The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection With EXCLUSIVE Post-Shiva Short Story (162 page)

A Disciple trying to get out from under a death sentence clearly wasn’t enough.

Brandt caught Rebecca’s eye. “You really think we’re going to find a Disciple stronghold in a Buddhist temple in Thailand?”

Rebecca shrugged. “There is a strong Jewish tradition in the area.”

He put up a hand to stop her from going on. She would list the number of temples and synagogues in the area, and Brandt had already given the green light for the mission. He did not need to hear it again. Hence why they were climbing up the back of the mountain.

Of course, there were steps that rose up the other side of the mountain, but those would be guarded. The backside, however, climbing up and out of the jungle? Not so much. Or, at least, that is what they hoped.

A huge gilded Buddha looked down upon them, as if frowning at their intrusion. Brandt however didn’t feel like the real Buddha would be any too thrilled that one of his temples was being used as a cover for the Disciples, though. Brandt didn’t know much about Buddhism, but he doubted the guy would have appreciated the Disciples’ brutal methods.

“Slow and steady, Lopez,” Brandt reminded his corporal as they climbed back into position.

“Yes, I want you around when I screw myself out of a job,” Prenner, their new point man, said. He wasn’t wrong. Not that Brandt thought that Prenner would mind all that much. He’d only taken the job because he had the clearance and the training. Prenner was on a career track up the chain of command, and probably only viewed this time in the field as a favor.

“If, of course,
you
survive,” Lopez said. Their team did have a bit of a bad reputation and life expectancy for point men. Hopefully, that streak ended today.

“Let’s be optimistic,” Brandt said as Lopez took his place, “and move out again.”

Before resuming his ascent, Brandt glanced over his shoulder to the thick jungle that surrounded the mountain. Davidson was out there somewhere, waiting for the signal to provide sniper support. Brandt hoped they wouldn’t need it. However, he was usually disappointed each time.

“Great honeymoon,” Rebecca said, as she wiped her brow of sweat.

“I know how to treat a lady,” Brandt replied.

That was the best part about Rebecca. Not only did she not complain that he had to go to Thailand, but she had insisted on coming. Knowing his team, while chasing the Disciples, they
would
find some ancient text that needed ASAP translating.

And that was his girl.

She beamed back at him. “It’ll be good to have the band back together.”

“Yes, it will,” Brandt agreed, noticing that climbing up behind Rebecca had some extra bonuses. Maybe they could make a stop off at the Krabi peninsula for some actual R&R. “But this Buddhist temple isn’t going to get climbed on its own.”

“Technically, it is a Taoist temple,” a voice in his ear reminded him. Bunny. She and Stark, their new technical support team, were back in DC, monitoring the area from a satellite in geo-synchronized orbit.

“Whichever, it is a damned hard climb,” Lopez complained from above.

“Move it, Talli,” Rebecca teased.

“Ouch, that hurt,” Lopez said, clutching his heart. “Am I really complaining that much?”

“Yes,” both she and Brandt said at the same time.

Prenner moved them out, setting quite the pace up the slick vertical surface. Even Brandt was a bit winded after that climb. Stepping out onto the ledge, Brandt was brought face to face with a golden Buddha, his belly sticking out into Brandt’s face. There was a small ledge around the statue, where everyone waited for him to bring up the rear.

“Bunny, you’re sure this is the wall?”

“All I can say is behind that wall is a heat signature that hasn’t moved from the room in the last forty-eight hours,” Bunny replied.

“Do it,” Brandt instructed Prenner. The man rapidly smeared the wall behind the Buddha with C-4. “Secure yourselves,” he ordered the rest of them.

While directional, the blast would still rock this little alcove, and he didn’t want any of them flinging off the side of the cliff. Especially not his bride.

* * *

Rebecca placed the rivet gun against the wall and braced herself for the recoil. Pulling the trigger, the climbing mechanism shot a ring into the wall. Brandt tugged on it to make sure it was well secured. He reached around and grabbed the loop on her belt and snapped it on.

Some guys bought roses. Brandt made sure she stayed alive. Flowers really were overrated.

