She couldn't have released the belt if she'd wanted to. Her arms stretched in a painful, awkward hold, one elbow nearly bent unto breaking before she managed to jerk herself into a better angle. By the time she got her breath back, by the time she could pay attention to the wild activity on the other end of the belt, it came with the beat of heels against stone…and then it stopped altogether.
Sigh.
Selena finally extricated her hands from the tight wrap of the belt, twisting and turning until she dropped the short distance to the ground. A quick look revealed them reddened and bruised but essentially whole. She gingerly rubbed the scraped webbing between finger and thumb, and then did what inevitably came next. She checked the other side of the pillar.
Yep, there he was, sprawled awkwardly against the stone with the second gun still in his hand and a spreading stain at his crotch. Dammit. She hadn't meant to—
"Idiot," she told him, and plucked the gun from his hand. "You really thought that through, didn't you?"
One down. Who knows how many left.
Here we go again.
Chapter 20
Now, Cole thought loudly at Selena. Seriously. Now.
Too bad he didn't know if she'd even emerged from that tunnel yet.
He did know that they were running out of time. Had run out of time. Betzer's impatience was out in the open, his feigned you're the boss attitude slipping fast. "Look," he told Dobry. "I've got other things going on. Places to go, people to kill. You know how it is."
"I'll go get her," Aymal offered—probably the worst thing he could have done, because Betzer knew well enough that no Muslim man would offer to fetch a female stranger—an infidel female stranger at that—off the John. Especially when the John was an unsanitary bucket without so much as a privacy sheet hanging around it.
And Betzer knew. There was a snap to his voice as he said, "No. You'll stay out here. All of you. One of my men will go."
"This is my op," Dobry said, hardening his voice. "I'll make those decisions."
And Betzer just laughed. "Goff, you have been a true fucking joy to work with. But it's time to stop pretending. Jones's wife didn't want you to call me, did she? She's got better instincts. You should have listened to them."
Right damn now, Selena.
"THIS IS NO GOOD," Selena told the dead man. Anyone walking between the cave on the village could easily spot him along the way. She looped the belt around her neck and applied herself to moving the body. Not far—because God is he heavy—but out of sight. Behind the pillar, behind the crumble of rocks just beyond it. She recovered both his guns, including the Glock she'd kicked into a pilgrim cell, and doubled her firepower on the spot.
Not that it mattered, when she was still in quiet mode—still trying to work her way back to help Cole and—
She shouldn't have thought of it; she faltered, her steady focus turning into a bout of what if I can't…
Screw that. None of them had the time for it. Fake it till you make it, Cole had said. She'd feel better if she knew just which of those roles she'd taken. Faking…or making…
And meanwhile she'd crept up to the point of rock where she could look beyond, to find Betzer in the small level oval of ground in front of the cave and, to her surprise, Dobry just outside the cave opening itself. And Cole—she suddenly realized that lump of blankets on the ground was her husband, looking feeble and limp enough to make her wonder if he even breathed.
He's playing the role, you idiot.
She'd believe that…because she had to.
Betzer had Lufti pulled up against his leg, his hand dwarfing the boy's mouth and jaw and plenty of leverage to both silence and entrap the boy. Aymal hung near the cave entrance, ready to bolt.
Whatever Dobry and Betzer talked about, it grew less amiable by the moment.
Too bad there was a sentry between here and there. And he was loaded down with a Colt AR-15, an assault rifle he held with easy familiarity.
She pulled back slightly, enough so she wouldn't be seen as she took the belt from her neck and unbuckled it. There were four men facing off at the cave; they thought themselves still six total. She figured she could make them four, perhaps three, and then…free-for-all, with Lufti in the middle and Cole vulnerable on the ground.
Great plan.
Without taking her gaze off the man's far-too-sturdy back, Selena bent down and felt around for a pebble. Not hard to find in this terrain. Take two, they're small…
And hesitated. What if I can't…what if I lose myself in overreactions…
Selena found herself moving without thought—because it was the only way she could move at all. Just do it. She dropped a pebble on the point of rock and it trickled downhill with a murmur of sound. The belt ready in one hand, she waited…but not long. She dropped the second pebble. Finally he shifted, looking over his shoulder.
