Bull's Eye Sniper Chronicles Collection (The Second Cycle of the Betrayed Series)

by McCray, Carolyn

  They all locked hands as the ground beneath them shook. They didn’t need to jump, the ledge under their feet was just gone.

  Then they were in free fall. Bunny couldn’t help but scream. Some of it was fear. Some was actual exhilaration. The wind rushed through her hair as her face was pelted with sea air.

  Too soon they hit the water. Her ankle screamed at the impact. It was a shock, but not too bad of one. The water wasn’t cold and it wasn’t warm. Malvern tugged on her arm, pulling her to the surface as the island disintegrated.

  The cliff face shattered, cracking piece by piece into the sea.

  “Crap, we didn’t even need to hurry,” Lopez said as the chamber they had once been trapped in became visible like a cross section of the island. He wiped his face of water. “We could have just jumped from there.

  The entire stairway to the surface was also exposed. It looked like someone’s model until it too shattered into the sea.

  Bunny dove with the rest of them as huge chunks of rock flew at them.

  When they finally surfaced, the island was gone. There wasn’t a square inch of land left.

  No one else seemed to survive, the rest of the water was clear of humans.

  “How long until that fishing boat?” Davidson asked.

  “Less than an hour,” Stark reported.

  “Alright, everyone,” Lopez stated. “Heat conservation mode.”

  Bunny didn’t know what that meant, but everyone gathered around tightly, treading water right next to one another.

  “Keep moving at all times,” Malvern stated. “The water is fairly warm so we shouldn’t be at risk for hypothermia before the boat gets here.”

  Bunny tried to take comfort in that. It was a little hard though. In pain, soaking wet and already exhausted.

  Where was that luxury helicopter when you needed it?

  * * *

  “This is embarrassing,” Lopez muttered under his breath. No, the corporal wasn’t talking about the rough wool dry clothes they had to borrow from the fishermen, or even the baked in stench of fish that permeated each of the threads.

  No it was about the speed at which the fishing boat was heading back to one of the neighboring islands.

  “I think I can swim faster than this,” Lopez grumbled.

  “But not everyone could,” Prenner said nodding his head to Bunny.

  She was still shivering a good twenty minutes out of the water and was currently leaning up against Malvern. Davidson had to give her credit though, even though she had an injured ankle, she hadn’t complained one bit the entire hour they had to tread water. She was a trooper.

  And even in an off-white shirt that was three sizes too large and a pair of dirty blue pants that were currently being held up by a tied off rope, she was lovely. Her still damp red curls bounced with the waves. What beautiful children she would make.

  Davidson kicked himself for letting his mind wander down that path. It was a path forever denied him. Why should he linger on it? Far better to focus on work.

  “Stark, where is Baasha?”

  “Rebecca was correct,” Stark said.

  “Of course she was,” Bunny murmured.

  “It looks like Baasha is headed to the Church of St. Issa, but they have been considerably slowed once they entered the Kashmir region.”

  “Well, then maybe we can catch up,” Levont said.

  Lopez shook his head. “There’s no hurrying through Kashmir. You’ve got to avoid Pakistani patrols, Indian patrols and even the tribal patrols. Anything in the air would be shot down so there’s no private planes or helicopters. We won’t have much better luck once we’re on the ground. It will be slow, sloggy going, kind of like this…”

  Okay, if Lopez was certain they couldn’t catch up, they weren’t going to be able to catch up. Plus Baasha was probably used to traveling in the area, knowing the back roads and paying off the locals to smooth the way. All of which his team lacked.

  “You better have something pretty spectacular waiting for me at the Cyprus airport,” Lopez demanded of Stark.

  “Oh, I think even you will be impressed,” Stark stated rather cryptically.

  Davidson only hoped that Stark was fully aware of how high Lopez’s expectations were.

  * * *

  Bunny felt like crap. Her ankle was throbbing and her stomach was pitching and rolling nearly as much as the boat had out on the water. Even though they were in a SUV heading toward the Cyprus airport, she could swear she could still feel the unsettling waves.

