by Julie Rowe
On the roof, Tom was watching a group of people at the edge of the tents.
“Are they coming or going?” Max asked him.
“Going, but I don’t think they’re going to get very far,” Tom said quietly. “There are enough assholes with guns forcing them back. This is their third try and they’re looking pretty desperate.”
Max looked down his scope at the group. “They have women and children with them,” he murmured, his stomach sinking.
“Yeah.” Tom sounded as horrified as Max felt. “This is not going to end well.”
As Max watched, one of the group trying to leave rushed a man with a rifle pointed at him. He managed to rip the weapon away, but another gunman took aim and fired.
The man trying to escape fell and the rest of the group seemed to fly apart. People scattered and the gunmen patrolling the edge of the tents began firing at anyone moving. Including the women and children.
“Motherfuckers.” Tom looked ready to kill them with his bare hands.
“Who are those men?” Max asked.
“I want to know where they’re camped so I can give them a taste of their own fucking medicine,” Tom growled.
Max pulled his head away from the scope. “That is an excellent point. They can’t be camped in the village or the refugee camp. It’s got to be somewhere close, though.” He glanced at Tom and noted his amazed expression. “What?”
More gunshots echoed and both men dove for their scopes to discover the gunmen shooting at a second group of people from the tents.
“Holy fuck,” Tom said, his voice vibrating with fury. “Someone needs to kill those assholes.”
“I might let you when our backup gets here.”
Once again, Tom turned his head to look at him, surprise lifting his eyebrows. “You calling in the troops?”
“A full Special Forces team along with another lab. I’m also going to order a supply drop for cover when they’re ready to come in.”
Tom’s grin was lethal. “Fuckin’ A, Dad.”
Again with the shock and awe. When he had ten minutes and no one was trying to kill them, he was going to ask why every fucking soldier on this mission thought he was an idiot.
Leaving Tom to his observations, Max pulled out his satellite phone and called General Stone direct.
After the issues with one of his other teams a few months earlier, Max had insisted on the lead physician having a more reliable way to communicate with their command than cellular phones or the same radio communication system that the rest of the team had. His doctor had had to resort to near suicidal actions in order to achieve her mission because someone used a cellular phone blocker in the area.
“Stone,” the general answered. “You’re still alive I take it, Max?”
“Yes, sir,” he replied as quietly as he could in English. Being overheard by someone in one of the houses nearby would not bode well for the future of their mission. “We’ve run into some problems and need support.”
“Problems?”
Max didn’t have to ask for clarification. Stone wanted to know what had gone wrong.
“My contact was dead of the disease by the time we arrived. Another aid worker met us and took us to what they were using for a hospital. I was able to identify the virus as influenza, but a large group of armed men set fire to the house. We got out, but my equipment didn’t. Bull and our aid worker friend dropped out of contact. The armed men had them and executed the aid worker before we could get him and Bull out of there.”
“Bull?”
“He’s fine. Some bruised ribs. He told us our aid worker friend was CIA. Do you know anything about that?”
“No.” The word was spoken like the general was spitting it through clenched teeth. “I’ll look into it, but I want you and your team out of there.”
“Sir, this influenza virus has a high infection and mortality rate. We’re seeing bodies dumped outside houses and in the streets. This could get away from us in only a few hours. Hell, it could be too late to stop it already. I can’t come in. To have any hope of getting ahead of it, I have to identify the strain. If I don’t, we could be looking at a staggering number of dead and a virus that’s out of anyone’s control.”
“A pandemic.”
“Yes.”
“You’re not blowing hot air up my skirt?”
“No, sir.”
The following pause was more than a little bit pregnant. “What do you need?”
“Thank you, sir. I want a full Special Forces team, another portable lab, along with a few extras I can have my assistant prepare. I also want a series of supply drops made close to dawn as cover for the team as they come in. We have armed men keeping the people here from coming and going. Sir, there’s a deep game going on here.”
“Akbar?”
“I don’t know. I’ve seen no sign of him, just well-armed men looking for Americans and me. That bounty is becoming a pain in the ass. Bull did overhear some of the men that held him captive mention a very scary man in charge.”
Another pause, then General Stone barked, “Tell your assistant to have whatever gear you need ready in one hour. I’m sending you a dirty dozen along with the hardware.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Stay alive, Max.”
He knew the general wasn’t just referring to himself, but all of the men on the mission, and the woman too.
“I will.” He ended the call.
Tom glanced at him. “Get what you wanted?”
“General Stone is no fool.”
Tom grunted. “I don’t know about that. He sent his daughter out on a mission that had danger written on it with radioactive letters.”
“I had no idea you cared so much, Tomahawk.”
Both men turned to find Alicia coming out to join them.
