Element 42

by Seeley James

  “End of surprise factor,” Miguel said.

  “Hey, Nigel, are you there?” I asked.

  The first truck rounded the corner. They pulled up nose to nose with Kasey’s Norinco and bailed out.

  Mercury said, Holy shit, you guys are outnumbered worse than I thought. This is way over my pay grade. You’re going to need Mars, he’s good with the war stuff. I’ll see ya later, man. GTG.

  You might think the gods are on your side, but when the going gets tough, the gods get going—far away.

  I watched a squad jog up the road. The adrenaline rush came fast and heavy. I felt like a junkie about to overdose. I took a deep breath and held back a scream of primeval joy. I was in my element, engaging in the one part of life where I truly excel: killing bad guys.

  Our crossfire counted on them making a certain tactical move and they obliged us. We waited until the first two trucks’ worth of men were in the funnel. Tania took out the men at the back. With all eyes cautiously forward, she picked off three guys in two seconds. The rest recognized the sound of bodies falling and began to scatter.

  Miguel and I opened up, exhausting a magazine each in two seconds. When we reloaded, none of our victims were moving. That was good news. It meant, no body armor.

  The next squad saw the carnage after rounding the lead vehicle. They fired to lay cover for the squad behind them. They used professional tactics, leapfrogging each other’s positions and working together. Not exactly the ducks-in-a-barrel scenario I’d hoped for.

  Hiding among the second wave was an older man in a suit. He looked out of place and scared as he ducked behind soldiers. I pondered his presence for a split second until a bullet buzzed my ear. The suit wasn’t giving instructions and had no visible weapons, so I focused on critical targets.

  Miguel and I emptied another magazine each into our kill-zone and scrambled for our first fallback position on the rooftops. Tania picked off two more before they figured out her position and sent a squad after her.

  I clambered onto the office roof and pulled the rickety ladder up with me. The position on the ridge didn’t give me the field of fire I wanted but I was able to reduce the number of men going after Tania by two.

  Using the column of trucks as a shield, the Kazakhs formed larger groups of three and four squads each. One guy stood in front of them, pointed at our old position, and yelled a battle cry. Twenty guys stormed our abandoned vantage points. Tania took out the leader, Miguel and I did our best to wipe out the charge. But the raw numbers beat us. They came over the berm in large numbers. We killed some, wounded some others, but several made it through. And more were coming.

  Time for the second fallback.

  I dropped my ladder between the office and the flat-roofed shed next door. It landed on a Kazakh sneaking between the buildings. The ladder stood straight up, halfway between buildings, its legs stuck in the mud below and pinning the Kazakh underneath. Kazakh rounds whizzed by me. I tried grabbing the wobbly ladder without success. I backed up, took a running start, planted one foot on the ladder’s top rung, and fired a three-round burst into the Kazakh below. My momentum carried me across, and I rolled onto the shed’s roof. The ladder went back to its strange vertical posture.

  Diving to a shooter’s position behind the short fascia, I picked off three more Kazakhs.

  Behind me on the hillside, I heard the sound of desperation, the booming shotgun. Emily’s weapon was short range. Tania would have told her not to shoot unless they were in serious trouble.

  I checked on them. Tania shooting left, Emily firing right. From where I sat, the enemy was hard to spot between the trees. I found one in my sights and put him down. Another was more elusive. Tania and Emily ran to their last redoubt.

  At my feet, a head popped up. His eyes blew open when he realized I was the enemy, and he ducked back down. I scrambled to the edge as his rifle crested the roof. I kicked his barrel upward a split second before he fired. I pushed my muzzle over the edge and fired blindly. His rifle barrel stopped resisting my foot and fell back to the ground. Peering warily over the rim, I found a man on the ground, his head smashed like a pumpkin. Three Kazakhs ran to him and stared down in disbelief.

  I landed on the ground next to them, shocking them further, and emptied my magazine at point-blank range.

  We had one last stand, an earthen berm behind the barracks. Tania called in on the comm link that she was taking heavy fire and would lead Emily there. I tried to reach Miguel, but his answer was all grunts and gunfire. I ran for the berm.

