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

by McCray, Carolyn

  Despite the easy dispatch of the clones, or perhaps because of the ease, Davidson felt uncertain. How could they properly combat the Righteous if they didn’t know what their end game was here?

  Bunny was right. Shouldn’t this all be playing out in the Holy Land or at the least the UK or America where there was a large Christian audience? Why at some remote Chinese tourist attraction?

  This was the hometown of Mozi, but what did that have to do with a Christian’s Machiavellian plot to conquer the world? It seemed impossible, yet here the Righteous were. Bunny had guided them directly to the Righteous’ last stand. Where they planned to unveil the world’s next leader.

  Sweeping his scope over the area, he watched for more clones, but none raised their heads. Apparently they were trying to lure the team inside the buildings. Inside where Davidson’s rifle wouldn’t do much good.

  The ATV, now loaded down with the entire team, raced back down the wall to the restaurant. The grouped jumped off the vehicle and climbed down into the courtyard, then headed inside the restaurant where Baasha had disappeared.

  Now the game of cat and mouse was fully on.

  Too bad Davidson didn’t know which of them was the cat and which the mouse.

  * * *

  Bunny hung tightly to Prenner who was just ahead of her as they made their way through the abandoned restaurant. People had left their sandwiches half eaten. Soda pop still fizzed in plastic cups.

  Upon Levont’s signal, the group fanned out between the tables, heading for the kitchen.

  Okay, the Sarin gas made a little sense. It was the Righteous’ master play. But the C-4? What in the hell were the Righteous hoping to break into? That made no sense. But to the Righteous it must have made perfect sense and until she understood it, her team would be at a disadvantage.

  “Oh my god, Thomas,” Bunny blurted out. She’d known there was some proto Christian history in China. Not Jesus per se but his apostles. A recent article in Archeology Today had covered an early era church had been found not two hundred miles from here.

  There was even some evidence that Christ’s words via Thomas had reached the Emperor’s ears. It was all very speculative and Lochum would have been astonished that such a poorly researched piece could have made it through the peer review process, but it did prove that China had been exposed to Christianity far earlier than the seventh century when it was more traditionally believed.

  “There were even rumors that the Emperor Kang Shi was a secret Christian,” Davidson added.

  Now the strands were all starting to come together. It had long been rumored that when one of the Terra Cotta tombs had originally been opened, they had found a silver cross amongst the tributes. Of course once the items were cataloged it had gone missing. There were a whole lot of conspiracy theories about who took it and why, but now Bunny had a pretty good idea.

  The Righteous.

  “Oh no,” Davidson groaned in her ear. “I know why they are here.”

  Bunny strained to hear his answer, but gunfire exploded all around.

  * * *

  Baasha hobbled his way around the boiler and its web-like pipe tendrils. They had to make it to the west most wall. If the legends were true. If Thomas had actually visited here, then the greatest of riches lay beyond the stone wall that shored up the base of the wall.

  The sound of gunfire above threatened to ruin the moment. And they had lost half of their explosives, but Baasha had planned far better than his beautiful but dim brothers. They had fought this team as they would themselves, not realizing that the American team had no shame. They would in fact steal an ATV and use it to mow down their enemy. Baasha’s brothers simply could not understand such a feat of anti-bravery.

  “There,” Baasha said, pointing to the wall with the faintest of scratch marks that created a cross. Just as the notes in the Bible from Kashmir had promised.

  His faith burned in his chest. For all that God had put him through, He had also blessed him. To think it would be he, Baasha the Righteous’ greatest disappointment was to find his religion’s greatest artifact. That he would be here to see their savior ascend his birthright.

  That would be Baasha’s legacy.

  He who heralded in the second coming. Baasha checked his watch even though he really didn’t need to. The countdown to the reign of death beat like a metronome in his brain. Under thirty minutes now. A mere half hour before the Righteous would reshape the world in their image.

  The world would know hope again.