“It’s a lousy thing for a father to do, put his daughter in danger,” Tom told her, censure in every word.
Max winced. Ali was going to go ballistic.
“Fuck you very much,” she said to Tom. “No one has to explain jack-shit to you, but since all our asses are on the line, I’ll do it just this once. I made the request to be on this team. You know why? Because I’m a woman and women are still not allowed on active duty as Special Forces soldiers. I can beat any man out there. I train you sonsofbitches. This is as close as I could get to doing the work I should have been doing years ago.”
“He’s still your dad.”
“Yeah, he is. Where do you think I got my charming personality and winning smile?” She showed off those teeth in the most dangerous smile Max had ever seen.
He cleared his throat and glanced at both soldiers. “Stone, what do you think is really going on here?”
“Colonel,” Alicia said lowering her voice, “I think someone went fishing and you...we took the bait.”
Tom nodded in agreement.
They thought he got suckered?
“I should have let a viral plague just go on its merry way?” he asked them. “Despite calls for help? Despite my team’s mission to eradicate these kinds of biological threats before they can become weapons in the hands of ruthless people?”
Alicia lifted her chin. “No, you have a duty to react to shit like this, and you also have a duty to make sure your intel is high quality so you don’t lose any men or any of your fancy microscopes.”
“Sometimes,” Max said, leaning close, “no matter how much you know or how hard you try, things still go wrong. The job still has to get done.”
“Fuck, Dad,” Tom said. “You sound like a recruiting ad on TV.”
“Did you or did you not volunteer for this mission?” Max asked him.
“Stuck my hand in the air as high as it would go.” The soldier grinned. “I guess we’re all a bunch of fuc
kwits.”
“Lovely,” Max said, punching in the number for Eugene’s personal cell phone.
“Sir?” Eugene answered.
“We’ve run into a few problems. I’m going to need another portable lab, plus a few other things. I have a list.”
“Yes, sir.” He paused, then said, “Shoot.”
“Viral identification packages three, four and six. The hot vaccine package and enough materials for five hundred doses.”
“Got it. Anything else?”
“Add some basic medical supplies to the drop General Stone is going to authorize shortly.”
“Very good, sir.”
“Excellent, thank you, Eugene.” Max hung up, then studied the two soldiers scanning the village and surrounding area through their scopes.
“Which of you wants to take the first watch?”
“I will, sir,” Tom said.
Alicia slid away from the edge of the roof. “I’ll relieve you in three hours.”
Max went down the ladder first and was met by Ferhat.
“What is happening?” he asked, his face tight with worry and lack of sleep. “We could hear fighting.”
“People tried to leave. Men with guns wouldn’t let them. They killed children. Where are your boys?”
“Sleeping.”
“We will also, down there,” Max said, nodding at the hearth and its hidden stairway. “One of my sons will watch for unfriendly people.” He glanced up to indicate Tom on the roof.
The man nodded. “Thank you.”
“It is us who thank you.”
“Your son protected my sons,” the man said. “This makes us more than friends.”
Alicia took that moment to slip past them and disappear down the stairs. After a nod to Ferhat, Max followed her.
Bull was already lying along one wall in full gear, his rifle on his chest, asleep.
Ali pulled a drop sheet out of her pack and spread it out on the dirt floor. Max did the same, a couple of feet away from her. She lay on her side, facing Max, a solemn expression on her face.
He wanted to offer her the comfort of his body, hold her, show her she was okay and had done the right thing by killing the man who would have killed a child. “You did good,” he whispered. She’d taken lives today, but if she hadn’t those two little boys would have died along with her.
Her face softened, and for a moment she looked as emotionally open as she had when they were in bed together. A tear rolled across her face.
He reached out and offered his open palm to her. No censure, no hesitation.
She put her hand in his and he wrapped his fingers around hers, brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it.
She gave him a weak smile and though he knew she wasn’t right with it, she was functional.
Mostly.
Max went to sleep with her hand in his.
Chapter Sixteen
Alicia woke thanks to the vibrating alarm on her watch. The room was dark, but her position hadn’t changed since she dropped off into sleep.
She and Max were still holding hands.
For a moment she’d been afraid she wouldn’t be able to sleep at all. The face of the man she’d killed with her hands was all too clear in her mind, but Max had held out his hand, his expression completely open...and accepting.
She’d placed her hand in his and he’d wrapped his fingers around hers like he planned to never let go.
She’d slept. He’d only said three words, but they’d been the right ones. Her unconscious brain had known how he felt, and that had taken her gut-deep wound and sewn it shut.
That scared her a lot more than anything else.
She was becoming emotionally connected to him. Bonded. If anything happened to him, she’d either lose her shit and go on a rampage, or shut down altogether.
Neither was a good thing.
It was a vulnerability she couldn’t afford.
