The 3rd Cycle of the Betrayed Series Collection: Extremely Controversial Historical Thrillers (Betrayed Series Boxed set)

by Carolyn McCray

  Brandt turned to Rebecca. Before he even opened his mouth, she held up a hand. “Please, if I just survived that landing, I am going in.”

  “Hey!” Lopez protested playfully as he joined the team.

  “No offense, Lopez,” Rebecca said with a smile. “And we still have to cross the bridge as to who sabotaged our engines.”

  Davidson watched as Brandt slowly turned to the commander.

  “Well?”

  “It could have been accomplished on the ground,” the commander answered.

  “Or it is one of your men,” Brandt pressed.

  You could feel the tension in the air. Davidson knew that Brandt hadn’t been too keen on having the commander or his men join this leg of the mission. And the way those engines went out right after the other, it did seem like someone on board had triggered the outage.

  “Or one of yours,” the commander retorted, his back stiffening. That thin mustache making his features seem sinister.

  Surprisingly, Brandt didn’t respond to the commander’s accusation. “You stay with the plane…or what’s left of it.”

  “That was not the deal,” the commander replied, his accent coming out more and more, the angrier he got.

  Brandt shrugged. “Having to land with no wings wasn’t in the cards either, but look at what happened.”

  Davidson watched the emotions play out on the commander’s face. Was he really going to throw down with Brandt? Davidson kept his hand on the butt of his sidearm. No one had drawn yet, but that didn’t mean they weren’t going to soon.

  Rebecca stepped between the two men. “Seriously, let’s just get this over with.”

  Brandt raised an eyebrow to the commander.

  “We will wait here,” he acquiesced.

  “Thank you,” Brandt said. “We’ll call if we need you.”

  The commander bowed his head, even though Davidson didn’t think the man was used to giving in to anyone.

  Rebecca was at the hatch before anyone else. The door opened and the emergency slide popped out.

  * * *

  Lopez whooped, as he slid down next to Brandt. The man was having way too much fun today. Brandt glanced behind him, Ki didn’t seem to be having nearly as good a time as Lopez.

  Brandt worried that Ki wasn’t cut out for this team. He was an amazing point man and a phenomenal soldier, but it took a special kind of crazy to assimilate into team Alpha Tango.

  He just wasn’t certain if Ki was that mad.

  It was a short hike across the snowy field. They lined up in order. Ki, Davidson, Lopez, Rebecca and Brandt.

  “When are we going to get our fifth?” Lopez asked.

  “They are on another assignment, but I’ve been assured they will be joining us on this mission when possible,” Brandt answered. There was more to it, but the rest didn’t need to know that now.

  “What?” Rebecca said with feigned injury. “I’m not good enough for you?”

  Lopez chuckled. “Oh, Chica, you know you rock my world.”

  Rebecca smiled and shoved Lopez forward.

  A brief moment of normalcy after the terror of the landing and the anxiety of the breach. He allowed the others to chatter away as they made it across the snowy field. There was no reason to be quiet. Their landing had more than announced their arrival.

  Brandt looked over his shoulder. The commander was keeping to his word and staying on the plane…for now.

  They would just have to deal with it when the commander took matters into his own hands and followed. There was no doubt in Brandt’s mind the commander would wait until Brandt was out of sight, then come after them. It was just in the man’s DNA. In some ways Brandt didn’t blame the man. Brandt would hardly stay planted in a giant metal tube either.

  Turning back to the side of the peak, the “door” came into view. It was much larger than Brandt expected, perhaps twelve feet tall and ten feet wide. It was inscribed with a number of odd symbols. Some that were on Lopez’s pendant, some that Brandt had never seen before.

  They were etched in silver and gold.

  The door looked like something out of The Lord of the Rings.

  Ki pushed on it, then put his back into. The rock didn’t budge. There didn’t seem to be any hinges and no lock.

  Brandt turned to his wife. “Well?”

  Rebecca stepped forward.

  “This is why we bring her along,” Brandt said with pride to Ki.

  * * *

  Great. No pressure.

