Conspiracy Game
Page 50

“They’re going to hit us with everything they’ve got once we’re in the canyon. You know they still have a helicopter, and they’re going to be using it to track us as well. We have to stay in the trees as much as possible.” Ken took the lead as the trail narrowed. “Watch the low branches, Briony.”
“They’ll be able to see where we go, Jack,” Briony said fearfully.
“We always expected a helicopter,” Jack assured Briony. “We can deal with it. The shrubbery is going to start getting dense. If you need to slow down, we can. The helicopter can’t get in here.”
“We’re leaving tracks,” Briony pointed out.
“We want them coming after us, baby,” Jack said. “No worries. We have an escape route. Ken, did you call in reinforcements?”
Ken shook his head. “Thought about it, but we don’t know, other than our team, who we can trust. If I contact our commander, the admiral, and he’s in on this, we’re screwed.”
Jack glanced down at Briony, assessing the strain on her face. She’d been through quite a bit, and they still had several miles up a steep mountainside to go. She flashed him a wan grin.
“I’m good, Jack. I want to put distance between them and us.”
She didn’t look good to him, and if he took her to a hospital-which he intended to do to check the babies-he was bound to be arrested for domestic violence. She looked as if she’d been in a war. He slowed the pace over several ground-eating strides. Ken glanced sharply at him then looked at Briony’s bent head and kept his mouth shut, but he began to drop back where he could protect his brother and Briony should one of the enhanced soldiers come up on them from behind.
Briony ran for another mile, uphill, her lungs burning and her side cramping. Blood trickled down her hip in a steady stream, and she supported her stomach with one hand. Fear was uppermost in her mind, fear that she would slow Jack and Ken down and they wouldn’t be able to escape the men following them. The helicopter had retreated for a little over an hour to get fuel she presumed, but was back, flying low along the trees in search of them.
Bile rose continually, and she tried desperately to suppress it, but eventually she had no choice. Tears blurring her vision, she halted and bent over, stomach heaving. “Morning sickness. I didn’t eat anything. Sorry.”
Jack’s rifle went to his shoulder and he watched the surrounding trees. Ken kept his back to her, doing the same, their bodies still while their eyes were restless. The next hour passed with a similar pattern. Briony ran as long as she was able before vomiting, the twins running with her and both instantly protecting her while she was sick. She caught the glint of humor in Jack’s mind and glanced suspiciously at his face and then at Ken. Both looked grim, but she wasn’t buying it.
“You’re laughing,” she accused.
“It’s either laugh or cry, baby.” Jack glanced at her. “You have to admit, the situation is different from what we normally do. We should have thought to bring you some crackers.”
“You probably would have thought of it too.” Briony groused, stopping once again to bend over.
Jack knocked into her sideways, sending her flying. She hit the ground hard and lay still while bullets rained down around them. Ken calmly knelt down and sited in on the helicopter, taking his time to locate his target. Jack did the same. There was no wild shooting. It was obvious they believed in making every shot count. Ken fired first, and the man at the machine gun disappeared into the interior of the helicopter, knocked back by the bullet. The second soldier with an automatic crumbled straight to the floor, falling half-in and half-out of the copter.
The pilot veered off quickly, heading out over the canopy of trees to get away from the sharpshooters.
Jack helped Briony to her feet. “Are you all right?”
“I need to rest.”
He glanced at his brother. Ken shook his head.
Jack handed her the canteen. “We can rest in a few minutes, in a place with more cover. Can you make it a few more miles, baby? We’ll slow down and take a few minutes along the way, but we need to get into dense cover. If you don’t think you can, we’ll find a place to make a stand.”
“I’m just worried.” Briony rubbed her hand over her stomach. “I don’t want to lose them.”
Jack placed his hand over hers. “We’re not losing the babies, Briony. They’re tough, just like we are. They’ll hang in there and trust us to get them to safety.”
She touched his face, a light brush of her fingertips, but Jack felt it all the way to his toes. His stomach knotted and his heart did some sort of curious melting thing he didn’t want to identify too closely. He glanced at his brother helplessly.
Damn it, Ken. I’m so f**king in love with her. This isn’t part of Whitney’s experiment; he couldn’t make me feel like this no matter what he planted between us.
I could have told you that. You’ve got it bad, bro. She’s going to wrap you around her little finger, and you’re going to make a bigger jackass of yourself than normal.
Jack sent Ken a repressing glare, but it didn’t stop the grin spreading across his twin’s face. “Let’s go. The helicopter is circling back.”
Briony nodded and fell into step beside him. Jack still pushed their speed, but he’d slowed it enough that she could keep up, forcing one foot in front of the other, counting her steps to keep her mind away from the pain flashing through her side and head.
Sporadic shooting left them in no doubt they were being followed, but the twins’ confidence never wavered. They moved through the forest as if it were their backyard, taking narrow animal trails, once walking behind a small waterfall. They climbed up boulders and sprinted over bare ground back into the protective canopy of the trees.
By late afternoon, Briony’s legs felt rubbery. She didn’t even try to think anymore, clinging only to the fact that they had to get away and their enemies seemed tenacious.
