan wasn’t saying much, probably because he knew that he disappointed her. He knew her well enough to know she was pissed, and whatever secrets he had already chosen to keep he wasn’t about to share with her now.

Jamie enjoyed silence. She was never much of a talker, which was one of her shittiest traits as a champion. She was awful in front of a camera, and it kept her from getting a title shot for the longest time. To this day, she wasn’t a media darling, but she tried. She did her best.

But this silence between her and Jordan now was awkward. Unwelcome.

Why didn’t he say something?

He cared for her, and he knew he made a big mistake. This was the first time he had ever betrayed her, and he had to see it coming. At some point, she was going to find out this whole trip was a joke.

“Listen to me,” she said.

“Look, I’m just—”

“Shut up. I don’t want to hear it. You know you fucked up. I don’t want to argue about it, and I don’t want to rehash it. I want to know what happens next.”

“You should at least let me explain.”

“Explain what? How can I trust you? You’re willing to get our asses killed for your story. I’m expendable to you. Are you expecting me to forgive you? Is that what talking out of your ass is going to get you right now?”

“It’s not like that. You can’t say you’re expendable.”

“You knew there was a risk. You know what I’m thinking right now? I’m thinking you’ve been using me. You’ve been waiting to do this story for a long time, and now you can sensationalize it. You brought me here, you’ve fucked me—”

“Jesus, Jamie, you don’t have to be so crude. It’s not like that at all. If you would just let me talk.”

“Talking’s your job. Making shit up. You’re going to tell me what happens next. You’re getting me off this island.”

The words spilled from her, and she didn’t know how much of it she really meant. She was more upset than she realized, and she was about to walk away from Jordan completely, after seven months. That’s where they were headed: Breakup Island.

She didn’t want this.

If only they could go back in time. If only he would have told her. Why did they have to come to a massive dinosaur exhibit? What was she doing out here?

Jordan shook his head, his back to her. He was sitting up on the gurney and staring into space. Here was a man who was used to being criticized and speaking with high-profile politicians and celebrities; here was a man who could communicate (not always fluently) in several languages, and yet, her words stung him. He wasn’t putting on a show.

“You’re asking to be involved,” he said, his voice stern. “I brought you with me because I don’t…this isn’t easy for me.”

“Then don’t bother.”

“Will you just drop the act for a moment? Please. Drop the tough-girl show and let me talk. Jamie, I’m 54 years old. I’m not getting any younger. I’ve met a lot of people, done a lot of things. I’ve put my ass in the fire more times than I can count, and in the end, what happened today, is just another one day on the job. But I put you in the way. I am selfish. I’ll admit that. I brought you with me because I didn’t want to be without you. You know me. You know what I do with words. And I know that you can’t trust me because you know me. And I’ll live with that. But I ask that you let me earn your trust.”

This powerful man was practically down on his knees. She didn’t want to give him the usual terse response. She felt silly for speaking to him that way, as if she had somehow bought into the same public image of herself that she hated so much. The capoeira-style cage fighter who did crazy shit in fights that entertained fans and won her a championship belt. Now, there was a moment of doubt. A moment of doubt not unlike the time she started to think her entire career was rigged; no matter how confident in her abilities she was, she knew she sold out events and pushed the TV ratings higher. Jamie Rock was worth millions.

“I’m confused right now,” she said. She knew it was probably the last thing any man wanted to hear, but it was the truth, and it was easier for her to be honest.

“I understand.”

The long silence that followed after his words became its own group of sentences; he knew better than to push her and he would give her space. Jordan was a gifted communicator, but this time, his silence was all she needed.

He loved her and wanted her to be part of his life for a very long time. Why it took a brief hostage situation involving machine guns and a knife-wielding Russian maniac was beyond her, but at least she had an inkling of what he felt, and what he wanted from her. They had never talked about taking another step in their relationship, and she didn’t know what that would mean if they had the conversation. She had never been to this point before.

She was better at fighting than loving. Always had been.

The old rock song “Love is a Battlefield” began to play in her head.

Here was a fight she didn’t know how to win.

5

“Sir, we’re going to be taking you directly to our clinic,” a male paramedic with blond hair swept over his forehead said.

Jordan shook his head. The ambulance had stopped, and he had started arguing with the paramedics. “I’m here on business,” he said. “I’m sure your facilities are state of the art. I’m not denying treatment. We’ve come a long way to see the hotel, and to see what everyone’s talking about. You’ve already had the pleasure. Let us see it.”

“We have monitors set up inside—”

“We’ve seen them on video before. We’ve seen them on the internet. I’ve seen them in my dreams, too. I’m like a kid right now. You get a lot of kids coming through here? Aren’t they happy? Can you tell me what their faces look like when they see them?”

“Look, if we don’t take you—”

“I know Mr. Tanaka very well. You call him Boss Tanaka, right? You’ve done an awesome job. We just went through bullets and blood after a long plane ride. Let us see the dinosaurs.”

The paramedic thought for a moment, obviously conflicted with his job and the fact that two well-known celebrities could get him in serious trouble if he didn’t do what they wanted. His nametag read: “Mike.”

“Hey, Michael,” Jamie said. “Or do you prefer Mike?”

“Mike’s fine.”

“Why don’t we take a picture together? I know I’m a mess right now, but you’ll have the first picture with me since we got here. And you’ll look like a hero because you saved us.”