The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection
Page 101
Then the man’s head snapped to the side. The mercenary lurched, trying to get his bearings, when that long, hollow stick hit him in the back of the knees. Legs knocked out from under him, the mercenary tumbled to the ground, his shots going wild. The stick came down flat onto his nose, crushing it.
Rebecca looked away, tucking Vakasa’s head away from the violence.
It wasn’t until a few seconds after the last moist thud that Rebecca glanced back up. Levont. Was that his name? Brandt’s new point man offered her his mud-covered hand.
“We’ve got to get moving.”
Once up, Rebecca looked around for the old man. He had melted into the night again.
“Thank you,” she said shakily to Brandt’s man.
“Appreciate it, ma’am, but my boss would be awfully disgruntled if I rescued you, only to have us captured again.”
Rebecca snorted despite herself. Levont was right. Brandt would be pissed.
“Where is he?”
Levont’s answer was a nod toward the literal storm of gunfire across the jungle. However, the man moved north instead of toward Brandt.
“Where are we going?”
“To get the hell out of here.”
Yeah, Rebecca couldn’t agree more.
* * *
“Can you do it?” Bunny demanded.
The technician’s fingers flew over the keyboard. “In a week, maybe.”
Bunny looked over at Emily. “I’ll get someone at Langley on it.”
The ploy worked, as one of the tech’s hands flew up. “Hang on.”
The screen in front of them—a new screen since shrapnel from Bunny’s CPU attack had damaged the last one—bloomed to life. Orange and yellow and red flared.
“You are sure you aren’t broadcasting to Brandt’s team?” Bunny asked.
The tech rolled his eyes. “Like I said, we are broadcasting to nowhere.”
“But it is live inside the system?”
“Jeez, yes. Now, which way do you want me to have them going?” the tech asked.
“South,” Bunny answered.
“Why south?” Prenner asked.
Bunny didn’t answer. Probably because south was just a hunch. But after everything that had happened over the last year, she’d learned to trust her gut. Bunny smacked the tech on the shoulder.
“South it is,” the tech said, moving one of the medium-sized orange globs, along with the smallest blip, down the screen. “And the others?”
“Have them converge on the last location of the main enemy’s force.”
It was a good thing the kid’s background was in video game development before the DoD recruited him.
“Not so fast,” Prenner suggested. “Brandt would never move that cautiously. Lopez, the blip to the west might, but not Brandt.”
Bunny nodded. “Good point. Davidson would also set up in a tree somewhere, so keep him stable.”
“Seriously, people,” the tech complained, “I am doing like five people’s jobs right now, so let’s keep the personalized monograms to a minimum.”
She gave the tech a squeeze on the shoulder as a little motivator. Davidson wouldn’t mind, not if the gesture helped save his life.
“Fine,” the tech said, typing rapidly. The figures on the screen moved in a corresponding fashion.
Bunny pointed to the blip next to Brandt. “Talli isn’t that good a shot. Don’t have him be that Rambo.”
With a minimal of fussing, the tech did as asked.
The chess pieces were on the board. In hopefully the exact opposite direction of the actual soldiers.
Now to see if the Disciples would take the bait.
* * *
Brandt dropped to his knee and pulled the trigger. Only, nothing came out. He didn’t bother cursing. He simply pulled his sidearm out of his waistband and fired. This time squeezing off the rounds one by one.
Talli pulled up beside him rather than leapfrogging.
“I’m almost out as well.”
What the hell were Lopez and Davidson doing?
Brandt and Talli were in place. Actually, they had pushed past “the place,” just to keep up the charade of trying to reach Rebecca. Now, though, with limited ammunition? Something had to happen. Something big or they would be pinned down within minutes.
“Spare your rounds,” Brandt said, letting Talli provide the cover fire while he thought through the mess they were in.
What could have gone wrong with the plan? Besides about sixteen thousand things?
Brandt cocked his head. Talli wasn’t firing. “Run out?” he asked as he fired into the jungle.
“No,” Talli said, pushing Brandt’s gun arm down. He was about to complain, quite stringently, when Talli put his finger to his lips. “Listen,” he whispered.
And Brandt did. And people were still firing at them. Or were they? Sure, shots were being fired, but they seemed to be going east. At a clipped rate. What the hell was going on? It was like the enemy was chasing ghosts.
They stayed silent in the brush for a few more moments, letting the enemy charge in the wrong direction. Could he trust this bizarre golden opportunity? Could he trust that somehow an escape path had opened up?
Given how light his gun felt in his hand, Brandt figured he could.
“Ready?” he asked Talli.
After a deep breath, the corporal nodded.
This was it.
Brandt took a step to the west. Then another and another, gaining speed as he went.
After all of that, their plan might still work.
CHAPTER 9
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Congo Jungle
11:18 p.m. (CAT)
Ahead of them, Levont skid to stop, putting his hand into a fist. Rebecca pulled Vakasa close as they hunkered down in the brush. There had been several other times men had run past their location. Strangely shooting in the wrong direction. It had forced them to take a far more circumventous route than Levont had proposed.
Through the heavy leaves, Rebecca spotted their final destination. Awash in moonlight, two helicopters sat on an outcropping of rock.
