Destiny

NINETY-SEVEN

Marcus first saw the lights at 4:03 a.m. He’d driven that last eighty miles through the Sinai Desert with no sign of cars, people, towns or life. Nothing. Nothing but a cloudless, inky black sky filled with the shimmer of stars. Alicia slept in her seat, knees pulled up, and her head resting on a small pillow she’d bought six hours earlier.

The road was long and straight. Marcus looked in the rearview mirror and saw the headlights far away, on the edge of the flat topography. Must be at least ten to twelve miles back.

But the car was gaining on him — gaining with each minute. Marcus accelerated, moving the speed from sixty kilometers-per-hour to more than eighty. Maybe just someone in a hurry to get across the peninsula. Marcus pinched the bridge of his nose and shook away fatigue. He looked at the curved moon over the desert. The moon resembled a lopsided smile hanging in the sky just over the tops of sand dunes.

Within minutes, the car was less than a kilometer behind him. He pushed the speedometer needle to ninety. The headlights grew closer. “All right,” he whispered. “I’ll slow down and you can pass me.” He lifted his foot from the accelerator pedal and gradually let the speed drift back down to eighty.

The headlights came nearer, and the high beams flashed on, light filling the rearview mirror. “Go on and pass me, pal,” Marcus muttered.

Alicia opened her eyes. “Is everything okay?”

“Someone in a hell of a hurry is riding our tail. They won’t pass.”

Alicia glanced in the side-view mirror the second it was shattered by a bullet. “They’re shooting!” She ducked down in her seat.

“Hold on!” Marcus cut the wheel to the left and spun around in the road. The pursuing car passed. A man in the passenger side fired another shot. A bullet went through Marcus’s back windshield. He drove onto a rough side road. Unpaved. He gunned the engine, dirt and rocks scattering in the night air. He steered toward massive sand dunes and rocky hills.

Alicia turned. “They’re coming back!”

Marcus said nothing, gripping the wheel. The Honda bounced hard through deep potholes the width of trashcan lids. “We can’t outrun them! Maybe there’s someplace to hide in those hills. Keep your head down!”

Alicia braced herself, both hands against the dashboard, head lowered. Marcus crisscrossed around old growth trees and huge boulders. He drove behind a large outcropping of rocks that led up to cliffs. He shut off the headlights and stopped the car. “Get out!”

“Where can we go?”

“Into those hills.”

“I see their headlights! They’re getting closer.”

Marcus reached for the Beretta he had slipped back between the seats. He ripped the tape and spear from under the dash. “Come on!” They ran up a sand dune and over to rocky cliffs laced with dark crevices.

Their pursuers were less than one hundred meters away. The car’s high beams raked across the cliffs. A rifle bullet shattered rocks a few inches above Marcus’s head. He lowered to the ground, pulling Alicia with him to hide behind a ledge of rock. Marcus watched the two men get out of their car. “One’s carrying a rifle,” he whispered, looking around them. “Over there. There’s some old steps carved into this hill. Let’s go for it!” They bolted toward the pathway. A bullet shattered rock above their heads.

Marcus used the ridge to steady his aim. He fired. The shot hit one man in the chest. “Run, Alicia!”

She followed him. The path twisted, leading in and out of fissures. The old stone was cool to the touch in the chilly desert air. “Over there! Paul, it’s a cave.”

“It’s our best hope.”

“We don’t even know who’s chasing us.”

“They’re chasing us because they’re tracking us.”

“Tracking! How? Maybe it’s the car — something hidden in Jacob’s car.”

“I don’t think so because that was his wife’s car. He rarely drove it.” They ran for the cave. Another high-powered rifle bullet slammed into the cliffs. The round ricocheted. A bullet fragment hit Alicia in her right arm.

“Marcus! I’ve been shot! My arm…”

“Hold on!” He led her into the cave. It was absolute darkness. Alicia tripped on a rock and fell. Marcus helped her up and fished for the Zippo lighter in his pants pocket. He lit the wick, the flame casting a yellow glow a few feet into the cave, shadows dancing on the wall. A bat flew from the ceiling, its wings brushing against Alicia’s hair as the animal darted out the mouth of the cave.

