Burn (Story of CI #3) (31 page)

IT WASN’T LIKE BEING RESCUED, BECAUSE she totally wasn’t a damsel in distress.

She’d betrayed the hero and then saved the bad guy and kissed him. No one had wanted to rescue her. They’d just stumbled upon her while looking for Cail.

Wara sat flopped over in the backseat of a vehicle the guys had come in, speeding along the potholes and gravel on the way to the airport. She was in some kind of shock.

First it had been Lázaro Marquez and the creepy mansion, then alone in an abandoned palace full of scorpions. Then Alejo burst into the room, fast and furious.

She didn’t blame him for smacking her against the wall. She totally deserved it.

Alejo hated her now.

But why did he put his vest on her?

Wara tried to take a deep breath inside the body armor but it constricted around her ribs. If Alejo got shot now while she was wearing his vest she would never forgive herself.

She was probably never going to forgive herself anyway.

They’d put Johnny in the back next to Wara, and he was grim and silent as the grave. Lalo was driving like a crazy person, trying to make it to the airport before Lázaro got away with Cail. Alejo looked almost catatonic.

Wara couldn’t do anything but slump there on the seat, hoping against hope that Cail would be ok and not disappear with Lázaro. When Tsarnev realized they had the wrong man and Jonah was as psychic as a tree stump, he would probably kill both of them. Jonah and Cail.

The squatty airport materialized out the window, shimmering against a background of sand. Wara slammed against the car door as Lalo took a screeching turn and they pealed around to the back part of the airfield, towards the hangars where they kept smaller planes.

“Wara, stay here,” Lalo ordered her. “We don’t have a weapon for you and it’s easier if we don’t have to cover you. Stay down.”

The car braked behind a tin hangar and everyone leaped out. Wara could see the nose of a yellow plane around the other side of the hangar, parked between this hangar and the next one over. The car door slammed and they left her there. The four guys moved off on the balls of their feet around the side of the hangar, weapons drawn, shadows shimmering across the steaming ground. They darted around the corner and Wara dug her fingers into the seat as shots were fired.

They told her to stay here. But shots were fired.

Everyone already hated her, and she didn’t really care if she got shot. Wara opened the car door and started running towards the hangar.

She came around the edge of the building and blinked. The yellow plane sat there with the door open, full of the kids from the hospital under wool blankets. A skinny nurse sat there on the plane floor, trying to calm down the ones that were crying. A few older kids had been dumped with their blankets out onto the concrete. Cail was sitting there next to the nurse, hands and ankles zip tied, looking really cross.

And Lázaro was down, just outside the door of the plane, sprawled there on his side with a bullet hole streaming blood in one thigh. Rick aimed an M4 at him and Lalo and Alejo were wrenching Lázaro’s arms behind his back. Johnny was holding the Skorpion, a pistol, and a couple knives they must have gotten off Lázaro.

Lázaro was wheezing and really not looking too happy about being shot.

Alejo’s eyes rounded when he saw Wara come around the corner. “He killed Ashton,” Lalo told her grimly. Wara grabbed a hold of the burning tin hangar to steady herself, then followed everyone’s gaze to where the pilot was laid out on his back next to the wall, a neat bullet hole right between the eyes.

“He snuck in and took Ashton down,” Rick seethed, still aiming the M4 at Lázaro. “I caught up with him just as the rest of you showed up.”

“He didn’t want to give me the plane,” Lázaro said between clenched teeth.

Johnny kicked him in the stomach with a heavy boot, the most emotion Wara had seen Johnny show since she’d known him. Lázaro started hacking and more blood seeped out of his wound.

Wara sank down against the hangar, knees pulled into her chest. The hot metal of the wall burned her back. Next to the same wall, Ashton the hippy pilot was lying, dead.

“Can we shoot him?” Johnny grated, turning the dial of the Skorpion off 0.

“You might as well,” Lázaro wheezed. “When Tsarnev finds out I’m useless he’ll kill me anyway.”

