Davidson swept his scope to the rest of his trapped team. Everyone looked to the toppled statue.
Wait for it.
That statue wasn't just a distraction.
It was a weapon.
Brandt watched as that first tower broke off from the weight of the statue, then it hit the next tower, and then the next tower and the next. Davidson had set up a deadly game of dominoes. Better yet, this crashing tower of death was coming straight at the sniper's nest.
The guy must have figured that out. Just like he must have figured out there was no way in hell he was going to make it down the staircase in time to avoid being crushed. Instead, he hauled ass onto the ledge and just as the other tower was hit, launched himself toward the roof of an adjacent building.
Brandt couldn't see if the guy made it, although taking a wild guess he'd assume that the guy did, as the sniper's tower tilted awkwardly, then broke off, scattering Aunush and her henchmen.
Davidson was a fucking genius, all except for the little problem that the tower was now coming straight at them.
Rebecca covered her head, although she wasn't quite sure how that was going to help. Bunny had tried to crawl out, but Brandt had stopped her. That was only death. The only chance they had was for the cart to break the tower's fall. To hope the half-wheels held.
Bracing, she felt the impact in her belly as her eardrums threatened to rupture. Rebecca pulled her body into a ball as the cart's wheels shattered, sending the cart's weight against their backs. But it held. Their little cart held.
It was the little salt cart that could.
Then Rebecca saw why. The tower had been long enough that its roof had landed against the stable next to them. It had taken the brunt of the tower's fall.
The only problem? That roof was about to give and the entire weight of the tower was about to come down on them.
Going forward wasn't an option, and getting out backward seemed impossible. As the trickle of salt down the stable's wall became a torrent, Rebecca felt something on her ankle.
A hand!
It hurt like hell as she was dragged backward, but Rebecca wouldn't complain. Just as the tower's roof gave, Rebecca, Bunny, and Brandt were pulled past the cart. The tower crashed down on the cart, shattering it beyond recognition.
She rolled over to find Lopez giving Bunny a hand up. With the other arm, the corporal aimed in the direction Aunush and her men had fled. Rebecca got her knees just as the firing started. They had the rubble of the demolished tower between them, but that wouldn't last long.
"Go!" Brandt ordered Harvish and Lopez. "Don't stop!"
The two men hustled Bunny around the corner. Rebecca was halfway there when she realized Brandt wasn't following them. As a matter of fact, he was still lying on the ground. Why wasn't he up? Why wasn't he firing?
As bullets flew overhead, Brandt looked straight up at the ceiling of the cavern. The salt had created its own pattern up there. The crystals swirled and seemed to almost flow into more and more intricate designs. It was quite beautiful. Which was kind of nice since it was the last sight he would ever see.
Two bulletproof vests or no, his body had taken more punishment than he had any right to ask it. Plus, he felt the pooling of blood underneath of him. One of those bullets must have skirted the vest and actually hit flesh. It felt like a through and through, but who really knew. The bullet hadn't hit his spleen, that was for sure, since it had been removed after the last time he'd been shot.
At least he could die knowing that his son would be taken care of and that Rebecca was alive.
Then someone was at his side. Rebecca.
"Get out of here," he said, trying to sound authoritative, but knowing he missed by a mile. A little hard to go all alpha when you were laid out flat on your back.
"How badly are you injured?" she asked, and then her eyes dilated as she must have spotted the blood.
Rebecca reached down to remove his vest, but he clutched her hand. "No."
It was the only thing keeping his ribs together. Without the support of the Kevlar, he could kiss his lungs goodbye.
Her eyes rapidly scanned the area, trying to find something to help get him out of here. But Brandt knew she couldn't. He wasn't getting up without a gurney. Period.
"Go!" he urged, shoving her away as hard as he could, but clearly not hard enough.
She just wouldn't leave.
Even when a bitter laugh sounded from the other side of the debris.
Rebecca knew she should leave. Get going while the getting was good, but she just couldn't leave Brandt here. Not like this.
Besides, Aunush would just hunt her down. She had what they wanted. And not just the tablets in her backpack, but the knowledge of the secret they held. There would be no more dodging bullets now.
The woman mounted the ruined tower, domineering over them.
"Does your sniper have any more tricks up his sleeve?" Aunush asked.
Rebecca seriously doubted it. Davidson had long arms, but his sleeve and his tricks could only go so far.
"You know?" Aunush asked. There was no doubt what the question was.
"Yes," Rebecca answered, not bothering to hide the fact. She bent over and gathered the pack and something she thought might be good to borrow. "I have the tablets here."
Even though Aunush tried to act calm, her eyes dilated to near black. Her hand clenched at her side as if she could already feel the cool stone in her hand. She meant to possess them.
"I'll give them to you if you let us go," Rebecca bargained.
That harsh laughter again. "And why exactly would I do that? When I can just take them from you?"
No reason.
"You were ready to fire, right?" Rebecca whispered to Brandt.
He struggled to rise up onto an elbow. "Yeah, why?"
Rebecca brought his gun up behind the backpack. She'd never shot a gun before and had no idea where the safety was. Not that Brandt hadn't begged her to learn how to shoot. Back then though she'd given up religious mysteries. She'd given up being shot at. She'd given up watching the man she loved bleed to death.
