Amid the Shadows (31 page)

60

Clausen had lost nearly
half his men.
 
Most were either unable to
get off the C17s before they exploded or never had enough altitude for their
chutes to open.
 
It was the greatest
single loss of paratroopers ever.

But those who did
survive reached the ground and still had the area secured within minutes.
 
The enemy withdrew immediately which allowed
them to search for all survivors, but those who were still alive were in no
condition to fight.
 

Clausen left four men
to protect the survivors while the rest prepared to advance.
 
They were losing time and had a long way to
go.
 
His men instinctively slung the
heavy packs on their backs and checked gas masks on their left side.
 
After the remaining checks, they pulled their
night vision goggles down over their eyes and leveled their M4 assault rifles
forward.
 
Payback would be unmerciful.

Clausen and his men
moved steadily and silently, managing to cover the distance in record
time.
 
At two kilometers out, they
stopped and scanned the open field in front of them with their Bi-Ocular FLIR
goggles.
 
Using infrared, the
paratroopers could see any object with a heat signature for almost a quarter
mile, which meant anything with a respiratory system.
  
The field ahead was black, showing only a
few white shapes of tiny animals scurrying away.
 
When Zahn’s men did appear, the paratroopers
would see them as clear as day.

But what Clausen didn’t
know was that Zahn’s men were expecting them, and their fatigues were invisible
to the paratrooper’s FLIR goggles.
 
Each
pair of black fatigues was designed with a mylar-aluminum prototype liner that
created a perfect and complete seal around the wearer.
 
Along with a flexible hood and special face
mask, Zahn’s men gave no external heat signature at all, allowing them to
appear as black to infrared as the bushes they lay in.

Sarah jumped when she
heard the gunfire outside.
 
Her small
lips quivered and she cringed at the loud, constant bursts which quickly grew
louder and longer.
 
She heard yelling
outside and several minutes later the door opened behind her and closed again.

She heard footsteps
cross the room behind her and knew immediately who it was.
 
As he stepped in front of her, she looked up
into the dark and deadly face of Kia Sarat.

“You’re coming with
me,” he said and bent down to untie the rope around her tiny legs.

“W-where are we going?”
she asked quietly.

“A long way from here,”
he answered, raising his voice over the shooting outside.
 
“Where you can show me, and some others, what
it is that makes you so special.”

“W-what about
Christine?”

Sarat paused with the
rope in his hand and looked at her.
 
He
continued without a word, unraveling the line from her body.
 
He had just stood up and grasped her arm in
his giant hand when the door was suddenly ripped off its hinges from the
outside.

Sarat instantly reached
for his gun, but it was too late,
 
Rand
was already in the room pointing a rifle at him.
 
Covered in mud, bruises and blood, he aimed
the gun at Sarat.
 
“She’s not going
anywhere.”

Sarah screamed when
Sarat picked her up and held her in front of him as a shield.
 
“I know you want her; don’t be stupid,” he
said, peering past her ear at Rand.

“The only way out is
through me.”
 
Rand leveled his
sights.
 
“If you hurt her, you’ll die
right here.”

Sarat said
nothing.
 
He stared at Rand,
thinking.
 
He looked closely and noticed
that the barrel of the gun was shaking.
 
Yet, it wasn’t the gun that was shaking, it was Rand.
 
He smiled and wrapped his hand around Sarah’s
tiny neck.
 
“Drop the gun or I squeeze.”

 
“If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.” Rand’s face
turned to steel.
 
“Then I’ll track down
everyone you know and I’ll kill
them
, parents, brothers, cousins,
everyone.
 
And when I’m done, I’ll find
every person who has ever known you or talked to you.”

“You’re lying!”

Rand shook his head
again and tried to control the shaking.
 
“I don’t lie.
 
You hurt her and
everyone you have ever known dies; that’s a promise.
 
And believe me, I’ll have plenty of time to
do it.”

Sarat looked at Rand
nervously.
 
He kept watching as Rand’s
shaking grew steadily worse, and the barrel increased its bouncing back and
forth.
 
