by R. D. Brady
And her two friends held her hands, giving her their love and support.
Chapter 72
They were an hour outside of Cairo when Fielding made his way to the back of the plane. Jen tapped Laney’s shoulder, rousing her from sleep. “Heads up, Lanes. Military man on approach.”
Laney blinked her eyes a few times, bringing her surroundings into focus. Gina was asleep on her other side. The guys were dozing across from her. Laney wiped at her eyes, feeling the crustiness there from her earlier cry. But Gina was right. She did feel better letting it out. Her heart still ached. She knew that wasn’t going to go away for a long time, but sharing it had made it a little more bearable.
“I need to speak with you,” Fielding said quietly. He looked over at Jake. “You too.”
Laney undid her straps, following Fielding to the front of the plane, Jake right behind her. Fielding didn’t speak as they passed the mostly sleeping soldiers. The few that were awake watched their passage with curiosity. Fielding opened the door at the end of the fuselage. There was a small hallway and then another door leading to the cockpit. A soldier was waiting for them, a laptop open on top of a stack of two crates.
“This is Lieutenant Vigo Schmidt. He’s one of our intelligence operatives. Schmidt, show them what you showed me.”
Schmidt hit a few keys and then turned the laptop screen around so Laney and Jake could view it. “This is our latest drone imagery.”
Immediately Laney’s eyes were drawn to the Great Pyramid before shifting to the two lesser pyramids beside it. The Sphinx also came into view as the drone continued on its flight.
Then the drone was past them. All Laney could see was sand. But then a darker spot appeared along the horizon. She frowned, leaning forward trying to get a better picture. Was that—
Static flashed across the screen. Laney straightened. “What happened?”
“The drone was shot down,” Fielding said.
“By who?” Jake asked.
“We’re not sure. We have some of our military in place. They went to go check. Communication with them died almost as soon as they reached the same spot. We haven’t heard any word from them since. But we did manage to clean up that image in the background.” He nodded to Schmidt, who hit a few keys on the computer. The image they’d seen before was now shown in a much higher resolution. The image was still blurry, but they could make out one thing. “Those are troops.”
“Yes. And the drone and our reconnaissance attempts have been rebuffed. It seems safe to assume they are not on our side.”
“How far from the Great Pyramid are they?”
“Less than two miles,” Fielding said.
“They know,” Laney said quietly. “They know we’re going to the pyramids.” They all knew that the Chinese knew they were heading for Egypt. But they had been holding out hope that they did not know their specific destination.
“That seems to be true,” Fielding said.
“What about the Egyptian military? Where do they stand in all this?” Jake asked.
“They sent troops to intercept as well.” Fielding shook his head. “None of them returned. And their bases were bombed by the Russians ten minutes ago. Even if they wanted to help, they won’t have the manpower or machinery to do so. And we’ve had confirmation that the full scope of the Chinese and now Russian forces will actually arrive sooner than we estimated.”
“Can we make up the time?” Jake asked.
“The pilots are pushing as far as they dare. We’ll make up a little, but they will reach Giza before us.”
Laney was standing on the ramp as soon as the wheels touched down. Henry, Matt, Hanz, and Jake were with her along with seven other enhanced individuals from Havenville.
Jake tapped Laney’s shoulder. “The first team is at the rendezvous.”
Laney nodded. The first plane had landed five minutes ahead of them. The enhanced individuals had bolted from the plane as soon as it touched down, heading for the Plateau.
“We’ll be right behind you,” Jake said.
Laney looked over her shoulder at Jen and Gina. Gina gave her a tight smile, but Jen grinned broadly, giving her a thumbs-up. “Go kick some ass,” Jen yelled, making more than a few other people smile.
Laney nodded, turning toward the door as it started to open. As soon as she could pass through, Laney sprinted, blurring over the ground. She would meet up with the other enhanced and get a read on the situation—numbers, weapons—and communicate it back to the others as they raced toward them.
Jen would stay behind with Gina at the command center, much to her chagrin.
In mere minutes, she was slamming to a stop as tingles ran over her skin. Matt stopped next to her, nodding at the group in front of them. “Good to see you guys.”
Laney said nothing, just walked past them and up a dune to look over the area.
Henry followed her. “Laney?”
So many tingles ran over her skin it felt like a small voltage charge. “Oh my God.”
Matt was at her side in seconds. “What’s wrong?”
“They’re Fallen. All of them.”
“How many?”
Laney cast her gaze across the sand. She still couldn’t see them. But she could feel them. Every. Single. One.
“Hundreds.”
Chapter 73
After Laney spoke, Matt immediately relayed the information back to Jake, but Laney stayed where she was. When Matt got off the phone, he said, “They’re fifteen minutes away.”
“We need more information. We need to get closer.”
Henry shook his head. “No one’s been able to get close.”
Laney smiled. “Well, I’m not no one.”
Henry’s eyes nearly leapt out of his skull. “Laney, you can’t be serious. We need to keep you at the back of the pack. You have a very important job to fulfill.”
“I know. But they can’t sense me. They can sense you guys, and they can see humans coming from a mile away. I’m the only one who stands a chance.”
