The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection With EXCLUSIVE Post-Shiva Short Story (78 page)

Suddenly Davidson’s bike shimmied and then skidded out. What the hell? Brandt braked, swinging his motorcycle to the right as Davidson hit the pavement hard and rolled away. Bullets dug into the ground beside him.

That fucking sniper. He’d shot out a moving motorcycle’s tire.

Davidson scrambled to cover as Brandt revved his engine. The kid wasn’t a member of his team. Hell, he was a damned traitor. Still. Brandt couldn’t leave the man defenseless. Releasing the brake, Brandt’s bike sprang forward into the alley. He reached his hand out, but Davidson refused it.

“Do you have a rifle in your pack?” Davidson asked.

Of course Brandt had a rifle in his pack. The question was would he, could he give it to Davidson with a clear conscience? What were the odds that the weapon would be turned on them in the end?

“I’ve never hurt Rebecca,” Davidson stated. “And I never will.”

Brandt scanned the ruined mask of features. Could sincerity really be found there? With shouts and cries filling the streets, Brandt really didn’t care. He needed that fucking sniper taken out. He didn’t have time to unpack the rifle though. Brandt unhooked the bag and tossed it to Davidson. “You better not.”

The kid was already at work getting the rifle out. “I’ll head to a perch and give the sniper something else to worry about, then swing round to covering your exit.”

Gunning the engine, Brandt nodded, not believing what he was about to say. “The fallback rally point is Kvratel six, but—”

“You won’t wait for me,” Davidson said, checking the sight of the rifle. “Wouldn’t expect you to.”

“Good,” Brandt answered before opening the throttle and letting the bike do its thing. So he could do his thing. Racing
toward
the screaming.

* * *

Davidson dug the feet of the rifle stand into the roof’s gravel. He loosened the swivel and scanned the area. To hit that apartment there were only about three trees to make your nest within the line of sight. And make that shot? The guy had to have a nearly perfect perpendicular angle on the building.

A muzzle flashed amongst the green leaves.

Gotcha. High up in the poplar tree sat the sniper. There was no way Davidson could hit him though. The distance was simply too great, and the wind cut across the meadow.

However, killing the sniper wasn’t why Davidson came up here. They simply didn’t have time to get him to a proper perch for the distance rating on this rifle. Now if he had the M107 LRSR, well that would be a different story. Now though this wasn’t about eliminating the enemy, it was about flustering the enemy. Forcing him to act defensively rather than offensively.

Davidson tilted the rifle down and scanned the area beneath the tree. The sniper probably had a spotter. Someone to keep an eye on the surrounding area so the sniper could focus on hitting a window nearly half a mile away.

A bit of black against the green. And from the curves under that black bodysuit the spotter was a she not a he. Interesting.

Again he couldn’t hit her, but damn if he couldn’t distract her.

* * *

Aunush ignored the birds that flew up and out of the trees. Since the sniper began shooting, they had startled numerous animals. It was of no concern. Her only concern was the sniper regaining a window into that apartment. They needed to squeeze and squeeze that whore’s hideout until she was crushed. Along with the knowledge of how Osip died.

“Move in,
now
,” she insisted to her men inside the building.

The loud clatter of gunfire fired her ear. “We’re taking heavy fire.”

All the better,
Aunush thought but did not voice. She did not need her men knowing that she really did not want them surviving this battle. “Then return fire and
advance
.”

Aunush put her binoculars back up to study the sniper’s progress when something flew past her sightline. She refocused and watched again. There it was. Something small but fast. Birds cried out, scattering from the trees.

What was happening?

Then something bit into her cheek. She fingered the wound. A tiny dribble of blood came back. Then another particle nicked her chin. Taking a step back, Aunush turned her attention to far closer to home as a bullet struck the tree to her left, sending bark as shrapnel.

She glanced up to her sniper, whose eyes crackled. He so hated it when another dog entered the fight.

But it could not be. Yet clearly it was the same sniper from back in London. Who was he? Aunush had studied Brandt’s team file. Kark Talli was a skilled sniper. He had to be if he wanted to be on a Special Forces unit. However, he did
not
possess this kind of mad skills.

