Sheba's Gambit Page 22

  Slater looked at him. “You’re telling me that you want to work for me?”

  Marshall shrugged as well as he could with his hands in the air. “I’m AWOL from a Marine Recon Unit. The penalty for that is twenty years in Leavenworth. As I see it, I have two choices, I do the time or become a mercenary. I’ve seen Leavenworth—not for me. When I left there, I’d be a broken old man with nothing. If I become a mercenary, I can continue to live the life I love.”

  Sheba stepped in front of him. “Marshall, you can’t do this.”

  He moved her away from in front of him. “Don’t get in his line of fire, girl.” He said gently. He raised his hands again.

  “Marshall, why?”

  He looked down at her. “I promised I would protect you and Braden. After Slater hit me, the doctor said he wouldn’t release me just in case I got headaches or some other nonsense.” His tone was derisive. “So Nagle ordered me to stay. I pretended to leave the hanger, but slipped into the helicopter. I hid in the gunner’s compartment.”

  “I wish you hadn’t done it,” she said softly.

  Marshall looked at Slater. “I keep my word.”

  “What about your oath to your country,” Slater taunted.

  “I had to make a choice. I chose Sheba. I promised that I’d protect her. That promise still holds.” He looked at Slater. “I can keep her safer than your men can.”

  Slater said, “What about your head?”

  Marshall said, “What about it. It hurts a bit right now, but you didn’t even give me a concussion.”

  “You must have the head of an elephant.”

  Marshall laughed. “The doctor said I had the head of a Rhino.”

  Slater looked at Sheba. “Come over here.”

  She looked up at Marshall who said, “Do as the man says, sweetie.”

  She moved around the fire trying not to step on any of the bodies that lay in the clearing. When she was at Slater’s side, he said, “Thomas, hold on to her. If she gets away, I’ll kill you.”

  Sheba said, “I won’t run.”

  Slater looked at Marshall. “Take off the robe.”

  Carefully, Marshall pulled the hem of the robe up taking care not to knock off the head piece.

  “Search him carefully,” Slater ordered.

  Once the belt was removed, Marshall slowly unwound the Keyiffa to reveal the heavy turban like bandage that wrapped his head.

  Slater motioned with his rifle. “Let’s go. Mr. Breckenridge has the final say in who gets hired.”

  Marshall walked around the dying fire, stepping over the dead bodies of Assid’s men. Slater pulled a Glock semi-automatic from his shoulder holster with his left hand, then slung the rifle over his right shoulder. He transferred the pistol to his right hand and took Sheba’s arm with his left.

  “You can put your hands down, but keep them where I can see them. One false move-- she gets shot.”

  “Which Mr. Breckenridge wouldn’t like.” Marshall said. “There’s no point in making false moves. There’s nowhere else I want to be right now.”

  He smiled down at Sheba who was looking at him with horrified eyes.

  Slater turned to Thomas. “William is dead. You’re in charge now. Get those men buried. I want those ladders. I want the perimeter patrolled from now on.”

  Thomas saluted, “Sir, we don’t have enough men left. Antoine’s men were the first ones Assid’s troops killed. I’ve only got seven or eight men who are fit to do patrol duty.”

  Marshall said, “I can help with your security. From what I’ve seen, the only really weak spot is this area. The other areas have cameras and electrified fences.” He looked at Thomas, “Have your men patrol this area for the rest of the night, if that’s okay with your boss. You really don’t want anyone coming on that clearing especially law enforcement or tourists.”

  Slater nodded. “He’s right. The clearing is too close to the estate so make sure no one gets too close.”

  Marshall continued. “I’d wait to bury them until dawn. We may be able to find a place where we could dispose of the bodies without having to dig a hole.”

  Slater looked at Marshall. “You are really being helpful all of a sudden.”

  Marshall smiled. “I’m a helpful kind of guy. Besides if I can prove my value, you’re more likely to take me on.”

  When they got to the ladders, Marshall looked closely at them. “They spent some money on these. They aren’t metal, they are fiberglass that has been coated with rubber. If they touched the electrified wires, they might set off an alarm, but no one would get hurt. My men were going to use wire by-passes, but they found the ladders so they didn’t have to worry about it.”

