Beyond Valor

by Lindsay McKenna

  “Yes, sir,” Megan said. A lump formed in her throat. Oh, God, Luke would be in the thick of it—again. She tried to sound unemotional and confident.

  “There will be five medevacs on standby at Camp Bravo, a thirty-minute flight from here if we need them,” Hall told her.

  “Good to know.”

  “You don’t anticipate firefights, sir?” Buck demanded.

  “I expect something after that mountain is bombed, Buck. If there’s no resistance, you need to capture the casualties, give them medical aid. On the dead ones, search for any maps and information our intel guys can use.”

  Nodding, Payne muttered, “There’s gonna be fights. Guaranteed. These fanatics, if they could, would pick up their weapons and kill us even after they’re dead.”

  A soft chuckle rippled around the table from the other sergeants. These battle-hardened vets had spent two, three or four tours in Afghanistan and knew the territory and the enemy.

  “Lieutenant Speed and I are going to work throughout the night, and you sergeants will have orders for your platoons come tomorrow morning. I want everyone on the same page. This is a major engagement and it’s the first time a village leader has turned over information like this to us. We’re going to make sure their back is broken and Khan’s villages along the border are safe.”

  * * *

  “I want you to be safe out there,” Megan whispered to Luke. They stood alone in their hut, darkness surrounding them. In less than thirty minutes, the B-52s would begin their bomb drop. She’d hurried over to the hut to retrieve her medical pack and walk to HQ. Everyone was gathered there because the drone far above them was sending live feed into Hall’s laptop.

  Luke risked everything and walked over to her. He could barely see her eyes and the worry banked in them. Outside, there was peak activity—platoons getting prepared for combat readiness. If the plans Hall made failed, there would be a bloody last stand at this compound. They could all die. And it pushed him to reach out and find her hand. He leaned over, his face inches from hers. “I’ll be fine. It’s you I worry about....”

  His hand was strong and warm. Closing her eyes, Megan fought his powerful male nearness. “Luke, I keep fighting wanting you, wanting...more. I know it’s wrong. But we could die before this night’s over. Something could go wrong. I know that...I—”

  His mouth curved across hers. Luke’s breath was hot and moist against her cheek. Moaning softly, Megan said to hell with it. She threw her arms around his broad shoulders, pressed her body urgently against him. For a moment...just a moment, she wanted to drown herself, her heart, into Luke’s mouth, hands and body. His fingers spanned her Kevlar vest, moved up to her shoulders and framed her face. He felt strong and confident. Megan thirstily absorbed the courage that came naturally to him. Lips moving against his, she breathed Luke into her body, starving for his touch, his kiss.

  Luke felt dizzied by their spontaneous kiss. They stood in the dark of the hut, the air cold and chilling, the threat of death looming over them. Megan tasted of life, of honey, of promises fulfilled in his torrid dreams. Her fingers moved along his unshaven jaw and tangled in the short hair along his temples. The Kevlar and utilities were a wall between their yearning bodies. He moved his tongue across her lower lip. “I need you. I need you so damn bad I’ve never ached like I do now....” He plunged his tongue into her awaiting depths. Hearing her moan, her hips moving strongly against his own, Luke knew this could be the last time he’d ever have with Megan. Grateful for this stolen moment, he reluctantly tore his mouth from hers.

  Megan moaned as she watched his narrowed eyes glittering like obsidian on a moonless night. She felt him tremble, his hands trapping her face, his eyes peering into her heart and soul. The words I love you were all but shouting in her head. Instead, Megan whispered, “Come back safe and sound, Luke. That’s all I’ll ever need. Okay?”

  Her emotional plea ripped through him. Luke felt his heart breaking with fear. Fear that he would die up on that slope. Sliding his fingers through her loose, silky hair, he leaned over and pressed small kisses across her wrinkled brow, her cheek damp as she cried—for them. For what could happen in a few hours if everything went wrong instead of right.

  “I’ll always be with you, Megan. Always.” He lifted his mouth away from her lips, his gaze digging deeply into her. “You stay safe. I want to come back down off that mountain and see you here in one piece. No heroics, okay?”

