Brainrush 03 - Beyond Judgment (37 page)

Tony cleared his throat, “Uh…sorry, but we gotta go.”

“Yeah,” Jake said with a sigh. “I figured.”

Ahmed moved around from behind Tony, and Francesca’s muscles tightened when she saw the submachine gun slung from his shoulder.

“What is that?” she asked.

He pulled the weapon up to his chest and held it as if it were second nature to him. He answered the question as a soldier would a drill sergeant. “It’s an M4 carbine. Standard SAS patrol weapon. It is a gas-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed, selective-fire, shoulder-fired weapon with a telescoping stock. It fires a 5.56mm NATO round and—”

She cut him off. “That’s not what I meant!” she scolded. “I mean, what are
you
doing with it?”

He didn’t shrivel under her glare. Instead, he remained calm. “This was issued to me. I’ve been training with it all night.”

She’d heard frequent bouts of gunfire since they’d been onboard. She’d assumed that it had been Becker’s troops getting warmed up for what was to come. It had never occurred to her that Ahmed was involved. Tony and Jake didn’t interfere in the discussion. Instead, they seemed to be appraising her reaction. She was about to give them an earful when Ahmed took another step forward.

“Whatever it takes,” he said. “Remember?” His eyes were steel.

She hesitated.

Jake stepped forward and faced the would-be soldier. “Eyes on me,” he said.

Ahmed snapped to attention and returned the stare.

Jake appraised him for several moments. Man to man.

Then to Tony he asked, “How’d he score?”

“Well above average.”

“Is he ready?”

Tony nodded. “He wouldn’t be carrying a weapon otherwise.”

Jake turned back to Ahmed. “You will protect Francesca at all costs,” he ordered. “Do you understand?”

“With my life,” Ahmed said.

Francesca gasped. She hoped they hadn’t heard.

“You’re to stay on the ship,” Jake added. “Don’t leave her side.”

“Yes, sir!”

Jake placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “
Shohna ba shohna
,” he said.

Ahmed nodded at the Afghan sentiment. Francesca had heard Battista’s soldiers use it. She believed it meant shoulder to shoulder.

Jake turned around and pulled her close. He planted a hard kiss on her mouth. As he pulled away, his lips brushed her ear and he whispered, “My wife.”

Their hands lingered a moment. Then Jake grabbed his gear and slung it over his shoulder. He turned on his heels and disappeared with Tony around the corner.

Ahmed moved to her side. “They’re going to be all right,” he said. “I can feel it.” Then he pointed to the scroll in her hand. “What’s that?”

She’d forgotten that she was holding the sketch. She unfurled it.

“Wow!” Ahmed said. “It is beautiful.”

He was right. Jake had captured her essence in the portrait. The love she felt for him shone in the expression on the page. She marveled at the artistry. The gentle curves, the subtle shading, the fine detail…

Her throat caught when she saw the dazzling extra feature.

He’d added a diamond wedding ring on a finger of her left hand.

Dear God, she prayed. Please keep him safe.

Grid Countdown: 2h:30m:30s

Banda Sea
5:01 a.m.

T
HE TWO INFLATABLE
raiding crafts sped across the water. The hums of the fifty-five horsepower outboard motors were muffled. The low-profile boats were used for clandestine surface and extraction. Each carried five fully laden troops. The elite SAS operators surrounding Jake were a tough lot, he thought. They held their weapons with easy familiarity. Each wore a black balaclava that covered his head, nose, and chin. The oval opening around the eyes revealed face-painted skin and the iron expressions of combat-hardened veterans. Like Jake, they each wore a tactical bone-conduction headset and boom mike. They leaned forward in the boat in order to maintain the lowest possible profile.

Tony hunched over behind him. There was no one whom Jake would rather have along on a mission like this. The big man had pulled Jake’s butt out of the fire more times than he’d like to remember.

Becker sat to Jake’s left. He studied the flexible display strapped to the inside of his wrist. Each of the operators wore one, as did Jake and Tony. Various data and video were available
on the device, streaming from satellite, weapon cams, or the drone that circled overhead. “I sure hope the geek crew knows what they’re talkin’ about,” Becker said. “Because except for that tiny hot spot near the base of the peaks, I’m still showing nothing bigger than wildlife on that island.”

“It’s the right place,” Jake said. “I’m sure of it.”

Jake knew everything rode on that conviction. He’d better be right, he thought, recalling the sequence of events that had led him to believe that Victor was on the island ahead of them. Marshall and Timmy had found the signal that was being transmitted to the grid. They’d isolated its source to a cluster of volcanic islands at the southeastern edge of the target area. Unfortunately, a network of jammers and repeaters had apparently been positioned on several of the islands. Without more time, it had been impossible to identify all of their hidden locations. So they’d had to isolate their target by process of elimination. There were five major islands and a dozen smaller islands in the Lesser Sunda chain from Bali to Timor. The bigger islands had been discounted because of increased visibility when attempting to hide that many newcomers. Of those that remained, only three were large enough to house the Order, yet still small enough to keep their massive influx secret. Timmy had sent a drone over each. Both the visual and the infrared revealed nothing unusual—except for the single hot spot that Becker had just pointed out. The drone’s cameras had zoomed in. However, scattered interference from nearby jammers prevented a detailed inspection.

It didn’t matter. Jake’s mind had raced into autopilot the moment he saw the circular blob of heat. Even as his brain went through the machinations of estimating size against surrounding vegetation, analyzing its position relative to ideal construction sites, recalling geological composition of the landmass, and more, his gut had already told him what it was. He’d seen it before on a mountain in Afghanistan—a perfectly round hole
bored through the earth—laser-drilled by the pyramid he’d launched from its depths. He remembered Battista’s vast underground facility, and he imagined the same thing here. It was the perfect hideaway for Victor and his friends—well hidden, electronically protected, and far enough away from the mainland to avoid fallout.

