The 3rd Cycle of the Betrayed Series Collection: Extremely Controversial Historical Thrillers (Betrayed Series Boxed set)

by Carolyn McCray

  Bunny almost spit out her precious bite. She gulped hard, making sure not to lose a single crumb of the toasted bread. “Alien?”

  Rojas chuckled even harder, popping a French fry into his mouth. He chewed quickly to answer her question. “I know, it sounds exceptionally odd, but that is what they say. They also say they have proof.”

  Okay, Bunny was used to working with some real whack jobs. As a matter of fact, that was pretty much all Bunny dealt with. If the team went out on routine terrorist-oriented missions, she wasn’t a lot of help.

  It was when the weird outweighed the normal that she and Rebecca kicked in.

  And now they had a double dose of whack.

  Great. She was the one that was going to have to explain this all to the team. To Brandt. She could imagine the frown on his face as he listened.

  But you know what? She’d cross that bridge when she got to it. For now?

  For now Bunny was going to finish this damned sandwich.

  * * *

  Stark shifted in his chair. The heavenly Cama sat on his right side, watching his every keystroke. Stark couldn’t help but notice the curve of her chest, rising and falling under her see-through “robe.” Her thighs were uncovered and right there.

  He hadn’t been near this much flesh in decades. Tika and he had a rather subdued physical relationship. They had a better time playing video games. Clearly that relationship was doomed from the get-go.

  Swallowing hard, Stark tried to refocus on the code. Usually the code was the all. It consumed every one of his neurons. Today? Not so much.

  He could imagine the time his mother was having watching from the attic. Sure she was running a mission, but the woman was not going to let this go. A lingerie model in the room while he coded?

  Yeah, he wasn’t going to live this one down. And all the mistakes he was making? It would be embarrassing if he weren’t using every ounce of his energy to stop his cheeks from flushing a bright red.

  Baseball. He needed to think about baseball. That was supposed to work wasn’t it?

  Um, whoever that worked on wasn’t sitting next to a lingerie angel. She even smelled the part. A goddess. He had never known what a goddess smelled like until now. Now he knew.

  “Are you going to catch that packet before it goes by?” Cama asked. Her voice as silky smooth as her skin.

  “Yes, um, sure,” Starks said, fumbling with the keys. Okay, this was getting downright terminal.

  “You know,” Cama said in that breathless manner that enraptured Stark. “I think it is so odd that most people find coding boring. I mean, it is like having a conversation with pure math.”

  Was this woman eavesdropping on his dreams?

  Did she record everything he wished a woman would say to him? Not even Bunny came close.

  He knew a way to kill the mood.

  Call his mom. That should break Cama’s spell on him.

  He dialed the number. “Mom, can you give me an update?”

  “Bunny is still at lunch with the professor. The team is in route to the Andes. Lopez isn’t very happy, but I couldn’t find a supersonic jet for him.”

  “Nothing else on the symbols?”

  “I don’t think we’ll have much unless we find the other pendants. One sixth of a map isn’t much of a map. On the bright side I think I found where the staircase is located in the Andes.”

  He didn’t need any of that information. He just needed to break Cama’s spell on him.

  “Got it, thanks, Mom.” Stark really emphasized the Mom part.

  “No worries, play-ah.”

  Ugh. He knew he wouldn’t live it down.

  Worse, Cama seemed unfazed by his call to his Mom.

  This was bad. Super bad.

  * * *

  Cristoval sat in the large subterranean chamber. He hoped he’d made it easy enough for the team to track him. It seemed simply crude to give the Americans many more clues. He did not wish to insult their intelligence, but they were a good hour behind schedule.

  At the least they were in the air. They would be here shortly. Cristoval had made sure they lingered at the mountain door long enough to be caught on the Korean satellite that swept overhead mid-day.

  He truly did not know what else he could do to assure their timely arrival.

  “We should just kill them,” a guard said beside Cristoval.

  But that is what his fellow cult members said about everything. The government that refused to acknowledge them. The Army that harassed them. The Shining Path terrorists who disrespected them.

