No Turning Back (31 page)

“Can you ID any of them?”

She increased the resolution as much as she could, but the picture remained grainy at best. “That's all I can get.”

Karim spoke up. “Assoud.” His eyes were round.

How could he tell that? Unease settled around her heart. Did he know something they didn't?

“Yeah, I think it is,” Luke said, and then said something in Pashto to Karim.

The boy hesitated only an instant before scrambling out into the open.

Sam swallowed. What were the chances Assoud and his buddies were out on a night-time recon mission, and not hunting for their location? “They must be tracking Karim's route through the snow.” Fear began to creep in. “And we've got another problem— the satellite is only within range for the next three minutes. After that, we'll be without eyes for over twenty minutes before the next one comes on line.”

“We'll just have to make due.”

How could he be so calm? She tried to reassure herself that if he was this calm, then they couldn't be in mortal danger. Which was crap. Luke had served in almost every hellhole on earth, so four guys armed with rifles, and— Oh my God, was that a—

“That's an RPG, and the others have AKs.”

Yeah, and that's just what they could
see
. They didn't have a clue what else was hidden beneath their loose robes, or how many others were waiting out of range. Jesus. Her heart started to pound, but doubted Luke's had even sped up. Four guys with RPGs and automatic Kalashnikovs weren't something he was going to get his tail in a knot over, but it was enough to turn her stomach into concrete.

The rattle of metal on metal broke her concentration, and she looked up to see Luke slinging a sniper's rifle over his shoulder. She stood up in alarm. “Where are you going?”

“I'm going to head them off,” he answered, checking the firing mechanisms.

But his head injury... he wasn't in any condition to go on sniper detail, let alone by himself at night without a spotter or backup of any kind. “What about your— ”

“Get the others on the radio, update them and send another chopper in to get one or two of them for backup in case we need it. Once I'm in position, I'll signal you.”

“But the satellite will be out of range by the time you— ”

“Stay here until one of the others comes for you.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he was already out of the flap, moving to engage the enemy on that flat, open ground.

Ben settled back against the bulkhead of the chopper and closed his eyes, imagining the ecstatic expression on Sam's face when she saw him. Things had gone far more smoothly than he'd ever dreamed. It still made him edgy as hell, some part of him convinced it just couldn't be this easy. None of them had a clue where Tehrazzi and his bodyguard were.

The Irish in him was waiting for Murphy's law to take effect.

The radio crackled to life in his headset. “Ben?”

The undiluted fear in Sam's voice brought him bolt upright. “What's wrong?”

“Assoud is coming for us. We picked him up on the satellite.”

“Wha— ”

“He wounded Tehrazzi in a fight and now he's coming for us. Luke's gone out to intercept him, and I don't want to abandon the coms, but he's alone and injured, so if he needs help I'm going to have to go after him... ”

Fucking Murphy. “Shit, Sam, just stay there.” He frantically checked his watch. “I'm inbound, ETA— ”

“I know. I just wanted to make sure you knew what was going on when you came in and that there could be a firefight.” She paused a second. “Be careful.”

Urgency hummed through his veins. “Stay put. Let us handle this.”

“Have to clear this frequency now.”

“Sam— ”

“I'm out.”

She'd effectively hung up in his ear. Christ, she wouldn't really try and go out there, would she? He didn't want to believe it, told himself she was smarter than that, that she wouldn't race out into the darkness after Luke. But his gut said otherwise. And his gut was never wrong.

“God dammit,” he snarled, banging the back of his helmet against the bulkhead out of pure frustration. He made his way over to the cockpit. “LZ just got warm,” he yelled over the rotors. “Be advised, we may be going in hot.”

“Roger that.”

Helpless to do anything more, Ben clutched his weapon and prepared himself to ride out the rest of the flight. “Don't you do it, Sam,” he muttered, afraid it was already too late.

The hell of it was, there wasn't a goddamn thing he could do now but wait to find out what she'd done.

Out in the darkness, silhouetted by the thin covering of snow layered over the peaks of the mountains, Luke crept on his belly toward his quarry. Slowly. Silently. He wished to hell the snow had held off so the darkness would give him some cover. Being backlit on a stark white background in this desolate escarpment, with no place for concealment, made him feel like he was maneuvering in the glare of a goddamn spotlight. He inched forward a few feet then stopped, put his head down and waited a few minutes to find out if anyone had spotted him. He turned his gaze so he could see behind him.

