The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection With EXCLUSIVE Post-Shiva Short Story (144 page)

“Look!” Lopez exclaimed. “The van.”

From the south, a blue van careened through the dark desert. It punched through the perimeter where Davidson was scattering the men. Good thing too, because that fucking deep rumbling started under his feet.

“Get clear!”

Everyone climbed over the huge paw. There was no jumping straight off it, though. Levont must have figured that out, as he leapt down onto the Sphinx’s head, slid down its nose, and hit the dirt feetfirst. Lopez went next and caught Rebecca at the base.

Then it was just Talli, then him.

“Smile for the camera,” Lopez said.

Brandt was about to rip him a new one, but he realized that the corporal was actually talking to Vakasa, who had raised her head and waved to Lopez. Anything to keep the child calm.

But what was going to keep him calm as the last of the Sphinx shook underfoot, the head of the statue rocking backward into the maw? It was no longer a slide, but a scramble, running
up
the nose now, trying desperately to stay one step ahead of gravity. Finally, he reached the tip of the nose and slid down the lips as the head tipped straight back and fell out from under him.

They landed hard next to Rebecca. Brandt pushed forward, making sure there was plenty of solid ground beneath them.

“What’s wrong with them?” Talli asked, pointing to the van, which did look like it was driving around in circles.

Levont nodded to the fissures and cracks that scarred the desert. “I think they are avoiding fault lines.

Fuck.

Brandt realized there was no avoiding the fault lines. They were everywhere. And worse? There was a linear gouge in the ground that ran between them and the van. There was no way the van could make it over that earthen moat.

“We’ve got to meet them halfway,” Brandt ordered.

They were going to have to rely on Davidson supplying cover as they dashed across the desert. The point man was the first one over. He cleared the deep fissure easily. Lopez sailed across as well. Talli, however? Talli’s boot caught the edge of the other side. If it hadn’t been for Levont grabbing his shirt, the sniper would have fallen down the thirty-foot gash in the ground.

As much as he would have liked to think himself a far better athlete than Talli, Brandt realized he could never make it over with the girl in tow. Rebecca, too had stopped on this side of the fissure.

He hugged Vakasa quickly. “Honey, I am going to have to toss you over.”

Brandt had no idea if the girl really understood him or not. She just clapped. However, that was her response to just about everything.

“Levont!”

“I’m ready!” the point man yelled back.

“One,” Brandt said, swinging the girl’s body back to get some momentum. “Two.” Another swing. “Three.”

Channeling every bit of high school javelin throwing, Brandt let Vakasa launch. The light girl was so light that he actually overthrew her. Levont had to jump up to catch her before she flew past.

Rebecca looked to him. “I’ll never make it.”

“I know.”

* * *

Tears threatened. Seriously, after surviving the Sphinx falling on her, she was going to die because she didn’t have thighs of steel?

“And you can’t throw me. I weigh…” Well, even at death’s door, Rebecca wasn’t going to admit that. Maybe Brandt could throw Bunny, but not her.

Still, he took her hand in his. “That’s why we are going to run.”

“Run?” she asked, but he had already turned away, circling his arm over his head.

“Get in!” he yelled to the others.

The words were barely out of his mouth when he tugged her forward.

“Where are we going?”

“With any hope,” he answered, “to a part of this fissure that narrows.”

Rebecca ran, having to really press to keep up with Brandt as the men loaded into the unmarked van. Her fiancé was such an optimist. However, the gap only got larger and larger. And it began to send off side cracks. The van easily caught up to them, but had to veer off to avoid a four-foot dip in the desert.

She slowed, tugging his hand. “Just go, Brandt.”

“
No.
”

Rebecca pulled to a stop. “You’ve got to get over before it’s too far for even you.”

There was no time to argue. The Egyptian army was regrouping. Not even Davidson could keep that many away. And the longer the van lingered trying to pick them up, the more likely the entire team, including Vakasa, would be captured.

“Jump, damn it” Rebecca insisted.

“Sarge!” Levont yelled as the van pulled to a stop as close as it could get to the edge. He waved a coil of rope. “We’ve got you.”

