Part 20 (1/2)

Using thermal imaging to help them pick off tower guards, second squad's teams opened fire on cue from hides in the foothills north of Malihud. Within thirteen minutes, according to the readout in a corner of her shadowscreen, Jamie saw prisoners scrambling to the transports.

She attempted to keep a rough tally-fifteen here, twelve there, another fourteen. Right on schedule, one of the transports took off, escorted by a Barracuda.

Then the mission clogged up. The strongest, healthiest prisoners had gotten to the helo first, and many of those who remained needed help making it to the other two transports. Comlink chatter told Jamie the recon force had found more prisoners than antic.i.p.ated and required extra time to get them out. Meanwhile, the enemy had begun to fight back.

”Three lavvies this side of the river,” Avery reported from the hills east of the Malihud River. ”We'll be able to snuff 'em before they get to the bridge.”

* 167 *

But Zhong soldiers with rifle grenades were closer to the POW camp than the armored personnel carriers Avery had spotted, as well as more numerous and much harder to see. From their elevated hides, Jamie and the four snipes with her managed to take out three Zhong teams before they could launch, but she worried about others.

”Richb.i.t.c.h, Richb.i.t.c.h, Zhong attack helos on your high ten coming in fast,” one of the Barracuda pilots yelled to another. ”Count three-belay that-count five enemy birds. Five enemy birds. Cover your ten, Richb.i.t.c.h!”

Then one of the two Shark transports still on the ground exploded.

A Zhong grenade had hit its mark. With fire erupting in the c.o.c.kpit, the helo's occupants poured out and stumbled toward the remaining Shark.

Over her comlink, Jamie heard marines screaming. Operation Repo had gotten dicey fast. So much for the mission schedule on this one.

While enemy helos engaged the Barracudas in an air battle overhead, the snipes on both sides of the river didn't withdraw as planned-instead they started picking off enemy targets at greater and greater distances. This gave the recon units time to evacuate everyone out of the disabled helo and into the third transport, which finally lifted off and moved out to sea.

Although all the POWs had extracted, the last Shark departed minus some of the recon guys, who had but one option: Retreat toward the snipes' hides. The snipes did what they could to slow the enemy's pursuit of them.

”Our strays'll get to my position first,” Jamie told Avery, then instructed her to immediately pull back into the mountains. ”We'll pick them up and follow you. Figure join-up at zero-six-hundred at gridpoint September niner three niner four. But don't wait past zero-seven-hundred. The boogey men'll be chasing you.”

”Roger,” crackled the comlink. ”Join-up at zero-six-hundred at gridpoint September niner three niner four. See you there.” Above Malihud, a dozen helicopters battled while six stray recon marines scrambled to Jamie's hide. ”We're outta here right now,” she said to them as soon as they arrived. ”Splinter-noise commo from now on. I'll take point and-”

A menacing new sound made her look up. The rotors of two * 168 *

helicopters-one of the enemy's and a Barracuda-had collided and both aircraft careened wildly.

The enemy helo smashed into one of the POW camp towers, detonating timed explosives placed there by the recon guys. As a conflagration claimed the camp, the crippled Barracuda tilted into an erratic spiral that brought it toward Jamie's position. It finally clattered and grated into the forest only thirty meters away and just a meter or two above her elevation, flipping over as it came to rest without exploding.

Jamie and the recon leader looked at each other. They'd have to check the Barracuda for survivors and retrieve them quickly. ”We'll get 'em, ma'am,” said the recon leader.

Minutes later he signaled Jamie: A finger pointed up once, twice- both crewmen alive. Then, a moment later, his fingers mimicked two pair of walking legs. Yes. Both ambulatory.

But they'd lost precious escape time. The mission plan would have to change again.

Within minutes, ten of them were out of Jamie's sight, already climbing along the west bank of the Malihud River into the forested hills. If all went well, they'd be able to follow it for about five kilometers to an elevation of nearly three hundred meters, then cross it and start the strenuous northeast trek toward the two-thousand-meter Mount Mantalingajan, where they'd join up with Avery.

