Davidson popped off a few quick shots to chase any brave soldiers who thought they could get the jump on Lopez and Prenner. The Chinese scrambled back.
There was no magic bullet. No easy way to get the men to safety.
No, they had to do this the old-fashioned way, the gut-it-out technique.
“Go!” Davidson yelled.
As he fired to keep the enemy back, Lopez and Prenner backed away as quickly as they could.
“Down!” Davidson shouted, unable to explain his plan. He just had to hope the men knew what he was doing.
They did. Both men dropped to the bellies, providing their own cover fire until Davidson finished reloading.
“Go!” he yelled again.
Lopez and Prenner popped up, retreating as Davidson resumed firing.
The plan was working, but there were only gaining a few feet each cycle. It would take a good long time to get them all the way back.
* * *
“So you are saying that it has to be me,” Brandt reflected back to Rebecca. He could no longer delay the inevitable.
“I’m afraid so.”
“And what if I don’t have enough faith myself?”
“Then we are all doomed.” Then she punched him in the shoulder. “But hey, no pressure.”
That was his wife. She held out the red-buttoned detonator.
He hesitated in taking it. How in the hell did he end up in such an unenviable position?
Rebecca urged the detonator toward him.
With unsteady hands, he took possession of the red button.
But he was not ready to push it yet. First he had to pray. But he was a little worried since the best he could usually conjure was “We give thanks for daily bread.” Even with God he wasn’t all that talkative about his feelings.
He closed eyes and remembered what it used to feel like when he was a child kneeling by his bed, his palms pressed together in prayer. Back then it had been so easy to just talk to God. To tell him what you wished for. And thank him for all that you had.
Brandt prayed internally, not trusting his voice in this moment of crisis.
“God, I know the world doesn’t seem like you had imagined it. I am more of a New Testament kind of guy and believe in your kindness and mercy.” Brandt had to pause as tears threatened. “I don’t believe that you want to kill my children or even the children of unbelievers. I hope Rebecca’s right and that you’re giving us a choice. Because my choice is to give us time. Give us a time to realize your love, God. And your mercy. Amen.”
He opened his eyes to find Sallah pointing a gun at him.
“I can’t let you do it.”
“I can’t let you stop me.”
The Freemen pivoted aiming at Rebecca. “Then I will kill her.”
Brandt smiled. “As much as she likes to say she’s agnostic, Rebecca has more faith in people doing the right thing than I do.”
Sallah re-aimed at Brandt. “Won’t she be disappointed?”
Thankfully, Brandt still had his jet pack on. He hit the button as the shot was fired, sailing up as the bullet sliced through where he had been only a moment before.
Redirecting, before Sallah recovered, Brandt flew down, slamming into the man, knocking the gun from his hand. It bounced twice then landed in the ever-expanding pool water, rapidly sinking beneath the surface.
He walked over, kissed his wife on the forehead. “You’d better be right about this.”
“But hey, no pressure, Right?”
Brandt chuckled then sobered, guiding Rebecca behind a tumble of thick rock.
Gulping, Brandt hit the red button. He peeked out through a crack and watched the Ark get blown into a million pieces. The fiery shards fell back onto the pool, their burning embers reflecting in the water.
Stage one… complete.
How would they know if it worked or not?
It might take a while, but Brandt had more urgent matters to attend to. Over the line he could hear his men getting knocked around by the Chinese. That had to stop.
“I’ve got to get out there,” Brandt told Rebecca.
“Of course, of course,” Rebecca urged, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before he hit the jet pack button.
Rising through the chamber, it took them a few moments to realize that the rain had stopped, and even a few clouds had parted, letting the sunlight peek through.
So there were miracles after all.
CHAPTER 21
Davidson felt like they were holding back Attila’s armies. It was just the three of them against so many.