  Rebecca gave her husband a sideways glare then went back to the symbols. They were ancient Peruvian. No great surprise there. She wasn’t quite as versed in the language as she was in, say, Latin or Greek.

  She could however discern a pattern. The symbols were clearly the Good Shepherd constellation. A common allegory for Christ. Only it was upside down. She could only take that to mean the code had to be entered in backward.

  Or so she hoped.

  Lord knew she’d opened enough secret doors in her time.

  “Whenever you’re ready,” Brandt urged.

  She glanced over to him. “Aren’t you the one always telling me not to touch things?”

  Her husband smiled at the shared memory. A few years ago it seemed that everything she touched was a trap. It was basically she and Brandt’s courtship. They had been thrown down enough rabbit holes together, their limbs entangled. How could they not have gotten together?

  To think to that time in her life. Her life before her wedding. Quite the event in and of itself. Or both of them. Whichever. Then her children. Would someday she look back and not be able to imagine life without the child or children in her womb? Would all this worry and concern seem like naught one day?

  That seemed super unlikely.

  Her husband’s chuckle brought her back to the problem at hand. “I think you’re good on this one.”

  Rebecca nodded and focused back on the door. She reached out and hit each symbol in the order of the stars of the Shepard’s constellation, hopefully keying in the opening code.

  Once she was done, a loud boom, then the ear-shattering sound of stone on stone.

  She felt the problem before she could consciously realize the problem. The sound wasn’t coming from in front of them.

  It was coming from beneath them. Beneath her.

  * * *

  Davidson tried to fling himself out of the danger zone, but he didn’t have the time. The ground beneath their feet shook, and a large trap door opened suddenly.

  The entire group plunged down a pitch-black stone tunnel.

  Lopez, of course shouted his glee as they plunged into the depths of the mountain.

  Whooshing side-to-side, Davidson picked up speed. He didn’t really have anything on him to slow him down. He just hoped there was something soft at the end of this shaft.

  Ki’s grunt indicated the landing wasn’t quite as soft as Davidson had hoped. Then they were all piled on top of the point man. At the least his bulk softened their landing. As they untangled themselves, Ki clicked on his light.

  “Is this how it always goes?”

  Davidson was pretty sure that Ki was hoping for a negative on that question, but he couldn’t lie.

  However, Lopez was the one to answer. “Yep. Isn’t it great?”

  To Davidson, it didn’t look like Ki necessarily agreed with that notion. Time would only tell. Once everyone was up, Ki swept his light around the circular room. It was bare rock except for a single low doorway.

  He looked to Brandt, who nodded.

  Not a lot of other options.

  * * *

  Bunny exited the restaurant and was rudely reminded they were in Washington DC. The traffic, the clog of people. The not-so-aromatic smells around her.

  At first, she had trepidations about moving the team’s headquarters down to South Carolina to be closer to Brandt and Rebecca’s new home. Now? Bunny was beginning to appreciate how it might be nice to get out of the Capital. Especially if Davidson and her did ge
t married. Would they have children like Brandt and Rebecca? Was that in the cards for them?

  Well, it wouldn’t be if she didn’t extract herself from Rojas.

  A car cut too close to the curb, splashing dirty water onto her shoes. At the least she hoped it was just dirty water.

  Ugh. DC.

  At the least she would always have that best Monte Cristo sandwich. Nothing could take that away from her.

  “Shall I get us a cab?” Rojas asked.

  Bunny overcame her internal struggle. There was a part of her that wanted so badly to continue to be in this Latin Adonis’ presence. But there was Davidson. She was wearing his ring. She really needed to get over this wandering-eye thing.

  What was wrong with her?

  Then it hit her. Was she dysfunctionally attracted to arrogance? It seemed to be a thread that was pretty common amongst the men she had dated. Except for Teddy. Teddy was modest and kind.

  So what was the common thread?

  Secrets.

  Bunny took in a deep breath as the realization hit her. Deep, dark, or at least what they considered dark secrets. It was the theme that ran through Lochum, the Russian priest, Teddy and half a dozen others. Dear God. Even Davidson.

