Vakasa being God's daughter certainly did resolve several questions. However, it brought up like a million. Rebecca couldn't even look Brandt in the eye as she talked.
"I will have to get back to you on that," Rebecca said.
"Can I?" Brandt asked, holding his hand out for the phone.
Bunny listened as Rebecca and Brandt exchanged words. She couldn't tell what they were, but it was pretty damned clear Brandt was none too happy. So Bunny wasn't surprised when the sergeant's voice came over the line.
"I don't know what is going on, which makes me just a little grumpy."
Just a little?
"We are trying to determine the Disciples' angle here."
"And?" Brandt demanded.
Bunny walked a few steps down the trash-strewn alley, away from Prenner and Emily. "Our theories are...evolving."
"Look, if I wanted that evasive crap, I would talk to the CIA." Brandt was definitely grumpy. "I want answers. Now."
Perhaps he couldn't boss his fiancee around, but that didn't mean he could shove Bunny any harder. She also knew the sergeant, though. He wouldn't let go of one bone unless you gave him another.
"How about I know where you need to go next?"
A pause told her Brandt's pit bulllike jaws were trying to decide if he liked this new bone well enough to let go of the other.
"And are you going to tell me, or do I have to figure out the Sphinx riddle."
Bunny chuckled. "Funny you should say that. It is looking like you need to head to Egypt."
Brandt exclaimed something. If Bunny was a betting woman, she could guess it was his favorite four-letter expletive.
"Yeah, well, we will be there in...I don't know...five and half years at this rate."
Bunny noticed Emily snap her phone closed. Holding her hand over the mouthpiece, Bunny asked, "ETA?"
"If they head due, north the choppers should be there in under two hours."
"Brandt?" Bunny said into the phone. "Continue on your current course. Turn your phone back on in two hours and your evac should be there."
Silence greeted her. She would have worried the call dropped, except she could hear insects buzzing in the background.
"Bunny?" Davidson asked.
Her heart soared. She hadn't let herself doubt for a moment that the sniper had come through the ordeal alive.
"Yep," she said through tears.
"Sounds like we owe you a great big thank-you."
Wiping a single drop streaking down her cheek, Bunny answered, "You can deliver it when you get home."
Davidson's voice was about five times huskier than normal. "You know it."
The phone beeped, signaling her money was about to run out. Shocking how fast you could burn through a hundred bucks calling the Congo.
"Gotta go," she said. Bunny would never know what he said back, as that annoying "You have been disconnected" beep sounded in her ear. She closed the phone, stepped on it with her heel, then dropped the plastic carcass into the dumpster.
"Are you going to share why you are sending them to Egypt?" Prenner asked.
Putting a knuckle to the corner of her eye to draw away the tears before her makeup was totally ruined, Bunny shrugged. "I'd prefer not to."
By the look on both Prenner and Emily's faces, that wasn't going to fly.
"Fine," Bunny conceded. "But we are going to need some coffee first."
No one disagreed there as they made their way back to the Toyota.
Which was good, because what she had to share, no one was going to like.
CHAPTER 12.
Skies over Africa 8:29 p.m. (CAT) Rebecca's head lolled to the side, rousing her. She cracked open her eyes, taking in the luxury jet. Their fourth plane since hopping the British aid helicopter back in the Congo.
Looking out the plane's window over the dark desert, it was hard to imagine the press of the jungle. Not that Rebecca was trying very hard, of course.
Oranges sparked along the horizon. The sun must be setting. Which meant she had slept far longer than the three hours she had allotted herself. Nestled in the crook of Brandt's arm, she would not be complaining any time soon. Under his other arm was Vakasa.
A little girl who held such big secrets. Or was she just a child like any other? The Disciples were on a hair trigger after the destruction of the tablets. Had they jumped to conclusions? Or was Rebecca looking at the Messiah? Even asking a question such as that sounded absurd. And to have to explain it to Brandt? That seemed downright impossible.
Vakasa rubbed her eyes, looking around.
"Where are we?" Rebecca asked for the girl.
Brandt moved, stretching his arm. Rebecca was loath to leave his embrace, but she lifted her head up to give him room to work out the kinks.
"Chad? Sudan? Libya?" Brandt answered. "I can't remember what Levont said."
Levont? Rebecca was surprised to find Lopez crashed in the overstuffed chair across from them. The corporal must have been truly exhausted if he let someone else fly the plane. Must have been all that filming.
Davidson stood up from the other side of the couch and leaned to the right, then left. "O for three," he said, indicating the eastern window. "Check it out."
Rebecca was confused, until she noticed a glistening ribbon of blue flanked by a greenbelt in the distance. The Nile. They were already in Egypt.
