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

by McCray, Carolyn

  Lopez snorted. “No promises, my man. No promises.”

  “That’s what I told my supervisor,” Vanderwalt stated.

  Davidson looked down at his passport. He was now an Ishmael Knot. Very funny. Vanderwalt and his sense of humor. Or lack there of.

  * * *

  “Oh, stop your pouting,” Stark’s mother scolded which didn’t exactly help raise his spirits. “I didn’t even know the Japanese had developed a new Sarin container either.”

  It wasn’t just that though. It was the entire mission. They had messed up over and over again. This latest one could have wiped out several hundred people’s lives. Lopez had been tossing that container around like it was a football. Had he baubled it at all, it could have killed the entire team a hundred times over.

  “You’ve got to learn to let things go,” his mother implored.

  “Right. Like you still aren’t mad at the neighbors for accidently cutting down your cherry tree ten years ago.”

  His mother leaned back, a frown on her face. “It was finally fruit bearing.”

  “Like I said,” Stark said, turning away from his mother. She could give him advice on a lot of things, but forgiveness was not one of them.

  “No one’s perfect,” his mother stated.

  “Tell that to Davidson,” Stark shot back then immediately regretted it.

  “Oh my God, this foul mood of yours isn’t over existential angst, it’s over Bunny? Really?”

  Stark wouldn’t look at his mother, which only confirmed her accusation. What could he say? Almost killing the team wasn’t going to bolster his chances of getting a “yes” answer when he asked Bunny out. They had botched so much on this mission that he feared he’d get a well-deserved slap in the face instead.

  His mother shoved his chair, making him roll past the two screens he was monitoring. He had to catch the desk to stop from rolling into the wall.

  “Get over it. If she can’t see you for the amazing man that you are, she doesn’t deserve you.”

  Wasn’t that the same thing she’d said about that Xena costumed girl at the ComiCon booth? Or the green Orion girl at the DragonCon party? Or the… oh, why list them all. How come every woman he liked was never good enough for him?

  He was starting to believe his mother might be a bit biased and misinformed.

  “We live a life in the shadows, son. You can’t expect to catch stars that way.”

  That was perhaps the most realistic romantic advice she’d ever given him.

  “But she finds a way to sparkle in the darkness,” Stark stated.

  “And yet she is still alone,” His mother responded. “If it is meant to be, it will happen.”

  Stark waited for the next line but it never came. Usually his mother finished off romantic advice by using his father and her marriage. Funny, why didn’t she this time?

  “They are boarding the plane,” his mother reported. “They should be in Beijing by dinner.”

  “According to Lopez, by late afternoon.”

  His mother smiled. “Then I will revise the timetable.”

  Because Lopez might mistakenly toss around a Sarin canister, but come in late? Never.

  * * *

  Bunny’s brain didn’t even register the protesting whine of the jet’s engines. Lopez was at the helm, so what other sound could they make?

  No, instead she was raking her brain for why the Righteous were in China. She’d broken down and called Rebecca, but had just gotten her voicemail.

  Stark had come back empty as well with his internet search for references to Christ going as far east as China proper. And now to know the Righteous had a super compact Sarin canister that for all the world looked like a thermos? Not just one but dozens? Sent all over the world for a timed attack. That would create nearly as much chaos and damage as the satellite would have.

  So what gave? Baasha had a reason for heading to China and Stark had confirmed that the Righteous leader had exited the train four hours ago. They had lost him in the chaos of the Chinese train terminal, but at least it confirmed the priest’s dying declaration. Baasha was heading to the frontier city, Badaling.

  But why?

  They should have been heading to Jerusalem or Bethlehem or Mecca for that matter, but instead they were jetting east. Far east. Far beyond any proto-Christian travels. Christianity didn’t come to china from the west, but from the east by missionaries millennia later.

  From what Baasha said, the satellite strike was only an opening salvo. It was to prepare the world for the Righteous’ true mission. But what end game?

