Читать книгу One Night With The Valkyrie - Jane Godman - Страница 11

Chapter 4

When the shooting started, the only thing on Adam’s mind had been to get Tarek to safety. Since he had only a sketchy idea of the layout of the house, and he guessed the gunmen were on their way inside, he decided the best option was to get outside and try and find a hiding place.

Ignoring the searing pain in his shoulder, he had shielded Tarek with his body as he pulled open the door and glanced left and right. His room opened onto a narrow corridor that, despite the noise, was still empty. Adam judged it was a situation that was unlikely to last long.

“Which way will get us out of here?”

Tarek, still clutching Leo tightly to his chest, didn’t hesitate. “Left.”

A few feet brought them to a utility area with an industrial-size sink and a washing machine that was in midcycle and seemed to be doing its best to start a small earthquake. Through an open door, Adam could see a small courtyard lined with garbage cans. Beyond that was the familiar undulating countryside.

Keeping hold of Tarek’s upper arm with his good hand, he skittered into the morning sunlight at speed, assessing his options the whole time. Making for the hills was no good. They would be too exposed out there in the open. He had no idea what these people wanted. The fact that they were prepared to burst into a charitable mission firing guns didn’t make Adam feel inclined to stick around and converse with them. As far as he was concerned, their motives could remain shrouded in mystery.

As they passed the garbage cans, they drew level with the wall that bordered the property. At the same time, the shouting from within the house intensified.

“What are they saying?” Adam asked.

“They are looking for me.” Tarek’s voice wobbled on a new note of fear.

There wasn’t time to ask for clarification about that statement. Instead, the words strengthened Adam’s resolve to get the boy out of harm’s way. The other side of the wall seemed like a good place to be right now. There were no guarantees the bad guys wouldn’t think to look there, but at least they wouldn’t be so vulnerable, and they could keep moving while hidden from view.

There was no way Adam’s injury would allow him to climb the shoulder-high wall, but its poor state of repair meant there were places where it had deteriorated and become almost a pile of rubble. After scrambling through one of these, he and Tarek clung to the rough rocks on the opposite side of the mission building, making their way along the length of the wall until they were in line with the main entrance.

Hearing Edith’s voice, Adam paused, viewing the scene at the front of the mission through a gap in the stones. What he saw made his blood turn to ice. The kindhearted English doctor and her three assistants were kneeling on the ground with their hands behind their backs, while men with guns stood behind them.

Adam slumped slightly, feeling the rough-hewn rocks pressing into his back. What the hell was he supposed to do? Save the boy or try to help Edith? He almost laughed aloud. And what exactly are you—a one-armed man—going to do against five gunmen?

In the end, it came down to one simple fact. He couldn’t cower behind a wall while people who had helped him took a bullet to the head. Even if the only thing he could do was walk out there and provide a momentary distraction for the gunmen—and let’s face it, that’s likely to be all I can do—then he would do it.

“Keep going along this wall,” he told Tarek, ignoring the boy’s look of horror. “Get as far from this place as fast as you can. Don’t look back.”

Giving Tarek a push to spur him on, Adam moved back in the direction they had just come, finding a broken-down place in the wall. Taking a breath, he clambered over the gap before his resolve faltered. Clenching his jaw to hide his fear, he stepped into the courtyard.

He fully expected the force of five weapons to be turned on him as he walked toward the group of people in front of the mission doors. Instead, no one even glanced his way. That was because their attention was focused entirely on the strange behavior of the leader of the group of militants. Without warning, he stopped screaming at Edith. His head spun so sharply to the right that Adam, still several feet away, heard a crack. It was as if his neck had just broken from an invisible kick to the head. Then the man dropped to the ground.

His followers were still regarding him in surprise, when the reason for this phenomenon was explained...to Adam, at least. Maja appeared from nowhere, holding her Valkyrie sword in both hands. As she swung the weapon above her head, her eyes met Adam’s. The expression in those blue depths reassured and warmed him. She was flesh and blood and she knew what she was doing. He took a moment to feel glad she was on his side.

“Get his gun.” She gestured for Adam to go toward the unconscious form of the leader as she approached the other militants. They were briefly stunned into immobility by what had happened, but Adam wasn’t hopeful that was going to last.

Sure enough, as Maja drew closer, the man who held his gun at Edith’s head raised it and pointed it at the Valkyrie instead. His hand shook wildly as he barked an order at her. Adam could understand the reason for the awestruck expression on his face. With her proud stance and golden hair streaming out behind her, Maja resembled an avenging angel as she bore down on him.