  The world would have their savior back.

  The Righteous would be on all tongues, included in every prayer. How he longed to see that day.

  His brothers finished placing the C4 on the wall.

  They urged him back, away from the blast, but he knew that God was protecting him even now. He would allow no harm to come to him.

  Therefore Baasha didn’t hide like his brothers as his malformed thumb came down on the red detonator. The wall blew, hurling shrapnel across the room, yet not a single chunk of brick hit him. He stood in the center of the maelstrom without a single injury.

  If that was not proof of God’s approval of their mission, nothing else ever would be.

  * * *

  Davidson climbed down from his perch. He had to lash a hand out to steady himself. Something had happened deep under the wall. Something that shook it to its foundation.

  Even more reason to rejoin the team. The fight had shifted underground. Even though Lopez hadn’t asked him to, Davidson abandoned his nest. It sounded like they could use every gun down there.

  There was no way to know what was actually happening in the restaurant. Between the blaze of gunfire and shouts, it sounded like hell down there.

  Davidson hit the stone walkway running.

  “Anything Stark?”

  “The satellite is still ten minutes out of position,” Stark replied.

  Davidson might have cursed if he ever cursed. His friends were down there. Bunny was down there.

  He kicked the door open ahead of him. Bursting in the room, low and crouched, Davidson assessed the situation in a single blink of an eye. Prenner and Bunny were pinned down behind the cafeteria-style food line. Lopez and Levont had turned over tables to create a barricade at the north corner and Malvern was holed up behind the soda machine at the south.

  Davidson fired straight ahead, taking out the lead clone. The man slumped to the floor, revealing three behind him. Davidson didn’t stop. He strode across the floor, firing. He winged the second man, sending him spinning off to the side. Lopez took care of that one.

  The third man tried to dive behind a table, but Davidson was quicker, shooting him in his exposed gut. The fourth didn’t fare much better. It was like the clones couldn’t conceive of the fact that Davidson refused to hide. He had the advantage and he knew it and was going to play it out as far as it would allow him.

  He might have wiped them all out in a single pass down the center of the room, then another explosion rocked the ground, knocking Davidson off his feet. That didn’t stop the bullets from flying. Someone grabbed him by the back of his vest, pulling him to safety.

  Malvern.

  “You can stop playing hero,” the colonel mumbled as he got Davidson upright.

  “I wasn’t playing,” Davidson countered.

  “You did your part. We aren’t outnumbered three to one anymore.”

  That still left about six clones blocking the way down the staircase at the back of the restaurant.

  Davidson pulled out a flash bang.

  “Fore!” he yelled.

  Everyone ducked their heads, placing their arms over their ears and squeezing their eyes shut.

  He tossed the grenade to the back of the room and it went off in all its glory. Men screamed, flailing about blindly. It didn’t take Davidson’s skill to down those men.

  Levont and Lopez aggressively approached, firing at anything that moved. Prenner left Bunny in the hide out and joined his teammates. Ma
lvern and Davidson were a little late to the party as the last of the clones went down.

  “I think they’re just running out the clock,” Lopez said with a frown. “Time is on their side.”

  Bunny trotted up. “Davidson you thought you knew what they were doing here?”

  Davidson took a deep breath. These theories always sounded so much better in your head than they did once you started talking about them. He knew his idea was going to sound incredulous, but it was the only theory that explained what the Righteous were doing here.

  “You know the theories about the Throne of God?”

  Everyone else looked a little sketchy on the details, but Bunny nodded her head. “The current historical consensus is that the Throne is in Heaven. Actually there are between two and twelve thrones depending on which part of the Bible you look to. One each for God and Christ or one for each tribe of Israel.”

  “Well, we know first hand how inaccurate the current historical consensus can be,” Davidson stated. “Heaven and China in ancient Greek are only a few letters apart.”

  “No,” Bunny said stepping back. “You aren’t suggesting…”

  “We know that Thomas was a skilled carpenter…” Davidson stated, not wanting to say the words.

