“They’re testing us,” I said. “They don’t know where we are and they don’t want us to jump out at them, so they’re shooting at random targets hoping we’ll pop up and shoot back. Next step, they’ll send out a guy on foot.”
Emily scooted over next to Tania and pressed her back to the wall. “You mean, you plan to just sit here and wait for them to kill us?”
“It’s a job.”
An eerie silence descended on our battlefield. The Kazakhs were measuring distances, deploying flanking squads, maybe sending a sniper up the hill. We could hear movements now and then, right after a whispered order.
“Where’s Miguel?” Emily asked.
“Hopefully setting up a crossfire with Nigel.”
“Will we get the guy who killed Carmen, that Mokin guy?”
I shot Tania a glance to keep quiet. The last thing we needed was Emily blasting Mokin to pieces. He could be our collateral out of this mess and he was tied to a tree fifty yards away. She could see him if she risked standing up.
“What’s your whole hangup about Carmen, anyway?” Tania asked. “I knew her from the ’Stan. You barely knew her at all.”
Emily’s gaze drifted to the mountains behind us. “She was nice. You know. Thoughtful, attentive, sensual, caring.”
Tania looked at me with raised brows, then back to Emily. She poked the reporter. “You slept with Carmen?”
I choked. “Wha—”
“She was nice,” Emily said.
Tania prodded her again. “Carmen was gay?”
“No. She just liked people, that’s all.”
I said, “Wha—”
“I thought you were dating Miguel.” Tania looked as shocked as I felt.
“Everyone sleeps with Miguel,” Emily said. “She told me you ran with him when you were dating dickhead here.”
My mind raced. Emily was down for a three-way with another woman—and I dumped her? Worse, I’m just finding out about it now, moments before I die in a hail of gunfire?
There are no Gods.
“Who told you that?” Tania’s voice cranked up a notch too loud.
“They both did. Miguel said you were dating Jacob when—”
Tania jumped on our intrepid reporter and slapped her hand over the woman’s mouth. She craned over her shoulder to check my reaction.
Up the hill behind us, a Kazakh wandered in the woods near the bunker. If he checked left, we were dead. I raised my MP5 and drew a bead on him. He slipped between the trees, heading uphill and looking away from me. I lowered my weapon.
Emily’s words wormed their way through my thick skull. I looked back at Tania.
Guilty as hell. It was written in her twisted face.
“Holy shit!” I said a little too loudly. “You were sleeping with my best friend while we were still dating? And then you acted so goddamn self-righteous when you caught me—”
“Shut up,” Miguel’s voice came through the comm link. “They heard you.”
The things I wanted to scream at both of them flooded into my brain. I swept it all aside to focus on living an hour longer.
“He’s right, mate,” the Englishman added. “They’re spreading around your position now. We’ll give them a minute to set up, then we open up on them from behind. We’ll give you the signal when they turn their backs on you.”
Tania and I shared a tense glance and nod at each other. Nigel’s plan could work with a little luck.
Mercury said, Whoa. You’re alive, bro? That’s good for me. Turns out the Dii Consentes wants you around cuz we’re low on believers these days. But that’s a temporary thing, don’t worry about it. Right now, you should be looking uphill.
The Kazakh on the slope turned around. Our eyes met. I fired three shots before he raised his rifle. He fell.
“Seventeen,” Miguel reported. “A third of them on your left, a third in the middle, and the last group moving into place on your right.”
“Bloody hell,” the Englishman said before the sound of gunfire filled the comm link.
Emily’s eyes filled with fear.
Tania patted her back. “It’ll be OK. We’ll get out of this.”
“Are you sure?”
“We usually do.”
Emily took a deep breath and pumped her shotgun. A head popped up on the backside of the berm before dropping back. She screamed, ran to the wall, leaned over, and gave the poor bastard a chest full of buckshot.