  “Oh, Luke...I want more time with you. I’m scared.”

  “So am I,” he said huskily, grazing her cheek with his thumb. “We’ll be scared together, Megan. We’re connected here.” He drew her palm against his Kevlar where his heart lay. “We’re always in touch.”

  Swallowing against a painful lump forming in her throat, she whispered, “I never expected to get to kiss you again....”

  “A stolen moment.” He managed a pained smile, his finger beneath her stubborn chin. “There will be others. For now, we have to get through this night. One hour at a time. All right?”

  “Yes, one hour at a time....”

  Luke turned and left like a silent shadow. Megan was always amazed at his stealth, but then she found out he’d been with SEAL teams off and on in Afghanistan. On special missions where more than one medic was needed, he’d learned the art of stealth alongside them.

  She touched her lips, knowing she had to get over to the clinic and begin preparations she hoped they wouldn’t need.

  The night was dark and moonless. Megan stood outside the hut. She looked toward the unseen mountain to the east of the compound. If Mina and Timor hadn’t given them the information, they would not know what was coming down a rocky path toward them right now. Her eyes adjusted to the blackness enough to see where she had to walk. She mentally thanked the courageous couple and continued toward the hut that would be her clinic to save lives. She prayed there would be no injured among the Marines. Tension was high. It felt as if the night would crack and shatter unexpectedly around her.

  Luke stood inside the HQ huddled with a group of Marine sergeants. They watched and listened to Hall’s laptop, which had the drone’s real-time infrared pictures moving across the screen. Hall had projected the real-time video up on a wall so his sergeants could see what was going on. Luke stood silent, grimly watching an incredible number of soldiers skulking silently down across the slope. The mountain was twelve thousand feet tall, ragged-looking and nothing but rock and scree below ten thousand feet. The drone’s pictures were so clear and sharp Luke could make out each man, the rifle he carried and the turban on his head. They were all bearded, and he saw most of them had a crisscross of bandoleers across their thin chests.

  “We’ve got four hundred al-Qaeda on this side of the slope,” Hall announced. He looked at his watch. “The B-52s will be on-station in five minutes.” Glancing up, his taut face sweaty because the hut was stifling even at night, he growled, “Sergeants, take your men and get them into position on the walls and in the towers.”

  Luke moved aside as the four sergeants quietly left, rifles across their shoulders, faces painted with camouflage colors.

  “Collier, does Trayhern have the clinic ready?”

  “Yes, sir, she does. She’ll stay there unless you need her elsewhere.”

  Hall nodded. “I’d give my right arm for two more medics right now.”

  He’d said it to no one in particular. Luke read his mind. The commanding officer was worried things could go wrong. No military plan ever went a hundred percent correctly. There were always accidents and screwups because humans and machines never functioned perfectly. He’d been in enough firefights and Taliban attacks to know Hall had a right to be concerned. This company of Marines was facing an overwhelming force. If the B-52 bombs went off target, it would leave a lot of them alive. And then they’d be like angry hornets, knowing they’d been set up for an attac
k, swarming down the mountain at the Marine compound. These men were fanatics and had no fear of dying.

  Lieutenant Speed growled, “It takes ten Taliban to take down one Marine. If everything goes to hell in a handbasket, we’re not outnumbered. We’re even.”

  Grinning, Luke turned away so that worried Hall wouldn’t see his smile. “I’ve been in situations similar to this,” he told the X.O.

  Speed looked up from the monitor. “And?”

  “Marines kick ass, sir. No question.”

  Hall looked at them but said nothing, his mouth a thinned line.

  “This is my first tour,” Speed said. “That’s good to know.”

  Luke knew this was Hall’s first tour, too. It was clear the C.O. was anxious as he watched the soldiers sneaking quietly down the switchback path that the goats used. “We were surrounded by six hundred Taliban in Helmand Province,” he told them. “Two local Taliban leaders got money backing from probably the same warlord in Pakistan. We had two Marine companies dug in when they attacked. Only,” he emphasized, “we had no warning it was going to happen.”

