Buried in the Sky

by Ryan Mullaney

  After a moment's hesitation, Solomon gave a signal to release April.

  "You sure about this?" one of the mercs asked Solomon with her eyes fixed on the stalking tiger.

  "Do it."

  The merc uncuffed April and tossed the cuffs into the chopper's open side door.

  "She's free," Solomon shouted to Simone. "My men are going to take that meteor fragment now and bring it to me. Vincent, lower your weapon."

  Vincent lowered nothing. "Like hell."

  "Do it," Lincoln said.

  "Like hell!" Vincent stood his ground, aim locked on Solomon.

  Lincoln stepped toward Vincent, but stopped on a dime when the tiger circled around with teeth bared.

  "Vincent," he said. "This isn't the mission."

  "No, mate," Vincent said. "It's personal."

  The tiger grew restless, growling at each party as it turned in a slow circle, as if choosing the best spot to attack.

  The two unarmed mercs double-teamed the meteor fragment, lifting it from the ground and starting in a wide trajectory toward the SWANN chopper.

  Simone paid them no attention. Her eyes were on the tiger as it stopped in its tracks, waiting, staring her down.

  "Uh, guys..." Simone backed up slowly.

  On the ground, Warren scrambled to distance himself from both Simone and the tiger. He crawled for the truck that had delivered him to the top.

  Lincoln raised his handgun to the tiger. "Vincent, put the gun down!" He threw a glance to April. "Get over here while you can!"

  April stood in place, slowly raising her hands. "I can't."

  Lincoln saw the team of mercenaries, four or five, he couldn't quite tell with everything going on, but he saw they all had their weapons pointed at April.

  "A little help!" Simone shouted as the tiger drew closer. It was in no hurry, but it had Simone in mind and in sight. Soon, it would be within distance to leap out and strike a killing blow.

  Vincent turned his aim to the tiger and squeezed the trigger.

  The bullet hit the animal in the back. With a yelp, it scrambled away from the men with their guns.

  With the threat removed, the two mercenaries carrying the fragment quickened the pace.

  "Get it on board, quickly!" Solomon shouted.

  "It's time to let her go," Lincoln said to Solomon. "You have what you came for. The deal is done."

  Solomon looked Lincoln in the eye and nodded. "The deal is done." He turned to the mercs with their weapons trained on April. "Lower your ..."

  He stopped at the sound of an incoming chopper drawing closer, its roar cascading through the mountains, growing louder.

  "Friends of yours?" he asked Lincoln.

  "Just our ride home."

  The rescue chopper wove its way between the cliffs and came on a direct approach toward the courtyard.

  Solomon said something to his squad, but it was impossible to hear what was being said over the incoming chopper from Simone's vantage point. She watched as Solomon threw his thumb into the air repeatedly, yelling inside to the pilot. If Simone's ability to read lips was to be trusted, she thought he was yelling, "Up! Get us up!"

  It was too loud to hear even shouts. The rescue chopper drew close, and the SWANN chopper's rotors started up again.

  It was too loud to hear anything. Even the engine of the truck turning over behind Simone. She couldn't hear Warren shifting into drive or gunning the vehicle toward her.

  She saw Lincoln waving his arms furiously at her, but his words were lost in the storm of helicopter rotors.

  Simone didn't see the tiger anywhere. She turned to look behind her, a mix of fear and curiosity taking hold.

  She readied to jump out of the way of the tiger's attack, but what she saw was not a tiger.

  It was the truck driven by Warren barreling toward her so fast, she didn't have time to react.

  24.

  Mount Emei, China

  Simone went down hard, knocking the air out of her lungs.

  As she lay there gasping for breath, she saw the speeding truck rush by and come to a jerking stop, wheels locked up and skidding across the courtyard stone.

  The weight came off her and she turned over, sucking wind, blinking through the dust cloud. She saw Vincent standing there, offering a hand.

  Understanding that it was he who tackled her to the ground and not the speeding truck, Simone took his hand and pulled herself up to her feet.

