The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection With EXCLUSIVE Post-Shiva Short Story (138 page)

It wasn’t pretty, but the loop snagged the hook. The corporal nearly turned ninety degrees to make sure that loop stayed on. Levont scrambled out of the plane and down the fuselage to secure Rebecca.

Only then did Brandt release not only the safety line, but also a breath he’d held way too long. Whistling between his teeth, he refashioned the safety line into his own loop.

Now it was just Talli and him.

Of course, that was right around the time the roof door exploded off its hinges.

Fuck.

Talli laid down gunfire while Brandt’s mind whirred.

He raised his hand, circling it overhead, then pointing to the other side of the roof. There was no way Lopez would have time to come all the way around. They were just going to have to catch him on the other side.

Lopez banked immediately, bringing the plan around.

“Go!” Brandt yelled to Talli.

As the man ran, Brandt fired to the door. So far, the Disciples hadn’t been quite brave enough to poke their heads out, but it wouldn’t be long. Talli didn’t even have time to set up properly. He just hauled ass, jumped on the ledge, and flung himself at the plane. Thank goodness he had better aim with his loop than he did with a rifle. He snagged the hook square on.

Brandt couldn’t watch any longer. He had about a dozen gunmen deciding right about now they were brave. Quickly, he scanned the horizon. It was pretty much getting to the absolutely last second. Why the hell wasn’t Davidson firing?

Um, probably because the sniper had already figured out that there was no way Brandt could hold them off until the plane came back around. It was now or never.

Why was it always
now
?

Gritting his teeth, firing behind him, Brandt sprinted for the ledge. Talli was still trying to get his sorry ass off the hook and onto the plane. Brandt tossed aside the wire. There would be no hook in his future.

Lopez must have realized what Brandt was about to do as he cut the engines. Completely. The plane slowed, dropping altitude. Which was a damned good thing since Brandt ran straight off the roof.

Hitting air, his legs still pumped as if they could get him those last few inches. Then he, too, fell. Chest first…right on top of the wings.

Fuck…That
hurt
. He couldn’t even breathe, but his finger latched hold of the forward edge of the wings.

He was safe. Well, that was if Lopez could get the plane’s engines started again.

* * *

Davidson watched as the biplane’s engines finally caught and lifted his team out of their rapid descent. He hadn’t been too worried. He knew Lopez would get out and flap if he had to. As the night descended quickly, Talli finally, with Levont’s help, hauled himself onto the plane. It appeared that Brandt had decided the wings were just fine by him.

The Disciples were firing at will from the rooftop, but the plane quickly flew out of range. Turned out Davidson’s services weren’t needed. But that was the role of a perimeter specialist. Ninety-nine percent of the time you cooled your heels. Unless, of course, you were on Brandt’s team, then you were green-lit most of the time.

Davidson took one last survey of the area just to make sure that his egress was clear. His scope glided past the building where that couple had been…well…

Wait. He went back to the office. Not to be a perv or anything, but something was wrong. The couple was gone. Like, not there. The way those two had been going at it? There was no way they would have just closed up shop.

They had been a distraction. The watch. The sex. Everything had been meant to keep his attention diverted to the south.

Which meant something that really deserved his attention was happening
not
to the south. He brought his scope around to the north, checking those buildings. Most were dark this late at night. Only a few had lights flickering on.

If the sniper were here, he would
not
set up in the lighted offices.

He would be in the dark. Watching. Waiting for his shot.

And the best shot? Right at Brandt’s back.

Quelling panic, Davidson scoured the area for any sign of the sniper. If Davidson waited for the guy to take a shot to find out where he was, Brandt would be dead.

There! The faintest-green reflection from a night scope. Davidson didn’t have time to set up a kill shot. He only had time to prevent one.

Davidson fired, shattering the window. He fired again and again in no particular pattern. He just needed the sniper unable to aim as the plane moved out of range, even for a sniper rifle.

Then a bullet whizzed past his head.

Good
, Davidson thought as he rolled over onto his back, lying flat against the roof’s ledge. The sniper must have given up on the plane and decided to take out his frustration on another sniper. Fine by Davidson.