Selena struck. She snapped the belt like a wet towel and the buckle cracked into the outer edge of the man's eye even as he brought the rifle to bear. He screamed—damn straight he screamed, with that eye ruined and the bone of the socket giving way—and Selena kicked the rifle away, a high, long-legged move she'd turned into second nature with recent endless hours of gym work. By then he'd bent over his eye; by then they'd gotten Betzer's attention. No time to play games; she dropped the belt and grabbed the man's arm, pivoting him around and slamming him into the rock.
And still he scrabbled for the knife stuck through his belt, the blood streaming down his face, his eye socket a gory mess. She pulled her gun, shoving it right up against one nostril even as his hand closed firmly around the grip of his knife. "No," she told him, and quite firmly at that.
His one good eye stared at her; she saw in it the moment he gave up, even before his hand eased away from the knife. As quick as that, she brought the gun back and slammed it against his temple. That eye rolled back in his head and he slid bonelessly down the slope of rock. She winced at the sight of his face, but at least he was still alive.
And that's when she turned and found the muzzle of Betzer's AR-15 headed her way.
EYES STILL CLOSED, ears on full alert…Cole heard the scuffle in the distance. Betzer cursed, Aymal made a choking noise, Dobry grunted satisfaction…
Yeah. Selena.
Cole opened his eyes, found the nearest target and pulled his pistol free of the blankets—rolling over in that same motion, bringing the gun to bear in spite of the lead in his limbs and the tight stretch of pain along his back, a smoldering fire branding the wound itself. In that instant he found their four targets, recognized the bulk of flak vests, discovered Betzer sighting in on Selena…discovered Dobry standing in his line of fire. Betzer had the only assault rifle and should go down first, but Cole did the next best thing, sighting the man who'd targeted Dobry.
Aymal ran, but it was only to be expected. They'd never given him a gun.
The action came in fast sequence, shots overlapping. Dobry twitched and stumbled even as Cole drilled a neat hole through the forehead of the man who'd shot him, at the same time that Dobry fired a shot that went just wild enough to smack into Betzer's arm, not even enough impact to stagger a big man in a balanced stance.
Lufti bit down hard on Betzer's hand and squirmed away as Betzer bellowed a curse, and then damned if Cole didn't lose his precarious balance, just enough to waste the next bullet at the feet of the man beside Betzer. He rolled, came up to his knees…ignored the pain of such movement and took bead on his target. A squeeze and the man gave an astonished grunt, far too confident in his flack vest when he should have considered wearing a gorget instead. Blood frothed at his throat and Cole left him to choke it out—and, feeling his own strength drain, aimed at the kneecap of the fourth man and rode the trigger, letting the recoil take the aim all the way up the man's leg.
And then there was Selena, facing off with Betzer, walking forward in those long, confident strides, the big Cougar in a double-handed grip as she took her shot and fired, took the next shot and fired
, getting her shots in steady and solid as Betzer fired a wild burst near her feet. Squeezing that last shot off as the rising breeze lifted the loosened hijab from her hair and freed it, her face a study in focused calm and her feet not missing a beat as the gun's slide racked back and stayed there. She dropped it, reaching into her belt for a Glock she'd acquired along the way.
An entirely unnecessary Glock. Betzer's rifle never made it all the way up to become a serious threat and now it drooped back down again. Selena waited, legs braced in a classic Weaver stance, as Betzer swayed on his feet, spit blood, and gurgled, "I should have let Buzz have you in the Plush."
"You could have tried," she said, and watched him fall.
Yeah. That's my girl.
GUN STILL COVERING the fallen men, Selena ran from one to the other, kicking aside their weapons in the first pass, then going through them again to check for concealed weapons…and finally, for pulses. None. "Weebles wobble and they do fall down," she told them, glad enough to hear Cole's incredulous choke of laughter by the cave entrance.
