The man removed his foot and jerked her to her feet. He pressed his body against hers. "Not a virgin, I see, but you will do."
Rebecca couldn't watch as he put his nostrils against her skin and inhaled up her neck. Instead, she found Vakasa's eyes. "Look away," she whispered desperately. But the girl did the oddest thing.
She winked.
Then she bit the hand of the man holding her. He howled in outrage, shaking the wounded appendage. The other man laughed at him. Even so, the mercenary holding Rebecca let his grip loosen just a bit. Using every bit of close-quarter training Brandt had ever showed her, Rebecca used her shoe and scraped it down his shin. Then as he bent over in pain, she brought her elbow straight up into his solar plexus.
In a pained rush of air, he teetered, then slumped to the ground. The other men's guns snapped up, aiming at her. Rebecca guessed she had about a second before they pulled the trigger.
As Vakasa rushed over to her, one of the men's necks split open, gushing blood. Yet he strangely turned and shot his partner.
"Get down!" a vaguely familiar voice yelled.
Not worrying about who it was that had come to their rescue, Rebecca dragged Vakasa down to the ground with her. Even as they hit the dirt, she watched the last mercenary stagger up. One hand on his sternum. The other on his gun. There was no way their rescuer was going to get him in time.
Then the man's head snapped to the side. The mercenary lurched, trying to get his bearings, when that long, hollow stick hit him in the back of the knees. Legs knocked out from under him, the mercenary tumbled to the ground, his shots going wild. The stick came down flat onto his nose, crushing it.
Rebecca looked away, tucking Vakasa's head away from the violence.
It wasn't until a few seconds after the last moist thud that Rebecca glanced back up. Levont. Was that his name? Brandt's new point man offered her his mud-covered hand.
"We've got to get moving."
Once up, Rebecca looked around for the old man. He had melted into the night again.
"Thank you," she said shakily to Brandt's man.
"Appreciate it, ma'am, but my boss would be awfully disgruntled if I rescued you, only to have us captured again."
Rebecca snorted despite herself. Levont was right. Brandt would be pissed.
"Where is he?"
Levont's answer was a nod toward the literal storm of gunfire across the jungle. However, the man moved north instead of toward Brandt.
"Where are we going?"
"To get the hell out of here."
Yeah, Rebecca couldn't agree more.
"Can you do it?" Bunny demanded.
The technician's fingers flew over the keyboard. "In a week, maybe."
Bunny looked over at Emily. "I'll get someone at Langley on it."
The ploy worked, as one of the tech's hands flew up. "Hang on."
The screen in front of them-a new screen since shrapnel from Bunny's CPU attack had damaged the last one-bloomed to life. Orange and yellow and red flared.
"You are sure you aren't broadcasting to Brandt's team?" Bunny asked.
The tech rolled his eyes. "Like I said, we are broadcasting to nowhere."
"But it is live inside the system?"
"Jeez, yes. Now, which way do you want me to have them going?" the tech asked.
"South," Bunny answered.
"Why south?" Prenner asked.
Bunny didn't answer. Probably because south was just a hunch. But after everything that had happened over the last year, she'd learned to trust her gut. Bunny smacked the tech on the shoulder.
"South it is," the tech said, moving one of the medium-sized orange globs, along with the smallest blip, down the screen. "And the others?"
"Have them converge on the last location of the main enemy's force."
It was a good thing the kid's background was in video game development before the DoD recruited him.
"Not so fast," Prenner suggested. "Brandt would never move that cautiously. Lopez, the blip to the west might, but not Brandt."
Bunny nodded. "Good point. Davidson would also set up in a tree somewhere, so keep him stable."
"Seriously, people," the tech complained, "I am doing like five people's jobs right now, so let's keep the personalized monograms to a minimum."
She gave the tech a squeeze on the shoulder as a little motivator. Davidson wouldn't mind, not if the gesture helped save his life.
"Fine," the tech said, typing rapidly. The figures on the screen moved in a corresponding fashion.
Bunny pointed to the blip next to Brandt. "Talli isn't that good a shot. Don't have him be that Rambo."
With a minimal of fussing, the tech did as asked.
The chess pieces were on the board. In hopefully the exact opposite direction of the actual soldiers.
Now to see if the Disciples would take the bait.
