Текст книги "Ghost Recon (2008)"

Автор книги: David Michaels

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He could have panicked. He could have done something rash like trying to evacuate the others, one by one, but he knew that would only get him shot.

So he did something desperate, something he thought only worked in the movies. He'd had no choice.

Brown instructed the others to play dead, and he did likewise.

The first guy drew up on him in the dark, leaned over, and that's when Brown sat up and punched him in the heart with his Nightwing.

As the guy fell back, Brown seized the man's weapon, finished him, and reengaged the others. The ensuing firefight lasted another five minutes before his backup arrived, and Brown was twice wounded.

From that day forward, the Nightwing never left his side. Even in a world of high-tech warfare, cold, hard steel could never be replaced, and neither could a warrior's will to survive.

He always grimaced when he thought about being nominated for the Silver Star for his actions that night, not because the nomination made him feel awkward but because his parents had offered only a halfhearted acknowledgment.

Brown imagined them sitting in their million-dollar home in Lake Forest, cursing over the fact that he had thrown it all away, dropped out of the University of Illinois, abandoned his position as a defensive lineman on the Fighting Illini to what? "Join the army? Have you lost your mind?" his mother had said.

His father had screamed at the top of his lungs, "I was the first man in my family to earn a college degree! A graduate degree! We're creating a new legacy for our family, for our people! In a few years I'll be running for mayor of this city! You have a great future ahead of you in public service–and now you want to go backward!"

But Brown had just wanted so much more out of life than a business or a law degree could offer. He never saw himself sitting in meetings with city council members, discussing community issues. His methods of effecting change were much more aggressive.

Consequently, the guard who'd come out of the mud-brick house for a smoke never stood a chance.

Brown put a silenced round in the man's forehead and caught him before he hit the snow and made too much noise. After lowering him to the ground, Brown sheathed his knife and dug under the guy's arms to drag him round the side of the building, out of sight. That done, Brown crouched low near the corner to catch his breath, relief flooding through him like a warm cup of coffee. He issued his report to Captain Mitchell.

As confident as Brown was, there were more than a million ways you could screw up any mission, and he liked to joke that he had already discovered at least seventy-two of them.

Mitchell lifted his chin at Ramirez, who nodded and tucked away his tool kit. The door was open.

"Diaz, what do you see?"

"All clear now, Captain."

After taking one more look through the eyes of the drone and reconfirming the positions of every combatant, Mitchell waited as Brown returned and got into position.

Ramirez would take left, Brown right, and Mitchell would come in low, on his belly–an unconventional choice to be sure, but that's the way he rolled. Ramirez and Brown would draw first attention should the guys in the front room awaken, and that would give Mitchell his chance to fire from his elbows.

It would all happen in gasps and whispers, fingers of mist pulling triggers and hearts stopping. They would float in and float out with their package, leaving cold, still death in their wake.

That dog in the valley howled again.

Mitchell braced himself. "Ghost Team, attack!"

Chapter Eleven.

NORTHWEST WAZIRISTAN

AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN BORDER

JANUARY 2009

Picking the lock was one thing. Getting the door to swing open quietly was another, and Mitchell flinched as Brown placed his gloved hand on the icy wood and drove the door forward.

Ramirez wore a smirk of confidence, thoroughly convinced that their entry would be smooth and soundless. After picking the lock, he had sprayed the corners of the door with his own custom blend of lubricants that he insisted would seep down, get into the metal, and eliminate what he called those "Haunted-house-Michael-Jackson-'Thriller'-type door squeaks."

The hinges, of course, were located on the inside of the door, so Mitchell remained dubious about the amount of lubricant that had actually reached them from the outside. But lo and behold, the door glided open. However, the cold wind rushed in, a wind they had no control over. The two men lying in small wooden beds on either side of the fireplace stirred, and one lifted his head.

Before Mitchell could fire, Ramirez and Brown put their pistols to work, sending both men back to eternal rest, blood pooling on their pillows.

Mitchell bolted to his feet and moved inside, closing the door behind them.

A voice came from the other room: a guy complaining in Pashto about the door being open.

Mitchell shifted around the partitioning wall toward the voice and took in the scene at once: another two beds, two guys, hostages in the corner. One guy rolling over.

Mitchell directed his own silenced pistol at the first guy and cut loose a round, hammering him in the chest.

Continuing in one fluid motion, he turned to his right and targeted the second guy, who was reaching for the rifle propped beside him. The guy's head twisted as Mitchell shot him.

