"Abe said we were hit by a small army. A small army! How the hell did that many people go unnoticed?"
Jackson was striding after Amanda Sage, following her as she hustled across a churned-up yard. The buildings closest to them were burned and broken, walls smashed and corridors exposed. It was carnage.
"I don't have time to discuss this now," Amanda snapped. "In case you hadn't noticed I have another recovery team to organise."
"I want to be on that team."
"Mr. Oz, you will go back inside and sit your ass down."
"And do what? Twiddle my thumbs?"
"Your team is too valuable to risk in the field! Or what's left of your team!"
"You listen to me." Jackson, furious, grabbed Amanda's arm to make her stop. He yanked her to face him. "This is supposed to be one of the most highly protected places outside the Pentagon and the goddamn White House, yet you still got hit. You can't protect us here so let us go out and actually help!"
"Fine!" Amanda ground out. "Get your people together."
Jackson, Mitch, Abe and Kazuko met in the yard. Two teams of soldiers were already gearing up, small units of four that could sneak in and out quickly and quietly. Kazuko had found the non-combatants fatigues so they wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.
"Mitch and I are gonna go after the bastards who took Chloe and Jamie," Jackson said, aggressive. "Abe, you and Kazuko can track down that mother cell."
"We will bring it back," Abe agreed. Looking at his friend's hard, set expression – and Mitch's bruised and swollen face – he had no inclination to argue. "Good luck, Rafiki. Be careful. Bring them home." He pulled Jackson into a quick, hard hug, then surprised Mitch by doing the same.
"Do not do anything foolish," he murmured into Mitch's ear. "I know you have become a desperate man."
"I can't lose her again. I can't."
Jamie and Chloe were in the back of a moving truck, wedged in among boxes and crates. They could see the packed, hard desert sand rolling away behind them.
"So where do you think all these soldier guys came from?" Jamie asked, in between gnawing at the plastic cable tie binding her wrists. There was another around her ankles. Chloe was similarly bound. They both bore the scratches, cuts and bruises of a prolonged struggle.
"I am more concerned with where they are taking us. You are going to break your teeth on that."
"You're DGSE. You must know some Secret Service trick to get out of these stupid cuffs." Her words trailed off on a gusty sigh. Fresh tears tracked through the dirt and dust on her face.
"I am sorry, Jamie. The best thing we can do right now is pay attention to where we are going."
"I couldn't even see their faces because they were all wearing balaclavas…"
"They are Chinese. I heard them talking to each other."
"You recognise Chinese?"
"I speak five languages. Mandarin is one of those."
"Do you think we've been taken by the Triad or something?"
"It is possible. They already have excellent connections in this country. Though it is also possible that the Chinese government is working in conjunction with the Triad."
"Woah. That's like the Mafia taking the President out for dinner."
"I'm sure that would make an excellent by-line." Chloe managed to raise a smile.
Jamie grimaced. "I was kind of an ass back there, wasn't I? Banging on and on about Area 51 and aliens when we've got the biggest story in human existence right under our noses."
"You are a journalist. What is the phrase? You have to 'follow your nose'." She leaned forward and said in a conspiratorial whisper, "I would have loved to see little green men."
"You have no idea how glad I am you put that tracking chip in the leopard," Jackson said as they sped through the New Mexico desert.
"Oh believe me, I know." Mitch was deadpan.
Jackson could sense the veterinary pathologist was struggling to hold himself together. It was obvious to anyone with half a brain that Mitch had fallen in love with Jamie, had been in love with her since the plane crash – and probably earlier. He'd got to know Mitch pretty well since they'd first met, and he knew he was the kind of guy who was used to keeping his feelings buttoned down tight. Now – when he'd finally begun to open up – he'd had something precious ripped away from him. He didn't know how to cope, so he'd locked himself down tight again. If this all ended badly, he didn't think Mitch would ever recover.
Of course, Jackson knew exactly how he felt.