Brandt dropped to his knee and pulled the trigger. Only, nothing came out. He didn't bother cursing. He simply pulled his sidearm out of his waistband and fired. This time squeezing off the rounds one by one.
Talli pulled up beside him rather than leapfrogging.
"I'm almost out as well."
What the hell were Lopez and Davidson doing?
Brandt and Talli were in place. Actually, they had pushed past "the place," just to keep up the charade of trying to reach Rebecca. Now, though, with limited ammunition? Something had to happen. Something big or they would be pinned down within minutes.
"Spare your rounds," Brandt said, letting Talli provide the cover fire while he thought through the mess they were in.
What could have gone wrong with the plan? Besides about sixteen thousand things?
Brandt cocked his head. Talli wasn't firing. "Run out?" he asked as he fired into the jungle.
"No," Talli said, pushing Brandt's gun arm down. He was about to complain, quite stringently, when Talli put his finger to his lips. "Listen," he whispered.
And Brandt did. And people were still firing at them. Or were they? Sure, shots were being fired, but they seemed to be going east. At a clipped rate. What the hell was going on? It was like the enemy was chasing ghosts.
They stayed silent in the brush for a few more moments, letting the enemy charge in the wrong direction. Could he trust this bizarre golden opportunity? Could he trust that somehow an escape path had opened up?
Given how light his gun felt in his hand, Brandt figured he could.
"Ready?" he asked Talli.
After a deep breath, the corporal nodded.
This was it.
Brandt took a step to the west. Then another and another, gaining speed as he went.
After all of that, their plan might still work.
CHAPTER 9.
Congo Jungle 11:18 p.m. (CAT) Ahead of them, Levont skid to stop, putting his hand into a fist. Rebecca pulled Vakasa close as they hunkered down in the brush. There had been several other times men had run past their location. Strangely shooting in the wrong direction. It had forced them to take a far more circumventous route than Levont had proposed.
Through the heavy leaves, Rebecca spotted their final destination. Awash in moonlight, two helicopters sat on an outcropping of rock.
Rebecca inched her way to the point man. "What is the plan?"
"Not sure," he answered, sweeping night-vision goggles over the area.
"Um..." Levont was new to the team. Maybe he wasn't used to sharing intel with her. "Can you give me any specifics? Brandt is totally candid with me."
"Oh, it's not that I'm withholding," he said with a grin. "It's because I don't know."
Rebecca rocked back onto her heels. That was not the answer she was looking for. "Then why did you have us haul our butts over here?"
Levont nodded to the helicopters. "Those are the only vehicles for twenty miles. You think Lopez could keep his hands off of them?"
Well, Levont may be new to the team, but he certainly had Lopez pegged.
"So what do we do?" Rebecca asked as Vakasa crawled onto her lap. The young girl leaned her head against Rebecca's shoulder. Somehow the terror faded. At least a little.
"Wait."
"For what?"
One of the helicopter's blades slowly started spinning.
"For that..." Levont said with a broad grin. Guards, attracted by the sound, rushed the helicopter. Levont took aim, knocking each one either down or back. "I may not be Davidson, but I've got my uses."
Apparently, the point man did.
"You know how cover fire works?" Levont asked.
"Yes, unfortunately," she answered.
"All right, then," he said, getting his shot lined up. "On my mark, you are going to get the girl to the helicopter. You are not going to worry about me. You are not going to look back. You are not going to wait for me to catch up. Got it?"
"Got it."
Levont turned to look her straight in the eye. "I mean it."
"So do I," Rebecca answered. "You are on your own."
The point man grinned. Then his face got grim. "Three...two..."
Ugh. Rebecca knew the rest as she gripped Vakasa's hand.
"Stop!" Frellan yelled, yet his men charged forward. Had he heard something?
"Simama!" Ugudo yelled in Swahili. The group of mercenaries was so diverse that it was the only common language amongst them. The dark-skinned commander waved the men back. "Your orders?"
Frellan cocked his head, listening. Nothing. In the deep jungle, was his mind playing tricks on him? He looked to the video feed of the heat signatures, then to the jungle. Beyond where his men had just come, there was no movement. Not a single branch out of place. Brandt and his team were good, but not that good. No one was that good.
Then gunfire erupted. Behind them.
"The helicopters," Ugudo confirmed.
No. It could not be. Brandt and the rest were in front of them.
However, as more and more shots sounded, Frellan had to accept this new reality.