GhostWalkers 10 - Samurai Game

facial muscles were relaxed. The woman knew there was trouble, but she remained unfazed. Bodyguard, like hell. She was far more than that. She didn’t even show tension. He found himself breathing out rather than in. Every time he took in a lungful of air in the close confines of the SUV, he found himself breathing her into his lungs. She seemed to permeate his body, slipping past his guard and lodging herself deep.
    “We also leave our itinerary with my secretary in case one of us is needed,” Daiki added. “She’s been my secretary for many years and would never betray us.”
    Sam wasn’t all too sure about that. As far as he wasconcerned, everyone who wasn’t part of his team was a potential enemy. It was strange to find himself so divided. He’d always been a decisive person. He had great confidence in his intellect and his physical abilities. He’d trained with nearly every weapon known to man, circled the globe training in every terrain, and he’d been involved in hundreds of missions. He’d never been this damned tense.
    The SUV bumped over rotting logs and splashed through rocky creek beds filled with running water. There was the faintest of tracks on the pitted, uneven very narrow trail. Tamarack, fir, western red cedar, and white bark pine trees grew in abundance, a thick, lush forest surrounding them, sentinels providing intertwining canopy to shelter them.
    “Bandit, three o’clock,” Nico said. “Slow down and let me bail.”
    “We can’t stay inside this vehicle and fight,” Azami said. “I want Daiki under cover.”
    “Hold on, Nico.” Sam still wasn’t convinced they could trust any of the Yoshiies, but he was tasked with their safety. “I’m getting us there.” He zigzagged through the trees, missing wide trunks by inches, knowing the helicopter coming after them would have a much more difficult time in the heavier canopy.
    “Incoming,” Kadan reported.
    Sam jerked the wheel in the only direction he could, scraping the bark from a western red cedar tree and spinning the SUV nearly onto its side He reversed his direction and took the trail that would bring them closest to the bunkers they’d scattered through the hills. Each bunker was hidden by fallen trees. Brush was encouraged to grow around the entrances so that from air or even on the ground, they were impossible to detect.
    The explosion was loud, trees splintering as smoke and debris erupted into the sky and rained down, blanketing the area. Clearly the helicopter was trying to drive them out of cover.
    “Bail, now,” Sam said. “I’ll lead them away.”
    It was another point in his argument that all three of the visitors were seasoned warriors when neither Daiki nor Eiji hesitated, leaping from the vehicle along with Nico and Kadan. Sam slammed his foot on the gas and spun the SUV, the doors slamming closed. The back refused to latch, swinging open again, but Azami caught the handle and closed it fast before they briefly showed themselves to the helicopter and once again disappeared in a blast of dust and debris under the forest canopy.
    “You have to get out,” Sam ordered. “Kadan and Nico can protect you three while I draw them away.”
    Azami climbed into the front seat, dragging her case with her. “Eiji can protect my brother. Don’t worry about me.”
    Confidence permeated her voice. In any case, he didn’t have time to argue. Another explosion rocked the ground in front of them and smoke reduced visibility to zero. The helicopter was attempting to herd them, and that meant they had ground forces.
    “Get out now,” Sam said, as he slammed on the brakes and shut down the vehicle. He was already leaping out, not waiting to look to see if she followed him. She was far too calm and experienced not to realize the vehicle was a liability to them.
    He raced through the smoke away from the others, Azami on his heels. As soon as he got to the edge of the swirling smoke, he held up his hand and dropped low into the thick vegetation. Azami dropped with him. The sound of an engine firing up off to their left was loud. A second engine joined the first, from the right. Sam swore aloud.
    The trap was a neat little box, and that told Sam this plan had been in the works awhile. Someone had come into the forest and scouted alternate trails the GhostWalkers took and set their ambush. This was no sudden decision hastily put together the moment Azami had filed her flight plan. Well thought out and carefully executed