He'd gone to Africa years ago, fleeing the memories of his father and his tarnished reputation. He'd been out there a long time. It was where he'd met Abe, his best friend and the closest thing he had to a brother. He'd avoided romantic entanglements, for the most part; not through deliberate choice, but rather due to lack of motivation. He'd taken plenty of pretty girls on safari. He just hadn't felt any connection to them.
Then he'd rescued Chloe from that lion attack, and everything had changed.
Chloe Tousignant was intelligent. Insightful. Protective. Her beauty was of the fey variety, all cheekbones and delicate lines, a beauty that belied her inner strength. The attraction between them had been growing for months… though they hadn't had time for more than a few stolen kisses over the last three months. She'd been working hard with Amanda Sage and her team, getting the specifics of the vaccine in place. He'd been working on the transport mechanism. There'd been no time for anything deeper.
Then Jamie's rescue had finally allowed them to take that final step. Was he in love with her? Jackson analysed the idea. He was attracted to her. Admired her qualities. Saw her shortcomings. Yeah, if anything could be called love, that was it.
And now she was gone. Damn.
"When did you first realise you were in love with Jamie?" he asked.
"You seriously wanna talk about this now?"
"Nothing much else to do until we get to where we're going."
"Alright. Would it shut you up if I said I was standing underneath a rainbow watching puppies frolic with unicorns?"
"Unicorns?" Jackson laughed. "I'm serious, man."
Mitch let out a weary sigh. "I think I suspected a couple days after we first met."
"That soon?"
"I said suspected, not knew. There's a world of difference."
"What happened?"
"We went to Folsom, her hometown. She took me to see her mother's grave. She wanted me to see why she was so driven over bringing Reiden Global to justice."
"Her mother died from cancer, right?"
"Yeah. The farmers all used pesticides from Reiden. When Jamie took me to that grave, I, uh…" He swallowed, looked away. "I started to see beneath the surface. Saw the person she really was, rather than what she wanted people to see." He cleared his throat. "Enough of my misery. Hit me with yours. Tell me when you first realised you were in love with Chloe."
"Mitch, I don't know…"
"Come on, Jackson. Quid quo pro."
"Honestly? I don't know. I don't think there was one clear, defining moment when I thought, I think I want to marry this girl."
"Whoa, we're talking marriage now?"
"Yeah. I guess we are."
"Don't you think that's a bit, well, fast?"
"We're living fast, Mitch. We could die fast. We need to hold onto everything we can get."
"Maybe we're not so far removed from the animals after all."
"So, you and Jamie. Will we hear wedding bells soon?"
Mitch covered his eyes with one hand, dragged it down his face. When he removed it whatever slight levity Jackson had inspired was gone.
"I tried marriage once. Didn't work out so well. And aren't we being just a tad previous, considering Chloe and Jamie were kidnapped?"
Kazuko and a solider lay on the brow of a ridge. Kazuko looked through a set of high-powered binoculars, then handed them to the soldier on her other side.
"Targets are in sight."
Three vehicles were travelling across the hard-packed desert below them, heading for the rapidly vanishing horizon. It was almost dark.
"Shall we move to intercept, ma'am?" the soldier asked. "We have the element of surprise."
"Three of them against one of us." She handed him the binoculars. "I don't like those odds."
"What is happening?" Abe asked, lowering himself to the ground beside them.
"We're catching up," Kazuko explained. "But we need to get ahead of them. Then we can deploy the stingers."
"Stingers?"
"Studded strips you can throw across the road. Rips up tyres pretty good."
"Forgive me, but I do not see any roads here."
"Ma'am?" the soldier said. "We brought a rocket launcher."
"Too risky," Abe interrupted. "We cannot risk destroying the mother cell."
"Agreed," Kazuko replied. "Maybe we could call in some local law enforcement, catch them in a pincer movement –"
"They've stopped, Lieutenant!"