“No!” The shout came from Amadou. He climbed out from behind boxes where he must have hid during the shooting and stumbled towards Lázaro and the others. “Don’t kill him! What you need to do is stop the bleeding. He’s losing a lot of blood.”

Alejo ripped his gaze away from Lázaro and his eyes fell on Wara. He looked stricken.

Lalo let go of Lázaro’s arm and loped over to the plane to untie Cail. She was already trying to scoot herself towards the door of the plane. “They have Jonah!” she shrieked, then shot daggers from her eyes Lázaro’s way. Lalo sawed through the plastic on Cail’s hands, then her ankles. “Where is he, you bastard?!” Cail was still yelling.

Cail tumbled out of the plane and Lalo caught her in his arms.

“Where’s Jonah?” Lalo fumed at Lázaro.

But Lázaro was not looking good. Blood was pooling onto the sparkly sand and Lázaro was turning the color of chalk.

“Get the med kit from the plane,” Alejo said hoarsely. He released his hold on Lázaro’s arms and they flopped onto the ground. Wara watched as Amadou scurried up the tiny metal stairs and disappeared into the interior of the plane. She heard kids whimpering, heard Amadou making sure everyone was alright.

The children were all loaded up to go. In the Ancient Texts plane.

But Wara had seen all the AQIM fighters, everywhere. They had surface to air missiles, riding in the back of their rusted pickups. How was the plane gonna get out of here?

The pilot was dead.

Alejo could fly a plane, she knew.

And since Lázaro shot Ashton, he must know how to pilot the plane as well. But there would be no more flying off into the sunset for Lázaro, selling Lalo and Cail to get his drug money. It was over.

In fact, Lázaro was about to bleed out, unless Alejo did something with the med kit he’d just ordered someone to bring.

Johnny muttered a bad word and squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them and slowly raised the Skorpion, checking out what Lázaro’s head looked like over the top of the barrel.

Alejo eyed Johnny and put a hand on the Skorpion, lowering it a smidgen and putting himself between the weapon and Lázaro as he reached for the medical kit Amadou held out. “We really should save the painkillers for the kids,” he said evenly, squatting down next to Lázaro.

“Pain killers don’t work very well on me, anyway.” Lázaro offered a grotesque smile. “Just patch me up.”

“While we’re patching you up,” Johnny said lowly, “you’d better start talking.” He was moving in closer like a panther stalking prey. Johnny’s face was lobster red under the noonday sun. His ears were practically steaming.

Lázaro had shot his friend. Jonah was with the terrorists.

Alejo had opened the med kit and pulled out something Wara had learned could pack a bullet wound very nicely: a tampon. Weird, but true. Lázaro nearly bit off his tongue holding in a shriek as Alejo stopped the bleeding. Alejo ignored him and ripped the lid off a bottle of peroxide with his teeth.

“I don’t know where they took the psychic,” Lázaro gasped. “They were headed out of town. Didn’t leave a forwarding address. Aaargh!” Lázaro pounded his fist into the sand as the peroxide steamed off his wound, foaming like a boiling kettle of water poured onto snow.

Alejo gritted his teeth and taped a bandage over an extra packing of cotton.

“Guess that’ll be good enough to keep you alive til the police decide what to do with you.” Johnny’s red face split into an evil grin. “I don’t think Malian prisons offer the most modern medical care, if I understand correctly. A couple days, and that’ll probably be full of maggots and worse. We’d be doing you a favor to put you out of your misery right now.”

“Damn it, all of you!” Cail butted into the middle of the huddle of people around Lázaro. “We need to find Jonah!”

“He doesn’t know.” Caspian scowled down at Lázaro.

“The hell he doesn’t know!” Johnny snapped. “Stand back and I’ll find out how much he knows!”

Alejo looked like he was considering it.