  Hall snapped a look across the table at Luke. “And?”

  “It was an all-night battle, sir. The Air Force threw B-52s, fighter jets from Bagram at them, and the Army called every available Apache into the fight. When dawn came, we had five Marines dead, ten wounded, but we repulsed their charges. It was the single most damage done to the Taliban in that province.” He met Hall’s dark gaze. “And we only had four medics, sir. Not nearly enough. We were able to save lives that night.”

  “Glad you’re here,” Speed grunted. “Nice to hear this right now.”

  “Marines rock,” Luke told them with a cool assurance. “Why do you think I like being with you grunts?” He gave them a teasing, wolfish grin. The Marine officers glanced at one another, smiled thinly and then nodded.

  “Okay,” Hall said softly, “here we go.”

  Lieutenant Speed quietly gave the order over the radio to the Marines that the B-52s had just begun to drop their load of bombs.

  Luke moved outside. The air was cooler than inside the HQ. He listened but couldn’t hear anything. The B-52s flew at forty thousand feet and could not be heard below. The bombs wouldn’t be heard until they came closer to the drop zone on the darkened mountain. He’d seen B-52s drop their five-hundred-pound laser-aimed bombs before. First, the shriek of a whistle would be heard. And then the night would erupt into a hellish firestorm that would, if the bombs were accurate, take the lives of four hundred of the unseen enemy up on those blackened slopes.

  He suddenly heard the piercing shriek of the bombs screaming through the night. Tensing, Luke stared hard at the mountain. Would the bombs hit their targets? If they didn’t, all hell would break loose.

  Chapter 12

  When the bombs began hitting the mountain, Megan thought they looked like a string of fiery pearls dropping out of the black sky. She’d never experienced a B-52 raid before, and the ground shook, trembled and rolled continuously beneath her booted feet. She watched the fury of octopus-like arms of fire belching and leaping skyward. The red, yellow and orange arcs resembled a flower blossoming in the night. With each five-hundred-pound bomb landing, the ground continued to tremble. The booms reverberated across the valley like rolling thunder, hurting her sensitive ears.

  As she turned, Megan’s eyes had adjusted enough that she saw the Marines in position in the wooden towers above the compound. Lethal machine guns stuck out of each, aimed into the pit of night. All guards wore NVGs, night-vision goggles, which turned dark into green so they could spot anyone trying to sneak up to the compound. Tension thrummed through her as she gazed back at the mountain now on fire. The bombs kept coming. How many B-52s were on this raid? She had no idea. Yet the bombs seemed to be landing with deadly accuracy near the ten-thousand-foot line where year-round snow met scree and boulders.

  Knowing Mina and her villagers were also watching this attack from their homes, she wondered how the woman was feeling. Mina had been anxious about giving her the information. And now it was killing a lot of Afghan and Pakistan men up on that mountain. Could she live with such knowledge? Megan shivered internally, arms wrapped around her body.

  There was a lull. The last of the bombs exploded and the shaking stopped. The thunder finally rolled away, consumed by the thickness of the night. Now everything was still once more. Megan tried not to wonder how the enemy was fairing up on the slope. As badly as she felt for them as human beings, she also knew if they didn’t stop this attack, they would all die in this compound by dawn.

  The thump, thump, thump of Apache helicopters came into earshot. Megan turned and walked to the corner of the house, looking to the southwest. The Apaches were from the Black Jaguar Squadron. The thumping sound of the blades grew powerful, echoing between the mountains and the valley.

  These helicopters had no flashing red or green lights. They were night predators of the finest sort. They had instrumentation and avionic night vision to see the infrared body heat of a human being or an animal.

  The first two Apaches flew overhead. Megan looked up but saw nothing. The power of the helos was palpable. The air trembled around it. The Apaches would scan the mountain slope for warmth, indicating human life. And then they would begin their systematic destruction of anything still alive.

