Baby, It's You (Uncharted SEALs Book 5) (13 page)

They’d made her. Not hard to do. Her face was the face of the charity and had been plastered on the news channels when her father’s bounty had been reported.

“Son of a bitch,” he muttered. He stepped behind Joe and lifted one foot, smoothed up his jeans to the top of his boot, and removed the strip of tape he’d applied to his ankle, which held the tranquilizer darts he’d prepared that morning. When he straightened, he removed one dart and pushed the strip into Joe’s right hand. “Give me one at a time.” He took the first dart and inserted it into his blow gun, then quickly lifted the end of it. A quick, hard push of air sent it sailing to toward the first bandit positioned toward the rear of the bus. It struck him in the back of the shoulder.

The man tried to reach behind him, but lost his balance and melted to the blacktop, unnoticed by his friends because they were engaged in a conversation with whomever was on the other end of the cell phone as to what to do with Poppy.

Morty and Sly shuffled sideways and stood in front of the crumpled body.

The passengers nearest them began to tug on each other’s arms and look his way.

Joe shook his head and pointedly stared toward the men in front. Those around them quickly caught on. They edged closer together, masking his movements as he loaded another dart, chose his target, and let the dart fly.

Another group of men shuffled forward, setting their packs, pronged walking sticks, and their own bodies in front of the fallen bandito.

Again, Joe handed him a dart.

“I need to get closer.”

With his hand on Joe’s shoulder, the two men slipped behind the row and slowly made their way forward, toward Poppy and her two useless bodyguards. When they were only six feet away, Wiley squeezed Joe’s shoulder to bring him to a halt. Any closer and he’d never be able to hide what he was doing.

Clipboard man was speaking furiously with the one who appeared to be in charge.

“This is has to be quick,” Wiley said under his breath.

Joe nodded, but didn’t look back. Using Joe’s body to hide his blow gun, Wiley slowly brought it up over Joe’s shoulder and aimed for the back of the man standing next to Poppy. The dart struck his right arm.

He made a sound, a sharp cry. Poppy looked down, her eyes widening on the dart. She stumbled into his arm, as though shielding the sight from the last bandit still standing.

The man in front of her scowled, but the moment the one beside Poppy began to crumple, he raised his weapon.

Wiley shoved Joe out of the way, swept out his arms to get between the people in front of him, and dove for Poppy, all the while praying clipboard man had more than a damn pen to take the bastard out.