The others must have concurred since they all piled out of the car with the sole exception of Malvern. He lingered in the backseat. Finally he exited as well.
“I don’t like this.”
“Join the club, Captain Obvious,” Lopez said. “Sorry, Colonel Obvious.”
Malvern’s expression soured. “Are you sure we don’t want to talk about a roof or sidewall breach?”
Levont chuckled as he walked off. “Because they aren’t going to see that coming?”
Bunny patted Malvern’s arm. “You’ll get used to it.”
Then they were off, walking across the large field to the church. The men didn’t even bother to try their usual low crouched approach. There simply wasn’t enough cover to bother. Any one looking out the window could see them coming for hundreds of feet.
No one stirred in the church though. It was a bit eerie. She kept expecting a cry to go up. A warning call at the least. But nothing. They crossed the field unmolested. Which made her all the more concerned.
“Stark, what’s going on inside?” Bunny asked.
“We had to trade thermal for ground penetrating satellite feed. I will try to get it switched over now.”
So they really were going in here blind. Kind of the cherry on top of their crappy sundae.
Just before they reached the church, Prenner and Malvern split off and headed to the back door while Levont led Lopez and Bunny to the front door. Davidson headed for the roof.
It was equally quiet here. Not a sound. Not a whisper.
Even Lopez frowned at the lack of response.
There wasn’t a heck of a lot to do about it though. They still had to go up to that door and give it a knock. Lopez set up to the side, gun raised. As much as he joked, he took this part of his job very seriously.
Levont lifted his knuckles and rapped on the door. No answer, but the door swung open. Light spilled from inside the small church making Bunny squint.
Their point man checked for booby traps before stepping across the threshold.
“Oh no,” he moaned. Not his usual chipper self.
Once she was inside the small entryway, she could see why.
There were four bodies strewn out on the floor. Pools of blood beside their heads. Each shot point blank in the forehead. Their hands folded in prayer.
“Are you seeing this?” Lopez asked.
* * *
“Yes, running facial recognition now,” Stark responded. That didn’t mean he had to look at those haunted expressions. This was the part of the job that creeped him out. It looked like Baasha slaughtered the priests that lived here.
But why?
What information could these cloistered men have that mattered to the Righteous?
“Same thing back here,” Prenner added. “I’ve got three bodies in the kitchen. Executed.”
Bunny followed Levont, stepping over a dead man’s arm. The floor was slick with blood so she had to be careful not to slip.
“What is thermal saying?” Prenner asked.
“Not up yet. Give me a minute,” Stark said as Bunny followed Levont into the next room. It appeared to be a chapel. There was a gilded arch that protected what should have been a large crucifix. However the object was missing. You could only tell what used to be there by the dust marks.
“Any idea where Baasha is now?” Lopez said, kneeling down to check the pulse on the downed priests.
* * *
For the second time today, Stark was kicking himself. Once they mapped the underground tunnels, they should have switched to thermal. They would have seen this coming. They would know where Baasha was.
“Here it comes,” Stark’s mother stated as the screen bloomed to life.
Besides the team, everyone else in the facility looked dead. A bunch of orange, transitioning to yellow blobs. Only three other dots moved.
“Baasha has headed into the tunnels in the northwest corner.”
“On it,” Lopez stated.
“Wait,” Bunny barked. “Look at this.”
Stark watched Levont’s camera feed as he swung around and looked down where Bunny’s finger was pointed. By one of the dead priests were the letters, “Bada.” It looked like the dying priest had tried to leave one last clue.
“What does it mean?” Lopez asked.
Bunny shrugged. “I’m not familiar with anything Jewish or proto-Christian that matches that.”
“I’ll try a global search,” Stark said, his fingers getting busy. Although if Bunny didn’t know it, it probably didn’t exist.
The results came back pretty quickly. “Bada is Samsung’s operating system for smartphones and tablets.”
On screen Lopez frowned. “That was helpful.”
“What if the priest was trying to make an ‘L’ there…” his mother suggested.
“Badal?” Stark said it out loud. It still didn’t ring any bells so he ran another search. “That is a Bollywood musical film from the 2000s.”
“Maybe it is some kind of code?” Bunny suggested.
Stark bit his lip. He should have thought of that. He ran it through all the usual cipher suspects. “There doesn’t seem to be any discernable pattern,” he reported. He could feel the groan from the other side even if he couldn’t see it.
“Put an asterisk after badal,” his mother suggested. “Maybe he wasn’t strong enough to finish the word.
Heck. Stark was up for trying anything. He typed in the search perimeters.
Almost immediately Badaling came up.
“Well, if he was trying to spell Badaling, which is by far the most likely word he was trying to spell, it is an ancient but still inhabited city along the Great Wall of China.”
A pop sounded, bringing Stark’s attention back to the screens which had gone blank.
“What happened?” Stark asked his mother.
“I don’t know,” she said, pulling her fingers off the keyboard, “But I just got shocked.”
Crap. That was never good.
