Whatever Gods May Be Part 10

Soon legions of leeches ambushed them as they trudged in and out of black slime up to their thighs. The slime sucked them down, detaining them for the crocodiles they couldn't see, taking them way beyond merely wet and filthy. Jamie had already witnessed a man lose a leg to a croc's jaws. And the leeches were enormous and clung to their pant legs, sensing the proximity of their blood. She'd heard stories about what happened when leeches got up your nose or up your t.w.a.t, about all the diseases they vectored.

Alonzo said he was watching for crocs and showed her how to remove the leeches, starting at the smaller, thinner end by breaking the seal they created, then repeating the process at the other end, and * 86 *

finally tossing the pernicious creature well away. Jamie mastered the technique d.a.m.n fast.

Keeping count with a taut mutter, she used her combat knife to fillet every single one with fastidious efficiency, then clamped the knife between her teeth until she spotted the next predator. Alonzo let her do it as long as she didn't slow down; he seemed to understand this was the price for her sanity. And it kept her mind off crocodiles.

Could Alonzo have antic.i.p.ated this? At first light that morning, while she took her turn lathering on more cloakcream, he kept watch and whispered the whole time about his arcane plot to acquire two additional pairs of boots when they returned to the FOB so their others could get a chance to really dry out.

Now, when her head dropped to scrutinize the slime for new abominations, he nudged her to stay frosty, nudged her to focus beyond the grasping, choking, greedy growth. "C'mon, kid, keep those eyeb.a.l.l.s where they can do some good. We do the surprising, not them." The thought of those dry boots helped her obey.

* 87 *

Chapter nine.

you Keep on GoinG Though they hadn't detected any sign of either civilians or PIA, the frown on Alonzo's face looked different from any Jamie had seen on him so far. He was more than frosty. He was jumpy. And that made her jumpy.

Then came the call for help from Kilo Company's other two platoons, which had moved into San Salvacia without waiting for third platoon or, it appeared, the lost snipes who should have been overwatching the town from hides on the hill to the east.

The sweep of San Salvacia had turned into a cl.u.s.terf.u.c.k.

Now, according to ops center commo, an intense grenade and small arms counterattack pinned down Kilo's first and second platoons near the village center. Those not already lying dead or wounded on the dirt road had taken refuge in the only concrete structure in the village, a colonnaded marketplace near the pier.

Resupplied at last by their allies 1,300 kilometers across the South China Sea, PIA fighters had made a stand in San Salvacia. Although Jamie and Alonzo were a kilometer away when the calls for aid came, they were closer than anyone else and arrived first.

"There," Alonzo whispered, pointing to a two-story wood-and-wattle house about halfway between the blacktopped road and the bay.

It was the sole two-story building east of the firefight. First platoon must have moved right by it, believing it secure. Maybe it was. Maybe not.

Alonzo and Jamie approached it from the north, through the forest.

It looked empty and quiet, as did the small shack closer to them, but the * 88 *

second floor of the house offered a perfect place from which to ambush first platoon once it moved past.

Jamie had already learned how to think like Alonzo. Got to a.s.sume there's PIA inside, unloading on Kilo. An electric-hot blast s.h.i.+vered through her arms and legs-the Fear making a grab for her.

She managed to s.h.i.+ver it out of her, imagined it into a dark puddle at her feet.

A nod to Alonzo, a quick look behind her to ensure all was clear, and she scurried through low brush to a corner of the shack, her E19 set to silent rock-and-roll. She looked up, swung around the corner weapon-first, and looked up again. Clear. She signaled Alonzo and a few seconds later he joined her, watching her back.

The small-arms fire she heard sounded farther away, coming from the bay to the west-not the building in front of them. She used the IMS capability built into her comlink eyewraps to conduct a quick sweep.

Nothing. Good. No civilians anyway.

But if these PIA fighters had surveillance countermeasures, her IMS "eyes" wouldn't spot them. This building she was about to enter might be crawling with unidentified-f.u.c.king-out-there PIA. She and Alonzo moved fast to the door a few feet away, and Jamie crouched low, swiftly slipping through it. Dimly lit, but she beheld an empty room.

The effects of this commutation quivered through every muscle in her body.

Breathing harder, trying to ignore the high-frequency vibration that engulfed her, she took it in. Holes in the wattle walls, dank. Empty food cans and packaging on the floor. The dark, pungent smell of sweated fear. Not very long ago, this place had lots of people in it and they were plenty scared.

Still crouching, Jamie scooted across the s.p.a.ce to the only other doorway and swept the rooms beyond. Alonzo followed and covered the open stairway. First floor clear and IMS indicated the s.p.a.ce above them was clear, too. But suddenly rifle fire erupted from the building's roof. The sounds were distinctive-Chinese Type 86 sniper rifle and QBZ-96 a.s.sault rifle fire.

Jamie took the stairs carefully, silently, anxious that they'd been seen and now headed into a trap. But why would they shoot and give * 89 *

themselves away? Maybe they didn't see us the same way we didn't see them.