A gun was a reminder to her of all the pain and horror of the last year. So she'd sworn off guns as well.
Yet here she was.
She looked to Aunush. "I don't know. Something about the Golden Rule?"
Just as the woman's hand went up to give the order, Rebecca pulled the trigger. To her shock, she actually hit Aunush, right in the belly. Gasping in pain, she stumbled back clutching the wound.
"Fire!" she yelled, but the bullets that flew first came from behind Rebecca.
Aunush's men scattered. Rebecca threw herself over Brandt as the air filled with the sound of speeding projectiles.
Lopez and Harvish hadn't abandoned them.
"Forward!" Lopez bellowed as he laid down cover fire. Harvish scrambled toward them, ducking behind a doorjamb.
"Forward!" Harvish yelled, switching to firing as Lopez made his way down the street that in theory should have had no cover.
They pushed forward like this, bouncing back and forth between them until they were at Brandt's feet.
Lopez put his hand on Rebecca's shoulder. "We've got him."
Rebecca knew she should have whooped or been relieved, but the only proper response she could think of was to burst into tears.
That whore, Aunush thought as they retreated behind the tumble of tower. Her sniper climbed out from the pile of debris to join them. Did it matter though? Brandt and the others had proven too resourceful.
Apparently God wanted to truly give her a challenge.
Aunush was nothing if not a practical woman. As blood seeped through her fingers, the odds that she could secure the tablets, slaughter the bitch's team, and clean up her own mess were in the negative percentiles. That didn't mean though that she couldn't serve her God.
Of course that meant sacrificing all. The tablets. Even her own life. Surprisingly that thought did not bother her as much as she would have thought.
Her comfort came only from the knowledge that she could begin what God had started. He had wished Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed? She would see it destroyed. If that was what it took to protect the secret of the girl Messiah, Aunush would do it without hesitation. Even if she would never meet this Messiah of prophecy. Aunush must protect She Who Would Come just as every Disciple had done since the Tablets were handed down.
"Prepare the package," Aunush ordered to the sniper, who jumped to obey.
"You dare not," Nannan hissed.
She turned to the Watcher of the Word. He was a man, like Joshua. Someone who cared for the tablets. Not someone they were written about.
"Give me another answer, Nannan," Aunush asked calmly. "Tell me how to protect the tablets without banishing them back to oblivion."
"Your orders were to retrieve the tablets."
"No," Aunush clarified. "My orders were to protect the tablets. They could never be safer than what I am proposing."
Nannan searched her face. He must have been looking for some sign of weakness. Hesitation. A chink in her armor that he could squirm his way through. He must not have found it.
"You would steal from us His word?" Nannan demanded, blotchy faced. "God meant for His word to be read."
Aunush shrugged. "What was good enough for Moshe is good enough for me."
She could understand Nannan's dismay. He had not been raised to know his life would end in sacrifice. Not as Aunush had. Then again she thought hers would be upon the cross, but alas she would die as all the sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah had done before her.
There may have been some confusion regarding the twin cities' destruction. Rumors had been rampant that God had struck them down by fire. As the pillars all around her said to the contrary, he had turned the cities to salt.
Now though? Now Aunush would make right those legends as the sniper placed a compact device at her feet.
God's fury fulfilled.
Aunush held the detonator out in front of her. The question clear. "Who is with me?"
The sniper did not hesitate to put his hand over hers. Her two remaining soldiers did the same. They were born and bred to die by God's righteous flame.
Nannan though, he hung back, glowering, his eyes darting for a way out.
Raising the detonator, Aunush smiled. "We go to God serving him to the last, Nannan. How do you think He will react if you run now? At the moment He needs you most?"
The Watcher hesitated but only for a moment. Then his feet carried him to their circle. He placed his hand over the detonator.
Aunush glanced about for the sole Chinese soldier remaining to find him gone.
Like she had said. Smart man.
Davidson limped over to the SUV. He'd made the rally point, but there was no one else to greet him. Had his plan worked and saved the rest, or had it spelled their end? Leaning against the side of the car, Davidson slid down the cool metal and sat propped up against one of the tires.
Let the Disciples come. He had a few more bullets in his rifle and about an hour's worth of blood left in him. To think of the life he'd led and that it brought him to die in Gomorrah.
Clearly God truly did have a sense of irony.
Then a loud thump rang through the cavern. Like a firework rocket, something streaked though the air, exploding against the roof. Bright reds and whites sprayed out above them.
Why would the Disciples do such a thing? It wasn't a directed attack. As it stood, it wasn't an attack at all.
That was until Davidson realized that the white sparkles were not dying out. As a matter of fact, they were growing. Once the second rocket hit the cavern roof in a dazzling display, Davidson knew the Disciples had launched the ultimate attack.
A suicide attack.
As the air around the missiles ignited, sending flames dancing across the roof, Davidson rose to his feet. The Disciples meant to bring the roof down, burying the secret of the tablets permanently.
But first the Disciples intended to incinerate every last one of them.
CHAPTER 26.