  The rescue chopper made a circle of the courtyard. The rushing wind from the rotor kicked up even more dust and dirt. Simone gazed through the haze to watch the two SWANN mercenaries load the third meteor fragment into their helicopter.

  "Crap."

  She couldn't even hear herself speak over the rescue chopper touching down. The side door slid open and automatic weapons came out right away, aimed at Solomon and April.

  Under the deafening roar of the spinning rotor, the rescue team communicated in hand signals with Solomon, telling him to release the hostage and step away. The mere presence of the weapons in the rescue team's hands meant they would shoot if necessary.

  Lincoln waved for April to come over, but in the direct path, Warren backed up the truck and aimed once again for Simone.

  Vincent hesitated -- he didn't raise his gun. He knew the first shot to ring out across the mountains would cause a firefight that would mean bad news for everyone. But as Warren pressed the pedal to the floor once again, the truck took off straight for Simone.

  Acting fast, Simone ran. Vincent took off alongside her, making for the nearest elephant statue.

  Warren spun the truck in a violent turn, skidding ninety degrees and continuing toward Simone and Vincent.

  With the path to the rescue chopper now clear, April took a hesitant step -- careful not to move too quickly knowing trigger fingers were itchy. She moved steadily and deliberately toward Lincoln.

  Halfway between her SWANN captors and the rescue chopper, April stopped walking.

  One of the rescue team members hopped down from the chopper, weapon turned on Warren's truck. He screamed commands over the noise, but Warren heard none of it. It was too loud, and he was too preoccupied with running Simone down and turning her into a splat on the stone courtyard.

  Another rescue team member waved frantically for April to hustle.

  But she didn't move.

  Her attention went to her left. Nobody saw it approaching, coming up from the Baoguo Temple below.

  A cable car ascended.

  Lincoln turned his head to see the cable car come to a stop. The doors opened and within one second, armed SWANN mercenaries spilled out and took cover behind the series of elephant statues lining the way up to the golden temple.

  April turned to Lincoln. He met her eyes as the first shot rang out.

  Every living soul in the mountaintop courtyard scrambled for cover as bullets flew with wild abandon. The rescue team fired back at the SWANN mercs, but SWANN had the numbers on their side.

  In the center of it all, April ducked and ran behind the nearest elephant statue. Bullets picked away at the back side of it, chipping it away piece by piece. She tried to lift her head, but debris rained down from the ruined statues in a shower of little stones.

  Unable to escape the crossfire, April was trapped.

  From the cable car, a woman emerged. Dressed in black tactical gear with black hair down to her shoulders, she leveled her eyes at Vincent. One corner of her mouth turned upward in a devilish smirk.

  Vincent froze in place.

  The pick-up barreled toward him. No brake.

  Simone grabbed him by the arm and fell backward, out of the truck's path.

  Vincent and Simone went down, mere inches from the spinning wheels flashing by.

  Warren hit the brake to power slide around for another pass, but the wheels locked up, tires skidding over stone. Inertia sent the pick-up into a violent slide before it crashed sidelong into one of the elephant statues.

  Bleeding from a head wou
nd, Warren stumbled out of the truck, ducking through stray bullets, keeping low as he gave up on Simone and made a break for the SWANN helicopter.

  Simone pulled Vincent to his feet and shoved him toward the rescue chopper. "Go!" she screamed as he stumbled to regain his footing, eyes turned back on the woman in black.

  Lincoln laid down suppressing fire from behind an elephant statue, waiting for a break in the action to dart out for April, who remained pinned down in the center of it all.

  Simone locked eyes with Lincoln. She had a shorter distance to cross to get to April, and he could give them covering fire as they made their way back.

  An unspoken agreement was reached, and Lincoln nodded, readying himself.

  The entirety of SWANN converged on their helicopter, rotors at speed, ready to take off.

  With the meteor fragment on board.

  Simone lifted her gaze to watch Solomon take Warren by the hand and pull him on board. Behind them both, two SWANN mercenaries secured the meteor fragment.