  Tania and Emily were there when I dove over the short wall. Crouching room only. Emily covered the backside. Tania fired a few rounds to cover me, then sank back against the wall. We leaned against each other, shoulder-to-shoulder.

  All noises stopped for a second.

  Then we heard the Kazakhs shouting back and forth. They were moving methodically and carefully through the buildings after losing most of their men to our tricks.

  Extreme Darwinian combat.

  Miguel had teamed up with Nigel on the backside of the bio-bunker. They were both low on ammo.

  Tania held up an M4 and a spare magazine. “This is it for me.”

  I felt my pack. One mag plus what was in the rifle already. “A hundred rounds between us, thirty enemies left.”

  Rounds thumped into the berm. More zipped overhead.

  Emily slipped to the ground and crawled to us. “They’re coming.”

  CHAPTER 50

  “They’re testing us,” I said. “They don’t know where we are and they don’t want us to jump out at them, so they’re shooting at random targets hoping we’ll pop up and shoot back. Next step, they’ll send out a guy on foot.”

  Emily scooted over next to Tania and pressed her back to the wall. “You mean, you plan to just sit here and wait for them to kill us?”

  “It’s a job.”

  An eerie silence descended on our battlefield. The Kazakhs were measuring distances, deploying flanking squads, maybe sending a sniper up the hill. We could hear movements now and then, right after a whispered order.

  “Where’s Miguel?” Emily asked.

  “Hopefully setting up a crossfire with Nigel.”

  “Will we get the guy who killed Carmen, that Mokin guy?”

  I shot Tania a glance to keep quiet. The last thing we needed was Emily blasting Mokin to pieces. He could be our collateral out of this mess and he was tied to a tree fifty yards away. She could see him if she risked standing up.

  “What’s your whole hangup about Carmen, anyway?” Tania asked. “I knew her from the ’Stan. You barely knew her at all.”

  Emily’s gaze drifted to the mountains behind us. “She was nice. You know. Thoughtful, attentive, sensual, caring.”

  Tania looked at me with raised brows, then back to Emily. She poked the reporter. “You slept with Carmen?”

  I choked. “Wha—”

  “She was nice,” Emily said.

  Tania prodded her again. “Carmen was gay?”

  “No. She just liked people, that’s all.”

  I said, “Wha—”

  “I thought you were dating Miguel.” Tania looked as shocked as I felt.

  “Everyone sleeps with Miguel,” Emily said. “She told me you ran with him when you were dating dickhead here.”

  My mind raced. Emily was down for a three-way with another woman—and I dumped her? Worse, I’m just finding out about it now, moments before I die in a hail of gunfire?

  There are no Gods.

  “Who told you that?” Tania’s voice cranked up a notch too loud.

  “They both did. Miguel said you were dating Jacob when—”

  Tania jumped on our intrepid reporter and slapped her hand over the woman’s mouth. She craned over her shoulder to check my reaction.

  Up the hill behind us, a Kazakh wandered in the woods near the bunker. If he checked left, we were dead. I raised my MP5 and drew a bead on him. He slipped between the trees, heading uphill and looking a
way from me. I lowered my weapon.

  Emily’s words wormed their way through my thick skull. I looked back at Tania.

  Guilty as hell. It was written in her twisted face.

  “Holy shit!” I said a little too loudly. “You were sleeping with my best friend while we were still dating? And then you acted so goddamn self-righteous when you caught me—”

  “Shut up,” Miguel’s voice came through the comm link. “They heard you.”

  The things I wanted to scream at both of them flooded into my brain. I swept it all aside to focus on living an hour longer.

  “He’s right, mate,” the Englishman added. “They’re spreading around your position now. We’ll give them a minute to set up, then we open up on them from behind. We’ll give you the signal when they turn their backs on you.”

  Tania and I shared a tense glance and nod at each other. Nigel’s plan could work with a little luck.

  Mercury said, Whoa. You’re alive, bro? That’s good for me. Turns out the Dii Consentes wants you around cuz we’re low on believers these days. But that’s a temporary thing, don’t worry about it. Right now, you should be looking uphill.

