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

by Carolyn McCray

Ah, there it was. Rebecca had been wondering when the Nordic girl’s path had intersected with the Brotherhood. She must have moved in her mid-teens, a very influential time in a girl’s life. If the Brotherhood had given her a sense of purpose and belonging, no wonder she had quickened to them. A teenage girl rudderless, reeling from such a tragic loss,

  The room shook again. Now large chunks of the ceiling were falling. Rebecca had to dodge one. Brandt took the opportunity to leap forward, grabbing the muzzle of the rifle, jerking it up. It was no longer pointing at them, but Bridget still had the butt.

  “Bridget, I’m sorry, and this is going to sound super blunt, but in another few seconds we are going to have a few hundred tons of rock on our heads…” He took in a deep breath. Rebecca could tell this was going to be bad. If Brandt was bracing himself, it had to be.

  * * *

  “Bridget, you do realize that you are playing out the part of Davidson here? The traitor. Not the hero, but the brainwashed cultist. If anyone gets hurt here, it is on you.”

  Bridget’s cheeks blazed a frightening red, but Brandt had to take the chance. The more riled she was, the easier it would be to disarm her. Angry people made really bad decisions. He probably wouldn’t have been so bold, if it hadn’t been for the fact he had the muzzle in his hand.

  “You, you, you…” Bridget sputtered, apparently so angry that she couldn’t put together a complete sentence.

  Cristoval stepped up. “Bridget remember what --”

  The cultist didn’t finish that sentence as Lopez elbowed the guy in the face, knocking him to the ground.

  “Bridget,” Brandt said, drawing her attention back to him. “Imagine if your uncle was standing here. What side would he be on? What would he tell you to do right now?”

  The tears that had been brewing in her eyes, burst forth. Sobs racked the poor girl’s body. “To give you the gun.”

  “That’s right, Bridget, just give me the gun and we’ll figure this out.”

  The girl’s arms shook so badly it was easy to pull the gun from her grasp.

  “Evac, now!” Brandt shouted, catching the girl before she fell to the floor.

  Ki picked up Cristoval, tossing the man over his shoulder as if he was nothing more than a sack of potatoes. More gently, Brandt lifted Bridget into his arms like he might Kasa. He had failed Svengurd’s niece once by not checking in on her, he would not do the same now.

  The team ran through the opening, Brandt hoped it was in time, as boulders fell from the ceiling.

  * * *

  Davidson watched, as the Tabernacle dome buckled and distorted like it was the surface of a lake. Many of the supporting walls had already fallen. Davidson really didn’t know how much longer it could hold.

  He scanned the area. The cops hadn’t moved much. If anything they were backing away from the unstable building. It had been early enough in the day that there weren’t any tourists in the area and the staff had been light, and as far as Davidson could tell, all were accounted for.

  “You aren’t picking anything up from the satellites?” Davidson asked even though he knew the answer.

  “Besides the fact you should pick up and leave?” Bunny challenged. They’d already had this fight. The temple wasn’t exactly on steady ground either, although nothing compared to the Tabernacle. Stark and Bunny feared what would happen if the musical arena went down. Whether the Temple might buckle as well.

  Davidson had to take that chance. He couldn’t leave. Not when his team was still in danger. If they did somehow make it out from under the Tabernacle and come out into the square, they were going to need all the cover fire that Davidson could provide.

  He counted down how long the team had been out of communication. He could only imagine they had traveled far more slowly on the way down. They probably found something that kept them busy. He’d seen enough cult treasure troves to know about how long those conversations went.

  If he had any time sense at all, the team should be emerging in the next sixty seconds. If they didn’t, well, they never would.

  * * *

  Rebecca just ran. She was in the middle of the group. She really couldn’t see ahead of her. She just knew that Ki, despite carrying a full grown man on his shoulder, was racing up the passageway. The rock split and the ceiling rained down dust, but so far no one was injured.

  Not counting Cristoval, and he totally deserved that elbow.

