by Ilsa J. Bick
“Ah, that’s where Plan B comes in.” When she was done laying it out, Tompkins only stared. “What?” she asked.
“I’m just trying to decide if you want only to be court-martialed, or if an international incident is this high on your to-do list. Kate, for that to work, everyone has to be in the exact right spot at the right time, and since the captain’s not going to be in the loop, and last I checked he also can’t read minds, you have to hope he’s not in the line of fire.”
“You have any better ideas?”
Tompkins did her the favor of thinking about it. “No. I still don’t like it, but a half-assed Plan B in case half-assed Plan A goes completely FUBAR is better than no plan at all. Except what if Gholam’s not our guy or the kids are wrong?”
“Then we beg forgiveness and Gholam’s a hero for breaking a major heroin ring.”
“Or someone ends up dead.”
Her weapon’s safety gave a small snick as she thumbed it off. “Details, details.”
Chapter 3
“This isn’t right.” Pederson frowned at an X fashioned out of duct tape and plastered to a boulder. “We’re supposed to stay on the trail.”
“McEvoy said there was a shortcut.” Jack’s gaze drifted over the rocks. “Yeah, there’s a notch there and other trail. See it?”
“Really?” Backing up, Gholam peered to the spot Jack indicated. “That’s odd. No one lives in that area.”
“You can’t have visited every single house in every single compound,” Jack said. “Did you know about this girl with the baby?” Crap, what was the kid’s name? “Palwasha?”
“Unless it involves my relations or requires my involvement, no, I do not know the small dramas in every family. My point is, I do know the general area well and there are no compounds out this far. Well, other than that wreck in the plains to the west. That was bombed years back, though, during the Soviet era. No one’s lived there in over two decades.”
“We saw dogs out there.”
“Strays.” Gholam gave an offhand shrug. “Or a feral pack. Nevertheless, your doctor is correct. There is nothing up there. That looks like an old goat path more than anything else.”
“Sir.” Amir Ali was unhooking a radio from a belt. “Officer Nagir is with them. Perhaps we should speak to her.”
“She does not have a radio, Lieutenant. Besides…” Gholam gave Jack a pointed look. “I don’t suppose you would be willing to share which channel your people use.”
Jack gave what he hoped was a regretful look. “You’re right. I wouldn’t.”
Gholam’s tone was icy. “And, likewise, you wouldn’t dream of letting us use one of your radios.”
He wouldn’t do that, either, but not only for the reasons Gholam might imagine. GPS locators worked both ways. And where the hell was Kate? “If you’d like, we could raise Specialist McEvoy—”
“Sir?” When Jack looked up, Tompkins waved as Six’s tongue lolled in a grin. “Sorry. Took me a few seconds longer to get here than I thought. Come on up, sir.”
“How did you find this path?” Pederson called. “I didn’t see this.”
“Palwasha told us about it,” Tompkins said, smoothly. “Speaking of which, that baby’s pretty bad off, Doc. She needs to be seen sooner rather than later.”
“I already saw...”
Jack cut in. “The sooner we do this, the sooner we get back. Major?” He waved a go-ahead.
“Sir,” Amir called as Gholam hooked his hands onto boulders, “shall I inform the others of our current plans and location? They will wonder if we don’t check in.”
Crap. “You can tell them when we check in with our people.”
Gholam favored Jack with a long look before shifting his dark eyes to Amir. “That won’t be necessary, Lieutenant. But,” he said, as he hoisted himself onto a rock, “keep the radio on.”
Well, hell. Their units probably had GPS, too. He should have thought of that. Would that matter? Probably not. So, Gholam’s people knew they were deviating from the path, so what? It wouldn’t mean a thing to them unless Gholam told them it did.
“Okay, we go this way.” Tompkins gestured toward a sliver flanked by high boulders.
“One at a time?” Gholam moved a few paces to his left but stopped at an outcropping blocking the way. “There must be another route.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Jack said, though if he didn’t know Kate had something planned, he’d have refused, too. As a rule, getting boxed in was a mistake. “This get any wider, Tompkins?”