Cail lifted teary eyes to Lalo. He put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll find him,” Lalo told her. He walked unsteadily into the shade under the airplane wing and plopped down into the dirt. His eyes rolled back in his head and his lips started to move, but Lalo wasn’t saying anything. Starry beads of sweat formed a ring across his forehead and Lalo dug his fingers into the sand. Wara figured he must be using his psychic talents to try to figure out where Jonah was. But it looked like Lalo was seeing something awful. His back arched forward towards his knees and Lalo’s t-shirt plastered to his spine with sweat underneath the vest.

His eyes fluttered open. “I know where he is,” Lalo croaked. “They’re loading up the vehicles now. We have to go.”

“But, the children?” Amadou pushed his gold glasses up on his nose and frowned towards the plane from where he stood over Lázaro. “How will we get the children out of here?”

“I know how to fly the plane,” Alejo said. He shot a glance over at Wara, still sitting in a daze against the hangar wall. Lázaro suddenly jerked on the ground as if he’d been shot. No one really paid any attention. “Leave
her
here.” Alejo shot a pained look Wara’s way. “There’s no reason to take her with you when you go after Jonah, and I can’t take any more weight. Lázaro dumped two of the older kids out so he could take Cail. But with the nurse, the kids, me…that’s all the weight the plane can hold. Amadou will take care of her while you go after Jonah.”

“This is really dangerous.” Caspian frowned at Alejo. “You know they’ll try to shoot you down.”

“Of course they will,” Alejo said. “But if the kids stay here, they don’t have a chance.”

Wara felt herself getting up out of the dirt. Alejo was just going to fly away with the plane and the kids, and maybe go down in flames? This is how it was going to end?

And she couldn’t even say goodbye.

She did not deserve to say goodbye.

She just stood there turning bronze in the sun, a statue while everyone else said their goodbyes and embraced Alejo and rushed off after Jonah.

She did not deserve to say goodbye.

AS SOON AS THE LAND CRUSIER PEALED away, Alejo heard Lázaro start wailing.

The sound was pitiful, and it wasn’t pretty.

Wara jerked out of her trance and blinked a couple times, then started walking towards the guy thrashing around in the sandy dirt. Lázaro was holding his head like he wished he could claw his brain out through the ears.

“We must get him inside,” Amadou ordered loudly. “Maybe it’s the sun. Hurry, help me, and then I’ll do whatever I can to help you prepare the plane for takeoff.”

Takeoff.

They needed to get the kids out of here, and it needed to happen now.

Alejo felt the enormity of it all twisting his insides. He could fly just fine, but he didn’t exactly have a lot of experience flying in danger zones. AQIM had antiaircraft missiles, and they had nothing better to do than use them. The thought of the kids going down in a burning plane was intolerable.

He didn’t know what else to do.

Amadou went over to quickly explain to the kids and the nurse what the plan was. And Lázaro was still not doing well. Alejo’s mind was on the plane and the kids as he grabbed Lázaro by the armpit and helped Amadou drag him across the sand and through the door of the hangar.

Inside, it was shady but still felt like a sauna. They dumped Lázaro on the floor and he lay there panting and digging his fingers into his eyes.

Wara had followed them into the shade of the hangar.

Worried about Lázaro.

Well, at least Lázaro wouldn’t be a threat to Wara anymore. The two of them seemed to have worked out their differences quite well. And now that Lázaro was a total failure to Tsarnev, Lázaro had no reason to kill Wara to prove himself.

Johnny had been thinking about the kind of treatment Lázaro was gonna get in Malian prison. Calling the police to take Lázaro away was the logical next move.

“You’ll have to help me tie him up,” Alejo told Amadou darkly. “Until the authorities get here.” He couldn’t deny there was a part of him that hoped he would lose control and murder the man who took Wara away from him, right here in the hangar. “Unless you want me to leave you a weapon,” he said.

Alejo had gotten Lázaro’s Skorpion away from Johnny. It would only be right to leave Amadou pointing that thing at Marquez.

