Daughter of Destiny (20 page)

L
ess than thirty minutes later, Booster pulled up lame. Jake found a nasty thorn embedded in the camel's thick pad and pulled it out with a pair of pliers. To avoid putting excess weight on the wound, Kai went to ride behind Jake on Rocket. Sitting in the rear saddle behind Rocket's hump, she held on to Booster by wrapping the rein to his nose peg around her hand. It was only three more hours at the most until they got back to the Mulga Camel Station. Rocket could easily bear their combined weight.

As she swung and swayed atop the tireless animal, she was very aware of Jake, who was less than a foot away from her on the other side of Rocket's hump. Kai felt the crazy sensation that the crystal was continuing to create emotionally within her. Touching the mask, which she carried in the pocket of the vest she wore over her white cotton shirt, Kai felt as if all her feelings, good and bad, were being amplified. First she would feel far more emotional than usual and then her emotions would recede, like a tide going in and out. She knew some of it had to do with Jake,
sitting so close to her now on the camel's back. She recalled all the wonderful feelings she'd had for him when she was a child, and it left her feeling both vulnerable and secure with him.

“You comfy back there?” Jake asked, turning and glancing at her over his shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Kai's face glistening with perspiration. The temperature was easily a hundred and thirty degrees, the waves of heat undulating before them and making the red desert and sand ridges look as if they were moving mystically around them. To Jake it seemed almost as if they were between dimensional worlds as the landscape wavered in the heat.

“I'm fine. Just not used to being a copilot,” Kai said, grinning briefly.

“Oh…yeah, that's right, you're used to piloting your own fighter jet.”

“My own car, my own camel—you know how it goes.”

“Yeah, the lady likes to be in control.”

“One of my many quirks,” Kai told him drolly. She heard Jake chuckle and it lifted her spirits. A second later, her attention was snagged by an unusual sound. Frowning, she automatically reached for the pistol at her side, unsnapping the leather strap across the butt of the weapon.

“Jake?”

“I hear it….” He pointed in the direction of Yulara, a good ten miles away. They couldn't see the small community behind the shimmering curtains of heat.

“I got a bad feeling on this one.” Kai pulled out her pistol and flipped off the safety.

“Coober said there were a lot of helo flights near Uluru,” he cautioned her. “It could just be a tourist flight, so let's not overreact.” His gut said something different, however. Worriedly, Jake scanned the light blue, cloudless sky. The sun was hanging like a glaring yellow eye in the west.

Kai shook her head and compressed her lips, her gaze scanning the sky ahead of them. “I hope you're right, but I keep wondering if my dream is going to come true…. There, at ten o'clock.” She pointed past his left shoulder into the sky.

Squinting his eyes, Jake saw a speck on the horizon. “Get the binoculars out.”

“Already in my hands,” Kai muttered, and she swung them up to her eyes. The slow swaying of the camel made it impossible for her to get a fix on the helo. “Stop Rocket. I can't focus on the aircraft while we're moving.”

Jake pulled the camel to a stop, his heart starting to pound in his chest. While Kai searched the skies, he leaned over and unsnapped the thick leather guard across the Remington Safari rifle. Grimly, he straightened.

Kai waited, frustrated. She got the helicopter in her sights, but it was still too far away to make out the paint scheme. “I don't know…. I can't see the colors on the fuselage yet….”

“Take your time,” Jake said, wiping his mouth with his hand. Looking around, he saw that there was no place to hide if they were fired upon. Somehow, he knew they would become targets. It sent a prickly, icy feeling up his back. Again Jake studied the land before them. There was a fifteen-foot-high sand ridge less than a quarter mile away.
The ridge ran for at least a mile before it slanted back down to the flat desert floor. To their left and right were other ridges. Anyway he decided to go, they'd have to climb a slope. Furthermore, Rocket had two riders, twice the weight as before. Jake knew camels could run fast, but he also knew that two passengers would not only slow the animal down, it would throw him off balance if they didn't synchronize their movements.

