Shiva

by Carolyn McCray

  As the man slumped to the floor, his eyes already glazing over, Rebecca lowered the dying woman to the floor. Brandt signaled Levont to check the man.

  “He wouldn’t have told you anything,” the woman said, then spit out blood. “Besides,” she said, smiling to reveal red-streaked teeth, “I’ve wanted to do that for a very long time.”

  Damn it. This meeting was so far sideways it was doing doughnuts.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” he said to Rebecca, urging her up.

  “There’s no computer or files that I can see,” Levont informed him.

  Of course there weren’t.

  Brandt had Rebecca halfway up when the woman grabbed her hand. “Please, they are coming, but a moment only.”

  * * *

  Rebecca knew they needed to get the hell out of there, but she just couldn’t deny the woman’s dying request. Lowering herself back down to the floor, Rebecca cradled Nori’s head.

  “Is she as glorious as prophesized?” the woman asked.

  Picturing the laughing, giggling little girl, Rebecca was not necessarily lying. “Yes, she is.”

  Nori squeezed her hand. “I have nothing else to share with you but my research.”

  The woman coughed, moist and wet. It was a disturbing sound. A sound Rebecca had heard back under the caves of Rome. A sound that only ended in death.

  “You will find it hidden with the people of the Eukaldunak.” Nori squeezed hard, although Rebecca wasn’t so sure she was conscious of it. “You know the place. You must study the monks—”

  Rebecca held the woman as another coughing fit claimed her. When it was over, the woman sagged in Rebecca’s arms.

  “Nori?” There was no response.

  “Here they come,” Levont reported from the door. Brandt helped the point man move a large bookcase in front of the door.

  Rebecca wiped blood off the woman’s cheek as her breathing turned shallow and rapid.

  “Nori?” she whispered.

  It was hard to imagine this woman, ashen and weak, was once a Disciple. Aunush’s mother no less. Then again, she did just kill her husband.

  “Nori,” Rebecca repeated. “You fought them your whole life. You fought for her. You’ve got to give me more so I can protect Vakasa.”

  The woman roused enough to flutter open her eyelids. “Shekinah,” she uttered before blood trickled, then gushed from her lips.

  * * *

  Brandt grabbed Rebecca by the elbow and propelled her up. She wouldn’t voluntarily leave the dead woman.

  “I don’t understand,” Rebecca said, holding out her hands, which were covered in the old woman’s blood.

  Brandt grabbed the woman’s burka and wiped Rebacca’s palms. “I don’t, either, babe, but we’ve got to book it.”

  Rebecca’s eyes lost that far-off stare and focused on him. “Yeah, right. Okay.”

  “Levont,” Brandt called out, “you want to start our daring escape?”

  “Damn right,” the point man said, walking to the western, centermost window. He picked up a chair and smashed it through the glass. A rope dangled down from the roof.

  Brandt urged her over to the window. Rebecca looked to the rope, then back to Brandt. “You never thought Talli was going to have to shoot. He was our back up out of here, wasn’t he?” She was smart.

  “Yeah.” Brandt chuckled. “Our meetings never go well.”

  Levont was out the window, climbing up the rope to the roof. The plan, once he got up there, was to throw down a harness so the men could haul Rebecca up there while Brandt held down the fort.

  So they had a few seconds. Brandt pulled Rebecca close.

  “I love you more than life itself,” he stated.

  Rebecca’s eyes scanned his. “Ditto,” she said, seeming confused. Declarations were not exactly his thing.

  “But I want you to promise me before we get to that point,” Brandt said, indicating to the dead couple, “we’ll get a divorce.”

  A smile flickered on her lips. “I so promise.”

  * * *

  Davidson watched Rebecca find her footing on the roof as Brandt slung his rifle over his shoulder and climbed up after her. They knew they would be attacked at the office. It was a no-brainer.

  The Disciples were just that. Disciplined. Smart. Fast. And well connected. A visit to a supposed ex-patriot of theirs would not go unnoticed. Equally certain Rebecca needed to get more information on Vakasa. The only way to get ahead of the Disciples was to figure out their end game.

  Why did they want the girl? Rebecca seemed to have some idea, but even she appeared unsure.

  Even though the Disciples’ men broke through into the penthouse office, Davidson held his fire. Talli and Levont shot at any head that dared peak out of the window. The Disciples would mount an offense to the roof, but Talli had secured that door pretty damned well.

  Besides, Lopez should be here with their helicopter at any moment. Long before the enemy could pin Brandt and the rest down on the roof.

  Davidson scanned the other buildings. Yes, they had made excellent time from Africa. Such good time that there was no way that Frellan and the sniper could be here. Except, Davidson was pretty darned sure that they were here.

  He was not going to underestimate the Disciples ever again.

  Glare caught his lens. The last rays of a sun about to give up for the night. The air was blustery red and orange as the desert flowed yellow. The Nile sparkled in the dying light as streetlamps flickered on. He would have to switch to night vision soon.