Shit, his tracks stood out like he'd lit up the path with a flare. It made his progress painfully slow, but it was either that or commit suicide by enemy sniper. Anyone with any training at all would be able to pick him out if he moved any faster. As it was, he wasn't too optimistic about his chances of sneaking up on Assoud, let alone remain unspotted for much longer. He'd just have to be that much faster and more accurate than his enemy.

Sam spoke into the radio earpiece in his left ear. “He's at your one o'clock, about three hundred meters out.”

Luke didn't dare raise his head to look or get his rifle in position. Against someone as deadly as an assassin who could have possibly killed his boss, a man who gave most of the folks back in Langley nightmares, Luke would only have one chance of nailing the bastard. One instant to swing the sniper rifle up and get a killing shot off before he was noticed sticking out of the snowy plain like a gator at a garden party.

Hooyah, Hutchinson.
SEALs never surrendered. And they never quit. Not even when they were mostly blind and thought their skull was going to fracture apart at the seams, and they were dizzy and trying like hell not to gag because any sound would get their ass blown clear off the side of the mountain back to Bagram Air Base out on the Shomali Plains.

He had to eliminate this threat before they got to him, because Sam was back at the CP undefended. But damn, the ground here was every bit as bad as he remembered. He'd trained the teenage Tehrazzi in these mountains back during covert operations in the Afghan-Russian war. Now, twenty years later, Luke had come back to kill the prodigy that had served the American purpose so well in defeating the spread of Communism, because Tehrazzi had evolved into something that posed every bit as much a threat to America and the entire western world. Maybe more.

That all ended here and now. Once the bodyguard was taken care of, Tehrazzi was next. Luke would finish what he'd started, right here where it all began.

Sam didn't know if he'd make it. Watching Luke struggle over that brutally exposed terrain had her heart in her throat. He was hurting way worse than he'd ever let on. That's the only reason he'd stayed behind for the hostage rescue, and only because he knew he'd be an impediment to his men. Period. Once a SEAL always a SEAL, or so he'd told her. Which meant if they'd needed him, he'd have gone in to get Nev and the other hostage, even if he was shot all to hell and bleeding from a dozen bullet wounds. If Luke had the strength to lift a gun and fire it, he'd keep going, until they killed him.

Seeing him crawl his way toward Assoud via the satellite link brought tears to her eyes. He shouldn't be out there. But he was not going to sit back and let that crazy bodyguard take their position, their equipment and the coordinates to the rest of the team and the hostages they'd pulled out. No, he was going out there to kill Assoud to defend his teammates, or die trying.

From what she was seeing on the monitor, Sam feared he might do just that, and didn't know how she'd bear it. She glanced at her watch. Only a few minutes had passed since she'd made contact with Ben, but it seemed at least an hour ago. He and the helo crew wouldn't be able to offer any support until they got here.

Something moved on screen.

Her eyes shot toward it. The breath caught in her throat. Men were moving toward her position, coming up the mountain. Swearing, she grabbed the radio.

The shuffle of footsteps drew nearer but Luke kept moving, focused on his task. He ignored the blinding pain in his head and the way it radiated down his neck into his spine, gritted his teeth, and fought the waves of dizziness that grew with every meter of ground he covered. Goddamn concussion was the worst he'd ever had, but he had to wonder if the altitude was making it worse. His body should have compensated for it by now, but the symptoms were getting worse. Clammy sweat beaded on his forehead.

For a split second the world turned on its axis. His stomach pitched sickeningly, saliva pooling in his mouth. He fought it, blinked fast to restore his vision, but now black spots swam before his eyes. Shit, he had to clear his head so he could see what the hell he was aiming at. The footsteps came closer, hushed voices floating down to him. Arabic instead of Pashto.

“Luke, we've got a problem.” Sam on the radio.

He froze, waited.

“Satellite picked up an enemy force approaching from the southwest.”

Shit.

“So far I've counted fifteen of them, but there could be more coming.” Her voice was still calm, but he knew she had to be terrified. “The satellite will pass out of range in another few minutes. Can you advise?”