But now the first guy was moving again. Mitchell rushed up to the bed and finished him with two more rounds. One would have been enough, but his frustration got the best of him. "Clear," he grunted into the radio.

"Who are you?" someone called.

Mitchell stepped around a beat-up dresser, piles of wool blankets, and a half dozen or so crates of ammo to reach the man who had called out to him.

Agent Thomas Saenz, code name Mongoose, was a longtime field operative for the CIA who had spent the past eight years in Afghanistan. With a ruddy complexion, long beard, and matted, shoulder-length hair, Mitchell could barely distinguish him from his Taliban captors. His hands were bound behind his back with a pair of heavy police cuffs.

Beside him sat Agent Erik Vick, code name Viking, a broad-shouldered, stocky man with a shock of chestnut brown hair and a wiry beard. He, too, could easily be mistaken for an insurgent and had spent the past three years working the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and the tri-border area to the west.

And the third man, well–Mitchell could barely breathe, and a dull ache came into his eyes. It was Rutang, all right, his old friend who had gotten back on the horse, deployed to Afghanistan, and been making a new name for himself for the past couple of years as a top-notch Special Forces medic. The last time Mitchell had seen him was at his promotion party.

Rutang's face was mostly purple, his left eye swollen, and they'd obviously drugged all of the men to keep them docile. Mitchell's penlight revealed dilated pupils.

"Diaz, here, sir. Got another guy coming outside the center house. Better hurry."

"Roger that. Ramirez, keep covering the door. Brown? Get in here, now." Mitchell glanced over his shoulder as the gunner entered. "They're cuffed. I need keys."

"I'm on it."

"Tang, can you hear me?"

"Who are you?" asked Saenz.

Mitchell regarded the man with a weak grin. "We're the guys getting you out of here." He faced Rutang once more. "Come on, bro, you with me?"

"Scott, is that you?"

"Yeah." Mitchell swallowed and steeled himself as Rutang began to cry. "You're all right, Tang. Stop." They had beaten him so thoroughly that Mitchell feared picking him up.

"Keys," said Brown, after wrenching them from the nearest insurgent's pocket. He crossed around the bed and began opening Saenz's cuffs. Then he worked on Vick's.

"Captain," called Diaz. "The guy outside is moving around the back. He'll spot the bodies. I have a shot."

"Take it!"

Rutang cleared his throat. "Scott, I let everybody down again."

"No. The cache was blown. You stayed alive."

Three days ago Rutang's ODA team had been tasked with entering Waziristan based upon intel provided by Saenz and Vick. A pair of arms dealers with Chinese connections had arrived with a massive shipment of Chinese-made small arms, and the team's mission had been to kill the dealers and destroy the cache before it was delivered to the Taliban insurgents. Those small arms would undoubtedly be smuggled across the border into Afghanistan and could even reach Iran and Iraq. Those arms would no doubt be used against American and coalition forces in the region.

Part of a split team operation, Rutang and the rest of his six-man group, along with the two CIA agents, had served as the outer cordon, providing security and overwatch while the other six moved into the small village to take out the dealers and blow the cache.

What happened after that only Rutang and the agents could tell. Signals Intelligence had picked up a beacon in a snow-covered saddle about a quarter kilometer east of the houses, and further investigation of the site via satellite and Green Force tracking revealed that at least five members of the team were there, although all five GFTCs indicated no pulse.

The weapons cache had been destroyed, and higher assumed that Rutang, Saenz, and Vick had tried to hide the bodies then escape across the border into Afghanistan. Somewhere along the way they were captured.

"They got us because of me, Scott," Rutang said through a groan. "Because of me."

"No time to worry about that."

"Listen. First team got taken out in the explosion. But the others . . . We couldn't just leave 'em there."

"Tang, forget it."

"We planted a beacon on the site so higher could bring 'em home."

"Higher knows about the marker. They'll send in a recovery team. Don't you worry, brother. Nobody gets left behind."

Brown finished removing Rutang's cuffs, just as Diaz's voice broke once more over the radio. "Captain, I got him. But the bodies are piling up out here–you'd better move!"

"Roger that. We're getting them out right now. Ramirez, they're drugged. I need help."

Ramirez rushed back into the room, helped Saenz to his feet, draped the guy's arm over his shoulder. Brown assisted Vick, while Mitchell got Rutang to his feet–and it was now even more clear that he'd been the worst beaten of the group.

"Get some jackets, hats, gloves, whatever you can find. Bundle them up and get 'em ready to move," Mitchell ordered.

