“We've got to go, before anyone else gets hurt, including your comrades in arms.”
Brandt didn't wait for their decision. He holstered his weapon and pulled the women out of the bed. He nodded for Prenner to do the same with the priest.
“I told you we should have brought a helicopter,” Lopez grumbled.
That the corporal had. And Brandt probably should've listened to him. He was going to chalk it up as getting back into the swing of things.
“Next time,” Brandt replied.
“I'm holding you to that,” Lopez stated smashing out the window with his elbow.
* * *
Davidson lay perfectly still on the top of the Palace’s roof. There were about a dozen gunmen attacking the Royal Court. They were fairly well organized, but didn't seem to have focus, like they weren’t quite sure where the woman and priest were.
Which was fine by him. It had forced the gunmen to spread out, thereby diluting the threat. Davidson hadn't even bothered to line up a shot. He would wait until his team really needed him.
He scanned the area. The rumors were true. You really could see Jerusalem from here through the mist. However the holy city was not what Davidson was looking for.
Finally Lopez climbed out of a window. Luckily there were only two gunmen on that side of the court. Davidson aimed but did not shoot. He waited to see which way his team was headed.
It turned out that Lopez was the only one that exited. The corporal was probably going for a car. Davidson fired twice, quickly downing the men that blocked Lopez's path.
The corporal hauled ass across the pavement, sliding to a stop on the wet, slick pavement next to a large SUV. It must have been locked, because Lopez used his elbow to smash out the window. He quickly got inside and hotwired the vehicle. It started with a roar. Of course. Classic Lopez.
The noise alerted the other gunmen to Lopez’s position. They charged over to the parking lot. Davidson took the four men down in a line. A fifth gunman apparently thought he knew where Davidson was perched, and took a shot.
It was wide and high. Davidson put one through his chest. These gunmen were well armed, but poorly trained. If you are going to shoot at a sniper, for the love of God, take cover. Moron.
Lopez didn't waste any time, gunning the SUV over to the little palace. The team climbed out of the palace window and into the SUV. It appeared that they had added two to their number.
Once everyone was secured inside the SUV, and probably even before that, Lopez punched the accelerator and streaked away from the palace, heading up the hill to Davidson's position.
Davidson shot a few times, not with kill accuracy, just enough to keep the rest of the gunmen at bay.
It was good to see Lopez driving like a maniac again. Davidson had missed that visceral fear that riding with Lopez gave you. He was looking forward to escaping Jordan with Lopez at the helm.
The corporal didn't even slow as he passed Davidson's position. Which was fine by him. He flung his rifle and at a run, jumped from the roof on to the top of the SUV.
A bullet flew past him taking the stitches out of his jacket shoulder. He didn't even unsling his rifle, Davidson just pointed it in the general direction of the gunmen and fired.
Then Lopez drove the SUV through a fence and down the hill. It was a good thing that Davidson had a firm grip.
CHAPTER 3
“It looks like they've already gotten themselves in trouble,” Stark said from the chair next to Bunny’s hospital bed.
Bunny looked over to find Stark shaking his head as he did when he was dumbfounded. “What is it this time?”
Stark shook his head as he tapped the keyboard. “It looks like they have kidnapped a priest and an injured woman.”
“So, pretty much the usual then?”
“Yep.”
“Should I track the gunman and see where they retreat to?” Stark’s mom asked.
Bunny gave the nod. While the hackers were watching what was going on in Jordan, Bunny was busy researching stigmata. It had a long and odd history.
She was trying to figure out what kind of cult would be fixated on the stigmata. Unfortunately, there were plenty to choose from.
“Hey, ho,” Stark stated. “I found that information that was sent to Rebecca. Looks like a poem.”
“Send it to me,” Bunny said as her email dinged. Stark had already sent it before she spoke. “Thanks,” she stated with a smile. Stark had been right. This really was more fun with people around.
Bunny scanned the text. Stark had been right. It looked like a poem but was really a code. It wasn’t uncommon during the Ming dynasty to transfer information by poem.
The emphasis was on the last word of each sentence.
Which then read….Rise upon moon. Look Gardens. Find Golden Gifts Upon Tide.
Great. A code within a code. Bunny wasn’t the best decoder in the world.
“Let me know when they get out of the jamming range,” Bunny stated.
“Pinging them every ten seconds,” Stark reported.
“The gunmen are heading to the airport,” Stark’s mother stated. “Should I have them apprehended?”
Bunny shook her head. “No. Let’s track them to see where they land.”
“Isn’t the team heading to the airport though? Couldn’t this be a secondary attack?”
Bunny chuckled. “With Lopez back in form? There’s no way he’s going to the airport. Way too obvious. He can take care of them, trust me.”
* * *
Rebecca hit her head on the roof of the SUV as Lopez drove over a speed bump while hauling ass at a hundred miles an hour. While she was glad to have the corporal back, she was going to miss her lack of bruises.
While Lopez was driving in the opposite direction of the airport, she trusted the corporal could deliver them to safety.
Instead she turned her attention to the priest who was just waking up. They had tried to interrogate the woman, but she seemed mute. When they checked, she didn’t have a tongue.
