Encrypted (37 page)

“Hey, I’m number five in the world.”

The pilot grinned. “I’m number one.”

Okay. This is going to be fun.

She aimed and fired the ray gun directly in the path of the oncoming plane. The burst must have caught the navigation system
.
T
he plane
zigged
to the left
, and
then
zagged
to the right,
and t
hen upward. Ronnie lost sight
of
the plane
as it
climbed past their view.

“All right,” Ronnie stated as the chase helicopter tilted forward
,
advancing on their injured chopper. “Let’s see what Mr. Comanche-Number-One can do.”

CHAPTER 16

Somewhere over Mexico

10:40
a
.
m
.,
MST

Ah, that pilot and his joystick. Quirk was so very glad
that
Ronnie was finally beginning to understand his new man. Just the way he gritted that cigar between his teeth sent shivers up Quirk’s back. Either that
,
or the constant vibration of the strained metal had settled into his joints.

The pilot looked
at
Ronnie
,
then nodded to
ward
the gun turret. “Even number one could use some help
,
”
he said.

Quirk raised an eyebrow. Ronnie?
On a machine gun?
Sure
,
the woman slayed at video games, but live ammo? However
,
poor super
-
Special Agent Hunter still looked nauseated and perhaps a bit dizzy.

“Keep them busy,” Quirk said to Ronnie
,
who was strapping into the gun seat. He looked down
at
the ray gun. “I might be able to get another
wa
llop
out of this baby.”

Quirk sat down next to the FBI agent as the helicopter tilted at a forty-five degree angle. Their thighs brushed one another. Normally
,
Quirk would have made a great witty comment
,
but Zach looked ready to hurl. And while Quirk loved witty repartee, he loved cleaning off his shoes less.

“How about a forward, circle, right?” Ronnie asked the pilot.

Quirk had absolutely no idea what his boss meant. He usually kept earbuds in when she played
,
p
referring some Lady Gaga or
Lady
Antebellum to the screeching sounds of war. Of course
,
the irony of actually now
being
in the screeching sounds of war did not escape Quirk. Maybe next time
,
he would pay slightly better attention to Ronnie’s hobbies.

The pilot, not surpris
ed
in the least, seemed to know exactly what Ronnie was talking about
.
He
reversed course and dropped enough altitude for Quirk’s booty to come off the seat. Ronnie took advantage of the situation, shooting at the chase helicopter’s belly. But the other pilot must have also been a high-ranking member of the Comanche club
,
because he slid out of range.

Zach’s hands gripped the seat beside Quirk. The guy was green.
Literally green.
Quirk would normally take the time to comfort such a fine
-
looking man,
but
,
you know, they were in the middle of a firefight.

“X, square, left, left,” the pilot bellowed.

Quirk couldn’t take the time
,
though
,
to watch the aftermath of his action
s
. Quirk had an EM
-
burst ray gun to fix. The energy stores were virtually nonexistent. As close as that other chopper was, Quirk wouldn’t need much juice to create a burst to take out their equipment.

As their helicopter swerved and dipped and lunged, Quirk calibrated the gun. The power level inched up from red to orange. If he could scrape up enough to get into the yellow zone…

Glancing out the door, Quirk realized
that
they would not
have
the luxury for even yellow as the other chopper barreled toward them.

“Don’t worry!” Quirk shouted, jumping up and pointing the gun out the door.

* * *

“No!” Ronnie cried out.

Zach ignored his churning stomach and launched for Quirk. But her assistant aimed and fired. Unfortunately
,
this was exactly the same moment
that
their pilot turned the chopper hard…into the pulse.

Even though
he
couldn’t see the beam, Zach felt its effects immediately on their craft. While never a steady ride, the chopper now streaked through the sky completely
unhelmed
. Zach could feel his stomach crawl
ing
into his throat.

And the other chopper was no better. It
lay
over on it side, careening toward them.

“Damn it!” the pilot cursed as he struggled with the controls, hitting
each
and every button—
none of which responded.

“But we were losing!” Quirk demanded
,
as the other chopper crossed in front of them, missing a collision by inches.

“Losing?” the pilot demanded as he wrestled
with
the joystick.

Ronnie climbed out of the gun seat, yanking on equipment. “We weren’t losing. We were baiting him for a triangle, circle, right, square maneuver.”

Zach was clueless, and Quirk looked even less informed.

She huffed as she lifted a large case out from
under
the seat. “We were going to take out his rear blade!”

“Oh
,
crap,” Quirk said
,
and
then
knelt
by the case.