Now to get out of here and head to the rally point in Sudan, where they wouldn’t exactly need travel papers. Cash, American cash, would get them off the continent without a paper trail.

He was good to go, until he heard the rev of a jet engine. Not one jet engine, but two.

Crap
.

Davidson took a chance and brought his scope over the ledge. Sure enough, two F-16 fighters were streaking in their direction. They must have launched from the Abu Suwayr Air Force Base. Whether the Disciples had tipped the Egyptians off or the government assumed this assault on the German building was the result of political unrest, their plane was in trouble.

Real trouble.

* * *

Rebecca ignored Vakasa as the little girl tugged on her
jibab
. She was too busy worrying about Brandt still up on the wings. Why the hell didn’t he just get into the plane like any other sane person?

“Damn, I wish I had access to the Internet,” Lopez grumbled next to her. Rebecca really didn’t want to know why. However, the corporal told her anyway. “I really, really, really need to know the world’s longest flight with a guy on your wings. Come on, somebody figure it out.”

“No matter what it is,” Talli stated, “we will not be able to challenge it.”

“What do you—”

Lopez’s protest was drowned out by two jets streaking overhead. Their turbulence rattled the plane down to its bolts.

“That is
not
good,” Lopez said with an actual straight face. He wasn’t kidding. Lopez was actually worried.

Rebecca’s stomach plummeted. They were being hunted by the Eygptian Air Force
and
Brandt was on the wings. There was not time to worry or throw a tantrum or anything. There was only time to plan.

“What are our options?” Rebecca asked.

None of the men answered.

“Guys?” Rebecca urged. “There are always options. Right? I mean, that’s what you always say.”

“Oh, we’ve got an option,” Lopez said.

“What?”

Lopez didn’t answer, though. Levont did. “We land.”

“And?”

Talli was the one who finished the thought. “We surrender ourselves.”

“You have got to be kidding me?” Rebecca shook her head. After the shoot-out at the building? And what about Vakasa? After what happened to that reporter during the riots? Rebecca shuddered, she physically shuddered, pulling the girl tight next to her.

“No, sorry, that isn’t good enough.”

“Chica, give me some ideas here,” Lopez said as the jets made another pass, this time lower. They hadn’t shot yet, but the radio was squawking with orders. They were in Arabic, but it was pretty clear they were saying. “Land or get shot down.” The only reason they hadn’t fired already was to wait until they got out over the desert to avoid civilian casualties. However how rather callous to civilian deaths the government had become, Rebecca wasn’t sure how long they could count on that to protect them.

This was what Brandt was so damned good at. Seeing an impossible situation, then figuring out a way to thread the needle through it. Unfortunately, Brandt was on the wings.

Next to her, Vakasa clapped, pointing to the east. “
Valo dango
!”

“Light show? Is that what she said?” Levont asked. Rebecca wasn’t sure, since she was pretty certain Vakasa was speaking in Welsh and Finnish.

Almost against her will, Rebecca followed the girl’s arm. In the distance, the Great Pyramid and Sphinx were illuminated in bright greens and reds. It was the nightly laser light show that played out against two of the greatest historic monuments ever built. However, it really didn’t help them.

Then Brandt’s face came over the front of the wing. His features upside down, he was shouting something, but who could tell what it was?

“Light show!” Lopez said as Vakasa clapped. “I think he’s agreeing with her.”

“You’re just imagining things,” Talli stated, but Rebecca wasn’t so sure.

“No,” she said, trying to read Brandt’s upside-down lips. “He is saying light show.”

She tried to follow his logic. Why go there? They would scatter the crowd.

That was it!

“Lopez, head there!”

Without even waiting for an explanation, Lopez course corrected, turning them due east toward the pyramid.

Levont’s hearty laugh filled the aircraft. “He wants us to land, get those people on their feet, then blend in with the crowd.”

Rebecca sighed, glad that someone else had come to the same conclusion. It was such a long shot that they shouldn’t even be trying it, yet the upside-down Brandt nodded vigorously, then disappeared. Apparently satisfied that they were headed in the right direction.

