Dangerous to Hold Read Online Free PDF Page B

decide what irritated him more. The fact that she hadn’t made any effort to disguise her contempt, or the fact that such incredible, expressive and downright seductive eyes were wasted on a woman who’d taken a vow of celibacy.
    Pushing the sister’s image out of his head, Jake dropped to one knee beside the stream. He dragged the canteen in the slow, rippling water with one hand. The other he hooked in the web belt he wore low on his hips. His fingers drummed an impatient tatoo on the buckle.
    Only Jake knew that the metal gusset next to the belt buckle doubled as an encrypting device, and that the pattern he tapped out formed a digitized code. The transmitter sewn into his belt was too small for anything other than a short emergency signal. But that signal would be picked up by the U.S. Navy ships cruising offshore and relayed to the OMEGA control center within minutes.

Chapter 3
    â€œY es!”
    Joe Samuels’s shout brought Maggie running from the crew room, where she’d gone to splash cold water on her face.
    â€œIt’s Jaguar,” he told her, his eyes snapping with excitement.
    Maggie expelled a whoosh of pent-up breath. Jake MacKenzie had survived the disaster of the night before. She headed for the command console. “Is he on the satellite receiver?”
    â€œNo. All I got was an emergency signal, relayed by the navy. Here it is.”
    Maggie’s pulse leaped when she saw the three numbers Samuels had scrawled. Although she knew the emergency signals she and Jake had devised by heart, she went immediately to her black operations notebook and verified the individual digits.
    Agent in place.
    Stand by for further word.
    â€œWay to go, Jaguar,” Maggie murmured, grinning broadly.Her finger slid down to the clear-text explanation of the third digit.
    Neutral on board.
    Thoughtfully, Maggie tapped the notebook with her forefinger. Well, at least now she knew the location of the missing American woman. State had verified just moments ago the sketchy information the president had passed to Adam. There had been two American women in the village at the time of the raid—one a medical sister from the Order of Our Lady of Sorrows, the other a Peace Corps volunteer by the name of Sarah Chandler.
    But which one had been buried in the shallow grave, and which one was now smack in the middle of Jake’s operation? Until she gathered that rather vital bit of information, Maggie decided she’d better find out all she could about both of them.
    Twenty minutes and as many contacts with various agencies later, she sat back in her chair and frowned at her two pages of scribbled notes. Scanning the profiles she’d pieced together, Maggie decided she didn’t much like either one.
    Sister Maria Augustine, age thirty-four. Formerly Helen Peters. Born in Pattersonville, Ohio. Joined the Order of Our Lady of Sorrows a year after graduation from nursing school. A highly skilled nurse practitioner who’d spent nearly half her life in Central America. As well known for her clashes with the bureaucratic government officials who regulated her medical station as for her outspoken criticism of the rebels who preyed on the people she served.
    And Sarah Chandler, twenty-nine, daughter of Senator Orwin Chandler. Graduate of Sweet Briar College, with a degree in education she’d never put to use. A wealthy, pampered socialite whose affair with a married diplomat had caused a feeding frenzy among the Washington press corps when it was uncovered six months ago. And whose drunk-driving conviction a few weeks later had led to her disappearance from the Washington scene.
    According to Maggie’s sources, Senator Chandler had used his influence to convince the judge to give his daughter community service instead of a jail sentence. Again because of her father’s influence, Sarah Chandler had been allowed to perform that service as a volunteer with the Peace Corps.
    Maggie groaned