He can’t even aim.
 
Sarat slowly passed Sarah to his left hand
and dropped his right down next to his holster.

Sarat glanced down to
make sure his gun was still there.
 
When
his head came back up, Rand was no longer looking at him.
 
Instead, Rand was looking at Sarah who was
staring right back at him.
 
Before Sarat
understood what was happening, Rand gave Sarah a tiny nod.

Immediately, she closed
her eyes tight, and Rand shot Sarat in his right leg.
 
He howled in pain and dropped Sarah onto the
floor just before Rand fired another round into his chest.
 
Sarat’s body fell backwards and lifeless onto
the floor.

Rand let his gun drop
and looked at Sarah who still had her eyes closed.
 
When she opened them, she saw Rand and ran
forward, jumping into his arms and burying herself in his neck.
 
She hugged him tightly, and Rand wrapped his
muscular arms around her little frame.

She leaned back and
rubbed her eyes.
 
“I knew you would
come.”

“No matter what,” Rand
smiled back.
 
And for that moment, he
felt no pain at all.

With Sarah still in his
arms, Rand turned away from Sarat’s body.
 
He walked to the overhead camera and yanked the power cord out of the
wall.
 

Several minutes later,
Rand peeked around the corner of the small brick house where Sarah had been
kept. Walking behind him, she held Rand’s hand and tried to look out from under
his legs.
 
Rand raised his FLIR goggles
and looked out over the open area.
 
The
firefight had stopped momentarily, and he could see paratroopers lying in the
tall grass.
 
But there were no white
shapes for Zahn’s men further up the slope.
 
Where were they?

What Rand could see was
the entrance to some kind of bunker, but there was nowhere to hide between him
and it; it was all open field.
 
They
could go around, but it would take far too long, even without a six-year-old
girl.
 
He looked back up to the
bunker.
 
There was only one way.

Without warning, Sarah
gasped loudly behind him.
 
Rand whirled
around to see her astonishment and dropped down onto his knee.

“What is it, Sarah?”

She stood there with
her mouth open.
 
“You have a
shadow!”
 
Sarah watched as a faint shadow
began to envelop Rand, finally covering his entire body.
 
It slowly brightened until it became a bright
yellow.
 
“It’s yellow!” she cried.

Rand felt a strong,
warm sensation deep within his chest.
 
As
it grew, it became warmer and warmer and expanded out from his torso down to
his arms and legs, all the way to his fingers and toes.
 
Then, all at once, his shaking stopped.
 
He was whole.

Rand hugged Sarah again
before looking back up at the dark hill.
 
“We have to get Christine.”

Sarah stood before him,
still grinning from ear to ear, but her excitement faded almost
immediately.
 
Rand’s shadow became
yellow, but it didn’t stop.
 
It continued
to change, quickly turning to pink, orange, red and finally
black
.

61

Christine awoke and
gasped through the cold water being thrown on her head.
 
She wiped it from her face and coughed
violently, spitting blood onto the wet floor.
 
In a panic and blinded again, she protected her face with her right hand
and scooted back against the wall.

“Wake up, you’re
missing the fun,” Zahn’s voice echoed from somewhere in front of her.

Christine spit again,
not sure whether it was more blood or water this time.
 
“What?”

“Your rescue team has
arrived,” Zahn replied dryly.
 
“But
sadly, they’re not doing too well.”

She shook her head and
peered up at his silhouette.
 
“I don’t
want to see it.”

“Of course you do,” he
snapped.
 
He reached down, grabbed a
fistful of her hair, and pulled her to her feet.

Christine yelled in
pain and stood up.

Zahn pulled her across
the room and shoved her face toward the wall of monitors.
 
They all showed the outside perimeter now and
from different angles.
 
Random muzzle
flashes could be seen everywhere as the fight raged.
 
Zahn leaned forward and whispered into her
ear.

“These men are your
only hope.
 
And they’re all dying.
 
How does that feel?”

It felt sickening.
 
She wanted to throw up over what was
happening.
 