She patted them down one last time, starting with Betzer—hunting for something entirely different this time. Keys. They had to have their own transportation—something with wheels and an engine. Just too damn many pockets among them, and no one with an obvious bulge of keys. Could be on the man at the temple or the only survivor from Betzer's little group.
Remorse washed over her for those lost lives; she closed her eyes at the unexpected strength of it, and then at the surge of anger that the dead men had put her in this position in the first place. One survivor. "Didn't have to be that way," she muttered, purely to herself.
She glanced at the man, found him on his hands and knees and crawling away with unsteady determination. But she wasn't ready to run after him, not just yet "Cole?" For the first time she gave him more than a glance, and discovered that he'd made his way to Dobry to fuss over what seemed a bloodless wound.
"We're good. Aymal's in the cave somewhere. Lufti got away. And we need to gather up and get the hell out of here. Betzer's got a vehicle somewhere, and there's no telling if someone's waiting with it."
Someone who'll come looking for him. She heard the unspoken words loudly enough. "Grab what you can," she said. "I'm going to find out about those keys."
"Go," he told her, and staggered away from Dobry to get their things from the cave.
Selena jogged up to the point, easily overtaking the wounded survivor and circling him to plant her black sneakered feet at his outstretched hand.
He didn't even try to look up at her. He didn't say anything, either. He just waited, dropping blood from temple and eye, waiting for either mercy or death.
There was no question in Selena's voice, just expectation. "Where's the vehicle and where are the keys?"
The man stiffened in expectation of some sort of blow, and Selena crouched, hands dangling over her knees, to bring herself up close and personal. "Vehicle," she said. "Keys. And while we're at it, might there be anyone waiting back at that vehicle?"
"No." That one he could answer simply and quickly, and did. The rest of it…not so easy. "Keys…under a rock. Near the truck. So we wouldn't have to retrieve them if the wrong person went down." He blew dripping blood off his upper lip, his head still bowed, his face pretty much wrecked.
"Under a rock," Selena said flatly, glancing around at the very many rocks available for such a role.
"Near the truck. That dead-end access road—"
She knew it. It never entered the village, but wound along the point and dead-ended well behind the temple and a little above the village. She'd used it the last time she'd been here, driving an embassy vehicle…before the Kemeni had first struck. "And while we're at it," she said softly, "what do you know about an attack on the capitol this evening?"
He shook his head, slow and numb. "Not our thing. Betzer said Arachne…" He made a pained noise and managed to continue. "That's all I know. Don't have a fucking clue what Arachne is." And then, incredibly quick, he made a swipe at her ankle, a grab and snatch to dump her on her ass and—
He never got the chance. Selena smacked his hand away with the Cougar, a bone-jarring crunch of impact. "Oh, stop it," she said. "I had planned to let you crawl away from here—" he might deserve justice, but he was no continuing threat; he was a merc with no payroll, not a man with a cause "—but you could still change my mind."
He froze. No doubt he'd been anticipating death as soon as he'd given her all she needed to know…no doubt it's how he would have handled the situation. Then he shifted away from her and went into high gear, even making it up to all fours.
"Good luck with that," she muttered. She added a little more loudly, "The villagers are not your friends, by the way."
At that he hesitated—he'd been heading toward the village, clearly visible even to a recently one-eyed man. "I want to come with you."
"Whatever." Selena stood, brushed her hands on her thighs, and shrugged even though he couldn't see it. Aymal, tentatively heading her way with her coat in hand and an abrasion or two on his face, opened his eyes wide at her response. "We're not waiting, though."
He rose to his feet for a few stumbling steps, heading for the truck, and fell, only to repeat the process.
"You can't mean it," Aymal said, holding out her coat.
"I'm sure the embassy marines will gladly handle him for us," she said. "And frankly, I see no reason we should foist him off on the good people here." She shook her head at the coat, in spite of the lingering chill of the morning. "You carry it. Go help Cole and Dobry—Dobry's hurt and I don't know how badly."
