The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection With EXCLUSIVE Post-Shiva Short Story (149 page)

Normally, Brandt would find such a statement almost insulting and racially charged, yet the friar did not seem to be making any kind of political statement. He really wanted to know where Vakasa was born.

Rebecca cleared her throat. “We don’t know for certain where she was born, but we did find her in the Congo.”

The friar bowed his head, taking in a deep breath. “The monks that lived here were devoted to the Black Madonna, but when the Holy See discovered their endeavors to bring all the relics to this place, the monks were taken from this place and the monastery closed.” The priest pointed to the items. “They begged my ancestors to protect these artifacts. We were to watch for an earthquake in the Congo. Two sunsets later, we were to embrace any dark child that entered our church.”

The man put a hand on Vakasa’s shoulder, seeming to want to test that she was in fact tangible. Real.

“For centuries, we have waited for—”

A window shattered behind them. Brandt pulled Rebecca and Vakasa to the floor. Although, to be honest, Rebecca was already on her way down. Talli shoved the friar down as he made his way over to the window. Levont checked the exits. They still seemed clear.

As Brandt prepared to give the order to retreat to the car, another window blew out. There was no way in hell that was the Disciples’ sniper. He didn’t miss. And neither did Davidson. Which meant that the kid was trying to send them a message.

They weren’t alone.

* * *

Rebecca risked reaching out a hand and grabbing the cross and Star of David. Whatever was happening, their trip was being cut short.

Another window shattered. Even though the shots didn’t seem aimed to kill, Rebecca still flinched. Vakasa plugged her ears with her fingers.

“Father, thank you,” Brandt stated, “but we’ve got to bug out.”

Hernández shook his head. “You must follow the map. It is the only way to know if she is the child of God.”

“Yeah,” Brandt countered. “We’ll catch that one on the flip side.”

“No,” the priest said, reaching over and grabbing Brandt’s arm. “The other half of the map is in a brother to that cross.”

“That’s great and all, but we need to leave.” Brandt looked to his point man. “Levont.”

Hernández seemed pretty desperate, though, physically blocking Levont. Not that he would last long if the muscle-bound point man decided to do something about it. “The cross is hidden at the El Salvador Church.” Off Brandt shaking his head, the friar hurried on. “It is just over the ridge.” Levont went to brush past the priest, but the man held his ground. “There is but one paved road out of the village.”

Brandt looked to Levont, who nodded his head. “Go on.”

“If you leave your vehicle here, making it seem you are still in the area, it will delay your pursuers, no?”

Rebecca watched Brandt’s frown deepen. “It could.”

“Then you hike out on foot through the forest. The church is along your path to town. You will know the place.”

Rebecca gulped. It was a risk. Actually, anything they did at this point was a risk. Which one would Brandt take?

He looked to her. “Well? I’m sure you’ve got an opinion.”

“It
is
on the way…”

Brandt grunted, then let off a single shot out the window. It must have been a signal to Davidson. He swooped up Vakasa as he rose, settling her on his hip.

“You better be right, Padre,” Brandt said through clenched teeth. “And you better have our backs.”

The priest pressed his palms together as if in prayer. “We shall.”

With that, they were out of the monastery. Lopez was there with the SUV, doors open and everything.

“Change of plans,” Brandt announced. It was Lopez’s turn to frown. “We are hiking our way out of here.”

“Hiking?” Lopez said. “This thing is a V-ten with four-wheel drive. I can get us anywhere.”

“Park the car as if we are still at the church.”

The corporal was clearly confused but also seemed to know that now was not the time to ask any more questions. He knew Brandt as well as Rebecca, if not better. Quickly closing the doors, Lopez climbed in and followed orders, moving the car.

Brandt didn’t even wait for him or Davidson, who approached from the south. Instead, Brandt just started climbing the ridge. He turned to Rebecca. “Well?”

Rebecca hesitated for a moment. Over the southern ridge, she could see dust being stirred up by the Disciples’ advance. And they were hiking? Rebecca could now see Lopez’s point more clearly. She felt exposed. Vulnerable.

“Thor,” Vakasa said with a sigh, laying her head on his shoulder.

The little girl was right. Brandt would get them through this.