Cults. Freaks of nature.
Brandt slapped the priest across the cheek. The man’s eyes fluttered open.
He sat up, looking around. “What is happening?”
“What do you think, buddy?” Brandt asked.
Rebecca put a hand over Brandt’s. He was still pretty pissed the fake priest had tried to hit her. “I can take it from here.”
Brandt leaned back, giving her room to talk to the priest.
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Rebecca said.
The man looked away from her, staring out the window.
“You lured us to the palace,” Rebecca recounted. “That means you know who we are. So you must also know we get what we want.”
The priest snorted. “Americans and their arrogance. I don’t even know your name.”
Rebecca frowned. “You were aiming for Bunny?”
“The redhead?” the priest asked.
“Why?” Davidson asked.
“Isn't it obvious?”
Davidson's brows furrowed together. “No.”
The priest shrugged and closed his eyes. The cult wasn't exactly well informed. Bunny had been injured a week ago and was laid up in the hospital for probably a month.
“What do you think?” Brandt asked.
“Not sure yet.”
* * *
God help him, Brandt hated religious cults. He got a headache just trying to think like these twisted idiots. And they couldn't even get the right person. They all had gone through a whole lot of Hell, only to find out that the cults just wanted to feel special.
That the cult members somehow had a more special relationship with God than anyone else. Which to Brandt didn’t feel like faith at all. Maybe if they’d been breastfed more or something, they would understand that life wasn’t a competition. That each soul had an equal connection to God.
All this suffering because someone didn’t learn to share in kindergarten.
“You are going to
talk to her. Or you will talk to me,” Brandt growled. He really felt like bitch-slapping the guy again, but Rebecca would get all upset. Normally he didn’t feel like physically punishing prisoners, but this smug bastard in a priest’s collar was really pissing him off.
Rebecca cocked her head. “You took quite a risk with this venture. What if the team hadn’t shown up?”
Again the arrogant prick snorted. “Stigmata, come on. We knew you people couldn’t resist.”
Pretty confident for a guy who didn’t even lure the right woman to Jordan.
“Does this have anything to do with a Chinese drilling operation?” Rebecca asked out of left field.
The priest’s eyes dilated before he could shut down his reaction. “No.”
Liar.
Rebecca grinned. “Thanks for the confirmation.”
The static finally cleared on the line. Lopez had gotten them far enough away from the jammer to start receiving reception.
“Guys?” Stark said in Brandt’s ear. “Can you hear me?”
“Affirmative,” Brandt replied.
“Rebecca?” Bunny asked over the line.
* * *
Rebecca looked away from the belligerent priest. “Here,” she replied.
“Look, I can’t give you all the details, but the bottom line is I think Chen wanted you to find the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.”
Oh, just that. One of the seven marvels of the ancient world that had stayed secret for over 2,700 years.
“Great. I’ll get right on it,” Rebecca stated.
“Actually I did the research. An Oxford archeologist thinks she found them. She just can’t get to them.”
“Why?” Brandt asked.
“Well, she thinks they were located in Northern Iraq.”
“Perfect,” Brandt grumbled.
Rebecca watched the priest out of the corner of her eye. The guy was looking nervous. Good. “Alright, Stark, arrange transportation.”
“Um?” Lopez said from the driver’s seat. “How about I handle that?”
Rebecca looked to Brandt who nodded. “I promised him.”
“Fine, I don’t care,” Rebecca said. “We just need to get to, what Bunny… Hillah?”
“That is correct,” Bunny responded.
It only made sense. If the gardens were in Iraq, they would be in the low foothills to the north. They knew that the ancient city of Babylon lay near Hillah. And for millennia the gardens were searched for in that area. However other literature, suggested that the Assyrians had actually built the gardens, therefore they could be hundreds of miles east. All the way to Iran.
Recently though, there had been some ground penetrating radar samples taken of the Hillah area. That must be what his Oxford doctor had latched onto. Hopefully she was right.
As difficult as Iraq was to get into, Iran would be ten times harder.
“How exactly are we going to get into north-central Iraq?” Prenner asked.
The point man was always the pragmatist.
Her husband shrugged, “Iraq is experiencing an uptick in rebel violence. The government is begging for additional troops, I guess we’ll be them.”
Prenner shook his head. “I forgot. You’re as crazy as them.”
Rebecca thought that her husband took that as a compliment.
* * *
Stark monitored the team’s progress across the Middle East. They had already gone from Jordan to the Dead Sea. Picked up a seaplane and headed north. Stark still didn't know the final approach plan to Iraq. But, as always, it was going to be awesome.
He’d hacked into the Oxford doctor’s file server and pulled up all of her research. Stark thought that maybe the woman had jumped the gun. In particular, the location. Bunny usually liked actually going out there and digging to know for sure.
Ground penetrating radar was not by any means an exact science. Lord knows, they themselves had experienced how limited the tool could be.
“Well, the gunmen landed on the Sinai Peninsula,” Stark's mother reported.
“Are they staying put?”
His mother shook her head. “Now it looks like they're driving towards Cairo. I'm not sure why they didn't just fly there,” his mother stated.
