The Hunt for Shambhala

22

Decker used a steel staircase on the starboard side of the yacht to reach the top deck and when he got there it was just in time to see Madan and Kaleka hauling Selena across the Helipad toward a glossy new Jet Ranger.

Scanning the deck for his friends he saw Riley and Diana hiding inside a set of steps just below the pad.

“Where the hell have you been?” Riley said.

“You’re not going to believe this, but…”

“Nevermind,” Riley said. “They just dragged her out of the elevators a few second ago and we got separated from Charlie. He’s over there behind the ATC cabin and Lena’s well on her way to the chopper so it’s now or never.”

“Good job I have some back-up then,” Decker said, pulling the gun from the engine room out of his belt.

“Where did you get that?”

“A friend gave it to me,” Decker said, and fired the weapon twice. He felt the recoil as the nine mil parabellums burst from the flashing muzzle. Hauling airfreight around south Asia had never required the use of firearms, and this recent adventure was the first time he had fired a gun since Afghanistan, and even then it was a training exercise. A senior officer and pilot in the US Marines was rarely in the front line, and most of his time in the Leathernecks was spent at forty thousand feet, just the way he liked it.

“We’ve got to get closer!” Riley said. “Over to Charlie.”

Firing the gun as he went, Decker and the others ran to the small cabin that Madan used as his ATC center and launched themselves into a dive to avoid the final spray of rounds from Kaleka’s Micro-Uzi.

Madan and Kaleka were still hauling Selena toward the Jet Ranger and when they saw the chaos unfolding on the helipad they speeded up their escape to the chopper.

Kaleka was starting to lose his patience with Decker and his friends. They had humiliated him in front of Madan too many times and this time would be the last or awkward questions about his capacity would start to be asked. “Kill them!” he screamed. “They’re behind the control room!”

Madan climbed on board the helicopter, and his men joined him a moment later dragging Selena Moore into the idling machine as they went. He spoke a series of orders into his radio and Kaleka began to retreat, firing short burst from the Uzi as he made his way toward the Bell.

When Kaleka was inside, the machine began to rise from the helipad, its rotors whirring faster and faster until they were a blur.

“Do something!” Diana yelled. “He has the journal and Selena and he’s getting away.”

“Like buggery is he,” Charlie said. He vaulted over the wall separating the control room from the helipad and sprinted toward the chopper.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Riley yelled. “Not even I would do that!”

“Crazy son of a bitch!” Decker muttered. He raised his gun and fired rapid bursts to give Charlie as much cover fire as he could.

The men fired back, a lethal volley of rounds aimed at Decker, and the American and his friends ducked back behind the ATC center as the men raked the cabin with submachine gunfire. They obliterated it into plastic splinters and glass shards with a devastating fusillade, and Decker clamped his eyes shut for a second as the dust settled on top of him. A quiet life… that’s all I ever asked for…

The former military policemen had reached the rear of the chopper when they turned and started firing on him. He still had part of his upper arm in bandages from the attack in Goa, and now it was like he was begging for more.

He dived to the floor of the helipad and made a couple of rolls, but he was no parkour specialist. Decker could see he was trying to roll right under the tail boom and come up smelling of roses the other side where Selena was being forced into the side door.

But he timed it wrong, and ran out of momentum too soon. He ended up coming to a stop without any cover and as he stumbled to his knees the men fired on him.

Decker had to distract them. He raised his arms over the wall to engage the enemy once again, firing the last few rounds at the chopper. The bullets fractured the cockpit window but it was not enough to help. Out of rounds, he ejected the empty magazine out of habit and watched helplessly as Madan’s goons grabbed Charlie and held him down while Kaleka belted him with the grip of his pistol.

Knocked out cold, Charlie Valentine was bundled into the chopper alongside a horrified Selena Moore.

“We can’t let them go!” Diana said.

“They’re too heavily armed,” said Decker.

“He’s right,” Riley said. “We’ll be cut to shreds. That was bloody idiotic what Charlie just did and he’s lucky they didn’t use him for target practice.”

Decker rubbed the sweat from his eyes as he jammed the pistol into his belt and sighed. He stared at Riley and Diana for a few moments, and they both looked exactly how he felt — angry, scared and ashamed. They had let Madan get away not only with Stanhope’s journal and Diana’s translation of its mysterious symbols, but also let him kidnap two of their friends.

“Things just keep going from bad to worse,” said Decker, but before anyone made a response, the air was filled with the sound of the Jet Ranger’s turboshaft engine and its speeding rotors. Wherever Madan was taking Selena and Charlie, they were already well on their way.

“I can remember the coordinates in the journal,” Diana said. “But not the symbols.”

“That’s something, but we’re going to need some back-up now,” said Decker, scratching his head. “The only question is, who?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Riley said. “I have an idea.”