  He looked at Slater. “By the way, you should thank me. If I hadn’t given my men the order to take Assid’s men, all of you would be dead. Assid had the man power, he just didn’t have the leadership to carry off this raid.”

  “He didn’t have the brain power to carry of this raid. All he had was arrogance, nothing more.” Slater snarled.

  It didn’t take long to walk down the hill and across the lawn. Slater marched them into the library. Breckenridge and Caldwell looked up from Sheba’s map that they had been studying. When Marshall walked through the door followed by Sheba and Slater, Breckenridge pulled a small single-shot pistol from his pocket, pointed it at Marshall and asked, “Who is he?”

  Marshall put his hands in the air.

  Slater said, “He was Marine I hit over the head in order to capture Sheba. He was ordered to stay behind when his unit came to rescue Sheba, so he stowed away, but they left him behind. He says he’ll be court marshalled when they find out he disobeyed orders. Since he doesn’t want to spend most of his life in Leavenworth, he says he’d rather become a mercenary.”

  “Does that mean he wants to work for me?”

  Slater nodded. “So he says. I don’t know if I trust him though. Marines have a powerful sense of pride in their organization.”

  “Most of us do,” Marshall agreed. “But a lot of men get tired of the low pay, the rotten hours and working for men who are half the men that they are. They get burned out. That’s why there are so many ex-marines working for hire.”

  “You decided all that today.” Breckenridge said sarcastically.

  “No. Today’s botched mission solidified my dissatisfaction. The CIA could have sent in a hundred or a thousand men to rescue Sheba but they sent twelve. They should have made it a priority to rescue Sheba, but they were pulled out before they could complete the mission. I hate being part of a failure.”

  Thomas placed Marshall’s utility belt on the desk. “I took this off him when he let us take him.”

  Breckenridge walked over and looked at the belt. “You said, ‘when he let us take him’. You think he let you capture him?” Breckenridge sounded skeptical.

  “I know he did. He killed Mosud. He could have taken Ms. Bentley and disappeared into the trees. I was watching Mosud because he was standing by Ms. Bentley. I wasn’t watching the fire, I was looking at the darkness beyond the fire. I didn’t see him move. One minute the space behind Mosud was empty. The next minute he was behind him. He had two rifles, an M-16 and an AK-47 which he must have taken off one of Assid’s men. He could have taken out all of us before any of us could react.”

  “So you think his story of being AWOL and disaffected with the military is true.”

  “The AWOL part definitely. Look at the bandage on his head. If Slater hit him, he hurt him because Slater is tough and doesn’t pull any punches. I know, I’ve trained with him. My CO wouldn’t have let me go on a mission if I had a wound like that.”

  “If he went anyway--”

  “It would mean a court martial. If he was lucky ten years and if his CO was a butt head, he could get twenty. I’d become a mercenary for less than that.”

  Breckenridge looked at his watch. “It’s 04:20 hours. I think we’ll all better get some sleep. Slater put him downstairs in the cells.” He looked at Sheba who
still looked stunned. “I’ll take you to your room. It is a suite so you shouldn’t be inconvenienced if I lock you in.” He looked around the room. “With all of you locked up, both Slater and I should be able to get some sleep. We will meet for breakfast at noon tomorrow.”

  He waited until Slater and Thomas escorted the two men out of the library. Then he took Sheba’s arm forcing her up the stairs. He showed her to a small suite on the third floor. “You should be comfortable here. It’s escape proof. I wouldn’t want you running off when I need you the most.” Before she could open her mouth, he had shut the door with a snap.

  Wearily, she sat down on the bed, but instead of crying, she began swearing to herself.

  Chapter 27

  At ten o’clock the next morning, Dean walked into the combat room at CIA headquarters. He hadn’t taken more than three steps into the room when Nagle said, “Has Marshall lost his mind?”

  “Not that I’m aware of, ma’am.” He looked at the bags under her eyes, “Did you get any sleep last night?”

  “No, thanks to your waffle-brained captain.” She snarled.