“Probably because the Cairo airport is under lockdown due to protests,” Bunny replied.
Stark knew that Davidson and Bunny were together, really together. But he just couldn't help himself. Bunny truly was amazing. Like he could even think of ever getting over her.
Bunny glanced about the room. “Where's Tika?”
Stark smiled. “Don't you worry, she shall be joining us shortly.”
“But where is she now?”
“You'll see.”
* * *
Bunny wasn't all that fond of surprises. She used to be, before, you know, she got involved with the team. Those surprises used to be fun. Like flowers or chocolate.
Now?
It was more like RPG’s, broken legs, and death. Those she wasn't that fond of.
She had to trust Stark though. He'd never done her wrong. Bunny carefully adjusted her leg on the pillow and got back to work on her laptop. There was a lot of ground to cover. Like why the gunmen had fled to Egypt? Why the stigmata? Why the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?
None of this was coming together, but that was kind of expected this early in the mission. The only thing at the end of mission was that everything became so obvious that each of the clues had been connected by a straight line, and they should have seen it.
But at this point, it was like trying to put together a puzzle made of pure white with no edges. Not fun.
A nurse walked into the room, glanced about and shook her head. “I thought the doctor told you to rest.”
“Trust me,” Bunny said, “Compared to my teammates, I am.”
The nurse shook her head again. “Then don't be begging for painkillers later tonight,” the nurse stated tsking her tongue and walking off.
So pleasant. Clearly the woman hadn't taken the time to look at her chart. Bunny had stopped the painkillers on her own days ago. If you were going to be rude, at least be accurate.
Settled in, Bunny prepared to crush it on her laptop as the rain pinged against her window.
There had to be some connection between a Chinese drilling site, stigmata, terrorists in Egypt, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Even thinking that through, Bunny had no idea how this was going to come together.
* * *
It was seldom, even back in California, that Rebecca and he had time to casually lounge around a lake. If the kids were here, there would be no relaxing. They would both be running around trying to keep their brood from drowning.
Seldom did they have that luxury on a mission either.
But here they were childless on the Van Lake in southeastern Turkey. Now they just had to wait for sunset to fly across the Iraqi border and land on Mosul Dam Lake.
Nobody including Brandt himself would expect that maneuver. Lopez truly was a genius. Perhaps evil, but still a genius.
Most of the turmoil in Iraq was closer to the capital. They should be able to fly in low, land without the army knowing about it. The lake was still a fairly popular tourist attraction during the day. There were even spots for overnight camping. With any hope, they could find a vehicle to drive the fifty miles to the site that Bunny had given them.
Then it could get tricky, but for now they were lounging around a beautiful lake and he wasn’t going to ask any questions. The weather was even cooperating. While it wasn’t sunny. It wasn’t pouring down either. A light sprinkle that you could imagine wasn’t even there.
Prenner put a hand up to his eyes and pointed. “Is that another plane? “
Brandt squinted, “Yes, it does appear to be.”
“But you don't seem too concerned about it?” Prenner asked. “Why is that?”
“Because I told him to meet us here.”
“Who?” Davidson asked
“You'
ll see.”
His men grumbled a bit, but settled back down. The plane was still fairly far out there.
It took a few minutes for the plane to land on the lake and motor to the shore.
“Vanderwalt!” his wife exclaimed.
Rebecca scrambled up from the sand, wiping her bottom as she ran over to hug the MI-5 agent.
“Becca!” Vanderwalt smiled that crooked smile of his. He opened his arms wide for Rebecca. “How long has it been? You look heavenly and after two children?”
“Three, the boys are twins.”
“Well then, all the more impressive. You need to bring the family to London, so I can show you the Crown Jewels.”
Rebecca laughed, “Trust me. You don't want the kids around anything valuable.”
Brandt rose to join them. He put his handout and Vanderwalt took it and pumped their hands up and down vigorously.
“Mate, it's so good to see you. Especially when we aren't under fire,” Vanderwalt stated as he glanced around to the team. “And you guys taking a rest break? Unheard of.”
“Don't get too used to it,” Brandt said, indicating for Lopez to get the prisoners out of the seaplane. “We’re heading out at sunset for northern Iraq.”
“Ah, now that sounds much more like it, my friend.”
Lopez brought over the prisoners.
“Here you go,” Brandt stated. “They are a pair of doozies. The woman was probably associated with the Knot, but is now working for a new cult. And this guy was pretending to be a priest.”
“And not very well, I might add,” Rebecca stated.
“We didn’t get much out of them, but we’re on the run, so…”
“You want me to put my special abilities to the task?” Vanderwalt asked.
“Very much so.”
“Might I ask what you are up to?” Vanderwalt asked.
“And ruin the surprise?” Brandt replied. “Never.”
They both smiled as a breeze kicked up, mussing, Vanderwalt’s already mussed hair.
The MI-5 agent indicated for two guards in his plane to take the prisoners off their hands.
The 3rd Cycle of the Betrayed Series Collection: Extremely Controversial Historical Thrillers (Betrayed Series Boxed set) Page 5