Not without getting blown to hell.

He ran through his options. Sam was bright. She might understand Morse code if he tapped it out against something for her, but he still couldn't risk the noise. He'd have to kill Assoud and his pals and then haul ass back to the CP, and pray Ben got to her before the Taliban fighters did.

He dragged himself forward, the black spots obliterating his vision. Christ, he didn't have time for this. Neither did Sam.

Swallowing, trying to calm his racing heart and slow his breathing, Luke stopped and allowed himself a few seconds of rest. He had to do this. Sam's life depended on it. He couldn't risk trying to reach her over the radio, and even if he did, there was nothing she could do for him until Ben got here with the helo. Dammit, he had to keep going, but he couldn't see. Cold air brushed over his sweaty face. He wasn't going to give in to his body's weakness. Fuck that. But as he pushed up on his elbows to resume crawling, a lightning strike of pain bolted through his skull. It paralyzed him. He couldn't see, couldn't breathe. A wave of blackness rushed at him. He fought it back, struggled to hold on, clenching one hand around his rifle and the other into a jagged rock hard enough to make him bleed, using the pain to center him.

“Luke?” Sam's voice held a fearful note, but he couldn't reply.

Panting like a dog, he raised his eyes to the swirling horizon and pushed forward with his legs. No good. He tried again, laying his face against the snow so the cold would shock him back to alertness. His vision dimmed, going hazy and gray. He shook his head, bit down on the inside of his cheek. That awful ringing started up in his ears, horribly familiar.

Don't you fucking pass out. Don't you—

The black tide came back and hit him like an avalanche, burying him alive as it took him under.

He wasn't moving.

“Oh, God.” Holding her breath, Sam divided her attention between the approaching enemy force and Luke, sprawled face down in the snow and fought the urge to panic.

“Luke,” she said again, forcing her voice to remain calm. Had he been hit? She hadn't seen or heard a shot. Her muscles vibrated with tension. “Luke, can you hear me?” He didn't stir. Didn't even twitch. God, was he unconscious? She waited another few seconds.

“Luke, signal if you can hear me.”

Still nothing. Fear almost choked her. Snatching up the other radio, she contacted Ben using the other frequency. “Luke's down. I don't think he's been shot, but he appears to be unconscious, and now we've got soldiers coming up the mountain from the southwest.” Her voice shook on the last few words.

“Shit. Are you all right?”

“Yes, for now, but you're still too far away. What should I do?” If she ordered a Medevac, they wouldn't make it here until after Ben arrived, and the soldiers were closing in from the west.

“Call in air support.”

“They won't get here in time— ”

“Call it in.” Ben's voice was firm, commanding. “Sam, I want you to get out of there. Take a med kit, a weapon and some ammo and go to Luke quick as you can.”

She faltered, heart in her throat. “And do what?”

“Just hold on until I get there.”

Assoud and his crew would see her way before she reached Luke. They'd shoot her down like a dog without hesitation. Her muscles cramped. “Ben, I haven't fired a gun since— ”

“Just move, Sam. Right now, and keep this frequency open.”

“Ben... ” She was fighting back tears now.

“Go, Sam. I'm coming.”

Fueled by adrenaline, she dumped the radio. Racing to the medical kit, she stuffed it in her pack along with a pistol from the gun locker and some full magazines, then wrenched a Kevlar vest on and secured the Velcro straps around her ribs, the whole time trying to come to terms with the fact this really was happening. Yanking the pack on, she grabbed a helmet and a pair of NVGs. She was already sweating when she abandoned the CP and scrambled through the falling snow up the steep bank to the flat plain Luke had gone out to.

Breathing hard as she reached the top, Sam crouched and scuttled her way toward a group of snow-covered boulders to get her bearings. Staring out into the empty space, she tried to figure out where Luke had gone, and found the faint tracks he'd left in the snow that the storm was rapidly erasing. She took a step away from her cover, and realized with a start that she'd left the laptop running, with the scribbled series of coordinates written on her scrap of paper beside it. Shit. Should she go back? If one of the bad guys got there first, they might be able to find the rest of the team. She cast a hesitant glance over her shoulder. The cave was too far away now, and she couldn't afford to waste time getting to Luke. Just please, please let her get there in one piece and in time to be able to help him.