"What?" She snatched the binoculars back. "Why have they stopped?"
"May I have a look?"
"Look all you want in the Jeep. If they've stopped, we can catch up to them."
The driver put his foot down.
"Estimated time to engage is two minutes, ma'am," a soldier called from the front of the vehicle.
"I do not like this," Abe murmured. "Perhaps we should be asking why these people have stopped, when they were in such a rush to get away."
"Ever heard the expression 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth'?" Kazuko asked.
"You should always look a gift horse in the mouth. Because sometimes it might have a lion's teeth."
They heard the rapid-fire sound of automatic weapons being discharged. Kazuko put the binoculars to her eyes again.
"They're… they're being attacked!"
"Am I the only one who does not seem to be surprised by this? Give me those!"
The scene came into view through military grade, high resolution, night vision binoculars. The world came into crystal-clear focus.
The three vehicles had stopped in a loose line. Grey-green steam billowed above the hoods of their engines, explaining why they had stopped; clearly something small with sharp teeth had caused damage inside.
He hoped those same somethings were not in their own.
The men were being overwhelmed. He counted fifteen men, some with guns, trying to defend themselves against big mammals – coyotes, bears, and wolves.
One by one, the men were going down.
"We strike now," Kazuko said, "take advantage of the chaos."
"No, no, I do not like this idea!"
"You will be staying in the Jeep."
"You will get no argument from me!"
The driver brought the vehicle to a skidding halt, kicking up clouds of dust. Kazuko and her team spilled out. The enemy combatants were too busy defending themselves from the animals to bother with the soldiers.
A detachment of wolves pulled away from the main pack and circled behind the soldiers. The humans, already split into three smaller groups, had reached the sabotaged vehicles; one soldier started searching while the other covered their rear.
A huge bear barrelled through the wolves, jaws gaping as it roared. It batted the nearest soldier aside before he could swing his gun around, though his body armour protected him from serious damage. The bear lunged again. The soldier rolled out of the way and found his feet.
"Come on, come on," Abe yelled through his open door, flicking his eyes from the soldiers to the thieves. "Don't try to shoot the bears. They have armoured hides!"
"Got it!" one man yelled, hauling a wooden crate out of the back of one of the vehicles. Another soldier rushed to help him, and together they began to manhandle the crate back toward the Jeep.
The wolves surged forward. The unencumbered soldiers squeezed off controlled bursts of fire, clearing a path for the others.
His attention turned to Kazuko. She was trapped between the sabotaged vehicles and the bear, snarling coyotes on either side. She swung her gun from one to the other. Her hesitation was obvious and understandable; the second she started shooting they'd be on her.
She directed a spray of bullets at the coyotes, swinging the gun to cover them all, then burst through the space she'd created.
The bear swung around to block her again. She looked up at it, horror and determination making her face taut, and raised the gun again. The bear roared and knocked it out of her hands.
The soldiers were all occupied defending the crate-carriers. If the bear batted Kazuko as it had the taller, bulkier soldier, her body armour would still protect her from any flesh wounds… but it would also smash her ribs.
Someone had to act. And the only one left was Abe.
"Dear Lord, please get me through this," he said as he heaved himself out of the Jeep, "and I promise I will be a better person!"
He scooped up a rock as he ran toward Kazuko. He cocked his arm and hurled the projectile; it hit the bear on the back of the head. It growled and whirled to face him, rising on its hind legs.
Upright, the bear matched his six foot seven height, though it probably outweighed him by four or five hundred pounds.
Before he could think about what he was doing – before the bear could react – Abe drew his fist back and punched it right on the jaw.
The bear swayed. Abe snatched his fist back, cursing at the pain radiating through his fingers.
Then Kazuko grabbed him and dragged him back toward the Jeep. She hustled him inside just as the bear threw its weight against the vehicle; she dropped to the floor, avoiding the blow, and rolled under the chassis. She popped up like a jack-in-the-box on the other side and jumped in, slamming the door behind her.