  She’d tried to warn him not to mess with the team.

  Finally, she hit some stairs. They must be near the surface. Ki fired, Rebecca wasn’t sure why, then realized he’d shot out the hinges to a door. They were not coming up the same way they went down.

  Following his lead, Rebecca burst into the front of the Tabernacle. Into the instrument pit. A huge piece of golden bracing fell right in front of her.

  “Hurry!” Brandt shouted.

  The entire back of the Tabernacle, what once had looked like heaven, was falling, straight for them. A chandelier fell, smashing to the floor. The walls were buckling, looking as if they were mere plywood now, warped and weak.

  Ki charged up the central aisle, as pews bounced against the floor to the beat of the ground below shaking violently.

  Rebecca was glad she was not a betting woman, because she would have taken odds against them getting out in time.

  But Ki was fast for such a large man, setting a grueling pace, and adrenaline was doing its job, dilating those blood vessels in her legs, getting more oxygen to her muscle fibers, making her run faster.

  She glanced over her shoulder to find her husband cradling Bridget even as he hauled ass. Rebecca could tell by his expression that he felt like he had something to make right.

  Because besides the kids and the baby on the way, they really needed a young adult’s mental health to be concerned about. But it was Svengurd’s niece. Brandt would do anything to make sure the girl had a chance at a happy life.

  They owed, they all owed Svengurd that much.

  “Watch out!” Lopez yelled, and when Lopez yelled a caution, you knew it was bad.

  Rebecca looked up to find a large chunk of the roof breaking off. She dove forward just before the sharp-edged portion broke off and plummeted, digging at least a foot into the floor.

  Right where Rebecca had been standing.

  All of her problems would be moot, if she didn’t get her butt out of this Tabernacle.

  CHAPTER 22

  Davidson snapped around, as he heard shouts from the northeast corner. Cops were pointing toward the Tabernacle.

  It couldn’t be.

  Davidson checked his scope to be sure. It was his team. Cristoval was out cold with blood running out his nose while draped over Ki’s shoulder. That injury probably wasn’t from the cave-in. And something had happened to Bridget. She seemed injured, and Brandt was carrying her.

  “Stark?” Lopez yelled into Davidson’s ear. “Do you have them?”

  “On their way,” Stark replied.

  Davidson had no idea what they were talking about. Stark and his mother had gone off-line for a while working out a logistical problem. Not even Bunny seemed to know what was going on.

  Davidson prepped a shot. A few cops pulled their guns, going toward the team.

  As it turned out, aiming to miss was actually a whole hell of a lot more difficult than aiming to kill.

  Popping off a few shots, he danced the cops back behind their cars.

  Time to be impressive.

  He went with the shock and awe. Davidson took out three car tires, all different cars. A few windshields and precisely put a shot through the commanding officer’s sleeve, just for effect.

  Down below, the team saw their opening. Ki was as good as he had been billed. They went for the northeast corner, the least fortified of the exits.

  Still, even if they got past the blockade, the cops had set up a three-block perimeter. How were they going to get past that? Those cops were shielded from Davidson by buildings. There was nothing he coul
d do about it. The buildings were taller than the Temple.

  In the end, he had to trust in Lopez.

  A very, very, very, scary proposition.

  * * *

  Stark watched the events unfold on the satellite feed. With their ultra-high definition screen it was just as good as being there, without all the bullets and danger.

  Stark could do without the danger. Davidson, once again had proven what a skilled marksmen he was by hitting exactly everything he wanted to and hitting nothing that he didn’t want to.

  Now for the true test. To see what the hell Lopez was going to do with the items they had stolen from the Air Force base.

  The request had made no sense and didn’t make any more now.

  The items came into view.

  Six drones. Their missiles loaded and ready to rock and roll.

  But it made no sense. Brandt was never going to let them use them.

  They streaked around the Temple, coming in low over the square, getting splashed by the fountain as they made their way to the team.