They were rapidly approaching a dense forest made up of maple, beech, birch, and ash trees, many of them pollarded. Pollarding was a pruning technique, used since the Middle Ages. It created what almost looked like a tabletop bunching in the trunk about four feet up, from which the rest of the branches would then climb. The trees ended up looking twisted and tortured, the effect more than a little bit creepy.

Climbing up beside him, they followed Levont up the hill, rapidly hidden by the forest. Each step taking them closer to Vakasa’s destiny.

CHAPTER 23

══════════════════

Undisclosed Location

10:33 a.m. (EST)

Bunny picked at the last of the hash brown shreds and popped them into her mouth. She had to do something to keep distracted. Never mind those potatoes were soaked in saturated fat. Once the team was home safe, she’d have to do like a hundred crunches to burn off the calories.

With no more food around, Bunny was about to resort to biting her nails.

“Shouldn’t they have intersected by now?” Prenner asked.

Stark checked a dozen different calculations. “I am hooked into every Spanish police scanner, CB radio bandwidth, and cell phone tower. When the Disciples and Brandt meet on the road up to the village, we are going to know about it.”

Only, they
didn’t
know about it. The first window had been over two minutes ago. That was with the Disciples going seventy miles per hour and Lopez going a hundred, which was a pretty accurate speed. Bunny watched the numbers flicker. Even if the Disciples had been going fifty miles per hour and Lopez eighty, they should have met on the sole road out of the village.

“Maybe they are planning an ambush,” Emily suggested. “Stayed at the village and are lying in wait.”

Bunny couldn’t help it—her thumbnail found its way between her teeth.

Prenner shook his head. “With Lopez’s speed and control? I think Brandt would have taken to the road. Setting up an ambush could backfire, leaving them trapped.”

They both looked at Bunny like she was some kind of Brandt expert. Okay, maybe she was as close as they could come.

“His priority is going to be protecting Vakasa and Rebecca.”

“Not exactly helpful,” Prenner commented—unnecessarily, in Bunny’s opinion.

Stark threw up his hands. “They would have to be crawling to have missed each other by now.”

“So Brandt
did
plan an ambush,” Emily stated, seeming a bit more pleased with herself than usual.

“Without satellite feed, we’re blind…” Stark said even though his fingers still tapped away. “But maybe I can pick up some audio—”

Static burst from the speakers, nearly rupturing Bunny’s eardrums. Stark couldn’t dial the volume down fast enough, but then the sound abruptly stopped on its own.

“What was that?” Bunny asked, rubbing her ears.

Stark didn’t answer her, though. He just kept typing, scanning the screens until the static returned, albeit at a quarter of the volume. Then he pushed back away from the keyboard like it had zapped him.

“No,” he said, cocking his head at the screen.

“What?” Prenner asked, studying the same screen. However, he clearly had no idea what information it held.

“That was a high-frequency homing beacon.”

Emily frowned. “It couldn’t be.”

“Care to fill us in?” Bunny suggested.

“The frequency?” Prenner asked, somehow in the know.

“Twelve hundred ninety-eight.”

Prenner and Emily shared a look.

“Guys,” Bunny insisted, “tell me what is going on.”

Emily stepped back, clearly turning over the task of educating Bunny to Prenner. The lieutenant cleared his throat before explaining, “Someone from Brandt’s team is broadcasting their location intermittently.”

No, no, no.
“It’s gotta be Talli or Levont.” Talli was lazy, and Levont was new.

“Twelve hundred ninety-eight HZ was Davidson’s signal when he was with the Knot.”

Bunny felt her knees shake. If Prenner hadn’t put a chair under her butt, she probably would have fallen to the floor. “It can’t be.”

Stark gave a sympathetic smile. “It is, though.”

She looked down to the phone still in her hand. The same phone she’d called Davidson with. The same phone she’d informed Davidson of the exact location and speed of the Disciples.

And now someone was using his beacon to draw the Disciples to them.

“So it’s not so much going to be an ambush as a massacre,” Bunny stated, putting the phone on Stark’s desk.

Surprisingly, Prenner was the one to put a hand on her back. “We’re just going to have to wait and see.”

Somehow that didn’t really comfort her.