  That was it, Simone knew.

  She failed.

  The gunfire ceased momentarily. Simone threw a look to Lincoln. They locked eyes.

  Go time.

  Simone peered out from behind cover. The coast was clear. Straight shot to April Farren.

  "Cover me!" Simone yelled, and no sooner did her words hit the air than Lincoln opened fire in the general direction of the SWANN chopper.

  Simone sprinted as fast as her broken and bloody body would carry her. She ducked and weaved between the cover of elephant statues as she moved, knowing SWANN could and would open fire on her as soon as she stopped.

  As she rounded one more statue and closed in on April, Lincoln's covering fire stopped with an abruptness that had Simone gazing back to see if he'd been hit.

  He hadn't. He stood upright, mouth agape, eyes wide, gun lowered to his side.

  Simone spun back to April, finding her standing in the open with the woman in black coming up from behind.

  "April!" Simone shouted a warning, but April stared at Simone and refused to move, refused to turn around and see her assailant closing in on her.

  Vincent stepped up to Lincoln's position. He wore the same shocked expression. "Briony, you bitch..."

  The woman in black -- Briony Black -- stepped up to April and put a hand on her shoulder. Both women locked their eyes on Simone.

  "Go home, little girl," Briony said as she raised a handgun and fired three shots.

  Simone rolled away as the three bullets hit the stone in front of her, kicking up dust and small particles. Warning shots, not meant to harm, but to say "Stay back".

  Simone scrambled up to her knees to see April turn and leave with Briony. Intentionally. Under her own power. No gun to her head, no threats of violence if she didn't come with them. No, April wanted to go with SWANN.

  The two women strode for the SWANN chopper and climbed on board.

  Vincent raised his gun, but Lincoln pressed his arm down. "Don't. You might hit April."

  "Might?" Vincent said. "I intend to! She's leaving with them!"

  Vincent raised his arm again but Lincoln wrestled it down once more.

  The two stared at one another until the slam of the SWANN chopper door drew their collective attention.

  Simone, too, stared up as it took off, leaving with everything she and her team had arrived in China to collect and return.

  As Simone knelt in the dust of the departing helicopter, her shoulders slumped and her head fell in defeat. She didn't move until one of the rescue team members pulled her up and dragged her to their own helicopter.

  "We've got to get out of here!" he exclaimed. "No time!"

  Vincent and Lincoln pulled Simone on board. Before the door was shut, Simone caught sight of the Bengal tiger still lurking in the courtyard, stalking between the elephant statues, its eyes staring into Simone's soul as if to say, sorry, but it wasn't meant to be.

  Lying on the floor of the rescue helicopter as it took off, Simone stared up at the blurry forms of the rescue personnel attending to her various wounds and injuries.

  Thoughts swam in her head as if bobbing through unsettled waters. As the spike of adrenaline diminished, she realized she'd collapsed once inside the vehicle. Maybe from exhaustion, maybe from loss of blood as crimson still trickled down her arm from the spot where the tiger had got to her. Or maybe a combination of both.

  Simone tried to roll over, but she didn't have full control of her motor functions any longer, and she desired only sleep. The rescue personnel urged her to remain still while they worked. She felt no pain, only the need to let her eyes slip shut.

  "Where is it?" she asked, her voice distant and weak.

  "Where's what?" Lincoln asked as he knelt by her side.

  "Where ... is it ..."

  The meteor fragment, where did it go? She tried to get the words out, but she couldn't focus enough. Her eyes closed, her body relaxed, and she fell into a deep sleep with her last conscious thought being the realization that SWANN had the third fragment.

  That she had failed.

  _____

  A hospital room

  Life monitoring equipment played an electronic dirge at her bedside.

  Simone gently blinked her eyes open, squinting at the harsh fluorescent light that spilled from overhead. It felt as if she was knowingly entering a dream rather than returning to a waking state. Her arms and legs felt apart from her, heavy and foreign.

  How long was I out?