As the other men prepared for the blast, Rebecca took a picture of the wall. It was lined with passages of ancient Buddhist writing.

“Bunny, are you getting this?”

“I’ll have the Sanskrit translated in a few moments.”

They were still looking for ties between the Buddhists in the area and the Disciples.

“Ear protection in,” Brandt reminded her.

Popping the ear plugs in, Rebecca nodded that she was prepared.

Prenner secured himself beside her. “Ready.”

“Bunny, where is the heat signature?”

“Toward the front of the cell.”

This was the dicey part of the operation. They were going to blow into the room through the back wall, however they couldn’t exactly warn Levont of that fact.

“Detonate,” Brandt ordered.

Prenner hit the button and the mountain shook with the blast. The Buddha tipped forward, falling out of his ancient home. The statue bounced on his head, then rear, then head, hurling toward the jungle below.

Then a loud crack sounded above Rebecca. The rock face began to split, heading right for her piston. Once the fissure reached her, the metal loop fell out of the mountain.

She did
not
want to follow the Buddha down. Luckily, Brandt’s arms wrapped around her waist.

“I’ve got you.”

That he did.

* * *

Making sure that Rebecca had her footing, Brandt moved to the hole they had blasted in the wall. Prenner was right there, ready to burst into the room. Brandt gave the signal to move in.

With swift efficiency, the point man checked the cell.

“Clear,” Prenner reported.

Lopez and Brandt were in right behind, to find a man, an
Asian
man, looking very worried. Definitely not Levont.

“Bunny, what the fuck?”

“Double-checking the footage from the last few days.”

Prenner rapidly flipped through a variety of dialects until he found one the man understood. The two talked rapidly, then Prenner turned to Brandt.

“He is hiding out here from the Chinese. The Buddhists gave him sanctuary.”

“God damn it,” Brandt cursed, trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

The Disciple captive that had given them this information was so getting executed.

Brandt nodded toward the door. “We might as well go out the front door, then.”

Prenner cracked the door open, checking the hallway, then slipped out of the room. Lopez was about to follow when a gunshot rang out.

“Gun!” Prenner yelled, quite unnecessarily.

Everyone retreated back into the room as they returned fire.

“That’s got to be the Disciples,” Lopez noted.

“Which means Levont might be here,” Brandt finished for him. He seriously doubted that the Buddhists had suddenly decided automatic weapons were cool.

“Bunny?”

* * *

Brandt did realize that you couldn’t pull intelligence out of your butt, right?

“Bunny!”

Apparently not.

“Stark,” Bunny snapped, passing on Brandt’s agitation.

“Three doors to the left, a person has been taken out of the room in the morning and returned in the evening.”

“Brandt, it looks like we may have a secondary target. Three doors to your left.”

“Copy that,” he responded. “We will go lateral.”

They watched on the screen as the point man prepped the left wall and blew it. Once through, he repeated the process again.

Prenner pointed to the screen. “They can’t just blow that one.”

“Brandt, the subject is right on the other side of the wall.”

“Copy that,” was his brusque answer.

Bunny wished there was more to do than just watch as the team gathered in the center of the room as gunfire flashed a bright red on the screen. The Disciples were closing in.

* * *

“We are going to have to go into the hallway,” Brandt stated, even though the men had probably figured that out already. Not that staying in the room was much safer. Lopez was laying down cover fire behind them, keeping the Disciples at bay.

“On the count of three,” Brandt stated.

Prenner grabbed the doorknob.

“Bunny, how many in the hall?” Brandt asked.

“Four.”

“You okay with this?” Brandt asked his new point man.

“Yes, sir.”

He might be new, but he seemed to have the guts to take this on.

Counting down with his fingers, Brandt finally clenched his fist and Prenner burst into the hallway, firing as he went.

Lopez, creeping low, went out behind him. This wasn’t their first dance. Brandt kept Rebecca tucked under him as they made their way into the hallway. Lopez opened the door and they all rushed in behind him.

Brandt really should have been more worried about the Disciples in the hallway, but all eyes were on the dark-skinned man in the bed.

“Levont!” Lopez yelled, rushing over to the man.

