by Greig Beck
“We should talk to them. I know Americans, and they would not have done this.” Shenjung tugged at his sleeve, but Yang pulled his arm free.
“You know nothing. American war games are both physical and psychological.”
“War games?” Shenjung shook his head. “No, you are the one making war. I must warn you, I will be compelled to report any … crimes.”
Yang studied the man for several seconds, seeing the waver of fear in his eyes. He leaned in close to his face.
“Comrade Shenjung, you are not at home in your comfortable office anymore. Down here, all authority resides with me. Down here I am both law and punishment. For them, and you. Conceal yourself; that is an order.” He pushed the man into the undergrowth.
Yang then walked to stand in the center of a flattened area of the jungle, with his back turned to the trail. He would be the bait at the end of a fifty-foot killing zone.
He concentrated – the silence in this strange world was unnerving, but now, it meant the slightest sound was magnified. The Americans were coming, close now. He smiled, unholstered his gun, stuck it in his belt, and then unzipped his fly. He waited a few moments until they were there, and began to urinate, slowly, making the stream last. He began to sing softly.
*
Rinofsky saw that Hagel had stopped, holding up a fist. He and the group halted, and waited as Hagel then turned to lift a single finger, and then waved them down.
The group crouched low and only Casey Franks eased up to join him. Hagel remained silent, just using two fingers to point at his eyes and then into the jungle at about ten o’clock. Casey followed his prompt, and then nodded, and then turned to point at Big Ben Jackson and Rhino and then out to two o’clock. She then sent Hagel and Blake out to nine.
Rhino and Jackson were first into position, staring at the PLA soldier ahead. Jackson leaned in close to Rhino.
“That’s horrible,” he whispered.
“Keep it down.” Rinofsky scowled, but then spoke out of the side of his mouth, leaving his eyes on the target. “So where’ve you been pissing; in your water bottle?”
Jackson grinned. “I meant his voice, it’s horrible.”
Rinofsky groaned and put a finger to his lips. At the end of a small clearing, the Chinese soldier was standing by himself, taking a casual piss as if he was in his own bathroom. A soft tune lifted from him, as he seemed to be enjoying his ablutions.
“Stay here … and stay alert.” Rhino moved along the brush line, and then waited. Across from him, he saw Blake appear, and nod to him, and then hold up a hand. Blake pointed to the other end of the clearing. Casey Franks had stepped out, gun cradled in her arms as she watched the soldier finish up.
Casey stood slightly side-on, legs planted. “Hey,” she said.
The man kept singing, and then jiggled a bit as if he was hiking up his zipper.
“Hey, water boy.” Casey kept her eyes directly on him. “Turn around, real slow.”
The man did neither. Casey half turned. “Blake, tell this guy to drop his cock, and turn around. Tell him that we’re friends, or some other bullshit.”
Blake talked softly, his voice carrying easily in the stillness. He was halfway through speaking when the soldier began to turn. In his hand was something other than his penis.
The small gun spat twice, and then the trees started to rain soldiers. From the canopy overhead, PLA Special Forces dropped down around them. Big Ben Jackson turned, and though he was a formidable soldier, he faced a man even taller than he. The big broad face creased in a gap-toothed grin, and then a leg as thick as a tree trunk shot out in a pile driver blow to strike him in the chest and fling him back into the trees.
Rhino moved to engage. The big HAWC and the bigger Chinese soldier traded rapid blows, and each blocked many. The huge HAWC was far superior to Jackson, and let fly with a single lunge punch that sounded like a mallet on clay. The Chinese giant staggered, but shook a head the size of a watermelon and then gap-grinned again.
He came at Rhino in a spin, a person that big having no right to be so quick and nimble. Rhino blocked the first kick, but a backhanded blow was already rounding on him. The fist that connected with his temple was the size of a dinner plate, and his oversized hands had calluses that were rock hard across the knuckles and palm edges.
Rhino went down on one knee, his head swimming. No one had ever hit him that hard in his life. He knew he was as good as dead. Once you lost focus in combat, for even a split second, the killing blow soon came. In the seconds between consciousness and oblivion, he remembered what Hammerson had said to him when he was recruited – HAWCs didn’t die of old age. Rhino now knew; HAWCs died like this.