Christine stumbled to
maintain her balance when Zahn pushed her head forward even more.

“Do you still believe?”
he hissed.
 
“Do you still think this can
be stopped?
 
It can’t, and you’re going
to watch it all happen, with me.”

Christine rolled her
eyes weakly, trying to look away from the monitors.
 
She fought hard against Zahn’s tight grip and
managed to turn just enough…when she saw it.
 
She saw it and her eyes opened wide in shock.
 
Sarah was gone!
 
“What did you do?!” she screamed.

A startled Zahn looked
around, trying to understand what Christine was screaming about.
 
She was staring at his computer screen.
 
The video feed of Sarah was gone, replaced by
nothing but static.

“What happened?” Zahn
yelled with bulging eyes.
 
He pushed
Christine out of the way and sent her stumbling to the side.
 
Zahn smashed the table with his fist.
 
“Dammit!
 
Who did this?” he screamed.
 
“I’ll
kill them!
 
WHO DID IT?!”

“I did.”

Zahn and Christine spun
around to find Rand standing in the doorway, his face white and his body
covered in blood.
 
He gave Christine a
weak smile and tried to step forward but he collapsed and fell onto his knees,
catching himself with his hands on the floor.
 
After a few moments, he leaned his head back, gasping for air.
 
His jacket had over a dozen holes where the
bullets had torn into his body and blood now oozed out.

“Rand!” Christine
cried.
 
She tried to run to him, but Zahn
grabbed Christine and pulled her back.

He looked at Rand
curiously.
 
“This is him?” he finally
said.
 
His pursed lips turned into a
broad smile.
 
“
This is
him?
”
 
Zahn burst out laughing.
 
He peered down at Rand who barely managed to
keep his knees under him.
 
“This is who
he
sent to protect you?”
 
Zahn laughed
again, harder.
 
“The big man must really
be in trouble.”

Rand swallowed
hard.
 
“Sarah?” he said in a weak voice.

Christine opened her
mouth to answer when Rand spoke again, louder.

“Sarah?”

The ruck sack on Rand’s
back began to move.
 
Christine and Zahn
watched in stunned silence as his pack shifted again, and Sarah’s tiny head
popped up over Rand’s shoulder.

“You okay?” Rand
whispered.

“Yes,” Sarah said and
climbed off his back.
 
Christine couldn’t
believe her eyes.
 
Sarah was wrapped from
head to toe in Rand’s bullet proof vest.

Christine pulled hard,
breaking Zahn’s hold and running to Sarah who wrapped her arms around
Christine.
 
She looked at Rand.
 
“
What did you just do?”

Sarah answered for
him.
 
“We came to get you.”

Zahn’s laugh was now
almost hysterical.
 
“Christ, how much
more perfect could this be?”
 
He looked
at all three of them as he stepped forward, barely able to contain
himself.
 
“A woman who can barely stand
up, her great warrior who is about to lose consciousness, and,” he tilted his
head, “God’s newest miracle, right here before me and as pretty as a little
flower.”
 
He shook his head and continued
laughing.
 
“This truly could not be any
sweeter!”

With the last of his
strength, Rand grabbed Sarah and Christine and pushed them both behind
him.
 
He fumbled over his pants and
jacket looking for his gun, but it was nowhere to be found.

“This is the icing on
my cake,” Zahn said as he stood in front of them.
 
“To send all three of you right back to him
and at the same time, no less.”
 
He
looked at Rand who was leaning over and fighting to breathe.
 
“And I’m going to start with you.
 
For as you know, when you die without a soul,
you don’t go home, ever.”
 

Zahn withdrew his gun
from the holster and made sure it was loaded.
 
Satisfied, he let the slide spring forward.
 
“And then our little girl here.
 
Because I want you, Christine, to watch it.”
 
Zahn held the gun up and pointed it at
Rand.
 

Rand looked up at the
barrel of Zahn’s gun as darkness closed in around him.
 
His vision was failing, and he could barely
move.
 
