“He was a good soldier. A good man,” Braden said, emotion crossing his face. He struggled to contain it. “And a very good friend.”
The others looked over at Tim and then at each other. “How’s Jerry, Rubin?” Malichai asked deliberately, wanting to keep their attention on the living. “Full name, by the way, is Malichai Fortunes, and that’s Rubin Campo. Just dropped in to see how you boys were doing and get you ready to come home.”
Heads swiveled toward Rubin. Rubin had always been a man of very few words, and he lifted his gaze to Malichai, giving what amounted to a death stare. Malichai gave him a faint grin in return.
“He’ll be ready to travel in a couple of hours. He needs a transfusion and he’s badly dehydrated. I’ve already got lines into him and am giving him the blood we brought for him.”
“What about his leg and arm?” Jack asked.
Rubin shook his head. “A better question is, what about his life? We’ve got the enemy coming straight at us in the morning. The helicopters will have to set down right above us on the ridge. We have to be able to get him up there without losing him. We’ll need all of you.”
“No way can a helicopter land up there,” Braden said. “You see those bunkers on your way in? They have heavy artillery. I mean heavy. They’ll take out the helicopters every time.”
“That’s where we come in.” Malichai took pity on Rubin. “We’re going to make certain they can’t shoot down our birds as they come in to get you.”
There was a small silence. Braden let out his breath. “That’s suicide. I’m serious. They’ve got every kind of weapon known in those bunkers and experienced fighters handling them.”
“We have the intel,” Malichai assured. “It’s the only way any of us are getting out of here. We knew that when we volunteered to haul your butts out.” Deliberately, he sounded cocky, but even though both men were enhanced, the bunkers weren’t going to be easy to take down—and they had to be down, or they’d just keep losing helicopters.
“Your job is to get stronger. Get warm. Hydrate. Start getting those muscles to work,” Rubin added to fill the silence as the others looked at them as if they were insane.
“It isn’t the first time, you know,” Malichai added. “That’s what gave us the idea. A SEAL did something very similar on a different mountain a few years back.”
“Weapons change all the time,” Braden pointed out. “I’m telling you, that’s suicide. I tried getting close to them, and they unleashed hell on us.”
“We think they’re going to sneak up on us and take us out,” Jack added. “We’re taking shifts, trying to stay awake, but they could kill us just about any time.”
“You’re too valuable to them right where you are. They know we’re going to keep sending more troops in to try to bring you home,” Malichai explained. “You’re the bait.”
The team exchanged looks. They didn’t like that.
“I can help out,” Braden offered.
“I could probably get up and running,” Jack offered as well. “Barry can watch Jerry for us. I’m a damn good shot. You brought us some ammunition, right?”
They had, but they weren’t taking the wounded with them on what amounted to a suicide mission—not to mention, being enhanced was classified. They weren’t to expose others to those enhancements if at all possible.
“Your job is to make certain you’re ready for a run up the mountain to the clearing just above us. The helicopter will set down there. If we clear the bunkers, we’ll have help getting up to the extraction point. If not, it’s all on us.”
“We aren’t leaving Tim behind,” Braden said decisively.
The others murmured their agreement, all nodding and looking at Malichai as if he was challenging their firm statement. Malichai had no intentions of leaving Tim behind if it could be helped. The man was a soldier for the United States. He belonged home, not here, where his life had been taken far too young.
“No, we’re not leaving him behind,” he stated quietly, hoping everything went as planned and there would be no need to go back on his promise. No matter what, the living came first.
He looked across the small space to Rubin, who was still working on Jerry. It didn’t look good, not with the way Rubin was so gently and meticulously working on the man. That was another body they might have to transport out when the time came. He hoped not.
Jerry had saved the others at a great cost to himself, but he could live without a leg and an arm. He could have a decent life. Malichai didn’t want to think too much on what that life would be like. He had to keep telling himself that at least Jerry was alive. Tim was never going to get that chance.
“Braden. I’d prefer that you stop moving around until you absolutely have to. I think you’re losing blood internally. It’s best if you just stay as still as you can and hydrate. I’m going to set up a transfusion for you as well.”
Rubin, when you have a minute, will you check him out? I’ve got a bad feeling.
Rubin didn’t look up, but he nodded.
There was a small gasp that seemed to go around the little encampment. Braden wasn’t their commander, but he’d taken command when he had to. He’d been the one to dole out the supplies and ensure that the wounded were cared for. He’d done it by crawling from man to man. He’d defended them when they’d taken heavy fire. He’d risked everything crawling around the bunkers at night to get intel on the enemy.
“The transfusion will help get you home. You’re fine, but we just want to be more careful.” Malichai said it more for the other men than for Braden.
Braden shrugged. “Save the blood for the others. Especially Jerry.”
Malichai flashed him a smile. “You don’t all have the same blood type, Braden. We brought a supply for each of you because we weren’t certain what condition you were in. They’re jamming communications.”
Braden glanced at his watch. “Won’t be long and they’ll launch their nightly show of force, warning us, I guess, to stay put. They know we’re sitting ducks here, but they just keep throwing ammo at us and then leaving us alone.”
“What do you do?”
“We just have to hunker down and take it. I tell everyone to treat it as a Fourth of July fireworks show. We can’t waste any more ammunition returning useless fire. We’re not going to hit anything. They could blow us up right here if they really wanted to.”
Malichai didn’t like that, but it was the truth. They were alive because they were being kept alive in the hopes that more helicopters would come to rescue them.