The driver floored it as soon as she was inside and they fled, leaving the enemy combatants and the animals to their fate.
"You are in idiot!" Kazuko shouted a moment later. Then she said something in Japanese. Abe had no idea what it was, but he doubted it was complimentary. "I told you to stay in the Jeep, not try to wrestle a bear!"
"I did not try to wrestle a bear." He felt a lot calmer now they were heading back, even though his hand throbbed. He cradled it in his other hand, trying to decide if he'd broken anything. "I punched it."
"You're not a soldier! You're a civilian!"
"I was a soldier. A long time ago. I have seen war, Kazuko. I have seen anger, and killing, and death."
Her anger faded as she searched his face. Whatever she saw there she understood.
"I believe you," she said. "You'll have to tell me about it sometime. But please, Abe – don't do that again."
"I don't know," he replied, an easy smile crossing his face, "I like rescuing beautiful women."
"I'm going to hurt you," she said as the soldiers burst into raucous laughter. "I swear to God, I'm going to hurt you."
"Good!" Abe chuckled. "I like them feisty!"
"We've stopped," Chloe said, looking fixedly at the back of the truck.
"Should we just try and roll out the back before anyone comes?" Jamie asked.
"You have never been kidnapped before, have you?"
"Well excuse me, Miss French Secret Service."
"We cannot run if our legs are bound," Chloe said in a low, urgent voice. "Look for anything you can use to get free. Anything sharp."
"Gotcha," Jamie said.
A burst of angry Mandarin interrupted them. An older man in desert fatigues, his skin faded and lined, barked orders at four younger men. They all looked Asian.
"We will be taking a little boat ride," the older man said in heavily accented English. "I hope you do not get seasick."
"They're still on the same heading, sir," a soldier called into the back of the truck. "No deviation from course."
"Arrogant bastards," Mitch scowled. "They don't think they're being followed, or they just don't think we can catch them. They're not even trying to shake us."
"They'll hit the river soon, sir. The Rio Grande."
"Makes sense," Jackson said. "Air travel's a big no right now. They need to leave the country, only way they can do that is via boat."
"Ehh, boats again?"
"You don't get too many whales on a river, Mitch."
"You get dolphins in rivers."
"The Rio Grande?"
"Maybe not. Still not sold on the idea, though." Mitch shrugged. "But that's where we're going, so I guess I'd better suck it up and break out the water wings."
Jamie and Chloe were dragged – resisting all the way – to a battered old cargo vessel. They struggled so much that eventually their captors just carried them. Then, when Jamie decided the time had come to start biting, they gagged them too.
"My boss will pay handsomely for you," the older man announced as he watched them being thrown into an empty storage room. "Ungag them. Maybe they will bite each other." He laughed.
Their gags – scraps of cloth tied roughly behind their heads – were unceremoniously pulled away.
"Look, why do you even need us?" Jamie said, struggling to sit. "We're not scientists! We don't know anything!"
"Be quiet!" Chloe hissed.
"The only scientist in your group is the, what are the words? The animal doctor. You are not here for any of your professional skills." He leered.
"Oh… oh God," she said as his meaning sank in.
"Your faces have been on international television for months. My employer is interested in making a vaccine for the People's Republic of China… he is also interested in you."
"We, uh, we can't possibly go to China," Jamie rushed to say. "I mean we haven't had our shots, we don't have our passports… all that pollution will pay havoc with my asthma…"
"Nice try. See you in Beijing."
"I didn't know you had asthma," Chloe said when their captors were gone and the door was closed behind them. She'd started trying to wriggle across the floor toward a pile of scrap metal.
"I don't." Jamie was trying to stand, a feat proving all the more difficult with her ankles bound. "Worth a shot though, right?"
"You have excellent improvisational skills." Chloe's smile was amused, despite their situation.
