Shadows of War (37 page)

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Authors: Larry Bond

BOOK: Shadows of War
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A set of iron rails ran down the center of the tunnel, but the side where they were walking was smooth. There were hooks in the wall from an old rope guide. Josh started counting them as he went, hoping to use them as a rough gauge when he came back.
He heard his name echoing through the tunnel, distorted by the walls.
It had been a clever trick all along. The Chinese had thought of everything.
M
halted. Josh pushed her lightly, then stumbled against her, twisting downward and slipping down against the wall.
They'd come to a barrier. Wooden slats were posted sideways across the passage, cutting it off.
Josh scrambled to his feet and ran his hands along the boards, top to bottom, trying to find an opening. M
moved with him, clinging to his leg, as he worked left.
The path was completely cut off. Josh reached his hands back and forth, then started along the other wall, hoping for an opening.
“Josh!” came the call behind him. They were closing in.
He still had the gun. It was the only way now.
He dropped to his knee, raising the rifle. But then he got another idea—perhaps he could use the barrel as a crowbar, prying off enough of the boards to at least send M
through.
He got up and began feeling for a slit big enough to stick the barrel in. M
tugged at his pants leg.
“It's okay,” he told her.
The sound of someone coming for him grew louder. He chose one of the narrow spaces between the boards and pushed the tip of the
barrel against it. The gun slipped from the tiny hole, nearly falling out of his grip.
“Josh,” said M
, tugging.
He turned and saw a faint bluish light glimmering in the tunnel. It was above his head; he hadn't realized how sloped the tunnel was.
“All right,” he said, getting down on his knee again. “I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I thought we would be safe here.”
He tucked her behind him and got ready. There was nothing else to do now. Offering his life in exchange for the girl's was worthless; they'd just kill her after they shot him.
How many were after him? If it was only a couple, he could fire, grab their guns and ammo, maybe make it out of the tunnel.
That was what he was going to do.
“Josh? Are you in here?” said the voice.
It was a woman. She was a decent English speaker, too. The Chinese really had prepared very well.
“Peter sent me. I'm going to get you out of here, but we have to hurry—there are Chinese troops nearby. They have helicopters. Come on, Josh. We have to leave now.”
“Oh, you're damn good,” muttered Josh.
“It's not a trick.”
The light stopped moving.
“Josh—I know you don't trust anybody, but I'm not with the Chinese. I'm an American. I want to get you out. You have important information, don't you? You can tell the UN—the world.”
Josh felt his finger cramp against the trigger. The blue light was faint; they must be far away. If he fired now, would he be able to run close enough to grab the fallen soldiers' weapons before their comrades came? How many of them were there?
“Josh—do you hear me? I know you're near. Come on—we have to hurry.”
“How many of you are there?”
“Right now there's only me. Outside I have four men. Josh—you can trust me.”
“Bullshit!”
 
 
Mara stretched to keep the flashlight as high
as possible, hoping it would illuminate more of the tunnel. She couldn't see where he was, but it must
not be too far away, maybe just a few inches beyond the dark circle ahead.
“Josh? There's nothing to be afraid of.” Mara started forward. “I understand why you're worried. I had the same fear myself. But if you were Chinese, you would have shot me by now. And vice versa. If I was trying to trap you, I could have rolled a grenade down the shaft.”
“You bastards!” he shouted.
Mara threw herself down, sprawling on the floor of the tunnel a second before Josh fired two bursts in her direction. The bullets were well over her head, but as they flew into the roof of the tunnel they rained splinters down from the ceiling.
The LED had slipped from her hand as she landed, spinning as it hit the floor and sailing toward Josh. She saw a figure crouched against the blackness ahead, starting to rise.
She started to get up, only to throw herself back down as Josh fired again.
 
 
Josh felt the rifle click empty.
He launched himself forward, desperate, determined to sacrifice himself for the girl. It was the only thing he had now, the only reason for his existence. He flew through the air, aiming at the dark shadow in front of him, his feet barely touching the ground.
He bowled the shadow over, wrestling desperately, struggling. It had more energy than he thought, more power—he hadn't hurt it at all, maybe hadn't even wounded it.
“Stop, you idiot!” it yelled. “Stop. I'm here to help you, damn it.”
The shadow flung him around, twisting him to the ground. It jumped on him.
Josh's energy fled. The gash from the barbed wire reopened, shrieking with pain. Everything he'd suffered over the past several days, his lack of food, of sleep, every injury, sapped his strength, left him weak and powerless. He lay on the ground, completely drained, ready for death.
 
 
Mara felt the fight go out of him.
She gave him a hard smash to the jaw just in case, then pushed backward, rising and starting to pull him with her. As she took a step, something flew into her back—a wild animal, scratching and biting.
“Off!” she yelled, swirling around, unsure what was attacking her.
It was the size of a small bear, with all its fury.
A girl?
“Em!”
yelled Mara, speaking Vietnamese as she tried to restrain the tornado. “Little sister, stop. I'm your friend. I'm a friend of Josh's. Stop.
Stop!
”
The girl continued to hit her. Mara managed to grab her shirt and push her against the wall, trying not to hurt her yet desperate to stop her so they could leave. Finally the child's fury expired. She deflated, falling against Mara like a rag doll.
“We have to get out of here,” said Mara. “Josh—Josh, are you all right?”
He groaned, and pushed himself back against the wall.
“Come on,” she told him.
“I don't trust you.”
“If I was working with the Chinese, would I have come in here alone? God, you'd be dead by now. Come on.”
Mara scooped up her AK-47 and flashlight and began trotting up the mine shaft. Looking back as she reached the first arc of light, she saw Josh following, the girl clutching his side. He'd picked up his gun and held it by the barrel, practically dragging it along.
Mara threw herself down near the mouth of the cave, crawling to the entrance on her hands and knees. It was eerily silent outside.
“Jimmy, where are you?” she asked over the team radio.
There was no response. She moved out of the cave mouth cautiously, worried that the Chinese had overwhelmed Choi's people and had set an ambush. But there was no one there.
“Come on, come on,” she said to the others, waving them from the cave. “We have a truck down on the road.”
 
 
The helicopter had crashed into the trees
near the road, lodging itself about ten meters off the ground. The grenade that had hit it started a fire near the engine compartment; within seconds it consumed the entire helicopter.
As Jing Yo ran toward the wreckage, he heard the anguished scream of one of the crewmen stuck in the aircraft.
“Jump!” he yelled, even as threw himself onto a tree trunk below the wreck and began shimmying upward.
Jing Yo got about halfway up when the chopper's fuel tank exploded, shaking him and a good part of the wreckage from the tree. Tumbling,
he smacked against another tree, rebounding into a thick bush a few feet from the ground.

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