  Combined that with the earth falling out from under her feet a few hours ago, she was feeling rather unsettled and now they were heading out to Kashmir. A region that presented enough danger even without the Righteous. What did they hope to obtain from the church of St. Issa? Or were they baiting Bunny’s team into a trap?

  It didn’t matter, they had to follow where Baasha led. It was their only lead to the Righteous.

  She’d been slightly embarrassed that she’d had to call on Rebecca, but with the fate of the world, her ego kind of had to take a back seat. On the drive from the dock to the plane, Bunny had been researching as much as she could on St. Issa. The accounts were scattered and based upon some rather sketchy translations from some ancient Tibetan documents found in an old monastery by a Russian researcher.

  The documents didn’t really reveal anything earth-shattering. The accounts of St. Issa were remarkably similar to those of the New Testament. Issa, or in their case, Jesus, preached a lot about helping the poor and weak and respecting each other and living by the ten commandments.

  Again, nothing that would upset the world order.

  For a moment she was tempted to call Rebecca back and ask her opinion, then she realized the time difference to California and realized she dare not wake the baby.

  She was going to have to figure this one out herself.

  “Oh My God,” Lopez exhaled.

  Bunny looked up to see what could elicit such a response from Lopez who had just stolen a space shuttle.

  She found a Concorde Jet with it characteristic nose-down configuration.

  “How?” Bunny blurted. “Those jets had been retired over a decade ago.”

  * * *

  Stark allowed himself to gloat just for a second. Usually the team barely registered how awesome he was. They had gotten way too spoiled. But not today. Today he had outdone himself.

  “Well, I broke about a hundred international laws and probably every FAA regulation on the books, but a group was already restoring the Concorde for air shows and I just asked if I could borrow it.”

  “You rock!” Lopez shouted. “Get a picture for Little Ricky, Levont.”

  His heart glowed inside Stark’s chest. He could hear all the oohing and ahhing. It was seldom this group of weary world travelers were this impressed.

  But the Concorde was a revelation. Even now its construction seemed so modern. He remembered when the fleet had been retired, Stark’s heart had broken. The supersonic jets seemed like the first step toward the ideal Star Trek universe. With the fleet gone, the world had descended back into the twentieth century.

  “You are sure this is flight-worthy?” Malvern asked.

  “Well, it just flew from Paris to Cyprus in under two hours, so I’d say yes.”

  “Wahoo!” Lopez bellowed.

  “That means we’re going to be in Kashmir within six hours?”

  “Five,” Lopez retorted. “Give me some credit. This baby can fly over eight hundred miles per hour. Give me five!”

  Stark heard their palms slap and could swear that he felt the sting on his palms as well.

  “I am also trying to smooth the way at the Daulat Beg Oldi Advanced Landing Ground.”

  “The what?” Levont asked.

  “It is a government run airport that is normally not open to commercial airline traffic, but I’ve negotiated us a landing since it is the only strip for a hundred miles that can accommodate a Concord and even then it is going to be ti
ght Lopez, so you are going to have to land shallow and slow.”

  That got a snort.

  “No, seriously, Lopez,” Stark tried to explain. “It is barely going to be long enough.”

  Stark didn’t have to be in the same room to know that Lopez rolled his eyes and gave the universal hand motion for Stark gabbing away.

  Stark would have to take it.

  CHAPTER 16

  Bunny clung to the armrest as the Concorde’s engines screamed, like a baby as Lopez pushed the supersonic engines to their max. The cockpit door was open and all you could hear was Latino rap and laughter. Lopez and Levont were having a blast up there while everyone else back here was on the verge of a heart attack.

  Except for maybe Prenner, who had started meditating right after take off and hadn’t opened his eyes since, but she knew that he wasn’t asleep because his fingers too were dug into the fabric of his arm rest.

  Yes, over four hours with the pure terror of their life flashing before their eyes.

