Page 33 of Hot & Heavy

"Good work, Lieutenant," General Adams responded. "Casualties?"

"None on our side. At least two dozen of the tangos are down and dirty. No time to collect or destroy weapons and munitions. Some of Jamal's men escaped and are heading this way with reinforcements from another terrorist cell. They'll be on our tail soon. Time is of the essence." Ian was breathing hard when he finished his report.

"Be careful, Lieutenant."

"Over and out." He handed the phone back to Pretty Boy, who ran beside him.

Soon a Skyhawk chopper was hovering over the small clearing where they'd inserted and would now extract. Rappeling ropes were dropped. The SEALs would free-climb up on their own, but harnesses had to be lowered, first to raise Altaira, and then Jamal. They had twenty minutes, max, before the tangos caught up.

"I'll be right back," Ian told Cage, squeezing his shoulder.

"No!" Cage shouted at his back. "Don't do it. We have Jamal. She's not worth it."

I beg to differ. Shit! Where did that thought come from? Heart hammering in the oddest way, as if it were chanting, "Go… go… go," Ian waved without turning and ran toward the cave where they'd left Yasmine hours ago. He saw her running toward him, apparently having heard the gunfire and the whup-whup-whupping of the chopper blades. He'd ordered her not to come out, no matter what.

Surprise, surprise, she hadn't listened to him.

"You came back," she said, smiling at him.

With utter idiocy, Ian registered the fact that it was the first time the shrew had smiled at him… and he liked it. "Yeah, but we've got to hurry." He grabbed her hand, and they raced toward the chopper.

"Oh… no!" Yasmine wailed and dug in her heels once they got near the site.

Jamal and Altaira were already in the aircraft, along with Pretty Boy, Omar, Geek and Sly. JAM and Slick were rappeling up one of the ropes now, with Cage on the ground, beckoning him wildly with shouts of "Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

"Please don't tell me you are going to fly away on a bird? No, no—"

Ian picked her up like a sack of flour and tossed her over his shoulder, running. "No time to panic. Just shut the hell up and do what I say." Like that's ever going to happen.

They got to the site. Cage was already climbing up, faster than a monkey up a tree. Ian pulled the harness over on the other rope, secured a screaming Yasmine into the leather straps, then held on to the ropes above her head and wrapped his legs around her body. As soon as he gave the signal, the rope was lifted upward.

Yasmine buried her face in his neck just as the tangos arrived and began shooting wildly, luckily from some distance yet. Despite the noise of the chopper blades and the sound of gunfire, he could still discern Yasmine's words against his neck, "I… am… really… going… to… kill… you… now!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

They no sooner crawled inside the chopper than it was flying away, not even waiting to close the doors.

As darkness settled over the land, Ian secured Yasmine and himself in seat belts. Jamal was unconscious but still alive, thank God. Altaira, realizing that she was finally going home, smiled tentatively through a cracked lip at Slick, who had his arm over her shoulder. He and his fellow SEALs looked at each other and yelled, "Hoo-yah!"

After they'd settled in for the short trip, Ian turned to Yasmine and asked, "Cat got your tongue?"

She muttered something under her breath that sounded like "bloody idiot proverbs."

"Are you all right?"

She wouldn't look at him, just stared straight ahead, her white-knuckled fists clutching the hand rests. In the dim interior light, he saw that her face looked white as a sheet. "Nay, I am not all right, you dolt!

You've put me in a bird the size of a longship, for the love of all the gods! I'm flying. Flying, do you hear me?"

Everyone from here to Afghanistan heard you. "Hey, I saved your life. You could at least be grateful."

"Grateful? Grateful?" she sputtered. "More like you risked my life. Oooh, does it have to go so fast? My stomach is churning."

Ian put a paper bag under her chin.

She shoved it away. "Where are we going, by the by?"

"Baghdad. I already told you that."