Flight to Destiny (A Samantha Starr Thriller, Book 2)

by S. L. Menear

  As I snaked through the rocks, looking for a spot to launch an attack on the soldier guarding the group, I heard him shouting, “Shots fired. Four men missing. Target not with group. What are your orders?”

  A voice crackled over his radio, “Secure the target. We must take her alive and unharmed. Eliminate the others.”

  The other searcher returned to the picnic area. I wasn’t expecting their next move.

  The two commandos bolted down a path behind the picnic tables and vanished.

  I took my chances, ran to Lance, and cut his plastic cuff and then Carlene’s. I gave him a knife and handed the pistol to Carlene. Pulling out my other knife, I rushed to free Pete and the others.

  “Pull on your backpacks and grab the guns. Hurry!” I shoved the dead soldiers’ weapons into the hands of the terrified actors and my crew.

  Lance pointed. “Let’s go for the high ground. The stairs to the Monastery are that way. Follow me!” He ran into the narrow trail leading to hundreds of stone steps.

  I turned to ensure everyone in our group was with us. Inga froze. Jack’s male protective instinct must have kicked in because he grabbed Inga’s hand and yanked her forward. Carlene was right behind Lance and Pete, and Rod ran so close to me I almost tripped over him.

  The steep climb to the massive mausoleum loomed ahead. Our adrenaline surged. We leaped up the steps, taking two at a time. As we climbed higher, the incline and exertion slowed our pace.

  I looked behind us and spotted two commandos following at a distance.

  Lance stopped. “I see two Black Sun soldiers at the top.” He turned and noted the two men below us. “We’re trapped with no cover.”

  “Maybe not.” My head tingled like it had in Hong Kong. I spotted a trail near the holy spring and felt a force draw me there. “This way!”

  I led the group through a narrow cleft in the rock face. Thirty feet back, it dead-ended. I rubbed my hands over the rock, hoping for a miracle. My right hand found a soft indented area full of dirt that made my hand tingle like it had at the Taj Mahal when I found the pendant. The spot was six feet up.

  “We’re trapped! They’re coming!” Rod shrieked.

  “Quiet, I’m working on a solution.” I spoke with a confident commanding tone to calm everyone. “Just a few more seconds.”

  I dug out the dirt with my fingernails. The sun glinted off a gold square about the size of my pendant. Outlines of a trident and inverted pyramid were recessed inside it.

  I wiped the square with my shirtsleeve and pushed the pendant into the gold square.

  It fit perfectly.

  A grinding noise preceded a solid-rock door opening inward beneath the gold square. I peeked inside down a long passageway. Gun shots and men shouting behind us made the decision for me.

  “In here. Hurry!” I waved everyone into the passage.

  Carlene’s pith helmet fell off as people jostled her running for the entrance. She yanked Lance’s hand. “My hat!”

  “Forget it!” Lance dragged her into the passage.

  I pulled the pendant out of the door lock and rushed inside. The stone door closed behind me. We were now in absolute darkness.

  Another dark tunnel like the one in Scotland. Damn.

  Sweetwater’s strike team was perched atop a plateau in Petra known as the High Place of Sacrifice. Using binoculars and sniper scopes, they scanned the stone stairs leading up to the Monastery mausoleum.

  “Looks like we killed all the Black Sun. Samantha’s group ran into a narrow gap in the mountain near the holy spring. They haven’t come out yet.” The team leader turned to his best sniper. “Can you see them on your scope?”

  The sniper adjusted his range. “No movement near the cleft. According to our site map, there’s no other way out.”

  “Stay on it.” The leader of Sweetwater’s mercenaries stood between the snipers.

  Ten minutes later, the leader scanned the ancient city one last time. “All right, gentlemen, let’s head for the chopper. We’ll fly over the holy spring on the way out and verify Blondie is safe with her group.”

  The strike team climbed into a sand-colored Bell 206B Jet Ranger and flew over the stairs to the Monastery. The chopper hovered above the narrow crevasse.