Adam’s injury made him feel close to useless, but he was going to do everything he could to help Maja fight these thugs. It looked like he wouldn’t get the chance, for the man fired at the precise moment that Adam managed to stoop and snag the leader’s discarded gun. As the bullet hit Maja in the abdomen and she doubled over, Adam couldn’t believe the force of the emotion that swept through him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Maja go down, and he wanted to roar like a wounded animal in response. He would never have imagined himself capable of anything so primal and raw. Thought took second place to feeling. Acting on nothing but instinct, he raised his arm and fired an answering shot.

Adam’s bullet hit the rebel in the throat; the man’s body hitting the red dust shook the mission workers into action. Two of the militants had been taken out, which meant their chances were improving. Seizing the initiative, they turned on their attackers. Although gunshots rang out, Adam didn’t see anyone get hit. But that might have been because his attention was on Maja.

After being struck by the bullet, she had dropped to one knee. Now, she was up again and powering forward at a run that would put an Olympic sprinter to shame. Adam shook his head to clear it. He had seen that bullet hit her square in the center of her body. She should be dead or dying, sprawled in the Syrian dust.

She’s real, but she’s not human.

Right now, he couldn’t see a problem with that. As Maja thundered into the fight, sword discarded, Adam was very thankful to have an invincible warrior princess on his side. He watched in admiration as, in one stylish movement, she brought a foot up under the chin of one of the rebels while swinging her elbow full force into the windpipe of another. They would be debilitating blows in any circumstances. He had a feeling, from the way those men crumpled like discarded toys, that from Maja, they were more. She must have a strength over and beyond anything mortal. Those men were never getting up again. The fifth rebel clearly shared his conviction and attempted to run.

“We can’t let him get away.” Edith sounded almost regretful. “If he goes back to his masters and tells them what happened here, the mission is finished.”

Adam helped her to her feet. Edith turned her face away as one of the mission workers fired the final shot at the fifth attacker.

“We need to dispose of these bodies. Fast.” Adam’s face was grim. Had he ever envisaged a situation in which he would utter those words?

As he surveyed the scene, Maja moved toward the drystone wall. As she neared the gap, Tarek burst through the opening and hurled himself into her arms, twining his small body around her like a monkey climbing a tree. An unusually subdued Leo came to sit at her feet.

“Don’t leave me, Maja.” The boy’s desperate plea reached Adam’s ears.

Maja’s voice was soft and reassuring as she cradled Tarek to her. “You are safe now. We won’t let them hurt you.”

Her eyes met Adam’s over Tarek’s head and there was a silent appeal in those blue depths. When she said “we,” she meant the two of them. With an emotion close to shock, he realized he would be the boy’s rescuer. He would do whatever it took to keep him safe, and do it happily. For the first time since Danny’s disappearance, Adam had someone to care for. He might not like the circumstances, but he didn’t dislike the feeling.

Edith was organizing the removal of the bodies. Her men would load them onto the mission truck and drive them out into the desert. Sadly, a pile of anonymous corpses lying in the red sand was not uncommon. Their clothing, with its telltale Reaper insignia, would be burned. No one wanted the Reapers seeking revenge for the deaths of their comrades.

While that activity was taking place outside, Maja carried a terrified Tarek into the building.

“I know you told me to run.” He turned his head to look at Adam, who had followed them inside. “But my legs would not work.”

* * *

“It’s okay.” Maja could see the lines of pain etched into Adam’s face and wondered how he was still standing. “My legs were feeling the same way.”

They went into the kitchen and sat at the table that occupied the center of the room. There was a jug of water and Maja poured glasses for Tarek and Adam. They both gulped the lukewarm liquid gratefully.

“Why were those men looking for you, Tarek?” There was a gentle note in Adam’s voice that surprised Maja.

Tarek’s hand tightened convulsively in Maja’s and he turned wide eyes to hers as if seeking reassurance. “You are not in any trouble,” she explained. “We can only help you if we know the truth.”

Her words seemed to help him reach a decision and he nodded. “It is because I know who he is.” He drew a deep breath as though the words were being dragged up from somewhere deep inside him. “The one they call ‘the Reaper.’”

Maja was watching Adam’s face and she could tell Tarek’s admission had a powerful effect on him. His eyes darkened and a frown line pulled his brows together. She sensed he was trying not to express disbelief, and she was glad when he won his internal battle. She might not know much about these things, but if they were going to support Tarek, they had to show him that they believed him unconditionally.

“I don’t understand.” Maja looked from Tarek to Adam. “Who is this man?”

“The Reaper is a vicious murderer and one of the most feared terrorist masterminds in the world,” Adam said. “His network extends across the globe, but his headquarters are thought to be in this part of the world. I’m saying ‘thought to be’ because no one really knows anything about him. His true identity is carefully concealed. Armed forces have been hunting him for the last two years with no luck.”

