Desert Fallout. Don Pendleton

now, he’d carry it.

      It was time to get back to Kamau and Metit, before the Somali giant’s sense of duty brought him back to pitch in on this fight. Bolan wasn’t a moment too soon as he spotted the tall, powerful form of Kamau crouched in the shadows, AK at the ready. The two men made eye contact, and Bolan hand-signaled his colleague to remain concealed. Kamau nodded.

      Behind him, Bolan could hear the commandos as they conversed with one another. They had halted their advance on Bolan’s former position. The clouds had dissipated, and he could see them clearly, despite his presence in the shadows providing his own concealment. It wouldn’t last long.

      Kamau looked anxious, but he held his ground. This was going to be a stealth extraction. Rotors thumped in the distance, indicating that the mystery commandos were about to extract. They had to make a choice between finishing off Bolan, or grabbing the weapon they had killed dozens for.

      The enemy began an orderly retreat back to the camp, making their decision quickly apparent. From the shape of the helicopters in the sky, Bolan could tell that there was at least a transport as well as a smaller, more agile craft with lethal armament providing escort. The presence of the escort bird or birds would mean trouble for Bolan and Kamau if they had infrared optics on board, but it wasn’t an insurmountable problem.

      Bolan rushed to Kamau’s side, holding his grisly prize. “Where’s Metit?”

      “I dropped her off in a cave fifty yards that way,” Kamau said. “Those helicopters convinced me that I made the right choice.”

      “Is it big enough for the three of us?” Bolan asked.

      “And then some,” Kamau answered.

      “Then let’s get out of sight of any eyes in the sky,” Bolan offered.

      The two men didn’t have to debate it further. Already, both Bolan and Kamau could see the dark, bug-like forms of the enemy helicopters in the distance. The Executioner had been tempted to pull out his binoculars to get a better glimpse of the three aircraft, but to do so would be to court death. Even without advanced optics, the helicopters would be able to see him once they advanced, getting closer to the two men on the ground. Right now, their only saving grace was that they were out of naked eyesight range and in the shadows of the swift-flying specks in the sky.

      What he did see, however, was disheartening. There was one transport helicopter and two smaller escorts. The smaller craft were undoubtedly armed or packing more commandos to replace the several that Bolan had eliminated. If they were of the same caliber as the ones the Executioner had battled, then there was no doubt that he would be pushed harder, especially with eyes in the sky assisting in tracking down the warrior and those he’d sworn to protect.

      The difficulty of dealing with enemy aircraft was just too much to surmount with the firepower and numbers he had on his side. Right now, all he could do was hide, and hope that he could catch up with the opposition later. He had the hand and the fingerprints, which hopefully would give him an indication of who the enemy was.

      Bolan and Kamau scurried into the cave, Metit watching them wide-eyed in shock as the two were in full retreat. She bit her upper lip and looked at Bolan.

      “I hear helicopters,” she whispered.

      “We’re staying out of sight,” Bolan said. “It doesn’t look as if we’ve got to worry about too much trouble sticking around.”

      “The gunfight?” Metit asked.

      “It was touch-and-go for a while. I did enough to convince them to evacuate as soon as possible,” Bolan explained.

      Outside, the unmistakable thunder of a heavy machine-gun salvo slashed down from the sky. A storm of lead tore at the ground, eventually a line of bullets clawing up the ground in front of their cave. Bolan and Kamau shielded Metit from the flying debris kicked up by the bursts of heavy slugs striking the earth. Bolan gritted his teeth as rocks and pebbles bounced off his back, pelting him relentlessly. Kamau grimaced as the leaden rain ceased. “Fifties.”

      “Something in that range,” Bolan agreed. He looked at the roof of the cave, and gave a silent thank-you to the cliff that had shielded them. “If they swing around and go on a second strafing run, we don’t have enough cave to get out of its way.”

      Metit’s lips had drawn tight into a bloodless line. She was getting close to the breaking point. This was going to be too much for the young woman, so close on the heels of her torturous captivity and the murders of so many of her friends. Bolan reached out and squeezed her hand, giving her an emotional anchor. Her smoldering, beautiful eyes glinted in the shadows of the cave, and he nodded to her. He’d shield her against the nightmares swarming outside on the plateau.

      He allowed the young woman to bury her face in the crook of his neck, his strong, muscular arm wrapped around her shoulders like a cape, providing warmth and comfort against the maelstrom of horror that plucked at her nerves. The rumbling thud of helicopter rotors made the shadows vibrate, and he could feel Metit whimper.

      Though it was just an arm, muscle stretched tautly over bone, sheathed in tough, rip-proof nylon, Bolan’s embrace was a spiritual fortress for Metit. The shudder of her sobs had disappeared, and even the clawlike grasp she had dug into Bolan’s sides had loosened.

      It was several long, nerve-racking minutes that finally faded with the retreat of the helicopters’ rotors.

      Kamau looked toward Bolan. “Stay with her. I’ll take a look outside.”

      Bolan made a face at the suggestion, but the big Ethiopian held up his hand. “She’s practically glued to you, Cooper. I’ll be careful.”

      “All right,” Bolan replied. His jaw set as he waited. Metit finally pried her face from where she’d buried it against his chest.

      “You can go if you want to,” she whispered.

      Bolan shook his head. “Too many scouts can betray our presence here. I’ll let Kamau do his recon.”

      “I’m sorry,” Metit offered.

      “For what?” Bolan asked. “You did fine.”

      “I’m a wreck,” she explained.

      “You’re human,” Bolan told her, cupping her chin gently. “It’s normal to be scared, especially with all of that racket going on.”

      Metit’s teary eyes glistened as she looked at Bolan.

      Kamau returned, kneeling at the mouth of the cave. “The helicopters are gone, but they shot up our wheels.”

      Bolan sighed. “How badly?”

      “They saw through the little bit of concealment we tossed over the vehicle,” Kamau explained. “We’ll have to hike it, because I’m sure they didn’t leave any of the archaeological crew’s vehicles in any condition to use.”

      “I’ll double-check,” Bolan said. “Look for supplies just in case we do have to go. We leave as soon as the sun sets, regardless of how we have to leave.”

      “One more thing, Cooper. While the one helicopter was hosing down the area around our cave, the other one fired rockets into the opening of the tomb that Metit’s people had discovered,” Kamau added.

      “Totally caved in?” Bolan asked.

      “There’s no way the two of us could dig into there to see what’s left,” Kamau replied.

      Bolan frowned. “Meanwhile, if they did need more of their ricin, they could bring in digging equipment by helicopter.”

      “And enough men to make the job worthwhile,” Kamau said. “That is if they’d left anything behind.”

      “It’s unlikely they could have taken all that’d been stored in there,” Bolan replied.

      “Very,” Metit spoke up, her voice brittle. “We found an entire cavern lined with pots like the ones they removed, loaded with an unusual-looking