"Oh, please, I suck. I was trying to wing my way past a soldier back at the Air Force Base, and he saw through me straight away." She lost her balance and fell. "How the hell am I supposed to stand up without falling on my ass?"
"Brace yourself against the wall. Like this." Like a caterpillar crossing a leaf, Chloe eased herself up the wall.
Jamie wriggled across the floor and, after much cursing and a few more falls, also managed to find her feet.
"What now?"
"Now? We find a sharp piece of scrap metal and try not to get tetanus."
When the river finally came into sight, their driver stopped the truck.
"See that cargo vessel there? That's where they are. You guys need to stay here," the CO told Jackson and Mitch as the soldiers readied themselves.
"You're joking, right?" Jackson said.
"No sir! Orders are to keep you out of harm's way."
"We can handle ourselves."
"If you leave us behind we're just gonna follow you anyway," Mitch said. "There are people we care about on that damned ship."
"Orders are to –"
"My orders say shut the hell up and start walking," Mitch interrupted.
The CO looked at him for a moment, then nodded.
"Alright," he said eventually, "but you stay in back, and you do exactly as you're told. No heroes here tonight, sir."
"Do I look like hero material?"
Jackson thought about the way Mitch had been so driven about getting Jamie off that island, and thought he looked exactly like hero material.
They hiked the last half mile or so on foot. With no dust trail they'd be less visible to any guards, though the fading daylight helped.
The CO called for silence as they drew closer, in case the wind carried their voices. He studied the vessel through binoculars, sharing them among his men.
"We go in fast and quiet," he said. "There's two guards at the base of the entry ramp, two at the top. Take one for questioning."
"What do we do?" Jackson asked.
"Try not to fall over your own feet."
They watched the soldiers work, hanging back behind a rocky outcrop.
"My résumé is getting pretty full now," Mitch whispered. "Veterinary pathologist by day, crack rescue force by night."
"You forgot to add 'prisoner'," an accented voice said from behind them. Mitch felt something press into his back. Something cold, and hard, and round.
Abe's parting words flashed through his memory. Do not do anything foolish. I know you have become a desperate man.
"Hey, let's just talk about this," he said, holding his hands up. Jackson already had his hands in the air. "I'm gonna turn around real slow –"
As he turned he seized the barrel of the rifle and shoved it skyward. Jackson followed his lead and punched their would-be attacker. He collapsed, unconscious.
"What the hell was that?" Jackson whisper-shouted. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"
"Well, check me out. Guess the Mitch Action Figure works OK after all."
"Come on, don't make me crack a jack about plastic parts. I really don't wanna go there."
The sudden rattle of gunfire from the ship seized their attention. Bright flashes of light sizzled across the darkness.
Then silence fell.
"How, uh, how d'you think they're doing in there?" Jackson asked.
"They're soldiers of the United States of America," Mitch drawled. "I bet they totally have the ship under their control."
"Can we get the Mitch Action Figure to say that?"
"I hate you, Jackson."
The unconscious man behind them groaned, coming round.
"I bet he knows where Chloe and Jamie are," Jackson said. "I bet he knows where the leopard and my father's notes are, too."
"I could maybe hurt him a little. If you want." He knew the man was listening.
"I thought you took an oath or something?"
"That's doctors. Vet, remember? Never finished med school."
As it happened, they didn't have to rough him up at all. They used his own shirt to bind him, then spent the next five minutes discussing how they could torture him. He cracked. Two minutes later they had everything they needed.
"Sorry, buddy," Mitch said, punching the guy again. He slumped. "Can't have you running to all your little friends until we're long gone." He clutched his fist, wincing. "How do you tough guys keep up this macho crap?"
"We hit people at school rather than books. We, uh, we weren't really gonna torture that guy, were we?"
"Well, I was."
"Kinda makes me glad you never made doctor."
"Mon dieu!" Chloe said through gritted teeth, "you would think this plastic was made of steel!"
