The Sahara Legacy

by Ernest Dempsey

  “Yeah,” Sean said. “I thought about that, but I can’t see Dufort’s dust, so maybe we’re okay. Besides, from what I understand, it’s going to be more of an issue when we try to get out as opposed to getting in. No one’s trying to get in. Over.”

  Tommy shook his head. “Then why the detour? We could just drive right through. Over.”

  “Probably better safe than sorry,” Sean said. “And besides, they’d take all our weapons. Plus, I don’t like the idea of Adriana going through a security checkpoint. Over.”

  Tommy had thought of the weapons confiscation, but hadn’t even considered anything happening to Adriana. He grinned as he thought about her turning to Sean in the SUV ahead and telling him she could handle herself.

  “I’d feel bad for them if they tried anything with her. Over.”

  Sean laughed into the walkie talkie. “Me, too. Over.”

  Up ahead, a rock formation jutted out of the flatlands. It was one of the only things that looked like a mountain in the area.

  “According to the map,” Sean said into the radio, “we go around that big rock, and the border will be just beyond it. Over.”

  “Roger that. Lead the way, Bandit. Over.”

  Sean laughed again through the radio. “Nice. Does that make you Snowman? Over.”

  It was Tommy’s turn to chuckle. He glanced at Hank to his right. “I’m not hauling a truck full of beer if that’s what you’re asking. Over.”

  Hank shook his head and wiped the side of his face with a napkin. “I’m glad you two think this is just fun and games. We could have been killed in that Libyan prison. Now we’re going back into another lion’s den, and you’re cracking jokes about a B movie from the 1980s?”

  “B?” Tommy sounded appalled. “B? Are you serious? That movie was a classic.”

  “Our definitions of classic are widely different,” Hank said as he crossed his arms and kept looking nervously out the windshield.

  “All I know is all of us growing up in the ’80s wanted one of those Trans Ams. That car was awesome.”

  Hank sighed and shook his head while Tommy started humming the melody to Jerry Reed’s “East Bound and Down.”

  The Americans’ convoy rounded the big rock and slowed down once they reached the far side.

  “I just don’t understand how you two can be so relaxed about things,” Hank said, breaking into Tommy’s song.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You almost died! And odds are, you’re going to almost die again. Or might actually die. Yet you and Sean don’t seem to have a care in the world.”

  “You sound scared,” Tommy said.

  “Of course I’m scared!” Hank thundered. “I got out of the intelligence game because I didn’t want to have a never-ending string of near-death experiences with bad guys trying to kill me.”

  “Oh. Well, if it helps you sleep better, I’m scared all the time.”

  Hank raised an eyebrow, expecting a punch line.

  “Sean and I get into all sorts of trouble. Not often, but more often than I’d prefer.”

  “I doubt that. If you asked me, you two have a death wish. That’s why you keep finding yourselves in these spots.”

  “Honestly,” Tommy said, “I would love nothing more than to never have to use a gun again. I’d love to never be in another fight again. I got into this line of work to recover artifacts for people so they could learn more about the past. I didn’t start the IAA to run around the globe playing cowboy.”

  “Yet here we are, chasing down bad guys.”

  “Sooner or later, Hank, you realize that what you want and what you’re meant to do don’t always coincide.”

  “Oh, so that’s how you justify it? You tell yourself that no one else can do this sort of thing?”

  Tommy shrugged. “I don’t see anyone else chasing Dufort right now. Do you?”

  “No.”

  “Here’s the thing. We may never really know how many other people like him are out there and how many people like us there were that stopped those bad guys. I have to believe we’re not alone. And I’m not talking about spies or people like Sean who worked for agencies. Their job is to put down bad guys like Dufort. Sometimes I wonder if there are others out there who aren’t paid to do what we do but do it anyway.”

  Hank snorted derisively. “I can’t imagine anyone out there being as crazy as you two.”

  “Maybe. I guess we might never know. For now, though, we’ll do whatever we can to stop Dufort. If someone else like him comes along with some kind of sinister scheme, we’ll deal with that person, too.”