  It wasn’t until Lopez got out his rope and swung a lasso over his head, did Stark begin to see what Lopez wanted the drones for. His own personal flying sleds.

  Stark marveled at how the man’s brain worked. The scary thing was that Stark’s mother was beginning to think the same way. Super scary.

  Lopez lassoed his drone and brought it beside him.

  “You do realize we can drive them over to you,” Stark advised Lopez.

  “Oh, but that was so much more fun!”

  Lopez hopped up onto the back of the drone. “Drop two missiles!”

  Stark’s mother did as requested. Lopez was equilibrating the weight load.

  “You better drop four missiles for Ki and Brandt,” Lopez instructed.

  Stark’s mother did so as she guided the drones over to the correct riders.

  “Lopez…” Rebecca warned.

  No matter the danger or the prospect, he was about to ride a drone. Lopez smiled. “Nah, Chica, I was wondering if maybe they only had to drop one for you.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Rebecca retorted as the drone slowed to pull up next to her.

  * * *

  Davidson watched as the others mounted their drones and flew off. He kept up some scattered cover fire, so that none of the cops got it into their heads to fire on the fleeing drones.

  There had only been five drones, which was the number of the team. He wondered if Lopez had a plan for him.

  Then Davidson realized that Ki was carrying Cristoval.

  Davidson looked around. Where was the sixth drone?

  “Get ready!” Lopez yelled, sounding way too cheerful for a man who had just avoided a cave-in.

  Davidson wasn’t quite sure what to do to get any more ready than he already was. He let off one more shot, then slung his rifle. He didn’t have time to break it down.

  He heard the buzz, then the drone zipped around the corner. It was going pretty fast. Davidson had to think even faster. He started running down the steep roof, then hit the gutter and launched off.

  Landing on the middle of the drone’s back, Davidson grabbed hold of the front of the wing, pulling himself up into a sitting position like the others.

  He drew up alongside Bridget to find her face blotchy and her eyes bloodshot. What the hell had happened down there?

  “They have a helicopter in the air to give pursuit,” Stark warned them.

  “Let ‘em,” Lopez laughed perhaps a bit too gleefully.

  Dear God, what did Lopez have up his sleeve this time?

  * * *

  “The mines,” Stark’s mother said.

  Bunny studied the map of Salt Lake City. The city’s original wealth had been based off of silver, so there were a lot of mines in and around Salt Lake. And close, right at the city’s edge. Some were working, others were abandoned.

  “But which one?” Stark asked as his mother adjusted the course of the drones.

  “Which one do you think?”

  Bunny scanned the map. The closest mine was not only operational, but if you followed the shafts, you could get to the other side of the hills without coming out into the open.

  “J&H mines?” Stark’s mother asked.

  “Um, duh,” Lopez responded. Bunny could imagine Lopez rolling his eyes.

  “That’s going to take them right to the Army base,” whatever the other redhead’s name was shouted. Ugh. She was so annoying.

  “Which is exactly what Brandt wants,” Bunny said. “At this point, they might as well get arrested and clear all this up.”

  The lingerie model seemed to know her place and shut up.

  Stark held up his finger and answered a call. His eyes dilated. “It’s a girl! It’s a girl.”

  It took Lopez whooping for Bunny to realize what Stark was talking about. Lopez’s baby girl had finally been born. Lopez hadn’t made it to the birth, but she was arranging transportation for all of them to race back to DC to see the baby as soon as they could.

  “Tell Momma not to let Maria name her until I get there!”

  “Will do,” Stark said with a smile then passed the information onto Lopez’ mother before Stark hung up.

  “So is it over?” Rojas asked, looking very confused.

  “Well, I think whatever proof or anti-proof that was down there has been buried under all that rubble,” Bunny answered.

  Apparently the shaman wasn’t quite satisfied with that answer and, moving faster than he had any right to, leapt up, putting a poison dart against Bunny’s neck.

  “She dies unless you tell me what they found down there.”