“Let me see your arm.” Marcus ripped Alicia’s sleeve away from her bloody right arm. Blood flowed, dripping onto the floor of the cave. “I don’t see where the bullet made an exit wound. I have to stop the bleeding.” He tore the tail off his shirt, folded it in quarters, and used a shoelace to hold the cloth against the wound. He looped his belt over her shoulders to make a sling.

There was a noise outside. The crunch of shoe leather against pebbles. Stopping and starting. Someone in no hurry. Someone tracking, hunting.

“Paul, he’s coming. We have to hide.”

“This way.” They ran farther inside the cave. The air grew colder and carried an odor of charcoal and bat feces. They proceeded deep inside, following the light from the single flame. Blood oozed from the dressing on Alicia’s arm. “Up there.” Marcus pointed to an outcropping of rock. “You can hide up there. I’ll draw this guy out and hope I’m better with a pistol than he is with a rifle.”

“We should stay together—”

“Alicia, you’re hurt, losing blood. I’m going to boost you up there. Once you’re in the crevice, don’t make a sound. Let’s go.” Marcus set the lighter on a rock. He laced his fingers together and knelt down. “Put your right foot in my hands. Hold onto my head or shoulders. Ready?”

“Yes.”

She stepped in his hands and he hoisted her to the ledge. He picked up the lighter and walked deeper into the cave. A gust of air blew the flame, almost blowing it out. Marcus stepped back. He’d come within a few inches of walking into some kind of hole. He held the lighter closer to the gap. It was larger than a manhole, edges chiseled, as if it had been hand-carved by someone centuries earlier. Marcus picked up a small rock and dropped it. He counted the seconds to himself waiting for the rock to hit bottom. There was no sound. Then he had an idea.

Alicia lay on her left side. She could hear the man enter the cave. He was less than one hundred feet away from her. She took deep, quiet breaths and slowly released the air. Just breathe. Heart’s pumping too hard. Cold. So damn cold.

There was a strong light somewhere near the entrance. She knew the man was carrying a flashlight powerful enough to light most of the cave. She slid backwards, as far as possible. Her head bumped into something hard. She touched it with one hand. It felt like she was touching an urn, or vase — old clay hard as the rock.

The light died. Total blackness. She could hear the intruder’s footsteps. Soft. Moving — the hunter stopping to listen. Where’s Paul? Will he be okay? This is not a place for dying. Her mind racing, breathing shallow, the coppery smell of blood in her nose. Within a few seconds, she knew the man had come close, maybe less than ten feet from her. She could hear him inhale. She held her breath and prayed.

Marcus lit the lighter, reached high as he could and set it on a rock outcropping thirty feet into the grotto, beyond the bottomless pit. He assumed the man was just around the bend, probably very near where Alicia was hiding. Marcus knew the Beretta had one bullet left. One shot.

Or one well-placed push.

The flashlight was on again. Three seconds and it was off. Marcus tossed a rock to the far left of where he thought the man may be.

Bam — bam — bam—

Three shots rang out. The bullets ricocheted around the stone walls. Sparks flying and rocks shattering. The noise of firepower echoed deep into the subterranean bowels of the cave. The odor of burned cordite drifted through black air.

“Drop the rifle!” Marcus ordered. “I have a gun pointed at your heart.”

“You must have x-ray vision, asshole,” came the gruff response.

“What do you want?” Marcus slid off his shoes and walked quietly closer to the shelf of rock between him and the man.

“You know what we want.”

“Who are we?”

“People you don’t want to mess with. Where’s the spear?”

“If you’d checked my car, you’d know.”

“I’ll check your dead body first.”

“You were tracking us…how?”

“Let’s just put it this way, there’s no place on earth you and the woman can hide.”

The flashlight burst on, blinding Marcus as he tried to take aim.

Bam—

A bullet came within inches of Marcus’s left eye. He returned fire, aiming directly at the light. The flashlight exploded. At once the cave was black. The only illumination came from the lighter perched at the far end of the cave.

Marcus could hear the man coming closer. Taking soft steps. Marcus bent down, picked up a pebble and tossed it to the far left. There was an immediate rifle shot. The man now was in the opening to the section of cave where Marcus waited behind the protrusion of rock. The man fired another shot and entered, rifle pointed at moving shadows. He looked up at the tiny flame burning on the other side of the rocky wall.