  “Ma’am, please tell me why you are so upset.”

  Tony walked into the room holding Braden’s hand. “Ms. Nagle, do you want me to take Braden back to his mother?”

  Braden pulled his hand out of Tony’s, “Why didn’t you rescue my Aunt Sheba. You all made me come back but you didn’t get her. Marshall said he’d protect us but he didn’t save her. I wish, I wish--” he paused obviously trying to think of something horrible, “I wish I could flush all your heads down the toilet and you’d all drown.”

  He turned on Tony. “You hurt her, you jerk!” He barreled into him, kicking and hitting.

  Dean grabbed Braden away from Tony. “Braden, you need to listen to me.”

  “No, I don’t want to. You’re all stupid liars.” He said sobbing.

  Dean let him sob against his chest. When it seemed that he was calming down, Dean said, “Braden, you know that your Aunt Sheba works for the NSA, right?”

  He nodded. “Sometimes when you are trying to protect your country, you have to take risks. We all took risks to rescue you last night.”

  “I didn’t want to be rescued. I wanted to stay with my Aunt Sheba. She loves me.”

  “I know she loves you. She made us take you.”

  “No, she didn’t. You didn’t talk to her.”

  “Braden, we did talk to her. After you were taken, we inserted a module in her nose so we could track her. We can listen and talk to her through the module.” He looked at Braden’s intent face. “Would you like to hear her?”

  He nodded.

  “Sarah,” Dean said, “Are you listening to Sheba right now?”

  “No. The night shift said that Breckenridge made everyone go to bed at 4:30 this morning. They will have breakfast at noon, but I can let Braden listen to what she said just before she went to sleep, if that’s okay.”

  Ms. Nagle said, “Go ahead.”

  Sarah flipped a couple of switches. “Here it comes.”

  They could hear Sheba’s voice although it sounded a bit muffled. “Oh, Marshall, you are an idiot to risk everything for me. You knew the plan. You knew I was going to stay as long as Braden was rescued.” There was a pause, Sheba said vehemently, “Tony you better have rescued Braden because if you let him get hurt, your life will be painful and prolonged.”

  Braden looked up at Tony. “What does painful and prolonged mean?”

  Dean laughed. “It means that your aunt will beat the crap out of Tony.”

  Nagle knelt by Braden. “So you see, your Aunt Sheba made sure that you would be safe. She made us promise that before she agreed to let herself be kidnapped by Breckenridge.”

  Dean added, “Your aunt is very brave. She thinks she will be safer if you’re safe. She didn’t want Breckenridge to hurt you to make her do the stuff he wants her to do.”

  “Besides,” Nagle added, “Marshall is with her. I think he will protect her.”

  Braden said, “If he’s there why were you calling him names?”

  “Because he disobeyed my orders. I didn’t want him to go because he got hit on the head really hard.”

  Dean said, “I was afraid that he was going to do something like that last night.” He looked at her, “So does that mean you’re going to have him court marshalled?”

  “I should,” she snapped. “He had no right to disobey my orders.”

  “Ma’am, he didn’t disobey them because you issued them. He disobeyed them because they weren’t the smartest orders.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “We may have two court marshals at the rate you are going, mister.” She snapped.

  Dean said a little nervously. “I know I’m putting my foot in my mouth--”

  Braden looked from his feet to his mouth. “No you’re not. Your feet are still on the ground.”

  Everyone in the room laughed. Dean said, “That’s just a saying that means I’m not saying what I want to say very well.”

  “Oh. I do that all the time.”

  “What I meant is that it wasn’t personal against you. He would have done what he did no matter who gave the order because the order went against his promise to Sheba and Braden.”

  “He’d risk his career for her?”

  “He loves her, ma’am. Of course, he would risk his career for her.”

  Sarah said, “Sheba seems to be up. Do you want to talk to her?

  Nagle said, “Yes. I want to tell her that we have Braden safe.”

  Sarah flipped a switch and handed Nagle the mike. “Sheba, this is Nagle. Can you hear me?”

  Sheba said very quietly. “I’m here. Do you have Braden?”