Meanwhile, Jamie and two snipes diverted the enemy. Jamie began by firing a grenade into the Barracuda wreckage, which triggered a sizeable explosion she hoped would destroy any still-functional equipment and preoccupy the Zhong long enough to provide the margin the three of them needed to evade and escape.

”Leave just enough of a trail for the first hundred meters,” she told her snipes. ”We want the Zhong coming after us, not the others.” The three of them headed east to cross the Malihud River, as though they were making a desperate run up the coast, trying to get past Brooke's Point and out of enemy territory. Once well across the river, they picked out enemy targets as they went.

It worked for a while, for more than a kilometer. Then the enemy started to get wise.

”Okay, guys,” Jamie said, holding out her hand to be scanned, ”secure me into your eyewraps and give them to me for a minute.” Quickly she marked a pathway on each of their shadowscreen maps * 169 *

that would take them to the rendezvous with Avery. ”You're getting off here. Start in that crevice right over there.” She tilted her head toward the cliff-like rock face behind her. ”See it?” The two snipes nodded.

”Steep as s.h.i.+t, but great for hiding your trail from the Zhong.

You'll be able to climb it all the way to the top of this ledge, then head due north for maybe an hour to reach the track I marked. Got it?” They nodded again.

”Good. Keep absolute stealth. Your goal is to avoid detection and hook up with Avery. Do not engage unless you're positive you've been spotted and there's no other choice, understand? Take my water and MREs and give me half your four-sixteen rounds.”

”You sure, Gwynnie?”

”I'm going east for another half a klick, see what else I can nail.

Then I'll cut north, too. But you remind the sergeant that she waits for no one past zero-seven-hundred. No one. I'll f.u.c.king nail her to a cross if she delays one f.u.c.king second. And you be sure to quote me on that if necessary. Good climbing. See you back at the ranch. Now go.”

”Soon,” each one said, offering a departing dap.

Jamie didn't watch them leave. She moved east as fast as the terrain allowed. The first time she found a natural hide and fired from it, she popped three targets and managed to skip out before the enemy determined her position. She pulled that off twice more, but the fourth time they found her after only one shot.

Soon her mental processes s.h.i.+fted from tactical planning to surviving second by second. Jamie survived and evaded and occasionally attacked for almost three more hours. With her very last .416 round, she even nicked a Zhong helicopter that was heading north, flying too low and too close to where she figured her people were.

Wounding the helo came at a price, however. It gave the enemy an accurate fix on her position. Within a minute, an enemy bullet almost took her head off, instead ripping her comlink eyewraps from her face and out of sight. She had little time to retrieve them; they'd self-destruct in less than a minute if she didn't she initiated proper shutdown or re-established physical contact with them. Without them, she'd be stranded a hundred and ten klicks beyond the Marines' forward edge, lost to the ops center.

Jamie could feel the countdown...Six...five...four...three...

* 170 *

Another enemy bullet whined past her nose. ”Jeezus f.u.c.king christ,” she wheezed, ”what's it f.u.c.king take?”

Now she had only her pistol to slow down the enemy just feet away. Bereft of options, she decided to use her last bullet on herself.

But as she pointed the pistol at her temple, it saved her life by blocking a Chinese bullet. It also banged hard into her cheek, knocking her down.

She reached for her combat knife, but it, too, had vanished.

Weaponless, on all fours, trapped at the brink of a gully muddied from the recent rain, Jamie dove, hoping the thin brush below might hide her, and somewhere on the way down, her rolling world went dark and silent.

* 171 *

Chapter eiGhteen.

no Way out s.h.i.+h shen?”

Splayed on her belly in thick, sucking mud, Jamie didn't move while she thought about the voice. I know what he said: Dead body... a question... in Mandarin. But had the voice been real, or was she dreaming?

A harsh blow struck her shoulder blade. Too harsh, too real. The malice in its lightning-flash sting revved her heartbeat and cleared her head. Oh G.o.d... don't move, don't move, don't breathe...

”s...o...b.. ding.”