Ramirez and Brown got to work, and within minutes they had all three dressed and ready to face the weather.

"Buddy, I have to lift you," Mitchell told Rutang.

"I know."

Mitchell hoisted Rutang over his shoulders. "Just like old times, eh?"

"Yeah."

"At least you're lighter than the last time I carried you."

"I've been on the Taliban diet. Lose ten pounds in three days, guaranteed."

"Great. Now shut up and let me rescue your ass. Diaz, are we clear to move?"

"Affirm–wait, negative, negative! Another guy from the middle house, heading right for your door! He looks unarmed, but he's too fast for me."

"Captain, he's mine," said Brown, who carefully brought Vick to the bed, then rushed to the front door, drawing his Nightwing.

Mitchell put a finger to his lips, warning Brown.

The gunner nodded, eyes growing wide with an intensity that nearly lit the room.

The door swung open, and in stepped the guy, much shorter than the others, wearing a tan and black shemaghover his head and face. His voice came muffled: "Who stole my cigarettes? I want to know right now!"

Brown rolled away from the door. And the rest happened so quickly, so efficiently, that Mitchell could only mouth a curse in utter awe.

Like a bolt of lightning, Brown got behind the insurgent and slid his arm beneath the guy's chin, locking his jaw shut while simultaneously driving his blade into the man's heart.

With the blade still jutting from the man's chest, Brown released his hand, loosened his grip on the guy's neck, and began stuffing the guy's shemaghinto his mouth.

The insurgent was still alive, beginning to bleed to death, and it could take a minute more before he lost consciousness. Knife wounds did not produce instant death the way they were portrayed in films and on TV, and Brown knew exactly what he was doing to keep the man quiet until blood loss took its toll.

"All right, let's go," Mitchell ordered.

Brown freed his knife, then hustled back to Vick, who slung his arm over Brown's shoulder, and they fell in behind Mitchell.

Ramirez and Saenz led the way out into the bitter cold and a more powerful wind that stung their cheeks.

They started down the hill, rallying back toward Diaz's position, but Mitchell found a little section of hill where a pair of snow-covered boulders provided exceptional cover. "Set 'em down here."

"Scott, what now?" asked Rutang, slurring his words.

"Just making sure we're not followed. Brown's staying with you. We'll be right back. Diaz, you reloaded and set?"

"Yes, sir."

Mitchell stole a moment to pull up intel from the UAV3 Cypher drone. He brought the drone back over the houses to confirm that of the twelve insurgents, only three remained. Two guys were in the center house, one in the first house.

"Drone's confirmed their positions. You seeing this?"

"Roger that," said Diaz.

"Got it, sir," added Ramirez.

"Okay. Ramirez and I got the center house. Diaz, cover that door of the first. That guy comes out, he's yours."

"Standing by."

Mitchell loaded a fresh magazine into his pistol, then said, "Ramirez? Move out!"

Boots digging deep in the snow, they drove up the hill and reached the middle house, entirely out of breath. They weren't wasting time with the lock now. Ramirez drew back and kicked in the door.

Mitchell rushed in, knowing that their targets were on the left side, near the fireplace. Both men had rolled over, sat up, and began screaming at Mitchell, who shot the first one even as Ramirez cried, "Shut up!" and silenced the second.

Diaz had the option of aiming via the reticle in her HUD or choosing the traditional method of sighting the target via her rifle's attached scope. The choice came into play now because the IWS allowed her to zoom in on the target and actually see him behind the door.

A flashing red outline appeared, indicating the insurgent's exact position despite the wood between him and Diaz. She had range, wind speed, and direction–and most importantly–the talent and desire to drop the very last man standing between them and completing the mission.

She wouldn't give him the luxury of opening the door and taking a last cold breath. Holding hers, she squeezed the trigger. The Dragunov thumped, the sound echoed by a distant crack from the door as her round penetrated the wood and pierced the man behind it.

The red outline turned white. "Ghost Lead, this is Diaz. Third guy is down."

"Roger that. We're out of here. Fall back on me."

Diaz rose and tried to shudder off the chills. Her blood felt icy, and her joints ached. She was beginning to lose sensation in her toes. "The cold is my friend," she muttered, resorting to survival school mantras drilled into all operators.

Shouldering her rifle, she picked her way down the hill toward the others, their position glowing in her HUD. She smiled to herself as Carlos and Tomas shook their heads in disbelief over what she had just accomplished.