While his words revealed a disgust for the man who could unleash that sort of terror on the world, they didn’t explain the sadness she had seen when he first heard Tarek’s words. Sensitivity wasn’t Maja’s strong point, and patience was not considered a virtue in the Valkyrie, but she decided to wait in case Adam had more to say. After about a minute, during which he appeared lost in thought, he spoke again.

“A bomb was planted in the office of my Boston newspaper headquarters after we published an article condemning the activities of his terrorist group. Luckily, a security guard saw a suspicious package and raised the alarm before it went off, so no one was killed. The building was destroyed.”

He smiled, and her heart gave a strange little leap. It was most perplexing, because there was no one she could go to for advice about that. She suspected there was nothing actually wrong with her heart, and that its erratic behavior was an Adam-related occurrence. Until now, she had never envied mortals. Their lives seemed short and drab. Now, she wondered if she might have been wrong. If she had been a mortal woman, she probably would have been able to ask someone about the unnerving effect Adam had on her. She could always ask him, of course. Maybe just not right now...

“And the heroic security guard is still alive, so he wasn’t picked up by one of your squad mates and transported to Valhalla.”

The words heralded a change in approach. They were a definite signal that he no longer viewed her as a figment of his imagination. Which meant he knew what had happened between them had been real. Real and devastating. The thought tipped her world slightly off balance. She had an uncomfortable feeling Adam knew exactly what she was thinking. How had it suddenly gotten so hard to breathe?

Tarek. He was the focus here. The only thing that mattered right now. Yes, she had a whole heap of other problems to deal with, but the child’s safety had to come first. She didn’t know any other children, but some new instinct, more powerful than anything she had learned in Valkyrie training, told her that. She turned back to the boy. “How do you know this man?”

“I don’t know him. I have never met him, but I heard my father talking about him on the phone.” Tarek clung to her hand. “I was supposed to be in bed, but I sneaked onto the landing and listened. I was frightened because my father was shouting and he sounded scared. He kept saying ‘you have to listen to me.’” He swallowed hard. “I don’t think they listened to him.”

“Do you know who he was talking to?” Adam asked.

“My father called him ‘sir.’ Only once, he said his name. Then, he called him ‘Shepherd.’ I remember everything he said because it scared me so much. He said the Reaper wasn’t one man, it was a con-sor-tium.” Tarek spoke the word carefully in the manner of one who had rehearsed it many times. Out of the corner of her eye, Maja saw Adam sit up a little straighter. “But he said one man was the brains behind it all. My father said he had two years’ worth of evidence on this guy. It was enough to bring him down. The next day—the day after my father made that phone call—they bombed the university where he worked and my father was killed. That was two weeks ago.”

Maja wrapped her arms around the trembling boy, holding him close. “Why would they come for you, Tarek? How did those men know you had this information?”

“I don’t know.” Tears filled his dark eyes. “You are the first people I have told.”

“It’s possible they were just taking no chances. Getting rid of any family members just to be sure,” Adam said. “But you definitely heard your father say the name of the man behind this corporation?” As Adam asked the question, Maja sensed he was reining in a feeling of urgency.

“It was an easy name to remember. It sounds like a name from a fairy tale,” Tarek said. “It was Knight Valentine.”

Adam’s reaction surprised Maja. Hissing out a breath, he got to his feet. Although it was clear he was still weak and in pain, he paced from one end of the small room to the other for several minutes, clearly lost in thought. That name meant something to him, and whatever the meaning was, she sensed it wasn’t good.

Maja, meanwhile, spoke softly to Tarek. Reassuring him that he had done the right thing in telling them everything, she promised they would make sure the Reaper would not be able to find him. Could she carry through that promise? She knew nothing of this world, and she was now an outcast from her own. In an act of rebellion so complete, she had ensured she could never return to Valhalla. That was just the start of her personal problems. Odin was famed for his vindictiveness. He was unlikely to let a rogue Valkyrie live in peace. Scratch that. He was unlikely to let a rogue Valkyrie live. And live where? All she knew was her warrior lifestyle, and she wasn’t human, so even if she might be able to hide from Odin, there was no place for her here in the mortal realm.

“I will get you out of here.” When Adam came back to his seat, his firm voice, together with Maja’s encouragement, seemed to boost Tarek’s confidence.

Even so, the boy raised troubled eyes to Maja’s face. “Will you stay with me?”

She lifted her own eyes to Adam’s, seeking confirmation. He nodded. “I’ll stay with you. We both will.”

Reassured, Tarek went off to find Edith, to organize food for Leo.

“How will we keep our promise?” Maja asked. “How will we get him out of here?”

Adam grinned. “I haven’t figured out the finer details. I’ll admit that getting a child, a Valkyrie—” the grin turned into a grimace “—and a dog out of a war-torn country is going to stretch my ingenuity. But I’ll think of something.”

