He had been forced to walk in because neither she nor any of the others was aware of the existence of cars. The only advanced technology she’d seen were the undoubtedly terrifying machines used to test her and the occasional airplane explained away as a kind of bird by the people running the experiment.
Her twin sister, living with adoptive parents in France, experienced a very different world. She had, however, just completed identical testing — though through a much more complex process, and with a cover story created to satisfy her family and the French authorities.
He watched the girl — Eun was her name — and she did the same to him out of the corner of her eye. Undoubtedly, his presence would skew her results slightly, but it didn’t matter. The conclusions of the study had been known for a long time. Perhaps even before they’d started down this path.
Maybe he and Christian had just been unable to face it? Perhaps somewhere deep inside them they’d wanted to catch a glimpse of God, to discover that man really was set apart. That humanity would eventually find its way and fulfill its promise.
He smiled sadly. It was hard to believe that they had ever been so young.
16
Tracking the movements of both men through the starlight scope was impossible and Randi was forced to jump back and forth between them as Zahid fired uncontrolled bursts in their general direction.
She flattened herself a little more against the ground, ignoring the sharp rocks cutting into her and nursing a grudging respect for the ruthless efficiency of the two remaining mercenaries. They hadn’t even bothered to see if the man she’d hit was dead, instead immediately widening their pattern and angling up the steep slope. Both moved with impressive speed and stealth, going from boulder to boulder in carefully coordinated bursts.
She’d counted on them slowing from fatigue as they progressed, but it didn’t seem to be happening. Scoring another hit was unlikely and letting this come down to close-quarters fighting was probably not going to go her way. Whoever they were, they were worth whatever they were getting paid.
Zahid rose over the low wall again and fired another poorly aimed volley. This time the men were ready for it and both leapt from cover with weapons shouldered. Her finger started to move on the trigger of the sniper rifle but then at the last moment, she abandoned it and dragged the Afghan from the path of the bullets spraying through the opening he’d been standing in.
Zahid fought her as the rounds slapped the rock at the back of the small edifice, ricocheting unpredictably. He seemed less concerned that she was using him as a human shield than that she had forced him to retreat instead of facing certain death head-on.
Knowing that the men below would use the opportunity to advance their position, Randi rolled back to her rifle and sighted through the scope again. She fired at the closest target, but the angle wasn’t there. The bullet did knock off an impressive chunk of rock half a meter from the Ukrainian’s head, though, and that proved enough to get both men to dive for cover.
“Zahid,” she whispered. “Are you hit?”
“Not badly.”
It was too dark to see much more than the outline of him, but she watched as he teetered and sagged against the cave wall.
“Tell me what happened in Sarabat,” she said.
The fact that they had distinctly different definitions of a successful conclusion to this evening was making an already disastrous situation even worse. She wanted to get the information she’d come for and beat a quiet retreat with all her body parts still intact. He, on the other hand, wanted a nice helping of revenge followed by his quota of celestial virgins.
“We were paid,” he said as she began scanning the slope through her scope again. “I don’t know who it was and I don’t think the elders did either. They gave us new AK-47s and information on where men who guarded Sarabat were. They told us to attack in the middle of the day and that there would be no resistance.”
He finally managed to get hold of her assault rifle and fired another burst, unconcerned that there was no visible target.
“Stop doing that!” she whispered harshly. “You’re not even getting close and you’re going to run us out of ammunition. Why the middle of the day?”
“I don’t know,” he said, sliding down the rock wall into an awkward seated position. His voice was already starting to lose strength. “I was skeptical, but the money was very good. And it was an opportunity to finally defeat Sarabat after so many years of insults.”
She squeezed off a quick shot, kicking up some dust near the boulder the easternmost man was hiding behind. A reminder that they hadn’t been forgotten.
As she chambered another round, he burst into view and traversed five meters farther east while his companion sprayed the wall she was lying at the edge of.
They were going to keep spreading out until they could safely pass their position and get the high ground. If that happened, things were going to get really ugly really fast.
“And was what they told you true? Was there no resistance?”
“It was true,” he said at a volume that was hard to hear. She wasn’t sure if it was his injury or the memory of what had happened in Sarabat.
“The men wouldn’t fight. The children and women did. But the men just stood there and died like sheep.”
The merc to the east moved again when a gust swirled up enough dust to obscure him. She fired into the cloud, but blew the shot and sent the round spinning off into the darkness.
And that was it. He’d made it far enough that she wouldn’t be able to get a bead on him without exposing herself to his teammate. It would probably take him another two minutes to satisfy himself that this was the case and then not much more than another one or two to get above them. She glanced behind her at the blackness of the crack passing through the cliff. There wasn’t much more time.
“Why didn’t they fight, Zahid?”
“I don’t know. It was as if their souls had been taken. I aimed my gun at one of them and he had a good rifle on his back. But he just fell to his knees and looked up at the sky.” The Afghan paused, losing himself for a moment. “I praised Allah and he said to me that there was no God.”
His voice shook audibly and again she wasn’t sure if it was his injury or the weight of the memory. The deaths of Sarabat’s innocent women and children would mean little to him. But the abandonment of God — even by an enemy — would be even more disturbing than their bizarre surrender. The only thing etched more deeply into the Afghan identity than combat was faith.
“Why did you take their heads?” she said, trying to catch a glimpse of the man to the west through her scope. He hadn’t budged, but it wasn’t him she was worried about. At best speed, his partner would nearly be above them.
“We were told to take them by the men who paid us.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. They told us that they were never to be found. So we put them in a cave.”
“A cave? Where?”
“Ten kilometers to the southeast. In a mountain we call Muhammad’s Gate.”
She was familiar with that particular geographic feature — three marines had been killed there a few years ago. “There are probably a hundred caves there. Which one?”
“There is only one you can get to from above. The heads were—”
A spray of rounds filled the tiny space and Randi shoved herself away from the wall, rolling awkwardly toward the gap behind her. Adrenaline had her breathing hard by the time she made it inside and she took a quick inventory of her body. Nothing that wouldn’t heal.