After all of this, after
everything he’d fought for, this was the way it was going to end.

Quietly, behind Rand
and Christine, Sarah slowly stood up.
 
She looked down at them and stepped forward, putting her little body
between Zahn’s gun and Rand.

Zahn looked at her
curiously.
 
He smirked at the thought of
Rand having to be protected by a six-year-old in his final seconds.

“He didn’t forget you,”
she said softly.

Zahn froze.
 
He looked as though he didn’t quite hear
her.
 
“What?”

She stared up at Zahn
who towered over her.
 
“He didn’t forget
you,” she repeated.

The look in Zahn’s eyes
changed from delight to confusion, and he took a small step back.
 
Without saying a word, Sarah matched him by
taking her own step forward.

Zahn nervously looked
at the others and then back down at Sarah.
 
“What is she doing?!” he said and took another step backward.

“He never forgot,”
Sarah said in a hushed voice.
 
She closed
the gap again.

Zahn yelled at Rand and
Christine.
 
“Did you tell her to say
this?
 
Tell her to stop!”
 
He nervously grabbed a small metal table and
slid it between them.
 
It wasn’t
possible!
 
What she was saying wasn’t
possible!
 
He was left here; he was
abandoned!
 
He backed up even further
away from the table when he saw it, something in Sarah’s eyes.
 
He had seen those eyes before, a long time
ago, in the young boy Ryan Kelly.
 
His
voice began to tremble.
 
“Stay away from
me.”

He watched in fear as
the tiny girl walked around the table and came closer.
 
“He loves you,” she said.
 
“He’s always loved you.”

“No, he doesn’t!”
yelled Zahn.
 
“He left me!”

Sarah looked at him and
shook her head.
 
“He never left you.”

Zahn backed into the
wall and, in a panic, he pointed his gun at her and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

His finger would not
move.
 
Zahn pulled again harder, but his
finger remained frozen.
 
He tried to
switch to his left, but his entire hand became frozen, both unable to let go of
the gun and unable to fire it.
 
As Sarah
came closer, Zahn kept moving away.
 
He
looked back at Christine, who was watching and moved next to her, away from
Sarah.
 
“Stop her!
 
Tell her to stop!”

Christine said
nothing.
 
She only watched in amazement
as Sarah continued to approach Zahn completely unafraid.
 
Zahn’s composure had suddenly changed.
 
He was no longer a violent monster; he was
now a monster who was afraid of a mouse.
 
As Sarah closed in again, Zahn was now pushed into the corner of the
room, paralyzed with fear.

Sarah stopped in front
of him and stood there quietly.
 
Finally,
she whispered, “He wants you to come home.”

Christine watched Sarah
reach down and take Rand’s limp hand in hers.
 
With the other, she reached out and grabbed Zahn’s hand.
 
Slowly Rand’s body began to glow and his
black shadow became visible.
 
The
blackness spread from his torso and traveled up his arm to Sarah’s hand where
it continued through her and into Zahn.
 

Zahn’s body instantly
and violently arched backwards, as the blackness slowly enveloped him and his
eyes rolled into his head.
 
His jaw
tightened and his body began to shake after Sarah let go, letting Zahn fall to
the floor still convulsing as if in a giant seizure.
 
Soon, the shaking began to fade, taking
Zahn’s strength with it.
 
He opened his
mouth, gasping for air, just as Rand had.

Finally, his head
slowly fell forward, and he stared at nothing.
 
His vision was nearly gone.
 
“I’m
going home,”
 
he mumbled and tears began
to appear in his eyes.
 
“I’m going home.”

“Wait!” Christine
cried.
 
She scurried across the floor to
where he was propped against the walls.
 
“You have to stop the attack!
 
You
have to stop the missiles!”

Zahn continued to stare
straight ahead.
 
He could no longer see
nor hear anything.
 
With the last of his
energy, he suddenly gasped.
 
“Oh god,
what have I done?”
 
His voice faded into
a whisper, “He’ll never forgive me.”

With that, Zahn’s head
rolled to the side and he was gone.