Innocent Blood(100)

Iscariot waved toward the parked aircraft. “Everybody get aboard.”

With no choice, Tommy ducked under the rotors as they began to spin and climbed into the helicopter. Dread etched through him. Where were they taking him? He remembered Iscariot’s talk of destiny, and somehow he knew he was not going to like it.

As he strapped himself in, he noted Elizabeth fussing with the shoulder and lap belts.

“Do you need help?” Tommy asked.

“It is more complex than harnessing a team of horses,” she said, but she figured it out and snapped herself in place next to him.

Iscariot spoke to the pilot, then climbed into the cabin, bringing with him his two hulking bodyguards. When he closed the door, the entire cabin went pitch-black. No light came in through the windows, and Tommy could not see out. He was glad when artificial lights came on.

Elizabeth slowly took off her veil and sunglasses.

Iscariot handed them each a set of heavy wireless earphones.

Tommy put his on and Elizabeth followed his example, clearly watching his every move.

The engine volume got louder, and they lifted off from the helipad with a jerk. With the windows blacked out, Tommy used his stomach to judge how far they climbed, when they leveled out, and when they started their flight back to land.

Tommy leaned over and peered ahead. The windshield was also tinted to a solid black. How did the pilot know where they were going?

Iscariot noted where he was looking. His voice came through the earphones. “There is a digital camera mounted on the nose of the helicopter. Let me show you.”

Reaching across Tommy’s lap, he flicked a switch near the armrest. A monitor lowered in front of Tommy. It flickered to life, displaying a sweep of moonlit waves and a clear horizon in front.

“There’s a small joystick near your right hand,” Iscariot said. “You can move the camera with it.”

Testing this, Tommy spun the joystick in a circle and images on the monitor swung a full 360. He watched waves chasing waves. The horizon was water and sky. Behind the helicopter, the twinkling lights of the oil rig grew smaller and smaller. As he swung the view back forward, he spotted a set of tiny lights running low over the water, heading toward them.

Another helicopter.

Iscariot sat straighter, then leaned forward toward the pilot. “Who is that?”

“Don’t know,” the pilot answered. “I’ve swept it with the night-vision scopes. No distinct markings on the hull, but it looks like a chartered aircraft. Could be tourists.”

Iscariot scoffed. “Out before sunrise? Move us closer.”

Their chopper dipped and dove toward the other craft, on an intercept course.

Iscariot pushed Tommy’s hand off the joystick and commandeered it. He toggled a switch and the view turned brighter, in shades of silvery gray.

Night vision.

The view suddenly zoomed forward, centering on the windshield of the other aircraft.

Tommy could make out the pilot’s face, remembering him from the ice maze.

The shock of recognition quickly changed to hope. It was one of the priests, one of those who helped free him from the ice.

They found me!

He didn’t know how, but he didn’t care.

Maybe they can rescue me . . . rescue us.

He glanced at Elizabeth, who was also staring at the screen. She smiled with half her mouth, as if she couldn’t help herself. “The Sanguinists have tracked us.”

Anger flared in Iscariot’s voice and reddened his cheeks. “Take them down.”

In the corner of the screen, a yellow icon of four missiles appeared.

Beneath it was a single word:



Hellfire



That couldn’t be good.

Tommy felt a rumbling under his seat. He imagined a hatch opening, a missile bay lowering into view.

On the screen, one of the yellow missiles turned red.

Uh-oh.



5:35 A.M.

With her face pressed to the window, Erin watched the helicopter dive toward them. Earlier, they had noted the aircraft rise like a tiny mote from the galactic cluster of an oil rig farther out to sea. It seemed headed to the coast, going wide from their position—then it had suddenly swung toward them, plainly coming in for a closer look.

Jordan had posited that it might be security for the rig, coming to investigate the approach of an unknown aircraft. These were suspicious times.

Then suddenly it dove straight at them.

Smoke flared from its underside, along with a flash of fire.

“Missile!” Christian screamed from up front.

Erin was thrown back as Christian forced the helicopter into a steep climb. Beyond the roar of the engines, a piercing scream ripped through the night. Their aircraft rolled to the right, as a whistling curl of smoke swept past the landing skid on the left.

A second later, an explosion blasted into the sea behind them, the shock wave shuddering their craft. A flume of water and smoke shot into the sky.