  The Kazakh on the slope turned around. Our eyes met. I fired three shots before he raised his rifle. He fell.

  “Seventeen,” Miguel reported. “A third of them on your left, a third in the middle, and the last group moving into place on your right.”

  “Bloody hell,” the Englishman said before the sound of gunfire filled the comm link.

  Emily’s eyes filled with fear.

  Tania patted her back. “It’ll be OK. We’ll get out of this.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “We usually do.”

  Emily took a deep breath and pumped her shotgun. A head popped up on the backside of the berm before dropping back. She screamed, ran to the wall, leaned over, and gave the poor bastard a chest full of buckshot.

  Tania tried to grab her before she left us but clutched only air. Tania crawled to Emily, who hung half over the short wall, staring at the body. Tania grabbed the reporter’s belt and yanked her back to cover. But it was a second too late. A bullet ripped through her ribcage.

  Emily screamed, writhed from the shock, and landed on her back.

  “Take it easy,” Tania said. She pulled a t-shirt from her pack and pressed it to Emily’s wound. “It’s a through-and-through. You’ll be fine after we get—”

  “It burns!” Emily cried. “Oh god. Burns like fire. What do you mean, through? You mean, I’m through?”

  “No, the bullet went clean through. That’s a good thing. You’ll be fine. Well, except it’ll hurt like a bitch.”

  Emily bit her lip and closed her eyes.

  Tania grabbed a t-shirt from my pack and wadded up a second bandage. She put one under Emily and pushed her back on it. The other she pressed into Emily’s front wound. “Keep pressure on this. We need to stop the bleeding.”

  Bullets streaked overhead in larger numbers.

  Tania gazed up at me. “Look, I’m sorry about Miguel. You know how he is, the strong and silent type, all that. It was a short-term—”

  We both cocked our ears at a sound we knew too well. The scurry of a pair of boots that suddenly stopped followed by the same sound a whole second later. One soldier was running forward, finding cover, taking a knee, aiming his rifle. When he was in position, his squad leader sent the second soldier to do the same thing, a little farther forward of the first. Then the third. If we let them continue, they’d overrun our position in a matter of minutes.

  Miguel and Nigel fought their battle in groans and gun-chatter on the comm link. He’d had a brilliant plan, but it wasn’t going to save us. They were too deep in their own fight.

  We didn’t stand a chance.

  Tania and I shared a long look. I thought about life and death and love. I thought about what a great life I’d had, what an honor it had been to serve my country, to meet Tania Cooper, to date her. And now, against my hopes and dreams of marrying her, it was going to be an honor to die with her.

  She said, “Look, you were going to cheat on me eventually anyway and—”

  “Jesus, Tania! Later.” I pressed my hands against my temples.

  If I lived through this battle, I was going to date normal women only, from that day forward.

  She shrugged and looked at the dirt. When she glanced up, her voice was low and soft. “You know Jacob, we gotta do this. Emily can tell the world about Element 42. You and I, well, we have to make sure she survives.”

  “Roger that. She signed up for a scoop, not a death sentence.”

  Mercury said, Now you’re talking. Die like a Roman, bro. I’ll be your guide to the underworld.

  I said, Can you give me something positive here? Maybe even motivational? Like, ‘Jacob, you’re gonna make it. You got this.’

  Mercury said, Think what you want, homie, but you don’t have a chance. Look on the bright side, a glorious death is inspirational. Somewhere, someday, someone might remember you and say, ‘He never amounted to much and he died in vain, but boy did that guy know how to party.’

  “Ready?” Tania asked.

  “Trial peek together, I’m left, you’re right. Fire blind, change mags, pop up, and wipe ’em out.”

  She nodded. Even though we both knew it would never work, we bumped fists.

  We popped up for a look at the advancing troops. I counted six heads on the left. She looked right. We dropped back behind the wall as rounds flew above our heads.

  “I have five,” she said.

  “I got six. That’s eleven. We’re short a whole squad.”

