Decker was a trained marine, but he was an officer and a pilot. That gave him a different skillset to those men who trained to be commandos, and the difference was never better demonstrated than in the way they were able to brush off death. He saw now that Riley Carr was no exception to the rule.
He’d read about the soul-crushing selection course in the vast Western Australian outback that men had to pass if they wanted to get in the SASR. He had nothing but respect for those who even attempted it, never mind passed.
Ahead, Kaleka was now turning east at the top of Miramar Beach and when they made the same turn a few seconds later they saw him and Diana violently swerving off the sand. Racing up the dunes the Indian hitman launched his quad up a series of low, concrete steps and disappeared into a small grove of palm trees.
“Where now?” Decker said, pulling up beside Riley.
“He went in there!” Selena said.
“Goa Miramar Resort,” said Riley. “Stayed their on my third honeymoon.”
Before Decker even had time to consider how Riley Carr had persuaded at least three women to marry him, the Australian was ramming his quad up the concrete steps and weaving it through the palm grove in pursuit of the kidnapped woman.
Decker followed suit and as he hit the grove, he heard the now familiar sound of people screaming up ahead. The sound of terrified holidaymakers was met by a fierce barrage of quad-horns and then the grim sound of automatic weapons’ fire. Somewhere up there in the resort, a very dangerous man was starting to feel hunted. If he started to feel trapped as well Decker was worried innocent people might get hurt.
With Riley no longer in sight, Decker followed the narrow track that wound through the palms and dropped down to third gear to take a shallow corner. Mud and gravel chips flew up in a wide arc behind him as he dropped down again to second and revved wildly to gain speed and come out of the bend.
The track was now leading up a slope, at the top of which he was able to see Riley again. The Australian’s quad was stationary and he had raised himself up off the saddle in order to scan the area for Kaleka.
Decker pulled up beside him and joined the hunt. They were parked up in the center of the resort and now security guards were scrambling to contain what they presumably thought was a terrorist threat in the middle of their luxury hotel.
“Great,” Decker said. “We don’t need this.”
“We need to get out of here,” Selena said.
Ahead, the American saw the Goan moonlight flash for just a second off Kaleka’s rear brake lights. He was over the other side of the resort now, beyond the main swimming pool and heading for the entrance. If Riley was thinking the same thing as Decker, it was that if Kaleka got into the backstreets of Panjim they would probably never see either him or Diana ever again.
“Last chance to take the bastard out,” Riley said, revving the quad. He nodded his head in the direction of the security guards. “Tell these guys thanks but not today.” And then he was gone, skirting around the eastern edge of the enormous swimming pool.
“Son of a bitch!” Decker said, and let his clutch out too fast. The quad lurched forward in a series of violent judders as the guards behind him opened fire with their pistols. Decker crouched low against the quad to avoid the rounds but they were firing over his head to avoid hurting the few remaining guests who were too drunk to scramble to safety.
At the end of the pool, Decker turned the handlebars and made a sharp right turn as he worked hard to catch up with Riley once again. Time was running out, and he didn’t want to have to tell Selena they had lost both her friend and the journal.
16
“Can’t you make this thing go any faster?” Selena said, her arms still wrapped tightly around Decker’s waist.
“I wish I could make you go away faster,” he muttered under his breath. “Does that count?”
“What was that?”
“I said I only wish I could make it go faster.”
“Of all the pilots in the world…”
“What?”
“Just saying how lucky I am to have you here.”
“You make your own luck, lady.”
He twisted the throttle again and the quad shot off through the complex. Zooming along a paved walkway and smacking down off the kerb they swerved and skidded on the asphalt for a few seconds before Decker regained control. He looked down at the gauges and shook his head. “She’s nearly out of gas!”
“Look out!” Selena yelled.
Decker looked up. “Holy crap!” An old man was leading two water buffaloes across the street. Only in India.
“Go around!” Selena said.
“You think?”
Decker yanked the wheel to the left and dodged the second buffalo by a few inches, causing their handler to turn and raise his stick in the air and shout a string of profanities at them.
“Just a small cargo business!” Decker said. “Something to retire on.”
Selena ignored it. “There!”
Up ahead, Riley fired his gun and blew out the right rear tire of Kaleka’s quad slowing him but not by much of a margin. Encouraged by the successful shot, the Australian aimed his weapon again. As with the first shot he was more cautious than usual because of the presence of Diana Silva on the quad. Her body was shielded behind the enormous bulk of Kaleka, but if a nine mil hit the wrong part of the Indian it would drill right through him and plough straight into Diana. He’d seen it happen in combat.
“For Christ’s sake be careful, Riley,” Selena said.
Riley was too far away to hear her warning, and the roar of the quads’ engines would have drowned her out anyway. Now, he slowed his breathing, aimed and fired again and took out the other rear tire. For a few seconds it looked like he’d won the day as Kaleka struggled to control the wounded quad. Showers of sparks burst out in a shower behind him as the steel wheel rims ground against the concrete paving.
“Good shot,” Decker said.
“He could have killed Diana!”
“That’s why it was a good shot.”
With the loss of buoyancy, Kaleka’s quad was slowing now and both Riley Carr and Decker and Selena were almost on his tail. The Indian drove the trashed quad the last few hundred yards right through the middle of the tourists drinking around the pool. He was doing it in purpose to use them as human shields. Skidding to a halt at the gates he ordered Diana off the quad and grabbed hold of her, roughly pulling her slender frame in front of him and pinning her against his muscular body with his powerful arms. With his other hand he pushed the muzzle of his gun into her throat and began to walk backwards toward a Jeep Compass that skidded to a halt in front of them.
“Get back or I put a bullet through her neck!”
Riley waved Decker and Selena back. “Do as he says!”
“But…”
“Just do it!”
Kaleka opened the rear door and manhandled a sobbing Diana Silva into the large black SUV. Climbing in behind her, he slammed the door and a second later smoke poured from the rear wheel arches as the driver floored the throttle and spun the squealing tires.
Decker and the others were helpless as they watched the Compass racing away down the narrow road. At the end of it, the Jeep swerved hard and disappeared from sight altogether.
“Damn it all!” Selena cried out. She turned around in a circle and clasped her hands to her face. “I can’t believe we let them get away with Diana and the journal!”
“There’s nothing we can do here,” Decker said. “We need to check Charlie’s okay.”
They began the long walk back to Charlie at the other end of the beach. “He’s not going to believe we screwed this up,” Selena said.