She turned and looked back, just as the men started shooting at him. In the last of the dying light, she saw…

It didn’t matter.

Ahmet didn’t matter. He didn’t make sense. He had helped them capture her, and then he had died helping her escape.

She couldn’t think about that. She had to run.

That was all she could do.

Suddenly, a burst of light zipped by her from behind. She heard it whistle as it passed. She tripped over something sharp and fell to the ground.

“Annhhh!”

It hurt. She tore up her hands, her forearms, her knees.

BOOOOM!

An explosion rent the night maybe a hundred yards in front of her. They were shooting missiles at her! Oh my God. They would blow her up rather than let her kill herself. There was a sound above her now, in the sky, loud and growing louder.

“Get up!” she said to herself through clenched teeth. “Get up and run.”

A burst of machine gun fire passed over her head.

It was too late. They were shooting now. She couldn’t stand or they would blow her head off. So she started to crawl. She squirmed over the rocks like a snake. It was too slow. She was never going to make it.

A strong hand grabbed her by the collar of her jumpsuit. The collar was tightened by his grip, choking her. The man spun her over onto her back. She hit her head on the hard ground as she landed. It was a man with a thick beard. His eyes seemed to glow.

He said something but she couldn’t understand.

He raised a pistol to her face.

“No!” she screamed and kicked at him.

Suddenly, a bright blinding light enveloped them both.

* * *

“Kill that guy!” Ed Newsam shouted. “Kill that guy!”

The man was illuminated in the bright front light from the chopper. He stood over Elizabeth Barrett, gun pointed at her.

Luke leaned out the bay door onto the outside bench. He let it rip with the MP5.

He sliced the man in half just above the waist. The two parts, upper and lower, separated and fell apart.

“Nice,” Ed said.

“We gotta get down there,” Luke said.

“Incoming!” Ed shouted.

It wasn’t the response Luke had hoped for. He dove back inside the chopper, even as it whirled away, banking hard, taking evasive action. A rocket zipped out of the darkness, hit the chopper with a solid metal GONG, and bounced away.

Luke was on the floor of the cabin, next to the former Greg Welch.

“What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know,” Ed said. “Must have been homemade.”

“Gentlemen, we can’t be here anymore,” Jacob said. He sounded almost calm, but not quite. “The next one’s going to put a hole right through us. You wanted a peek, and you got one. I hope you’re satisfied.”