“Oh yes, sir,” Tompkins said. “It’s just this little bit that’s a squeeze. You want me to go first? I know the way.”
“No,” Gholam balked. “I do not like this. No disrespect intended, Captain, but there is something not right, I have no wish to become...how do you say it? Like fish in a barrel.”
“You’re worried about an ambush? My man’s standing right here.”
“But not your medic.”
“She’s with the patient, sir,” Tompkins offered.
“Look,” Jack said, “if you’re really so dead set on not going through there, we could always climb up and around. Is that doable, Tompkins?”
“Why should we have to climb more?” Pederson groused.
No one paid him any attention. “Yes, sir. We’ll have to cut across a real flat plateau, but...” Tompkins gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Knock yourself out.”
“There. Problem solved. Tell you what.” Jack socked the toe of a boot into a fold in the rock. “I’ll go first.”
When they’d all climbed atop the pass, Jack took a look around. Tompkins had not been kidding. They stood on what was essentially a rock table, a virtually featureless slab of stone studded with an array of large boulders randomly scattered here and there. The slab rose, however, forming another, higher mound to the northeast. To the west, the slab ended in the jagged fissure of that narrow footpath they’d decided to forgo and which led to a larger mountain.
“This way.” Tompkins gestured for Six, who followed, his nails clicking on stone. “We need to go down a bit.”
“Let’s just go already.” Pederson was striding after, with Kimball a step behind.
“Good idea.” Jack turned to Gholam. “Coming, Major?”
Gholam came but reluctantly. “I still don’t like this.”
“If my man says it’s fine, it is,” Jack said, though he noticed that Amir and Bashir had moved in to flank Gholam. The flanking maneuver was fine; it was the bunching up that was a mistake. Doing that made them easy pickings. He kept to Golam’s left. A deliberate move. The major was right-handed. Gholam would have to both pull and pivot in order to shoot Jack. Likewise, Bashir, who looked the more competent and less green of the two officers, would be less inclined to shoot through Gholam to get to Jack.
“This way, sir.” Tompkins was walking backwards, like a tour guide urging stragglers. We’re walking, we’re walking. “We can cut back down in a—”
And that’s when Jack saw Six, now on Tompkins’s right, glance to Jack’s right—and toward a very large, very wide boulder.
Looking back, he should’ve known at that moment what was up. In his defense, he was a little preoccupied trying to keep tabs on everybody all at once while also getting himself in the best position for a fight, if it came down to it.
“Okay, everybody.” Kate pivoted round the rock, her weapon at the ready. “That’s good.”
“The hell?” He’d been prepared to act pissed and bewildered, but this little stunt really did tick him off. Though Jack had to hand it to her and Tompkins, whose weapon was now up and trained on Amir. Putting Tompkins in front and having her come up from behind...a nice setup. Even the dog was at attention, awaiting a command. “What are you doing, McEvoy?”
“Yes, exactly what?” Gholam’s eyes bugged. His face purpled with rage. His pistol was still holstered, but there were soft clicks as Amir and Officer Bashir unsafetied their weapons. “What is going on here? Captain, do you ha
ve no control over your people?”
“Easy, take it easy,” Jack said. Kimball’s weapon was up and, to his credit, Pederson’s was, too, although the doctor looked as if he’d be happier handling a rattlesnake. Jack’s own rifle was clipped and on its sling, though he was careful not to bring the barrel fully to bear. “Everyone, stand down. I’m sure we can work this out.”
“Only if you are truthful,” Gholam shot back. “What are we doing up here, and why has your medic”—he managed to make that sound like a bad word—“arranged this ambush?”
“It’s like she said. Going to see a patient.” Then Tompkins seemed to remember. “Sir.”
“There is no patient!” Gholam fumed. “There is no child up here!”
“How would you know that?” Kate asked.
A look of disgust washed over Gholam’s features. “I don’t answer to you.”
“Then answer to me,” Jack said. “Tell me how you know there isn’t.”
“I told you. I know these mountains.”
“You know every trail?”
“Of course not!”
“Then why not take the one Tompkins offered?”