CHAPTER 45
The first bullet punched into Casey’s right pectoral, spinning her and making the second one miss. In her armored suit, she knew only a head-shot could have been counted on to take her down for good. As it was, the impact would deaden her shoulder, but she ignored it as she had long learned to live with pain.
She rolled and came up fast, seeing Blake and Rhino engaging in combat, and the big McMurdo soldier, Jackson, already on the ground and struggling to breathe. The PLA seemed to be appearing from everywhere, and she had walked them right into it. Fucking amateur hour, she thought.
Her HAWCs she wasn’t worried about, but she knew she had left Aimee and Soong without cover. The pissing soldier who had shot her was coming at her fast. He was big, with eyes that were black as coal. There was no hint of anything other than determination to finish her off.
“Fuck you.” She spun, sweeping one of her legs around, taking him off his feet, and sending his gun flying. A punch to her ear suddenly told her that she wasn’t fighting just one man. She dived and rolled and came up in front of the first PLA soldier, who was now back on his feet. He was half a head taller, and trained to solid muscle.
She backed to the side, trying to keep both of her attackers in view. Casey excelled at unarmed combat, and in a number of different disciplines, all blended into a style created just for the HAWCs, termed RADET – Rapid Debilitation Technique. Most maneuvers were lethal, and she had been trained for fighting multiple opponents.
But for each kick or punch she and her combatants threw, the other would block it, and would in turn direct ever more furious punches, strikes, and kicks back towards the other. Casey gritted her teeth, becoming ever more infuriated. Unwaveringly, the two soldiers betrayed nothing – no surprise, fear, pain – they never grunted, made a noise, or changed their expression. It was like she fought robots.
Seems they’ve picked up their training, she thought. Though her focus was supreme, she became aware of a whistle, and then it was like the combat changed up a level. The PLA to her left kicked out, pushing her back. She blocked it, but immediately felt a jarring impact to her spine. The blow wasn’t meant to do anything other than knock her forward again into the flying boot of the first guy.
Casey saw stars, her head swimming for a few seconds, before she came up with a blade in her hand, blinking away watering eyes and a streaming bloody nose.
When her world cleared, she found she was alone. Her opponents had left the field. Jackson was rubbing his neck and helping a groggy Rhino to his feet. Blake was walking back towards her, also wiping blood from his lip.
“They’re gone. There was whistle, and they just vanished.”
Casey grimaced from the pain, and felt her nose and eye socket. It was raw and hurt like a bitch, but the eye orbital wasn’t shattered. “A signal. Something changed, or they …” She spun. “Shit.” She sprinted back to where they had left Aimee, Soong, and Jennifer.
Jennifer was face down on the boggy ground. Casey knelt and flipped her over. Thankfully the woman was breathing and her eyes opened slowly.
“Wha …?”
The others crowded around.
“Easy. You okay?” Casey sat her up, ripping her canteen from her pouch and tipping it into the McMurdo woman’s mouth.
Jennifer nodded. �
��They came … from the jungle.” She looked up, her mind seeming to clear. “Where are they?” She spun one way and then the other. “Aimee and Soong, they took them.”
Casey gritted her teeth. Hagel jogged back in.
“They’re gone.”
Casey looked up at him. He didn’t have a scratch. Her eyes blazed, but she kept her mouth shut … for now. She turned.
“Rhino!” She turned to the big man, who still looked groggy. “Get your head back in the game. We’re going after them, now.”
“No, we’re not.” Hagel stood his ground, looking down on Casey as she held Jennifer’s shoulder. He shook his head.
“You just made bad decision number one hundred and ten. As far as I’m concerned you’re done.” He leaned his rifle against a trunk. “You fucking walked us right into it.”
Hagel looked up at Rhino, and then to Blake. “They could have mowed us all down. Just as well they decided to pull back, or we’d be food for whatever goddamn thing it is that’s ghosting us down here.”
Casey rose slowly to her feet, feeling her adrenalin start to pump.