  “Bunny?” Rojas asked, touching her elbow to steady her.

  Bunny couldn’t get enough of men with dangerous secrets. She looked over to Rojas.

  What was his secret?

  * * *

  “They just entered the mountain, so I’ve lost contact with them,” his mother reported.

  Stark was wrapping up at the convention center. He’d corrected all of the problem codes, and the center was functioning perfectly once more.

  Cama had to go back to the fashion show, because for some reason they wanted her to model, rather than sit around watching Stark work.

  It was rather relieving to be able to breathe without jasmine-infused tea scent tantalizing his nose. Who knew how traumatic it could be to have a beautiful woman watch him work. Not even Bunny was that distracting.

  For the moment, Stark was still trying to figure out Cama’s angle.

  Beautiful women, with the exception of Bunny, which made her all the more special, always wanted something from Stark. In the past, to do their homework. In the present, to help them hack into something illegally.

  Never just to be with him. Even Tika had been taken by his skill and toys and not by Stark himself. Just look at how quickly she jumped ship to the next guy who had bright shiny objects to play with. Stark had never liked Apple products before, now he kind of hated them.

  With a few more keystrokes, Stark finished up his task. Making sure that he had end-to-end encryption. He’d also shut the front door to the network. Let some putz try to screw with his coding again. Ever.

  He exited the IT room and made for the back of the convention center. He really wanted to avoid the catwalk and its star, Cama.

  Although he barely made it a few feet down the hallway when he heard his name shouted. “Stark!”

  He turned to find Cama trotting to catch up with him. She was out of the white lingerie and in something infinitely sexier.

  A Batgirl distressed t-shirt and… were those Hans Solo leggings?

  Seriously, could this chick get any more perfect?

  “I’ve got to get back to the attic,” Stark said, again trying to emphasize the pathetic nature of his life.

  “It’s okay,” Cama said with a casual smile. “I’ll come along.”

  “Um,” Stark stammered. “Really, I think I’m cool.”

  Cama came up alongside of him, leaning in for a whisper. “You’re being followed.” She then backed away like nothing had happened. “I can hardly wait to see your attic.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Brandt didn’t like the situation, but when did he ever. But this one? He’d learned long ago how horribly a mission could go once you were underground. You had so little room to maneuver and one of their greatest weapons, Davidson’s long distance accuracy, was neutralized.

  They had been walking for a while. The tunnel seemed to meander. First it went down, then it went right, then there was a sharp left turn that led upward. It seemed to make no sense.

  There were symbols along the way, but at each one Rebecca shook her head. She took pictures and as soon as they were out of the mountain, his wife would send them to Bunny for analysis.

  They were due for an update from Bunny as well. To learn what she’d gathered from the Peruvian professor who claimed to know more about the Brotherhood of the Seven Suns.

  The theory that Christ had come over to the Americas was nothing new.

  The Mormons were some of the most outspoken proponents of this theory.

  Despite being a devout Catholic, Brandt didn’t really feel strongly either way. He really didn’t understand the strong reactions by others regarding the possibility. How in the world did it affect Christ’s divinity or his previous teachings in the Middle East?

  But boy, were some people strongly against the notion. Just take his Mother. She would blow a serious Southern-woman gasket if anyone dared mentioned the possibility.

  This wasn’t a theological debate at this point. It was a rescue operation. Brandt had to wonder if the Brotherhood had known Svengurd’s niece was in that embassy. Had they goosed the operation to make sure that Brandt showed up? And why did they want his team specifically, beyond Lopez’s necklace?

  He glanced over to his wife. This wouldn’t necessarily be the first time a cult wanted Rebecca. Had they lured her here? Had he just offered his wife up on a platinum platter?

  It was too late to worry about such things. Besides what was he supposed to do? Leave her with the commander? Look how that had turned out, and that was before there was a saboteur in the mix.

  Brandt stopped as Ki’s fist went up, halting the team.

