"Dude, get down here!"
Ignoring the corporal again, Davidson fired and then took a split second to look down the slope as the Bombardier careened across the snowy decline. If it had been Lopez driving, Davidson would have guessed the trajectory was planned. But since it wasn't Lopez, he assumed the vehicle was out of control.
At the least though it was heading in the right direction. Down the mountain. Back to civilization. Away from the sniper. Away from the RPG.
Davidson swung his rifle back in time to see a figure on the far slope stand up in order to angle the rocket launcher toward the fleeing Bombardier.
Calibrating within a split second, Davidson fired. He hit the man square in the forehead. He and his damned RPG launcher tipped over the tip of the peak, tumbling to the valley below.
A bullet kicked up off the chimney right in front of Davidson.
The other sniper had been waiting for his moment. Too bad he missed.
Davidson ducked down beneath the solid stone.
"Finally," Lopez sighed.
"Had to take care of something," Davidson answered, finding it hard to get settled. He had to wedge in next to Lopez.
"More important than this?" the corporal asked.
What could be more important than making sure the rest of the team got away safely? More to humor the corporal than anything else, Davidson followed the light of Lopez's flashlight.
Okay, maybe there was something more important.
"This is..." the wei sputtered. "This is unacceptable."
Aunush wasn't sure exactly how many black ops the man had run, but the RPG operator's death had been a foregone conclusion to her. She had tried to warn the Chinese how incredibly accurate the other sniper's aim was. Had they listened?
So Aunush had given her sniper instructions to take his time. Find his window and then take it. She doubted he'd actually hit the other sniper though. Even with her sniper's skills the wind was against them, but the sniper came so very close, forcing the other shooter back down his rabbit hole.
Of course by now the sedan-sized snowmobile was out of range. No matter. They were not about to lose the thing. Its rattling motor and screeching transmission could probably be heard all the way back to Ljubljana.
Making sure the sniper was covering her, Aunush headed down the shallow slope to the sheltered snowmobiles.
"Well?" she asked the wei.
For some odd reason the man didn't seem quite so gung-ho to chase down Brandt as he was before. Unfortunately, his country's existence depended upon it. Aunush swung her leg over the electric snowmobile's seat and then revved the throttle, although it didn't quite have the same thrill as the purr of a combustion engine. However, the nearly silent motor would still come in handy.
The sniper climbed onto the snowmobile next to her.
Without a look back to the Chinese, they gunned it down the slope. These two mountain peaks dovetailed together. Within minutes hers and Brandt's paths would cross for a final time.
Davidson carefully used his knife to pry the tablet fragment from the surrounding stone while Lopez waved away the smoke from the chalet fire burning beneath them like a cauldron.
"Great hiding place," the corporal coughed.
Which it actually turned out to be. At least for the fragments. For many of the same reasons Lopez chose the chimney to execute his plan, Nikolay had hidden his pieces of the tablets here. Completely inaccessible except from the top of the stone chimney. Who would think to look here? How many had come to this alpine cottage looking for these pieces of the Ten Commandments? Only to leave empty-handed. Davidson dug out the last piece and handed it to Lopez.
"All part of the plan, my friend," the corporal grinned.
Even though Davidson no longer had an eyebrow to raise, Lopez got the message.
"Still," the corporal pressed, "it's pretty damned cool."
Yes, it was. Davidson couldn't argue, but now they had to move into phase two of the plan. Which happened to be about five times shakier than phase one.
Lopez's face lit up however. "Let's do this!"
"Tree!" Rebecca screamed from behind the him.
But Brandt couldn't do jack shit about it. Streaking backward down the mountainside with absolutely no steering was turning out to be, well, challenging.
The Bombardier hit the damned tree, throwing everyone forward and then back as the vehicle spun sharply, continuing its runaway course down the slope. Spinning, the winter world went by them in circles.
A windshield shattered. Did a stray branch break? Then the window next to Rebecca cracked, in the perfect shape of a bullet hole.
Fuck.
"Stay down!"
Fighting vertigo, Brandt tried to spot the shooter. There. Coming from the left. A snowmobile. Where the hell was the sound though? Several other snowmobiles crested the ridge, angling straight for them.
Using the point of his elbow to clear the rest of the window, Brandt fired, but as they spun away he was sure he'd missed. "Talli!"
"Working it," the shooter said as he leaned over Harvish, leveling his rifle against the blown-out driver's-side window frame.
Not bothering to wait for the vehicle to make the full turn, Brandt fired, hitting a snowmobile in the ass. Compensating for the arc, Brandt fired again, hitting the snowmobile's flank again.
Why the hell wasn't the gas tank blowing?
Another snowmobile cut across his path. Brandt fired, but more importantly studied the vehicle. No wonder they weren't exploding as they should. They had no fucking gas tank to explode. The fuckers were electric.
From the other side of the Bombardier, Talli fired, but it seemed no use as a swarm of silent snow gnats surrounded them. Flitting side to side. Small and maneuverable.
Unlike the spinning Bombardier that might as well have been a barn door with a huge bull's-eye painted on it. And with no steering ability whatsoever, there were absolutely no evasive maneuvers to be had.
They were so screwed.
Brandt still fired though. Keeping in mind this was all part of the plan.
A horrible, horrible plan, but still a plan.
"Brandt!" Rebecca screamed.
He jerked around to find a snowmobile right alongside the back window. Brandt could never fire in time, yet a shot rang out as bright red blood stained the guy's chest. The snowmobile veered off, heading toward the trees.