  “Jesus did tell him to prepare for his return,” Bunny added, she knew where he was going with this. “And no one in the world would suspect to look for the throne here…”

  “Spit it out,” Lopez said, pointing to his watch. “We are on the freaking clock.”

  “The Throne of God,” Davidson stated as matter-of-factly as he could.

  Lopez burst out in laughter, covering his mouth. “You have got to be kidding me.”

  “No,” Bunny stated. “He isn’t. Think it through. The Righteous want to create the Apocalypse, thereby forcing the second coming and where better to introduce this Christ figure than on the Throne of God.”

  “It is well described in the Bible,” Davidson stated. “It would be recognized easily around the world.”

  Lopez shook his head. “Come on, these guys are fanatics, but the Throne of God, really?”

  “Really,” Bunny stated. “And I think I know where they are looking for it.”

  “Do tell,” Lopez replied.

  “In the lost tomb of the Dragon Emperor.”

  CHAPTER 21

  Stark’s fingers flew, researching as Bunny spoke. Damn the woman knew her ancient history. Pulling together all of these bits and pieces of history to suss out the Righteous’ plan. Davidson wasn’t too shabby either.

  “They are punching through the wall downstairs,” Davidson said. “There has long been rumors there was another tomb under the wall, however due to concerns about the structural integrity, no one had been allowed to dig down there or even conduct research.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” Lopez asked, gripping his gun.

  Oh how he wished the satellite was in position. Only another few minutes and he’d be able to see under there and not have to rely on the soldier’s helmet cams.

  The group snapped back into formation as they made their way past all of the downed clones and headed for the door that led down a short staircase to the lower level that housed the boiler room. Steam obscured part of the view. It looked like they had entered a sauna.

  As they slowly made their way through the room, it gave Stark time to digest everything that Bunny had said.

  “They are going to want to broadcast this second coming,” Stark stated.

  “Already on it,” his mother said. “That signal isn’t getting out of that tomb, that is for sure.”

  Stark looked at their countdown clock. They were less than twenty minutes away from the suicide bombers.

  This much facial recognition was straining even their servers. To be looking for a clone in each of the world’s major airports was worse than finding a needle in a haystack. It was finally a grain of sand on a beach that was actively trying to avoid you.

  “We’ve got one,” Stark’s mother announced, pointing to the screen in front of her. It was from security footage from Heathrow airport. No surprise there. London would of course make the Righteous’ list.

  “Get security on it.”

  “It’s from twelve minutes ago. I’ll follow him,” his mother stated.

  “And another,” Stark blurted, finding a clone’s picture in Rome’s international airport. Of course that picture was a few minutes old as well.

  A sense of dread washed over Stark. It was happening. It really was happening. The suicide bombers were rolling out, spreading like the locust. Unlike locust the Righteous clones were about to explode their Sarin payload.

  Hurling the world into chaos just to fulfill their grandiose scheme.

  No, A scheme they were going to stop.

  Within twenty seven minutes.

  They better get to work.

  * * *

  The tomb was even more spectacular than the legends. Baasha’s feet actually shuffled to a stop as he entered the tomb. Forget terra cotta warriors. These were gilded warriors. With diamond studded spear tips. All protecting their emperor.

  But this emperor was guarding something even more important than his eternal soul. The Chinese leader had agreed to allow Thomas to hide the throne in his tomb.

  None of the Righteous’ enemies would think to look here. None ever had.

  Where better to bury Christ’s ultimate throne when he returned to earth than in Mozi’s hometown? The two were kindred spirits. They felt confident that Christ would want to reemerge in such a place. Plus the east needed Christ’s light. It would bring an entire new population to his feet.

  Baasha’s brothers brought the equipment they would need to broadcast this amazing event just a few minutes after the simultaneous Sarin attacks. Despair followed by hope. The righteous had studied the world around Christ and why his message was so well received. Suffering. They must bring people to their knees before they could see the true potential of Christ. The world would be transformed today.