  “Touch the window,” Davidson said.

  Bunny’s head spun around to glare at the sniper. She wasn’t moving her hand off her hand rest for anything.

  “Come on,” he coaxed, “It’ll take your mind off of it.”

  Neither had to clarify what the “it” was. The “it” was Lopez’s insane need for speed at any risk. You would think traveling faster than the speed of sound would be enough for him, but no.

  Slowly she unclenched her fingers, a painful task and put her palm against the glass. Instead of the usual cold, this window was warm. Really warm. She turned back to Davidson.

  “It’s from the friction of the air on the hull traveling so fast. The entire plane heats up. It’s exactly the opposite of most planes.”

  Bunny found herself smiling. Davidson was always so good at that. Calming her down. Knowing exactly what to say and when to say it. She’d forgotten how tender he could be. Especially for such a killing machine.

  “We’re also getting about double the solar radiation of a normal flight, but due to the shortened flight time it washes out as even,” the sniper said with a grin. “Sorry, that’s all the Concorde trivia I’ve got.”

  Bunny chuckled feeling slightly better than she had.

  Then Lopez came over the intercom. “Okay, we are making our final approach to land and you might have guessed I’m not coming in slow, so I’d recommend you tighten your safety belts and close your eyes.”

  Um, they had all tightened their safety belts two minutes into the flight. If she tightened it any more, she’d probably cut off some circulation.

  “It’s Lopez,” Davidson said. “We’ll be fine, he just likes to show off.”

  Bunny tried to remember that as she gulped. She looked out of the warm window to find the airport coming into sharp relief way too fast. The cars had gone from ants to vehicles in a matter of moments.

  “Hang on!” Lopez yelled as they sailed over the fence and onto the tarmac.

  The landing gear hit the pavement pretty hard, but they didn’t bounce. Score one for Lopez. But the brakes were screeching their displeasure and looking out the window the end of the runway didn’t look very far.

  Movement caught Bunny’s eye. Lopez turned the wheel hard, putting them into an intentional spin. They laid rubber down over the tarmac as the Concorde spun round and round until they finally stopped, their tail banging into the chain link fence.

  “Ha! Stark! You didn’t see that coming, did you?”

  He probably didn’t see it coming that Bunny was going to lose her dinner either. Davidson put a steadying hand on her arm. “Take in deep breaths.”

  Was that his solution to everything? She didn’t snap at him though, he was just trying to help and damn it if the breathing didn’t help settle her stomach.

  As Levont opened the hatch, Lopez laughed that belly laugh of his. “Surprise, surprise, I don’t think they are bringing the stairs over here for us. We’re going to have to jump down.”

  Ya, surprise, surprise.

  * * *

  Davidson checked the gear one last time before he covered it with a tarp in the back of the SUV. They had picked up everything they had lost back at the island from the Indian base where they had landed.

  Of course the Indians thought they were launching an offensive into the Pakistani controlled Northern Areas. They probably wouldn’t have been quite so helpful if they’d known that they were instead headed into a disputed zone.

  “I think I have a way for us to catch up with Baasha,” Lopez said, smoothing a map over the hood of the SUV.”

  “How? I thought the trails were well guarded and treacherous,” Prenner stated for all of them.

  Davidson was slightly worried. Whenever Lopez had a good idea, it was usually one quarter brilliance and three quarters insanity.

  “We just cut through here,” Lopez stated, pointing to a yellow shaded section of the Kashmir region.

  “Um, that’s Akasi Chin,” Levont stated.

  “Which is, in theory, Chinese territory,” Malvern followed up.

  Lopez just nodded. “I know but the terrain is much better and we avoid like a thousand check points.”

  “Which is because there are like a thousand Chinese soldiers patrolling the area” Stark interjected.

  Lopez waved off the tech’s concern. “And we are heading into the disputed area that has Chinese, Pakistani and Indian troops all gunning for each other and the tribal lords.”