Jack slowed and came to a halt right on the edge of what appeared to be open meadow. Up ahead she could see a canyon, the sides steep, a ravine sloping down into thick brush, and the mountain rising with sheer walls on three sides.
“Jack, we can’t cross in the open, and if we do go in there, how can we get out?”
He pulled off his pack and switched weapons. “This is the canyon I told you about. We’ll make it out.”
“Even if we could climb those walls, they have a helicopter,” she protested.
“Have a little faith, baby,” Jack said. “Rest for a few minutes. When we run across the meadow, you’re going to be running full out, so be ready. Once we’re in the canyon, no one’s going to see us, the brush is too thick. We’ll be able to stop and sleep for a while. We’ll be climbing up to the pass at night.”
Briony studied the sheer cliffs rising above the canyon. They didn’t look like anything she wanted to climb, but both Jack and Ken seemed certain. Her mouth went dry just looking at the distance. Even with enhanced speed, the helicopter could be on her in seconds.
Jack caught her face in his hand, forcing her to look at him. “You have any sight at all in that eye?”
“No. It’s too swollen.” She didn’t want to do this. Jack was looking at her as if he had complete faith that she could sprint across the meadow in the face of the enemy, but she was tired, sick, and-truthfully-scared to death.
“I need you to do this, baby. Look at me. Look me in the eyes.” When she complied, he traced her soft cheek with his thumb. “I would never let anything happen to you. You came to me believing I’d protect you, and I will.”
The helicopter circled above them, a hovering menace she couldn’t ignore. She wanted to scream that it was different, that this time he was asking her to bet her life-the lives of her children-but she knew she’d been doing that all along. She had to make a decision and put herself fully in his hands. Briony took a deep breath and nodded. “I can run. You tell me where, and one eye is all I need.”
“That’s my girl.” He bent down to press a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Tell me when, Briony.”
He gave her confidence. And he made her feel safe. She rested her head against his chest, just leaned against him as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do to another human being-something she couldn’t do with her own mother. There was no flash of pain, no distress at all, just a feeling of tranquility in the midst of chaos. The throbbing in her face lessened, as did the pain in her side.
Jack wrapped his arms around her, rifle and all, holding her close to him. He brushed several kisses into her hair. “We’ll get out of this.”
“I’m sure we will.” Briony pressed close to him, absorbing his strength and confidence. “Tell me where I’m supposed to run.”
“You go straight across the meadow to that log on the far side, the one close to the straggly tree surrounded by boulders. You see the log I’m talking about?”
She nodded. It looked a long way from them. The meadow was a wide expanse of grasses, flowers, and rocks, and seemed endless. With the helicopter circling overhead, she wasn’t certain just how Jack thought they’d make it into the canyon.
“Slide under the log, you’ll disappear from view into the scrub. We’ve got a trail there. You can start down the trail. We’ll be right behind you.” Jack caught her chin and tilted her head up to his. “Trust me, baby. I swear, I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“You just swear you both will be right behind me.”
Jack kissed her mouth, gently. Tenderly. Wondering how the hell he’d managed to find her. “We’ll be right behind you,” he assured. He looked at his brother.
Jack and Ken stepped out of the trees, rifles to their shoulders, Ken’s aimed at the helicopter, Jack’s toward something in the meadow. They fired simultaneously. The helicopter lurched, and in the meadow a canister exploded, sending black smoke rising into the air. They fired a second time, and a second canister sent clouds of smoke billowing and spreading out. Ken’s shot sent the helicopter into a spin.
“Go, Briony,” Jack instructed. “Run, but don’t breathe in. I’ll be right with you.”
She took off like a jackrabbit, bursting out of the trees into the safety of the smoke.
CHAPTER 18
Briony heard another volley of shots and increased her speed, until she was in the very center of the smoke. Visibility went to zero, but she’d mapped out the steps in her mind, holding her course as straight as she could from memory. All the while she held her breath, but couldn’t prevent her eyes from burning and tearing.
She heard Jack swear and another shot rang out. Red orange flames erupted to her left and black clouds swarmed around her. She winced each time Jack fired and the canisters leapt into the air, exploding into walls of flames and quickly turning to more smoke. It was everywhere now, thick and impenetrable, a great hiding place, but she couldn’t breathe or see and was beginning to become disoriented.
Out of the gray swirling vapor a huge downed tree trunk loomed up, nearly hitting her in the stomach. At the last moment she managed to slip under it, landing hard on her bottom and sliding beneath the narrow archway of brambles forming a tunnel over her head. She crawled fast, moving quickly past the entrance to the canyon, staying close to the ground, where there was less of the dark smoke. She gulped fresh air, drawing it into her burning lungs, trying to wipe at her good eye in order to clear her vision.
Brambles caught in her hair, halting her forward progress, dragging her head back, and pulling at her scalp painfully. She reached back to free herself, and the stickers pricked her fingers and palm. The black smoke closed in around her like a wall, the brambles like the bars of a cage, until claustrophobia enveloped her.