  One of the team’s snipers adjusted his scope as he searched the area. “I see a pith helmet on the ground at the dead end. No tour group, no Samantha.”

  “She must’ve found a hiding place in the mountain. The threat has been neutralized. Best we bug out before the king sends his army to look for them.” The leader tapped the pilot. “Let’s go.”

  Earlier on the tour bus, Ahmed woke in his reclined driver’s seat to the sound of distant gunfire. Thirty minutes before, he had awakened from a sound sleep thinking he heard gun shots. But when he listened, there was silence. He assumed it had been a dream and fell back to sleep. Now he realized the shots were real.

  He rushed outside and heard a few more shots. Then silence. He reached into his pocket. No mobile phone. Must’ve left it in the charger.

  His heart pounded as he strained to listen. He focused on the entrance to the Siq, expecting the tour group to come running out. Instead he heard the thundering blades of a helicopter. He glimpsed the sand-colored chopper for a few seconds before it disappeared behind a peak.

  Ahmed bolted for the bus. The chef and waiter were snoring in the back. They wore ear buds connected to MP-3 players.

  “Wake up!” He stood in the aisle between them and tapped their heads.

  The men looked confused. They pulled out their ear buds and checked the time.

  “What? Did we oversleep?” the chef asked.

  “I heard gunfire inside Petra. Give me your phone. I must call for help.”

  “We don’t have phones. Only the guide and driver may carry phones. Use yours.” The waiter looked annoyed.

  “I left mine at home in the charger.” Ahmed ran to the driver’s seat.

  He drove to a café in the nearby village of Wadi Musa. The proprietor looked disappointed when he exited the bus with only two men.

  Ahmed ran to the owner. “I need your phone. My tour group is under attack in Petra!”

  The shocked man pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Take it. What can I do to help?”

  “Find the village policeman. The attackers have guns.” Ahmed called 191 and was connected to the nearest big city, which was Aqaba. “I am the bus driver for a private VIP tour. They were alone in Petra when I heard many gun shots. I saw a helicopter fly away. None of my people came out.”

  The village police officer ran inside with the café owner. “Tell me what happened.” He glanced from Ahmed to the two men with him.

  Ahmed finished his emergency call and said, “I brought nine VIPs to Petra for a private tour. The guide and eight soldiers from the Royal Guard accompanied them.”

  “Ah, so that’s why the site was closed to vendors. Go on.” The local policeman stood with one hand resting on his weapon.

  Ahmed repeated what he had just told the Aqaba police. “I didn’t have a phone, so I drove here to call for help.” He glanced at his coworkers for support.

  They nodded in agreement.

  “What did the Aqaba police say?” The lone police officer looked concerned.

  “They’re sending police cars from Aqaba and soldiers in helicopters. The soldiers will arrive first. I was instructed to wait here. It will be at least forty-five minutes before the soldiers arrive. Are you going into Petra?”

  “I must not abandon my post. The armed intruders may come to my village.” The cop wiped his brow.

  Ahmed called the tour company. His boss said he would call the king’s office.

  Hidden inside the Monastery, Werner had seen his men shot with lightning-fast speed. They fell off the steep cliff steps into the rocks a few hundred feet below.

  Who attacked us?

  He scanned Petra with powerful binoculars and spotted the strike team on a high perch opposite the Monastery.
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  Bastards!

  Werner waited until he saw the killers fly away in a helicopter. He made a note of the tail number.

  Her group disappeared near the holy spring. Must find her.

  He headed down the stone steps in the dark shadow of the mountain as the sun dropped behind the summit.

  Halfway down, he stopped by the holy spring and listened. No sounds of people. He crept into a dark narrow cleft, expecting to see frightened people huddled against the mountain. Instead, he saw a solitary pith helmet.

  Werner shined a flashlight on the rock wall and spotted the gold square. He scrolled through pictures his men had sent to his mobile after they captured Samantha at the Taj Mahal. Her pendant resembled the square in front of him.

  Must be the key that opens this mountain. She truly is the Golden Twin, but I can’t get inside the mountain, and they have me outgunned. I’ll get her but not today.