And the Chinese weren’t stupid. They were fanning out over the foothills as Davidson had to concentrate on the core mass, to protect Lopez and Prenner. He couldn’t be focused on the central frontline, and also keep the Chinese from out-flanking them.
This was a problem of attrition that they more than likely couldn’t win. The guys were only halfway back, and Davidson was running low on ammunition.
There was nothing to do but grind on.
It took a moment for Davidson to realize that he was catching glare on his scope. Glare. He hadn’t seen that in a few days. It meant the sun was creeping out from behind the clouds. Which in a larger sense meant that Rebecca and Brandt had completed their mission.
So all of their efforts hadn’t gone for naught.
Now if only Brandt could pull another miracle out of his hat.
Then a streak flew across the sky. It was Brandt firing like a maniac into the Chinese.
Now Lopez and Prenner didn’t have to wait for Davidson’s reloads, they could retreat more swiftly.
He could feel how the tide had turned. The Chinese had backed a few crucial steps, and the lateral edges of the army had contracted back in.
Brandt didn’t exactly have them on the run but, by God, had taken the wind out of the Chinese’s sails.
Davidson switched strategy. No longer being the sole cover for their men, Davidson began looking for officers, the more of those he knocked off, the less organized the army as a whole would be.
Still though there were a lot of Chinese left, and after they’d gotten over the surprise of a new aloft combatant, they’d changed their tactics as well.
As the sun came out in full, this was going to be a long afternoon.
* * *
Rebecca hated feeling helpless. She hated when the history part of the mission was over, and the bullets flew. She could hear on the line that the battle above wasn’t going so great.
Fishing in the pool of water, she found the gun that Sallah had used.
There were also her and Sallah’s jet packs. If they’d had more time to think, Brandt would have taken them with him.
If she took the extra one out there, at the least it would get another of the men off the ground. Her hands trembled as she strapped on the jet pack. It wasn’t so much the flying anymore. That had become pretty fun. It was the notion that a large chunk of the Chinese army was out there.
She wasn’t all that fond of guns in the first place, let alone when they were aimed at her.
But they needed her, so she had to suck it up.
Grabbing the other jet pack, she engaged her own and rose over the rock. Sunlight bathed her face as she passed ground level. She looked over to find Davidson tucked under a large slab of rock.
The sniper’s pupils dilated at the sight of her. “What?”
Davidson chuckled, waving her on. “Nothing. Go for it.”
She swept out over the mountainside to the site of conflict. That Chinese army looked even bigger than it had in her imagination. And just the four of the men holding the Chinese back. Even with jet packs that was pretty impressive.
“Brandt,” she cried out.
Her husband, still firing at the Chinese, turned his head. “You can’t be here.”
Rebecca held out the extra jet pack. “Already am.”
* * *
Brandt was both proud of how brave his wife was, and pissed off that she was so brave
. He took the jet pack from her.
“Now, get back into the cavern.” At this moment, he was her commanding officer and not her husband. He would never talk like that at home.
And Rebecca would never just do as ordered.
She was almost out of the danger zone when a bullet hit her jet pack, sending her spiraling in the opposite direction.
The direction of the Chinese.
He hit the accelerator and streaked out after her, but she was too far ahead. He was never going to catch her before she crashed into the Chinese army.
Brandt needn’t have worried. Prenner hurled Lopez into the sky. The corporal caught her mid-air and then crashed back down into Prenner. It wasn’t pretty but it saved his wife.
Unfortunately, the Chinese took advantage of the distraction, and encircled them. There was no way out of this noose as the Chinese stepped forward, rifles on their shoulders and aimed.
As good as Davidson was, he couldn’t get them out of this mess. And honestly, given the odds, this is how the situation was always going to turn out.
Looking past the bristling soldiers, Brandt found the Chinese commander’s eyes.
Slowly, the man smiled.
That was all Brandt needed to know. This wasn’t going to be a hostage situation. They were not going to bring the team back to China. They were going to kill them here, now. Destroy the cavern and act as if none of this happened.