  “I was thinking,” Davidson stated as he sat down across from her, brushing her leg with his.

  Bunny looked up. No matter their complicated relationship, they were teammates.

  “Maybe we are looking at this all wrong and should be looking further back than Christ.”

  Bunny cocked her head. She had no idea where he was going with this, but she would follow. Davidson didn’t waste words. He was as economical with his speech as he was his shots.

  “Go on.”

  “I was letting my mind drift as I fell asleep and it came to me. Mozi.”

  “Mozi?” Bunny asked. The name sounded familiar but not familiar enough for her to remember what it was.

  “He was a Chinese scholar around 500 BC who preached much of what Christ went on to champion. Some felt that Mozi’s writings were at the Library of Alexandria and may have been read by Christ in his visits there.”

  “Whoa, whoa,” Bunny said, holding up her hand, trying to give her brain a moment to take in everything. The name now clicked. Lochum had spoken of Mozi several times when discussing universal truths amongst cultures.

  Mozi had been a pacifist with a million-man army that he never used. He espoused equal birthright. He believed in turning the other cheek. Most of the attributes assigned to Christ, Mozi had preached first in China.

  She frowned, even though she hated to. She knew she’d pay for those frowns later with fine lines. “But what does Mozi have to do with Baasha and his grand scheme?”

  “Gi,” Davidson said. Again, Bunny was glad he was around. He had possible an even more detailed knowledge of ancient religions than she did.

  “The righteous?” Bunny translated.

  Davidson nodded. “I think they might be a part of the triad.”

  “The Chinese mafia?” Levont piped up, turning in his chair to join the conversation.

  Davidson shook his head. “No. When Mozi’s followers were exiled from China, they scattered over Asia, breaking into three sects. That’s the triad we’re talking about.”

  “So say the Yakuza were originally religious leaders who then lost their way?” Bunny added.

  “So they are a gang?”

  Bunny sighed. “No one knows really. The cult kind of disappeared in 2 BC.”

  “So I hate to be a hater, but does this help us with Baasha at all?” Levont asked.

  “You’re not a hater,” Davidson stated. “It’s just that Mozi’s hometown was Badaling. It doesn’t seem like it was a coincidence.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Bunny confirmed. “Stark, can you pull up everything about Mozi, especially any reference to the ‘Gi’ or the Righteous?”

  “Of course,” Stark stated. “And I’m so sorry I didn’t find the connection.”

  “Don’t be. It is obscure at best. We just have to thank Davidson’s hardwired brain for finding it for us.”

  She smiled at Davidson. If only he was twenty years older

  CHAPTER 19

  Davidson stretched out his aching joints as Prenner and Levont finished loading all of their gear into the Chinese SUV, a Zunxing. The largest SUV on the market in China. The thing was a beast, so of course Lopez was happy.

  He promised to test the SUV’s impressive 2.7L specs. The SUV had been built for actual off road use, unlike most American SUVs which were really built for the suburban housewife.

  It had on the fly four-wheel drive and a rep
orted zero to sixty in twenty seconds record.

  Lopez was definitely going to improve on that.

  Supposedly it was an hour drive from Beijing to Badaling, but Lopez would probably cut that time in half, if in fact the Zunxing topped out at one hundred and sixty.

  No one turned a single head at their private jet and SUV. The airport workers were used to international flights coming and going. No one had blinked an eye at their passports either. Vanderwalt had done a perfect job on their documents. They were indebted to the MI-5 agent yet again.

  The air was thick with smog. Beijing was reportedly the most polluted city in the world. Davidson would believe it. He was glad that he didn’t have to take a shot in this weather. The haze was a sniper’s worst enemy.

  Lopez cracked his knuckles. “Oh this is going to be fun. I heard the last twenty miles are dirt roads.”

  Apparently only Lopez was invigorated by that knowledge. Even Levont frowned. Perhaps he had finally gotten an appreciation for his kidneys or something.