“I got it!” Kai said. “It's Marston's Huey! Those bastards are heading straight for us, at about five thousand feet by my estimate.”

“Ditch the binoculars,” he ordered Kai grimly. “And get ready to run.” He jerked the long Safari rifle out of the sheath. “Here, take this.”

Kai quickly put the binoculars away and then dropped Booster's rein so the camel could run free. As usual, he stayed very close to Rocket's flank. Kai took the gleaming mahogany rifle, though she said, “I've got my pistol, Carter.”

“You think you can hit the rotor area above the blades with it?” Jake gave her a cutting smile. “No way. You're gonna need that elephant gun. Hold on, we're moving into overdrive with Rocket. Have you ever ridden a galloping camel?”

“Hell no, I haven't!” Kai's heart was pounding now. The helicopter was less than three miles away. There was no question they were in its sights, because it was losing altitude and flying directly toward them.

“Listen to me,” Jake said, his voice urgent. “Whatever you do, ride
with
me, Kai. It's just like riding double on a horse, bareback. You know how to do that, right?”

“Sure I do.” She grabbed the long bullets Jake handed her and jammed them into her pocket. The huge elephant gun had to be hand loaded for each round. That would be a helluva thing to accomplish on a running camel. Kai wished the damn rifle had a magazine on it so the bullets would automatically feed up into the breech to be fired.

“Okay, Kai, let's put the pedal to the metal. We've got a ridge to clear.” Jake leaned forward, dug his heels into the camel's shaggy sides and took the riding crop, which he'd never used until now, into his hand. He snapped the whip solidly against Rocket's flank. Uttering a low, guttural sound, Rocket gave a start and then leaped forward, his long, spindly legs flying out in front of him.

Not expecting the camel to be able to surge into high gear so quickly, Kai was nearly jerked out of her saddle. If she hadn't grabbed hold of Jake's shirt, she'd have tumbled off. Cursing softly, she hauled herself upright and then leaned forward. The camel grunted, laid back his ears, stretched out his neck and ran. Kai had had no idea how fast a camel could go, but soon got used to the long, abbreviated seconds before his padded feet hit the desert floor, sending veils of sand flying up on either side of them.

Booster, who wasn't going to be left behind, followed on Rocket's heels. The rein flew along beside him, but it wasn't long enough to reach the ground, so couldn't tangle in his legs or get stepped on. Kai saw that the camel limped slightly, but otherwise didn't seem to be impeded by the injury to his footpad.

Her attention shifted upward, drawn by the whapping sounds of the approaching helo. The afternoon heat was
heavy with unexpected humidity, and the bird's blades were slapping the air like paddles slammed flat on a lake's smooth surface. The reverberation went straight through Kai with each punctuating turn of the rotor. She felt buffeted, literally, by the violent pounding.

“They're coming in!” Jake yelled. “Get ready!”

Kai jammed the pistol back into the holster at her side. Jake was right: if she hoped to fire at Marston's men, the Remington rifle would be a lot more effective than her shorter-range pistol. But it was a helluva balancing act getting the rifle settled into the crook of her shoulder and ready to fire with Rocket lunging toward the sand ridge.

The helicopter approached swiftly, blades thudding as it circled like a wolf, tracking its quarry from above. Kai gulped. The wind tore past them, making her eyes water. She'd had no idea a camel could run so fast! Kai estimated Rocket was going at least twenty-five miles an hour. The animal was huge, his long legs flying beneath him in a blur of speed, sand from his hooves spraying past her in thin, sparkling veils in the sunlight. Booster, running at Rocket's side, was startled by the closeness of the helicopter. He suddenly veered off along the bottom of the ridge they were approaching, frightened by the beating sounds.

The helo turned, its nose pointing toward them threateningly. Kai cursed and twisted around in the saddle. It was impossible to turn completely because of the bobbling of the camel beneath her. She clamped her thighs to Rocket's sides, hearing the camel grunting with each long stride.

