The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection With EXCLUSIVE Post-Shiva Short Story (133 page)

“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 fiancée 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 bull–like 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 café 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.

“Rebecca and I were not the only ones making the Viking connection,” Bunny explained. “As a matter of fact, we followed this article—
The Found Tribe of Dann: Did the Scales of Justice Migrate as Far as Newfoundland?
”

From the blank look on both of their faces, Bunny was pretty sure neither Prenner nor Emily was well schooled in ancient Jewish studies.

“Dann is one of the ‘lost tribes.’ As a matter of fact, it was the northernmost tribe of Israel until they got booted out of the Holy Land by the Canaans.” Off of their blank expressions, Bunny asked, “Ring a bell?”

“Vaguely,” Emily answered.

Great. They wanted quick answers, but it was going to take Bunny a semester to get them up to speed.

Prenner leaned back in his chair. “I think we get the whole lost tribe thing. Those Jewish tribes disappeared from the historical record after the Canaans invaded. But why the focus on the Dann tribe? Isn’t it as lost as the others?”

“All right, this is a bit more obscure but all the more important for it,” Bunny said as she brought up the passage Rebecca had found. “The legions of Dann…” Bunny stopped to explain. “Dann was the second-largest tribe.” She restarted. “The legions of Dann will leap from
Bashan
to become those prophesized.”

Bunny looked up. “So you can see why we were so interested.”

“No,” Prenner said with a chuckle. Maybe the guy
was
human. “Not at all.”

“Bashan is to the
east
,” Bunny emphasized. Still, they didn’t seem to get it. And people called
her
an airhead. She brought up a map of ancient Israel. “The Danns settled to the far north. That passage makes absolutely no sense. The Danns had never been granted or settled land to the east. And not a single scholar knows why the passage clearly says they would come from the east.”

“Okay…” Emily said. “I am sure that just gets religious scholars’ panties in a bunch. However, I am with Prenner in that I still don’t
care
.”

“Well, Nyura Massari would certainly disagree,” Bunny said as she brought up the Viking article again. “He has brought together a huge amount of research on the Jewish tribes and where their genetic markers have spread across the globe. He has spent his whole life trying to track down the Dann tribe.”

“I am sure Rebecca is fascinated by this stuff—”

Bunny cut off Emily. “It is more than academic minutia. You really don’t see it?”

The woman cocked her head, squinting her eyes. The CIA operative clearly did not like being behind the curve. You could see her mind trying to unwind the mystery. Finally, Bunny put her out of her misery and pointed to the author of the article’s name.

“Massari? It means ‘Egyptian’ in Arabic,” Bunny explained. “It is the equivalent of saying you are Mr. Smith.”

“So he is using a false last name?” Prenner clarified.

“Oh yeah,” Bunny said as she brought up the letters and shuffled them. “But when you shake them just a bit, you get…Saramias.”

Emily sucked in a breath and stepped back from the laptop.

“What?” Prenner said. “What am I missing?”

Bunny smiled, then looked to Emily. “Should I tell him, or will you?”

Emily just waved her off as she opened her phone and walked toward the corner of the café.

Bunny turned her attention to the lieutenant. “Saramias is Aunush’s last name. I believe the author of that article is Aunush’s father—apparently the only person to ever get away from the Disciples. Of course, until
us
.”

Stark looked over his shoulder. “Why do you think he isn’t
with
the Disciples?”

“You do not publish work on the genetics of ancient Jewish genes showing up in current populations if you are with the Disciples.”