“You’re judging me for avoiding a death trap?”
“I’m curious why you suddenly decided this was a mistake but wanted to tag along anyway, despite the fact I said you didn’t need to.”
“This is my district. If there is something happening, I need to know. But a blind man could see there is nothing here!” Gholam swept an arm. “There is only rock! No one lives—”
Off to their right and from a distance, the air broke with a sudden bang and then a second report but no whoosh, which only happened in movies because directors wanted people to get excited and the real deal was kind of a let-down, dramatically speaking.
“Shit.” He knew what those bangs meant and so did everyone else. Searching, he spotted two pale gassy streaks speeding across the sky.
“Captain?” Tompkins sounded aghast. “Those are—”
The RPGs hit with enormous booms. Huge gouts of red dust and ash rose in thick plumes. An instant later, towering orange fireballs pillowed and mushroomed into the sky—because that was what happened when a gas tank and munitions went up.
“Oh shit, oh shit.” Pederson was so pale his lips looked like glass. “Were those our—”
“Kimball!” Jack rounded on his radio man. Now, from the valley, there came the pops and crackles of weapons’ fire. Stone and the rest of their men, had to be. Who was shooting at them? Where had those RPGs come from? He couldn’t see a damn thing from here, but he had to get down, he had to get down there! “Call Kessel! Tell them TIC and we lost our fifties! We need gunships up in the air, now!” Even with a call of troops in contact, help was at least twenty minutes away. Platoons could be wiped out in three. “Everyone, get down, take cover behind the boulders!” Snatching his radio from his vest, he keyed his unit. “Bravo Three-Eight, Bravo Three-Eight, this is Coyote Zero-Seven, report! What’s your situation? Over?” He got nothing. No, no, no. “Bravo Three-Eight, come in!”
“Who is firing, who’s firing?” Gholam had his handgun up and now turned in a wild circle. He was completely exposed, although Amir and Bashir had flattened behind rocks. “Where did that come from?”
“Jesus.” Bounding across the plateau, Jack grabbed Gholam’s left arm and yanked him behind a nearby, hip-high pile of rubble as the air sputtered with weapons fire. “You want to get your head blown off? Stay down.”
“Those RPGs didn’t come from the village.” Tompkins had moved to the boulder where Kate now crouched. Downing his dog, he was aiming high, trying to look everywhere at once, as Kate stayed low. “Wrong trajectory. I think it came from that direction, sir.” He nodded toward the bald mound to the northeast. “If I had to guess, I’d say over there. Right height, it’s closer to the village and they probably got eyes on the valley.”
“What?” Gholam said. “Who would—”
The air was filled with a sudden angry hornet’s whine and then the ping of bullets striking stone. Shattered bits of rock jumped and bounced. Ducking, Jack grunted as a stone shard nipped his cheek. There was a sharp smack just above his head and then something small and heavy and scorched-looking bounced over rock, the spent AK round falling into Gholam’s lap like a Tiddlywink. Jack didn’t even have to look to know the rounds were coming from the same hill Tompkins had pointed out. And where there are two RPGs, there have to be more. Then, he thought, Wait, then why haven’t they taken us out? It should’ve been easy.
“I can’t see them!” Kate shouted. Along with Jack, she and Tompkins were returning fire but sporadically, trying to place their shots. Jack saw that even Pederson, who’d thrown himself onto his belly behind a boulder, slip up to blast a few rounds before flattening again.
The police, though, had no clue. Amir and Bashir were popping up and down to spray bullets like monkeys in a carnival game. “Stop!” Jack bellowed. “You’re only wasting bullets! Pick your targets, pick your targets!”
This was no good. They had cover and could hold out here for a little while, but not for long. Fall back the way they’d come? Might work. Drop over the edge, and they’d have the mountain between them and whoever was shooting. Jack studied the distance. A really, long dash, at least a hundred yards and while there were a few rocks scattered here and there, once they moved from behind these boulders, they were out in the open, no cover at all.