“Lopez?” Stark asked to empty air. “Bunny? Davidson?”
But no one answered. They’d not only lost satellite coverage, but video and audio as well. This was the worst.
“We’ve got to figure out a work around,” Stark said and his mother nodded.
They had to know what the heck was happening out there.
* * *
Davidson flipped through the frequencies. He couldn’t get through any of them. Which was not a great sign. They were actively being blocked.
Scanning the fields around the church, he couldn’t see any movement, but that didn’t mean that a small army wasn’t just out of range. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to isolate them. It wasn’t just for fun.
He lay belly flat on the stone roof. The entire thing was one large slab of rock. It was cool and solid. He allowed the feeling to calm him. For a fleeting moment, he considered joining the team. But that was just his primitive brain kicking in. In unknown situations, the brain wanted to rejoin the group. Strength in numbers and all that.
Which was why most snipers failed. It wasn’t because of their aim or ability to kill another human being from far away. It was because they couldn’t stand the isolation and stillness. It was human nature to be social. To be together. Which was the flip side of being a sniper. The good ones were many times not good team players because they liked the isolation too much.
Davidson knew he was a rare combination of the two. Unfortunately he had the Knot to thank for that. He’d been trained since he was an infant to relish the still but in that stillness continue to be a part of the whole.
He tapped into that now. He had to stay. He had to protect the team. Even if staying out on this roof was the last thing he wanted to do.
A flicker of light glowed on the distant horizon. They were coming from the north.
The only question now was who were “they?”
* * *
Bunny kept close to Malvern. They had been rejoined a few moments ago just before th
ey found four more bodies and even odder, all of the artifacts from the church had been taken. She was surprised the Righteous hadn’t razed the entire building.
“I think we should scram,” Lopez said. “There’s nothing here.”
Except for the odd clue the dying priest had left. She was turning over the Chinese town in her mind. While there was a lot of literature and speculation about Jesus travels to India and Tibet, there was really nothing about Christ in China. It didn’t make any sense. Or it made about as much sense as the priest referencing an old Bollywood movie.
Yet, there was something at the periphery of her mind that bugged her. Like something she should know. Something super obscure. Something that Rebecca would know.
As they passed through the last room of the church, a small lodging room, they found another two bodies.
Prenner did his obligatory check of the vital signs. At first he frowned as he had with all the rest, but then he cocked his head, his fingers searching more frantically on the young man’s neck.
“I think we’ve got a live one,” he said.
Lopez dropped to his knees, flinging off his pack, breaking out his medical supplies. “It looks like the bullet only grazed him. Help me raise a vein.”
Bunny knew from first hand experience that shock could be just as deadly as the original injury. Lopez worked efficiently to get an IV line in and pump the man with fluids, steroids and pain killers.
The younger man’s head rolled to the side as he licked his lips. “What…
“Shh…” Lopez shushed him. “Wait until you are strong enough.”
“Not sure if we have that kind of time,” Malvern whispered. He’d been anxious since their communications had been cut off. He was still new to the team. A little green.
Was this how she acted when she first started coming out into the field? How embarrassing.
“Give him his space,” Lopez insisted.
The man’s color improved rapidly, his lips pink now and his breaths were deep and strong. Finally Lopez allowed him to sit up with assistance.
The man’s eyes scanned the room. He was pretty obviously confused that he was in the company of a bunch of American military. Then his eyes found his dead companion.
“They’re all dead,” he whispered. “We were running, but they caught up with us.”
“Who is ‘they’?” Malvern asked.
“A man with strange eyes and features and another two twins.”
No one had to ask further. That would be Baasha and his clone bros.
“Do you know of the Righteous?” Lopez asked.
“Like men who carry God’s word in their heart?” the man asked.
“How about Badaling?” Bunny asked. It was a long shot, but she had to try.
“I’m sorry,” the man said, his eyes welling with tears. “I don’t know. I wish I did. I wish I did.”
“Do you know why they stole all of the artifacts? Is there any reason our attackers needed them?”
The man shrugged again. “I didn’t even know they stole them.”
“Okay, let’s give…” Lopez turned to the young man, “What’s your name, buddy?”
“Innocent,” he stated.
Everyone else looked confused but Bunny got it. “Like the fifth century saint?”
The man nodded.
“Okay… Innocent,” Lopez said but still sounded a bit skeptical about the whole thing. “Do you feel strong enough to stand so we can get out of here?”
“Aren’t you going after who did this to my people?” Innocent asked.
“We’ve lost contact with our hub and we’re pretty sure Righteous reinforcements are on their way.”
“But they went through there,” Innocent said, pointing to what appeared to be a china cabinet.
Prenner went over and shoved the object to reveal a hidden door.
“They can’t be far ahead,” Innocent said. “If you won’t go, I am.”
For nearly being dead, the guy had some spunk.
“I don’t like it,” Malvern said.
“If we only did things we liked,” Lopez said. “None of us would probably have gotten out of bed this morning.”
However, not even Lopez went running down this rabbit hole. He hit his com button. “Stark? Davidson?”