Rebecca inched her way to the point man. “What is the plan?”
“Not sure,” he answered, sweeping night-vision goggles over the area.
“Um…” Levont was new to the team. Maybe he wasn’t used to sharing intel with her. “Can you give me any specifics? Brandt is totally candid with me.”
“Oh, it’s not that I’m withholding,” he said with a grin. “It’s because I don’t know.”
Rebecca rocked back onto her heels. That was not the answer she was looking for. “Then why did you have us haul our butts over here?”
Levont nodded to the helicopters. “Those are the only vehicles for twenty miles. You think Lopez could keep his hands off of them?”
Well, Levont may be new to the team, but he certainly had Lopez pegged.
“So what do we do?” Rebecca asked as Vakasa crawled onto her lap. The young girl leaned her head against Rebecca’s shoulder. Somehow the terror faded. At least a little.
“Wait.”
“For what?”
One of the helicopter’s blades slowly started spinning.
“For that…” Levont said with a broad grin. Guards, attracted by the sound, rushed the helicopter. Levont took aim, knocking each one either down or back. “I may not be Davidson, but I’ve got my uses.”
Apparently, the point man did.
“You know how cover fire works?” Levont asked.
“Yes, unfortunately,” she answered.
“All right, then,” he said, getting his shot lined up. “On my mark, you are going to get the girl to the helicopter. You are not going to worry about me. You are not going to look back. You are not going to wait for me to catch up. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Levont turned to look her straight in the eye. “I mean it.”
“So do I,” Rebecca answered. “You are on you
r own.”
The point man grinned. Then his face got grim. “Three…two…”
Ugh. Rebecca knew the rest as she gripped Vakasa’s hand.
* * *
“Stop!” Frellan yelled, yet his men charged forward. Had he heard something?
“Simama!” Ugudo yelled in Swahili. The group of mercenaries was so diverse that it was the only common language amongst them. The dark-skinned commander waved the men back. “Your orders?”
Frellan cocked his head, listening. Nothing. In the deep jungle, was his mind playing tricks on him? He looked to the video feed of the heat signatures, then to the jungle. Beyond where his men had just come, there was no movement. Not a single branch out of place. Brandt and his team were good, but not that good. No one was that good.
Then gunfire erupted. Behind them.
“The helicopters,” Ugudo confirmed.
No. It could not be. Brandt and the rest were in front of them.
However, as more and more shots sounded, Frellan had to accept this new reality.
He studied his handheld receiver. The signal had been a decoy. A decoy. Someone dared bait him? Bait the Disciples?
Was this how Aunush failed? He had read her reports. He had shaken his head at her constant blaming of faulty intelligence. Yet here he stood, in the middle of the Congo, with a device that had betrayed him.
God truly was testing him.
Once he caught Brandt, Monroe, and the child, though? Ah, then he would have the time he craved. All the time in the world to etch betrayal into their very souls.
* * *
Rebecca turned the handle of the helicopter’s door and jerked it open as the rotors wound up.
Lopez winked at her. “Long time no see.”
“Just fly, Ricky,” Rebecca urged, even though she couldn’t help but grin as she helped Vakasa into the helicopter.
“Why, how lucky can a guy get?” Lopez commented. “His two favorite girls loading into his helicopter?”
Vakasa had no trouble flashing a huge smile at the corporal, until a bullet bounced off one of the blades.
“Levont should be right behind us,” Rebecca said as she got Vakasa hooked into her seat, latching the restraints in place. What did it say about her life that she could do so without even looking?
“Doesn’t look like it,” Lopez commented as he lifted them a few feet off the ground. Rebecca looked to the tree line, to see Levont retreat back into the brush as bullets flew. “He’s going to need some cover,” Lopez added. “And I’m, well, a little busy.”
He eyed the gun sitting on the seat next to him. Rebecca shied away. Despite their rather desperate need, she was loath to pick up the gun. She hated guns. She hated everything they represented. She hated that her life and that of everyone else’s relied on them.
Then Vakasa was there. Her little fingers picked up the heavy weapon.
“No!” Rebecca shouted, pulling the gun from the girl’s hand. “No.”
The girl looked puzzled. Clearly, she’d grown up in the war-torn region. Vakasa probably had more shooting experience than Rebecca. Yet she could not allow the girl to be the one to shoot. She couldn’t let the girl be the one to carry the burden.
Opening the helicopter door, Rebecca braced herself and pulled the trigger. The recoil shot pain up her wrists to her elbow and all the way to her shoulder. She fired again in the general direction of the guards. Still, Levont couldn’t poke his head out of the leaves without bullets pushing him back.
“Fine. Lopez to the rescue,” the corporal stated, lifting the chopper up and tilting it toward the tree line. “Keep that door open!”
They skimmed the damp grass, speeding toward Levont’s position. The others must have realized what Lopez was attempting, as they moved to cut the chopper off. Rebecca raised the weapon and squeezed off another two joint-jarring shots. This time the men paid attention to her errant bullets, firing back.