“Jack!” Sprinting up on his left, Kate crowded in and dropped to the plateau. She pointed behind them past a pile of large rocks to the wide fissure in the plateau which marked the path Gholam would not take. “It’s maybe an eighth of a mile to a cave we found.”
“Cave?” Gholam echoed.
“We do a zig-zag, duck behind those boulders at ten and two, and then we’re there. The drop’s maybe ten, twelve feet. By the time those guys figure it out and get down here, we’ll have reached the cave. That, we can probably defend. We can’t stay here, Jack.”
“Sir!”
Jack jerked a look over his right shoulder. Several yards away, Kimball crouched behind cover. The radio man had a handset in one fist and his rifle in the other.
“Sir!” Kimball was moving along the slope of the boulders he was using for cover. He opened his mouth as if to say something more—maybe to confirm that he had Kessel, maybe to say he couldn’t make contact, or perhaps he’d meant to tell Jack help was on the way.
Whatever Kimball had to say, Jack never found out.
Instead, Kimball’s head gave a violent jerk as if someone had managed a sucker punch, and then the left half of his face erupted in a splatter of flesh and bone and red mist.
My God. “Kate, go! Get everyone onto the path, get to the cave! Gholam, get your men, follow her.” Gholam opened his mouth to say something, maybe to argue about where did he think he was going and how would a cave be any better, but Jack was already turning away, shouting at Pederson, waving his arm. “Come on, come on! Follow Kate!”
As the others moved, he waited a beat and then another as weapons fire raked over rock. As far as he could tell, whoever was shooting was no closer.
Which was odd. Why bullets? Why not a well-placed RPG?
The others had made it to the boulders, and he saw Gholam go first and then Bashir and Amir as Tompkins and Kate covered and returned fire. Tompkins shouted and then the dog was there, waiting until Tompkins swarmed over the plateau. The two disappeared into the cut.
“Jack!” Kate signaled for him to get moving. “Come on, come on!”
He would, but he had one last thing he must do.
He waited, listening to the crack of rifles and how that diminished as the enemy realized there was nothing to shoot at. He tried not to think about whether or not he and the others were doing exactly what the enemy wanted. He had to hope not.
Then he was moving. Darting from the boulders behind which he’d sheltered, he sprinted to Kimball’s body. Snagging one of the radio unit’s straps,
he muscled Kimball around until they were both behind cover again. Working fast, he pried the handset from the literal death grip Kimball had around it then shucked the radio off the dead man’s shoulders, grabbed his rifle, dug out spare magazines from Kimball’s armored vest. Dipping a hand inside Kimball’s collar, he reeled a set of dog tags and yanked one off its breakaway, slipping the tag into a vest pocket.
All right, go! He sprinted for the cut. Bullets stitched to his right and left. The cut yawned and as he drew to the edge, he spotted Gholam and his men racing after Tompkins and Six and he couldn’t help but think of his nephew playing Mario 64 on his Nintendo for hours, trying to make it through some huge maze. And, wait, wasn’t there a cave in that one, too? Something Hazy...
“Jack!” Kate waited at the bottom. “Jack, toss down the radio. Hurry!”
More rounds zinged past to clip rock on the opposite side of the cut. Now that he wasn’t moving and ducking and weaving, he was an easy target. Dropping to his belly—praying some joker didn’t send a round into his ass or bust his balls for real—he slung the radio by a strap and let it drop. Kate bobbled the unit before slipping her arms through the straps.
“Come on, Jack.” Kate raised both arms. “Let’s get out of here.”
Hazy Maze. That was the name of the cave, and you got there by going into the basement of Princess Peach’s Castle. As he recalled, that thing was a bitch to navigate, especially that Toxic Maze with all those goddamned holes. Except you couldn’t win if you didn’t keep moving, keep trying. Take chances.
Like Yogi Berra said, if there’s a fork in the road, take it.
“Jack!” Kate’s face was a luminous oval in a slant of shadow. “Jack, now!”
And it ain’t over till it’s over. Smart guy, that Yogi.
He jumped.
So Late, So Soon
The Black Wolf, 2017
Chapter 1
Okay, no doubt about it. That woman’s heat signature was pretty damned funky.