Rhino winced. “Hagel, c’mon, man. This is not the time.”
“Not the time to be ambushed.” Hagel snorted. “We’re fucking HAWCs. No one, but no one, gets the jump on us.” He grinned, turning to Rhino. “Unless we have an incompetent leading us.”
“Ah, fuck.” Rhino looked skyward.
“You want to be the daddy now? That it, Hagel?” Casey sneered, but her brow dropped.
“Maybe I should be,” he said evenly.
Before anyone could blink Casey had her Glock pointed between the man’s eyes. “Insubordination in field, only one way to deal with that.”
“Boss.” Rhino grimaced.
“All mouth, just what I thought.” Hagel didn’t blink as he stared back into the gun’s muzzle. “Takes more than a gun to be a leader.” He leaned forward slightly. “Certainly not a job for a coward.” He grinned.
Casey chuckled. “Oh boy.” She stared down at the ground for a moment, before letting her gun drop. She then lifted her rifle from her shoulders and let that drop beside it. Next went her knives. “Time for some education.”
Ben Jackson put one large hand to his head. “Now? You’re gonna do this now?”
Hagel turned back, a grim smile on his face. He started to pull and drop his own weapons. “No weapons, no rank, no report.”
“Just you, me, and your big fucking mouth … that’s gonna be full of broken teeth in about ten seconds,” Casey said, keeping her gaze leveled at the young HAWC. “I’m going to enjoy this, you little freak.”
Casey got into a crouch, and began to circle. Hagel did the same.
“Are you two mad?” Jennifer Hartigan was on her feet. She turned to Rinofsky. “Stop them. Make them stop.”
He shook his head. “Bad blood, got to be sorted.”
Hagel came in fast. He feinted one way, and then threw two flat-handed strikes at Casey’s face. She blocked them both, and returned her own, her fist flicking out, and Hagel just pulling back by fractions. Both swung, dodged, and kicked out, but this was only the prelude, the sizing up, and it soon ended.
They engaged. The two HAWCs came together in an explosion of furious blows. Every part of their body, every hard or sharp edge, was a formidable weapon. Each HAWC warrior was trained to be an ultimate combatant – fearless in attack, and near impervious to pain.
The sound of reinforced knuckles against armor plates was as loud as the punches were hard. Both fighters knew that a full strike of that force to a vulnerable area would be devastating or even lethal. Regardless, neither of them pulled their punches.
The pair broke apart momentarily. Both were now streaming perspiration and blood. They sucked in the humid air of the jungle. Casey’s scar lifted her face into its usual sneer. She knew that both of them were fast, well trained, and could give and take a killer punch. But she felt calm, her heartbeat barely rising over resting normal. She knew she could withstand whatever Hagel dished out. Her heart was like iron, and so was her jaw.
She looked Hagel up and down, assessing him again. He was younger, bigger at just on six two, and weighing in at around 220 pounds. His physique was iron hard through training and a tough Special Forces existence. Casey was four inches shorter and many pounds lighter. But anyone who had seen her stripped down attested to a body that had obviously navigated years of pain. She had bullet holes, a zipper stitching of old scars, burns, and flaring tattoos, all over muscles that bulged without an ounce of fat. Pain was her friend, and fighting was an equation. When facing a skilled opponent, for her it came down to two elements of that equation: who could take the most pain, and who had the most experience. She smiled, because that would be her.
She decided on her next move. Hagel’s reach was longer, so she needed to be behind that reach. To do that meant taking a risk, and she took it. Casey lunged straight at Hagel. He threw his arms up, but then flicked out one fist to lash across her jaw. It connected, hard. A lesser opponent would have been rocked back on their heels, or maybe even felled.
Casey expected it, planned for it, and took the impact on her jaw. As Hagel’s arm continued on its swing, she had what she wanted – she was close to her goal, and under his reach. In a lightening fast strike, she struck out at his throat. Her hand was open, and she caught his larynx between her thumb and forefingers. His windpipe collapsed, the cartilage closing off.