* * *

Sitting at the kitchen table in the mission, they planned the operation long into the night. Edith had handed over the keys to her car without blinking. Much the way she had accepted the presence of a corset-clad, sword-wielding Norsewoman in the heart of Syria. Adam suspected that the Englishwoman’s life contained many interesting stories. Maja was just one more.

“You can’t fly out of Syria without a visa, and we don’t have time to obtain one for Tarek,” Edith said. She spread a map of the region on the table. Tracing various locations with her finger, she pointed out a route. “One by one, the surrounding countries have closed down their borders. You won’t be able to take Tarek across at any official points without the correct documentation, but if you have money, there are places where it can be done.”

“I have money.” Adam’s jacket might be torn and bloodied, but the concealed inner pocket still contained thousands of US dollars and his cell phone. He had a feeling that his best asset in the next few days was sitting at his right-hand side, studying the map in silence. A Valkyrie warrior who could use her invisibility to his advantage was going to be more useful than any amount of money when it came to getting Tarek out of this troubled land.

“The best way out of here will be to drive across the border into Lebanon.” Edith tapped the map. “I have a contact near the old port of Batroun. He will take you by boat to Cyprus. From there, you can arrange to travel to the United States.”

Those words were the sweetest Adam had ever heard. Even so, it seemed he had a long way to go before he could say he was safely home.

“Does Tarek have a passport?” That was Adam’s biggest concern. Maja could take care of herself. Her invisibility would prove to be a handy trick when it came to border control.

Edith nodded. “It was among the possessions that were brought here from his home. It’s in my study, along with his other proof of identity.”

“So, our biggest problem will be Leo.” Adam was thinking ahead. How the hell was he going to get the dog into the United States?

“I’m not going without him.” Tarek’s expression became stubborn as he wrapped his arms around his pet.

Edith pursed her lips, disappeared briefly and returned with a Leo-sized gym bag.

“He won’t like it.” Tarek eyed the bag gloomily.

“He’ll have to put up with it if he wants to come with us.” Adam kept his voice firm. He was in charge, and everyone else—including Leo—had better get used to the idea.

Leo sniffed the gym bag thoughtfully, clearly decided it wasn’t too bad, and with a weary sigh, clambered inside it and curled up. Tarek laughed and clapped his hands. “He thinks it’s his new bed.”

* * *

The dog remained asleep as they set off. Three hours later, as dawn broke, Adam figured they must be approaching the point at the border where Edith had thought they would be able to bribe their way across. Following the route she had suggested, their journey had been uneventful, though the roads were poor. Adam had been driving one-handed over the potholes. His whole body was rattled, his shoulder was throbbing and he felt drained of energy.

Maja turned in her seat and studied Tarek as he slumbered in the rear, one arm draped protectively over the gym bag. Even clad in Edith’s cast-off clothing, Adam’s Valkyrie companion was proving to be a severe test of his ability to remain focused on the journey. Baggy linen pants, battered sneakers and a blouse that might once have been white but was now a faded gray color, made up an uninspiring outfit and covered her figure. Her hair hung in a braid almost to her waist and a baseball cap topped her head. How was it that she still managed to look like the hottest thing he had ever seen? Every time he looked her way, his mind went into overdrive as he pictured the lush curves beneath those drab clothes. At the same time, his body remembered how she had felt in his arms and demanded a replay.

Focus. He was in charge of this bizarre rescue mission. Driving over the border into Lebanon would be difficult enough. Coping with a hard-on at the same time? That really was not going to help matters.

“This is a seat belt.” He indicated his own. “It’s designed to keep you safe.”

He flicked a glance in her direction and encountered her steady blue-eyed stare. “I don’t need it.”

“I was forgetting. It must be useful to be invincible.” He turned his gaze back to the road. “Is there anything that can hurt you?”

“Only Odin’s will.” Something about the quality of her voice made him look back at her.

The depths of those incredible eyes were suddenly twin pools of fear and sadness. The change was so abrupt, it shook him. During the drive thus far, he had managed to avoid conversation. Tarek had been awake for most of the time, and they had talked of inconsequential things. Big topics such as what would happen once they reached safety, how Adam was going to deal with the information about the identity of the Reaper, and what had happened between him and Maja...well, they could wait for another time. A time when they were safe. But when Maja looked at him as she did now, his defenses were stripped away. He wanted to know everything about her, including why she was hurting.

Just as he was about to ask her to tell him more, they crested a hill and the sight he had been waiting for came into view. A concrete wall, roughly twelve feet high and topped by barbed wire, stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions. The road passed through the wall, but the opening was guarded by a group of men in a variety of military uniforms. They sat around a few trestle tables, eating and playing cards. Adam didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed at the interruption to the moment of intimacy.

“We’re here.” He nodded, and Maja shifted in her seat as she followed the direction of his gaze. “This is the border.”