  Trying to beat the arrival of the king’s soldiers, he hurried to his Humvee hidden in a dry river bed and began the grim task of collecting his dead comrades.

  A half hour later, he drove down the river bed with his headlights off. Wearing night-vision goggles, he vanished into the night with his macabre cargo.

  I took a deep breath. Don’t panic. In Scotland, young Charlie had talked me through my claustrophobia when we crawled through that dark tunnel cave. Now I had six people depending on me.

  I could really use some chocolate.

  My group pulled out their cell phones to illuminate the area. I rubbed the diamond pyramid on my pendant and slipped the chain over my neck. The diamond lit up like a halogen lamp. I pulled off my backpack and took out a small halogen flashlight and my night-vision binoculars from my handbag.

  “Okay, we’re safe in here. I have the key.” I checked faces for signs of panic as I slipped the NV-binoculars’ strap around my neck. “Turn off your cell phones and save the batteries in case we get a chance to use them later.”

  Anxious faces stared back at me. Inga had a death grip on Jack, and Rod looked panicky. Carlene was plastered against Lance and Pete. Everyone huddled in shock.

  “Captain, are we trapped? I don’t want to die in here.” Rod’s voice was shaky.

  “We’re okay. Let me squeeze past you and check our escape route.” I slid sideways along the rock wall and barely made it past everyone.

  “I can’t believe we lost Hal and Tawnee,” Carlene said, sniffling. She pulled a tissue from her pocket.

  “The murders of our people, the tour guide, and the soldiers were horrific, but we have to put it out of our minds for now. We’ll grieve later. First, we have to survive.” I sighed.

  My light revealed a narrow passage that seemed to stretch into infinity. I had never been good in dark, closed-in spaces. Venturing into the mountain seemed way too scary. I realized my judgment was clouded by claustrophobia and the shock of having seen people murdered, especially the one I killed.

  “What do you guys think we should do?” I glanced from Lance to Pete.

  Lance spoke first. “We should follow this passage and see where it leads. It’s only a matter of time before those Black Sun bastards blast their way in here and come after us.”

  Pete nodded to me. “I agree. A rock wall won’t stop them for long. A few well-placed explosives and they’ll be in here. Let’s forge ahead.”

  “Do we have any spelunkers here?” I searched their faces.

  “I’ve explored many caves around the world.” Jack’s deep British voice resonated in the stone passage.

  “Good, you know what dangers to look for. Come up front with me.” I waved him forward.

  Jack recovered as he switched to his action-hero persona and swaggered up to me. “Right, ladies and gents, stay close together and proceed slowly.”

  “Wait, we need to secure the weapons. A gunshot could ricochet off the rock and kill somebody.” I shined my light on the group. “I want everyone, except Carlene and my copilots, to sling the submachine guns across their backs.”

  Jack had a defiant look in his eyes. “I served in the Royal Navy. You can trust me with a weapon.”

  “Have you seen combat?”

  “No combat, but I’m a damn good shot. Hardly ever miss.”

  “Good, I’ll count on your help if we come under attack.”

  I watched Lance and Pete help Inga and Rod sling their weapons behind them. “All right, let’s go.”

  I shined my light down the infinite passageway. Our group of seven walked as close together as possible. Reflected light off the smooth rock walls and ceiling provided dim light while our path was bathed in the bright light of the flashlight and pendant.

  The passage was so narrow we had to walk single file in many places. Jack stayed close to me and kept an eye out for danger signs.

  As we ventured deeper, I felt like I was suffocating. The walls seemed to close in on me. My heart raced, and I felt short of breath even though we were walking down a slight incline. Claustrophobic panic hovered in the back of my mind.

  Get a grip! Can’t let my group see me lose it. Slow, deep breaths. Charlie would love this. If a twelve-year-old can do this, so can I.

  It wasn’t long before some members of the group started whining.

  “How far are we going? My feet are tired,” Inga said in a heavier Swedish accent than she normally used.

  “What if there’s no way out? We’re going deeper into the mountain.” Rod sounded scared. “We could get lost and starve to death. Or maybe we’ll die of thirst. I want some Cristal.”

