“Detonate,” Brandt ordered.
Prenner hit the button and the mountain shook with the blast. The Buddha tipped forward, falling out of his ancient home. The statue bounced on his head, then rear, then head, hurling toward the jungle below.
Then a loud crack sounded above Rebecca. The rock face began to split, heading right for her piston. Once the fissure reached her, the metal loop fell out of the mountain.
She did not want to follow the Buddha down. Luckily, Brandt’s arms wrapped around her waist.
“I’ve got you.”
That he did.
* * *
Making sure that Rebecca had her footing, Brandt moved to the hole they had blasted in the wall. Prenner was right there, ready to burst into the room. Brandt gave the signal to move in.
With swift efficiency, the point man checked the cell.
“Clear,” Prenner reported.
Lopez and Brandt were in right behind, to find a man, an Asian man, looking very worried. Definitely not Levont.
“Bunny, what the fuck?”
“Double-checking the footage from the last few days.”
Prenner rapidly flipped through a variety of dialects until he found one the man understood. The two talked rapidly, then Prenner turned to Brandt.
“He is hiding out here from the Chinese. The Buddhists gave him sanctuary.”
“God damn it,” Brandt cursed, trying to figure out what had gone wrong.
The Disciple captive that had given them this information was so getting executed.
Brandt nodded toward the door. “We might as well go out the front door, then.”
Prenner cracked the door open, checking the hallway, then slipped out of the room. Lopez was about to follow when a gunshot rang out.
“Gun!” Prenner yelled, quite unnecessarily.
Everyone retreated back into the room as they returned fire.
“That’s got to be the Disciples,” Lopez noted.
“Which means Levont might be here,” Brandt finished for him. He seriously doubted that the Buddhists had suddenly decided automatic weapons were cool.
“Bunny?”
* * *
Brandt did realize that you couldn’t pull intelligence out of your butt, right?
“Bunny!”
Apparently not.
“Stark,” Bunny snapped, passing on Brandt’s agitation.
“Three doors to the left, a person has been taken out of the room in the morning and returned in the evening.”
“Brandt, it looks like we may have a secondary target. Three doors to your left.”
“Copy that,” he responded. “We will go lateral.”
They watched on the screen as the point man prepped the left wall and blew it. Once through, he repeated the process again.
Prenner pointed to the screen. “They can’t just blow that one.”
“Brandt, the subject is right on the other side of the wall.”
“Copy that,” was his brusque answer.
Bunny wished there was more to do than just watch as the team gathered in the center of the room as gunfire flashed a bright red on the screen. The Disciples were closing in.
* * *
“We are going to have to go into the hallway,” Brandt stated, even though the men had probably figured that out already. Not that staying in the room was much safer. Lopez was laying down cover fire behind them, keeping the Disciples at bay.
“On the count of three,” Brandt stated.
Prenner grabbed the doorknob.
“Bunny, how many in the hall?” Brandt asked.
“Four.”
“You okay with this?” Brandt asked his new point man.
“Yes, sir.”
He might be new, but he seemed to have the guts to take this on.
Counting down with his fingers, Brandt finally clenched his fist and Prenner burst into the hallway, firing as he went.
Lopez, creeping low, went out behind him. This wasn’t their first dance. Brandt kept Rebecca tucked under him as they made their way into the hallway. Lopez opened the door and they all rushed in behind him.
Brandt really should have been more worried about the Disciples in the hallway, but all eyes were on the dark-skinned man in the bed.
“Levont!” Lopez yelled, rushing over to the man.
It was hard to be sure. The man’s face had been worked over pretty badly.
Fucking Disciples.
“I held out for twenty-four hours, Sarge,” the man croaked.
“I know you did,” Brandt reassured him. One of the reasons they were pretty sure Levont was still alive was the fact that someone had tried to access their private files with Levont’s personal codes. No harm done, though, since after a member of the team went AWOL, all codes were changed. All Special Forces were trained to hold out that first day so that the codes could be changed. Once that day went by, though, you were free to give over any operational information necessary to keep yourself alive.
“Can you walk?” Brandt asked.
“I wish,” Levont said, the flash of a bright smile dividing his dark face. Even tortured for weeks, the guy still beamed hope.
“We’ve got a broken tibia,” Lopez noted. “But I think the fibula is intact.”
“Splint it, and we’ll get him out.”
Brandt nodded to Prenner. “Guess we go lateral again.”
* * *
Bunny shook her head, even though Brandt couldn’t see her. “No, I think you should go down.”
“Down?”
“Yeah, there is another level of rooms below you.”
“Tell him it looks like a food storage room,” Stark stated. “People only go in there around meal time.”
Bunny relayed the info. She didn’t get anything other than another “Copy that” from Brandt. Which was about what she would expect from the man of few words. On screen, someone kneeled down, most likely smearing the C-4 they were going to need.
Then everyone backed away from the center of the room. The room went red at the detonation, then everyone was jumping down into the room below.
“Get them the quickest way out,” Bunny instructed Stark.