She carefully pulled her hand away from his, then got up and quietly moved up the stairs. The room was dark, silent and empty. The ladder leading to the roof looked like shadowed shelves empty of knowledge. She opened the hatch and slipped out onto the flat surface.
Tom was a dark, unmoving mass.
She crouched next to him. “All quiet?”
“For the past thirty minutes. There has been some sporadic gunfire out past the tents, mostly to the north. A half-dozen times within the village and tents, someone has started wailing, so people are still dying.”
“Got any good news?”
“It’s not us dying yet.”
“Wow, so upbeat I don’t know how I will contain my enthusiasm.”
Tom’s white teeth showed up better in the dark than the rest of his face. “So, you and Max seem cozy.”
“I’m his bodyguard. We’re supposed to be cozy.”
“Right,” he said, drawing out the word.
“Listen, asshole,” she said. “There’re a dozen ways to die on this mission, don’t make me number thirteen.”
“I’m just calling it like I see it, and if I can see it, everyone can.”
“What, exactly, can you see?”
“The guy has a near constant hard-on for you.”
The son of a bitch. “Why are you watching his crotch? Is there something you want to share?”
“Nope, but you’d better cool it off or it’s going to hurt you in a big way.”
She couldn’t be hearing this one from one of her military brothers, a man she’d trained and chosen for this mission. “What the fuck?”
“Who’s it going to damage worse if everyone knows you’re knocking boots with the colonel?”
It was a kick to the head. “You know what? Fuck you. Fuck you for thinking either one of us would be thinking about that shit right now. Fuck you for spending too much of your time and limited brain power looking for that shit. Fuck you for jerking my chain with that shit.” She was so angry she could have choked him. She settled for squeezing her rifle hard enough to leave finger impressions. “Now get the fuck out of my face.”
He looked at her for a moment and didn’t say anything.
She ignored his stupid ass because she’d wasted enough energy on the moron as it was.
He wiped his face with one hand. “Ah shit, I’m sorry.”
“Like I said before,” Alicia growled, “fuck off.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that.” He got up and went down the ladder.
Alicia didn’t relax until she heard the hatch close behind him.
Asshole.
She’d thought him a decent guy until now. What the hell was wrong with him? She and Max hadn’t done anything even remotely improper since they left on this mission.
Improper. Listen to her, going all British.
His little observation had pulled her focus off the shitty situation they were in. Something none of them could afford to do.
It took conscious effort to settle in and use her scope to scan the village, tents and surrounding area. Not a lot of movement inside the village. There were a few people moving around in the tents and she could hear the distant sound of many people coughing. Crying too.
No gunshots from beyond the tents, but it didn’t take long to see people moving around in the distance.
This was a shitty situation. Trapped in a village filled with sick and dying people, with armed men preventing anyone from leaving.
Fish in a barrel.
Max probably thought he was in exactly the right place to do the most good.
She really had to come up with a superhero name for him.
The hatch behind her opened again and she glanced back to see who it was.
Max. He should still be sleeping.
He cro
uched down and came over to where she was lying down, keeping watch. “We can’t stay here,” he said without preamble. “We need to find another place to set up my new lab that’s reasonably easy to defend.”
“We’ve got no friends here, but the man whose home we’re sitting on.”
“So, let’s ask him.”
“Just remember what happened to the last house we tried to use as a lab and hospital. The people who are trying to pick a fight with us enjoy setting things on fire.” She scanned the village through her scope. “And there are a lot more people trying to find a safe place to sleep than there are houses.”
“I’ll be back.” Max scrambled away and she shook her head. The guy had more energy than a damned bunny.
Max was back within a couple of minutes.
“That didn’t take long,” she said when he joined her at the edge of the roof.
“He says he has the best place to set up a hospital.”
“Oh yeah? Where?”
“The village hospital.”
She squinted at him. “Are you trying to be funny?”
“No. This village is old. It’s been inhabited for hundreds of years. There’s a place that they’ve used as a hospital and a school for most of that time. It’s built deep into the rock of the hills and the majority of the rooms haven’t been used since the owner of this house was a boy. This place wasn’t always a small village. At one time, it was a large town on a major trade route.”
“Is anyone using this building now?”
“Nope, there was a cave-in about six months ago. The locals are too afraid of more happening.”
“Are they right to be afraid of more?”
“I don’t know. What I do know is that our host knows of a way in that goes around the cave-in.”
“Fabulous,” she muttered. “Sounds like the perfect place to hide out.” The militants weren’t going to have to shoot them—they were going to die of their own stupidity. And rocks. Lots of heavy rocks.
Max moved away toward the hatch.
“Where are you going?”
“To wake the others. We need to see this place before the rest of our family gets here.”
“You go ahead. I’m going to keep watch from here.”