  “And we might,” Cristoval said in that soothing tone he used with his disciple. “But first we must see if their historian can help us.”

  The guard spat on the floor, his thick lips pulling back into an ugly sneer. His dark mustache contorted into an angry mask. “If Christ’s words are to be found, it should be by us, and by us alone.”

  “As we have attempted to do for how many centuries?” Cristoval asked.

  As always, his kinsmen didn’t have an answer to that line of inquiry.

  The man kicked at the dirt and went over to the hostages, brandishing his weapon, making them cower. It was the only way Cristoval’s fellow Brothers knew how to make themselves feel more powerful. Apparently, they preferentially read the part about Jesus being a sword and didn’t bother with the sections about the dove of peace.

  No matter. The other Brothers had their uses. As did this American team.

  At first the loss of the pendant had seemed like the ultimate tragedy. But now…- Now Cristoval wasn’t so sure. It felt like the hand of God had moved the sect out of the shadows and into the world of man once more.

  It seemed that God wanted his son’s gospel to be found. And if it took using the Americans to do so, so be it.

  Who was he to question God?

  Cristoval would leave that up to the rest.

  * * *

  Rebecca turned the pendant over and over again in her hands. Lopez had been reluctant to hand it over, but where was it going to go on the plane?

  The driver was far more edgy than she’d ever seen before. The baby. Maria was supposedly in true labor. It looked like it was going to be a long one. After jumping into being nine centimeters dilated, the cervix had stabilized.

  Oh, Rebecca could remember it all too well.

  And now with a uterus getting ready to expand again, the memories weren’t at all comforting. To imagine later in the year she’d be where Maria was. In agony, writhing on some stupid hospital bed, blaming Brandt for everything.

  Why wait? She was certainly starting on the blaming thing now.

  Rebecca glanced over to her husband. He looked so ruggedly handsome, yet she pretty much made a pact to not sleep with him after this baby, or babies, were born. She did not want to go through this again. He was pretty hard-core Catholic, but after this birth, she wasn’t hopping into bed with him until he resolved the situation. And if that meant tying off his vas deferens, then that was what it came down to.

  Luckily, this moratorium on sex didn’t kick in until the pregnancy was over.

  She placed a hand over her abdomen. It looked completely ordinary at the moment. It gave no clue to the brewing life within it. At some point she would be happy about it.

  She was not at that point though.

  They had their lives planned. Three kids just felt right. Already they were outnumbered by the kids. Add another one, two or heaven forbid three to that number? They would be overrun.

  The only thing that brought a smile to her face was the thought of Mrs. Brandt trying to wrangle that many of Brandt’s and her children at once. Now that would be a sight. They would probably get a new house out of it.

  Rebecca sighed. She couldn’t imagine life without her children. A world without Kasa. That just seemed stupid. And the boys? The twins? Ludicrous. Would some- day she feel the same about the child in her belly?

  She certainly hoped so, but for now, she had every right to be frustrated.


  “It’s going to be fine,” Brandt whispered.

  Right. She was sure Lopez had told Maria that as well and look how that was going.

  * * *

  Davidson cringed. Lopez had his ear buds in, yet Davidson could still hear Maria’s screams and Lopez’s mother trying to calm the woman down. This was going to be a hard labor.

  The doctors were now projecting another ten hours of this.

  Davidson got up and changed seats. The sounds coming out of that phone were freaking him out.

  He’d always wanted children, but not that way. Never that way.

  To think his mother had gone through that. Seldom did Davidson think about his biological parents. Why would he? He hadn’t known them. His father was a mystery and his mother had died shortly after childbirth. He’d been with her for only a few weeks. Tok had told him she had been sick before the pregnancy, but had to stop the medication to see the pregnancy through. She had sacrificed herself to bring Davidson into this world.

  Bunny had encouraged him to research her. To go to his biological mother’s grave, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Davidson felt like he had come to peace with his past. The cult past. To think the path he might have taken had he not been orphaned felt like Pandora’s Box. If he fell into that hole, would he ever come out?