“Matt, tell her she’s crazy.”
Matt looked at her speculatively. “If we send another drone to feed us back images and maybe distract them, it would allow you a chance to get closer.”
Laney slapped him on the back. “See? Let’s do that.”
Henry glared at Matt. “I’d like to speak with Laney alone for a minute.”
Laney blew out a breath. Henry’s overprotectiveness was now apparently extending to her. “Matt, arrange for the drone.”
“Will do.” He hustled down the dune.
Laney turned to Henry, holding up her hand as he began to speak. “Henry, whatever you are going to say, save it. We need to know what they are doing. Keeping me in the dugout for the last play is not going to work if they’ve already run up the score.”
“I’m not sure that analogy works.”
“I’m not a sports fan. But you know what I mean. We need to see what’s happening. Matt will distract them and I will be very careful.”
Henry looked down at her. “I’m not ready to lose you.”
But you’re going to have to. The words were on the tip of her tongue but she couldn’t say them. She knew how much her death was going to hurt Henry because she knew how much his would hurt her. “I know. But we each have a role to play here.”
Laney glanced down at Matt, who gave her a nod. “The drone will be in position in five minutes,” he said.
“I’ve got this. Okay?”
Henry pulled her into a hug, his voice gruff. “Just be careful, okay?”
“I promise.” She held him close, taking comfort in his warmth. I love you, big brother. The words once again were on the edge of her tongue, but she couldn’t say them.
Because she knew he would interpret them as goodbye.
Laney stayed low on the dune. The drone had done its trick, distracting the group she’d snuck up on long enough for her to get past them. Her destination was just ahead: a military truck. Tingles ran over her skin, so she knew t
here were two Fallen inside.
She waited by the side of the road and tapped her wrist unit. Seconds later, the drone exploded. The soldier in the back of the truck leaned out to get a better look while the driver leaned out his window. Laney burst from her hiding place.
She grabbed the front of the uniform of the soldier in the back of the truck and slammed him into the ground face first. He didn’t even have time to yell. And then, with his jaw now at the back of his skull, he didn’t have the ability.
Laney blurred around the side of the truck. She yanked open the passenger door. Grabbing on to the edge of the doorframe, she leaped in, her feet flying toward the driver’s face.
He jolted back at the last second, so Laney only caught him in the chin and nose. She slammed her elbow into his nose, and before he could react, she slipped both hands around his head and with a vicious yank, broke his neck.
Heart pounding, Laney scanned the area. She sensed no additional movement, Fallen or otherwise. The keys were in the ignition. Letting herself out the passenger door, she walked around and pulled the driver out. Hoisting him over her shoulder, she carried him to the back of the truck. She rolled the other soldier onto his back. The man’s wounds were already healing. He’d come to in a few minutes.
She pulled her gun, aiming it at him but could not pull the trigger. She had killed before. And she knew this was war, but she just couldn’t do it. It felt too much like cold-blooded murder. She holstered her weapon, her gaze straying to the back of the truck. Crates were loaded in there, a few of them open.
She climbed into the back of the truck. Inspecting the open truck, she found padding inside with rectangles cut into them four inches deep and about nine inches long. A quick check of the other open crates showed the same setup.
Words were written on the side, but being they were in Chinese, that was of no help.
She tapped the mike at her throat. “Are you guys getting this?”
“We are,” Jake replied. “I don’t like the look of it.”
“Can someone translate this?”
“Hold on.”
Laney moved back to the end of the truck as Jake came back with a reply. “Those crates held explosives.”
Laney cursed softly. That had been her guess.
“The military thinks they may have created IEDs to slow us down.”
A reasonable guess, Laney thought as her gaze strayed ahead to where she could make out the peak of the Great Pyramid. A cold feeling rolled over her. “I need to check something out.”
“What?”
“I— Just give me a minute, okay?” Laney hopped out the back of the truck. One of the soldiers was almost fully healed. The other’s neck had realigned. Laney pulled out her Omni bullets and fired one into each of their legs, careful to make sure she didn’t hit anything critical.
Then she hustled to the front of the truck and hopped into the driver’s seat. “Laney, what are you doing?” Jake asked.
Laney put the truck in gear, struggling a little with the old shifter. “Taking a little drive.”
Laney headed down the road, grabbing a cap from the floor of the cab and placing it on her head. Not much of a disguise, but hopefully no one would get too close.
There was a bag on the floor of the passenger side. Laney grabbed it, rummaging through. Yes. She pulled out a pair of binoculars. A mile down the road, she still hadn’t seen anyone else, but she didn’t want to push her luck. She pulled over to the side of the road, hopped out, and headed for the nearest dune before turning back to the truck and propping up the hood. It might give her a few extra seconds before someone realized she didn’t belong there.
Laney hustled up the dune, army-crawling the last few feet to the top. Glancing around, she saw two soldiers on another dune about three hundred yards to her right. Being she got no read from them, she knew they were not enhanced. But they could still pose a problem. Careful to keep her movements slow and not draw attention, she pulled the binoculars up and scanned the area across from her. There were hundreds of troops creating a perimeter around the Giza Plateau.