It was hard to be sure. The man’s face had been worked over pretty badly.

Fucking Disciples.

“I held out for twenty-four hours, Sarge,” the man croaked.

“I know you did,” Brandt reassured him. One of the reasons they were pretty sure Levont was still alive was the fact that someone had tried to access their private files with Levont’s personal codes. No harm done, though, since after a member of the team went AWOL, all codes were changed. All Special Forces were trained to hold out that first day so that the codes could be changed. Once that day went by, though, you were free to give over any operational information necessary to keep yourself alive.

“Can you walk?” Brandt asked.

“I wish,” Levont said, the flash of a bright smile dividing his dark face. Even tortured for weeks, the guy still beamed hope.

“We’ve got a broken tibia,” Lopez noted. “But I think the fibula is intact.”

“Splint it, and we’ll get him out.”

Brandt nodded to Prenner. “Guess we go lateral again.”

* * *

Bunny shook her head, even though Brandt couldn’t see her. “No, I think you should go down.”

“Down?”

“Yeah, there is another level of rooms below you.”

“Tell him it looks like a food storage room,” Stark stated. “People only go in there around meal time.”

Bunny relayed the info. She didn’t get anything other than another “Copy that” from Brandt. Which was about what she would expect from the man of few words. On screen, someone kneeled down, most likely smearing the C-4 they were going to need.

Then everyone backed away from the center of the room. The room went red at the detonation, then everyone was jumping down into the room below.

“Get them the quickest way out,” Bunny instructed Stark.

“I’ve already got it,” Stark’s mother announced. “Out the door and to the right, then their first left. Take the hallway all the way down and that will take them to the main temple area. Through the courtyard and they will be on the steps.”

“They are going to be sitting ducks, though,” Stark noted.

“That’s what Davidson is for,” Bunny stated, worried about the same thing.

“One man against all the Disciples in there?”

“Well, if it were any man, it would be Davidson,” Bunny stated, even if she was more than a little biased.

* * *

Rebecca watched as Lopez pulled the pin on a grenade. “A little present for the bastards who did this.”

He tossed it through the hole in the ceiling just as the men rushed in from the hallway.

Rebecca turned away as it went off. She’d seen too often what a grenade could do.

“Let’s move,” Brandt ordered.

Lopez put one of Levont’s arms around his shoulder. Rebecca took the other. They didn’t make great time. Even with his leg splinted, Levont was weak and heavy. It was hard to see the vibrant man brought so low. Although he didn’t seem to notice.

“I knew you’d miss me,” Levont teased Lopez.

“You’re the only one who gets my jokes,” Lopez shot back, even as he tried to hurry the injured man along.

“That’s absolutely true,” Brandt said. “However, let’s move this along.”

They followed Bunny’s instructions and made it out into the temple proper. Rebecca would love to linger to soak in the beauty of the place—except for, you know, the Disciples hot on their trail. As they rushed along, Rebecca snapped as many pictures with her phone as possible.

The ceilings were inlaid with red and gold, whereas the floors were a glossy hardwood. Of course, a giant gold Buddha sat at the front of the temple, atop a dais. Dozens of orange-robed monks were kneeling before it in morning meditation. Despite the fact that there had been several explosions and a group of Westerners were hurrying through, very few of the men even raised their heads, let alone rose.

Which was fine by Rebecca. The less they had to explain, the better.

Footsteps sounded behind them. The Disciples had figured out their route and were hot on their tails, catching up with every step. It probably was only Lopez’s grenade lob that had slowed them down. The enemy did not want to walk into another trap like that.

Prenner hit the wide stone doors of the temple and rushed through them.

Brandt closed the doors behind, although Rebecca wasn’t quite sure what good they would do. Prenner was headed down the slick, wide stone steps already.

“I hope Davidson is as good as Bunny thinks he is,” the point man said.

Levont smiled. “Oh, he is.”

* * *

Davidson hauled ass up the tree as fast as he could, but with leaves in his face and branches whacking him in the back of his head, that was a little difficult.

“The Disciples are almost to the front door. The entire team will be exposed,” Bunny said in his ear.