Shiva (19 page)

With that bright smile
,
how could Rebecca refuse?

Popping the seed into her mouth,
she realized
that not only did the seed smell like her face wash, it tasted like her face wash, with a bit of astringent mixed in for good measure. But the girl, even though wincing herself at the bitter taste
,
kept chewing, giving Rebecca the universal thumbs
-
up. So Rebecca kept chewing. And the bitter became sweet.

It was weird. The more she chewed
,
the sweeter it got. Plus
,
the pounding in her head receded and she felt stronger. Rebecca looked down at the seeds with more appreciation.

The
k
ola nut. The basis for the original
c
ola soft drinks. That was caffeine racing through her veins. Usually
,
she tried to avoid stimulants of any kind, but after the day she
’
d had? Rebecca grabbed the other two seeds and started chewing.

A grunt came from the other side of the hut. Rebecca cringed as the tall man with skin the color of night stood to his full height. That one milky eye staring straight ahead.

Instead of moving toward her
,
though, he moved to the spit, rotating the meat above the fire. Again, Rebecca normally tried to stay away from charbroiled game meat, but she couldn
’
t help it as her mouth started to water.

The little girl pointed to a coiled carcass.

The python.

Rebecca
’
s stomach turned as she realized the meat on the spick was the snake that
had
tried to eat her. In the jungle, the
real
jungle
,
it truly was eat or be eaten.

And damn if Rebecca wasn
’
t really, really hungry.

* * *

Brandt
’
s jaw throbbed as the SUV
’
s engine smoked. Lopez cut the engine.

“
I think we
’
ve ridden this pony as far as she is going to go,
”
the corporal admitted.

He couldn
’
t disagree with Lopez
.
I
t was just that Brandt had been hoping for a few more minutes of sitting. Not hiking. Not climbing up a huge
-
ass mountain. As always
,
fate didn
’
t seem to give a crap what he wanted.

As Talli opened the passenger door, Brandt asked
,
“
What is our extraction point?
”

When no one answered him
,
let alone looked at him, he knew something was wrong. Really wrong.

“
We do have an extraction plan?
”

Lopez snorted as he climbed out of the vehicle.
“
Well, yeah, duh, we had a plan.
”

“
Had?
”
Brandt asked, touching his swollen cheek
,
then regretting it. Davidson might be a phenomenal sniper. A dentist, not so much.

Lopez glanced to Talli
,
who looked to Davidson. Okay, this must be bad if they wanted Davidson to deliver the news.

“
Yeah, um…
”
the younger man said, digging his toe into the moist rain
forest soil.
“
We kind of have to make a detour.
”

Brandt
’
s eyelids narrowed.
“
Detour?
”

“
And
…
”
Davidson said
,
then licked his damaged lips.
“
We
’
re not quite sure where.
”

This was going to take an extremely long time if Brandt incredulously repeated the last asinine statement the men made.

“
Out with it.
”

“
Well, you
’
ve probably noticed that we don
’
t have Rebecca,
”
Davidson said.

“
Rebecca?
”
Brandt spat out. As much as he swore he wouldn
’
t just repeat things, he couldn
’
t help himself.
“
What the fuck would Rebecca be doing here?
”

“
Sarge,
”
Lopez interjected, stepping between Brandt and Davidson
,
“
s
he was like Bridezilla on steroids. There was no keeping her off the plane.
”

Brandt
’
s
fury rose
,
threatening to blind him. He wanted to lash out
,
but all that came to the tip of his tongue
was
swear words. Lots and lots of swear words. A litany of them. Yet they stalled there, unable to pass his lips.

He could still hear her words as he was lifted into the Disciples
’
helicopter.
“
We are right behind you.
”
Not
“
T
he men are right behind you.
”
Or
“
T
hey are right behind you,
”
but
“
W
e
are right behind you.
”
He should have known Rebecca would find a way to tag along. Not even his Death Star gaze could have stopped her. And on her wedding day?

Maybe he did need to cut his men some slack. Just a little.

