26
Drake barely had time to cry out before Altman grabbed him from behind and dragged him back behind the tree.
Nikita had fired the flare gun nearly point blank into the helicopter’s gas-filled rear bay.
Then she’d dropped as if cut down where she stood—and the helicopter exploded.
Bits and pieces of it slashed through the leaves overhead. To either side of the massive tree they were hiding behind, shrapnel zinged by like…like…shrapnel!
Large chunks of helicopter slammed into tree bark and stuck there, quivering with the force of impact. Half of a pilot’s seat landed in the brush not half a meter from where Julian was splinting and binding Rafe’s wrist.
Then the bits and pieces that had been blown upward began to rain down in a bright patter, landing all around their refuge.
Still
