Prime (Chess Team Adventure, #0.5)

“GPS trackers have a very limited range. You couldn’t have known we’d be coming here.”


Rainer smiled. “You hear all kinds of funny rumors these days. For example, I heard that you might be thinking of changing careers. I just might have a place in my organization for you, especially if…” He nodded toward Sasha. “…you can help me babysit our girl genius.”

Sasha squeezed her eyes shut.

Go away!

The words were a silent scream in her head.

Go away. Leave me alone. Let me finish.

“Here’s how I see it,” Rainer continued. “You’re on your own right now. Jack is looking for you; he knows you’re here in France. How long do you think you can stay ahead of him? Come with me and you get to spend as much time with her as you want. You’d like that, right?”

“Just like that?” said Parker. “I’m supposed to believe that you would trust me?”

“Danny, you’ve always had a lousy poker face. I can see the wheels turning in your head. You know this is the best option.”

Sasha barely heard the words being exchanged between the men, the striking of a bargain in which she was merely an object. Parker was no different than any other human variable; unpredictable, inconsistent and driven by animal passions and irrational emotions. He wasn’t interested in helping her resolve the equation, but only in possessing her.

Chaos swirled around in a haze of white noise.

No, not white noise…a real sound, vibrating through her bones.

Her eyes flew open.

The others hadn’t noticed it yet; they were too consumed with their mundane game of life and death.

The ground beneath her was rippling faintly, like the surface of a pond disturbed by a cast stone. She turned her head slowly and saw that the effect was spreading to the limestone face of the cliff. The dull white rock seemed to be shimmering, as if made of fog.

It’s working!

The door to the Prime was opening, just as Parker had said it would. So close.

The thing she had sought for so long—the solution that would balance the equation of existence—was about to be taken away from her by another damnable human variable.

Rainer drew in a deep breath and then let it out with a dramatic sigh. “Maybe I was wrong about you, Danny. Here’s the thing. We’re leaving with your girlfriend. You can come along, or I can put a bullet between your eyes. Seems like a simple choice to me, but…” He shrugged.

“Don’t make me go,” Sasha whispered, barely able to get the words out. She reached up and found Parker’s hand. She squeezed it tight. “Please.”

He looked down at her, his earnest face hiding none of his fear and concern…his affection. Then he turned his eyes back to Rainer and muttered. “Could use a little help here, Jack.”

Confusion flickered across Rainer’s face, but before it could give way to comprehension, there was a loud smack, and the head of one of the frankensteins blew apart in a fine red mist.





FIFTY


In the instant that the bullet from Knight’s Barrett M82 sniper rifle erased the frankenstein’s head, King and the rest of the team broke from cover and swept toward the rock wall. They bounded forward in pairs. King and Bishop stopped and fired off a few rounds, aiming high so as not to hit Parker and Sasha, while Rook and Queen raced forward a few feet, and then they would switch roles.

Knight managed to get a second shot off before Rainer and the others could fully process what was happening, but this time his bullet only grazed the target.

They had debated how to best use that first decisive shot; eliminate Rainer, cutting the head off the snake as it were, or take out the frankensteins. The latter won out. Based on their experiences with the monstrosities in Burma and Iran, the frankensteins were the bigger threat. Deprived of leadership, they could still wreak unimaginable harm.

As he hit the ground, rolling left and coming back up into a prone firing position, King saw that the decision to target the frankenstein had yielded the expected results: Rainer and his men were retreating, Parker had thrown himself over Sasha and they were huddled near the rock face, and the sole remaining frankenstein, bleeding copiously from its left shoulder, was charging headlong toward Rook and Queen. King turned the barrel of his XM8 toward the creature, but before he could get a shot off, Rook came up with one of his enormous Desert Eagle pistols.