Brandt found Harvish, his gun arm across Talli's back. "Figured if I couldn't steer, I might as well shoot."
Good figuring. Before he could thank his point man, the other six gnats seemed intent on revenging their fallen comrade.
Hell if Brandt was going to let that happen.
Davidson gulped air, trying to catch his breath as he slid down the mountainside. Literally slid. The metal shield beneath his knees barely skimming the powdery snow.
"Shield boarding!" Lopez yelled above the wind whipping at them.
Great. Another extreme sport. Davidson's fingers ached from the cold as they gripped the shield's leather straps. This wasn't just shield boarding, but doing so at a nearly ninety-degree downward angle. By the YDS mountain grading system? The system that warned skiers of how dangerous a trail was. This slope would be rated a triple, triple X.
Death is imminent even if fully prepared, would have been the warning. And he and Lopez were anything but.
Teeth chattering, Davidson leaned a tiny bit to the left, guiding his path to avoid a mogul up ahead. Of course Lopez hotdogged it, sliding up the side and then flipping back down next to Davidson.
"Ha!" Lopez announced. "I'd like to see Shaun White try that!"
So would Davidson since it would mean he would not have to be streaking down the mountain next to the Olympian. He would be safely and warmly watching from a safe distance away.
Davidson eyed a slope that more gently made its way down the mountain, but he knew they couldn't take it. Not if they wanted to fulfill Lopez's plan. Of course they didn't even know if the rest of the team was still alive. They just had to go on faith.
Make that go full speed ahead.
Leaning down, making his shape more aerodynamic, Davidson pulled ahead of Lopez as the corporal cursed. If they were going to do this, they might as well make it interesting.
Aunush laid the snowmobile up on one strut, letting the metal undercarriage take the bullet meant for her. Damned if Brandt and his team weren't making the most of firing from a circling vehicle. They were simply laying down arcing fire. Like a large metallic porcupine.
And given what had happened to the last man who tried to approach the vehicle to fire directly inside, none of the Chinese had dared venture closer. And she was not about to commit her sniper to such a foolhardy move.
His strength was long-range kills. Close-quarter was her specialty. And patience. The Chinese were busy firing, taking tiny bites out of the vehicle.
Why bother?
They had a lot of mountain to still cover. And given the reckless course Brandt's team was taking, she probably didn't need to lift a finger to herald their end. They seemed quite capable of killing themselves.
A scream from one of the forward men brought her attention forward. The man struggled to try to change course and then he was just...gone.
"There's nothing!" Rebecca called out, not bothering to cover her panic.
"Where did they go?" Brandt asked, still firing.
"No," Rebecca corrected, she wasn't talking about the snowmobiles. "There's nothing ahead."
Just a blushing sky with nothing on the horizon but air. The Bombardier's spin brought Brandt's window to the same view. His firing stopped.
"Fuck."
Rebecca had to agree.
The end of the world approached. Even the pings of their assailant's gunfire stopped as they pulled to a halt before they too reached the edge of the abyss.
Bunny grabbed her hand as they turned from watching through the back window to the front.
There was ground beneath them. Then there wasn't.
They were airborne. Really, truly airborne. There was nothing under their struts but air. And unfortunately this wasn't the end of the world. No, the ground was still there. It was just about fifty feet below.
She swallowed hard as Bunny's fingernails dug into her skin. Rebecca wanted to shut her eyes, however the sight was beautiful. The dawn brought the sun peeking out from the storm clouds, and the mountain below was dressed in a pristine white shawl. Perhaps this is what heaven looked like. All they needed was a bit of harp music to accompany their flight.
Then the beauty faded as the snow-covered slope came rushing at them.
"Heads down!" Brandt ordered.
But Rebecca couldn't comply. Instead she watched as they hurled to the ground, hitting hard with their forward struts as they slammed into the snow, rattling them down to their marrow. One of the metal bars broke like a twig, flying off as the rear of the Bombardier landed with a boom.
They swerved to the right and then to the left, but they were on their way again. Actually facing the right way. No spinning.
A roar filled the vehicle as the rest vented their relief. All except she and Brandt. They locked eyes. He reached a hand out. She went to accept it except Harvish whooped, "I've got steering back!"
The point man went to correct their erratic course, but Brandt stopped him.
"No," he said. "Let them think we're still a runaway."
Given their haphazard path, that was not going to be difficult to prove.
Aunush clamped down hard on the throttle, revving the engine until it shook beneath her. She released the brake, gripping the vehicle with her knees as she shot out, gaining speed until her snowmobile carried her over the edge.
Burying her heels against the floorboard, Aunush pulled up on the nose. Her arms shook with the effort as the world flew by, but she had to land at the apex point of the struts or she would not be as lucky as Brandt. His vehicle was solid steel. And even it couldn't take the punishment of that landing whole. Aunush wouldn't just break a strut. She'd break a neck.
The ground came way faster than it should have, but she brought the snowmobile down on both struts. Of course she nearly broke both wrists doing it.
Pulling out of the landing, Aunush glanced over her shoulders. Her sniper cleared over head, landing a good ten meters forward, and he was already speeding off. The wei wobbled in the air yet somehow managed to land his snowmobile and move out. The next two men were not quite so lucky.
Neither could get their noses up high enough. The first one plowed face-first into the mountainside and then flipped on top of himself. He didn't move. The other flew from his snowmobile, luckily landing in a thick snowbank. He scrambled up, righting his vehicle.
Up top the remaining three men skidded to a stop, not making the leap.