  For the next twenty minutes, the mountain looked as if it were being assailed by red dots coming from the unseen combat helicopters. The red tracer bullets clearly showed where they were working. Megan stood transfixed. Because it gave her some protection, she remained with her back against the thick mud wall. The Kevlar chafed as it always did against her rib cage. It was a necessary protection.

  “Megan?”

  Luke’s voice came out of the night.

  Gasping, Megan jumped.

  “Sorry,” he murmured, appearing at her side, his hand on her arm. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “That’s okay.” Megan’s heart thumped wildly in her chest. She could barely see Luke standing there, helmet on head, medic pack thrown across his broad shoulder.

  Squeezing her arm, he whispered, “I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

  His hand dropped from her arm. Closing her eyes for a moment, she tried to steady her heart rate. “How is everyone?”

  “Okay,” he said in a low voice. Inches separated them. “I just got back from HQ. Those B-52s did a helluva job. They were right on target. Those Air Force boys know their stuff.”

  “It looked beautiful and deadly when they dropped. I feel sorry for those men. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I do.”

  Luke nodded grimly. “Death is not why we’re here. Medics see the world differently than a grunt does. Nothing to be ashamed of.”

  “The Apaches have been busy up there.”

  “Have they stopped the attack, do you think?”

  “Captain Hall thinks so. The Apaches are communicating with him and Kabul at the same time. I think when dawn comes and we go up there, it’s going to be a graveyard.”

  Shivering internally, Megan was grateful for his strong, steady presence. “I’ve never seen a B-52 raid before. It’s awful. I wonder how Mina feels now.”

  “Probably torn up. She doesn’t want bloodshed. By her giving us this intel, that’s exactly what has happened.”

  “I feel so sorry for her....”

  “That was your job. You made friends with her and she trusted you. General Stevenson made a good plan. You’ve become indispensable to Mina’s village, and now she’s protecting you and us against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.”

  “I wonder if she’ll regret it tomorrow.”

  Luke shrugged. “I don’t know. She sees what good you’re doing for her people, for the women and children. Don’t forget, Timor Khan also approved coming to us with this intel.”
>
  “Now I’m worried that if Jabbar Gholam has survived, he’ll take out his revenge on Lar Sholtan.” She searched Luke’s face.

  “Maybe. The enemies survive here in Afghanistan because of the villages accepting them with Lokhay. You feed the strangers who come into your village. I think Jabbar will think twice before taking revenge on Lar Sholtan.”

  “But he’ll sure be wanting our heads. Literally.”

  “Yes. But he wanted them before this attack.”

  Megan didn’t know how a man could hate so much that he would willingly kill men, women and children. And that’s exactly what al-Qaeda had done when its forces attacked the Twin Towers in New York City. War was not logical. It was fueled by hatred.

  “You doing all right?” Luke asked. He studied her clean profile and noticed her lips were tense, as if to hold back emotions. How badly he wanted to protect her. He couldn’t. Despite how he felt about Megan, she was a lot stronger than he’d realized. Megan came off as soft, gentle and quiet, but she had the Trayhern backbone of military steel.

  “Yes. Just...mixed feelings, you know?”

  There were tears in her voice even though he saw none in her eyes. “Medics live in a special hell,” he agreed. “And tomorrow, when I go up there with those platoons, if I find a Taliban soldier alive, he’ll be treated according to the Geneva Convention. It’s my duty to try and save his life.”

  “Even though, if he has a chance, he’ll try to kill you.”

  Sobering beneath her husky words, Luke said, “Yes. I can defend myself because I carry a weapon.”

  “I’m sure Sergeant Payne and his men will be watching your back like hawks.” And how badly Megan wanted them to do just that! Her heart ached with tension and fear for his life. Without night-vision goggles on, no one could see her slip her hand into his, and Megan did just that. She felt the scars along the back of his hand. The stitches she’d sewn into the flesh of his palm were ridged but healing. Gently squeezing his long, strong fingers, she whispered, “I just want you to stay safe up there. No heroics like the other week, okay? Come back in one piece, Luke.”