Marcus slammed his fist into the man’s lower jaw. He went down, the rifle sliding across the stone floor. Then he came up with a knife in his right hand. Marcus dove for the rifle just as the blade entered his shoulder.

The man was thick with muscle across the chest, powerful arms. He roared and charged like a grizzly bear. Marcus grabbed the man’s right hand and slammed it hard against a boulder, the knife falling from his grip. The attacker swung at Marcus’s head, knuckles hitting just above the left eyebrow. Marcus saw a flash of white. He stepped backwards, head woozy, a draft of cold air rising up from the dark pit.

“Where’s the spear!” bellowed the man.

Marcus crept to the side, using one foot to feel for the opening to the hole, blood dripping down his arm. “You should have checked the car.”

“You’re lying!” The man attacked, seizing Marcus by the neck, big hands squeezing. “The spear! Where is it? And where’s the flash drive?”

Marcus felt the bile and heat rise in his chest. He fought for a taste of air, the cave spinning.

Something slammed against the man’s head. The blow brought him to his knees. Marcus stepped back, gulping in air. Alicia stood behind the man, a shattered object gripped in her hands. She saw the glint of the knife blade under the soft light. She reached for it, but the man grabbed her around the ankle and snatched the knife. He held it to her throat. Marcus ran to the rifle, picked it up and pointed the barrel straight at the man’s face. “Let her go!”

“Or what? You’ll shoot me?”

“Yes.”

He laughed. “Don’t you know I’m one of hundreds? You kill me and there will be another one in a few hours.”

“Who are you working for?”

“I’m just a soldier ant. You’ll never find the colony. But they’ll always find you. Right now I’d say you’re the most wanted man on earth. You give me the spear and the flash drive. I’ll leave. I’ll collect my bounty and tell them I killed you and the woman.”

“Tell who?”

The man said nothing.

“How’d they know about the drive?”

“Even the best plumbing will eventually leak. Where your drip happened, I don’t know. But these people have long taproots. The bounty: fifty million Euros for the spear and the flash drive. Now, put the rifle down or I’ll cut her from ear to ear.”

“Okay.” Marcus lowered the rifle to the floor of the cave. He stood, reached in his pockets and produced the spearhead and the flash dive. “You want these? Come and get them.”

“Kick the gun away from you!”

Marcus used his foot to kick the gun to the far right, parallel from where he stood. The man released Alicia, the knife in one hand, and he came closer.

Marcus held the drive in his left hand, the spear in his right. He stepped to his left a half foot, the open hole in the cave floor shrouded in dark and now directly between him and the approaching man.

“Stop!” Marcus ordered. “If you want to live, tell me who sent you. How’d you track us?”

“You think you can get to that rifle before I split your spinal cord with this knife? It won’t happen.” He took another step forward and fell into the center of the hole. The big man was quick. He reached out, grabbing the edge of the opening, his arms fully extended.

Alicia ran to the rifle. Marcus shoved the drive and spear back in his pockets. He stepped near the edge of the hole, the man struggling to pull himself up. “Gimme a hand!” yelled the frantic man. He fought to hold onto the damp rock, hands and fingers slipping. “Help me!”

Marcus stood over the hole. “Who sent you? Tell me!”

“Pull me up!”

Marcus reached out with a bloodied hand, the pain in his shoulder white-hot. He grabbed the man’s hand. “Who sent you?”

“If I don’t get outta here, you’re coming with me.”

Marcus couldn’t get a firm grip with his bloodied hand. His grip began slipping. The man’s eyes grew wider, his breathing fast. “You’ll never escape them!”

“Who!”

“The Circle. If I’m going to hell, I’m taking you with me.” The man let go of the edge of the hole and grabbed Marcus with both hands. He was dead weight. Marcus felt something pop in his wounded shoulder, pain searing, and the cave suddenly hot. His socked feet slid closer to the opening.

The man’s lips sneered in a demonic grin. Alicia slammed the rifle barrel into his teeth. The impact knocked him back and he fell.

The falling man’s screams seemed to go for a full minute before fading into a murmur, a whisper, and then silence.