Carlos was now helping run the ranch with Dad, and Tomas had gone on to become a distinguished professor of agriculture at Iowa State. However, whenever they got together, Diaz would gaze into their eyes and always see the jealous twelve-year-old still lurking inside.

She reached the bottom of the hill, just as Captain Mitchell called their chopper: "Black Hawk Two-Niner, this is Ghost Lead. En route to pickup zone. Terrain's rough. ETA twenty, thirty minutes, over."

"Ghost Lead, this is Black Hawk Two-Niner. Roger that. We're on our way."

Carrying an approximately 180-pound man about a hundred meters to the next hill was within Mitchell's capability. Carrying the same man a full kilometer over rocky, snow-covered terrain in subzero temperatures, in the wind, was being unrealistic, but Mitchell gave it a shot nonetheless. Because it was Rutang, his friend.

Mitchell lasted about three hundred meters before he had to stop. He and Diaz unrolled one of their portable stretchers, velcroed Rutang into it, then sought the smoothest paths they could follow while dragging him through the narrow pass, utilizing the stretcher's built-in harnesses.

The delay only lasted a couple of minutes, but Saenz and Vick appreciated the break.

When they reached a large boulder to their left, marking the top of the pass, they paused to recon the barren valley below, where their Black Hawk would land. Now Mitchell paused a moment to bring in the UAV3.

As the drone whirred overhead, Mitchell zoomed in with the cameras, and suddenly red diamonds began to appear in the hills. There were two at first, then three, four, a dozen–maybe more now–all moving along a trail leading directly toward them.

"Ghost Lead, this is Black Hawk Two-Niner," called the pilot, who was no doubt observing what Mitchell saw via the network. "Hold position. The zone is hot."

But it was already too late for a stealthy escape by the pilot and his crew.

They'd been swooping down and immediately drew a storm of small arms fire from the insurgents on the ground.

"Get them back," Mitchell ordered the others. "Back behind the rocks." Then he called to the pilot. "Black Hawk Two-Niner. Zone's too hot! Pull out. We'll need more support, over."

"Sorry, Captain. None available. We're all you got. And we didn't come all this way to leave you behind."

Chapter Twelve.

NORTHWEST WAZIRISTAN

AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN BORDER

JANUARY 2009

The MH-60K Black Hawk was the Special Forces variant of the army's front-line utility helicopter and designed to take ODA and Ghost teams on long-range missions deep into enemy territory. In order to do that, a pair of 230-gallon external fuel tanks had been mounted on either side of the fuselage, beneath the rotor, and at the moment, Mitchell watched as those tanks were being targeted by the insurgents below.

With the awe-inspiring grace of its namesake bird, the pilot throttled up the pair of General Electric engines and banked hard out of the line of fire. He made a complete circle then dove, bringing his chopper to bear on the targets below. The pair of M134 7.62 mm mini-guns mounted in the crew doors wailed and stitched blazing, tracer-lit paths through the snow as the Taliban fighters dove for cover.

Those gunners continued putting serious steel on target, but one carefully aimed rocket-propelled grenade from the bad guys could end it all, as it had back on Basilan Island. Their pilot was taking one hell of a risk for Mitchell and his team.

"I don't believe this," cried Ramirez. "The zone can't be hot!"

"Bad intel," said Brown. "After all that. Bad intel."

"Ghost Lead, this is Black Hawk Two-Niner. I'm heading for a ridge just west your position, twenty meters. I'll hover there."

"Roger that, Two-Niner."

The Black Hawk came out of its dive and made a climbing turn to the south as the gunners broke fire.

All along the mountain trail ahead, muzzles winked, as though a long cord of short-circuiting wire had been stretched over the rocks and ice.

"Everyone, listen up," snapped Mitchell. "Those guys weren't waiting for us. They're on a rat line, coming back from A'stan. They were probably in the caves till now. We just got bad timing. Diaz, you and I help out those door gunners. Brown? You and Ramirez get 'em on board. Ready people? Here he comes!"

As the Black Hawk roared by, and a fresh wave of gunfire pinged off its fuselage, Mitchell craned his head and realized that Ramirez and Brown were taking the CIA agents. "No!" he cried, pointing at Rutang still strapped into the stretcher. "You get him first."

"Roger that," hollered Ramirez.

"That how it is, Captain?" shouted Agent Saenz. "You decide who lives and dies?"

Mitchell gave the man a look, then regarded Diaz. "Move out."