Tania tried to grab her before she left us but clutched only air. Tania crawled to Emily, who hung half over the short wall, staring at the body. Tania grabbed the reporter’s belt and yanked her back to cover. But it was a second too late. A bullet ripped through her ribcage.
Emily screamed, writhed from the shock, and landed on her back.
“Take it easy,” Tania said. She pulled a t-shirt from her pack and pressed it to Emily’s wound. “It’s a through-and-through. You’ll be fine after we get—”
“It burns!” Emily cried. “Oh god. Burns like fire. What do you mean, through? You mean, I’m through?”
“No, the bullet went clean through. That’s a good thing. You’ll be fine. Well, except it’ll hurt like a bitch.”
Emily bit her lip and closed her eyes.
Tania grabbed a t-shirt from my pack and wadded up a second bandage. She put one under Emily and pushed her back on it. The other she pressed into Emily’s front wound. “Keep pressure on this. We need to stop the bleeding.”
Bullets streaked overhead in larger numbers.
Tania gazed up at me. “Look, I’m sorry about Miguel. You know how he is, the strong and silent type, all that. It was a short-term—”
We both cocked our ears at a sound we knew too well. The scurry of a pair of boots that suddenly stopped followed by the same sound a whole second later. One soldier was running forward, finding cover, taking a knee, aiming his rifle. When he was in position, his squad leader sent the second soldier to do the same thing, a little farther forward of the first. Then the third. If we let them continue, they’d overrun our position in a matter of minutes.
Miguel and Nigel fought their battle in groans and gun-chatter on the comm link. He’d had a brilliant plan, but it wasn’t going to save us. They were too deep in their own fight.
We didn’t stand a chance.
Tania and I shared a long look. I thought about life and death and love. I thought about what a great life I’d had, what an honor it had been to serve my country, to meet Tania Cooper, to date her. And now, against my hopes and dreams of marrying her, it was going to be an honor to die with her.
She said, “Look, you were going to cheat on me eventually anyway and—”
“Jesus, Tania! Later.” I pressed my hands against my temples.
If I lived through this battle, I was going to date normal women only, from that day forward.
She shrugged and looked at the dirt. When she glanced up, her voice was low and soft. “You know Jacob, we gotta do this. Emily can tell the world about Element 42. You and I, well, we have to make sure she survives.”
“Roger that. She signed up for a scoop, not a death sentence.”
Mercury said, Now you’re talking. Die like a Roman, bro. I’ll be your guide to the underworld.
I said, Can you give me something positive here? Maybe even motivational? Like, ‘Jacob, you’re gonna make it. You got this.’
Mercury said, Think what you want, homie, but you don’t have a chance. Look on the bright side, a glorious death is inspirational. Somewhere, someday, someone might remember you and say, ‘He never amounted to much and he died in vain, but boy did that guy know how to party.’
“Ready?” Tania asked.
“Trial peek together, I’m left, you’re right. Fire blind, change mags, pop up, and wipe ’em out.”
She nodded. Even though we both knew it would never work, we bumped fists.
We popped up for a look at the advancing troops. I counted six heads on the left. She looked right. We dropped back behind the wall as rounds flew above our heads.
“I have five,” she said.
“I got six. That’s eleven. We’re short a whole squad.”
“Wait, what are you two planning?” Emily asked, her voice high. “You’re going to charge them? No. No way. They’ll kill you. There’s too many of them. It’s seventeen to two. Let’s surrender.”
“Nah. We like doing that macho thing,” I said.
“No! Don’t leave me! You can’t do this.”
Another fusillade of bullets flew over our heads. The precursor to a full frontal assault. The last seconds of our lives ticked by.
I felt great.
Mercury said, Your squad is moving to your right. Start with the lead guy, shoot right-to-left, and you’ll get some of them before you die. Probably.
“Nice day,” Tania said, looking at the sky. She tossed me a glance, grabbed my armor, pulled me in, and kissed me hard. “Why wait to die old and senile when we can be heroes?”