  “Wait, what are you two planning?” Emily asked, her voice high. “You’re going to charge them? No. No way. They’ll kill you. There’s too many of them. It’s seventeen to two. Let’s surrender.”

  “Nah. We like doing that macho thing,” I said.

  “No! Don’t leave me! You can’t do this.”

  Another fusillade of bullets flew over our heads. The precursor to a full frontal assault. The last seconds of our lives ticked by.

  I felt great.

  Mercury said, Your squad is moving to your right. Start with the lead guy, shoot right-to-left, and you’ll get some of them before you die. Probably.

  “Nice day,” Tania said, looking at the sky. She tossed me a glance, grabbed my armor, pulled me in, and kissed me hard. “Why wait to die old and senile when we can be heroes?”

  CHAPTER 51

  Pia leaned over Dhanpal’s shoulder. The ground swirled five hundred feet below the Eurocopter’s sliding door as her pilot kept the platform from becoming a stationary target. She switched sides, careful that her headphone cord reached the distance without snagging, and looked over the Major’s shoulder.

  “I can’t get the right angle,” the Major said. She fired off another burst.

  Dhanpal spoke to the pilot and pushed Pia away from the opening. He aimed then pulled back.

  The pilot flew them away from the battle, down the valley. Dhanpal searched the interior, tugging seatbelts and pulling on cargo netting.

  “Where is he taking us?” Pia said. “We need to help Jacob.”

  “The canyon’s too narrow,” the Major said. “We have to stay below the PLAAF, Chinese air force radar. We need some rope so we can lean out to get a good shot at these guys.”

  The pilot brought his bird back up the next valley and swung suddenly over the ridge. As they approached the compound, he turned the open door toward the battle and flew sideways.

  The Major and Dhanpal filled the space, firing as they approached.

  Pia saw the problem. She threaded a rope under the jacket and through the body armor of the Major and Dhanpal, then ran it through a loading pulley for leverage. “Lean out and I’ll pull you back in.”

  The Major leaned over inside the cabin to test her weight. Pia held her steady a few inches from the floor then pulled her back upright with one hand. Satisfied, the two shooters leaned out of the
doorway. With Pia holding their leveraged weight, they could hang nearly horizontal, enough to shoot straight down.

  “Holy … can you hold us?” Dhanpal said.

  “I could do this all day,” Pia said. “Take out some Kazakhs.”

  The Major and Dhanpal chose their targets and fired precise rounds.

  Thirty-three seconds later, the bird had passed the area. The pilot took them over the next ridge to turn around. Pia pulled her agents in.

  “That worked,” the Major said. “Can you do that again?”

  Pia turned them around and grabbed the ropes. When the bird topped the ridge, she leaned them way out.

  Between their shoulders, she saw Tania and Jacob jump the berm and come out shooting. The pair ran forward, cutting down enemies in the open while Pia’s team took out more from the sky. The remaining Kazakhs scattered for cover.

  On the opposite slope, Miguel and Nigel fired on three advancing enemies in the trees and dispatched them quickly. Four more took cover under the canopy.

  There were no more targets to hit from the air.

  Pia ordered the pilot to put them on the ground. He took them near the compound entrance, where a string of abandoned vehicles blocked the only open space large enough to land. He hovered as low as he dared. Dhanpal jumped first, landing on the roof of a truck and slithering down the side to cover the others. The Major landed next and covered the other side.

  Pia jumped and landed on a man strapped to the hood of a Norinco. She lost her footing on the uneven surface and dropped her knees into his belly. She grabbed his face and turned it to look at the scar, then pushed him the other way to look at the bandage.

  “You must be Kasey,” she said.

  Kasey groaned.

  “You lost another ear.”

  “Hey, cut me loose will you? I’m a sitting duck, there’s bullets flying everywhere.”

  “You’re fine.” She jumped down and followed her team into the trees behind a shack.

  Miguel and Nigel were pinned down and running out of ammo. The Major headed for their area. Dhanpal used hand signals to move forward with Pia. They took opposite sides of the buildings, running toward the sound of gunfire.