  No wonder he had commitment issues.

  Hopefully that was behind him and Bunny. She wore his ring now. Although in typical fashion for the two of them, they hadn’t yet set a date. They were both really, really good at dragging their feet. And since they had decided to wait on physical intimacy until their wedding, there was all the more reason to delay.

  God, they were morons.

  Everyone else was getting on with their lives, and here Bunny and he were avoiding all the big issues.

  “I hear congratulations are in order,” Ki said next to Davidson.

  Davidson cocked his head.

  “On your engagement?”

  Oh yah, that.

  “Thanks,” Davidson stated, really not wanting to get into all the complexity of the issue. Before the man could open his mouth to say more, Davidson asked. “And you? Wife? Kids?”

  Ki shook his head. “To my mother’s eternal frustration, no. It wasn’t too bad before, but since my dad died a few years ago, it is all she’s been talking about.”

  “Yep, just ask Lopez about that. I think his mother gave up on the marriage thing and totally embraced the grandkid thing.”

  Ki smiled. “I cannot tell my mom about Lopez’ arrangement.” The lieutenant chuckled. “If she knew that was an option, she’d be…‘go inseminate a good Korean girl right now.’”

  Davidson laughed until the plane rocked, dipped, lost air, then stabilized.

  “What the…” Lopez said, jerking his ear buds out, rising to his feet.

  * * *

  Brandt got up, blocking Lopez from rushing into the cockpit. They were flying courtesy of the Peruvian government and for some odd reason, they didn’t want Lopez piloting.

  Perhaps Lopez’s reputation had preceded him. The one where he practically destroyed anything he drove or piloted.

  The commander was on his feet as well. He had brought a small contingent with him. Ten men. It seemed like an ego boost to the man, so Brandt didn’t fight it. But he had learned long ago that large teams usually just slowed you down.

  The plane bucked again.

  The overhead speakers clicked on and the pilot spoke in Spanish. “I’m sorry, we’ve hit a bit of turbulence.”

  “Bull crap,” Lopez said shaking his head. “That’s no turbulence.”

  Brandt had to agree. The motion was too sharp. Too mechanical.

  Just then an engine caught on fire, flaming to the left.

  “That’s it!” Lopez grunted, pushing past Brandt.

  He didn’t stop the man. The commander tried to block Lopez, but he was on a roll, leaping over a seat and bypassing the Peruvian commander.

  Brandt pushed forward after Lopez. “We’ve been sabotaged.”

  The commander tried to argue until the lone working engine whined and burst into flame as well. “We are dead,” the man said.

  “Only if Lopez can’t get into that cockpit.”

  The commander nodded, walking forward, joining Lopez at the cockpit door. The man knocked sharply at the door three times, then gave his credentials and finally a pass code. It still took a few moments for the door to open.

  Apparently the pilot and co-pilot were a little busy trying to keep the plane in the air. Brandt gave Rebecca one last reassuring look, then turned his attention forward.

  Then they were in, Brandt hot on Lopez’s heels.

  Lopez literally pulled the pilot out of his seat by the back of his collar, clicking off the man’s seat restraint.

  There was some pretty vulgar cursing in Spanish, but Lopez got the job done.

  “You know what we need to do?” Lopez asked. Apparently it wasn’t a rhetorical question. “Go faster.”

  Of course that was what Lopez wanted to do.

  Duh.

  “And how exactly are we going to do that?” Brandt asked.

  “Stop trying to stay in the air and point down,” Lopez stated calmly. Like, you know, everyone wanted to plummet to the ground.

  Brandt didn’t need a super long explanation, he just needed a bit of reassurance. “Do you have a plan?”

  “Am I behind the yoke?” Lopez retorted.

  “Do it,” Brandt ordered.

  The first thing Lopez did was shut off the fuel to the engines and tilted the plane forward. Like nose to the earth forward. They fell from the sky.