“What are you doing?” Zach asked as the two hackers worked frantically.

“Our equipment was completely shielded
,
so we are going to interface with the chopper’s
—
”

“We don’t have time for this crap!” the pilot growled.

To punctuate his words, the chase chopper plowed into a hillside, flaring brightly
—
even in full sunlight. Smoke billowed from the crash site. Zach stared into the fire. Was Grant burning right now? And did he care?

It turned out, with pain lancing his side, that Zach distinctly did not.

Quirk dragged cabling to the pilot’s seat. “Oh, darling, you haven’t seen how fast I can work. Now spread
’
em
.”

Had Quirk said that to him, Zach thought
,
there would have been no
spreading.
Either the pilot really was as into Quirk as Quirk thought, or the man knew what Quirk needed
,
for he did readjust for the skinny assistant to get between his legs to the control panel.

Zach grabbed hold of a metal handle as the chopper lost more and more and more altitude. And that ridge up ahead was getting closer and closer and closer.

“Now!” Quirk yelled.

The pilot grabbed the joystick with both hands and pulled upward. At first
,
the chopper didn’t respond
,
but as the sparsely vegetated hillside flew at them, the vehicle lurched upward as the rotors suddenly kicked into gear. They skimmed over the ridge close enough to yank out some weeds, but they skimmed over nonetheless.

But once over the hill, the chopper again sputtered. Good thing
that
they were heading toward a valley
, because
the blades stopped
thump, thump, thumping
overhead.

“What’s wrong?” Ronnie demanded.

“Nothing!” Quirk insisted. “I’m patched in.”

The pilot shoved the two toward the back of the chopper. “It’s not the electronics.”

“Then what
—
?
”

“We’re out of gas,” the pilot said spitting out that chewed
-
up wad of cigar.

“Oh
,
crap,” Ronnie said
,
whirling around. “Everyone get strapped in!”

Zach was already ahead of her, pulling the straps over his head and latching them at his waist. Ronnie bounced off the bulkhead
and
slid in sideways to her seat. Her eyes spoke the fifteen million apologies that seemed on the tip of her tongue. He wanted to comfort her
and r
eassure her that none of it
was
her fault, but he didn’t have time.

Instead
,
he smiled.
A warm smile.
A real smile.
If they were going to die, it would be together.

“This really is going down as the lamest rescue attempt in the history of rescue attempts
,
”
Zach said.

The guilt that haunted her eyes cleared as she strapped
herself
in. “But come on, shouldn’t we get an ‘A’ for effort?”

Zach leaned in. Yes, she should get an
A
,
and a whole lot more. The space between them closed. He could smell the kiwi in her hair. She
had
laugh lines at the corner
s
of her eyes
that
he had always
imagined
would be right there
, c
rinkling for him.

Her lips parted. Finally
,
he would get to taste
—

“Hang on!” the pilot yelled as the helicopter tilted precariously forward, throwing them all against their restraints.

* * *

Ronnie’s hand lashed out
,
grabbing hold of Zach’s. The ground was now like a bull’s
-
eye for the chopper. The only good thing from their staggering, limping,
and
erratic flight was they didn’t have much altitude.

How many tons of metal were about to hit
—
with how many pounds of pressure? She would have done the calculations in her head except for, you know
—
they were about to find out.

This was it.

She squeezed Zach’s hand. How
Ronnie
wanted to clench her eyes closed
,
but the sight before
her
refused to let them close.

The blades hit first. The metal screeching as they bent askew
,
which
,
by some sheer
,
dumb luck
,
toppled them over so
that
the gears and roof took the brunt of the collision. The chopper rolled,
and
the torque threaten
ed
to tear the straps that held them in. But in a burst of shattered glass and twisted steel,
it gro
aned
to a halt.

“Get out!” The pilot yelled.

Ronnie fumbled with her latch. Her fingers
were
numb from gripping Zach so tightly. He helped her with the buckle as the pilot opened the side door.

“Now!”

In a tangle of limbs
,
they all scrambled out as cut wires sparked and popped. They ra
n and
stumbled as many yards as they could before the chopper blew. The force knock
ed
them all to the ground.

Ronnie lay there for a moment, making sure
that
she could feel all her limbs.
I
t wasn’t just shock telling her that she had survived the crash. But the aches and shooting pain
s
from every quarter of her body confirmed that she was, in fact, alive. Rolling onto her back, she scanned the area. Everyone else looked tattered all to hell, but alive as well.

Zach helped her
to
sit up. God
,
he looked like hell. Probably just a good reflection of how well she had fared.