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“Fuck!” His voice reverberated, raw and raspy, in his ears. “Make that infernal noise stop!” The grating sound of metal scraping against metal threatened to tear his skull asunder. “Where the hell am I?” He surveyed the unfamiliar desert sprawled before him. A strange sensation enveloped him, as though his body were somersaulting upside down.
“Sweet Jesus, it’s excruciating!” Pain detonated in his mind, and in an instant, everything vanished. The daylight, the sand—everything he had glimpsed upon awakening dissipated. Shivers racked his body as he attempted to move, yet his legs remained feeble. He felt as vulnerable as a toddler, and the incessant pounding in his skull sapped his strength, leaving him incapable of lifting himself from the ground.
“Motherfucker,” he croaked, his split lips barely forming the words. He inhaled deeply, only to choke on a putrid odor that permeated his nostrils and mouth. The stench was so repugnant that he couldn’t quite identify it, save for the familiar hints of decaying food and dampness. Another noxious scent assailed him, filling his lungs and churning his stomach with revulsion. His gut spasmed violently, and he expelled a thin, acrid liquid in a spray before he could draw another breath.
“To hell with that; I won’t succumb. I won’t die here.” Desperation fueled his battle against the encroaching darkness.
“That’s the spirit, Senator, but unless we get you out of here and quickly, you might just end up that way.”
Tanner strained to pry open his eyes at the sudden voice beside him. He squinted against the searing light that pierced through his consciousness.
“Who are you?”
“Special Agent John Douglas, at your service. DEA recovery unit. I’m the team medic.”
“Damn, it hurts,” Tanner groaned, reaching out to clutch Douglas’ shoulder as the agent helped him to his feet.
“Good Lord, Senator. What in the world did they do to you? With all due respect, sir, you look like shit.” Agent Douglas carefully assessed Tanner’s condition. “You resemble a coloring book,” he remarked, his concern evident as he observed the bruised and battered upper body. “Let’s hope there are no internal injuries that might worsen with movement.”
“Holy fuck!” Tanner cried out as Douglas prodded his shoulder.
“Your shoulder is dislocated.”
“No shit!” he exclaimed through clenched teeth. “Pop it back in.”
“It’s going to hurt.”
“Every fucking thing hurts like hell, Agent Douglas. Just... AWWW! Jesus!” Tanner cried out as Douglas adeptly realigned his shoulder. “You could have given me a heads-up.”
“No time. The lead agent is on my tail like hot tar. My ear is already burning up from her curses. Let’s go. We have a small window to get back to the pickup spot. We can’t afford for anyone to spot the helicopter.”
Supporting Tanner with his shoulder, Douglas hoisted him upright. “Do you think you can walk?”
“I’ll crawl if I have to. As long as I get the hell out of here.”
“What’s the damn hold-up? A vehicle is approaching, and you’re moving too slow. We need to go. Now.” Tanner blinked in surprise at the husky voice of the blonde woman who tugged her shoulder under his other arm and with a terse, “Move, Douglas. Now!” heaved him toward the stairs.
“An angel,” he murmured as her azure eyes briefly clashed with his. “I’m being saved by an angel.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she muttered under her breath. “Bag your charm, Senator. I’m not the kind of woman to fall for flowery words.”
Tanner had suspected as much before he had uttered the words, but still, it was exactly how he felt at that moment. A calmness settled over him when her long fingers firmly clasped his bicep as they guided him up the stairs.
Once outside, they were surrounded by the rest of the recovery team, who moved like a well-oiled machine.
He was surprised to notice that they were at a rundown barn-like building surrounded by a thick forest. At what point he had been moved there; he had no idea since his last memory was of him being beaten to a pulp inside the compound of the syndicate.
“How did you find me?”
“Escape first, questions later. We need to move faster, Senator. Do you think you can keep up, or should we form a human stretcher for you?”
“No need. I’ll keep up. All I require is one human crutch.”
“Douglas, you’re it.” She stepped away as her hand circled in the air, one finger pointing forward. “On me. Let’s move.”
Tanner’s bravado was nearly his undoing. The distance to where the helicopter was waiting wasn’t that far, but with the headache battering against his skull like an angry bull with every step, it felt like a hundred miles.
“Fucking hard-headed ass,” the female voice growled next to him as suddenly she was there to once again offer her shoulder as a crutch. “At this rate, you’ll get us all killed.”