As the point man tossed the end of the rope over, Rebecca turned to Brandt. “What does he mean?”

Brandt caught the rope, wrapping it around his wrist over and over again. “I’m going to anchor this side, and you are going to climb the rope across.”

“What? No. Huh?”

As Davidson kept a halo of bullets around them, Brandt urged her to grab the rope with both hands. That disastrous time in Pushchino flashed.

“I don’t do well with heights.”

Brandt tugged on the rope, tightening it down even further. “It’s not a height. It’s a
depth
, so get moving.”

Yep, that was her inspirational honey, all right.

Taking a deep breath, Rebecca stepped off the edge, her weight suspended only by her grip on the rope. Kids did this kind of thing on the monkey bars, right? Usually without gunfire and an abyss beneath them, but still.

Hand over hand, she made her way across the gap.

Only, the gap was getting bigger. And bigger. The sides crumbling away. She couldn’t climb as fast as the edge disintegrated. The rope went slack, dropping Rebecca several feet, as Levont had to back away from the edge before he fell.

“Legs up!” Lopez shouted to her.

She rationally didn’t know what he was saying, but her body, keen on survival, did as he said. With her weight more evenly distributed, she climbed faster, hauling it across the rope.

Talli grabbed her as she reached the edge, helping to pull her the rest of the way.

High on success, she turned to find the gap so much larger than she’d remembered it. Way wider than even Brandt could jump.

Her excitement turned to fear as Brandt frowned.

* * *

Yeah, he was never going to make that.

Fuck it
.

“Get ready!” Brandt yelled as he backed away, then charged the edge. It was a great feeling flying through the air. Until he started falling. As predicted, the other wall came up fast.

Brandt turned his shoulder into it, hitting the limestone rather hard. He clung to the rope, falling another ten feet, until Levont caught up on his end. Then it was just a matter of climbing up the side.

Right.

But he made it. Cresting the edge and getting hustled into the van were a blur.

“Is everyone okay?” Brandt asked, trying to right himself.

A murmuring of affirmatives came back at him.

“Bloody hell,” a voice said as the sliding door slammed shut and someone hit the gas, rocking them all back. “Do you destroy everything you touch?”

He looked up to find Vanderwalt smiling that crooked-ass British smile of his.

“What the…?”

They met in a bro hug.

Vanderwalt chuckled. “Let Emily know she owes me.”

* * *

Bunny hugged Stark, who hugged Emily, who hugged Prenner, who didn’t exactly look thrilled about it, but also didn’t fit the expression of group affection.

That was the single most awesome extraction in the history of extractions.

“Davidson, get out of there,” Bunny exclaimed, so happy to give that directive.

Prenner took the phone. “The rally point is the British consulate. You’ll get whisked to Turkey from there.”

A single click answered them.

Then reverie was short-lived, however, as a beep came from one of the computers.

“What was that?” Bunny snapped. She didn’t like beeps. In her world, beeps were usually bad. And from Stark’s frown, she wasn’t wrong.

“Someone is trying to hack their way in.”

Prenner stepped forward. “I thought you said you were unhackable?”

Stark held up a finger. “Statistically speaking, I am.”

“However?” Emily asked.

The tech didn’t answer. He just started the counter-hack, or whatever you called two geeks going at it. Normally, Bunny would have found it all amusing. The only problem was Brandt and the others’ lives were still in jeopardy.

“Should we move this to Langley?” Emily asked.

Stark just held up a hand, then waved it, whisking away her question.

“This is all going to be a moot point in a few hours, correct?” Prenner asked Emily. “Once they are in Turkey, I am assuming they will be coming straight home.”

The CIA operative looked to Bunny. She didn’t need to voice her question. Bunny had already been asking it in her own mind.

“Right?” Prenner pressed.

“Sure,” Bunny answered, but Prenner wouldn’t let it go.

“Why
wouldn’t
they come straight home?” Emily asked.

Bunny squirmed. She’d sworn she would never breath a word of what Rebecca and she had found on those stone tablets.

“I don’t think they’ll come home until they feel it is safe.”

“And why exactly wouldn’t it be safe?” Prenner pressed.

When Bunny didn’t answer, Emily squinted. “What do you know about the girl that we don’t?”