Ducking, Rebecca kept the door open even as the jungle tried to push it closed. Levont scrambled out from the brush as the helicopter bucked and fought Lopez. They lurched up four feet. Levont tossed his weapon over his shoulder and leapt for it. His body hit the opening.
Rebecca grabbed his hand, trying to help haul him up. One of Levont’s feet caught some purchase on the helicopter’s struts. He was about to push himself into the chopper when one of the mercenaries charged. Rebecca didn’t even think. She just shot.
Blood splattered across the man’s shoulder. Howling, he dropped his gun. Shaking, Rebecca dropped her gun as well. She’d shot someone. She could see the pain in his features. She could see the blood she’d freed from his body.
“A little help,” Levont groaned, hanging on with one hand to the door frame. The other arm was tucked up against his abdomen. Where his arm was hit or his belly, Rebecca couldn’t tell.
She reached over him, grabbed him by the belt, and pulled. He was nearly inside the chopper when he became twice as heavy. The mercenary had jumped up and grabbed Levont by the leg.
Seriously, give it up.
But the guy seemed intent on taking Levont down.
“Close the door!” Lopez yelled.
“He’s not in yet,” Rebecca responded, still tugging up with all her might.
“Do it!” Lopez shouted.
She had no idea what he had in mind, but it was probably incredibly stupid. And dangerous. So with one hand still on Levont’s belt, she used the other one to bring the door as closed as she could under the bizarre circumstances.
Lopez tilted the helicopter precariously thirty degrees to the right. The blades chewed up branches, sending wooden shrapnel everywhere, but especially at the mercenary. Levont grit his teeth as his own leg took some of the damage.
Still, the guy would not let go. As a matter of fact, he was climbing up Levont, trying to make it into the chopper. Rebecca gripped the chopper door, then threw her weight into it. The metal hit the guy in the head, knocking him back. He lost his traction on Levont’s tuxedo pant leg and slid down to his shoe.
With one good kick, Levont freed himself of the mercenary.
Now half as light, the point man easily made it into the helicopter. Once inside, Rebecca slammed the door shut.
Despite a bleeding arm and half a dozen scratches, Levont beamed. “Off. The. Hook.”
Then bullets flew as Lopez banked them away from the forest. The bulk of mercenaries had clearly returned.
“Thor!” Vakasa cried, pointing to two men approaching.
Thor?
Hell no, that was Brandt—and Talli—running across the clearing!
Only, Lopez had to climb higher and higher and push the chopper faster and faster to avoid the storm of shots coming from the forest.
* * *
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
They were too late. The helicopter had been forced to take off as the rest of the mercenaries arrived.
“Retreat,” Brandt ordered.
Talli obeyed, backing into the jungle, laying down what cover fire he could while clearly still trying to conserve ammo. The only lucky break they had gotten was that the Disciples were way too busy worrying about the helicopter getting away than chasing them down.
Lopez’s chopper, with a hail of bullets chasing it, sailed overhead. Pressed against the glass was Rebecca’s face. She was alive.
He wouldn’t be much longer if he stood there all doe-eyed. Heading back into the jungle, Brandt tried to think like Lopez. Which kind of made his head hurt. They didn’t have a third staging area. What were they thinking? From now on, they needed about five of them.
Retreating outside the range of the mercenaries’ guns, Brandt studied the enemy. There were still eight of them, not including their leader. So storming the second helicopter wasn’t an option. Besides, he wasn’t much of a chopper pilot, and he wasn’t about to risk it to Talli.
Most of the mercenaries loaded quickly into the chopper, leaving only a few on the ground to provide protection for their launch.
Good old-fashioned sabotage.
The only problem? Now that the enemy didn’t have a quick pursuit to care about, they all turned their attention to the jungle.
Time to hightail it.
But where?
“Any thoughts on where Lopez is heading?” Brandt asked as he crept deeper into the jungle.
“You are asking me?” Talli asked.
True. The two men couldn’t be more diametrically opposed.
Great. Time to play “Where in the World is Lopez?”
Not his favorite game.
* * *
“We’ve got to circle back,” Rebecca demanded.
“Can’t, darlin’,” Lopez answered, swerving the chopper under the canopy, avoiding the tree trunks. Which was about as difficult as it sounded. Chunks of bark flew all around them. It was like flying through a wood chipper.
Rebecca hissed out a breath, trying to regain her composure. It was just a little hard to do after flying over your husband-to-be, abandoning him to the Disciples. But she knew, after everything Lopez had done, that he couldn’t possibly be leaving Brandt and Talli behind.
She took another breath before asking, “So you have a plan?”
“Duh,” Lopez said, ducking his head as they mowed through a palm tree, its leaves smacking the windshield.
She counted to ten before speaking. “Do you care to share?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“No!” Rebecca just couldn’t help it.
Lopez only smiled, though. “If you’ve only got two staging areas and one is compromised, what do you do?”
“Go to the other,” Levont answered from behind her.
Vakasa kneeled next to the large man as he prepped ropes and riggings. It seemed like he was getting ready to pull the men into the chopper from the ground. But what if the men weren’t there to pull?
“That’s great and all, but does Brandt know this?” she asked.
Lopez made a face. “Um, he better, or we are so screwed.”