Marauder (Oregon Files 15)

The four terrorists who were already dressed like employees took their towel-wrapped weapons and started down the path back to the main area of the park. The two left behind began stripping so they could put on their own uniforms.

This was the best chance for Eddie and Linc to procure weapons. Forty feet separated them from the terrorists, but there was a spot farther along the canyon where they’d only be ten feet away when they sprang from the bushes. Eddie pointed to the place, and Linc nodded again.

Before they could move, they heard voices coming from behind the ride’s control room, causing the terrorists to freeze. There must have been an unseen passage from the employee area of the park. Two women in yellow uniforms came around the building and stopped, staring in horror at the corpses.

They looked up at the half-dressed men, screamed, and edged back the way they’d come. The terrorists scrambled to pick up guns.

Eddie and Linc responded instinctively, knowing that the women were dead if they didn’t act. Both of them charged out of the bushes and rushed the men, distracting them long enough for the women to run.

The only thing that saved them was the terrorists’ struggle to free their guns from the towels. Linc tackled his man, sending the submachine gun flying. They rolled across the loading area together and into one of the rafts that was moving along the conveyor belt toward the release zone int

o the rapids.

Eddie knocked his guy senseless and knelt down to retrieve the K7. He picked it up and turned toward footsteps pounding up the rider path. The four other terrorists must have heard the women’s screams and came running back to investigate.

Eddie unleashed a volley from the automatic weapon and took down two of the men as they rounded the bend. The other two took cover and returned fire, forcing Eddie to dive behind the control room as its windows blew apart.

In the reflection of the lone remaining pane of glass, Eddie could see the shirtless terrorist he had flattened get to his feet and sprint toward the raft where Linc and the other terrorist were brawling. He leaped into it as the craft tipped down and plunged into the rapids.

TWELVE

Raven heard the muted staccato gunfire coming from the direction of the rafting ride that was under construction, but no one besides Sinduk and his men reacted. To tourists, it would have sounded like construction equipment, but Raven suspected that Linc and Eddie had engaged the terrorists in battle. She had seen them out of the corner of her eye when they entered the construction zone.

“They must have encountered a couple of workers,” Raven said.

“Then why is the gunfire still going on,” Sinduk said. “They’re supposed to take care of anyone who spots them quickly and with minimal noise. I don’t like this. We can’t wait any longer.” He scanned the promenade. “There they are.”

He nodded in the direction of the Crazy Eights waterslide. Raven saw Emily Schmidt, a forty-something brunette in a black one-piece, and her son Kyle, a sunburned redhead in long board shorts. With them was Oliver Muñoz, a reedy Cuban American covered by a loose swim shirt, and his look-alike teen daughter Elena, who was wearing a blue tank-top bikini.

The four of them were laughing, carefree, and dripping with water. They scanned their wristbands to use the Super Pass lane and began the long walk up the stairs to the top of the ride.

Sinduk raised his hand as a signal, and three men dressed in the park’s yellow uniforms approached with loads of towels in their hands as if the bundles were an offering. By the menacing looks in their eyes and intense expressions, it was clear they were from the other Indo Jihad cell.

They abruptly stopped only a few feet away when a white man drunkenly staggered up to Raven. He was shirtless, wearing nothing but swim trunks and sneakers, and seemed proud of his ripped abs, bronzed biceps, and chiseled face that wouldn’t have been out of place on a comic book superhero. He grinned at Raven as he gave a sloppy salute to the men with the green beer bottle in his hand.

“Ah have been waiting for you, beautiful,” MacD Lawless slurred convincingly. He drained the rest of the bottle, which she guessed was water. “Where have you been?”

Raven played along with the act. “I think you have me confused with someone else.”

MacD shook his head and burped. “It’s time to go, babe. Eddie and Linc are busy right now, but they’ll be ready any minute.”

“Get out of here,” Sinduk demanded.

Raven turned to Sinduk and put up her hand. “I can take care of him.” She faced MacD again. “It’s time for you to leave.”

MacD smiled even wider, but his eyes flicked toward the men with towels. “Don’t push me away, darlin’.”

He took a step closer to Raven, and she understood what he wanted her to do. With both hands, she shoved him backward into the men holding the towel bundles.

MacD took a calculated stumble into the man in the middle, windmilling his arms in the process. He smashed the beer bottle into the head of the terrorist on his right, who dropped the towels he was holding. Two Daewoo K7 submachine guns clattered to the ground.

MacD swung the broken bottle in the other direction, plunging it into the chest of the second man.

Raven charged the third man as he drew a K7 from his bundle. She kneed him in the groin and jabbed the ceramic knife into his throat.

Before she could pick up one of the weapons, a fist slammed into her back like a pile driver. She dropped to her knees and saw Sinduk pick up one of the guns. He ran toward the waterslide with one of the other men from the van.

The third terrorist with Sinduk tackled MacD, and they began trading punches as they rolled around on the pavement.