The Anubis Plague полностью

An exact duplicate to their silver SUV came sliding through the next intersection, just barely missing Zahra and Rabia by inches. The new arrival sideswiped the sedan out from behind its twin with a crunch of metal and fiberglass, sending the smaller vehicle directly into oncoming traffic. Cork had caught up to them faster than Zahra had expected. She knew Cork would be driving as if her hair was on fire — if she had any — so it really shouldn’t have surprised her. Rabia hit the gas and further distanced them from the resulting collision.

Cork sped up and pulled alongside Zahra and Rabia. She was excited and looked a bit wired.

Ali’s expression was that of sheer terror.

Poor guy, Zahra thought, knowing exactly what he had just been put through.

Rabia pointed at Cork and then motioned to the rear of her and Zahra’s SUV. Cork got the message. She slowed and fell in line. The sniper would lead the pilot the rest of the way. Both vehicles had seen better days, especially the one carrying Cork and Ali. Rabia continued west, staying parallel with the coast. Every now and again, Zahra could just barely make out the blue water at the end of the roadways pointing north and south. Her mind, once more, returned to the gorgeous Levanzo view.

“What are you thinking about?”

Zahra blinked out of the blissful memory. “Nothing.”

Rabia glanced at her. “That wasn’t a ‘nothing’ kind of look.”

Zahra stuttered, “I… was thinking of a better place.” She stayed vague, not giving Rabia any more information than that. It didn’t feel right to blab to the world about Levanzo. It was her little sliver of paradise and no one else’s.

They rode in silence the rest of the way. Both women would occasionally check behind them and make sure their friends were still following close. Zahra and Rabia were also on the lookout for more of Ayad’s men. They traveled faster and faster the more they moved away from the hubbub of the Suez Canal. Eventually, they left the city behind and rode directly along the shore, Saad Zaghloul. The only things standing between them, and the Mediterranean, were a beach and the businesses that dotted its surface.

Zahra was so close to telling Rabia to pull over so she could get out and feel the cool incoming breeze. But she didn’t. Up ahead, Zahra read a sign that reminded her of what was coming up next on their mission to save her brother and all of humanity.

“The airport is just up ahead,” Rabia said. Her eyes darted all over the place. To Zahra, she reminded her of someone with way too much caffeine in her system, though she knew the professional was always just on high alert.

A radio attached to Rabia’s hip squawked to life. It was Ali, but he wasn’t talking to her. He was speaking to someone at the airport.

“We are nearly there,” Ali said. “Prepare to open the gate.”

Two minutes later, the side gate to the Port Said International Airport opened. It hit Zahra that this was the second discreet entrance into an airport that she had taken in just a few days’ time. But unlike the one she and her father used back in Cambridge, this one wasn’t being manned by some random employee at the orders of one of Cork’s lovers. The three people eyeing them each owned stone-cold stares. These were Ali’s men. There wasn’t an airport employee in sight. The amount of freedom Ali was being given both impressed and unnerved Zahra. It felt very mob-like, in a way.

She pictured Wally. You own this town, don’t you?

The front tires bumped some unseen threshold between the roadway and the airport grounds. It jarred Zahra free of her thoughts. Luckily, Rabia was too lost in her own world to notice and, therefore, question Zahra.

Rabia slowly rolled through the gate with Cork and Ali following close behind. She veered left, away from the main buildings, and headed toward a group of hangars. Planes took off as scheduled using the east-to-west constructed tarmac, roaring loudly off to Zahra’s right.

A single building sat further away from the others, and it didn’t shock Zahra that it was the one Rabia steered them towards. When they were a hundred yards away, the front doors parted, creeping away from one another to reveal a familiar aircraft, the Puss E. Galore. Zahra had to admit, she was quite happy to see the old bird again. It brought some comfort to her disheveled mind, like seeing a close friend after a hard day at work. It was usually Dina that she would see. Zahra missed her.

The doors closed only after both battered SUV's had made it inside the hangar. Everyone exited and quickly went about loading and unloading gear.

Cork didn’t pay Zahra and Rabia any attention. She rounded the front of the vehicle and wound up her right foot to kick Ali but stopped and smiled when he flinched. Then, she growled and pushed between Zahra and Rabia and headed straight to her plane, shouting at the men moving in and around it.

Ali sauntered up to the ladies, looking shook.