  But the fire did sputter. The flames didn’t lick around the sides of the engine anymore and only glowed a warm red rather than the bright yellows and oranges from before.

  “Come on, come on,” Lopez urged, looking out the side, glancing back and forth.

  The engine on the left’s fire sputtered, billowing out black smoke, but the fire seemed out.

  That wasn’t good enough for Lopez even as the altitude gauge spun precariously.

  “Lopez…”

  “Oh please,” Lopez said waving off Brandt’s concern.

  The low peaks of the Andes were rushing up at them. They needed to correct course soon or they wouldn’t have time to pull up.

  But Lopez must have known that.

  The question was, did he care?

  CHAPTER 10

  Rebecca clung to the armrest, digging her fingernails in. But this was pretty much standard operating procedure when flying with Lopez.

  Ki looked over at her, his eyelids wide. His pupils dilated. Rebecca had to laugh. They were only hurling to the earth with no engines. Really on a scale of one to ten, she hated to tell the new point man, this was only a six.

  Besides the engine fires were out.

  “Hang on,” Lopez announced over the speakers.

  Okay, that wasn’t good.

  She leaned into the aisle to look through the open cockpit door. The Andes were no longer a theoretical destination. They were right there. Like right there.

  Lopez was frantically throwing switches and banging on the control panel. And, if you knew Lopez, you knew how frantic he could get. Apparently, he was trying to re-start the engines, but they didn’t want to start. There was a lot of swearing in Spanish up there and that was just her husband.

  Ki assumed crash position, which when flying with Lopez, they all probably should get into at the get-go.

  Rebecca didn’t bother. Either Lopez pulled this off or they were going to smash into a snowy mountainside. There was no in-between.

  With a macabre interest, she watched as Lopez pulled them out of their death drop and leveled the nose…to a certain extent. Rebecca glanced over to the wings. Flaps and slats were going up and down as Lopez struggled to get control of the descent.

  It was a truly valiant effort, but one that Lopez was losing. Without the engines they were going to smash into t
hose peaks.

  Rebecca put a hand to her stomach.

  Sorry, little one. This may not have been great timing for either of us.

  Then the engines suddenly kicked in. The rattle of their power shook the plane. A brief shout of relief went up, but it died pretty quickly. They were heading straight at two white rocky peaks.

  Lopez tried to lay them over in an attempt to thread the needle. He didn’t have either the time or the thrust to accomplish it. A wing hit a rocky crag, shattering on impact.

  They spun in the air.

  The other wing hit the mountain, sheering off.

  They were dropping again.

  Rebecca had to hand it to Lopez, he didn’t panic. When did he? Instead he intentionally used his only rear rudder to steer them into the snowy side of the peak. They hit, hard, but because they came in from the side, they didn’t burst apart at the seams. As a matter of fact, the metal tube of the plane slid down the side of the mountain. They careened back and forth, rocking on their axis, but they were alive. Thrown against their restraints and their kidneys bruised, but alive.

  The slope lessened and dumped them out onto a white plateau. The plane spun on its side, then finally came to rest in the powdery snow.

  Lopez sparked the speaker to life.

  “Nailed it.”

  * * *

  That Lopez had.

  Davidson laughed as he patted Ki on the back. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

  “And look,” Lopez said, pointing out the plane’s cracked windshield. “There’s the door!”

  Davidson squinted.

  “Damned if it isn’t,” Ki said, unhooking his seatbelt and rising.

  “Okay, now that the excitement is over,” Brandt said as he walked out of the cockpit. “We need a plan. I’m pretty sure they heard that.”

  They had hoped for some advantage in stealth. The original plan was to land at a small airstrip and take a helicopter up to the plateau. But now they were only a few hundred feet away from the entrance. And Brandt was right. There was no way that the Brotherhood missed that entrance.

  Brandt looked to Ki. He was the point man. It was his call how to enter.

  Ki shrugged. “There’s no use in being subtle now. I say a straightforward approach. We’ll just have to take our lumps.”