Blessed Child Read Online Free PDF Page A

he lived.
    It occurred to Jason that the boy’s shaking knees were the result of the wild ride aboard this metal monster beside him—not the threat of armed soldiers’ pursuit. He probably wouldn’t know the threat of a gun if one were to go off in his hands.
    They remained still like that for long seconds. Jason listened intently, holding his breath periodically. A lammergeyer cawed high above, and Jason lifted his eyes to the canyon lip. The huge vulturelike bird of prey circled lazily against the dimming sky. A cackle sounded across the canyon. A troop of several dozen gelada baboons peered curiously down on this invasion into their world.
    But these were sights and sounds as common as the grass in northern Ethiopia.
    â€œThat’s what I call a close call,” Jason said, hopping over the door to the ground. Leiah did not follow. She had her head tilted, still listening determinedly. Jason stilled.
    He heard it then: a faint rumble on the wind. The boy turned to face the canyon’s mouth—he’d heard it as well.
    Jason’s heart spiked.
    Leiah suddenly crouched. “They’ve doubled back!” she whispered near panic. “They’re coming!”
    The Land Rover’s engine now rumbled clearly. In horror Jason watched the truck crawl into the canyon’s mouth and then turn directly for them. It rocked its way steadily over the wash, closing the three-hundred-yard gap.
    He pulled his head down out of sight and flattened his back to the rock they’d pulled behind. The Land Rover had obviously doubled back and followed the tracks after noting their vanishing act.
    They were sitting ducks!
    Leiah grabbed the boy and pulled him down to the sand. He uttered a startled cry and Leiah quieted him with her hand. She spun to Jason with wide eyes.
    High above, the baboons were starting to cackle loudly, as if they sensed an impending showdown. Jason could hardly think, much less act. They were a nurse, a child, and a man, cornered in a box canyon, facing trained killers who had just come from butchering a gathering of innocent priests. Heavily armed soldiers against . . .
    One gun.
    The rifle!
    Jason scrambled for the Jeep and dove for the rifle on the floorboards. Thank the stars it hadn’t flown out. He snatched it out and then fumbled with the glove box. A box of .30-06 shells tumbled out.
    Working frantically, he pulled the bolt action back and rammed shells into the ten-round clip. He dropped a round in the sand and left it, thinking he would use it last if need be. The nurse and the boy were staring at his performance, wide-eyed.
    â€œYou think you’ll accomplish something with one gun?” Leiah whispered.
    â€œKeep down,” he ordered. He flattened himself on the sand and crawled to the edge of the rock. The truck rolled forward, no more than a hundred meters off now. If he could get a round into its fuel tank, they might have a chance.
    Jason pressed his cheek against the butt of the .30-06 and lined it up with the Land Rover. But his breathing wagged the sights in crazy circles, and he pulled away to take a deep breath.
    The vehicle suddenly veered to the left and pulled behind a group of large boulders, seventy-five meters from them. They had been seen!
    Jason blinked at the sting of sweat in the corners of his eyes. He lay immobilized. The Land Rover’s cab poked out from the boulders, and he watched three men dressed in green military garb drop to the ground and duck behind the rocks. Within seconds the madness began: a staccato burst of machine-gun fire erupted from their position, thundering between the canyon walls. Slugs smacked the rock; ricochets pinged by.
    For the second time that day Jason came face-to-face with the simple knowledge that he was going to die. The realization chilled his flesh like a bucket of ice water poured over his head. He had a gun in his hands, but including the round he’d dropped in the sand behind him, he