He sprang from cover and broke left, with Diaz right behind. They picked their way along a stretch of broken boulders and snow, then dropped behind a narrow spine of mottled rock, able to prop up on their forearms.

Mitchell's HUD began to light up with so many targets that he thought the IWS had crashed. He estimated near thirty now, and who knew how many more to come.

"I'm hunting for the RPGs," announced Diaz, ready to shoot any Taliban fighter shouldering a rocket meant for the chopper. "Got one. Taking the shot!"

Were it not for his HUD, Sergeant Marcus Brown would not have seen a thing through all the whipping ice and snow. Superimposed over those gray curtains was the green, glowing outline of the chopper, its ID flashing: Black Hawk 29.

He and Ramirez hauled Rutang up and over a few rocks, then fought their way through gusts tugging hard on their shoulders, threatening to topple them.

The chopper was just ten meters away now, its gear floating precariously a meter over the spiny ridgeline. There was no level spot to land, and the pilot had come in as low as he dared, with his nose pitched up, his main rotor slicing the air just a few meters away from the mountainside. The scene reminded Brown of that YouTube video he'd watched of a Black Hawk crashing on Mount Hood, and now those whomping rotors began to seriously unnerve him.

As they reached the chopper, the door gunner, who had already ceased fire, lowered a harness, and Brown and Ramirez rushed to get Rutang fitted. If the pilot had been able to descend just a little more, they could have avoided the delay, but you played the hand you were dealt, and once they had Rutang buckled up, they gave the gunner the signal. Rutang rose via winch toward the open bay.

Brown and Ramirez headed back for the CIA agents. One down, two to go. While there was no time to discuss it now, Brown wanted to speak with Ramirez about the captain's decision to take Rutang first. Brown and Ramirez could have evacuated both agents in one shot, then come back for the medic. It wasn't a big deal, but if something happened in the interim, it was better to save two than just one.

Or was it more important to save your friend than a couple of CIA agents, who they all knew could turn on you in a heartbeat if that furthered their agenda?

Brown had worked with Mitchell before, yet this was the first time the captain had revealed personal bias during a mission. With Mitchell it was always cut-and-dried: the mission and the team came first. Brown called that professional bias. Still, Mitchell could have ordered Brown to take Rutang and Ramirez to grab one of the agents. Brown could have dragged the medic, albeit slower than two guys could. But Mitchell was all about them double-teaming his buddy. Even the CIA guy had called him out on it. Interesting.

Diaz's round hit the Taliban insurgent squarely in the chest, and it appeared as though he had swallowed a grenade. The RPG he'd been shouldering hurtled away like a boomerang, trailed by what was left of him.

People often asked if the grim nature of her job ever got to her. They'd ask about how the military prepares you for killing people. She didn't talk about that. She just did her job like she'd been taught. She removed targets and did everything she could to detach herself from the emotions. She thought of the operators to her left and right, her friends. She ignored the fact that the men she killed could have families they'd be leaving behind.

But was it possible to kill with no guilt, no remorse? Maybe for some.

It was Diaz's subconscious that got the best of her. There were always demons who rose from the bogs of night and marched through her quarters, dripping blood and growling that they'd returned for revenge.

She'd bolt awake, chilled and soaked in sweat. But she knew that this came with the territory. Adapt and move on, she always said.

Diaz probed the mountain once more, spotted a second guy lifting his RPG.

At the same time, Ramirez reported that he and Brown were nearly at the chopper with the two CIA guys. That was good, but if Diaz didn't tag this next guy . . .

As she homed in, the din of gunfire and helicopter engines narrowed into her breathing, only her breathing, as though she wore scuba gear and was back at the reef in Cozumel.

Right now, as far as she was concerned, there were only two people in the entire world, and she would reduce that number by exactly one.

The reticle hovered over the guy. He wore a heavy woolen pakolpulled down over his ears. He was turning toward the Black Hawk when Diaz took her shot.

At the very least she anticipated a puff of smoke from his chest, perhaps a small amount of blood.

Nothing. She had missed.

What the hell?

Carlos and Tomas screamed with glee in her ears.

A cold panic rushed up Diaz's spine as she resighted the man and fired, but it was already too late. Yes, he died, but his RPG was already airborne.

Ramirez glanced away and grimaced as Agent Vick, who was seated in the snow next to his partner Saenz, finished coughing and puking.

"Glad you came back," said Saenz. "We know where we stand with your captain."

"We evac the most seriously wounded first," Ramirez said through his teeth.

