The Key

111

In all the confusion and chaos, the soldiers were no longer watching the prisoners. Some were staring up at the rig as their profit shares washed away. Others looked out into the desert at the approaching dust cloud, kicked up by the remnants of the victorious riders whose horses, unaffected by the miracle of fuel turning to water, had won the battle with Hyde’s mechanized forces.

Gabriel scrambled over to Liv and checked the pulse in her neck. It was very weak. He picked her up and ran towards the nearest building, hoping a compound this large would have a proper medical facility.

Hyde caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. He was still in shock, trying to work out what the hell had just happened. One moment he’d been imagining the life he had always dreamed of, the next he was standing in the rain as poor as ever. He didn’t understand it, but he knew it had something to do with the man and the woman who were running away from him. And he hated them for it.

He stepped across to the helicopter, pulled his M4 from behind his seat and sighted along the barrel, aiming for the broad back of the retreating man. He tracked his movement, settling on a point where the bullet would pass straight through him and maybe take the girl out too.

His finger tightened. He pulled the trigger. The Ghost appeared in front of him — silent and unannounced as always — and took the bullet instead.

Hearing the shot, Gabriel looked over his shoulder and saw his father fall forward, knocking Hyde to the ground.

All the scenarios from his youth when he’d imagined what he would have done to save him flashed through his head. In the end it had been his father who had saved him.

He saw Hyde roll his father’s inert body off him and bring the weapon back to bear. Then a blur of movement flashed across him as a rider galloped straight through Hyde, the horse kicking the gun away as it fired, trampling him beneath its hooves.

Gabriel didn’t wait to see if he got up again. He kept on running, straight through the doors of the nearest building, carrying Liv to safety.