“Oh God,” Fogg said.
King was attempting to climb over the top of the pilot’s seat and the dead pilot, head first, squeezing between the pilot’s headrest and the canopy.
His comms must be out. C’mon, King. Punch out of there. C’mon…
As Deep Blue’s voice began to trail off, Fogg and the others watched, horrorstruck, as the plane dipped further and headed for a hard smackdown in the middle of Chicago.
Just then, the canopy blew off the top of the plane and the pilot’s seat ejected, with the pilot still strapped in it, and with King, in a flight suit and leaning over the top of the chair, clutching the dead pilot’s knees for dear life. The ejecting seat rocketed out of the diving F-16. The plane rolled so it was perpendicular with the oncoming ground and the surging energy sphere when the seat shot out, the port wing of the plane pointing straight down.
Aleman understood what it meant as soon as he saw the canopy launch off. “Oh no!”
The ejection seat, with King precariously clinging to its passenger, shot horizontally across the concrete canyon between skyscrapers, heading right for one of the upper floors of the Park Hyatt building, thirty feet away, with the growling energy dome 800 feet below it.
THIRTEEN
Olderdalen, Norway
Rook was stunned as Asya held her own against Queen.
Blow for blow, block for block, kick for kick, the small, lithe dark-haired woman was going up against Queen-the biggest hand-to-hand bad ass that Rook had ever seen in any branch of the military. And while Rook loved to watch Queen go to work with her hands, he had to admit to himself that Asya was going about it with more efficiency and a ballet-like dexterity that was awe-inspiring. He’d even noticed Queen giving the little woman an approving look a time or two as they huffed and grunted while trying to rip each other apart.
Initially, Rook feared for Asya’s life in a fight between the two, but once he saw how deftly she could block and parry Queen’s attacks, his concern for her life left him, and he struggled to stand against the battered Volvo so he could get a better view of what was sure to be an epic fight.
As the snow continued to fall, laying a quick blanket of white on the small town street, Queen danced in between parked cars, and launched a flying sidekick at Asya. The small Russian woman nimbly ducked and rolled in the snow. As Queen was landing on the sidewalk, Asya launched a similar kick at Queen’s spine. But Zelda Baker was no easy chump when it came to fighting. She went for the dirty moves herself, and therefore expected them too. She twisted at the last second and caught Asya’s ankle in her armpit, then pivoted in the slippery snow, using Asya’s momentum to swing the short, dark-haired woman against the side of the general store. The thud was devastatingly loud and it shook a cloud of dust out from between the wooden siding.
Queen dropped Asya’s leg and stepped away from the impact. She was whirling back to ensure her opponent was finished when Asya sprang up from the ground, the top of her head catching Queen under the jaw, and knocking the latter’s head back until she lost her balance and slammed into the same car Rook had hit earlier. Before she could recover, and while her body was rebounding off the car, Asya landed a fierce left to the middle of Queen’s face, her nose very audibly breaking, and blood spattering across her porcelain face.
Instead of slowing her down, the injury seemed to reinvigorate the former Delta woman. Queen dropped low and lunged forward with both fists, driving the air from Asya in a loud belch-like burst, as the fists made contact with Asya’s middle. Queen followed through with a forearm to the side of Asya’s face, driving the smaller woman down onto the ground.
Asya’s left leg hooked behind Queen’s, and she was falling to the ground as well. All semblance of art and craft seemed to go out of the fight now, and the two were just feral. Attempting to kill the opponent was the only motivation.
Queen clambered onto Asya and pummeled her in the face repeatedly. The smaller woman squirmed and twisted, and as Rook watched, her legs somehow scissored up around Queen’s left arm and her neck. The tiny, slim legs locked behind Queen’s blowing blonde hair, choking the larger woman.
Rook’s anger grew. He knew Queen could handle herself in a fight with just about anyone except maybe God, but seeing her being hurt set his teeth to grinding. Not that he blamed Asya. He didn’t really want to see her hurt, either. But when he tried to shout out again, he discovered he’d barely caught enough breath to whisper.
Queen spared one hand to attempt to loosen the chokehold on her throat, but continued raining blows down with her other fist. On the next punch, Asya swiped blindly with her left arm and pushed Queen’s pistoning arm to the side, where the fist made contact with the ground instead of Asya’s blood-soaked face. Queen let out a howl of rage, and Asya torqued her hips and legs, driving Queen’s weight to the side and off of her. As Queen’s side hit the snow-covered ground, both women heard an ear-piercingly loud whistle. The sound was shrill and booming at the same time. It was immediately followed by a ferociously loud and growling voice.
“Knock it…the fuck off…now!”
Rook reached down, grabbed both women by the back of their shirts and pulled them violently apart. Neither one resisted. The two bodies deflated and crumpled as both women began to feel their injuries from the fight. Then they slowly began to get to their feet, with Rook standing between them and holding his hands up to each like a traffic cop.
“Not another punch.” Rook tried to appear menacing, but after the beating he had taken at the farm, he wasn’t in much shape to do anything if the women were determined to ignore him and tried again to kill each other.
Queen coughed once and spat out a mouthful of blood. Her nose was gushing crimson as well. Rook glanced to Asya and saw that Queen’s raining punches had split the Russian woman’s lip, and small cuts above both her brows were leaking blood into her eyes, which she simply swiped at with annoyance. He was grateful to notice that both women were breathing heavily and probably neither was in any shape to have another go.
“Normally I’d pay big money to see a fight like that, but we have more important things to deal with today. Asya, Queen is one of my people. She’s here to help.” He turned to Queen and motioned to Asya. “Queen, this is Asya. Long story short, she was held hostage, I freed her, she came back to ask for my help in something, but saved my life instead. She’s on my side.”
“ Your side?” Queen looked ready to slug him again.
“Against the-forget it.” Rook looked to Asya and nodded toward the store. “Why don’t you go see if they have any bandages, and give us a chance to catch up.”
This early in the morning in the sleepy town, Rook was thankful there were no gawking bystanders. Asya nodded her curt Russian nod, and then stalked into the general store, keeping Queen in view with squinted eyes until she passed the threshold into the shop. Queen eyed the woman like prey until she disappeared through the doorway. Then she rounded her glare onto Rook.
“Not a fucking word from you for weeks-we didn’t even know if you were alive-and then you turn up in backwater reindeer country playing pattycakes with that little tramp?” she was shouting. She advanced on him and smacked him across the face, but it lacked power or even emphasis.
He looked her in the eyes and said nothing. She tried to hold his gaze for a moment, but then turned away.
“Things in Siberia were rough, Zel. I needed some time to get my head together.” Rook paused for a moment, then continued. “I’m sorry, I-”
“Knight lost men, too, Rook, but he didn’t run away and put his head in the sand.”
“Put my-” Rook’s face turned a few shades more red.