  The point man turned off his light and indicated further down the tunnel. A door. With light leaking under. Shadows passed back and forth. More than one person was inside that room.

  Ki waited for Brandt.

  Decisions, decisions.

  * * *

  Bunny looked to Rojas with new eyes. She was attracted to his dark, brooding eyes and that little ringlet of curl that bounced on his forehead. Or those nice big, strong hands. Okay, maybe she was attracted to some of that.

  But the takeaway was this. That she was drawn to his secrets. Apparently he had some pretty big ones gauged by how hot he seemed to her.

  “Where would we be going?” she said trying to act as nonchalant as possible.

  “There is a shaman across town who might be able to explain the Christ-alien connection. It doesn’t sound quite so crazy coming out of his mouth.”

  “Great,” Bunny said, sounding a bit too high-pitched to her ear. She lowered her tone. “Sounds good.”

  Rojas smiled broadly, tilting his head the way he did, trying to make them feel closer. More intimate on the noisy, crowded street.

  Bunny wanted to say “Sorry, buddy, not working anymore,” but for now, until she learned his secrets, she needed to play along.

  A taxi pulled to the curb nearly immediately. Rojas had that effect. His charisma was nearly magnetic in nature.

  The cross-town traffic was horrible, but when wasn’t it? They passed the Capital building and a thousand other governmental offices broken up by small parks and business districts. They passed what seemed like a thousand bars and ethnic restaurants. At times they moved at a crawl despite the cabbie’s incessant honking.

  Finally they pulled out of traffic and headed into a primarily residential area. An upscale one. They were in the northwest quadrant of the capital. The Adam Morgan neighborhood, if Bunny wasn’t mistaken.

  There were large colonial homes with enormous front lawns down the tree-lined streets.

  Funny, this wasn’t at all where she expected a Peruvian shaman to live.

  This neighborhood was mainly politicians, lawyers and the occasional doctor.

&nbs
p; But a witch doctor?

  * * *

  Davidson waited as Brandt made up his mind. The final order was actually already set in stone. They hadn’t come this far to turn back. Davidson knew Brandt too well.

  Sure enough, Brandt gave the nod. Every gun on the team snapped up. Ki set up in front of the door, as Lopez angled to the side in order to open it for the point man.

  Ki counted down on his fingers. Three. Two. One.

  Lopez jerked the door open and Ki burst in. Apparently there weren’t any gunmen inside, as Ki didn’t fire his weapon. Davidson just had to wait until he burst in to know what was inside the room.

  The hostages. All by themselves.

  However the look on their faces didn’t make it seem like the room was necessarily safe. A young woman with platinum blonde hair and the fairest complexion he’d ever seen opened her jacket. She was wearing a C-4 vest.

  If everyone was wearing the same amount, that was enough to bring this mountain down. She must have been Svengurd’s niece. She had that same strong presence. It must run in the family.

  “They said…” the woman had to stop and regroup. “They said if you try to take us out of here, they will blow the vests.”

  Typical terrorists.

  Brandt’s only reaction to the situation was to frown. “What do they want?”

  “I don’t know,” the girl said, tears brimming at her eyelids.

  “Bridget, isn’t it?” Brandt asked. After the young woman nodded, he continued. “This has nothing to do with you. We’ll get you out of here.”

  Bridget vigorously nodded, then stopped herself, glancing down at her vest.

  Davidson watched as Brandt continued the questions. “Did they give you any instructions?”

  Bridget shook her head. “Just… don’t die.”

  * * *

  Brandt grunted, rubbing his temple. Was he getting older or were the missions getting weirder?

  Time to work on solutions. “Ki and Davidson get those detonators out of the vests. Lopez check the back door. I’ll take the front door.”

  There were a chorus of “Yes, sir.”

  He turned to his wife. “Can you make some sense of these symbols?”

  “Yes, sir,” she answered with a smile. Nice to see someone was enjoying themselves. The hostages certainly weren’t. The ten or so other hostages simply stood there, ramrod straight, their eyes dilated. Better than having them panic, Brandt supposed.