There was still no response.
Lopez glanced around the room, checking the temperature of each of his teammates. Everyone seemed ready to follow wherever Lopez led.
However the corporal shook his head. “As much as we’d like to go charging after Baasha, our first priority is to collect Davidson and get in contact with our people back in DC.
Malvern especially seemed relieved by Lopez’s decision.
“I’ll get us out of here then,” Levont stated.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you leave,” the young man said, pulling a canister out from his robes.
“Sarin” was emblazed across the side of the metal tube. “You know too much already.”
Really? Because Bunny was pretty sure she felt like she was flying blind.
“Come on, dude, your name is Innocent!” Lopez coaxed. “You are not doing this.”
“The Righteous are on the path to salvation. Our society has collapsed upon itself in filth and vulgarity. We must wipe the slate clean and rejoin our maker’s bosom.”
“Not with that you aren’t,” Lopez pointed out.
The man seemed confused, clutching the tube to his chest. “If I even crack this open, all of us will die.”
“No we won’t,” Lopez said taking a step toward Innocent. “That isn’t a Sarin canister.”
“Yes, yes, it is,” Innocent protested.
“Look, Sarin is usually delivered in a two cylinder contraption so that the gas is made when the two are joined.”
“But… but… it can come pre-made,” Innocent tried to reason.
“Not in a thin metal canister like that. Sarin gas is highly corrosive, it would have chewed through that rubber seal already if it was in there.”
To prove his point, Lopez snatched the canister from the young man’s hands. “Seriously, you are not a very good suicide bomber.”
Innocent hung his head.
“But at the least we have someone who knows the Righteous,” Levont stated. “You know how I like my silver linings.”
“We are still moving out though and interrogating him once we are out of here, right?” Malvern asked.
“Right,” Lopez said, ripping the IV out of Innocent’s arm. “And no more go juice for you.”
The young man yipped, slamming his palm over the small wound. Lopez shoved him forward. “And no more lame ass tricks.”
They rapidly made their way through the small church to the front door. Levont cracked it open then just as quickly shut it again.
“Oh crap,” was all that he said.
“What?” Lopez asked.
“You better see for yourself,” Levont said, waving the corporal forward.
Bunny couldn’t help but get up on her tippy toes to look over Lopez’s shoulder.
She stumbled back from the sight into Malvern’s arms.
“What is it?”
Then he looked out and nearly dropped Bunny from his grip.
There was a veritable army out there. No, correction there were three armies. Pakistani, Indian and Chinese. All of countries were here for just little ole them.
* * *
Stark had to blink to make sure he saw the screen properly. “Is that…”
“An international disaster in the making?” His mother answered. “The short answer is yes.”
There were… Stark didn’t want to count how many units each country had assembled. It was impressive was all they needed to know. And too many for Lopez and his team, no matter how awesome to fight their way out.
“They each got a ‘unanimous’ tip that separationist terrorists were holed up in the church,” his mother reported. Stark was pretty sure he knew where that tip had come fr
om. Baasha no doubt.
And if there was any group the Pakistanis, Indians and Chinese hated more than anything were the men and women who wanted an independent Kashmir state. That would mean defeat for all three powers.
“They must realize by now that was a bogus tip,” Stark said.
“But to find an American black ops team instead? They must all think it is their birthday out there.”
That was true. Only India might be sympathetic to their plight, but even then, this was Kashmir. All bets were off the table when it came to Kashmir.
“Shouldn’t we call the State Department or something?”
“And say what?” His mother asked. “Oh by the way our off the books black op that we knew you would disavow has gone sideways and we need you to step into a massive military fail?”
God how he hated it when his mother was right. If she wasn’t his mother he might well want to wipe that look off her face, but alas all he could do was turn back to the monitors.
It didn’t look any better the longer he looked.
They were trapped.
Unfortunately the man, Baasha, everyone should really be mad at was getting away. On the ground penetrating radar view, the three Righteous were moving swiftly down a tunnel and far out into the wilderness where there must have been an exit and what looked like a getaway vehicle.
Not that the knowledge did them much good. Lopez et al certainly couldn’t give chase, not into that labyrinth that lay down there. That deep under the ground, their radar was a bit sketchy. They might die of dehydration before Stark and his mother could guide them out.
Video bloomed to life inside the church. They still didn’t have audio yet, however they could watch what was going on inside at the least. They had a new young man with them, which Lopez didn’t seem too happy about. Everyone seemed to be arguing all at once. Clearly trying to figure out how to get out of the current circumstance.
Stark turned his attention to Davidson on the rooftop who had like a thousand little red dots all over his body that represented like a thousand guns trained on him.
“If he fires…” his mother whispered.
Stark doubted there would even be enough left to fill a coffin.
“We’ve got to warn him,” his mother stated louder.
“But how? Audio is still down.”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t use a little visual to help us out.”
Bull's Eye Sniper Chronicles Collection (The Second Cycle of the Betrayed Series) Page 21