  Hank grunted and looked out the window to his right. He stared into the flats that seemed to go on forever. Then something caught his eye in the mirror, and he turned around to look out the back.

  “Um…Tommy?”

  “Yeah?” Tommy looked into the rearview mirror to see what caught Hank’s attention.

  “Are you guys sure Dufort is in front of us?”

  Tommy saw the three light tan pickups rolling down the hill behind them. Once they’d descended the rocky slope, the trucks dipped in and out of the rolling dust cloud behind Tommy’s SUV. Even so, he could make out the figures of two men in the truck bed with rifles.

  “That’s not Dufort,” Tommy said.

  Hank peered through the back window and saw the pickups closing in. “How do you know?”

  “Because Dufort’s men had SUVs. Those are pickups. And if he was behind us, Sean would have said something.”

  Tommy picked up the radio from between his legs and pressed the button. “Sean? We’ve got trouble. Over.”

  “What kind of trouble? Over.”

  “Not sure. But they don’t look like they’re here to throw us a welcoming party. Over.”

  Tommy stepped on the gas, pressing his foot to the floor. In front of them, Sean also accelerated.

  “You think we can lose them?” Sean asked. “Over.”

  With their increased speed, the SUVs kicked up more dust than before, and soon the pickups disappeared behind them.

  Tommy peered into his mirror. All he could see was the rolling cloud. Suddenly, the first pickup appeared again. No sooner did he see it than the two men in the back started firing their weapons.

  “Nope,” Tommy said into the radio. “Pretty sure we’re not going to outrun them. Over.”

  “All right,” Sean said. “How many we dealing with? Over.”

  “Three trucks,” Tommy said. “Shooters in the back. Looks like AKs.”

  “Probably bandits,” Sean said. “Ironic.”

  Tommy looked back in the mirror again and saw the men aiming their rifles. The muzzles flashed repeatedly once more.

  Instinctively, Tommy ducked down for cover as if his seat and headrest would keep him safe from the deadly barrage.

  “Ironic?” Tommy asked. “And you didn’t say over. Over.”

  “Ironic since you called me Bandit,” Sean said.

  Sean’s SUV abruptly jerked to the left and off the road. It jumped a few feet into the air for a second before landing on the parched desert dirt and sand. The wheels turned sharp to the left and the tail end of the SUV swung around, kicking up a small wave of sand.

  “What is he doing?” Hank asked.

  “Bandit stuff,” Tommy said.

  Chapter 29

  Border of Sudan and Egypt

  Sean spun the wheel around to straighten out the SUV and pointed it straight at the three bandit pickups.

  The lead truck stayed on Tommy’s tail while the one in the middle turned off the road to pursue Sean.

  “You want to do the honors?” Sean asked Adriana.

  She smirked. “Well, I certainly don’t want you trying to drive and shoot at the same time.”

  She leaned out the window and aimed her weapon at the oncoming truck. The two men standing in the back opened fire. Bullets sprayed wildly all over the place as the men were jostled and bumped around in the rough terrain.

  Adr
iana’s eyes were locked on the oncoming truck but also noted the path Sean took. Doing so enabled her to anticipate nearly every bump. She wedged her shoulder against the door frame to keep steady and let her arms act like springs with every dip and swell in the dirt.

  Sean kept the hood aimed straight at the oncoming pickup, challenging the other driver to a life-or-death game of chicken.

  Adriana squeezed the trigger as the front end dipped down and then up. The round sailed into the desert air, missing the target. She fired again, this time with a more stable base. Still, the round missed.

  The two trucks were on a collision course and closing fast.

  “Anytime, honey,” Sean said. He gripped the wheel tight, ready to jerk it in one direction or the other.

  “It’s not as easy as it looks!” she shouted back. Her finger tensed again, and she squeezed.

  The weapon popped three times in a short burst. Two rounds plunked into the grill of the oncoming pickup. The third went through the windshield. A billow of steam shot up out of the hood. Between the busted radiator and the round narrowly missing the driver, the other guy behind the wheel was spooked enough to give in first.

  He yanked the wheel to the right before his gunners could get off another shot. Sean veered his SUV in the opposite direction just as the other truck flew by to his left.

