In his hotel room, Jake Manifold awoke... alone.
Emily Jones was gone. His trench coat was hanging on the chair where she'd been sitting with it around her shoulders, the ivory moonlight revealing scars on her face. Jake had watched her sewing a patch on his ragged coat for a few moments before drifting off to sleep.
He sat up. The window was shattered and a few fragments of blood were on the glass. Jake looked out the window, below him on the ground in the moonlight were hoof prints.
-
Riley Dawson squinted down the gun sight. "She's not there!"
"What?" Shannon cried, sitting up in bed. "She couldn't have gotten away! All the exits were blocked!"
She sprung from their bed, grabbing the rifle from Riley's hands. "There she is!"
-
The horse reared in the moonlight. Jake stared at the rider. A girl... with a leather jacket and fedora.
She saluted him with her hand -
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Shannon fired furiously.
Riley shoved her from the window, slamming her into the wall. "Dammit, woman! You want the secret police all over this?"
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Emily brought the horse to the ground in a hail of gunfire.
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Riley found his keys. "C'mon! We'll catch her in the jeep!"
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Emily kicked the horse. The black sprung forward as the desert moon rose over the sands. Wheeling him she waited for Shannon McGuire, a wind playing her brunette waves around.
The jeep whipped around the corner, the horse spooked. The wind threw the sand.
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Jake squinted out to the square below him frantically searching the shadows. "EM! RUN!"
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Emily let the horse have his head as the Kashgar alleys closed in around her. Between the buildings bullets snapped at her.
The jeep and horse raced neck and neck.
The alley ended. The horse raced out of the alley.
Dawson screeched the jeep to a stop. The horse reared in the headlights.
Emily's fist came down between the terrified horse's ears. Hooves came down on the bumper. Metal hit metal. The horse reared again. Emily squinted in the headlights. Shannon took aim, and squeezed the trigger.
WHINNEEEEEERRRRYYYY!
A horse's scream of pain and reaction to a bullet.
The hooves came down on the street as a graze flooded the black's leg with red. Fury came next.
The horse took off... running for the only place it knew.
Emily hung on.
Back through the allies, flickering headlights and sparking bullets behind them... The horse's legs carried it toward home.
Emily tore at the reins in protest. A bullet snapped by their heads. The horse reared and ran through another alley.
This alley was tight. Emily felt the walls brush her legs.
Closing, closing... closer!
Emily shut the memory away.
Headlights flooded the tunnel. The panicked horse tried to flee. There wasn't enough room in the alley! Emily had to make him face the fear.
"HA!" She slammed her fedora down on the horse. "HA! C'MON!"
Into the light.
Into the light.
Light!
The men closed in around Emily.
The horse never let up.
Emily's hands sawed back and forth on the bit trying to regain control. India was south! The horse thundered north, its eyes wide with fright, its leg red with blood.
There was a shot!
Emily grabbed at her arm, dropping the reins.
"CIRCLE AROUND!" Dawson cried.
The horse raced onto another tight street. Emily clutched the horse's mane.
Jeep headlights appeared in front of her and behind.
Dawson whipped the jeep around the corner and looked at a street empty, except for a riderless black horse, frantically galloping toward the desert, treading gingerly on its front foreleg.
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The Sidenstrasse Tapestry: An Indiana Jones Fan-Fiction
FanfictionIn 1945 archaeologist Indiana Jones was called on one last mission. Now, even in 1960, it haunts him as his youngest daughter, Emily Jones - just as rough and tumble and skilled in handling trouble as her father - scrambles after his legacy to pro...
