Worse, with another sweeping glance, he noted both the Nigerian and Jass had also disappeared. But they could not possibly have gotten past him. Theyd both been too close to the balcony when the sting went bad.
He would have to consider the Taj Zabbar later. Right now he needed to back up
his former comrade in covert operations.
When he barged through to the balcony, Tarik was hit with another shock. Jass and the Nigerian were leaning over the balcony wall, wrestling over a Ruger .357 Magnum. The Nigerian had a good fifty pounds and six inches on her.
Tariks weapon was useless under the circumstances. He couldnt get off a clean shot. He held his breath and moved in closer, waiting for a moment to let the Nigerian learn of his presencethe hard way.
But the longer their struggle went on, the more he could see Jass weakening. The Nigerian had her bent over backward with her upper body hanging out over nothing but night air.
Tarik couldnt wait. He had to make a move now.
Grabbing the assailant by the shoulder, he tried to turn the Nigerian around to face him. But right at that moment Jass made her move, too.
She hooked her leg around the Nigerians knees and used all her power trying to bring him down. But Tariks shove had overbalanced the assailant and all three of them slid closer to the balcony wall.
Horrified, he watched as both Jass and the Nigerian slipped over backward and disappeared completely into the black night. With a roar, he dove over the wall, landing tenuously on the ledge beyond.
Help me, you idiot. The small voice coming from below him finally cleared away the hazy panic in his head as Tarik spotted her fingers gripping the edge.
Jass. He flattened himself on the ledge and made a grab for her arms.
When he felt the warm skin of her wrists and fastened his hands around them, he began to murmur quiet encouragement. Ive got you. Take it easy.
She groaned. Stop talking and pull me up.
Earlier the breeze off the ocean had been benign and gentle. Now it felt like a full-force gale. He latched one arm around the balcony wall and hoped to hell he could drag her up one-handed. It would do no good for both of them to take a header into oblivion.
Whenever hed thought of Jass in the past, hed never thought of her as particularly thin or small. But with a spurt of much needed adrenaline, he raised her up over the edge without a lot of effort.
Son of a gun. They were still alive.
Dragging her closer to his chest, he waited until his breathing slowed and he could actually feel his extremities again. That was as close to death as he ever wanted to go.
Jass pushed at his chest. How about we move to a solid surface? She came to her knees and reached for the balcony wall. I suppose you expect a thank-you for saving my life.
Suddenly irritated, he pulled them both over the wall to the balcony floor. I would rather get an explanation as to why you felt it necessary to bust in on my sting.
She stood in bare feet with her wig askew and dusted off her hands. Not your sting, pal. Mine. Ive been chasing that Nigerian for months and now youve ruined our chances of ever questioning him. You owe me.
Damn.
My mistake, he muttered as he turned toward the suite doors.
He left her standing there trying to figure out what hed meant. If hed known how ungrateful she would be, he mightve left her swinging in midair.
Now he had the sinking feeling he was going to live to regret tonights entire heroic episode.
Chapter 2
Jass ran her hands through the auburn mop on her head that laughably passed for her real hair and squared her shoulders to face the music. Ed Langdon, her CIA handler, and General Gus Wainwright, the head of their interagency Task Force, came through the conference room door. Tarik Kadir was right on their heels.
She jumped up and stood as still as if she were at attention. It was barely twelve hours since the Nigerian had gone to his heavenly paradise and Jass hadnt had much sleep. For most of the night shed been too busy trying to interrogate the men whod been captured in the hotel room and, when that became futile, working desperately to salvage something from the fiasco of last night. She had come up empty-handed on all counts.
For the last hour shed been sitting quietly in the American consulates office waiting for her scheduled meeting with Ed. Jass had been going over all her moves from last evenings sting, still trying to piece together how things had gone wrong. When shed originally designed the plan for last night, she was positive nothing could prevent it from becoming one of her biggest career highlights.
Capturing a man that the Agency had been seeking for the last three years had seemed the perfect path to advancement.
The fact that General Wainwright was here in Monacothat hed felt it necessary to fly in from the states, did not bode well for her rising career at all. The general motioned for her to sit and she took her first breath since hed walked through the door. Somehow she had to survive whatever came next with her job intact.