Amadou’s nose twitched. “Let’s tie him up. As soon as you take off, I’ll call the police. I don’t want them to hold up the plane in any way.”

Lázaro moaned loudly and tried to sit up. Amadou scurried to a crate and pushed it across the floor, stirring up clouds of dust. He and Wara hauled Lázaro up to sitting against the crate. Lázaro swore like a sailor when they moved him. Alejo kept his weapon trained on Lázaro’s head the whole time the other two were near him.

Amadou backed up uncertainly and Wara sank down onto the floor a few feet from Lázaro, knees bent and arms resting on top of her knees. Her back arched forward and she closed her eyes.

Looking at her was like swallowing a big, sharp kitchen knife. Alejo inhaled hoarsely and ripped his eyes away. “Help me tie him up,” he ordered Amadou.

Lázaro was slumped against the crate and obviously not feeling too hot. “I remembered you,” he croaked at Amadou. “When you said that, outside. ‘How are we going to get the children out of here?’ You said it that day, too, when I came running out of the building yelling.”

Wara’s eyes snapped open and Amadou squatted down a little distance from Lázaro. Alejo wanted to get the kids out of here, get it over with, but found he suddenly couldn’t move. Lázaro looked…stricken.

“You were yelling for us to get the kids out of the building,” Amadou reminded him. “Do you remember?”

“I think I remember…everything,” Lázaro said.

Well, that explained the mother of all headaches and the yelling. Having an entire filthy rat’s nest of memories come back all at the same time was probably no fun. But Alejo was not gonna feel sorry for Lázaro.

“They paid me to set up the explosives,” Lázaro was going on. “In the shed attached to the building. I thought it was an office. They never told me it was a school. I didn’t want to hurt all those kids. Oh my God!” He blanched and dug his fingers into his temples.

“We got all the children out in time,” Amadou said. “That day. You went back in. You must have tried to stop the explosives, but you were still inside when everything went off. My wife Amy pulled you out of the flames.”

“And then your buddy Tsarnev killed her,” Alejo snapped. “The same day you killed twelve kids in the school last week.” He honestly didn’t give a damn what Lázaro remembered. “Remember hearing about the woman from the school Tsarnev lit on fire?” he said darkly.

Wara’s voice startled him. “He didn’t remember,” she muttered so quiet Alejo could barely hear her. “Anything. You know what deprogramming is? Tsarnev experimented on him,” she pointed at Lázaro, “the same kind of stuff they used on Lalo’s father that made him go crazy.”

That explained a lot. It didn’t make Lázaro any less of a bastard.

Amadou had tears running down his cheek and he took off the gold glasses, set them onto the dirty floor. “I forgive you,” he told Lázaro. The words sat heavy in the room and Lázaro just sat there staring off into space. He probably wasn’t even paying attention.

Then Lázaro thumped his head back against the crate. Sweat poured down his cheek and his hair was plastered to his head. His eyes were fixed on Wara.

“You,” he said slowly. “You told me you used to be a missionary. But I think all this time you forgot some things, too. I remember, now. I just remembered what it’s like, getting born again and trying to live for something besides yourself. It was the best feeling in the world, and I forgot it. If you still remembered that, you would have told me. I don’t know how you could forget.”

Wara gaped at Lázaro and he closed his eyes. “Alejo Martir,” Lázaro said, “you have a fairly rotten chance, you know, of flying that plane out of here in one piece.”

Alejo was still a little shocked at what he had just heard Lázaro say to Wara. It took him a second to be able to speak. “I need to go now. We don’t have any more time to sit around. Amadou, can you come help me?”

For all he cared, Wara could sit in here and have her little final goodbye before Lázaro went off to rot in prison.

On second thought, she could also help him escape.

Would she actually be a danger to Amadou, too, after Alejo took off in the plane? Alejo felt a bead of sweat snake its way down his temple.

He didn’t know. He just didn’t know.

Obviously, Wara had done what she did because she didn’t want to watch Lázaro Marquez die.