* * *

Frellan got out of the SUV as his men swept the area around the church. One of the men put a hand on the only car parked in front of the chapel.

“Still warm.”

So Brandt was still here. An ambush on his mind? Funny, that was what Frellan had planned. Monnie joined him as Benedicto smoothed his robes. “Ah, how quaint,” he said as he studied the small church. Such an odd little man.

“It looks like all of the villagers are inside the church,” Ugudo reported. “No sign of Brandt and the others.”

Good. So much easier than rounding them up for questioning. It was looking more and more like Brandt had simply gone to ground, hoping to hide his way out of a confrontation. Clearly, the sergeant did not understand exactly how efficient Frellan was at teasing information out of people.

His man held open the door to the church. Frellan stepped inside. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust from the stark sunshine outside to the murky light of the chapel. The men fanned out down the side aisles as Frellan walked up the main passage. He would have time to enjoy the villagers and their resistance.

For how many centuries had the residents of Lennore been lying to the Disciples? They had sworn they knew nothing of Borogoña’s work. Nothing of the Black Madonnas lost to history. Nothing of the blessed child to come.

Liars.

They would be his finest works of art.

One of his men’s faces twisted into a scowl. Frellan picked up his pace, arriving to the first set of pews. He grabbed the woman by the shoulder and turned her to him.

Blood splattered across his shoes as it gushed from her neck. The woman’s body knocked into the man next to her, sending him reeling into the next and then the next.

“They’re all…” Monnie stated, her hand to her mouth.

Benedicto had a bit more fortitude and checked the next row. “Yes, I believe they all committed suicide.”

“Rather than give up Brandt’s location.” Frellan had underestimated those of Lennore. They would rather die than see the Messiah in his hands. Frellan turned to Ugudo. “Search every millimeter of this village.
Find them
.”

“Don’t bother,” Benedicto stated, waving the men toward the car.

“You have no—”

The priest waved him off. “I know. I am not in charge. I have no authority. I am not the boss of you.” Frellan could feel his cheeks flush as Benedicto continued. “However, I think I might know where they headed.”

Frellan’s eyes narrowed. The man was insufferable. However, Frellan did not have time to be choosy regarding his source of information. They were so close on Brandt’s heels. They could not fall farther behind.

“And how would you know such a thing?” Monnie asked.

“Oh, I have a little birdie.” Benedicto shrugged. “We’re hitting the road, then?”

After only a moment of introspection, Frellan turned to Ugudo. “Do a quick sweep of the area. If nothing turns up, we will follow the priest’s direction.”

Benedicto took in a deep breath, patting his expanded girth. “I really should get out of the abbey more often.”

* * *

Brandt crested the ridge, joining Levont. The guy had set a hell of a pace, but they’d made it. Well, most of them.

“That was a workout,” the point man said, stretching out his calves. No shit.

Brandt shifted Vakasa on his back and gave Rebecca a hand. Davidson had to help Talli up the last section. Through the break in the trees, they could look down upon the outskirts of the town, Cuellar.

“Well, at least the priest wasn’t exaggerating,” Rebecca said as she pointed to a small church at the foot of the hill.

When the man had said, “You’ll know the place,” Brandt had had his doubts. Spain was riddled with old churches and chapels. You couldn’t throw a baseball without hitting one. However, it turned out this one truly was unique. And not necessarily in a good way.

This church had flying buttresses, except they were attached to the first-floor walls and the ground. Brandt wasn’t quite sure what a mildly rounded ground-level wall needed huge flying buttresses for, but hey, it made the El Salvador church easy to find.

“Notice anything weird?” Davidson asked as he pulled the rifle scope from his eye.

“Besides one well-secured church wall?”

“The people—or lack thereof.”

Levont lowered his binoculars. “He’s right. There’s no one around.”

Brandt took the binoculars and surveyed the streets. There weren’t people, cars, children, trucks. Not even a dog. He passed the binoculars to Rebecca.

“Any idea what’s going on?”

She shook her head. “Maybe it’s a Spain-specific holiday?”

Whatever it was, Brandt didn’t like it. He liked normal. He liked routine. This was anything but. However, they couldn’t stand here with their knees knocking together. They needed to get on with it.