Page 47

The impact when Piper hit the ground was incredible.

It jarred her teeth in her head and it felt like every bone in her body bent a little to absorb the violent blow.

She hit feet first, then twisted and fell to impact her knees, hips, then shoulder.

Her momentum was such that her feet flew over her head and she did a full back somersault before coming to a stop.

If she’d had any breath before she jumped, she darned well didn’t have any now. She lay there, gasping like a dying fish for what seemed like a long time. In reality, it was probably no more than a few seconds. Finally, she was able to pull in a painful breath.

Ian. Was he okay?

She sat up and looked around. Grit and sand flew everywhere as the helicopter accelerated away from them overhead. She threw her arm over her face until the sandblasting subsided.

Ian was just standing up. She half-ran, half-stumbled over to him and flung herself into his arms. He grunted in pain and his left arm did not come up to encircle her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked quickly.

Through clenched teeth, he ground out, “Think I dislocated my shoulder. When I grabbed for the bag, it threw me off balance and I came down funny.”

“What bag?”

“I grabbed Harness Guy’s pack on the way out the door. No idea what’s inside, but I figured there must be something useful in it.”

She felt his shoulder gingerly, but every time her fingers moved to a new spot Ian winced. It must be hurting him like hell for him to show her any glimpse of weakness. It definitely felt like stuff was not in the right place inside the joint.

“I don’t know how to put it back in the socket,” she said regretfully.

“I’ll talk you through it. It takes a fair bit of strength, and I’m going to swear like a motherfucker and maybe pass out. But you have to do it anyway.”

She listened closely as he explained the relatively simple procedure. It was all about getting his arm bones properly positioned and then shoving like hell. The idea of doing it grossed her out completely, though. There was a reason she wasn’t in the medical profession.

“Got all that?” he asked.

She nodded and gulped. If she could run around Khartoum with a gun and jump in front of violent religious police, she could do this. In theory.

He sat down and she knelt beside him. Laying her hands on his arm as he helped her position the limb and then braced himself, she muttered, “Ready?”

“Yeah.”

“On the count of three. One--” She shoved. No sense making the guy wait till three, and frankly, she thought she might lose her nerve if she waited two more counts.

The joint popped audibly, and as advertised, Ian swore up a blue storm. Sweat erupted on his brow and his entire body trembled. Lord, the pain he must be in. “I’m so sorry!” she cried.

“No prob,” he gritted out. “Gimme a sec.”

Out of respect for his fight to control the pain, she turned away. In her experience, men didn’t like to look sissies in front of women. While he caught his breath, she occupied herself rummaging through the backpack he’d snagged.

A variety of tools, including a large pocketknife could come in handy. There was a plastic tarp, which would definitely be handy if they had to collect water for themselves out here. And speaking of which…she pulled out a canteen that sloshed heavily. Yes .

“I found some water, Ian. Drink.”

He took a long slug from the canteen and passed it back to her, saying, “Finish it.”

She did as he suggested. Survival 101: it was better to carry water inside your body than outside it.

The sun beat down on them mercilessly, and she was already starting to feel baked. She knew not to fight the heat mentally. There was nothing she could do about it, so she might as well just accept it and move on.

Ian climbed carefully to his feet. “Give me the pack.”

“I just put your shoulder back in joint. I don’t need the pack to pull it back out.”

“I’ve got two shoulders. I’ll sling it over the other one. I’m stronger than you, and me carrying the bag will equalize out our speed and stamina a bit.”

“God, I hate it when you’re right,” she muttered.

He laughed a little. “Sorry, babe. You’re in my world, now. This is what I do.”

“And you would be crazy for doing it.”

“One man’s crazy is another man’s idea of a good time,” he retorted.

“I gather then, that you’re going to be all right?”

“Right as rain. I’ve done a lot worse to myself than that and kept going.”

“Okay, Mr. I’m-in-my-element. What’s the plan?”

“We’ve got to get word back to the authorities to shoot down your old man’s plane in case my modifications to the bomb don’t stop it from blowing up.”

“I think that ship has already sailed,” she replied soberly.

A knife of pain stabbed her gut, and she forcibly set it aside.

Not now. Not yet. First, they had to survive the killer desert they’d been dropped into.

Then they had to stop Yusef Abahdi’s virus from killing thousands.

Then…then, she could grieve her father and maybe unravel her complicated feelings about the man.