Halfway up, she stopped cold and flattened onto her belly, her head just above the plane of the second floor. IMS now blipped something thermal straight ahead, on the other side of a wall where a small balcony overlooked both the street and the area behind the house she and Alonzo had just traversed. Then she got another blip coming from above.

She stared in the direction of the balcony. The image there moved slightly. Is that a frigging foot? Why didn't I pick that up before?

Two unidentified-f.u.c.king-out-there anyway. Probably more. And what else do they have? Detection technology that can spot a little bit of me? She sprayed a line of m.u.f.fled E19 fire through the thin wall at the balcony while hiking herself onto the second floor and then rolled on her back to pepper the steep-pitched rush roof above.

On her feet again after finis.h.i.+ng her roll, she extended her spray of fire along the rest of the roof while she darted into the second and then the third room, chancing that somebody in the fourth room wouldn't pop her. A lone cry from above informed her she'd scored at least once.

Now Jamie edged into the fourth room low and cautious, rifle leading.

She saw their legs first. Her gaze got stuck on the mud clinging to their boots. She froze, had to think and think again about moving her eyes. Then her gaze leapt frantically from one boot to another, and she counted.

Ten boots. Ten Marine Corps-issue coyote-brown boots. Why didn't I notice this on IMS? They're here now. IMS shows them right here on the screen.

That's when she saw the blood. Blood covered the five contorted bodies laid out on the tarp, pooled around them on the unidentified-f.u.c.king-out-there PIA tarp. A brief flash of calm, detached lucidity took her.

Throats have all been slit. Probably right after being made to call out a false all-clear. And then first platoon pa.s.sed by and ended up trapped with their backs to the bay. So. It's really true. PIA fighters don't take prisoners, only hostages. And they kill their hostages.

Jamie hadn't looked at the faces of the dead. Hadn't yet found the courage to look right at their faces. But there was something about- * 90 *

No. No no no no no. She closed her eyes for a single heartbeat, hoping her fevered brain had made it all up.

When she opened her eyes again, they settled on one of those faces. It told the story of the man's terror as he died, and she felt what he felt-the choking, gasping desperation, the unwilling fade into hopelessness. She stared into lifeless eyes still shocked at the prospect of actually dying.

Arnoldt's eyes.

It was slow. She could see it in his eyes. Slow and agonizing and there had been no peace, no acceptance of the inevitable.

v You came down the street ahead of the platoon, didn't you? Slipped in here just like we did, thinking it was clear. But they saw you. Aw jeez, Arnie, why'd they see you and not us?

Alonzo's hand on Jamie's shoulder caused her to flinch.

"C'mon, kid. We're not done yet."

Jamie didn't move, couldn't move, so Alonzo pulled her out of the room, forcefully but not roughly. He pulled her all the way back to the balcony, then down into a crouch with him behind a knocked-over table. But all she could see was that room and those boots and Arnie's face.

Alonzo grabbed her chin. "Gwynmorgan! Look at me."

"Was our dumb f.u.c.king luck, wasn't it?" Jamie murmured, her chin still in Alonzo's grip. "If they'd posted someone out here on this balcony even a minute earlier, we'd be lying there with Arnie."

"Don't indulge yourself, kid." Alonzo's eyes demanded her attention. When he didn't get it, he put both hands on her shoulders.

"Look. At. Me."

"Do it. Look at him." It was the white-haired woman's voice, firm and soothing and about an inch from her left ear. Jamie blinked, but she saw only Arnoldt's dead eyes. "You must look at Alonzo. You must look now. Now." She became aware of a rus.h.i.+ng sound, blinked again, and saw Alonzo.

"We're not done yet, Lance Corporal."

The steadiness in Alonzo's voice helped. She nodded.

* 91 *

"Okay, that's better. Cover me from here. Three fast clicks means I want you topside p.r.o.nto." Alonzo's eyes indicated a ladder to the roof.

"Otherwise you're down here watching over front and back. Got it?

Front and back."

"Yeah. Got it."

And she promptly bellied onto the deck, cradling her E19, grateful that Alonzo had already shoved the PIA body off the balcony. Her chosen position behind battered chair remains offered no real cover, but it gave her visual concealment and the views she needed-of the yard out back through which they'd come and of the street in front where the firefight was intensifying. There were vulnerabilities, of course.

Someone cloaked could get close by moving along the edge of one of the neighboring structures and maybe even sneak unseen into the first floor. But the balcony remained her best bet for covering her snipe's back.

Jamie heard Alonzo turn and climb the ladder to the roof, but she forced her eyes toward the s.p.a.ces below her. She thought she was staying frosty, thought she was keeping her mind off Arnie and doing her job.

But by the time she heard the first report from Alonzo's weapon, she realized the combat operations center chatter, which should have been at least minimally audible through her comlink, had disappeared-and she hadn't noticed. Ops center visuals were gone, too.

