Ghostwalker 04 - Conspiracy Game

made her physically ill. Worse, he could see splinters in her chin and along her arm. He didn’t even have a medical kit to help her. “We have to get out of here.
    The rebels are going to be swarming all over this place.” He roughened his voice, hoping to snap her out of it. “Come on. Now, Briony .”
    She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, nodding her head. “I’m sorry, it’s just that… ” She trailed off and looked back toward the body on the ground.
    Swaying unsteadily, Jack reached out and caught her to him. “Stop looking at him. He would have killed both of us. Move now .” His thumb slid over her chin, wiping at the trickle of blood.
    Briony blinked up at him and then firmed her mouth. Her arm slipped around his waist.
    “I’m all right now.” She began walking with him toward the city, once again taking some of his weight. He had taken the stabbing pain away, but he couldn’t take away the horror squeezing her heart.
    “You should have left when I told you to go. You could have been killed.”
    “Just walk.”
    “I’m not going to make it, you know. I’m burning up, lost too much blood, in fact I can’t see very well. The rebels looking for me had to have heard the shots… ”
    Briony sighed. “Save your strength. Just keep walking. I’ll get you to the city, and my brother can figure out a way to get you out of Kinshasa.”
    Jack kept putting one foot in front of the other, determined not to pass out. He’d be damned if a female was going to carry his butt, and damned if she wouldn’t do it if he couldn’t walk. There was something about her that just plain got under his skin. He’d long ago chosen his path, and it didn’t include a woman of his own or a family. Briony Jenkins was a woman made to belong to a man—heart and soul. She was the kind of woman that a man married and knew with a certainty she’d stick it out through good or bad, right beside her partner. Worse, she was the kind of woman a man might kill over, and he certainly was more than good at that. It made for a bad combination.
    Briony glanced up at the man leaning more and more of his weight on her. He was swearing over and over under his breath. Sheer will kept him on his feet. “Do you need to rest?”
    He didn’t answer, but kept walking. They made it back to the stream, and Briony stopped him, sitting him on a fallen tree trunk. It was a measure of how far gone he was that he didn’t protest when she helped him to sit. Her bizarre childhood training was suddenly an asset. Somewhere close by she sensed several men. She waited as long as she could, giving Jack a chance to rest before dragging him up again and setting off toward Kinshasa. She had to skirt around groups of soldiers hunting in the forest. Each time, their scent gave them away before she ever came close to them.
    Once inside the city itself, she hoped they looked as if they’d been drinking. It was difficult to hide the sniper rifle and he wouldn’t release it to leave behind, so she kept it locked between them, hoping their bodies hid it from anyone who might spot them. She chose the deserted streets and alleyways as she made her way with him back to her room.
    “A few more steps, Jack,” she said encouragingly. The man must have a will of absolute iron to keep going. He never faltered, stoically walking in spite of the raging fever. His body was hot and dry, desperate for something to drink.
    She kept to the shadows, skirting around the pockets of people they encountered. She avoided all contact with the soldiers on the corners, careful not to draw their attention. Once they were in the alley beneath the window of her room, she leaned Jack against the wall.
    “I’m going up to open the window. Do you think you can make the jump?”
    Jack slid down the wall to sit on the ground. He nodded, but didn’t look at her. Briony wasn’t so certain. She crouched and made the leap, catching the windowsill by her fingers.
    She drew herself up onto the narrow ledge and pushed open the window.
    Jack. She was afraid to call out to him, all too aware of the soldiers and the possibility that the rebels had followed them into the city. Can you make it?
    He didn’t answer. Briony put one hand on the sill and leapt back down to the ground, landing lightly on her feet beside him. She put her hand on his shoulder. “I’ll take the rifle.”
    She reached for it.
    Jack came alive, jerking back, his movement graceful and smooth, practiced,