  Slowly she raised a hand to shield her eyes from the blinding light. She felt the stitches in her left upper arm flex as her elbow bent.

  A nurse entered, someone Simone had never seen before.

  "Good afternoon!" the nurse said as she checked various readings on the bedside machines.

  "Where am I?" The words came out of Simone's throat dry and hoarse. All she wanted then was a tall glass of ice water.

  "You're back home, Simone."

  "Florida?"

  The nurse shook her head. "Not quite. Texas."

  "Texas?" Simone squinted even harder, trying to see the nurse as her eyes adjusted to the light.

  "The one and only."

  "Where's Lincoln and Clark?" Simone asked. "And Vincent?"

  The nurse paused in her duties. "You are here by yourself, Simone."

  Simone shook her head, wondering what the hell was going on and where the rest of her team was if they weren't there with her. Off to get the third fragment back? To recover the second from Peru?

  She tried to push herself up to a seated position, but the effort was too great and she did not feel like exerting any energy at the moment, if she had any to exert at all.

  "Water," Simone said.

  The nurse poured from a pitcher and handed the glass to Simone. "Drink carefully."

  The coldness of the water gave Simone an instant chill as it went down her throat. She shivered and drank more.

  "You are to remain here until well enough to leave under your own power," the nurse said. "A bag has been packed for you. It's in the closet."

  Simone handed the empty glass to the nurse. "To go where?"

  "Wherever you want." The nurse set the glass aside. "You will receive word from Clark Bannicheck when it is safe. You will have no contact with him before then, nor will you have contact with Lincoln Lewis, Vincent Crowden, or anybody you were in contact with on the mission to China."

  "Why? What happened?"

  No sooner did the words leave her lips than Simone remembered April leaving with SWANN by her own volition.

  The mission -- and any future missions April had been made aware of -- were compromised.

  "You will receive word when it is safe to meet." The nurse went to the door. "The best thing you can do at the moment, Simone, and the only thing, is rest."

  Without another word, without even giving her name to Simone, the nurse was gone.

  Texas, Simone thought. Where in Texas? It wasn't exactly a small state. Perhaps tha
t was the idea, she considered. Harder to find a needle in a haystack when you have an enormous haystack, should anyone come looking for her -- April, Solomon, or that Briony Black woman, whoever she was.

  It didn't matter. Her affiliation with SWANN was all Simone needed to know.

  Simone let her eyes close once more, falling back into the uncomfortable darkness, awash in its uncertainty. She felt herself sinking into the bed and floating above it simultaneously, there but not there, present but untethered. She didn't know what kind of drugs and painkillers had been pumped into her, so maybe her thoughts just then were a product of a substance her body and mind were no longer accustomed to after a long period of sobriety, or maybe the sensation of feeling lost and the knowledge of being alone were just that powerful.

  For the first time in a long time, Simone had no idea what was going to happen on the day she opened her eyes.

  25.

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  Solomon met with the weapons dealer on the upper observation deck near the roof of the Burj Khalifa -- the tallest man-made structure in human history.

  The sun was low, the skies were clear, and there was no fog. What stood on the other side of the thick glass wall was a vast, unending view of the surrounding area, warm and inviting in the last light of day.

  "When the tide is low and the air is clear, you can see all the way to the shores of Iran," Murad said as he sipped red wine.

  "Remarkable." Solomon had no drink in his hand, no food waiting to be consumed. He was there strictly for business.

  Murad began walking around the perimeter of the observation deck. "You stand up here and you feel like a god, gazing down on his people. Little tiny people going about their days of menial labor. Peasants, they are. You feel as though you could lift your foot and squash them like scurrying ants. And that is because you could. Very easily. If you stand up here alongside the right people, there is very little you cannot do, Mr. Solomon."

  Keeping pace next to Murad, Solomon said, "I'm not interested in the people down there. I'm only interested in one person."

  "Ah, yes," Murad said with a chuckle. "That gymnast girl. What was her name? Sally? Suzie?"