Page 57 of Her Defiant Warrior

“I don’t suppose you could come up with clothes for Mateo and Jase to wear, could you?” Gideon asked.

“If you give me an hour, I could. I’m also going to see what I can do about getting some weapons that the three of you can conceal.”

“That’d be much appreciated,” Gideon sighed. “Most of the men are respectful of one another. After all, we’re all in the same shitty situation. But there are a few that wouldn’t hesitate trying to steal from the others and my cell phone is a hot ticket item.”

8

Jonas took longer than expected, but when he did come back to the room, he had some ratty clothes and decent boots to go along with two suitcases that had prominent gaming logos on the front.

“I got these from another source,” he said as he held up the suitcases. “Once again, I struck out. The guy who sold me the stuff wouldn’t say whether he had sold anything similar to any other Americans in the last couple of weeks. I think the Kraken have either paid them to keep their mouths shut or terrified the hell out of them.”

“I’m betting they scared the piss out of them,” Ryker ground out. “I hate these motherfuckers.”

“We’re aware,” Jase said.

Jonas handed Jase and Mateo a pair of boots. Both of them looked at them with distaste.

“Sorry guys, if you wear our normal boots, it’ll be a dead giveaway. These are the nicest set of boots that you will be able to wear without drawing attention,” Gideon told them.

“Which is why I got you a pair.” Jonas handed a set to Gideon. “The reason I was gone so long was I had to go to three different stores to find boots big enough for Mateo. Jesus, what did they feed you down in Argentina?” Jonas asked.

“I didn’t get my growth spurt until my family moved to Texas,” Mateo said. “I blame it on the barbeque.”

“Before you put the boots on, please take note of the interior sheath for your SOG Snarl knives. They fit perfectly. Because your boots aren’t very high, your knives are relatively small, but they’ll do in a pinch. Also, check out your belt. You're going to have to scuff it up, but you’ll see that within the belt buckle is a concealed knife. So, guys, other than that, you’re on your own.”

“There’s one more thing,” Landon said seriously.

“What?” Kostya asked, leaning forward.

“They smell too good, Lieutenant. They’re never going to believe they’re new recruits when they smell that good.”

“There’s no ‘Eau de Body Odor’ in the bathroom, so what do you suggest we do?” Jase asked as he helped to divvy up the weapons into the new golf bags.

“I’ll make you walk the last two miles to the dorm. In this heat, that should take care of things.”

Jase shot Ryker the finger.

* * *

Jase was wandering again. After fifteen hours of digging a foundation, walking upright felt like a goddamned miracle. Hadn’t anybody in this godforsaken country ever heard of an excavator? Or a pair of gloves?

Mateo was working on a different project. He was on the seventeenth floor, welding rebar, and he had to make a stink just to get a welding mask that had been fabricated by a seven-year-old fifty years ago. They’d only been on the job three days and Mateo had already seen one man injured so badly, he was sure he was going to die.

Up ahead, he finally saw who he’d been looking for. It was Vova. A kid with more brawn than sense. He couldn’t be over twenty. He was there with his ‘crew,’ Faizan and Hazeem. What was scary was that Vova was the leader of their little gang.

He’d heard them talking in line to get to the toilet. Vova was being circumspect about the fact he was meeting up with someone who wanted information about the Museum of the Future. The kid didn’t mention that the ‘someone’ was American, or that they were offering money, therefore none of the others in line paid him any attention. But Jase knew he’d hit pay dirt.

Jase had been walking back and forth in front of the south side of the dormitory where Vova and his friends were housed for the last hour and a half. Even though it was almost midnight, there were still many men wandering around, so it was easy enough for Jase to follow the three young men without being spotted.

They continued on until they got to the farthest building on the outskirts of the labor camp. Two fires were burning outside the dormitory, and Jase could smell meat being cooked. Vova slowed down and turned around, looking to see who else was in the area. Jase wandered close to one of the fires just as Vova and his friends drifted off around the corner of the building.

Jase waited a couple of minutes, then he walked over to the corner and stopped. He peered around the corner and couldn’t see anything, but he could definitely hear an American talking.

“What part of the museum did you work on?”

“All of it,” one of Vova’s friends said. “I worked on the interior and the exterior.”

“I worked only on the exterior,” Vova’s other friend said.