Yes, Victor was here. And so were Sarafina and Alex. They had to be.

The imposing twin-peaked island was silhouetted a half mile ahead. It had been formed around two side-by-side volcanoes with peak elevations that stretched two thousand meters. Clouds ringed the peaks. The mountainous landmass was five miles long and three miles wide. It appeared as if the backside of the island had suffered a cataclysmic calving from an ancient eruption. Sheer cliffs thrust hundreds of feet from the water, making landing from that side impossible. However, the lush frontal plain on the side of the island they sped toward was an ideal landing spot. A river flowed from the natural canyon between the two peaks, twisting and turning beneath the lush overgrowth to eventually spill into the sea.

Becker raised a hand overhead and made two chopping motions. The second boat peeled away. It was headed for an insertion point a hundred meters downshore. The target hot spot was two miles inland.

Becker said something into his mike. Then he tapped his headset. “We’ve lost comm with the ship.”

“Kenny said that would happen,” Jake said. “We must have passed through the island’s electronic shield. What about the drone and sat feeds?”

“Nothing,” Becker said. He pressed an icon on the screen, and the image shifted to show a close-up overhead shot of their five-man squad. “But
Mother Ship
is still working fine.”

Tony and Jake both looked upward. But Timmy’s minidrone remained invisible.

Thirty minutes later, the two operators in front of Jake were using machetes to chop a path through the dense vegetation. It was daybreak. Clouds of insects swarmed around them. Jake removed his balaclava. His hair was matted with sweat. He swatted the back of his neck, and his palm came back with a bloody mosquito.

He heard another slap behind him. It was Tony. “If there’s an underground facility on this island,” he grumbled, “they sure ain’t getting into it from around here. Nobody’s been through this brush in years.”

They circumvented a grove of sixty-foot-tall bamboo. The impenetrable wall of thick stalks clicked and clacked as they swayed back and forth in the morning breeze. When the group came across a game trail, the going got easier.

Tony pointed overhead. “So why’d Kenny name it
Mother Ship
?” He’d been training with Ahmed when Timmy had provided Jake and Becker with a demo of the drone’s capabilities.

“Let’s just say she’s pregnant,” Becker said. “Besides that, she’s cradling us in an electronic blanket that should shield us from video surveillance.” He pressed a selector on the side of his wristband and issued a verbal command into his boom mike. “Scout forward. One hundred meters.”

They watched their images recede on their wrist screens as the little drone rose above the tree line and proceeded forward. The river was just ahead. Jake saw the other five-man squad on their right, crouched low as they studied their own screens. The drone continued upstream. Its camera panned from side to side. At one point the image hesitated. Its sensors picked up a heat signature. It zoomed in on a small boar rooting its muzzle through the soft undergrowth.

“Disregard,” Becker commanded.

The image zoomed out, and the drone continued upstream. Both teams followed. When the stream widened to a large rippling pool, the drone slowed. Its camera panned forward. A towering
wall of water blocked the path. Mist blurred the scene, and water droplets formed on the lens. The drone backed off, and the scene clarified. The waterfall reached taller than a twenty-story building. The rock walls on either side glistened.

“Hold position. Scan for threats,” Becker commanded the drone. Then to the teams he said, “Move out.”

Water tumbled into the cul-de-sac-shaped pool with a constant roar. Lush vegetation and exotic flower–covered vines spilled from the steep walls on either side. They glistened in the sunlight. The moist air was sweet with their fragrance. Under different circumstances, Jake would have been awestruck by the beautiful scene. Instead, he was filled with despair. Their target was two hundred meters beyond the falls.

The path was blocked.

The two teams joined up. Becker motioned to one of his men. “Sergeant, I think a four-man perimeter should suit our needs. Then let’s get three of the chaps on a scouting mission along the base of the cliff. Check for cracks, fissures, hidden pathways. Anything that can get us past or over these falls.”

“Sir,” Sergeant Fletcher said sharply. The scowl-faced Aussie could back off a crocodile in a staring contest. He issued several quick orders, and the team hustled to their positions.

Jake and Tony stood near the edge of the pool. “You thinking what I’m thinking?” Jake asked.

Tony harrumphed. “Ha! What are the odds of that?” He cocked an eyebrow when he noticed Jake peeling off his backpack, combat harness, boots, and socks. “But I guess it doesn’t take a genius to figure out you’re goin’ for a swim.”

Becker said, “A little cliché, wouldn’t you say, Jake? The proverbial passage behind the waterfall?”

“You never know,” Jake said, patting his pockets to make sure there was nothing there that the water would ruin. His hand came out of his breast pocket holding a folded slip of paper. It had been his constant companion since he’d awakened
from the coma four months ago. He handed it to Tony. “Save this for me.”

“What is it?” Tony asked, starting to unfold it.

Jake stayed his hand. “Let’s just call it my good-luck charm, okay?”

Tony slipped it away and palmed his pocket. He offered Jake a broad grin. “In that case, I’ll guard it with my life.”

Jake sighed. He was certain this was destined to be a one-way mission for him. He wouldn’t survive it. That’s why he’d said his heartfelt good-bye to Francesca the way he had. He patted the shoulders of the two men standing before him. They’d been through hell together.

And back again.

“Thanks for being here, guys,” he said.

“Wouldn’t have missed it, mate,” Becker said. He pointed up at the grid overhead. With a wink he added, “Not for the world.”

Tony cocked his head to one side. His eyes narrowed into that what-the-hell-are-you-up-to expression that Jake had seen so many times before. But before his pal could voice his concern, Jake turned and dove into the rippling pool.