The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection With EXCLUSIVE Post-Shiva Short Story (95 page)

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.

The
wei
shouted something in Chinese. She wasn’t sure if he was scolding them or gave them orders to find another way down as the men pulled away from the ledge and disappeared from sight. The
wei
certainly acted as if they were obeying orders.

Either way they were down to eight.

Not the number she wanted going into this chase.

Although that did mean fewer to clean up after their victory.

That truly was Aunush’s gift.

To always see the silver lining in situations.

* * *

Brandt fired at the advancing snowmobiles. This certainly was easier going straight. Or at least straight-ish. And they’d lost almost a third of their pursuers. Today? That was a freaking win.

However, no matter how much they kept the enemy at bay, this was a game of attrition. The enemy couldn’t miss the Bombardier. A blind man with Parkinson’s couldn’t miss the vehicle. And with the glistening snow spreading out in all directions, exactly how could they ever get away from those fleet, silent snowmobiles?

As a bullet ricocheted off the side of the car and embedded itself in the roof, Brandt looked to the path ahead.

“Rebecca?” he asked.

She put up a hand. Not rude, just letting him know she understood his urgency, but pestering her was not going to help. He glanced to the topographical map they’d found at Nikolay’s. The man had charted the area down to the last crevice.

The architect better have been accurate or they were dead.

“Inch us to the left,” Brandt told Harvish, “but make it look accidental.”

The Bombardier sluggishly drifted left, snow flying into their windshield from the broken strut. Brandt watched as their trail of snowmobiles followed suit, shifting to the left. He noticed they didn’t send any chase vehicles in front of them, at least not after that last jump.

That was okay. He just needed them close.

“Talli,” Brandt instructed, “act like your gun jammed.” He turned to his point man. “Harvish, really make a show trying to get the controls back.”

Brandt kept firing from the right side of the vehicle. They had to make a show of it. The enemy had to believe this pursuit was still in the bag.

“Rebecca?”

“I’d say even a little more west,” she suggested.

Harvish faked a little right like they’d hit a hidden bump before skidding them to the left another few meters.

Brandt paused to reload even though his clip wasn’t exhausted just to tempt his pursuers even closer. They really needed them to take the bait. The contingent behind them surged forward.

“Now!” Rebecca yelled. Harvish made a hard left, nearly tilting them on their side. One of the snowmobiles hit them square in the side. The Bombardier came out of that scrape the better. However, it was the three snowmobiles on the right that got the biggest surprise.

Instead of driving onto sleek snow, they plowed into a rocky outcropping. Two of them crashed into the stone, shattering their vehicles. The other, hanging slightly back, was able to gun in and go up the embankment, flying over the outcropping and landing on top of the fucking Bombardier.

Well, that was not part of the goddamned plan.

* * *

A bullet came through the roof, narrowly missing Rebecca’s torso. Bunny flew back, hitting the side of the vehicle to avoid another spray of bullets. Brandt and Talli fired back, but the damned snowmobile must have been blocking their shots.

“What do I do?” Harvish yelled above the barrage of gunfire.

“Stick to the plan!” Brandt yelled back. He paused in firing as the bullets stopped.

Had they gotten the assailant?

Then automatic weapon sprayed down. Pain shot up Rebecca’s calf as Bunny screamed, slapping her hand over a neck wound.

“Stop!” Brandt cried out.

Harvish slammed on the brakes, flinging the snowmobile out in front of them. The Bombardier chugged right over it, smashing the weaker metal into the snow. Only there wasn’t a body. Rebecca raised her head above the backseat to be sure. Only the snowmobile was gone.

“He’s still up there.”

“Well, motherfucker,” Brandt said as he cocked his gun. “Start dancing.”

Without the snowmobile to shield their assailant, Rebecca could hear the man jumping from foot to foot, trying to avoid the team’s gunfire. Still the assailant fired, making every square inch inside the Bombardier a death trap.

“Fuck this,” Brandt said. Rebecca tried to grab him before he did what she feared he would do.

* * *

Heaving his upper body out of the vehicle, Brandt twisted, bringing his weapon to bear. The assailant must have heard him because he tried to turn to meet the threat, only he was a dime short and a day late.

Normally Brandt would have a problem shooting a man in the back, however a man on top of his vehicle firing an automatic weapon at his team? Yeah, he had no problem shooting this guy. The force of his shots threw the man over the side of the Bombardier.

Ducking back inside the vehicle, before the men on the snowmobiles got any ideas about taking their target practice on him, Brandt clutched the seat in front of him. The Bombardier skidded to the right. Clearly whatever steering control Harvish had was minimal.

“Almost there,” the point man yelled as they approached a narrowing of the snowfield. Rebecca looked behind them. The remaining snowmobiles crowded tighter to fit.

“Everyone down!” Brandt yelled.

Just before his head dipped behind the seat, Brandt witnessed two figures rising from the snow.

* * *

Davidson flung the snow-covered blanket from his shoulders as the Bombardier flew past them. Davidson didn’t waste any time, firing at the trailing snowmobiles. They tried to scatter, but the narrow gap held them in the kill zone.

Lopez shot as well, taking out a snowmobile on his side.

This had been the linchpin of the corporal’s plan. They’d known they were grossly outnumbered and that the enemy must have had far superior equipment, as much as it pained Lopez to admit.

So the corporal had devised a plan to take advantage of their strengths. Apparently their team’s greatest strength was its ability to agree to do some really insane stuff. Even Rebecca and Bunny had signed off on it.

Twisting at the hip, Davidson continued to fire as the last of the snowmobiles passed them. Another enemy fell from his vehicle. A third careened wildly out of control, smashing into the rocks that flanked them.

They hadn’t gotten them all, but now the assailants numbered only three and even those didn’t follow the Bombardier. Instead, they took the first slope heading away from the narrow passage.

“Was that a plan or was that a plan?” Lopez asked as he dug his shield out from the snow.

“Yes it was,” Davidson agreed following suit, claiming his shield. “But we’ve got one more phase before we can call it a success.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Lopez said, running, bent over, pushing his shield in front of him until he got enough speed, and then he hopped onto the metal. “Last one to the bottom buys the brews!”

With a lingering glance over his shoulder in the direction the enemy had fled, Davidson joined the corporal.