White Jade (The PROJECT) (31 page)

Ronnie was almost to the corner when a clatter of automatic fire came from behind and he went down.
Nick
turned and fired, Selena beside
him
.
They brought down the shooter.
When
they
reached Ronnie,
they
dragged him around the corner.

His
leg was bloody. There were two holes on the back of his uniform, but his body armor had
deflected the rounds and
kept him alive.

"
Shit,
"
he grunted
,
face tight with pain.

"
How bad?
"

"
Thigh shot.
Probably broken ribs.
God damn it!
"

"
Selena, cover us. Keep your head down, quick looks, reach around the corner and fire in their general direction.
"

She nodded, grim-faced, stuck her H-K around the corner, and began firing short bursts.
Nick
cut Ronnie
'
s pants leg away.
The
bullet had gone
all the way
through
,
from the back to the front of his thigh.
Nick
bound him up with a strip of cloth torn from
the
pants.

"
Looks like it missed the bone and artery, amigo. Think you can stand on one leg?
"

"
Yeah.
"

Ronnie was pale.
Things
had just gotten more difficult.

Harker
'
s voice sounded in
his
ear.

"
ETA for extraction, eleven minutes. I can see eight hostiles still moving around plus Wu and Choy.
"

"
Tell them we
'
ve got wounded. Tell them to expect ground fire.
I
'
m going to try to get to the northwest corner.
"

"
Roger that.
"

The sky was a dirty yellow color, dust from the explosion drifting everywhere.
He
knelt by Selena.

"
How
'
s your ammo?
"

"
Getting low.
"

He gave her another magazine.
"
We
have to get to
the next corner. There
'
s a chopper coming. We need to stay alive and knock down a few more of them.
"

"
How
'
s Ronnie?
"

"
W
e
'
ll have to help him. You
'
re doing great. You help Ronnie, you and he watch the front, I
'
ll cover the rear. Up there.
"
He
pointed.
"
Go
!
"

She jumped up and helped Ronnie to his feet
. T
hey started toward the far corner, Ronnie hopping on one leg with his arm around Selena
'
s shoulder.
Nick
risked a look
around the wall
, ducked back as flying chips cut into
his
face.
He
reached around, firing, and saw another enemy soldier
collapse
.

Selena and Ronnie had m
ade it to the end of the wall. He
caught up with them
. T
hey
crouched behind a tumble of rock at the corner.

"
ETA six minutes.
"
  The voice of the Director was distorted again by atmospherics.
"
Wu and four others are back at the trucks. Four coming toward you, around the corner.
"

"
C
oming this way.
"
He
pointed
.
"
Let them get part way down the wall.
"
The
y
waited, weapons leveled.
F
our
men
appeared, running low and hard.
Selena and Ronnie and Nick
opened up
at the same time
.
T
he storm of bullets
ripped through the soldiers and turned their crisp uniforms into bloody rags. They crumpled
and slid down the side of the hill.

"
Just five left, now, down there.
"
  He
gestured toward the Chinese trucks parked fifty yards away, visible in quick glances between the rocks giving
them
cover.
"
T
hey have to come to us. Let
'
s wait here.
"

"
Suits me.
"
Ronnie looked white and haggard
. B
lood stain
ed
the improvised bandage on his leg. Selena looked flushed.
Carter's
face was swelling where
he'd
taken the blow and
his
jaw hurt.
His
back felt like it was in a vise.

"
ETA three minutes
.
"
Harker's
voice
echoed
in
his
ear.
"
You should hear them any minute now. We sent you a Pave Hawk with Apache escort.
"

That made
him
smile
, even though it hurt
. The Pave Hawk only had a couple of fifties or 7.62
'
s on it, but the Apache was a different animal altogether. Colonel Wu was about to get a big surprise.

"
Tell them to take out those vehicles as soon as they can get a lock. Make sure they know where we are. I
'
ll make smoke.
"

"
Roger that.
"

He
pulled a smoke marker from
his
pack. In the distance
, he
heard the choppers.

"
ETA two minutes.
"

He
pulled the pin
and
tossed the
marker
.
A bright orange plume of smoke billowed upward.
Chips flew off the rocks around
them
from a barrage of automatic fire that
said
Wu knew where
they
were
. I
t wasn
'
t going to do
him
much good now.

Three
helicopters
popped up over the next ridge, laboring hard in the thin air, two Apaches leading the way.
A big man
st
ood
up by the
Chinese
trucks with a shoulder launcher
.
Carter
recognized the
man
from
the porch
in California
and
locked him in the sights of
his
MP-5
. He
gave him a full
magazine
.
Choy
went over backwards as the launcher fired.

The missile
snaked
straight up into the air, stretching a white plume of smoke behind. It wandered
uncertainly
, then turned and headed straight for one of the Apaches.
Carter
held his breath.

A dark shape streaked out of the lead helicopter and met the missile in mid-air. The explosion slapped against
their
ears.

The Apaches launched rockets.

Nick
hit the dirt. The blast rocked the ground. Stones tumbled off the wall, bounc
ing
around
them.
When
he
looked again, two of the trucks were engulfed in flame. The gunners on the Apaches opened up with 30 millimeter chain guns and the burning trucks and remaining vehicles blew apart. The smoking remains of an engine sailed out of the sky and buried itself in the ground ten feet in front of
him
.

The Pave Hawk settled down hard on a flat area
. S
ix troopers jumped from the hatch
and
fanned out to form a perimeter while the Apaches hovered overhead.
Carter
stood.

"
Selena, you take one side, I
'
ll take the other.
"

They
carried Ronnie at a trot toward the helicopter. A medic came out to help and lifted him in.
They
climbed in after him.

"
Good Morning, Gentlemen.
"

The voice belonged to a Captain wearing Army Rangers flashes on his uniform. His name tag said Riggins. He looked surprised when he saw Selena.

"
And Lady. Strap yourselves in. We
'
re leaving. Just the three of you?
"

"
Right. Nice to see you, Captain. The Gunny here took a hit in his leg.

"
Saw that. We
'
ll get to it right away, Colonel.
"

He didn
'
t ask any questions. Captain Riggins said something into his radio. The troopers on the ground pulled in and boarded.

The Pave Hawk lifted and turned south toward
India
.

Carter
looked out the open hatchway.
The courtyard of the temple was littered with bodies
. The temple was
a jumbled pile of broken stone
. Nothing moved but dust and smoke eddying in the chill wind. No one was going to visit the
E
mperor for a
while.

Flames rose fifty feet into the air from the remains of the Chinese convoy. There was no movement on the ground, no weapons fire toward the chopper.

S
afe.

He
felt the tension start to drain away.
His back was an agony of fire. He
shifted on the hard seat and turned to Selena.

She was staring out through the open hatch, watching the Himalayas slide by as
the helicopter
descended into a long, wide valley toward
India
. Over
head
, the steady beat of the blades drummed away.

She turned toward
him. Nick
had seen that look before,
when
someone
came
f
ace
to face with
their
own, violent death
. W
hen they began to
understand the
power of life and death
they
h
eld
over others.

In combat
everyone was
an instrument of death
. T
he initiation
was
n't
easy
.
Some broke
.
Some g
o
t stronger.
He
could see Selena was one of the strong ones.

"
You
'
re all right.
"

She said nothing.

"
People go through months of training to prepare for something like that and screw it up
. Y
ou did everything right. You could have been a Marine.
"

She almost smiled. Then a distant look came into her eyes. After a few seconds she said,
"
Now I know what you meant.
"

"
About what?
"

"
About shooting back. About defending yourself. I felt like a different person back there. I don
'
t know who that person is.
"