A nice tidy bow on a very messy mission.
Brandt felt a wave of sorrow. Not for him or Rebecca, but for his children.
Mainly Kasa. She was going to have a really hard time living with Brandt’s mother. To her, to be a Brandt girl was to be a beauty queen. His daughter was going to have a really hard time with that.
I’m so sorry, Kasa.
And poor Lopez’s unborn daughter. She would never know the amazing man that was her father.
Brandt could tell that the Chinese commander was getting ready to give the fatal order. His chest expanded with the intake of breath, before sending them to their death.
Then the man cocked his head, pushed his ear piece deeper into his canal and frowned.
The Commander barked an order in Chinese.
Brandt was pretty sure that the word meant “retreat.” But he couldn’t mean retreat. Why in the world would the Chinese retreat?
They had won, like a “spoils go to the victor” kind of win.
But the entire army snapped their guns up, turning on their heel, beating a very hasty retreat. They ran, not walked off the battlefield. Soon disappearing over a ridge.
“What just happened?” his wife asked.
“I honestly don’t know.” Brandt replied.
Then his phone buzzed in his pocket. With trepidation he pulled it out and read the text.
“You’re welcome, mate,” was all that it said. It was all that it needed to say.
He burst out in laughter. The kind you only did after you’d just got beaten to death.
“Vanderwalt?” Rebecca asked.
“Apparently,” Brandt replied still chuckling.
“So I take it that he is forgiven?”
“Hell, yes!” Brandt shouted, grabbing his wife, swinging her in the air as the sun dried the mountainside.
It was a great day to be alive.
EPILOGUE
Vanderwalt was dragged out of the NATO facility in handcuffs. Over all, the stay in the brink overnight hadn’t been too bad. They had served chicken gyros for dinner and baklava for dessert. And in the end it had all been worth it.
Brandt and team were headed home, safe and sound. Somehow they had reversed the flooding, saving not only London but the world.
Maybe a day not too long in the future he would get to sit down to a pint with Brandt and hear all of the details for himself.
They walked out into the bright sunlight. A dark SUV with diplomatic plates screeched to a halt at the curb. Two obviously British men, pale and with bad teeth, got out of the car and walked up to Vanderwalt and the two security men.
One of them leaned into his ear. “We are still getting the My Little Pony birthday party, right?”
“Absolutely,” Vanderwalt replied. “A deal is a deal.”
The guard took off his handcuffs and urged Vanderwalt toward the British men.
They got out their own handcuffs, and slapped them on Vanderwalt’s wrists.
So this was how it was going to be. Apparently the crusty old Foremen in Parliament held grudges.
Oh well, it was totally worth it just to see the jet packs in action.
* * *
Bunny felt like she was floating in a sea of glass. She was weightless, yet the glass cut her. It was not an entirely unpleasant sensation.
Feeling exceptionally tired, she was also restless.
Sounds that she had tuned out filtered into her world. The steady beep of her heart monitor and the gentle whoosh of the air conditioner. The one sound that she no longer heard was the constant pitter-patter of rain against the window.
As a matter fact, she could feel sunlight on her eyelids. Definitely a different world than she had gone to sleep in.
Funny. She felt heavier on her right side than her left. Like an elephant was sitting on that side and feeling pretty darn comfortable about it.
Someone squeezed her left hand.
She gulped to find the trach-tube had been removed.
“Stark,” she croaked.
“No, babe, it’s me. Samuel.”
She opened her eyes to find it was true. She smiled, or at least she thought she did.
It felt like she’d had a tooth pulled on a right side, and the Novocain hadn’t worn off yet. And why couldn’t she see clearly through her right eye?
She gripped Davidson’s hand tightly. “What’s wrong?”
He smiled back at her, “Nothing that can’t be fixed. You’re getting stronger every day. The doctors are very optimistic for a full recovery.”
