Part 6 (2/2)

”Yes!” Jamie and Rhys whispered in unison.

With a groan of relief, Jamie raised her arms. Then she tried to sit up, but the cell went spinning again. ”Dizzy,” she murmured and flattened onto her back.

”Take it slow,” Rhys said. ”Nice and slow. And quiet, Jamie. Real quiet.”

”Yeah. We still got time, right?”

”Yeah. Plenty of time. Just lie there a minute and breathe.” Still on her back, Jamie soon got the cuff on her right wrist to open. Not long after that, she sat up and stayed up. In another couple of minutes, she had her left ankle liberated, then her right.

”Easy, easy,” Rhys said when Jamie tried to stand. ”One small step for womankind, okay?”

Jamie forced what she hoped was a smile; she'd need all four limbs to get to Rhys's bed frame two feet away. ”How about one small crawl?”

Like it would hurt too much to watch, Rhys's eyes shut when * 58 *

Jamie leaned erratically toward the handcuffs on her wrists and inserted the torque wrench and pick into the first lock.

But Jamie's feel for the lockpins was reviving, and soon Rhys was free. She eased up from the bed carefully, giving Jamie's shoulder a thankful squeeze before she moved off to survey the hallway outside the cell.

”s.h.i.+t!” Rhys's face had gone crimson. ”I knew it. f.u.c.king knew it! All the other cells are empty. I bet everyone else but us is back at the squadbay.”

Behind her, Jamie tottered to Arnoldt's bed to wake him. ”Wanna get the h.e.l.l outta here? Rhys has a plan.” Wide-eyed, Arnoldt nodded. If he was thinking about lying there naked with two naked women standing over him, he gave no hint of it.

”Good man!” Jamie patted his chest. ”Gotta wake up Moss, so give me a minute. And keep snoring, Arnoldt, but not too loud.” Moss roused more slowly, but he also agreed to the escape attempt, wrath flaming his eyes. Five minutes later, the men were on their feet and Jamie worked the padlock while Rhys laid out what each of them would do.

They executed Rhys's plan with resolute precision. Moss knocked two Pirates out cold before the other two knew what was happening.

By Jamie's estimation, they completed the almost noiseless takedown in less than two minutes. Once all the Pirates were stungunned, Arnoldt and Moss kept up the sounds of the poker game while Jamie and Rhys dragged the four Pirates back to the cell. One by one, Jamie and Rhys stripped them, hogtied them with the cuffs, and gagged them with their own underwear.

Then they donned Pirate uniforms, careful to place the black bandanna armbands just right to show the red winking skull-and-crossbones insignia. So far, so good. Rhys's what-the-f.u.c.k plan was actually working.

”Wish we had time to play unstrip poker, fellas,” said Rhys when she and Jamie brought Pirate uniforms to Moss and Arnoldt. ”I'd beat your a.s.ses.”

”Like h.e.l.l,” objected Arnoldt, who actually held a hand of cards.

”I've never once lost to a girl.”

Moss did not seem amused. ”Jeezus, Arnie. Put that s.h.i.+t down!”

* 59 *

They gathered intel from the Pirates with brutal, stungun-supported efficiency. Rhys zapped the one with the most att.i.tude while the other Pirates looked on, then she and Jamie hauled the one who seemed the most nervous out of the cell for a quiet conversation about who and what was where. The ashen-faced Pirate told them everything they wanted to know. Sincerely and as fast as he could.

Soon after, a second, somewhat less cooperative Pirate confirmed what the first one said.

”Okay, so we believe them, right?” Rhys asked, fingering one of the stunguns.

”Yeah, I think so,” Jamie answered.

”Well, if they told us the truth, then we still got a few minutes before the next watch shows up. We need to zap them again. All of them. Five-second jolts. That'll do them for a solid fifteen minutes.

Five-second jolts, okay?”

”Yeah,” Jamie said. Long time, five seconds. ”I can do that.” v ”Don't go fast, Rhys,” urged Jamie. ”Not yet.” She didn't say what she couldn't stop thinking. Walking right out of the camp, creeping through the Pirates' barracks like we owned it-way too easy.

Rhys nodded, her hands tight on the steering wheel of the Pirates'

truck as she maneuvered it away from the mock POW camp area.

”Still clear,” Arnoldt said again without looking away from the rearview mirror, which he'd angled so he could watch the road behind them.

They all consumed saltine crackers and bottled water taken from the Pirates' barracks like it was the last food they'd ever get.

”You said you punctured all the tires, right?” Jamie asked for the third time.

”Every frigging one,” Arnoldt replied for the third time, then allowed himself a long swig of water. ”And you didn't wake anyone in their barracks, right?”

”Nope,” Jamie said, exchanging a quick smile with Rhys.

A kilometer down the road, driving faster now, Rhys jerked the steering wheel hard to the right.

”What the f.u.c.k are you doing?” screeched Arnoldt.

* 60 *

”Let's go get the black boxes. Your squad's first, since it's the closest,” Rhys said, already heading toward the water tower.

Arnoldt's are-you-crazy look became a shrug. ”What the f.u.c.k.”

”How about you, Jamie?” Rhys asked. ”Up for it?” The water and crackers had helped Jamie stave off the sensation that her body was turning to Jell-O. She fingered the stungun she still held, a real weapon. And I'll use it, too, if any of those Pirate b.a.s.t.a.r.ds come near me. ”Yeah, okay. What the f.u.c.k.” Moss stuck his head in the truck's rear window, his spirits obviously buoyed by water and crackers. And freedom. ”What the f.u.c.k,” he said.

”I got plenty of room back here.”

Shortly after 2300 hours, the truck rolled to a noisy halt under the floodlights outside Cla.s.s 2801's squadbay on the other side of the base.

They'd have arrived sooner, but after picking up the black boxes, they detoured to the Exchange for more water and crackers. After nine or whatever days, water and crackers was all they could handle. Except for Arnoldt, who bought Slim Jims and several beers with money they'd found in the Pirates' pockets.

”Rise and s.h.i.+ne!” Arnoldt hollered as he stumbled out of the truck.

Private First Cla.s.s Rhys's two semesters of college gave her time-in-grade that put her senior among them. Hence Rhys was in command, and she'd wanted them to a.s.sume the position of attention upon exiting the truck. But she adapted. ”Okay, Arnoldt, so let's try parade rest.”

”Yes, ma'am!” But Arnoldt's feet splayed too far apart and his hands, on a mission of their own, formed an unsteady cone around his mouth. ”Hey, you G.o.dd.a.m.n jarheads!” he bawled. ”I said rise and f.u.c.king s.h.i.+ne!”

The crowd he attracted in short order included the chief instructor, whose presence inspired Arnoldt to shut up and grin at Jamie instead.

Standing at attention, Rhys cleared her throat. ”Private First Cla.s.s Rhys reporting,” she said. ”Along with Private First Cla.s.s Gwynmorgan and Privates Moss and Arnoldt.”

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