The cellphone bounced out of his hand.
“Ah, shit. Hope they can track it.”
Alicia felt like cursing but used her handgun to bring down two enemies. The smaller pistols were better in this environment. A pirate shot one of his brethren as tripped, then himself through the head as his gun grounded and spun around with his finger still on the trigger. Men around him cringed. Alicia took another down.
Russo crawled hard through the tangled scrub, skirting brambles as best he could and snaking alongside small hillocks. One of the small peaks erupted under the impact of a bullet as he passed, showering him with soil. He kept going.
Healey followed close and then Caitlyn. Alicia made sure she shouted at the researcher to keep her head down, nose to the ground.
An outcropping of rock ahead and Russo was on his knees, drifting around it for shelter. He waited for the others. The pirates ran recklessly ahead, one breaking an ankle in a stony rivulet and left there by his brothers, screaming, unable to get free. Another tried to jump over the outcropping, smashed his head against the bare rock, and fell away unconscious. Alicia saw the leader at the center of the pack still waving his cleaver and offering no direction, no support. She could only make shapes out to the far right. Jensen’s men, advancing quickly.
Russo climbed around the outcropping and came to a series of sparse trees. Trunk to trunk he ran, keeping low and covered through open space by Healey. Once Russo had passed the third tree Healey started out, covered by Alicia. In a matter of seconds a fusillade of fire was returned by the advancing pirates, bullets thudding and screaming past. Several punched bark or split air close to Healey, more tore past Alicia, and one slammed off a chunk of boulder close to her left knee. She scrambled back and Healey flattened himself.
Crouch’s eyes were on her.
Is it worth it? she wanted to ask. The risk? The loss? The future pain?
But Alicia remained a soldier, and her boss moved ahead. Russo found a space where he could lay down some covering fire and Healey was scrambling off, forcing Alicia to follow. The hot sun blazed down from a cloudless sky and warmed the earth with an unrelenting energy. Dust and pollen wafted around, saturating every deep breath. The sounds of men swearing and crying out in pain, grunting in exertion, and urging their friends on was all she could hear.
The slope steepened. Above, she saw it narrow as it reached up toward the top of the hill. Still, she saw no sign of the tree and suddenly wondered if it even existed at all. What a fine jest for Morgan to pull. What perfect subterfuge. Sending every band of hunters to the top of a laborious slope to find they had done it all for nothing.
But someone knew it was there. The sailors for one. The tree remained to this day a well-known landmark, recognized by locals who plied these waters.
The pirates were spreading out. Mainly due to their numbers and over-enthusiasm, but nevertheless scattering toward the Gold Team. Alicia helped dissuade them with a few well-placed shots. Still, the rival groups pounded hard for the top of the hill, heads down and trading fire.
Jensen’s men were closer, possibly encountering some impassable obstacle, and were forced to engage in hand-to-hand combat with half-a-dozen pirates. An Uzi rattled, taking out some of Jensen’s men. The leader of the pirates shouted something unintelligible to which nobody reacted.
Alicia paused as a pirate ran hell-for-leather toward Healey. The young lad hadn’t even seen the attack. Alicia met the man head on, clubbed him with her pistol, and then kicked him to the ground. He twisted, feeling for a weapon. She shot him and ran on. Crouch raced at her heels.
Up they went. Russo encountered a cave, thought about heading inside and then decided to skirt its black maw. Crouch had a look of indecision in his eyes as he passed but said nothing. Alicia watched it all. Still, she respected and trusted and followed this man. Still, he remained far from perfect.
As was everyone deep inside, but this was a man she had thought different. The toll of his mistakes was heavy and she felt more was to come. But now was definitely not the time.
Ahead, Russo smashed aside a pirate that had forged ahead and doubled back. Healey finished him off, but that didn’t bode well for the chase. Alicia saw that the pirates were going to be kings of the mountain, and with their force that would make them pretty much unassailable.
Unless their force somehow went into sharp decline.
She clicked comms and shouted out a plan to Russo.
“Do it,” she finished. “Do it now!”
Ramming in a fresh mag she unhooked her rifle and jumped over a ditch and then a fallen log. Russo dropped to one knee up ahead, let off a volley of shots and allowed Healey to pass him by. Then Caitlyn and the rest. Healey now ran at the head of the pack and Russo at the back. Then Healey dropped down, shooting until the others all passed him. Pirates fell and twisted and crashed to the ground, some dead, some with broken bones, all tripping their comrades and getting in each other’s way.
Caitlyn dropped alongside Healey and then Alicia was passing them at a leap. She fell to one knee, lined up the pirate pack and then squeezed her trigger. Bullets flew among them, striking flesh and bone, sending gouts of blood high enough to paint a crimson canvas, blocking the sun and falling in errant patterns. Men collapsed face first. Others jumped over their bodies, trying to match Alicia’s skills on the run and failing. Always failing. Suddenly she felt Russo galloping by and then the rest of her team and she was up again, forming the rearguard.
The hill below them was littered with the dead, soaked by their life force. Jensen’s men added to the dead and took hits of their own. Mercenary met mercenary and forgot their objectives.
Alicia took a moment to look up.
Right to the top of the mountain.
Their goal, the crooked tree and the believed burial site for the most infamous and greatest plundered treasure hoard in history was in sight, and the pirates were in reach of it.
And although they were weary, bruised and bloody, the Gold Team ran harder. And they ran faster. Never had they fought harder for the prize.
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
The higher slopes were the hardest. The space became narrower and the separate groups grew closer. Mercs came across from Jensen’s group, no doubt ordered since Alicia doubted it was the right choice to make, and brought down running pirates in any way possible. Alicia saw some crazy, desperate actions in the next few moments. A pirate turned his gun on a merc only to see the old iron explode in his face as he pulled the trigger. Both men went down. A merc flattened three pirates by barging through their pack with open arms, then slipped off a rocky outcropping and broke his neck on the rocks below. A pirate turned to flee back to camp and was cut down by one of his brethren. Four, then six, then eight pirates reached the top of the hill, started to dance around and fired their guns in the air. Russo took one of them out, and a man that looked distinctly like Jensen killed a second. The pirate leader turned, surveyed the slope and then roared.
Alicia took a potshot, missed, but saw another pirate fall. Good enough. Three pirates now neared them and hopped over a shallow stream to engage. A weapon was leveled. Alicia ducked under and used the barrel to smash the man’s nose. A shot was fired. Healey ducked for cover, bobbed up and then shot the man center mass.
Caitlyn tripped and fell before the third.
Looking like all his Christmas presents had come early, he discarded his weapon and pulled out a knife. Alicia shook her head at his stupidity even as she shot him, then helped Caitlyn up.
“Watch your balance.”