Her eyewraps' IMS detection still seemed to work, but its comlink capability had failed, and now she was well and truly alone. She scrounged her memory for the last of the ops center commo. About the snipe teams that should long since have made it into those hills east of the village, should have been hunkered in and targeting PIA, right?

Four hundred foot elevation, distance of maybe nine hundred meters.

Easy for an E112 in the hands of a decent snipe. Maybe if they'd been there when they were supposed to...

Alonzo fired again, then once more only seconds later. That's when she thought she saw it-a slight, quick blur at the edge of her vision.

She swung her weapon toward it, even though nothing showed on IMS, but it was gone. Another UFO? Or am I freaking? Above her, Alonzo fired yet again, and an instant later another brief blur caught her eye.

Nope, that's real. Jamie belly-crawled a few feet to the edge of the balcony, pretty sure she'd find a PIA fighter right below her. Ignoring the thrumming in her ears, she peeked over and there he was, waiting, * 92 *

his weapon already pointed at her because he'd guessed her location exactly. f.u.c.k. You're the last thing I'm ever gonna see.

But his head was turning away from her, toward the sight of a thermobaric grenade exploding a hole in the roof of the building where the Kilo platoons were trapped, and she had time to let loose a point-blank burst from her E19.

He was not alone, however.

"Lonz!" she yelled as QBZ-96 rounds screamed past her. "They got us!" She fired at the two other PIA fighters who'd been making a move on the building, forcing them to seek cover. She knew one E19 wouldn't keep them at bay for long, and then they'd get her and Alonzo, too. She strafed the tree trunks protecting them, hoping to give Alonzo time to climb off the roof. Where is he?

"Lonz! Get down now!"

Grenades. Two of the dead marines in that fourth room still carried dual-barreled, grenade-firing E19s. With full grenade ammo stacks, both of them. She remembered that. She remembered everything about the fourth room and the people in it. I need those grenades. Jamie scrambled off the balcony, firing bursts as she went, and made for the fourth room.

By the time she descended to the first floor, she saw out the window that PIA fighters, scores of them, had begun moving from three directions toward the concrete building that sheltered Kilo, barraging the marines inside. The two PIA fighters she'd encountered earlier now approached the streetside screen door about four meters away from her.

Figured you already nailed me, huh? Jamie had a half-second jump on them and fired. They went down and she kept going, running through the doorway and into the street toward the concrete building.

Toward the kill zone. She had one grenade-firing E19 slung across her back and, running an erratic zigzag, sprayed the street with another.

When she popped off two grenades in rapid succession, some of the PIA fighters reacted, and soon QBZ-96 rounds whined past her and pinged the ground nearby.

She crouched lower but didn't stop, not even when she heard Alonzo behind her. "Jee-zus, kid!" His voice pitched high in protest.

"What the f.u.c.k are you doing?"

Then he must have started firing, too-a dead marine's E19, * 93 *

judging by the sound. It got the PIA to s.h.i.+ft their fire to him just in time, because the weapon she'd been shooting was out of bullets and out of grenades. Jamie slammed into the ground belly-first about thirty meters from Kilo Company's shelter, flipped the second RPG E19 off her back, and started firing again-now taking the time to aim.

Behind her, Alonzo did the same. The near crossfire they created forced the PIA guys in the street to hesitate. Jamie took advantage of it, clambering to her feet and diving left, away from Alonzo's position.

This attracted PIA fire to her again, and Alonzo exploited it. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him leap from one shack roof to the next and lay fire across the rooftops to the west and southwest, giving her the chance to duck behind a shack across the street and claw her way to its roof.

Jamie had three grenades left. She fired one, then another, and had chosen a target for the third, finger poised on the trigger, when someone said too softly, too close, "Cover your nine." She fired the last grenade as she turned her head leftward, just before something very sharp and very hot slapped her head back and spun the world into blackness.

v Jamie would never have believed that a person with a really bad headache could be dead. But it must be possible, because her head hurt like h.e.l.l, and there was no way she could still be alive. She decided she must be having one of those near-death experiences. Bet they happen to everybody. You hang around for a couple minutes for one last look, then fade out. Near death becomes irretrievable death, and then... and then...

And then she could have sworn she heard somebody say "G.o.dd.a.m.n."

This isn't anything like I thought...

"Uhh- uuhh!" And Jamie was gasping, clawing, kicking, a.s.saulted by a horrific glare.

"Easy, kid, easy." Alonzo's voice. "You stay down." But she had developed a sudden, violent need to gulp air. "C-Can't breathe." That was me. I said that.

"Breathe shallow, kid. Shallow."

* 94 *

She tried it and found air. So. There's air after death. The glare became shadowed and Jamie thought she saw something form out of chaos. If I have eyes, I can focus, look around... And, yes, there above her loomed Alonzo. Now tears threatened her eyes. She had failed to save him.

"Aw, Lonz, you're dead too."

He grinned. "No, kid, and neither are you." Whoa. Not dead. Jamie stared at him. So maybe being dead doesn't hurt after all. She always had thought that was its virtue.