Marauder (Oregon Files 15)

“I’m a guardian of decency,” Raven said, drawing the ceramic dagger from its sheath that she had stuck into the knot of her sarong.

She could see the gears turning in his head. If he reached down to get the gun with his bad leg, she’d be able to stab him before he could get back up. But he needed that weapon to complete his task.

He sneered at her. “You don’t realize it, but you’ve already lost.”

Instead of trying to pick up the gun, he reached out with his foot and kicked it into the waterslide tube where the Schmidts and Muñozes had gone down. In the same motion, he dived in after it. Raven didn’t hesitate and plunged in headfirst right behind him.

The slick course twisted and corkscrewed down, with the translucent tube filtering the sunlight into a diffuse green glow.

Sinduk was only inches ahead of her. He clawed at the submachine gun that was sliding through the water just out of his reach.

Toward the bottom, as the slide leveled out, Sinduk was finally able to grasp the handle and pull it to him. He flipped on his back and pointed the gun behind him at his pursuer. There was nothing Raven could do to dodge the shot.

She didn’t have to. As Sinduk pulled the trigger, he dropped into the pool at the end of the slide. Bullets tore into the sky until he was dunked under the surface.

Raven pitched into the water, the knife held out like a spear. It sank into Sinduk’s chest, and he stared at her wide-eyed as blood billowed out into the pool. The life drained from his face, and the gun dropped from his hands.

Raven withdrew the knife and sheathed it back in her sarong before picking up the gun. She emerged from the water and realized that it was only three feet deep. As she stood, she scanned the area and saw the Schmidts and Muñozes scrambling out of the pool, seemingly unharmed.

Raven, however, knew they weren’t out of danger yet. Sinduk said she had already lost. He had to be referring to something he’d mentioned to her at the van.

The terrorist leader had a backup plan.

FIFTEEN

The Ocean Land security guards hadn’t presented much of a challenge. MacD, however, was miffed that it had taken him a couple of seconds longer to free himself than it had the jihadist. He sprinted after the terrorist and caught him ascending the Crazy Eights.

MacD snagged the back of the terrorist’s shirt on the third level and yanked him backward.

The terrorist wheeled around with his fist cocked. MacD was ready for him. He easily sidestepped the punch and leveraged the man’s momentum to heave him over the railing. The terrorist fell still when he struck the pavement below.

MacD spotted Raven climbing out of one of the lower pools with a submachine gun in hand. Scarlet spread from a motionless body in the clear water.

Raven went straight to a group of three people huddled around a fourth. Oliver Muñoz tended to his teenage girl, Elena, who was coughing like she had swallowed water, while Emily Schmidt and her son, Kyle, watched. They recoiled from the gun Raven was carrying, but whatever she said to them put them at ease.

“MacD, do you read me?” came Eddie’s voice in his ear.

“Ah’m on the waterslide.”

“We’re coming out of the Raging Rapids.” MacD saw Eddie and Linc jogging out of the rafting ride construction zone. Both of them were dripping wet. “Where is Raven?”

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; “She’s at the bottom pool with the Schmidt and Muñoz families. All four of them look all right, and we’ve eliminated all the terrorists we spotted, but there may be more.”

“Understood. We’ll meet you there.”

MacD sprinted down the stairs when a geyser of water erupted from one of the pools below him, followed by a concussive blast. A few seconds later, another one hit. Then a third.

MacD had experienced enough explosions to know that it was mortar fire coming from somewhere.

Raven and the families dived to the ground. MacD could see that the shells were closing in on them. He looked out from his high perch. His eyes were drawn to puffs of smoke emanating from the fishing boat out in the channel between the islands.

He saw Eddie on his phone and heard what he was saying.

“Oregon, we’ve got incoming mortar fire.”

MacD didn’t hear the reply, but he saw the result.