  “I’m here, Aunt Sheba.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I guess. But I wish I was still there with you. Is Russell okay?”

  “He was fine last night, but you were here then so you know that. I haven’t left my room yet so I don’t know how he is.”

  “Aunt Sheba, do I have to go back to the embassy? I really don’t want to go. I’d rather stay here so I can hear you.”

  She was quiet for a few minutes. Everyone but Braden could hear her trying to come up with a reason why he should go home to his mother.

  Sheba said nervously. “Someone just put a key in the lock.”

  They heard Sheba say, “Good morning, Mr. Slater. I hope breakfast is soon. I’m starving.”

  “Let’s go. Mr. Breckenridge wants to talk to you.” He gripped her arm tightly.

  “Ow,” she protested. “I’m not planning on running away.”

  “I’m not happy with Captain Marshall showing up. Now I have two people that I don’t trust.”

  “I’m sorry, but it’s not my fault if you can’t trust me.”

  He opened the library door, pushing her ahead of him. “Here she is, Mr. Breckenridge.”

  Breckenridge was seated at the desk looking at the map. Caldwell was standing pointing to something on the map. “Ms. Bentley, can you explain to Mr. Caldwell why you think Sheba is in this dotted area.”

  Sheba went through the explanation. I am only telling you what I’ve read from other experts as well as Dr. Aschler and Captain Seacliff.”

  Caldwell shook his head. “It’s interesting reasoning and the Taurus Mountain do fit the criteria but why not the mountainous area around Mt. Ararat? That fits the criteria, too.”

  “Except that the Assyrians were based in that area. The Assyrians say nothing of Sheba in their writings. Nothing is known of Sheba except the few verses in the Bible. Even Josephus doesn’t say much about it.”

  Caldwell nodded. “Okay. I can accept that the Taurus Mountains could be located in what was Sheba four thousand years ago.”

  Breckenridge said, “Can you pin down a place to start?”

  Caldwell rubbed the stubble on his chin. There is a port called Icel. I don’t think that the mines would be there, but it is a place to start. I have a geologist friend who lives close to t
hat port. We can get more information from him.”

  “Does that fit with your thinking, Ms. Bentley?”

  Sheba looked at the place where Caldwell was pointing. “I think that it’s a good place to start. I seem to remember reading that some archeologist found some mines in this area.” She said pointing to a section of the Taurus Mountains. “It’s been a long time since I read the article so I’ll have to try to pull up the information.”

  She looked up as the door opened. Marshall entered the room followed by Slater.

  “Mr. Marshall, I trust that you slept well.”

  “Marines are trained to sleep well wherever they are.”

  “I have been thinking about your offer. You would be a good addition to our team, however, I’m not sure that I trust you. It seems your appearance was too fortuitous so I have devised a test so that you can prove your loyalty.”

  The look Sheba shot Breckenridge was less than friendly.

  He smirked at her. “Don’t worry, Ms. Bentley. His life won’t be put in danger if he’s as loyal as you think he is.”

  “What’s the test, Mr. Breckenridge?” Marshall asked calmly.

  “I want you to get Braden back.”

  “No,” Sheba screamed. In hysterical fury, she lunged at Breckenridge, her fingers curled into claws.

  Marshall pulled her back hard against him, pinning her against his chest so she couldn’t move. When she tried to kick him he grabbed her legs with his other arm.

  Breckenridge stood rigid with rage. While Marshall held her, he backhanded her across the face. “No one has ever touched me before, I who am the rightful heir to the Kingdom of Sheba.” He said with regal calmness. “But I promise you that if Marshall doesn’t bring Braden, your sister, your nephew, you and Marshall will die the most painful deaths I can devise. I have treated you well and you repay me in this fashion. From now on you will be considered a servant and treated as such.”

  He looked at Marshall. “Bring me Braden or she and everyone she loves dies. Understood?

  Marshall nodded. “Understood. How long do I have?”

  “Two days. We leave for Sheba in two days. If you and Braden are not aboard that plane, I will send Slater to kill her sister and her nephew. Then I will personally kill her.”