  “Do we know what we are looking for once we get there?” Malvern asked.

  “I think we are just going to head in the direction of the bullets,” Prenner commented.

  That sounded about right. Malvern didn’t seem any too happy about it, but didn’t ask for further details, probably because he didn’t want to hear about them. In this he was showing what a smart man he was.

  Which was probably why Bunny was looking at the older man with such admiration. He’d seen that look before on her face. Lochum. He’d never understood her attraction to the professor, but now he was sort of getting it.

  She apparently liked confidence that could only come from decades of experience.

  Maybe he should ring her up in 2030. Maybe then they’d have a shot. Or maybe by then he’d untangle his own complicated feelings.

  Lopez walked by, punching Davidson in the arm. “Why the long face?”

  “Nothing,” Davidson said. He wasn’t about to share his confusion with Lopez. Talk about getting laughed at. The man had allowed Brandt to marry the woman carrying his child, then having Brandt forgive him. That was some kind of graduate level womanizing there.

  “Get your head into the game,” Lopez said. “Leave the brooding to Prenner. He is way better at it than you are.”

  Jeez, he couldn’t even brood properly.

  “Head, officially in the game,” Davidson reassured Lopez.

  It wasn’t just their lives on the line this time. It was the world’s. Fretting would have to take a back seat.

  * * *

  Stark rolled back and forth in front of five screens, checking and double checking all of the readings. He was not going to be caught with hit techie pants down.

  Not again.

  “You are grinding a rut into the floor,” his mother complained.

  Too bad. He wasn’t going to let anything slip past them. Whatever Baasha and his clone buddies threw at them, they would be ready for.

  Like his mother could read his mind, she asked, “Did you find anything more on where they grew their clone army?”

  While the team was in transit to Badaling, Stark and his mother had been working every angle they could think of. Like where in the hell the Righteous had gotten so many human clones.

  “Not too surprisingly, China is probably the most likely country. They have the laxest rules around cloning and have a plethora of scientist’ proficient in it.”

  “Do you think they have a facility at Badaling?” His mother asked.

  Stark shook his head. “No, any cloning farm would be in Gaungzhou,” he explained. “All the labs are there. I’m not sure why they would be heading to Badaling. Whatever the reason, it isn’t for their cloning facility.”

  “I’ve searched the history of Badaling and with the exception of tourism to the Great Wall for the Ming tombs, it’s pretty boring… in terms of religious sociopaths, I mean. Historically it is gang busters.”

  Stark wanted to slam his head down on his desk. He couldn’t let Bunny down again. And they were in trouble. Badaling wasn’t exactly a terrorist hot spot. It was more a tourist attraction so there weren’t very many satellites above the area. They had some very sketchy, tangential views from units orbiting above Beijing, but they were highly unreliable due to the angle.

  There could be an army of Righteous in Badaling, and they wouldn’t know about it.

  “They know we aren’t magicians,” his mother stated. “She knows we aren’t magicians.”

  Stark was not going to concede that to his mother. “But isn’t that what we got into this for? It certainly wasn’t for the health benefits of sitting for sixteen hours straight…”

  His mother didn’t argue.

  “We got this good to blow people’s minds. We got into this to be the modern day magicians. Right?”

  There was that deep sigh his mother got when she realized that there was no arguing. Instead she bent her head to one side, popped it, then bent it to the other side. “Well then, let’s get our ‘A’ game on.”

  Stark felt better already. His mom in competitive mode was something to see.

  “If the Righteous do have a presence in the Badaling area, then they have got to have a way to monitor it. We just have to find it and piggyback on it.”

  His mother nodded. “All over it.”

  * * *

  Bunny watched as the Great Wall of China came into view. The smog was lifting the further they got away from Beijing. Their British diplomatic plates had helped smooth the way out of the city.

  Now they were in the land of low rolling hills and farmland. Rural China. Quite the difference from the bustling, overcrowded, boisterous metropolitan they had just left behind.