"And Cole," he said, and widened his eyes in realization. "There's just you and—"
"Yep. We're the able-bodied ones. Now go help them. I'm going to find that key before our friend does. It would be suicide to try to drive in that condition, but I don't doubt he'd try it."
Aymal's expression turned resistant, somewhat sullen…very much you are not the boss of me. And suddenly it didn't matter that Selena understood perfectly that his culture molded him to respond to her in this way. "Tell you what," she said, impatience coloring her tone as she watched Betzer's lone survivor stagger out of sight around the temple. "We'll have a much better chance of actually surviving the rest of this day if you just pretend I'm a man."
His eyes flicked up and down her form as if in spite of himself; his neck flushed dark and it spread into his face.
"I'm not kidding," she said. "Just do it. And then do as I said and go help Cole. I don't know how badly Dobry is hurt." And maybe she should have hesitated long enough to check it out, but unless she commandeered that vehicle, it would be moot point. "And do it because I have friends in high places, and how your life goes after this might very much depend on what I tell them."
That, he understood. He put some hustle into his steps as he trotted down toward the cave entrance…and Selena put some hustle into her own jog as she went after the wounded man. She had no trouble overtaking him, no trouble finding the battered old military transport, its canvas sides missing but the rest of it sturdy enough. The key wasn't far, he'd said…and she turned over rocks until the man came up behind her, chose the correct rock and dangled the key at her.
"Hand it over," she said. "Or do you really think you're going to overcome me and drive this thing out of here in your condition?"
"I might." The bleeding had stopped and begun to coagulate, creating an even more gruesome collection of gore on his face. But he'd recovered somewhat from the blow she'd dealt him.
Obviously not hard enough.
They stared at each other a long moment.
"Oh, fine," she said. "Whatever." And crouched beneath the wheel of the truck, plucking wires and pulling out her short tanto blade to strip them, never losing her awareness of the man. But he didn't move, and when she had the truck started and took a moment to assess her best off-road strategy for getting closer to the cave, he actually looked a little lost. She jerked her head at the ba
ck of the truck. "Get in."
He looked down at his useless leverage of a key and tossed it away, and then took so long to climb into the end of the cargo bed that she got out and shoved him up, leaving him sprawled in the back.
It took only a few moments to move the truck as far as it would go, and backing out around the rocks would be no joy. But every step she saved Cole and Dobry…
She pulled the wires apart and slammed the door, checking the truck bed on the way past. "Are you going to be good, or do I have to slap you around a couple of times before I go?"
He lay on his back, ungainly and bloody, with no apparent interest in moving.
"Because if you're going to be trouble, I can put a gun in Aymal's hands and set him to watching you. Word is, he can hardly tell the trigger from the safety—"
He cut her off with a grunt and a wave, not bothering to open his remaining eye.
Yeah, and I believe you, too. Poor wounded mercenary. She just didn't believe he could extract the ignition wires from where she'd stuffed them and get the right wires sparking, not with a quarter of his face missing.
At least, not before she got back.
She hopped off the back bumper and jogged for the cave-but she'd only just reached the temple when she ran into the exodus. Cole and Aymal both supported Dobry, whose pasty-white face declared his injury even if Selena couldn't see it, not beneath the wool blanket draped over his shoulders. Aymal came festooned with her backpack, her coat, and Cole's courier bag. Cole's steps were unsteady beneath his share of Dobry, and his face still had the flushed look of fever over the drained complexion of a more extended illness.
Selena took his place under Dobry's arm; he moved ahead to drop the transport's tailgate. "Ah," he said. "I see we already have company."
"We're leaving enough litter around the place already," Selena told him. Good God, Dobry was heavy—every bit as robust as he'd looked before he'd put his padded vest on. She helped him to turn around, to hoist himself up to a sitting position on the tailgate. She looked at him with a critical eye. "Are you good to go?"
Comeback Page 21