Ross stirred and raised his head. ‘I’m still alive. Good. I’m getting you out of here. Ready?’
‘Forget it. My legs are gone. Took another round in my side. Internal bleeding, man, I can feel it. Don’t waste your time.’
‘Oh, I see how it is. You just can’t handle the fact that it’s me who’s saving you. The Navy fucker with all the baggage. Well, I got news for you, Rambo, right now my baggage is you.’
‘Then leave me!’ 30K screamed.
‘You giving up?’
‘No!’
‘Then let’s go, motherfucker!’ With that Ross got up on his hands and knees, pulled 30K around, then managed to position him so he could rise, lifting him into a fireman’s carry.
With what felt like inhuman strength, Ross started out, knees wobbling at first, but he was up with 30K braced across his back and now crossing toward the first patch of fronds near the jungle, his gait shifting to the left and right as he fought against 30K’s weight.
Without warning, an incredible sound from behind them had 30K lifting his head:
The Marines must have been watching their escape and wanted to provide cover, because at least ten came charging forward, breathing the fire of their war cries, throwing themselves right into the line of fire, lobbing grenades and scaring the living shit out of the FARC and Bedayat infantry who’d moved up. The entire outpost turned medieval, infantry killing one another point-blank, the sand turning dark with blood. Not since Afghanistan had 30K seen anything as grisly. But the gambit worked, and Ross was able to reach cover.
‘Thank you,’ 30K told those boys. ‘Thank you.’
Pepper clambered to his feet, coughing and waving dust from his eyes. He craned his head left and right. ‘Kozak? Kozak?’
‘Here …’ came a thin, almost unrecognizable voice from somewhere ahead.
Pepper rushed forward, and there, where he’d seen the Warhound topple on to its side, was Kozak –
Pinned beneath the half-ton monstrosity.
‘Aw, dude, how the hell?’ Pepper asked. ‘Where’s the remote? Let me see if I can get him off you.’
‘No time, bro. I’m just stuck, not dying. You take off. They’re getting away!’
Pepper shuddered with indecision, but deep down he knew Kozak was right. ‘All right, buddy, hang on.’
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ said Kozak. ‘Just go!’
Torn once more, Pepper finally nodded and took off sprinting, adjusting his night-vision lens as he came over the mound where the collapse had occurred and followed the remaining section of the tunnel toward a ladder at the far end. He ascended and emerged into a hut filled with ammo crates, burst out the front door, and realized where he was. He looked toward the jungle where Hamid and Delgado had run and saw an APC blasting through the brush.
He raised his rifle, took aim at one of the tires, fired. He wasn’t sure if he’d struck the tire or not. The vehicle cut hard to the right, behind a thicker section of palms, now well out of his reach.
And they must’ve helped their injured colleague Valencia, because he, too, was gone.
SIXTY-EIGHT
Ross’s legs finally gave out before he could lower 30K to the ground. Instead, they both came down like boulders off a cliff. Boom. The shock waves of pain ripped through him.
He hadn’t said anything to 30K, but shrapnel from that grenade had torn into his arms and legs, and there was even a small piece that had stung the back of his neck. He could still move all right, but the hot flashes of pain were increasing by the minute.
As he gasped for air, Pepper’s report came over the radio, and he wanted to tear off his Cross-Com and smash it. But then he looked at 30K, rolling on to his back, coughing, blood leaking from his lips now. Saving this man was all that mattered now.
And Pepper had been so right about this. What they did was sloppy work. The heroes didn’t always capture the bad guys.
Then again, this was an island, and all Hamid had was an APC …
Ross acknowledged Pepper, ordered him to go back for Kozak, then got on the horn to Mitchell. ‘I need the Stallion or the Seahawk to track and interdict that APC,’ he told the major.
‘Roger that,’ said Mitchell.
Next, Ross called Captain Rugg. ‘Cannonball, corpsman up, my position, right now, over!’
‘You got it. On his way!’
Ross slipped off his pack and wrenched out his first aid supplies, the gunfire still popping near the huts, the APCs on fire now. 30K had been shot in the arm, both legs, and there was blood at his waist and on his neck. He was a mess, but Ross fought against the tremors in his hands and decided that the wound on 30K’s side needed the most attention. He got out some big four-by-four bandages and some scissors, beginning to cut away the man’s shirt to expose his chest. 30K looked at him, licked his lips, and was about to say something when Ross shook his head and said, ‘Don’t talk, bro. Corpsman on the way.’
30K nodded, blinked hard, then stared up at the canopy, and for a moment, Ross thought he’d lost him, but then he blinked again and coughed.
Kozak must’ve dropped the remote during the cave-in, and he forced his head up and tried to peer through the darkness. His Cross-Com’s monocle had been shoved near his ear, and he couldn’t reach up to adjust it.
He’d lied to Pepper. He didn’t want to be overly dramatic, but it felt like something very bad had crushed in his chest — ribs, spine, who knew? — and now it was painful to breathe and he could taste blood at the back of his throat.
Well, wasn’t this ironic? Here he was, the team’s technophile, the proponent of all things electronic, the gadget master who often tried to convince his teammates that it wasn’t a competition between technology and instincts — it was the technology that enhanced your instincts –
Or crushed you to death.
Footfalls came hard and fast, and Kozak bit his lip and tensed. He tried reaching for a frag in his web gear, thinking maybe he could do himself in before they did. Nope. There wasn’t anything he could do if the enemy found him, save for closing his eyes and resigning to the inevitable.
‘Kozak? Buddy? I’m back,’ cried Pepper, allowing him to breathe once again. ‘Now where’s the remote? Come on, bro, it’s gotta be around here somewhere.’
As Pepper leaned over to search near Kozak’s head, Kozak glanced past him and saw the two shadows flutter overhead. Those shadows materialized into men leaping into the hole.
He opened his mouth, wanting to warn Pepper, but no words would come, just a half-strangled hiss and groan –
But Pepper had heard them hit the ground, and in one fluid motion he drew the FN Five-seven pistol holstered at his waist and sighted the first of two FARC soldiers coming over the pile of dirt.
Pepper, knowing that his first shot would give up his location and draw fire from one or both of the soldiers, changed his mind and threw himself behind the Warhound’s legs before he took that first shot — and that’s what saved his life.
While one soldier took Pepper’s round in the head and lolled back, the second opened up, spraying rounds all over the hole until Pepper could steal a moment to pop up and drop him with a pair of rounds, one in the neck, the other to the shoulder, and that was good –
Because two more men were rushing through the tunnel, having come from the opposite direction.
He heard the grenade first as it bounced off the Warhound and struck the dirt a meter from his boots.
Purely on reflex, Pepper jerked forward and kicked the grenade, sending it arcing away, then he dove back behind the Warhound once again as the frag exploded, showering them with dirt, the shrapnel chinking off the Warhound’s heavy armor.