“Amadou, I’m gonna have to leave you here with this.” Alejo shook his head, eyeing Lázaro and turning towards the door. He held the Skorpion out to Amadou, who gripped it as if it were a dead rat. Alejo swallowed hard and glanced sourly around the room. “Forgive me if I don’t trust you two.”

“Wait!” Lázaro held up a hand. He used his arms to pull himself up straighter. “Like I said, you don’t have the best of chances to get that plane out of here in one piece. I have a much better idea. Unless you’re in the mood to die. Up there in the sky. With all those kids.”

How much longer was this gonna take? “What?” Alejo snapped.

“I fly the plane out.” Lázaro raised a sweaty eyebrow. “One word to my friends in AQIM and they don’t fire their lovely missiles. Plus, I’ve flown in this plane several times as Hannibal the security guard. I know all the flight codes. And I can copy Ashton’s voice.”

Alejo felt his blood start to boil.

He shouldn’t even be listening to this.

But it was all true. Lázaro would know everything he needed to fly the plane and land it in Italy. And he’d already proven he could do anyone’s voice. He’d taken several flights with Ashton.

AQIM would give him immunity if he said he was leaving in this plane.

But only for a short time. As soon as Lalo and the rest found Tsarnev, everyone would know Lázaro had failed and was no longer any use to them. They’d take down the plane.

But if they went right now, the plane had safe passage. Lázaro seemed ready to do anything to save his ass. He’d do whatever it took to convince AQIM to not shoot down the plane.

Alejo made sure Lázaro could see his Glock. Sweat was beading on Alejo’s temple, tickling his ear as it slipped towards his jaw. “Excellent.” Out of the corner of his eye, Alejo saw Wara’s gaze fly to him, confused. He kept his gaze on Lázaro. “You’re coming with me. You can radio everything in. While you’re in handcuffs. I’ll fly. We both know if I let you get up there alone, there’s nothing to stop you from pushing the kids out into the desert once you’re in the air.”

Lázaro actually looked offended. “You have my word. I’ll get the kids to Italy. You know the plane can’t take any more weight. It’s either you, or me. And I’d recommend me.”

“He’s right,” Amadou said. “He has a better chance. The militants know him. He can get the kids safe passage.”

Damn! Alejo scrubbed sweat out of one eye and forced himself to think.

Lázaro was right.

But it was crazy.

It was absolutely crazy.

“You can’t even walk,” Alejo heard himself say.

Lázaro rolled his eyes and tried to offer a cheerful smile. “There’s got to be something stronger than aspirin with that hot nurse there in the plane. Shoot me up, and I’ll be good to go until Italy. Piece of cake.”

Alejo stood there running over options, desperate. He hadn’t even realized Amadou had left the hangar until he banged an elbow on the doorway on the way back in. He’d been running.

“Morphine,” he panted, and held up a black foam case.

Amadou thought Lázaro should do this.

Time was running out for the kids.

Before he even knew what he was doing, Alejo ripped the case away from Amadou and was on his knees next to Lázaro, shooting a double dose of morphine right into the vein on Lázaro’s forearm.

“Is it possible to even fly a plane drugged like that?” Amadou asked.

“He can,” Wara pointed at Lázaro with her chin. “He takes stronger stuff than that and it’s like candy.”

In a daze they prepped the plane and double-checked the kids’ paperwork. By then Lázaro was limping out to the plane, leaning on Amadou’s shoulder. At the door, he turned around and gazed at Wara, eyes serious and warning.

Like he was saying: Remember.

And God knew what else.

They got Lázaro into the plane and Alejo stood there staring as it taxied away towards the runway of the Timbuktu airport, turning up a flurry of smoldering sand. The plane sped down the runway like a bat out of hell and swooped up into the shimmering sky.

Then came the panic.

Alejo just kept staring as the plane holding the kids faded to a dot in the sky, just like it had never even been. Alejo took a strangled breath and covered his mouth with one hand.

What the hell had he just done?