  And it wasn’t his bright eyed and bushy tailed brothers that brought it to bear. It would be him. He would be the first baptized by their new savior. Christ would look past his visage and see his true soul. He would side at the right hand of the Jesus as he should.

  Baasha walked down the long aisle of gold warriors until he came to the inner tomb’s door. He stepped aside to allow his brothers to shove open the heavy stone door.

  The Emperor’s tomb was as spectacular as one would expect of the Dragon Emperor. The entire sarcophagus was gilded with elaborate carvings in the precious metal. Precious gems glistened in the flashlight illumination. Lining the walls were the tributes from the emperor’s citizens. More gold and gems.

  But nothing compared to the large throne at the far end of the room.

  This was a throne for God.

  Before the throne was a slab of crystalline floor that looked truly like a sea of glass. Flanking the great throne were statutes of a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle. They each had a pair of wings. Baasha could swear that he heard the fluttering of wings. And a murmuring of the most sacred words…

  “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord almighty, who was, is, and is to come.”

  A rumbling came from the other side of the room. A great sound. The sound of God’s approval.

  “Turn off your lights,” Baasha ordered.

  Instead of the room being plunged into darkness, its illumination only grew. The Throne glowed in all of its glory. There were five steps up to the gilded throne, with its solid irony base, shining through.

  A seat truly to hold a God. It made all else in the tomb pale by comparison.

  “Bring him,” Baasha whispered into the tomb.

  The throne bloomed brighter as if awaiting its true master.

  * * *

  There was gunfire again. Kind of the norm on these quests.

  Malvern pointed to his watch. “Thirteen minutes,” he mouthed.

  Didn’t she know it? N
ot much time to break through the army of clones that guarded the hole the Righteous had blown into the side of the wall. She could only imagine it was the Dragon Emperor’s tomb on the other side. A Chinese tomb that held the Christian Throne of God.

  Funny how things worked out.

  “I’ve got something,” Stark stated. “There is another way into the tomb. It will take some C4, but should deliver you to the back of the tomb.”

  “Where?” Bunny asked, ducking her head as bullets flew she could barely hear Stark over the commotion.

  “Behind you, down a service shaft,” Stark reported.

  She tugged on Malvern’s sleeve. He must have heard because he nodded. “Davidson take her.”

  Bunny might have preferred Levont or Lopez. Okay, maybe not Lopez, but Prenner.

  Before she could argue, Malvern continued, “His rifle is useless here.”

  That was true. Not that Davidson was all that shabby with a semi-automatic weapon, but his skills truly were being wasted in this close space.

  Davidson didn’t hesitate once the order was given. He backed away from the firefight, crooking his finger at her, telling her to follow him.

  Crouched low to keep her head beneath the meager cover of some rubble, Bunny followed the sniper. Feeling the seconds counting down, Bunny hurried to catch up as Davidson disappeared behind a corner.

  As the sound of the firefight faded as she turned the corner and down the long boiler room hallway until they made it halfway through the room. Davidson pointed to a floor to ceiling electrical panel.

  “Pry the panel back and there is a tight access way behind there,” Stark reported.

  Davidson pulled out a knife, flipping it open and got the metal to separate from the concrete and sure enough behind a tangle of wires there was a narrow passage. Good thing she did her Pilates.

  Davidson shone his light down the passage and it seemed clear.

  “Stay behind me.”

  Between her fear and the narrow access tunnel, that wasn’t going to be a problem.

  Davidson slung his rifle and shoved the wires out of the way and stepped over the threshold into the passage. Bunny followed suit, having to take deep breaths. She normally wasn’t claustrophobic, seeing that most of her work was in small tombs and caves, however there was something onerous about this passageway. A heaviness. The raw earth walls seemed to bleed. A dark red fluid glistened on the damp earth.