His rifle kicked against his shoulder, the sound of the gunshot muffled by the suppressor to a harsh cough. Both of the sentries jerked together, collapsing into one another and then tumbling off of the boulder.
Dean pulled the tech-Ghillie straps off his wrists and ankles, got to his feet, and started toward the cave at a fast trot. He was in full view of the people near the derrick now, but all of them were focused on the activity around the borehole.
“Target two sees you,” Akulinin said. “Taking the shot …”
Dean glanced up at the crater rim to the west in time to see the lone sentry silhouetted against the sky, saw him raising his rifle … then toppling backward and falling out of sight.
“Good shot,” Dean told Akulinin under his breath. He ran faster, staying in deep shadow and moving from boulder to boulder to minimize his exposure, but no longer staying out of sight. Speed, now, was more important than stealth.
“I’ve got the others covered, Charlie.
Reaching the boulder in front of the cave entrance, Dean stopped, checked to make sure no one was looking in his direction, then dragged the two bodies and their weapons around behind another boulder resting close to the side of the cliff. That might buy a few more minutes, depending on how frequently the bad guys checked up on their sentries.
Then, still in shadow, he started for the lava tube entrance.
25
I’m waiting, Cathy. If you prefer, the guard will put a bullet through your right knee. It will then hurt a
Lia evaluated her chances. If she dove for al-Dahabi and tried to grapple with him, she
But then what? She was bigger than al-Dahabi, and younger … but she’d spent the past twenty-some hours tied to a chair, and both the adrenaline surge of the past few minutes and the beating had left her shaking and weak. Even if she did take him down, she would be no match, then, for the two armed Tangos on the other side of the chamber.
Besides, she now noticed that al-Dahabi also had a gun, a holstered pistol on his right hip. Jumping him would be suicide.
She decided to keep stalling. If she could keep him talking …
The danger lay in the possibility that he would become impatient and move on to the next level of force in this psychological game.
“No!” she cried. “Why should I make it easy for you, you bastard? You’re just going to torture me anyway!”
“I
“You’re still going to kill me!”
He shrugged. “Perhaps. But … cooperate, and I might see if I can intercede with Major Feng. He’s not a monster, after all. I think he likes you. He might let you live.”
The lie was so transparent she very nearly laughed in his face.
She battled to keep her face frozen, empty of expression. She’d just seen … was that
The two guards were watching her with wide, hungry eyes, their backs to the entrance.
“Okay!” she cried. “Please, please just don’t hurt me!” She started fumbling at her belt.
Dean eased into the widening of the lava tube, all of his senses at a heightened pitch. He saw Lia in the pool of light ahead, facing him, and felt a surge of relief. Her face was bruised and bloody, but she appeared to be standing on her own, at least. To the left was the Palestinian, an old man standing with arms folded beside a steel table. Directly in front of Dean were two guards, their backs to the entrance, watching Lia undress.
If he shot them, a convulsive muscle contraction might close a trigger finger and kill Lia.
The two guards and the old man turned to face him.
Lia heard Charlie’s shrill yell, an echoing battle cry, and saw the startled guards spin to face him. Immediately, she launched herself at al-Dahabi, who’d also turned to face Dean and was groping at his hip for his holstered sidearm. Dean’s rifle fired, a sharp chuff of sound, and the back of a guard’s head exploded in a scarlet spray.
She struck al-Dahabi from the side just as he started to pull his sidearm clear, slamming him back into the portable table, upending it with a clattering crash, then continuing on until Lia, al-Dahabi, and the table all smashed into the light stand.
The light toppled, flared, and went dark with a loud pop.
There was neither room nor time for subtlety. Lia raised her arm, then slammed her elbow down against the side of al-Dahabi’s head. The man beneath her screamed, dragging his pistol up, twisting beneath her. She elbowed his temple again, then again, but he turned his head and her last blow caught him squarely in the nose with a gush of blood.
She kept hitting him, kicking and kneeing him, slamming his head and face with her elbows and knees as the pistol hit the stone floor and clattered away into the near-darkness.
She felt a hand close on her shoulder and spun, still fighting.
“
Her breath coming in savage, rapid gasps, she stared up into Dean’s face for a moment, still ready to kill—
“Charlie?”
“It’s okay, Lia. It’s me.”
She let him pull her back from al-Dahabi. Dean knelt and probed the interrogator’s throat with two fingers. “He’s dead. Nice hand-to-hand technique.”
She shuddered. “Thank God you got here!”
“What’s with the striptease?”
She glared at him. “Don’t you dare even joke about that!”
“Sorry.” Dean looked away, checking the darkened chamber. Enough light was filtering in from the entrance to to show shapes and dark shadows. Both guards, Lia saw, were dead, sprawled in growing pools of blood. She hadn’t even heard Dean kill the second one. “Just those three?”
“Yes.”
“Are you okay to walk?”
“I think so.”
“Get dressed. We need to get the hell out of Dodge.”