  The other driver had been too zealous with his evasive maneuver, and the pickup’s tires sank into the ground. A second later, the truck was airborne—flipping side over side through the air.

  One of the gunmen was thrown clear into the desert sand. The other wasn’t so fortunate. The truck hit the ground on its top and crushed him instantly before rolling three more times until it came to a stop on its side.

  Sean didn’t turn around to look back. He saw the crash happen in his rearview mirror.

  Adriana climbed back into her seat and looked ahead and to her left at the remaining two pickups chasing Tommy.

  “Nice shooting,” Sean said as he hit the gas pedal again.

  The SUV lurched forward even faster.

  “Thanks for giving me a hard time about it,” she said with a devilish grin.

  She pulled out the magazine and shoved five new rounds into it before pushing it back in the pistol grip.

  Sean fishtailed the SUV around and stomped the gas pedal. The other two pickups had closed the gap between themselves and Tommy. The lead truck’s gunners were emptying their magazines at Tommy’s SUV. It was only a matter of time until one of the wild bullets found its way to the target.

  Sean guided his ride back onto the old road and into line with the chase. Now he and Adriana were tucked in behind the second pickup. Dust from the other three vehicles enveloped the last vehicle in line, making it almost impossible to see.

  “I can’t get a good line of sight like this,” Adriana said.

  “Yeah,” Sean said. He spat out a mouthful of gritty dust. “I can barely see anything.” He glanced out his window. The land next to the dirt road was mostly flat. While he couldn’t determine how long that flat stretch lasted, it was worth chancing it.

  “I’m gonna pull up next to them,” he said. “That will give you a better angle and a clean line of sight. Take out the gunmen first.”

  “Check,” she said.

  Sean veered the SUV off the road. It bounced up over a ridge lining the old path, but once he was off on the side, it smoothed out and almost felt better than the road. The SUV accelerated, drawing ever closer to the second pickup.

  “They’ll have a clear line of sight, too, once we’re next to them,” Sean warned.

  Adriana didn’t need to be told. She knew to be careful, but he couldn’t help it. He wasn’t overprotective. He just didn’t want anything to happen to her.

  Then again, she kind of lived for this sort of thing.

  Adriana leaned out her window, leading with the pistol as Sean pulled up next to the other truck. It only took a second for the men in the truck bed to realize what was happening.

  Adriana fired, squeezing the trigger rapidly. The muzzle popped repeatedly as she peppered the enemy. The gunmen turned to fire, but their reactions were too late. At such a close range—even at high speed—Adriana wasn’t going to miss. The deadly barrage ripped through legs, arms, and vital organs in seconds, dropping both gunmen immediately. The second guy’s weapon fired wildly into the air as he dropped to his knees and then fell over. The closer shooter wavered for a moment and then toppled over the edge onto the road. His body tumbled in the dust for a second and then stopped.

  The truck’s driver saw what was going on—albeit too late for his comrades—and yanked his steering wheel to the left. His plan was to knock Sean off course or maybe spin him out, but the guy didn’t consider the road’s lip. Hitting it at that angle and at that speed turned physics against him. Before the enemy made his move, Sean saw the guy turn his head to the left. He saw the look in the other driver’s eyes and knew what he was going to do.

  Sean slammed on the brakes as the man veered left and hit the hump. Time slowed down. The pickup virtually floated for a what seemed like an eternity. Then it hit the ground at a bad angle. The other driver panicked and tried to over correct, but it was too late. The front wheels caught with most of the truck’s weight already going down and forward. The vehicle flipped end over end, corner over corner, sending dirt and debris twenty feet into the air.

  Sean stepped on the gas again and wove past the wreckage. He glanced back and glimpsed the pickup on its top, smoke roiling out of the hood.

  Up ahead, the first truck was still pursuing Tommy and Hank. From the side of the road, Sean could see the gunman firing on his friends. He kept his foot to the floor. Now what had been a smooth patch of land turned rough, with big ruts cutting across the path before them.

  The SUV jostled and bounced over the terrain but still closed the gap quickly between the vehicles.