“Any idea where we are?” she asked.

“Assuming the helicopter made a forward speed of no more than, say a hundred miles per hour away from the power lines, we’re about twenty miles north of the power lines.”

She frowned. “Then we aren’t that far away from Overton. We should be able to head northwest and run into it.”

“Theoretically,” he replied. “Assuming we don’t die of exposure or dehydration, or miss it and end up heading past it into the desert.”

“We’re already in the desert, big guy.”

He smiled ruefully “Is there anything made of cloth in the bag?”

“A t-shirt.” She pulled out the white cotton garment wadded in the bottom of the bag.

“That’ll work. Tear off pieces of it so we can cover our heads, faces, and necks.”

“There’s a knife in here, too,” she commented as she commenced sawing off big pieces of cotton from the front and back of the shirt.

She tied the cotton square low over her forehead, covering as much skin as she could.

Ian drew a corner forward and draped it loosely across her face, leaving only her eyes exposed.

“It’s hot,” she complained.

“Believe me. It’s better than the sunburn alternative. And, the white fabric reflects sunlight. You’ll ultimately be cooler.”

“Too bad there’s not a cell phone in the bag,” she commented.

“No matter,” he replied. “The cell towers all over this region went down the second those power lines blew up.”

“I can’t imagine what’s going on in Las Vegas right now,” she said grimly.

His reply was equally grim. “The lights all just went out, and all the air conditioning went off. People are complaining and pulling out their cell phones, and only now realizing they don’t work, either.

The stop lights will blink red until their internal batteries go out, and traffic will be a mess.

Which will freeze the cars in place until your Dad and his little bomb can knock out all their internal electronics and kill them. ”

She asked heavily, “Any idea how long it takes for back-up generators to kick in?” Not long after they did, her father would undoubtedly blow himself and his plane up. No reason for him not to kill himself as efficiently as he’d done everything in this attack of his, so far.

Ian looped his good arm around her shoulders and gave her a hard squeeze that was more an exhortation to be strong than an actual hug.

“The casino back-up systems will come up a few seconds after the initial EMP because of all the security systems they use.” A pause, and then he added low, “He won’t feel a thing. It’ll be instantaneous.”

She buried her face against his chest momentarily. Her father was about to blow himself up and there wasn’t a thing she could do to stop it. “He wasn’t even a good father,” she mumbled.

“But he was the only one you had. And that makes it hurt. You’re allowed to grieve his loss, Piper.”

“It’s stupid. I’ve spent my whole life rebelling against him. Why would I shed tears for him now? He doesn’t deserve them, dammit!”

Ian replied gently, “Conserve the water if you can, sweetheart, and don’t cry.”

She sighed. “I know. We’d better get going. How far do you think it is?”

“Ten miles. Maybe twenty.” He made that sound like a walk in the park. But she knew better. She already felt like she was overheating dangerously, and they hadn’t started moving, yet. And his shoulder had to be killing him.

Ian shouldered the pack on his good side and took the lead.

To say it was hot didn’t capture the true experience. They were in Hell. And exercising strenuously. If she’d thought Khartoum had been hot, it was nothing compared to this blazing inferno.

Ian’s voice floated back to her. “You did great earlier, Piper.”

“Huh?”

“You managed the PHP guys brilliantly. They were prepared to kill us until you diffused the situation.”

“Wait. You’re complimenting me?”

A chuckle came over his shoulder. “I happen to think you’re a fine operative. And now that I’ve seen how fucked up your background is, I’m all the more impressed with who you’ve managed to become.”

“Okay, you have to help me out here. Was that a compliment or not? The background bit could be taken either way.”

He stopped and turned in that deceptively quick way he had of moving, and she all but ran into him. He grabbed her arm to steady her, and said, “I’m trying to tell you I think you’re amazing.”

“Okay, now I know we’re dying. Give it to me straight, Ian. How much time have we got left?”

He laughed and squeezed her nose playfully through her cotton facemask. Commencing walking again, he said thoughtfully, “If we got exposed to the virus two days ago, I’m guessing we’ve got about five days left before we get sick. Any preference how we spend it?”

“Hmm. We’re not far from Lake Tahoe. I hear it’s gorgeous. Maybe we could go up there to spend our final days.”

“It is tempting to chuck all this stuff and just spend our remaining time together, isn’t it?”