Bunny slapped her hands together. “Who else is hungry?”

* * *

From the German building’s rooftop, Frellan watched the van fleeing the pyramid plateau. The Egyptian army gave chase, but the desert was riddled with fissures and cracks. The escape vehicle made it into narrow streets lined by tenement buildings. It would soon be lost within the maze of alleys.

To his left, Mikhal stirred. So strange to see the man actually move. The sniper glared as he freed the rifle from his shoulder. Frellan had given strict orders to not engage in this little battle.

“Do not.”

Mikhal didn’t slow his motion. Instead, he lowered himself to the roof, setting up a shot.

“We cannot risk the girl,” Frellan urged.

Still, the sniper set up his shot.

“Do not test me,” Frellan warned. That got a cocky grin from the sniper.

Frellan could call over one of the mercenaries. It was within his prerogative to end the sniper’s rebellion with a shot to the back of the head. But as Aunush found out, the sniper had friends in the inner circle. The Master’s pet.

So he did nothing but watch as the sniper took his shot. The left rear brake light exploded as the van fishtailed, then punched the gas.

Had the sniper missed?

Pleasure dulled to realization. No. The sniper had simply marked the van, making it far easier to track. The sniper rose, swinging his rifle over his back, daring Frellan to criticize him. Also gloating, just a bit.

Mikhal had made two points. One? He could have taken out the van if he had wanted to. Two? He could have taken out the van if he had wanted to. The first was based on his skill as a sniper. The second was based on the fact Frellan hadn’t dared intervene.

He tried to allow the fury to bleed from him. Impulsive action was his sister’s weakness, yet he feared his fist would fly of its own accord. Then Monnie put her hand in his. Drawing his finger along the veins, Frellan could feel tension bleed from him as he imagined dissecting one of the blood vessels out, putting a metal band around it, then sewing the vein back in. That way, he could squeeze it, close it off, then open it again at will. The body was meant for so much more than one could imagine.

“Where to?” Ugudo asked.

Anger rose again, but there was Monnie’s hand in his.

“Think,” she said. “The burka was bloodied. Someone was there when she died.”

The watcher was correct. It had to have been Dr. Monroe.

“What would your mother have told her?”

Still, Frellan did not know. He had been estranged from her for years.

“I know of her research,” Monnie admitted.

Many knew of the watcher who wandered from her path. His mother’s defection had never been a secret. He had faced manhood under its shadow. The fact that she had gone out into the world, sampling DNA, trying to scientifically find the Messiah, was closely held knowledge.

Monnie was a watcher herself, though. She swam in the lives of the past watchers.

“Based on her research, here are five locations that are probable,” Monnie stated.

“And?” Frellan asked.

“I think one will be of specific interest to Dr. Monroe.”

CHAPTER 20

══════════════════

Ankara, Turkey

May 28, 5:14 a.m. (EEST, Eastern European Standard Time)

Rebecca stepped out onto the tarmac, her entire body aching. She really, really missed the billionaire’s luxury jet. Sure, they had taken a diplomatic plane from Egypt to Turkey, but it did not have a hot tub. She really missed having a hot tub on a plane.

However, beggars couldn’t be choosers. Vanderwalt had worked his butt off to get them out of Egypt, so she didn’t express just how much her lower back hurt as they crossed the tarmac and headed toward the private terminal.

In the still-dark mist an
ezan
, a call to prayer, carried over the wind. It must have been the
gunes
, the pre-sunrise service. Had they really been fleeing Egypt all night? Could it really be a new day?

Vakasa squeezed Rebecca’s hand, almost as if answering her unasked question.

It indeed was a new day. A new country. A new sense of hope.

Not existential hope, but a more practical hope. The hope of a hot shower and fresh clothes.

However, even that was dashed as Brandt stopped short of entering the terminal. Vanderwalt held open the door, cocking his head.

“I know you won’t tell me anything you are up to, mate, but at the least let me buy you all breakfast before you head out.”

Brandt held out his hand to shake. The two men had spent most of the travel time reliving past glories. What else could they talk about, though? Vakasa? The Disciples? Not very likely.