“But what is wrong now? With my eye, my face, my hand.” She tried to wiggle her toes on the right side and couldn’t. “And my feet.”
Was she slurring her words?
Davidson squeezed her left hand so tightly that it almost hurt. “You had a stroke, Bunny.”
She tried to physically repel that word. Like she had never heard it in the first place. Strokes happened to other people. Old people. Not her.
Davidson brushed back the hair from around her ears. “It’s going to be okay. They say you’re young and they treated you right away… You have the best chance of recovery.”
Bunny knew that her boyfriend was just trying to be supportive, but his words fell on deaf ears. She had seen stroke patients before, especially those that had such bad deficits on one side. She knew what they looked like. She wasn’t proud of the fact, but it kind of grossed her out. When Bunny’s aunt had a stroke when she was in high school, Bunny couldn’t stand to go visit her. And that time there certainly hadn’t been a full recovery.
“Go,” Bunny said, shoving Davidson away with her good arm.
“Nope,” the sniper said, taking her hand again. “I’m here for the long haul.”
“How can you even look at me?” Bunny said, turning her head away as best she could.
“Hey,” Davidson said, forcing her chin toward him. “How can you look at all my scars? How can you look at me after all that I did?”
“That’s different,” Bunny pleaded.
“No. No, it’s not,” Davidson replied, kissing her on her good cheek so she could feel it. “I’m not going anywhere…unless there is a mission…you know.”
Bunny actually chuckled. “Yes, yes. I do know, but if ever you feel--”
“Trust me, I’ve found many ways to sabotage our relationship in the past. I’m done running.”
* * *
Rebecca had never been gladder to be on American soil than right at this moment. They’d stopped off at Brandt’s office on base. As you could imagine after finding Noah’s Ark, then destroyin
g it, there was a lot of paperwork to go through.
She was looking forward to the hotel, a nice long bath, then sleep, then food, then flying home to her babies. She knew that Kasa would want a blow-by-blow account, so Rebecca was already trying to come up with a sanitized version of the mission for her daughter.
Rebecca also had to remember that at some point Kasa’s “Uncle Ricky” was going to give his version, so Rebecca couldn’t bend the facts too much. The goat carriage and jet packs were certainly going to come up in Lopez’s version.
She sat across from Brandt as he combed over files.
“Hon, I don’t mean to be rude, but can I just head to the hotel?”
Her husband looked up with heavy eyelids. “I’m so sorry, honey, of course. Do you want me to call you a car?”
She nodded. Just as long as Lopez wasn’t driving, she’d be fine. The other men had left long ago. Davidson to go visit Bunny. Lopez to check on his baby mamma. Prenner to head home to Teddy.
Her husband and she rose. Brandt hugged her, kissing all along the top of her head. “You are the most amazing wife a man could ever have.”
“And don’t think just because you saved the world, again, that I’m not going to complain when you leave your towel on the bathroom floor.”
Brandt smiled. “I wouldn’t think of it.”
“I don’t know what other couples are thinking,” Rebecca said.
He cocked his head to the side. “How so?”
“I don’t think there is anything like spending some time in the field to reinvigorate a marriage.”
“I so agree,” he said leaning down to kiss her lips.
* * *
Davidson watched as tears rolled down Bunny’s cheek. Yes, her face was asymmetrical, but that made her all the more beautiful to him. It was awkward to admit, but her stunning beauty had always intimidated him. Even with her scars she was radiant.
Her drooped eyelid and lip made him love her all the more. It was her inner beauty that had always attracted him, and now maybe she could learn how to be loved for herself, rather than using her sexuality to attract men.
He had all the faith in the world she would recover. Bunny was certainly not going to put up with this crap for long.
“What is up with Tika?” Bunny asked, humor sparkling in her good eye.
The 3rd Cycle of the Betrayed Series Collection: Extremely Controversial Historical Thrillers (Betrayed Series Boxed set) Page 22