  A flare of white caught his attention.

  He swung his rifle sixty degrees, surveying the windows in that direction. He scanned across the entire row of offices, then across one, then up a row, tracking that floor. Nothing.

  Was he being too hypervigilant? Was his mind interpreting minor input and creating a crisis out of it?

  Then the flare shone from a window. Davidson honed in on the light source. His vision blurred for a moment as he adjusted his magnification. Then he wished he hadn’t. Snapping his rifle up, Davidson frowned.

  Just a man’s watch reflecting the late-evening sun. A man who was having a rather inappropriate relationship with a coworker. It was situations like this that sniper school just didn’t prepare you for.

  Shrugging off the image of something the Quran definitely did not condone, Davidson went back to his systematic survey of the area. Then he heard it. A distant buzzing that got closer and closer.

  That did not sound like a helicopter.

  He slid his rifle around to face the oncoming aircraft.

  It was definitely not a helicopter.

  The only thing definite about it was that Brandt was going to be pissed.

  * * *

  “Is that what I think it is?” Levont asked.

  Brandt jerked the binoculars away from his eyes. “If you think it is a crop duster, then, yes, it is.”

  Rebecca glanced around the roof. “But how are we supposed to…?”

  That did seem to be the question of the minute. Talli was doing a decent job of keeping the enemy pinned to the office. There was some noise at the roof door, but that was going to take them a few minutes to get past. Which should have been plenty of time for Lopez to land on the roof, scoop them up, then head over and pick up Davidson. It should have been with a helicopter, but no.

  “What are we going to do?” Rebecca asked.

  Time to think like Lopez again. Which meant he had to throw any concern for personal safety out the window. He also had to think about five times faster. Not necessarily better, just faster. However, the one thing about Lopez was, he was extremely goal oriented.

  If the corporal stole a crop duster, he had a plan to get them off this roof with a crop duster. It was probably not a good plan or a practical plan, but it was a plan.

  Brandt turned to Levont. “Do we have any grappling hooks?”

  The point man shook his head. “Sorry, Sarge.”

  “Any repelling
gear at all?” Brandt asked but already knew the answer.

  “Not a speck.”

  This is what happened when you got kidnapped from your wedding. You weren’t exactly packed for a major mission. The fact they had scraped up as much equipment as they had was pretty impressive. However, none of those weapons were going to help them get onto that crop duster, though. Unless, of course, you counted shooting Lopez out of the sky. Which Brandt wasn’t entirely discounting at the moment.

  As the crop duster flew closer, he wasn’t even coming directly over the roof. What was he playing at? The small plane slowed, enough to sputter the twin engines a bit as it flew right past them.

  Lopez had the pilot-side window open. He thrust his thumb to the rear of the plane. “Wire…” he yelled, but whatever else he said was snatched by the wind. “Next!”

  Then Lopez was past. Only Vakasa’s smiling face in the rear window, waving wildly at them, kept Brandt from going on one hell of a cursing streak.

  * * *

  Rebecca spied the large hook on the back of the plane. “There!” she said, pointing at the metal device.

  “There, what?” Brandt said as he squinted.

  “I should have realized,” she said. “The Egyptians covet organic produce and cotton.” Off Brandt’s frustrated expression, she hurried on. “Sorry, it means that, about ten years ago, they banned crop dusting, so the pilots had to get creative on ways to use their planes. From the looks of it, this plane had been modified to pull those large advertising banners.”

  Levont backed her up, handing Brandt the binoculars. “I think he brought the grappling hook to us.”

  As Lopez banked the plane around for a second pass, Brandt studied the hook. He then scanned the roof. This being a third world country, there were no sleek satellite dishes or encased electronics. Rebecca realized that the roof was a veritable maze of antennas and wires.

  Brandt’s strong brow furrowed. “He really expects us to catch hold of that thing with one of these wires.” Then he smiled. “Lopez really is a genius.”

  That is not exactly how Rebecca would have described it. That hook wasn’t all that big. And a lot of those wires didn’t seem all that sturdy. But hey, she was the one who’d insisted on coming along. There would be no whining.

  “He wants us to do what?” Talli said.

  Well, except for Talli.

  “Levont?” Brandt asked his point man. “You up for this?”

  The big man’s smile eclipsed the setting sun. “Really? I get to go first?”

  Seriously, there was something wrong with these men.

  “That’s one of the privileges of being a point man,” Brandt confirmed.

  Levont didn’t waste a single moment. As he slung his rifle, he hacked off a long piece of stiff wire and wrapped it around either wrist, creating a loop to accept Lopez’s hook.

  As the biplane sputtered again, slowing, saddling up to the roof, Levont rushed over, stepping up onto the side of the thirteen-story building as if he were hopping a curb in New York. He reared back as the plane got close. Once the plane slid by, Levont threw his loop forward and, consequently, his body weight off the roof.