Mad skills or not, he did not have the equipment he needed on this mission. If he was busy taking potshots at trees rather than executing precise kill shots at the sniper up in the trees, then he did not have as long a range rifle as her sniper.

With a fierce grin she nodded. The intent clear.

Take him out
.

* * *

“Did you hear that?” Lopez asked Rebecca.

Hands over her ears, she answered, “What? The barrage of gunfire?”

“No,” he said. “The
lack
of sniper fire.”

Rebecca looked up to the refrigerator riddled with holes. Yet no bullets flew through them.

Lopez grabbed her arm, urging her up. “We’ve got to get to new ground.”

They joined Harvish. She peeked through the cracked door.

The point man indicated to the stairwell. “That’s the only way down, so unless you want to jump eight stories down, I’m not sure what your backup plan is.”

Lopez gritted his teeth. “Time to go balls forward.”

She didn’t know exactly what that meant to the corporal, but if meant getting out of this apartment, Rebecca was all for it.

“Harvish, shoot out the lock,” Lopez said, pointing to the door across the hallway.

The point man didn’t hesitate. The opposite door swung open.

“Cover us,” Lopez said, taking Rebecca’s hand. “We’ve got to haul ass.”

Rebecca laughed nervously. “Duh. It’s you.”

His grin was a ghost of what it normally was as he nodded to Harvish. The point man stepped farther out, firing toward the stairwell as Lopez and Rebecca bolted across the hallway. A half step out and the attackers braved Harvish’s cover fire, shooting back.

Lopez spun Rebecca inward, offering his back to the hail of bullets, slamming into the other door. Harvish followed on their heels, still firing down the hallway.

The point man breathed heavily. “Great, Lopez. So now we’re across the hall. Not exactly a green zone.”

“How far do you think the buildings are apart?” Lopez asked.

“Can’t be more than four meters,” Harvish answered.

Rebecca looked at the window. The buildings were stacked closely together. But what did that have to do with…

“Tell me your plan involves jury-rigging some kind of ladder across that gap, Ricky,” she begged.

Gunfire rattled at the door. Even if they
could
build a ladder they certainly didn’t have time to actually build it.

“Shoot it out!” Lopez yelled.

Harvish obliged, shattering their window and the one across the way.

“We’re going to need to be going full speed, darlin’,” Lopez explained as he urged her to a run.

Rebecca didn’t have time to worry or freak out or refuse. Not as the feet on the refrigerator squealed as the attackers scraped it across the floor. Instead, she let her muscles do the work, dashing across the room. Lopez went first, leaping onto the small seat beneath the window and diving through the opening. Rebecca was only a few steps behind.

Then she hit open air. Rebecca tried to keep from looking down, but how could you? The ground seemed so far away. Like a distant dream. Hitting her shoulder against the other building certainly woke her up. Her body bounced off the gray plaster as she tumbled into the apartment, slamming into a kitchen table, smashing its legs.

She didn’t even have time to get out of the way as Harvish landed with a crash at her feet.

Within a breath all three were up, running for the door. On the way the point man shot out the lock, so they hit the opened door at a full sprint, spilling out into the hallway. The blissful hallway without bullets flying. They made for the stairwell until Lopez stopped at a door and strangely knocked.

“What are you doing?” she asked, knowing that she really, really, really didn’t want to know the answer.

After no answer, Lopez shot out the lock. “They’ll swarm us at ground level if we go down now. We’ve got to get lost in the buildings.”

Lopez opened the door. Rebecca backed away a step. “Clarify
buildings
.”

He urged her inside the new apartment. “We’ve just got to make that jump three more times. No biggie.”

“I
really
don’t think that phrase means what you think it means, Ricky.”

* * *

Davidson ignored the chunks of ledge that sprang up into the air and then fell back down in a shower of plaster. The other sniper was just showing off. So what that he had the bigger gun and knew how to use it?

The ruse had worked. The sniper’s attention was now focused on Davidson rather than the apartment. Fingers spasming, he had to release the gun. He swung the sight to the east. Still no sign of Rebecca, but there was enough gunfire in those buildings to indicate a small war.