She rubbed the plastic cable tie more forcefully against her chosen piece of scrap metal, picking up multiple cuts on her hands and wrists, and uttered a stream of infuriated French. With one last pull and scrape the plastic finally parted.
"I'm not even going to ask you to translate that," Jamie said, still sawing at her own bonds. Her wrists were just as bloody.
"It means 'I am so glad to have finally parted this obstinate plastic," Chloe said, patting her wrists with her T-shirt. She winced. They were still bleeding.
"Really? I think I heard a couple words in there that meant –"
"You speak French?"
"No, but –"
"Then take my word for it. Here, let me help you."
Jamie's bonds parted with a snap, and with their hands free it was easier to work on their ankles.
"What do we do next?" Jamie asked.
"Oh, nothing much. Escape from a locked room, rescue the leopard – again! – recover the research and leave the ship undetected."
"Piece of cake."
Using the dark for cover, Jackson and Mitch snuck across to the ship. The guards covering the entry ramp were out for the count.
"Aw, they didn't lay out the welcome mat for us," Mitch said.
"Will you shut up?" Jackson hissed as they crept up the ramp. "We need to find a way to get the damned leopard off the ship."
"Well, they must have had a way to get him on. Like maybe they drove him on in a truck or something." He reached into his pocket and withdrew a small, slender pistol. "Or we could just tranq the hell out of him and haul his ass back to the truck."
"Where did you get that?"
"A vet never reveals his secrets."
Jackson hissed again and signalled for him to find cover. They ducked behind a stack of crates.
Two armed men ran past, shouting.
"Any idea what that was about?" Mitch whispered.
"Something along the lines of 'our ship's been invaded, kill it if it moves.' My Mandarin is kinda non-existent."
"How do we get all those boxes of papers out?"
"One thing at a time, Mitch. First we get the girls, then we get the leopard. Anything else is a bonus."
They inched their way along, hiding at the first sight or sound of danger. Their impromptu informant's directions told them Jamie and Chloe were below deck, so they scurried down and out of sight.
"You do realise we've only made it this far because the soldiers have cleared the path," Mitch said.
"I'll take what I can get."
They rounded a corner – and almost ran into their army escort.
"Sir!" the CO hissed. "Did I, or did I not, tell you to keep your asses in the truck?"
"My memory's a little fuzzy on that," Jackson replied, "but I know exactly where our objectives are. All of them."
Chloe was muttering darkly, her French low and vicious as she worked at the lock on the door.
"I wish there had been more time for Abe to teach me this skill," she growled, breaking yet another make-shift lock pick.
"I thought Secret Service operatives could just magic doors open?" Jamie commented, rummaging through the scrap heap.
"With the correct tools it might seem like magic, yes." Chloe blew a strand of hair out of her face, frustrated. "With nothing but bent bits of metal this is going to take some time."
The soldiers escorted Jackson and Mitch through the bowls of the ship. They met resistance, but it was sporadic and easily dealt with. There weren't nearly as many enemy combatants as they had been led to believe.
"We think the main force was recruited to hit the Air Force Base," the CO explained as they hustled. "They achieved their objective and ran, sacrificing numbers for speed."
"Of course," Jackson said. "They wanted to get out of the country as soon as possible. But don't they know that a transatlantic voyage is impossible right now, unless they happen to be in a warship?"
"No idea, sir, and frankly I don't care. Makes our life a whole lot easier. Down!"
He and another soldier shoved the non-combatants roughly to the ground, then laid out a covering burst of fire as several men came into view. They twitched and danced as the bullets ripped into them, then fell.
"Who needs animals to do all the killing?" Mitch said, his cheek pressed to the metal floor. "They could just sit back and let us do it all for 'em."
"We've been doing a pretty good job of that since…well, forever," Jackson shrugged. "Maybe if we were more in tune with them, we'd fight each other less." Then his eyes opened wide. "That's it! That's what my father was trying to achieve when he made Evan Lee Hartley evolve!"
