Panthera Spelaea

Mikhail’s helicopter was still sitting forty yards away, pointing away from me and not moving. I thought about securing it or capturing the pilot. One radio call might result in Art’s team ending up with bullets in the back of their heads, or he might take off and strand us here temporarily.

I had more immediate problems, though. My sister was now an Eagle Switcher, and I had to reach the beast to reach her. The last thing I needed was to be searching Croatia for my sister. “Don’t make any sudden moves,” I told the girls as I watched the new Golden Eagle look around. “It’s all right, Melanie. You’re safe now.”

The bird flapped its wings and jumped up, taking a perch on the rock that Melanie had been leaning against earlier. It looked at me, and I thought I saw recognition in her eyes. I had to hope the Eagle spirit remembered the three of us from Moscow and the Elements. I tentatively reached my hand towards her; she looked at my hand but didn’t move out of the way. My fingers started to stroke the feathers on her chest. “She likes it,” Anna said. I moved my hand up to her neck, and Melanie raised her beak to give me better access. The bird watched both girls as they approached. Anna wiped Melanie’s blood off her hand onto her shirt before touching her feathers. “So soft.”

I was pleased the bird didn’t take off like last time; she seemed relaxed and comfortable in our company. It made the next step much easier. “Keep talking to her while I talk to Zach. We have to warn him about Edward.” The Eagle screeched at the sound of his name. It must have pulled recent memories from Melanie’s brain after the switch. No wonder she was comfortable around us now.

“What about Edward?”

“Edward gave us up for a billion-dollar stake in Mikhail’s company.”

I could see the anger flash in their eyes, soon replaced by determination. “Go. We’ll take care of your sister.” The two continued whispering and stroking the bird.

Melanie watched me with eagle eyes as I got up and walked to where my clothes lay. I pulled them on quickly, thankful to have shoes on again, then found the satellite phone. Zach’s number was on the redial, and I sent the call. “Zach, it’s John. Are you alone?”

“Just a minute.” I heard him move somewhere, then a door closed. “What’s going on?”

“Mikhail and Vasili are dead. They had Melanie. She was in a bad way, but I saved her by using the backpack. She’s with the girls now.”

“Damn. It’s over?”

“Not yet. Edward Smith gave us up. Vasili bragged about how it was worth the billion dollars to get two of us, plus Edward has to take out Art to get the full payment. You need to protect Art and capture Edward without tipping anyone off first. Don’t kill him yet; we need to find out if he recruited anyone else on the Elements, or we won’t be out of danger.”

“SHIT! Ok, I’m on it. What do you need?”

“Art’s people are holding your team. We need them back, and we need a cleanup team back here to remove their gear and dispose of the trash. Go, we’ll talk later.”

“Thanks, John.” He hung up, and I shoved the phone into my pocket.

I had work to do, and I didn’t want the girls exposed to the danger. I knew they wouldn’t like what I was about to say, though. I walked back to where they sat with my sister’s Eagle. “Zach’s been told about Edward. We need to get back to the Elements, but first, I need to get the guys Mikhail took from here.”

Svetlana didn’t think it was a good idea. “Do you know where Mikhail sent them? Or how many people are watching them?”

My lack of an answer told her both were ‘no.’ “I can’t exactly ask him now.”

“Check his phone,” Anna said.

It was worth a try. I went over to Mikhail’s body and recovered his phone out of his pant pocket. “We got lucky, Svetlana. It’s still intact.” Naturally, the phone was locked. And it was in Russian, which I didn’t yet read enough of to help.

“We won’t get the phone out of him, so we better hope Face ID still works,” Svetlana said after I gave it to her.

I yanked his body until it was leaning against a rock. Mikhail’s eyes were open, but one of Svetlana’s bullets had cut his cheek. Would it work? I had no idea.

Svetlana held the phone up, moving it around to get the face in the camera. It took a few tries, but it finally opened. “YES!” Svetlana opened up the text message application.

