“Apparently, I can do anything!”

“Focus.”

“Sorry, Mitch. Yeah. Basically, the same drill. But you’re going to have to catch it.”

“Understood. ETA?”

“Two minutes.”

“Roger that. Two minutes out.”

He turned and pointed to Matteo Ricci. “Drag him out. We don’t have a lot of time.”

They broke into the sunlight just as Mason came overhead. The litter was already dangling beneath the aircraft as he banked and bore down on them. When he pulled up, the fiberglass stretcher came at Rapp like a projectile. In this instance, Mason’s aim was a little too good—forcing Rapp to dive to one side. It skidded past and smashed into the rock wall, resting there for a moment as Mason’s copilot let the cable reel spin free. Then the weight of the line started dragging it back. Rapp grabbed hold as it slid by but didn’t have enough body weight to arrest its momentum. His bike-racing diet was going to get him pulled over a cliff.

He was about to let go when David Chism dove onto the other side. The added weight was enough to stop the slide and they managed to anchor it behind a boulder. Not a long-term solution, but it didn’t have to be. The Asian woman whose name Rapp couldn’t remember was already dragging Ricci downslope toward them.

Dust and pebbles from the rotor wash hammered him as he put the Italian inside. The first strap was barely cinched over Ricci’s chest when automatic fire erupted from the jungle below.

“Bad news,” Mason said over the comm. “Those guys are shooting at us. They’re still a little out of range but I can see them coming up the slope.”

“Shit,” Rapp muttered as Mason’s copilot began firing controlled bursts from the chopper’s open door. This was going to turn into a complete clusterfuck if he didn’t get them out of there fast.

“We’re inbound,” he heard Bruno McGraw say. “Approximately one minute out.”

“Not sure we have that long,” Mason said. “We’re a stationary target here.”

“Everybody in,” Rapp said.

“What?” Chism was a little wide-eyed.

“You heard me. Get in on top of him.”

“Will this thing even hold three people’s weight?”

“We’re about to find out,” Rapp said, shoving him down on top of Ricci. The Asian woman was both more cooperative and quite a bit smaller. She settled in with her face between Ricci’s feet and her knees in Chism’s side while Rapp threw the rest of the straps over them.

Another burst of automatic fire became audible, this time accompanied by the sound of rounds finding their target. As expected, Mason kept his hover steady. He didn’t seem happy about it when he came back on the comm, though.

“We just took a couple, Mitch. Did you stop for a drink down there?”