Page 83 of Lethal Game

Chapter Seventeen

The constant hum andvibration of the helicopter’s engines changed, lowering in pitch and speed. Sophia glanced at Connor, and he went from asleep to awake from one moment to the next.

There was movement from the cockpit of the aircraft. Con shouted something at someone up there and her stomach flipped as they rapidly descended.

He turned to her and gave her a thumbs-up, but didn’t wait for any kind of a reply.

Okay, things must be going the way he wanted them to go.

She strained to see out, but there was no way to get a good view with all the equipment and supplies in the way.

A minute or two later the helicopter touched down. The doors rolled open, but all she could see was a cloud of sand whirling around in cornea-burning sunlight.

Con took her by the arm and helped her out of the aircraft. He ran with her until they were outside the radius of the rotor blades then yelled in her ear, “Stay here with Private Henry while we offload the bird. These supplies are worth more than gold here, so keep your sidearm in your hand and be ready to deter any potential looters.”

She nodded and removed her Beretta from its holster strapped to her right thigh. Henry positioned himself on her left and slightly in front of her. She made brief eye contact with him, then faced away from the helicopter and watched the crowd quickly gathering around their landing site. Men, women, and children, though the men were mostly older.

Con and the Marines began piling things around her. Bags containing the portable level three lab, more bags containing medical supplies, and her level two lab— brought along at Max’s insistence—and bags of rice.

The crowd shifted and a man dressed in quasi-military gear and armed with the same weapon Con carried walked toward her.

She pointed her gun at him. He came to a stop and took his hands off his weapon, leaving it dangling from his neck by the strap.

A hand touched her back, then slid around her shoulder and pushed her extended arms down. “He’s a good guy.”

She made eye contact with Con and nodded. There was still too much sand in the air for her to want to open her mouth to talk.

Con flashed a hand signal at Henry, who lowered his weapon a fraction also.

The man she’d stopped came forward and gave her a salute as he went past. She glanced behind her to see him join the men unloading the helicopter with Con. When she returned her attention to the crowd, she sucked in a breath at how quickly it had grown, and took an unconscious step toward Henry.

One Beretta and one semi-automatic weapon was never going to be enough to hold these people off.

The crowd surged again, but this time a half-dozen men came forward and toward her. They weren’t wearing uniforms or body armor, but they were wearing identical shirts with the logo for the medical aid group she knew was working here.

This time she didn’t point her gun at them.

Behind her, the helicopter took off, finally allowing the sand to settle. Too bad it wasn’t going to last.

Con patted her shoulder. “If we try to move the food we’re going to get mobbed, so the aid group is going to distribute it from here.”

“What about our stuff?”

“We’ll take it to their makeshift hospital while the food is being handed out.”

That sounded like a very smart idea. “Okay.” She grabbed up the smaller, portable level two lab bag, while Con and Smoke picked up the larger three bags with the level three lab components. River and the Marines all grabbed up the other medical supplies, and Con’s friend led the way into the camp.

She almost had to run to keep up with them, but didn’t complain. Something in her primitive hindbrain told her that predators were all around. They were waiting for an opportunity to take what she was carrying, even if it wouldn’t do anyone else any good.

They traveled along a beaten path in the sand, but from underneath a cobblestone road or trail occasionally poked through. There were rough stone walls and buildings on either side of the path at first, but after a few minutes, only tents were lined up several rows deep.

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