  * * *

  Davidson heard the attack in the attic, but couldn’t do one damn thing about it. All he could do was follow Lopez into the mine entrance.

  A bright shiny, silver embossed sign announced they were entering the J&H silver mines. One minute they were out in the bright sunshine, the next they were in the nearly dark mines. Only a very dim light every hundred feet illuminated the passages.

  Lopez seemed to know where he was going. The guy must have memorized the mine passages on the plane. Because, of course, that was what Lopez would do.

  Davidson lay down to the right, guiding his drone around a sharp turn. Lopez and Ki ahead were already shifting their weight to turn left.

  Where did this all end?

  Davidson wasn’t quite sure.

  How were they going to outrun the Salt Lake Police? And the Air Force base could provide jet coverage. Were they going to hold up deep in the mine? Without food, water or other supplies and hope the whole “terrorist watch list” thing went away.

  He knew Lopez wasn’t into long term planning, but come on.

  Davidson glanced over to Bridget. She still looked a wreck, but had pulled it together enough to keep pace with him. Further back were Brandt and Rebecca. Really far back.

  He feared if they allowed the gap to get much larger, Brandt and his wife weren’t going to be able to see the twists and turns. Davidson eased back on his speed to try and close the gap. He doubted if Lopez and Ki would do the same.

  “Keep up with them,” Davidson shouted over the rush of air in his face to Bridget.

  She nodded, pulling away from him.

  If they were going to survive this all, Davidson was going to have to leave breadcrumbs for the rest of the team.

  * * *

  Brandt had little time to think about anything else but avoiding death. Lopez had showed them all how to pop the control panel on the back of the drones and take manual control of them with a little joystick. Which wasn’t necessarily all that helpful.

  You could tell those that played a lot of video games versus those that didn’t. You could just tell who were old farts with kids at home and who weren’t. Needless to say Rebecca and he were having more trouble than Ki, Lopez, Davidson, and Bridget.

  Those rock walls came up quickly. Plus there was equipment in the way. Up ahead Ki and Lopez were slaloming f
or the lead. Brandt could barely make them out, they were so far ahead. Those two swished effortlessly up and down and around obstacles.

  Thank God, because if Brandt didn’t know what was coming up by watching their actions, he and Rebecca would be doomed.

  Communications were garbled this deep in the rock, but it sounded like Stark and company were having some problems back in the attic. He tried to pay attention, but his focus had to remain in the tunnels. There was little he could do for the attic until he got out of this hell scape.

  Well, at the least they’d lost the helicopters.

  Davidson who clearly had slowed down to keep pace with the slow pokes, sliced right to avoid a large piece of mining equipment. Brandt prepared to do the same thing, only the machinery was moving. He’d made the wrong choice.

  He watched as the metal came flying at him.

  Brandt wanted to apologize to Rebecca for dying so stupidly, but he simply didn’t have time.

  * * *

  Rebecca did the only thing she could do. She hit her husband’s drone. Hard. The collision knocked him out of the way of the massive drill. Unfortunately, she couldn’t correct in time and glanced off the side of the machine.

  Her drone spun, hitting the rock, bouncing and spinning in the other direction. The world was a blur. She tried to correct out, but couldn’t. She just wasn’t that skilled.

  “Gotcha,” a voice yelled. And sure enough he did. With a skilled nudge, the person attached to the voice, bumped her back on course.

  It wasn’t Brandt. It was Davidson. He smiled for a moment, then set back off.

  Regaining control of the drone and herself, Rebecca caught up with her husband.

  “That was stupid,” Brandt stated.

  “Or you could just say thank you,” Rebecca replied, looking ahead. The tunnel straightened out and it looked like there was light ahead. Real light. Sunlight.

  Could they really have gotten all the way to the other side of the mountain?

  She burst out into the open air along with the rest of the team.

  Only they weren’t alone.

  The Army base ahead of them had obviously been warned and a large contingent was coming their way.

  So much for a stealthy exit. They had flown right into the hands of the people who wanted to arrest them.