Saenz grinned and snorted. "Whatever you say, soldier." He regarded Vick. "Look at him. All this running around and the drugs . . . we're getting sick."

"And you're getting out of here," Brown said, hauling Saenz to his feet.

Ramirez got behind Vick and struggled against the big guy's considerable girth. "Promise me something," he said in the agent's ear. "You won't throw up on me, will you?"

Vick began coughing again.

"Oh, man," moaned Ramirez, guiding the man forward. "Here we go."

The captain and Diaz, along with one of the chopper's door gunners, did an outstanding job of keeping the insurgents along the mountain busy while Ramirez and Brown ushered the agents out of there. The pilot had pulled off his spot and now wheeled overhead to engage the enemy. But once he saw them nearing the ridge, and Ramirez gave him a shout to confirm that, he swung around and descended.

With the Black Hawk in its deafening hover, they seized the harness and line. Vick got buckled in and went up first. Saenz followed, and even as he was halfway up, just a meter from being pulled in, he took a round in the shoulder, making Ramirez curse and holler for the guys up top to move faster.

Then a flash came from the corner of Ramirez's eye: one of the Taliban fighters had launched a rocket-propelled grenade.

Ramirez screamed over the radio for the pilot to lift off.

As the engines roared, he and Brown dove from their little ledge, dropping at least two meters into a huge snowdrift below.

Just as Ramirez was swallowed in all that white, the RPG hammered into the mountainside, heaving up fountains of rock and shrapnel.

And yet the snow kept coming, shielding Ramirez at least a little, large pieces of snow and ice resembling foam rushing over his head as he slid down several more meters and came to a jarring halt.

Brown stopped with a blast of snow beside him.

Ramirez flailed his arms, relieved that he was buried only a quarter meter deep in the snow. He sat up as the chopper arced overhead through the starlit night, with Saenz just now being hauled into the bay.

Brown crawled next to him, his face barely visible behind his new camouflage suit of snow. "We're supposed to be dead."

"Ghost Lead, this is Black Hawk Two-Niner. I have your package on board, coming back around to pick you up."

"Negative, negative," replied Mitchell. "It's getting even hotter down here."

"Roger that. I got another valley directly east of your position. Got it marked on your tac map."

"Stand by." Mitchell ducked behind the rock and with a voice command pulled up his tactical map so that it filled his entire HUD. He spotted that second valley indicated by the pilot's flashing green designator. He zoomed in, saw how the more level ground provided a good LZ and that it put a hillside between them and the oncoming Taliban fighters. "Black Hawk Two-Niner, put down in that valley, and we'll rally on you."

"On our way, Ghost Lead."

"Okay, people, we're pulling out," Mitchell said over the radio. "Fall back on me." He glanced over at Diaz, who was just rising from the rock, getting ready to move.

Out past her, a figure rose from the ridge about thirty meters off, lifting his rifle at Diaz as a red diamond and outline appeared around him.

Mitchell cut loose with silenced rifle fire directly over Diaz's shoulder, dropping the guy as she turned and gasped. "Whoa. I owe you big time, Captain."

"I'll settle for a beer."

"You got it."

They charged off along the hillside, meeting up with Ramirez and Brown, then all four started up through the rocks, threading their way to the top. Sporadic fire tore into the ground ahead.

A brilliant yellow square lit up in Mitchell's HUD, indicating the chopper's new position in the landing zone, and he turned left, taking them along a much steeper embankment, the snow giving way beneath his boots.

Ramirez, pulling up the rear, opened fire and cried, "They're closing on us!"

Mitchell picked up the pace. The hill led them toward a pair of lone trees, then it would drop off again and roll out into the valley and the helicopter beyond.

He aimed for the trees, wary of every step.

Suddenly, Brown cried, "Diaz!"

Mitchell craned his head, just as Diaz, who'd lost her footing, went tumbling down the hill. She'd been smart enough to tuck her arms into her chest, but while that helped avoid a break, it made her a more streamlined barrel, and down she went for more than a dozen meters until she finally stopped, facedown, unmoving.

Reflexively, Mitchell started toward her, ordering Ramirez and Brown to hold position and cover him. Twice he nearly dropped himself on patches of ice hidden beneath the snow.

He reached her, fearing the worst. Slowly, he took her by the shoulders, rolled her gingerly onto her back.

She blinked, began coughing.

Mitchell sighed in relief. "Now you owe me two beers," he said, then seized her hand, helped her to her feet. Together they started back up the hill, with Ramirez and Brown above them.