Page 131 of Lethal Game

She smacked him on the chest. “I wasn’t. I was doing my best to prevent a problem from getting any bigger.”

“Which problem? We have several to choose from.”

“The Akbar problem. He needed to be stopped and I had no time to consult with you. He only gave me a few minutes to pack up.”

“So that’s when you thought...hey, what the hell, I’m going to blow myself up?”

She smacked him again. “No. I thought what a great opportunity to take away the lab equipment he had a hard-on for, and maybe kill him at the same time.”

“What kind of explosive did you use?”

“I opened a couple of bottles of flammable liquids, tossed the stuff around, then threw a lit flare in.”

“Fuck, you’re lucky you didn’t create a crater the size of a house with that shit.”

Yelling and movement of people had Con pushing her to the sand behind the boxes and crates of supplies.

“Don’t go anywhere. It doesn’t sound like Akbar stayed blown up.” He gave her a glare. “I’m going to see if I can do some permanent damage to the bastard.”

“Max might want to question him.”

“That’s why I only said damage, not kill.” Con stood and was gone the next moment.

Sophia took a look at herself. She was dirty, bruised and her hands were shaking like crazy. At this rate, the aid workers were going to think she was sick.

What she was, was thirsty, but drinking the regular water supply was out. Even knowing whatever rabies virus was in there was most likely non-viable didn’t make it safe. Didn’t Blairmore have any bottled water? That must be why he wasn’t sick.

She opened a cardboard box and found bottled water. Score. She grabbed one, broke the seal and drank it all down. She grabbed another, but caught sight of something behind the box, stashed where no one would see it unless they were raiding supplies like she was doing.

It was a backpack, a lot like the ones Con and the other soldiers wore, only it was filled with one piece of equipment. Interesting. She dumped the device onto the ground and studied it.

It was large enough that it took up all the space in the backpack. Black with several knobs on the front, and a couple of lights on it were blinking. It also had an odd looking basket-ish antenna protruding from one end.

It hit her. This was Len’s pack and this device must be a signal jammer to prevent anyone from calling for help.

The off button wasn’t immediately obvious, so she fiddled with it until she got the battery compartment open, pulled the batteries out and threw them away.

Now she needed a satellite phone. She looked around and found one lying on the ground as if someone had just dropped it.

She punched in Max’s cell number and prayed for him to answer as it started to ring.

“Sophia!” he yelled after the second ring.

“Max,” she said as loud as she dared. “We need help. Lots of help from soldiers with guns.” Idiot, she sounded hysterical.

“Help is on the way. Someone signaled the jets I sent on a fly-over.

“It’s rabies, but Max—”

“Rabies? Slow down. What happened? Was Akbar involved?”

Pain exploded in the side of her head as someone knocked her down and ripped away the phone. Disoriented, she tried to grab the phone, but it was kicked away.

Akbar stood over her, bleeding from multiple cuts on his head and neck. His lips peeled back to expose his teeth at her and he grabbed her by the neck with one hand. Then he dragged her through the boxes and crates she was hiding behind and past the hospital’s cots, occupied and not.

He didn’t seem to care if she avoided any obstacles or hit them with her body.

Once they reached open sand, he ruthlessly forced her to the ground on her back, his hand tightening on her throat.

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