She stood up. He pressed the ‘On’ button to pair the signals. A red light, a few blinks, then green. Success.
She turned, heading back toward them.
That was when all hell broke loose.
* * * *
The crack of gunfire was sudden. Surya instantly dove to one side, rolling to the nearest shrub. She’d been extra careful, was sure she hadn’t been seen. Besides, the shot didn’t hit anything around her. She quickly took a look between two small branches.
There were shadows running toward her. Lights flared up and shouts were heard, as if someone had been caught by surprise over at the enclosures and was giving a warning to others. She caught a few words. Filipino. The Abu Sayyaf terrorists were Filipino-based. She frowned. Weren’t the rogue SEALs in league with them? So, if these weren’t the guys they’d been following, who were these new intruders who had invaded the SEALs little hideout? And if they were intruders, what the hell was going on?
She studied the shadows scrambling toward her. There were three. The two in front were close together. The one behind appeared to be giving them orders. As they ran closer, she made out the words.
“Get in the boat. If you value your life, hurry up and get in the boat! My guys can only cover us for so long before everyone comes running out.”
Surya blinked in reaction. That sounded like the man they’d talked to in the market earlier, the one she’d said was the rogue SEAL. Wait a minute, who was he running off with? She could come up with an answer, but there was only one way to find out. She couldn’t let that boat get away.
* * * *
When the first shot rang out, Kirk’s first reaction was to run toward Surya. Gasi stopped him, pointing at the lights flaring up in the semi-darkness. The gaslights gave shape to the liquid shadows and the outlines were now clear—two hut-like structures. He could see silhouettes coming out of doors, running. There were shouts of confusion. More shots rang out, some from his side of the clearing and others from the direction of the lights.
Kirk frowned. He and Gasi weren’t firing any weapons. Who was over on this side?
Then he caught sight of the three figures rushing toward the shape on the river, the one he’d recognized as a boat of some kind. One of them stumbled and was dragged up by the one behind, who was yelling at them.
“He got them in. Go, go, go!” someone about a dozen meters away from where he and Gasi were hidden shouted, startling Kirk into ducking behind a tree for protection. Then he saw more figures emerging from the nearby clumps of bushes. He made a quick count. Three. They’d been there all along. His heart went to his throat at the thought of Surya creeping around the shadows only minutes ago. Had they seen her?
He turned his attention back to the most important thing—Surya—and his whole being came to a stop when he realized her intention. She was running toward the boat. What the fuck was she doing? There were shots everywhere. The three men heading toward the boat would shoot her before she could—
Another group of men were rushing from the lit area, shouting obscenities. And, in the midst of the chaos, other dark shapes suddenly popped up out of nowhere from the direction of the river. A familiar war cry rose in the air.
“Hooooo-Yahhhhhh!”
Kirk rushed out of his hiding place. If the first one was hell breaking loose, this one was definitely a bigger, noisier one just arriving.
“Gasi, those are my guys showing up for the party. You stay put!” he yelled as he started off.
He saw Surya leaping like some pirate into the boat.
“No!” he shouted. “Surya!”
Dammit. She was going to go off without him again. From the corner of his eye, he caught movement and ducked just in time as a shadowy figure came at him with something long, knocking the small gun he was holding out of his hand. As he rolled back to his feet, his low headlight caught the attacker’s face. One of the men from the market. He came at Kirk again with his weapon, a curvy blade on a long handle, a remade machete, perhaps, for cutting down higher branches.
Kirk knew the longer weapon had a better reach, so he dove to the left, rolling several times, as he groped for his weapon belt. The flash of the long blade slashed the air and hit the branch of the shrub next to him. Snatching up the broken branch with one hand, he turned to use it to stave off the next assault while his other freed his spare weapon from the holster.
Suddenly his opponent let out a howl of pain and turned in another direction. Kirk’s dim light caught a smaller figure standing behind the man. It was Gasi, waving his stick. He had obviously used it hard enough to get the enemy’s attention.
The man towered over Gasi’s smaller stature, but that didn’t seem to bother him at all. He countered each slash with his own stick and seemed to be using both ends of it as he bashed the bigger man on the knee, then turned and jabbed with the other end, causing another growl of pain.
Kirk couldn’t wait to see the outcome of the fight. Gasi appeared to be able to handle it. He had to get to the moving boat.
He made a run for the river again, ignoring the gunfight going on. The shouts mostly came from the men rushing from the huts. They were carrying lanterns and the area became brighter as light appeared here and there. He could see the boat Surya had jumped into. The engine rumbled as it moved slowly at first, going around a dark bobbing object in the water. He suddenly realized it was what the SEALs called a “rubber ducky,” their CRRC—Combat Rubber Recon Craft—used precisely for missions like this. He caught sight of another similar silhouette not far ahead. Two of them. Good, but did they know what was happening? He sure as hell wasn’t sure.
Besides the initial war cry, the SEALs who had arrived were not as vocal as the enemy, instead letting their weapons do the talking. They easily took out the first ones carrying the lanterns. While the shooters stayed in position, others scrambled up the river bank. There was just enough light to catch running figures in muddy camo engaging in hand-to-hand combat with those who had run down the embankment. It was clear they were caught by surprise at the number of intruders in their territory because Kirk kept hearing shouts of “Kiri! Kiri! Disitu! Pusing kanan!”He recognized those words from his short lessons with Surya in the car—left, left, over there, turn right. Clearly, the overwhelmed kidnappers were confused about where to turn.
He didn’t want to get caught up by friendly fire. When he ran close enough, he whistled and sharply called out, “Hawk! It’s me, Kirk Ryan!”
A figure turned. “Get your ass over here.”