  Sean picked up the radio between his legs and hit the button. “Tommy?”

  “Yeah. Kind of busy right now.”

  A bullet smashed through the back window of Tommy’s SUV. A moment later, the glass shattered and littered the dirt road with thousands of broken shards.

  “Let them get a little closer, and then slam on your brakes.”

  “What? We’ll be sitting ducks.”

  “I know. We’ll draw their fire. Just do it.”

  “Okay, Sean.”

  Sean set the radio back down into the seat and looked at Adriana. He pulled out his weapon and handed it to her. “Here,” he said. “This one’s full.”

  She took the gun and poked it out the window. The hot desert air blew through her hair, pulling strands out of her tight ponytail like an industrial-strength blow dryer.

  Sean steered the SUV closer to the road until the other truck was only twenty-five feet away.

  Adriana opened fire. The bumpy terrain caused her weapon to flail, sending bullets over and under the target, and everywhere in between. A few rounds pounded the side of the pickup. One hit the rear window and immediately drew the gunmen’s attention.

  They turned their weapons at the second SUV and readied to fire.

  “Hitting the brakes,” Sean said.

  Adriana braced herself as he mashed the brake pedal down.

  The gunmen did their best to keep their sights on Sean’s vehicle, which took their attention fully from the road ahead.

  Sean grabbed his radio and hit the button. “Now, Tommy!” he ordered in a loud voice.

  They watched as Tommy hit the brakes. The pickup’s driver reacted as fast as he could to the unexpected move and tried to slow down as well, but his reflexes were too slow. He slammed into the back of Tommy’s SUV.

  The momentum was too much. The shooters in the back were thrown over the top of the pickup’s cab. One hit the top of the back door of Tommy’s SUV and fell to the ground. The pickup bounced as it rolled over his body. The second gunman flew farther, soaring over the SUV with arms and legs flailing. As luck
would have it, the guy hit the top of the SUV and rolled down to the hood. The bandit’s rifle flew out of his hands and disappeared into the desert sands. Losing his weapon was momentarily fortuitous. He scrambled to clutch the top edge of the hood near the windshield wipers. His fingers wrapped around the thin metal, holding on as tight as he could.

  Tommy frowned and jerked the steering wheel to the left and then back to the right.

  The bandit’s eyes were wide with fear, but he held on despite his legs whipping from one side to the other as Tommy tried to shake him loose.

  Tommy tried again, this time veering right and then left. He hoped changing the pattern would throw his unwanted passenger off, but the man kept holding on.

  He was about to turn the wheel again when the pickup behind them rammed into the SUV’s rear bumper again.

  Tommy and Hank’s heads hit the headrests. Tommy instinctively hit the brakes for a second. Metal crunched in the rear, but the sudden slowdown broke the bandit’s grip on the hood. The man screamed in terror as he slid forward down the hood.

  Tommy stepped on the gas again to get away from the pickup behind him, which helped the bandit on the hood momentarily regain his grip with fingers pressed hard against the smooth metal. The guy’s feet dangled over the SUV’s grill. He flailed them around until he felt his toes touch the bumper and give him a foothold.

  His right hand went back quickly to the folds of his nomadic clothing and pulled out a pistol. He started to aim it at Tommy when the SUV went over a big hole in the road. The bump knocked the bandit loose and sent him into the air for a second. The next moment, his torso struck the front edge of the hood in a jarring blow. He desperately snatched at the air to find something to keep him from going under, but it was too late. Gravity won the battle and pulled him under the SUV. The bandit’s driver never saw him until it was too late. Even then it was just a mass of clothing rolling under the right tire, crushing the man instantly.

  Sean’s SUV bounced over the dead man and stayed close behind the pickup. He eased his vehicle up over the lip on the side of the road and accelerated. The SUV was tilted at an angle with the left tires on the desert plains and the right ones on the road. He pulled closer to the pickup, narrowing the distance between the two vehicles to less than twenty feet. Adriana stuck her weapon out the window and fired. Rounds thumped into the truck’s tailgate. One found its way through the back window.