A blinding flash was followed by a wave of heat and shredded foliage that assaulted the exposed skin on Nabirye’s face. Bodies catapulted into the air, some getting hung up in trees and others coming back down as lifeless lumps of flesh. A detached arm bounced off the cliff and then cartwheeled across the heads of the men closest to him. They began to scatter, trampling each other as more explosions erupted.

The pressure of the bodies against Nabirye eased and he stumbled away from the cliff, tripping over a body and falling next to it in the mud. The shredded backpack identified what was left of the boy as the Bearer of the Sacrament. The holy receptacles lay next to his severed hand. Nabirye picked one up, finding that the water had turned its contents into a thick paste. It didn’t matter. He shoved it in his nostrils, inhaling hard enough to make him choke and finally vomit.

A sense of euphoria more intense than any he’d experienced before took hold, relegating the odd hiss of the rain and the heat of the explosions to another realm. He climbed over his dead comrades and began flailing desperately up the north slope. He wouldn’t fail. He was blessed by God and filled with the Sacrament.

He was invincible.

27

RAPP was lying on the concrete floor with a jacket piled behind his head when Levi Mizrah’s voice came over his earpiece.

“Mitch. We have contacts to the west. Three vehicles coming in on the road. One SUV and two pickups, each with a full complement of men in the back. They don’t look like pros, though. Just a bunch of locals.”

Rapp was about to respond when the phone in his pocket began to vibrate. He activated the screen and squinted through the inky darkness at it. Scott Coleman.

“Hang on, Levi,” he said before picking up. “Go ahead, Scott.”

“We… force… in… air…”

“I did not copy that,” Rapp said. The dull roar of what he suspected were water cannons overwhelmed Coleman’s voice, hinting at what was happening at Ward’s compound.

The roar faded to a hiss and the former SEAL came on again. “We’re under attack from the east. Fifty-plus men are on the move after digging up your wire. Ward and his people are in the air.”

“You all right? Everything under control?”

“We have one minor breach in the wall to the west, but I don’t think anything is going to come of it. The main force in the gully is toast.”

Rapp stood. “Let me know if anything changes.”

The roar started again, and Coleman shouted over it. “Copy that! I’m out!”

“Levi,” he said, switching back to his throat mike. “Give me an update.”

“We have good video of these guys now—they’re driving with headlights. They’re definitely from around here.”

“Could they be disguised?”