  Davidson studied the map. Kashmir was a political pressure cooker. Three nuclear powers all wanting the same thirty-five miles of terrain.

  “I don’t mean to be rude, but what the hell is the conflict here” Levont asked. “The place isn’t exactly the Rivera.”

  Levont wasn’t wrong. For the most part the Kashmir region was made up of desolate broken mountains and plains that were barren for nine months of the year. The indigenous people barely scraped by through subsistence farming and barter.

  “Water,” Malvern answered. “The headwaters to nearly all of India and Pakistan’s rivers start here. And whoever controls the water, controls the region.”

  Levont nodded. They had fought in places like Chad and the Sudan where water was more valuable than gold. Because water was essential to life. Gold was not.

  “What’s the Chinese’s play then?” Bunny asked.

  “They are digging their heels in for political reasons,” Malvern explained. “They can’t be seen losing territory, not if they want to reign supreme in Asia.”

  Davidson nodded. This region was ripe for an international crisis and here they were stumbling right into the middle of it and now Lopez wanted to cut through the Chinese controlled area of Kashmir.

  “You can’t,” Stark stated.

  “Oh yah, so how are we going to make up the two hours we are behind the Righteous?” Lopez asked, apparently rhetorically. “Even with the Concorde, there’s no way to make up that much difference, except by going into Aksai Chin.”

  * * *

  “There really isn’t another option,” Stark’s mother whispered. Thankfully she had cut the mic before she did so, therefore his shame was privately vented.

  He knew that. Kashmir was possibly one of the most difficult regions in the world. So was cutting across Aksai Chin all that much worse. For some reason it felt like it was to Stark.

  The Chinese were still kind of pissed from a couple of years ago when they went up against Brandt and he handed them their asses in a sling.

  “Fine, but that vehicle better have four wheel drive,” Stark said into the active mic.

  “Please,” Lopez snorted.

  “Luckily there is thick satellite coverage of the area so I should be able to guide you around the worst of the patrols, but this coverage also means that the Chinese can also see you.”

  “Not if we take away their eyes,” his mother stated with that wicked grin of hers.

  “Mom, it’s one thing to hack into a video stream, but to actually cut off
or alter their view, that means we’d have to hack into the People’s Republic of China’s mainframe.”

  His mother threaded her fingers together, then cracked them. “I know. It’s on my bucket list so two birds, one stone.”

  Dear god, his mother was the female, techie version of Lopez.

  “Any more whining or can we head out?” Lopez asked.

  “You are good to go,” his mother said. “We’ve got your back.”

  Stark certainly hoped that they could cash the checks his mother’s mouth was writing.

  * * *

  Bunny was rather missing the Concorde just about now as they bounced over yet another boulder. Lopez hadn’t met a back road dirt trail he didn’t like.

  “Look how much time we’ve saved!” Lopez announced, a grin ear-to-ear.

  The man truly was mentally ill.

  Levont gave him a high five. “We’ll be there in under an hour.”

  Whether any of them would still have their back teeth intact was another question entirely.

  “The patrol just changed direction,” Stark explained. “They might have heard you even though we are covering your satellite footprint. Cut your engines.”

  “Do what now?”

  “Cut them,” Stark’s mother urged over the com.

  Lopez actually did as requested.

  It was weird, after all of the turbulent sounds over the past few hours to sit in silence. Bunny clutched her jacket around her neck. With the SUV completely off, the heater turned off as well and the chill in the air quickly penetrated the car’s windows. How she missed the Concorde’s warm glass.

  “How many are there?” Davidson asked.

  “About twenty men and they look like they have some serious artillery on those vehicles,” Stark explained.

  “How serious?” Levont asked.

  “Serious. Vehicle mounted machine guns, a small tank, you know the usual Chinese assortment.”

  Apparently the Chinese really were serious about keeping this patch of land from the Indians and Pakistanis. They acted as if they were actively at war. Which they practically were. It was downright shocking that none of them had launched a nuke over this yet.

  So of course the Righteous had set up shop here, because why not?