  “Off the hook!” Levont yelled as the wire loop caught, jerking Levont out of thin air, pulling the point man forward. Actually, it turned out, on the hook.

  The back of the plane lurched down from the sudden weight. Somehow Lopez not only righted it, but banked into a steep turn. In a feat of muscles over gravity, Levont curled his legs forward, gripping onto the tail of the plane. He unwound the wire, letting it tumble out of the sky as he climbed forward into the plane.

  “See?” Brandt said. “Totally doable.”

  Rebecca let Talli groan for the both of them.

  CHAPTER 15

  ══════════════════

  Giza, Egypt

  9:27 p.m. (CAT)

  Frellan strode into the office building. His men were already breaking through the door to the roof. He would have been there, except he had heard whispers between the men. Ugudo would not confirm them.

  The upscale office smelled of iron. Blood. He saw his mother first. Her eyes looked to the heavens, but he doubted she found the absolution she wanted. He cared nothing for her. She had birthed him. That was all. She was weak. She had let her own ambition cloud her judgment. Were they not Moshe’s descendants? Did they not have an obligation to fulfill his legacy?

  He walked past her without another glance. Then he noted the other body.

  His father.

  Frellan sank to his knees, cradling his father’s head. “No,” he moaned. “No.”

  How could God do this? Punish the righteous and let the likes of Brandt still walk this earth? His father had sacrificed everything for the Disciples. He had left with his wife. Not because he had lost his faith, but because it had been redoubled by her betrayal. His father had kept track of Nori to be sure she did not tread too close to the Messiah.

  All of those years living with that witch to die in a foreign office building?

  Movement caught his attention. Monnie picked up his mother’s burka. The revulsion on her face matched his own. In this, the watcher and he were united. The time for grief would be later. His father would understand.

  His death must not be in vain.

  His death must lead to the Messiah.

  It was the path God had chosen.

  “We must be sure they receive a proper burial,” Monnie said.

  “For him,” Frellan nodded. “Not for her.”

  “What do you want done, then?”

  Frellan did not hesitate. “Feed her to the street dogs.” Rising, he turned to Ugudo. “I want on that roof.”

  His second-in-command nodded curtly and rushed from the room.

  His mother could be blamed for much, but one man, the man who had the Messiah, the man who had precipitated Frellan’s father’s death, was wholly to blame.

  And Brandt would pay.

  * * *

  This is taking too long, Brandt thought.

  Even though Lopez banked as hard and as sharp as he could, the turnaround time was killing them. That roof door just wasn’t going to hold much longer. Sure, they had Davidson in position, but the kid wouldn’t reveal himself until the absolute last second.

  His first priority, though, was Rebecca. He checked the wire around her wrists.

  “It is going to hurt like a mother when you catch that hook.”

  “If I catch that hook,” Rebecca responded.

  “So maybe somebody should stay stateside next time,” Brandt chided as he tightened the wire. He didn’t want her slender wrists slipping through.

  Another explosion at the door made her frown waver despite her retort. “The next time you get snatched from the altar, I will seriously consider it.”

  No matter her words, Brandt knew she’d do no such thing. Even knowing everything she’d have to go through, he felt pretty damned confident she’d come after him again. Even if she had to hook a plane to do it.

  “I’ve got a safety line around your waist…in case…”

  Rebecca nodded. “And that would hurt like a mother too.”

  “Yes,” he chuckled. “I suggest you catch that hook.”

  She nodded as he guided her up onto the side of the building.

  “It’s just like at the carnival,” Brandt reassured her. Rebecca’s glare told him she really didn’t appreciate his analogy right about now.

  As she stood above him, he stabilized her with his hands on her outer thighs. He could feel her muscles shaking under his touch. That’s what made him love her all the more. Not that she was all that brave. Don’t get him wrong, she was freaking brave. But the fact she would do anything to follow him to hell and back, even when she was scared out of her mind.

  That was his Rebecca.

  Making sure he had a tight hold of the safety line, Brandt murmured to her, “You can do this.” As the plane came in low and slow, Brandt patted her le
g. “Just visualize your loop sliding over the hook.”

  “Then the pain in my shoulders when it catches…” she finished. He knew Rebecca wasn’t complaining. She was truly visualizing a successful maneuver.

  “That’s right,” Brandt encouraged, then realized Lopez was coming in really, really, closely. “Duck!”

  Rebecca crouched down as the wings sailed overhead. It seemed Lopez didn’t want Rebecca to have to jump too far. The body of the plane slid by.

  “Now!” Brandt yelled.

  Under his palms, her muscles bunched and propelled her up and out. But it wouldn’t be enough. She had too shallow an angle. Brandt wrapped another loop of wire around his wrist, ready to catch her. But Lopez was all over it, tilting the plane’s belly and therefore the hook toward Rebecca.

  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?