  The SUV was still filled with the smells of Beijing. They had stopped at a food cart and bought just about everything the vendor had for sale. She had avoided the chicken feet, but she had embraced the Jing cuisine, the food of the capital.

  Fermented tofu and the beggar’s chicken were exceptional. Surprisingly there was very little rice since the area around Beijing was too dry to grow the grain. Instead there were noodles of every type. Soy, fried, fermented in sweetened vinegar.

  Some of them made her mouth pucker, but it was food so she didn’t complain. How long had it been since they’d all eaten a full meal? They had been subsisting off of protein bars the men had in their packs.

  Now they had a belly full of Peking duck.

  She shouldn’t have been surprised, however Lopez was completely proficient at eating instant-boiled mutton with chopsticks and driving like a maniac at the same time. They hadn’t lost a second off their time for him to eat.

  “Is there any moo shoo pork left?” Bunny asked Prenner.

  “Sorry,” the man said patting his belly. “I smashed on the last of it.”

  “I do have a little five spice fish left,” Prenner offered her the container.

  It wasn’t her favorite, but who knew the next time they were going to get hot food, so she took it, along with the last piece of sea cucumber with quail egg. She poured it all over the remainder of the lo mien she had stashed away from the guys. If she’d put it into the mix, it would have been gone a half an hour ago.

  “So do we have a plan yet besides a nap once we get there?” Lopez asked, rubbing his rather stuffed belly.

  Bunny wished. “Stark?”

  “Yes, still working on it.”

  “Dude,” Lopez retorted. “I’m starting to see Badaling exits, that or some suggestions of sex positions, I’m not quite sure, my Chinese is rusty.”

  “Take the exit to the Number 8 North Tower,” Stark’s mother instructed.

  “Why?” Bunny asked.

  “If nothing else it will give you a good vantage of the entire area.”

  “North Tower Number 8 it is,” Lopez said, putting on the SUV’s clicker.

  * * *

  Davidson stared at the road ahead. It was nearly vertical. Nowhere but China would this be a legal road
. They were climbing and climbing to a nearby peak.

  “I am loving this,” Lopez blurted. “And no speed limits.”

  It was like a little slice of heaven for the corporal. For Davidson he was getting a little concerned. There weren’t any guardrails and the road was steep and curvy and of course Lopez was punching it.

  They skid around another corner, their left rear tire teetering off the edge. Lopez downshifted and stepped on the accelerator. The engine complained, but it worked, they popped back onto the road.

  Finally they reached the top where a cable car station sat. They were the only ones up here. It was off-season for the tourism so Badaling was practically a ghost town laying down before them. There were only a few scattered tourists along the sprawling park.

  The Great Wall here formed a near cul de sac. Contrary to popular belief, the Great Wall was anything but straight. The huge monument, like the Great Pyramids of Egypt were made by hand. They didn’t have bulldozers or TNT to go through mountains and such. They had to build around the terrain.

  So this area of the Great Wall was built around a small mountain and then snaked north from here in an almost serpentine pattern. From up here you could really appreciate the grandeur of the Wall. To think it had been built by peasants. It would be a feat for a super power, let alone villagers who were also still farming their own land.

  But back then, this was the only way to protect their homes from the marauding Khan hordes on horseback. It was their only defense against having their village trampled and their women either raped or abducted.

  This wall saved countless lives and suffering.

  From this high vantage point you could look down on the wall as it rode the ridge tops of the rolling hills and appreciate its incredible length. The thing stretched out for as far as you could see. The entire stone wall was over five thousand miles long. It was like walling in the Eastern Seaboard up through Canada.

  And the entire structure was about six feet high of stacked stone with another two to three feet of topping stones. Then of course there was the stone walkway. The rampage was at least twenty feet across. Impressive. It was said you could walk the entire length of the wall if you wished, in your bare feet. Punctuating the wall were gates and guard towers.