The bigger man coughed and staggered back; only his training kept him focused, as his hands never dropped. But Casey knew now his oxygen was cut off, in seconds, his overstrained body would burn through his reserves, and first his head would begin to pound and then his vision would swim. Once that occurred, no matter how hyper-trained you were, oxygen panic would start to short-circuit the system.
Casey nodded into the man’s eyes, letting him know it was over. Either he surrendered, or she would enjoy putting him down.
Hagel made his choice and came at her, his teeth showing through split lips, his eyes manic and white, framed by slick bloody features. Such was the depths of the man’s hatred for her. He staggered as he came. Casey dodged his clumsy attack, and used his own bodyweight to throw him over one of her legs.
Hagel landed on the ground with Casey immediately on top of him. She started to pound down, blow after blow, her reinforced knuckle plates smashing bone and shredding flesh.
“Enough.” Rhino tried to drag her off, but she wasn’t done. Her bloodlust not yet sated.
The two gunshots were loud in the near tomb silence of the jungle. The bioluminescent light overhead immediately went out.
Casey froze … the seconds ticked by, and then gradually, the bioluminescent creatures on the roof of the massive cave overcame their timidity and started to glow once again. The twilight gloom returned.
Jennifer stood holding Casey’s Glock, the barrel pointed in the air.
Underneath Casey, Hagel gasped like a fish out of water. She quickly reached down and gripped his throat at the area of the compression, squeezed, and then tugged hard, pulling the cartilage back into place. It’d hurt like a bitch, and would swell back up, but at least he’d be able to breathe. Hagel dragged in two huge breaths and then groaned.
“Oh shit,” Rhino said.
Around them it was as if the jungle had fallen into a vacuum. Casey slowly stood up from the man’s chest, wiping the blood and gore from her hands on her pants. She waited.
Rinofsky’s face was lit by a small box he had pulled from his belt. He held it up and turned slowly. He frowned down at the small tracker.
“Boss …”
“What’ve you got?” Casey asked evenly.
“Movement, boss … plenty of it,” Rhino said without looking up.
Blake led Jennifer in closer, and Jackson joined them, looking at the small device in Rhino’s hand.
“Incoming?” Casey walked away from Hagel’s prone form and took the gun from Jennifer’s hand. As she holstered the weap
on, she noticed that the McMurdo medic had blanched at her frightful appearance.
Casey half smiled, and turned away to collect her knives and rifle from the ground.
“I’m right here, Rhino, talk to me.”
“Multiple signatures, too many to fully register. They’re big and small, but get this, they’re all moving away. Disappearing off the grid.”
Casey grunted. “They’re going to ground.” She turned slowly, and scanned the dark, dripping growth surrounding them. “Making noise down here, and you might as well have just rung the dinner bell.” She growled. “Fucking distraction.” She turned back to where Hagel lay. “I should have just shot you, you bag of …”
The man was gone.
“What the fuck?” Casey spun. “Where’d that asshole go?”
Jennifer put a hand over her nose. “That smell is back. Just like in the caves.” She started to back up, looking like she was going to bolt.
“Grab her.” Casey pointed and Blake lunged at the woman, gripping her arm.
Casey quickly went to where Hagel had been laying. The mosses and lichen mats were flattened, and so was a glistening path leading into the underbrush.
“Hagel,” Jennifer screamed. “Hagel!” She strained against Blake’s hands, her eyes wide. “We have to go after him.”
“That’s just what it wants,” Casey said softly, scanning the jungle with her gun up.
“I don’t like this.” Ben Jackson backed in towards them.
Casey looked from the grass to the shrinking group. “He’s gone. He wouldn’t walk out and leave his rifle.” She nodded towards it. “Rhino, get the weapon. We’re out of here.”
“I heard that,” Rhino said, picking up the gun, his eyes on the jungle. “Go after Dr. Weir, boss?”
“No, we head for the signal.” She pointed. “It’s where the Chinese will be going. Maybe we can get the jump on them. We stay fast and stay tight.” She turned and vanished into the jungle, the others at her heels.
CHAPTER 46
Time: 08 hours 07 minutes 12 seconds until fleet convergence