“I’ve already got it,” Stark’s mother announced. “Out the door and to the right, then their first left. Take the hallway all the way down and that will take them to the main temple area. Through the courtyard and they will be on the steps.”
“They are going to be sitting ducks, though,” Stark noted.
“That’s what Davidson is for,” Bunny stated, worried about the same thing.
“One man against all the Disciples in there?”
“Well, if it were any man, it would be Davidson,” Bunny stated, even if she was more than a little biased.
* * *
Rebecca watched as Lopez pulled the pin on a grenade. “A little present for the bastards who did this.”
He tossed it through the hole in the ceiling just as the men rushed in from the hallway.
Rebecca turned away as it went off. She’d seen too often what a grenade could do.
“Let’s move,” Brandt ordered.
Lopez put one of Levont’s arms around his shoulder. Rebecca took the other. They didn’t make great time. Even with his leg splinted, Levont was weak and heavy. It was hard to see the vibrant man brought so low. Although he didn’t seem to notice.
“I knew you’d miss me,” Levont teased Lopez.
“You’re the only one who gets my jokes,” Lopez shot back, even as he tried to hurry the injured man along.
“That’s absolutely true,” Brandt said. “However, let’s move this along.”
They followed Bunny’s instructions and made it out into the temple proper. Rebecca would love to linger to soak in the beauty of the place—except for, you know, the Disciples hot on their trail. As they rushed along, Rebecca snapped as many pictures with her phone as possible.
The ceilings were inlaid with red and gold, whereas the floors were a glossy hardwood.
Of course, a giant gold Buddha sat at the front of the temple, atop a dais. Dozens of orange-robed monks were kneeling before it in morning meditation. Despite the fact that there had been several explosions and a group of Westerners were hurrying through, very few of the men even raised their heads, let alone rose.
Which was fine by Rebecca. The less they had to explain, the better.
Footsteps sounded behind them. The Disciples had figured out their route and were hot on their tails, catching up with every step. It probably was only Lopez’s grenade lob that had slowed them down. The enemy did not want to walk into another trap like that.
Prenner hit the wide stone doors of the temple and rushed through them.
Brandt closed the doors behind, although Rebecca wasn’t quite sure what good they would do. Prenner was headed down the slick, wide stone steps already.
“I hope Davidson is as good as Bunny thinks he is,” the point man said.
Levont smiled. “Oh, he is.”
* * *
Davidson hauled ass up the tree as fast as he could, but with leaves in his face and branches whacking him in the back of his head, that was a little difficult.
“The Disciples are almost to the front door. The entire team will be exposed,” Bunny said in his ear.
Yeah, he got it. Once he knew Brandt was heading to the front, Davidson had abandoned his perfect perch and flat out run across the valley floor. He had no roost. No time to set up. No time to even climb to the highest branches.
“They’re opening the doors!” Bunny exclaimed in his ear.
Davidson straddled the nearest branch and swung his rifle up to bear. Through his scope he could see the large gray doors swinging open. He didn’t bother to align the shot properly. They didn’t need to know how good a sniper he was, they just needed to know that there was one in the vicinity.
Pulling the trigger, he shot at the stone just in front of the door. The bullet kicked up broken stone. That stopped the Disciples in their tracks. They pulled the door closed again, giving Davidson time to properly set up, belly against the branch, rifle tight against his shoulder.
When the Disciples decided to give it another try, Davidson was ready. He let the next bullet fly. This time, if the guy hadn’t ducked back behind the door, he would have lost a nose.
Davidson waited a few breaths. The door stayed closed.
“I think I’ve got them contained,” Davidson reported.
They would try again, though. There was no doubt. They weren’t going to let Brandt walk out with their prisoner without an epic battle. Davidson took a moment to swing his rifle down to make sure the others were making it down the steps. They were about a quarter of the way down. That was a lot of real estate before they could reach the safety of the trees.
Davidson refocused on the door, waiting, watching for the slightest movement. But after several seconds ticked by, nothing. What was going on? The Disciples hadn’t just given up, had they?
As much as Davidson wanted the Disciples to just let Brandt get away, it felt wrong. Like the other shoe hadn’t dropped yet.
To confirm his suspicion, Bunny cursed. “Oh shit.”
CHAPTER 2
══════════════════
“Oh shit, what?” Brandt asked.
“We’ve got two Royal Thai Air Force jets coming at you.”
“Why the fuck is the Thai government coming after us?” Brandt demanded, although did it matter? If they were coming, they were coming.
“They’ve been told that you are narco-terrorists attacking the temple.”
“Could you clear that up for us?” Brandt suggested.
“Stark’s mom is on the phone with the State Department right now.”
Why did he not feel all that much better that Stark’s mom was in charge of saving their lives? Then the air filled with the sound of approaching jets. At first they were two specks on the horizon, then, way too fast, they became way too real.
“Hunker down!” Brandt yelled as the first plane broke formation to come in for the attack.
He didn’t expect any of them to live through the next few moments, but at the last moment, a shot rang out from the trees and the jet veered, just enough so that the missiles it shot flew past the mountain and exploded deeper in the valley.