“Hold on!” Jake yelled.

Rocket groaned as they hit the slope of the ridge. Kai
felt her legs losing their grip around the camel. Reaching out with her free hand, she grabbed Jake's broad shoulder for support. Leaning forward as the camel began the steep, vertical climb, Kai found herself off balance. The rifle nearly slipped out of her sweaty hand.
Damn!
Gripping it hard, she devoted all her attention to staying on board Rocket during the dizzying climb.

“How fast can Rocket run?” she shouted, her words torn away in the wind.

“Very fast,” Jake yelled over his shoulder. He focused his attention forward as they raced up the hill. At this speed, if Rocket didn't watch where he was going, he could hit a clump of spinifex grass and they'd all go flying through the air as the camel tripped and fell. If that happened they'd be dead meat, Jake knew. The men in that helicopter would pick them off like fish in a barrel. Again and again he slapped the crop against Rocket's flank. Camels weren't like horses in maintaining speed. The big desert animals would slow down the moment they could, so had to have the whip laid to their thick, shaggy side with rhythmic repetition.

They were almost at the top of the ridge! Jake was pleased that Rocket was as fast as he was. He might not be a racing camel, but for a single-humped dromedary, he was no slouch. He had certainly earned the name Rocket.

“Shit!” Kai yelled. One moment she was anticipating the camel's front feet hitting the slope, the next she found the animal and his two passengers flying through the air! Eyes huge, Kai saw the land blurring beneath them as the camel
jumped
the last six feet to the top of the ridge. They
were sailing up and over it! Kai hadn't known it was possible for a camel to leap like that.

She could see Rocket's huge brown eyes rolling with fear at the roar of the helicopter, which probably gave him incentive to run like hell. Jake could barely control the animal with the threatening sound of the copter thundering down upon them.

“Hang on!” he yelled in warning. He automatically leaned far back to prepare for the approaching descent. Kai's hand was gripping his shoulder like a vise. She was hanging on with everything she had. Seated behind him, she couldn't see what lay ahead.

Rocket hit the downward slope with a huge grunt. Like a surfboard, his front pads skidded at least ten feet over the surface before sinking into the red sand. Unprepared as she was, Kai crashed into Jake's back, her head striking his. Stunned by the impact, she struggled to keep her seat, and above all, hang on to the rifle held tightly in her right hand. Sand exploded up around them as Rocket landed hard. Her skin stung as bits of grit and rock struck her hands and face.

Just then, Kai heard popping sounds.
Gunfire!
She couldn't look up but knew the helo was about a thousand feet above them. Kai had her hands full just staying in the saddle as the camel began to charge down the sand ridge at full throttle. The scenery became a blur again as they picked up more and more speed. She heard Jake yelling at Rocket, laying the whip to him as the animal lunged forward. She had just gotten the broken rhythm of the camel again when she heard more popping sounds.

It wasn't her imagination! Kai saw geysers of sand fly
ing up all around them. Bullets were being fired, and careening damn close to them.

“They're shooting at us!” she screamed. The sound of her voice was drowned out by the helicopter, which was now stalking them in earnest. Kai hoisted the rifle, though she knew it would be impossible to try and shoot at the helicopter as the camel ran down the ridge. Sprays of red sand flew everywhere as Rocket continued to gain momentum on the downward slope.

Kai twisted angrily from one side to the other. The helicopter was directly behind them, making it impossible for her to lift the rifle to her shoulder and fire.
The bastards!
More popping sounds reached her ears. Lips compressed, she jerked her head forward. Jake was leaning far forward over the camel's neck, urging Rocket on with every ounce of strength he had. She saw the flat desert floor coming up fast. Off to their left, she saw Booster hightailing it toward them, red dust rising in his wake. The camel was running hard to catch up to them.

This time, Kai was prepared for the leap. Grabbing Jake's shoulder, she clamped her thighs hard against Rocket's sides and leaned far back to take the punishing slam as the camel hit the desert in long, reaching strides.