"Levont is giving Lopez a run for his money."
"I heard that," Lopez said, unfurrowing himself from the pretzel-like position.
"Yet it is strangely so much easier to sleep with Levont at the helm," Davidson teased the corporal. "Far less structural shaking."
Rebecca knew Lopez would never take that lying down. He hopped to his feet, yawning. "Easier to do when you aren't being shot at."
So true. To imagine they had made it an entire flight without an RPG strike? They truly had hit the jackpot. Rebecca noticed that no one said a thing, though. For how brave the men were, they were pretty damned superstitious. No one was about to jinx their luck.
As Davidson and Lopez stretched, Brandt leaned in close.
His presence was intoxicating. His words were not.
"Are we going to talk about it?"
Before she had to answer, Davidson turned around. Either he hadn't heard Brandt's question or was coming to her rescue. "Like the selection?"
Rebecca found a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt on the seat next to her. She picked up the items and brought them to her nose. Clothes. Real, actual clothes. No more torn and stained wedding dress.
"Not sure if they are the right size," Davidson added. "Found them in a closet in the back...You gotta love private jets."
Yes, Rebecca loved them, all right.
"They have even got a shower back there."
"Do not be teasing me about that," Rebecca stated.
Davidson laughed. "Dead serious. Hot water and everything."
Rebecca felt herself almost melt at the thought.
Grabbing the clothes, Rebecca rose.
"Don't take too long," Davidson added. "We should be landing in forty minutes."
Lopez scoffed as he headed to the cockpit. "Make it thirty-six minutes."
Rebecca would take anything at this point. As she headed toward the back, Brandt caught her hand.
"I've been exceedingly patient."
And that he had been.
"Then can I beg you for another thirty-six minutes?" she asked.
The corner of his lip twitched up. "How about thirty-one minutes and you give me five minutes to get cleaned up?"
"You got it."
He released her hand, sliding their palms against one another. If there wasn't a little girl in the room, she might have suggested they share that shower, but there was a little girl in the room. One who might be...
No. Rebecca wasn't going to think about that. She was going to enjoy possibly the most decadent shower in her life.
Then she would have to explain to Brandt...well, everything. And she'd thought the information she had learned in that Roman cave last year was bad.
The gold cross around Brandt's neck caught the light and glistened.
Could his faith survive the news she carried?
Sighing, Rebecca continued toward the shower. That was a question for thirty-six minutes from now.
Bunny rubbed her eyes. She could only look at the computer screen for so long. How Stark did his bug-eyed stare for hours upon hours was beyond her. The activity of the all-night Internet cafe had settled down, but not died. It was pretty amazing how many people wanted an anonymous Internet connection at midnight.
Emily walked up to their table. "My sources confirm Bunny's calculations."
She looked over to Prenner and gave the lieutenant her best "I told you so" look. Because, well, she had told him so.
"I still don't understand how you went from a few runes in Iceland to deducing the one man in all the world Brandt and the others need to talk to is living in Cairo," Prenner grumbled.
Probably because you don't think a civilian, a chick, might know something you don't. But Bunny took in a big breath. She had held off explaining the entire thing until they had confirmation from Emily that she was on the right track. And given that it had been super early in the morning over in Egypt, that confirmation was a while in coming.
Bunny brought up several pictures that Rebecca and she had taken in Iceland. Crap, had it only been four days ago? Bunny could have sworn that little adventure was four months ago.
Ah, sleep deprivation. How it skewed your perceptions.
She pointed to a row of symbols. "The Vikings were all about their runes. And documenting their conquests." Bunny flipped through the pictures. "This set recounts their arrival on Iceland and beginning a settlement there."
"Not exactly earth-shattering information," Prenner interjected.
"Perhaps," Bunny said, then scrolled down to the last picture. "Except, they happen to mention the Disciples and thank them for all their help."
"What?" Prenner said, now glaring at the symbols like he could read them.
"Bunny," Emily chided, "they don't exactly talk about the Disciples."
"They might as well," Bunny defended, then translated the runes from Old Norse to English. "We hailed from the east. We conquered sea and beast to find our home. But we could not have done so without the help of those that do not wish to walk the halls of Vallahalla. Those of one God. Those of Moshe hold great secrets. Oden has blessed us with their companionship. To might. For might. Forever."
Bunny looked up. "Tell me that isn't about the Disciples."
"And the Egyptian connection?" Prenner asked, still looking a bit skeptical.
Bunny flipped through several pages on the laptop that Stark had jury-rigged for her. Wires poked out from the frame and she had gotten more than one shock from using the trackpad, but hey, it was untraceable.