Lopez must have gotten them out of that apartment by now. Right? The guy didn’t delay at much of anything.

A bullet skimmed the ledge, barely slowed from its 3,400 feet feet-per-second speed, cutting a line right next to Davidson.

Time to stop testing the other sniper and move into cover position.

Another bullet skimmed along the other side of him.

So it was going to be like that, huh?

He flexed his fingers, warming them, tempting them out of their pained contraction. How he wished for Talli’s rifle. It had longer range, better sights, and the trigger was ergonomically designed. Then he could have given the sniper a run for his money.

With this backup rifle though, he couldn’t even scare his opponent. The guy knew that if Davidson could have fired far enough to be a threat, he would have done so already.

Nope. Time to get out while the getting was good.

* * *

Brandt struggled to keep the bike upright as his rear wheel swerved of its own accord in the wet, slick creek bed. A fucking traffic jam had forced him off the road and into the fucking creek. All the commotion at the apartment buildings had created an exodus.

Sirens sounded in the distance. The authorities would be here in a few minutes, and high up on the ridge the biochemical lab showed signs of stirring. The Russians had an entire unit stationed there after the theft of the Rinderpest.

Now it wasn’t just a mission to extract Rebecca and his men. Now it was a mission to stay out of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation’s clutches. Or more likely the KGB’s clutches…in Siberia. A Special Forces team caught on Russian soil? That was one interrogation he could skip.

Past the long line of cars, Brandt gunned the motorcycle and popped the bike back onto the road. Dodging a pedestrian, he floored it for the alley that ran between the apartment buildings. He zagged to the left and entered the deep shadows of the narrow passageway. Muffled gunfire sounded. He’d just have to take a sharp right at the corner and then—

Broken glass showered down on him as his tires ground the shards.

What the hell?

He looked up in time to see a form leap overhead, jumping from building to building. Brandt slammed on the brakes, skidding the bike around as Harvish’s red hair streaked across the gap about four stories up. Gunfire followed. A dark figure dressed in black followed.

Brandt reached for his gun, but before he could even pull it, the figure leaped, then plummeted to the ground. He landed with a thud right in front of the bike. Blood seeped from a chest wound.

Davidson. Their eyes in the sky.

Not bothering to think that another day not that long ago that bullet could have been aimed at him, Brandt hit the gas, traveling back the way he came. Hitting the road, he headed north. He caught the sight of Rebecca leaping across the gap. Brandt slowed, keeping pace with his team. At the next alley he watched Lopez make the distance, dropping another floor. By the time they got to the end of the block of apartments, they would be at ground level. Smart move.

He waited until Rebecca made it across and then headed to the next alley.

Within moments the glass shattered and Lopez led the group, diving through to the second-floor window. Rebecca launched out the window, but she must have slipped as her trajectory sloped downward.

Gravity pulled at her hard.

She wasn’t going to make it.

* * *

Rebecca flailed even though she knew it would do no good. This wasn’t water. This was air. Thin air. There was no gaining altitude, only losing it.

She hit the side of the building, hard. Her fingers found the edge of the windowsill. Rebecca searched for something, anything more stable to latch onto. However, the Russians, not exactly being heavy on safety, didn’t have a fire escape or even a ladder for her to cling to. What she wouldn’t give for a single water pipe.

Her feet dangled beneath her. Her shoes finding no purchase on the smooth gray surface.

Harvish, firing behind him, apparently didn’t notice she was hanging on by a fingernail, literally, and made the leap across. She squeezed her eyes closed, not wanting to see the disaster, however the point man sailed through the window leaving her unscathed.

Lopez lashed a hand out, grabbing Rebecca’s wrist. Harvish added his hand to the effort. The two men were trying to pull her into the window when shots rang out. Bullets chipped into the wall. One must have caught Harvish. With a scream he released her hand. Only Lopez’s hand kept her from plummeting to the ground.

Her other hand flailed, trying to find the windowsill again when another hail of bullets sounded. Only this time it wasn’t at her, but at the gunman across the way. The dark figure fell backward.