"Great, now tell me all about it when we're not under fire!"
Chloe uttered a shriek of rage as yet another lock pick broke. Her temper shattered and she started pounding her fists on the door and kicking it. Jamie caught her arm and dragged her back.
"Hear that?" Jackson said after the gunfire had ceased.
Mitch cocked his head. "Sounds like… knocking?"
A string of infuriated French reached their ears. Jackson winced.
"That is not anatomically possible," he muttered. "Gentlemen, I think we've found our ladies."
"Ma'am, this is the US Army!" the CO shouted from out in the corridor. "Stand clear of the door!"
Chloe and Jamie shared a brief look – joy, incredulity – and ran back from the door.
"Three, two, one!"
An explosion rocked the room, filling it with roiling smoke. They coughed and covered their mouths. When it cleared the door was gone, blown off its hinges and mangled on the floor.
Mitch and Jackson shot through the opening before the soldiers could move, searching the dingy, smoke-filled space.
"This is becoming a habit," Jamie cried, throwing herself into Mitch's arms. He hugged her so hard she thought her ribs would crack, but she didn't care. He was here – he'd come for her again – and in that moment, that was all that mattered.
"I didn't use all that energy getting you back the first time just to lose you again," he rasped, unsteady.
Jackson and Chloe weren't talking. They were kissing.
"Move it or lose it, ladies!" the CO shouted. "Make up on your own time!"
They reached Walker Air Force Base hours later, just as the first hints of colour were beginning to lighten the sky.
The rest of the search and rescue mission had gone without a hitch. They'd searched the ship and neutralised the scant resistance that was left. Irniq, the leopard, was still tranquillised in a cage. The soldiers hauled ass and loaded the doped up animal into the back of their truck.
When they returned to the base they found it a hive of activity. Security had been tripled, and soldiers were hard at work rebuilding the bombed out structures. They met Amelia Sage at the gate.
"You have it all?" she asked, anxious. Her eyes flicked over each face in turn.
"All present and correct," Jackson said, tipping her an ironic salute.
"Excellent!" she exclaimed, a wide smile taking ten years off her face. "Well done! Very well done!"
"Is Abe back yet? Kazuko?"
"They came back a few hours ago… complete with the shipment of mother cell."
"Alright!" He punched the air. "Are we good, or are we good?"
"We did crazy things and we're not dead yet." Mitch shrugged. "You could always substitute good with nuts."
Jamie grabbed his chin and turned his head, surprising him with a quick, hard kiss.
"If by nuts you mean 'my personal hero', you'd be in the right area."
"What about me?" Jackson said, grinning at Chloe. She stared at him with a half-amused, half-insolent look in her eyes that made him think – very hard – about finding a bed on which to throw her down.
"I would have got that door open sooner or later," she said, tossing her hair back over her shoulder. "Then I would have found a way to recover the leopard, find the research notes and save the day."
Jamie let out a bright peal of laughter, peeling herself away from Mitch long enough to give Chloe a surprise hug.
"Maybe I should just hang out with you more often," she giggled.
The CO and his team made off with the leopard and the research notes. Amelia led Jackson, Mitch, Chloe and Jamie through the base to their former Research Room. It was already being redecorated, half-covered in a fresh coat of paint, while two soldiers were in the finishing stages of fitting a new door.
Abe was talking to Kazuko. She was laughing over something he'd said, her eyes bright and cheeks flushed.
"Rafiki!" Abe said when he saw Jackson. He grabbed his friend and hugged him enthusiastically. Then Jamie piled in, and soon they were all in a group hug.
Kazuko stood awkwardly to one side, her smile gone – until Jamie grabbed her and drew her in.
"You guys are the best friends anyone could ever have!" she enthused, wiping her eyes. "And I'm including you in this, Kazuko. You kept Abe alive."
"Actually, it was the other way around," she laughed. "Ask him about the time he punched a bear in the mouth."