Veil of the Goddess Read Online Free Page B

probably spend another ten years or so in the stockade for desertion as well.
    But he was an officer, and someone in covert ops had knifed a soldier while he'd been on guard duty. He wasn't going to let anyone finish what Smith had started.
    "Let whoever does the post-op know that I ordered the shot that downed the chopper. My responsibility. Now move."
    As his tank company roared into the night, he bent down to pick up the wounded woman.
    She pushed his arms away. “I'm all right. What's going on?"
    "Your CIA friend went off the deep end. Tried to kill you. You must have got him before he could finish the job. Now we've got to get out of here."
    "Okay. Help me with this.” She gestured at the wooden joists she'd fallen upon when Smith had killed her.
    "We don't have time for construction debris. We've got to go underground before the insurgents put on a show of force."
    "I don't know what's going on, but I do know that Smith tried to kill me over what you're calling construction debris. According to him, it's The Cross."
    He must have looked as confused as he felt because she shook her head impatiently. “ The True Cross . The one Jesus was crucified on. Not symbolically but literally. I don't know if that's true, but it's clearly important. We need to get it to safety."
    Safety was something Herrera suspected would be the last thing they'd find around here.
    Newland stood, exactly as if she hadn't just been lying their with every drop of blood in her body spilled on the foundation stones for the old mosque, then lifted up the crossbeam as if it weighted only a few ounces.
    "We can hide in the ruins back there. Bring that other piece."
    Without waiting for him to answer, she set off at a jog.
    Zack eyed the twelve foot long piece of timber. Herrera was as good a Catholic as the next Latino, but he expected the artifacts of the Saints and Angelic Hosts to be in churches where they belonged, not lying on some remote battlefield.
    He picked up what Newland claimed just might be half the True Cross and was amazed that it seemed practically weightless. So much so that he was able to grab Smith's body and his briefcase and carry those as well.
    From the evidence of the wounds, he'd assumed that the agent had been the one who'd flipped out. Now that he'd heard the Sergeant, he wondered if he'd made a truly monumental mistake.
* * * *
    Ivy headed toward the sound side of the mosque complex where a couple of outbuildings were more or less intact.
    Her mind whirled with impossibilities but she'd been long enough in Iraq to know that survival came first. In Iraq, understanding what was going on rarely happened anyway.
    Running full speed, she hit the door to what looked like it had once been a supply shed and smacked it open, then put her M16 on her hip and stood guard.
    Captain Herrera was lugging not only the main piece from the Cross, something she and Smith had both struggled to lift, but also Jones’ corpse and his briefcase.
    "What did you bring him for?"
    "You want to leave his body there for the insurgents to put on T.V.?” Herrera shoved the broken door shut behind him.
    She hadn't realized she was poking her rifle into his chest until he used one finger to push it out of the way, then set down his cargo.
    "All right,” he collapsed onto the earthen floor. “I'm going to assume you know what you're doing. So tell me what you know. We'd better pool our knowledge if we're going to stay alive."
    She considered, nodded. She didn't know any secrets. She had no idea why her squad had been assigned to work with Smith and Jones in the first place, how he'd guessed that what he claimed was the True Cross would be here in Mosul, or why he'd decided to try to kill her. But she was interested in learning what she could. Because there was one thing she was certain of. Given the way theater command had responded to Smith, what he was doing was approved at high levels within the government. Which meant the woman who had killed him was