Just when he thought Davidson couldn’t get any better, the kid pulled off a Hail Mary shot like that. In that moment, Brandt forgave Davidson for all of his previous transgressions.
Unfortunately, the other jet was speeding toward them. Davidson shot and shot, but the plane just wouldn’t back down. It let loose two missiles at them. Both struck the side of the mountain.
While none of them were hit directly, it had been too fucking close. Especially when half the steps cracked and fell away. Brandt dug his finger into the stone, grinding rock under his nails trying to keep himself and Rebecca from falling. It wasn’t going to be enough, though, as the steps beneath his feet crumbled.
His last act was to shove Rebecca back to safety as he slid down the mountain face.
“Gotcha,” Rebecca said, as she grabbed his wrist. Although, by the strain in her arms and her blotchy face, it wouldn’t be for long.
“Let me go,” Brandt begged. He didn’t want them both to die in this wretched jungle.
“Never,” Rebecca insisted.
Her foot slipped on the wet rock. Both would have plunged to their deaths if someone hadn’t grabbed her around the waist. Lopez. And then Prenner was there, helping haul both of them back from the precipice.
Which would have been great, except the first plane had circled back around, and it looked ready to prove itself this time.
Brandt tucked Rebecca’s head against his chest. Davidson was firing, but they couldn’t expect another miracle from the sniper. Then, at the last minute the jet pulled up short, not firing.
“Stark’s mom did it!” Bunny yelled in his ears.
Yes, Stark’s mom had done it, as the two jets arched away from them, heading back to Bangkok.
“There’re ground forces in the way, though,” Bunny stated. “And I doubt they are Thai.”
“Copy that,” Brandt responded, then turned to his team. “You heard the lady—double time.”
* * *
Rebecca climbed into the back of the four-wheel drive SUV, then turned to help Levont get settled in.
“What took you guys so long?” he asked Lopez.
“Yeah, like a Buddhist temple in Thai was our first choice,” Lopez answered.
“Lopez never gave up,” Rebecca interjected. “He wouldn’t rest until you were found.”
“Don’t make it sound so gay,” Lopez said, then turned to Prenner. “No offense, man.”
“None taken,” their new point man said. “I was going to ask if you two needed a few moments alone.”
Rebecca tensed. This whole gays served openly in the military was kind of new, and Prenner’s sexual orientation hadn’t been a problem so far. However, it hadn’t really been addressed, either. The guy was Svengurd’s boyfriend, so it seemed that if Svengurd loved him, the team would, too. And it turned out he wasn’t a half bad point man. How did she know? Brandt wasn’t constantly complaining about him, as he had done with Harvish.
Lopez smiled broadly. “Nah, man. We just have a little bromance going on.”
Brandt loaded into the front seat, eyeing the men. “Anything I should know about?”
“Absolutely not,” Lopez answered back.
Rebecca smiled as she sank into her seat. All was right with the world again. The team was back together, and they were headed for their flight in Bangkok. Of course, that meant a no-holds-barred flight through the jungle.
And it was going to be a doozy. Lopez revved the engine.
“Do I have some direction, Bunny, or should I just wing it?” Lopez asked.
* * *
“No!” both Bunny and Brandt exclaimed at the same time. She glanced up to the screen that showed the Thai
valley. “Head south by southwest, and we’ll update as we go.”
“If you insist,” Lopez answered, the growl of the engine behind him.
“We do,” Brandt countered.
Bunny had been in the back of many of vehicle that Lopez drove. It was bad enough even if he wasn’t “winging it” with directions.
Stark muted his microphone and spoke directly to her. “Isn’t that taking them into the path of the oncoming vehicles?”
“They’ve got to pick up a package before heading out,” Bunny reminded the hacker, pointing to the speck that was Davidson.
“Still, that is going to be close,” Stark said, turning back to his keyboard.
Clearly, the man had never ridden with Lopez.
The car on the screen practically flew down the dirt road, despite the ground being half flooded from the storm.
“They are turning to adjust,” Stark noted, and he wasn’t wrong. The enemy must have had some satellite feed, as well, or they had placed a tracker on Levont. Either way, it gave the Disciples an advantage.
“Brandt, they are watching, as well,” Bunny warned the team. “It’s going to be extremely close.”
“They will have line of sight,” Stark confirmed.
“Knock it out for five minutes,” Brandt responded.
“What do you mean?” Bunny said, even though she was pretty sure of what he meant.
“Block all signals. Satellite, radio, everything.”
“But—”
“Do it,” Brandt barked as only Brandt could do.
Bunny nodded to Stark, who typed in a few commands, and the screen went to static. She watched a small digital display that Stark had put up counting down the five minutes. Until then, they were blind, deaf and mute.
* * *
Brandt clutched the dashboard as Lopez bounced them over another branch in the “road.” It was more like a poorly maintained game trail than an official kind of street. That didn’t stop Lopez from having some fun.
The corporal slammed on the brakes and jerked the wheel to the right as a tree appeared right in the middle of the roadway. The vehicle was slapped by fronds and branches as they raced through the jungle, the actual jungle. Then Lopez took them right back onto the “road.”
The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection Page 128