  Carlene surprised me. “Settle down and stop your whinin’ right now. Our captain figured out how to open the mountain and save us. She’ll find the way out.”

  “Carlene’s right,” Lance said. “In fact, we don’t want a fast exit. We want to put plenty of distance between us and our enemies. Better to come out far from Petra.”

  “Uh, Captain,” Jack said, “where did you get that pendant that opened the door?”

  “A curio shop in Hong Kong,” I lied.

  “Don’t worry about the details.” Pete spoke in a reassuring tone. “We’re safe now, and every step is taking us farther from our attackers. Sam will lead us out of here when the time’s right. Keep going.”

  Screw my claustrophobia! These people need me. No way will I let them down.

  The sound of running water grew louder, and the passage opened into a large cavern. A waterfall flowed into a twenty-foot wide pool that fed a stream. The path narrowed as it curved around the pool. The air felt warm and moist from the falling water.

  I signaled a stop. “This is the same fresh water that feeds the holy spring. I read about it in the Petra tour book. It’s a hot spring, but the water’s pure. We should refill our water bottles.”

  I slipped off my backpack and pulled out two one-liter bottles. One was empty, the other less than half full. I stretched out on my belly to fill them.

  After everyone was finished, we rested. The fruit in our backpacks tasted refreshing.

  “Since we don’t know how long we’ll be on our own, we should ration our food. Save as much as possible. We’ll have plenty of water from the underground stream.” The water amplified my voice as the high cavern eased my claustrophobia.

  The path angled up as it circled the pool. Jack led the way and stopped halfway around. “The path is too narrow ahead. We’ll have to switch our weapons and backpacks to our chests and walk sideways.”

  When I slipped my pack and MP7 over my ample chest, I realized balance could be an issue for the women. “Everyone hold hands until we’re past the water.”

  Jack led and held my left hand. Lance was on my right. The women positioned themselves between the men so each could hold a man’s hand. We side stepped toward the open area at the far side of the pool.

  Before we reached the wide floor, Carlene screamed.

  The wet rocks under her leather soles had caused her to slip over the edge. The same thing happened to Inga a second later.

/>   “Lance, help!” Carlene yelled.

  “Pete!” Inga squeezed his hand and kicked her feet against the vertical lip.

  “I’ve got you, and Pete’s got Inga. Up you go, Carlene.” Lance gripped her hand and hoisted her onto the ledge.

  Pete yanked Inga up before her feet touched the water. The group waited for the ladies to recover.

  “Lance, darlin’, I owe you big time. Thanks for savin’ me.” Carlene tried to kiss him, but he was too tall, and their packs got in the way.

  “You’re my hero, Pete.” Inga squeezed his hand. “Now let’s get the hell off this ledge.”

  Soon we all faced a new problem. Beyond the high cavern, the path split into three passages. Each looked endless in the dark. I took a deep breath as my mind searched for a solution.

  “Shit, what the hell do we do now?” Rod said.

  “Look for a trident symbol. It may be carved into the rock floor, a wall, or up high.” I shined my flashlight on every surface of all three entrances.

  “I don’t see no tridents!” Rod shouted.

  “Why are we looking for tridents?” Carlene asked.

  Everyone looked at me.

  “Because the key that opened the mountain has a trident. Could be another trident marks the correct passage. Move to one side so I can take in the big-picture view.” I eased back to the edge of the pool and shined my light above the openings.

  I studied the cavern ceiling. What am I missing? Then I saw it. I sighed with relief and pointed.

  “We’re taking the trail on the right under that stalactite that looks like an inverted trident. They don’t normally form like that. It has to be our sign.” I walked into the passage and waited for Jack to join me.

  “Sure hope you’re right about them tridents,” Rod said.

  We walked deeper into the dark mountain. I had no idea what might lie ahead, but anything seemed better than what we had left behind. Navigating the dark passages distracted us from the violent encounter with the Black Sun.

  A strange scuffling noise came from the passage in front of us.