“
Fine,
”
Brandt snapped.
“
Where is she
,
then?
”

Again, Davidson became obsessed with a patch of moss on the ground.

“
Davidson
…
”

“
Look,
”
Lopez said
,
“
t
here was a plane crash
,
and then some crazy tribesmen
—
”

“
Where?
”

“
We don
’
t know,
”
Davidson finally admitted.
“
I couldn
’
t hold on
…
A
nd she went down somewhere in the forest.
”

Brandt wanted to strangle the sniper
,
but something about the way his voice hitched with shame kept Brandt from fulfilling his desire. As a matter of fact
,
all the men seemed equally upset that Rebecca was missing.

Which didn
’
t fucking change the fact she was missing.

“
But hey, we sent our best tracker, Levont
,
out for her before we hoofed it here,
”
Lopez explained.

“
And?
”

Lopez frowned.
“
Um, we haven
’
t heard from him.
”

Brandt didn
’
t bother repeating that. No point.

“
And what exactly is
C
ommand doing to locate both of them?
”

The moss kicking again. Talli actually turned to look deeper into the forest as if keeping sentry. Yeah, right.

“
What the fuck are they doing?
”
Brandt demanded.

Davidson sighed.
“
They tried to reassign us
,
so we kind of went AWOL.
”

Brandt tried to keep his temper in check. Unfortunately
,
that usually meant grinding his teeth
,
and well, one of them was fucking missing at the moment.

“
Please specify what
‘
kind of
’
AWOL means?
”

“
Hey,
”
Lopez jumped in
,
“
t
hey weren
’
t sending anyone after you
.
W
e had to come.
”

“
Which would simply make you AWOL,
”
Brandt added.

“
Right
,
and they cut us off,
”
Davidson said
.
“
But once we were here, they hooked us up with thermal imaging of the village.
”

“
Which would then make you on active duty.
”

“
Yeah
.
”
Lopez sighed
.
“
Then they cut us off. Not sure why.
”

Brandt glared at each of his men in turn. Including the back of Talli
’
s head.

“
Let me get this straight,
”
Brandt said as calmly and cautiously as he could.
“
You brought my bride to Africa, lost her in the jungle
,
and now have no way to find her?
”

“
True, all,
”
Lopez said
,
nodding.
“
But I
’
ve got great video.
”
The corporal must have felt the wave of rage coming his way as he raised his hands in surrender.
“
Sorry, sorry.
”
When Brandt backed off a step, Lopez continued.
“
Too soon?
”

A glare shut him up.

“
Silver lining here,
”
Davidson added.
“
Levont was supposed to gather Rebecca and take her to the spot we dropped the little girl. So we do have a secondary staging point.
”

Brandt just picked up a pack
—
he didn
’
t even know who
’
s it was
—and
set off north. Lopez trotted to catch up with him.

“
Come on, Sarge, I know you are worried, but this is Dr. Monroe we are talking about. Rebecca and the jungle are BFFs. Remember Ecuador?
”

That was the problem. The first time Brandt
had
laid eyes on his bride
-
to
-
be was seared into his brain. At the time
,
she had gotten herself tied to a stake with an anaconda about
to
squeeze the life from her.

So he would consider their relationship a little more on the fren
e
mies side. Vicious, cold-blooded fren
e
mies.

He hoped the jungle knew what it was doing when it messed with Rebecca.

* * *

Frellan breathed in through his nose and whistled the air through his teeth as he stared down at the blip on the screen
,
which was supposed to give him the exact location of Brandt. It was the only reason they had allowed the man to escape.
The Master had thought that Frellan would take too long in his ministrations. She had put them on this path.

Of course
,
the Master
had not counted on the rest of his team arriving so rudely unannounced. Wh
y have
someone placed so highly in the US government if they were not forewarned of such things?

Across the clearing,
Mikhal
glared that glare of his. The sniper was still angered that he had been taken out of the equation. But how exactly were they to allow Brandt to think he
’
d run off on his own if they had revealed they had the sniper with them?