She squinted, trying to make out what they were doing. There were dark spots on the Pyramid and more spots being added. What are you—
Her breath caught as she realized what she was looking at.
Please let me be wrong, please let me be wrong. She increased the magnification. But as the image became clearer, she knew she was not wrong.
Oh my God. With a shaky hand, she tapped the mike, her fear spiking. “They’re going to blow up the Pyramid.”
Chapter 74
It was smart. Crazy, but smart. If the Pyramid was what stood in the way of them having an undefeatable army, well, they’d simply take it off the playing field.
At the same time, it was hard to wrap her mind around it. The Great Pyramid had stood as the world’s greatest mystery for thousands of years, and now some people had decided that all that history, all that wonder the Pyramid evoked, didn’t count next to their plans.
It wasn’t the first time history had been trodden over during war. The most recent attacks came in one of the oldest regions of the world: Iraq and Syria. Spearheaded by ISIS, the latest attacks involved taking bulldozers and explosives to archaeological sites, some thousands of years old. In 2015, ISIL destroyed multiple sites in the ancient city of Palmyra, including a temple to the ancient god Baal and the 1,900-year-old Temple of Baalshamin. Other attacks included the destruction of, with pickaxes and sledgehammers, the Mosul Museum, home of the artifacts from the ancient city of Nineveh, which flourished from 900 BC–600 BC. And who could forget the destruction of the 1,700-year-old Buddhas in Afghanistan destroyed by the Taliban?
Of course, those weren’t in the course of a war. Those were intentionally destroyed for other reasons. But in the course of war, intentional acts of destruction had destroyed incredible sites. The Library of Alexandria was destroyed by troops of Julius Caesar in 48 BCE. But more modern wars had also destroyed incredible sites. During World War II, the 14th-century cathedral of St. Michael’s in England was razed. During Libya’s civil war, Cyrene, the Athens of Africa, which dated to 630 BC, was all but destroyed. In 2005, the upper part of the Great Mosque of Samarra, Iraq, dating to the ninth century, was devastated by air raids. During the Bosnian War, Croatians intentionally shelled the Stari Most, a bridge create by 16th-century Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent. And the list went on.
She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised by the planned destruction in front of her, and yet somehow she had hoped humanity had learned from its past. Of course, if it kept destroying its past, it never would.
She scanned the area, trying to figure out the best way in. Maybe I could—
“Do not even think about going in there on your own,” Jake ordered through her earpiece. “Get back here, and let’s figure out a plan.”
For a split second, Laney was tempted to ignore him. But then reality hit: They needed to make sure that the Pyramid was safe. And going in alone would only serve to probably get herself killed and the Pyramid would still be destroyed. “Fine. I’m on my way.”
Laney dropped the binoculars. She didn’t need them anymore. She started to crawl back when a yell sounded from her right. One of the soldiers on the other dune was pointing at her. The other one was talking into his radio. Time to go.
Giving up stealth, she ran down the dune as shots rang out. But she was already a blur, disappearing through the sands before they were anywhere near her.
Chapter 75
Iquitos, Peru
Luiz’s ranch was beautiful. With the mountains in the background, it was like a little slice of paradise. It seemed so far removed from the rest of the world. There were no neighbors in view. Luiz said his closest were miles and miles away. And yet Patrick could not just let himself enjoy the peace, because as ideal as the setting appeared, it was a mirage.
Tiger leaned into Patrick, placing his head on Patrick’s lap. Patrick wiped a tear from his cheek. “I
miss her too, boy.”
Jen had called them a short while ago with the news about Cleo. Patrick still could not wrap his mind around it. A blood clot? An embolism? Something so mundane? With everything surrounding them, it was a stark reminder that death could come in many forms.
Tiger had been muted since the news. He hadn’t left Patrick’s side either, except for right after he heard the news. He’d disappeared, and minutes later the cats all let out a cry that echoed through the valley. Everyone went still. The hair on Patrick’s arms had stood on end as their cries rose and then cut off. The cats’ pain was a visceral thing. Cleo had been one of them. She had led them. She had taken on the role of elder in their group and shown them the ropes. She had let them know that these humans they found themselves with now could be trusted.
It could have easily gone the other way. With the torture they experienced at the hands of Ruggio in his lab, they could have rejected any attempts to link up with humans. They could have rightly seen humans as a threat and responded accordingly. But Cleo, she helped them understand. How different their world would be if she had not been there.
The sun was getting low in the sky. Patrick knew he should get back. He needed to see that Nyssa’s dinner was taken care of. Cain had locked himself in his room with the Tome. He didn’t want to miss anything that might help Laney and her team.
His heart felt heavy at the thought of her. Losing Drake, then Cleo—he wanted to talk to her. He wanted to see how she was doing. But she would only lie to him. Not out of spite or anything like that, but ever since he’d lost the use of his legs, she’d been careful about what she said to him. He knew she was worried about him. That she didn’t want to add to his stress. But worrying about her—he was always going to do that. Even if they had never started down this belial path, he would have worried about her. That’s what you did when you loved someone.