Vakasa clapped again. “
Valo dango
!”

“Yes, baby,” Rebecca said, pulling her into a hug, “we are going to the light show.”

Although, she seriously doubted if it was in the way Vakasa had hoped.

* * *

Brandt clung to the plane as it sped toward the pyramids. The jets buzzed again, this time so close Brandt was pretty damned sure he wouldn’t need a haircut for the next three weeks.

The light show played out starkly against the night sky. It truly was a spectacular sight. Somehow the pyramids looked even more majestic than they did during the day. The history of Egypt played out across their surface.

And thankfully, it was a tourist haven. There were hundreds of seats filled. Brandt hated endangering them, but he seriously doubted the F-16 would fire into that crowd. The international incident that would cause? Their plane making an emergency landing there was bad enough. The Egyptian government seriously didn’t want tourist deaths added on top of that.

He gripped even harder as the plane made its steep descent. Lopez, as always, was thinking ahead. If they had descended any earlier, the jet fighters may have shot them down just to keep them from reaching the event.

Even now, the jets came in low and hard, trying to force them down.

Lopez held steady even though the tiny plane, never built to take the kind of punishment the corporal could deal, shook violently. Brandt had a bird’s-eye view of their landing. Not that even a bird would be stupid enough to try what they were trying.

Someone in the crowd must have heard their approach. The man turned and pointed.

Thank God. They were almost on top of the crowd. They needed them to disperse. A hue and cry went up as Lopez brought them just over the desert floor. A blur of people scattered, tipping over their chairs, as the plane touched down, bounced…hard, then went back up again. Brandt’s sweaty palms nearly gave out as his lower body slid back and forth across the wings. Those twin-engine prop blades only a few inches from his feet.

Brandt pulled himself as tightly to his belly as he could as they touched down again, bouncing again, landing again, bouncing again, until they crashed into the rows of white folding chairs. The blades chewed up the plastic, sending debris flying in all directions. A lot apparently into his back and arms.

Then they were on the ground, really on the ground this time, rolling forward. Lopez cut the engines and hit the brakes, hard. And there was just no way Brandt could hang on. As the plane came to a stop, Brandt flew forward, over the nose of the plane, and crashed into the front row of chairs.

His shoulder hit the sand, finally bringing him to a stop as well.

Brandt rolled over onto his back as the sound of rattling machinegun fire filled the air. Guess the Egyptians weren’t as worried about bad press as he’d hoped. The others fled the plane as bullet holes tore into the thin metal.

Grunting, brushing plastic off his back, Brandt rose.

No rest for the weary.

* * *

Rebecca kept a tight hold of Vakasa’s hand as they ran from the plane. The crowd wasn’t much farther ahead. They should have been able to blend in before the jets made their next pass. She tossed a glance over her shoulder, expecting Brandt to be hot on their heels. Instead, he was running in the opposite direction.

Why the hell would he go that way?

Then the high-pitched squeal of the other plane explained why.

Another fighter jet, new to the hunt, honed in on Brandt, firing at his heels. Dust kicked up, chewing up the sand.

“Brandt!” she screamed, but he kept running.

“Damn it! Change of plans!” Lopez shouted next to her. “Get the girl to safety!” he said, pushing her toward the crowd. “We’ll get him!”

Before the men could head out after Brandt, Vakasa squirmed out of Rebecca’s hold and ran across the desert.

“Thor!” she called out.

“No!” Rebecca yelled, but it did no good.

The men fired up at the jets as they all raced across the desert. The pyramid was still blanketed in reds and greens as scenes of the building of the great monuments played on despite all the chaos.

Vakasa was fast. Like, crazy fast. She caught up to Brandt, then passed him, heading straight for the pyramid’s entrance. The little girl stopped at the tomb’s entrance, waving as if she expected Lopez to take a vacation photo. Rebecca was sure that he would want to. However, he was a little busy trying to keep the jets from mowing them down.

Brandt reached the entrance first, scooping Vakasa up into his arms. He made to head toward them, but Rebecca waved him forward. Using what little lung capacity she had left after the sprint, Rebecca shouted, “No! Go inside.”