“Look for anything related to the prisoners or Edward,” I said as I looked over her shoulders.

“Here we go,” Svetlana said as she brought up a conversation in Cyrillic. “Last communication was from Mikhail, to hold them until it’s over.”

“Tell them to let the men go. They were soldiers doing their job, and the ones Mikhail wanted are gone. Promise them a bonus for good work, and say I’ll be back in a few days.”

Svetlana typed out the message and hit SEND. “Let’s see what else is on here.” She went back to the text conversations, finding one with Mikhail’s accountant. “Deposit sent to E’s account. I’ll have the equity/cash transfers set up to execute at your direction.” She showed me the screen. “That has to be Edward!”

“Tell him to execute the transfers immediately,” I said.

Svetlana looked at me like I was crazy. “You want to give Edward his billion dollars? He set you two up, and he was going to kill Art!”

“No,” I said with a smile. “I want to take a billion dollars out of Mikhail’s estate. ”

Svetlana grinned as she typed out the message and hit SEND. She got a response from the first man. He said they’d left the sedated men in a hotel room and were heading for the airport. She put the phone in her pocket and looked back at Anna and Melanie. The nervous raptor perched on her thigh as it looked around in the growing darkness. “How is she doing?”

“Good, I think. We’re lucky it’s dark out; hopefully, that keeps Melanie from flying off.” She was petting the feathers on her chest to keep her calm.

“I need to retrieve some gear, and then we should get out of here.”

Anna looked at the helicopter, sitting there doing nothing. You could see lights in the cockpit, but the pilot hadn’t done anything since shutting the engines down. “Who is in there with the pilot?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll be ready.” I took Svetlana back to the church; using the flashlight on the phone, we put on body armor and gun belts. The Glock pistols had night sights and a small flashlight under the barrel. “Don’t use the flashlight unless you have to. We need to get to the helicopter at the same time without being spotted,” I told her. “I’ll approach from below and take the pilot door on the right. I need you to approach from directly behind and come up on the other side. You take the passenger door on the left. On my whistle, close in and open the door. Kill anyone who doesn’t surrender.”

“I’m ready.” She didn’t look it, but she would do it for me, for us. We went outside, stopping to tell Anna to stay out of sight. I worked my way down the hill, using the olive trees and brush to hide. My lion was forward, his night vision helping me see clearly. Svetlana had a clear path down the rocky hill, but she was vulnerable if spotted. I was twenty feet below the helicopter, hidden in the brush when she made it to the tail rotor.

I moved to ten feet, then whistled. Running for the door, I threw it open and pointed my Glock in the pilot’s shocked face. I could hear the passenger door opening and the light moving around the back. “Clear,” Svetlana yelled.

The pilot had dropped his phone, the game he’d been playing still making noise as it landed at his feet. He held his hands up, his eyes wide. He said something in another language, then switched to English. “Don’t shoot,” he begged me.

“You took my friends,” I growled out.

“Please. I’m just a pilot flying charters around. I get paid extra to keep my mouth shut. I don’t look because I don’t want to know!”

“Get ready for departure,” I ordered. “Svetlana, go back and get Anna and her pet.”

Svetlana looked at me. “How are we going to keep it calm in a helicopter?”

I thought quickly. “Have Anna get a shirt or something to put over her head. It works with falcons.”

By the time they returned, I was in the copilot’s seat with my gun at the ready. Svetlana and Anna had improvised, tying a uniform shirt around her left forearm for the Eagle to perch on. A green T-shirt was draped over Melanie’s head, hanging halfway down her wings. She looked silly, but it was working. Svetlana helped her into the back and buckled her in with the bird in front of her. The pilot spun the blades up, and we lifted off. “Where to,” he asked.

“Head towards Sibenik. I need to make a call.”

He headed north through the night sky, the darkness of the Adriatic Sea below us. I pulled out the satphone, hoping Zach got enough notice to stop Edward from taking out Art.