Page 13 of Duty Bound

“Yeah, we’ve met, I’m Blade Wilson, Spade—sorry—Joe’s friend. I haven’t been able to get in touch before now because you left so soon after he… passed away. I was with him when… anyway, he gave me a message for you. He said to tell you he loves you.”

CHAPTER 5

Okay, so he wouldn’t win any prizes for his delivery, but at least he’d said it. He’d told her. One mission complete. One to go.

The look on her face was complete astonishment. She opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand cutting her off. Now was not the time. “Come on, let’s move on. We can talk when we’re safe.”

She shut her mouth and gave a dazed nod.

Turning his back on her, he adjusted the head lamp, lowered his scope, then crawled farther along the tunnel. The angle was noticeably steeper now, and the breeze was stronger than before. It felt cool on his face, and just for a moment, he closed his eyes and savored the fresh air. They were on the right track. Escape, evasion, survival. That’s what he’d been trained for, and during his operational days, he’d crawled through way worse than this to stay alive.

They all had.

He thought about Phoenix, Boomer, Viper, and Pat—the makeshift unit guiding the other hostages through the thick, impenetrable forest that covered the valley to the rendezvous point where a chopper waited to transport them to freedom. They were a good bunch of guys. He’d served with all of them at one time or another during his Special Forces career. All except Pat, who was the driving force behind this mission. They were effective, able, and deadly. Even though the Taliban fighters would be close on their tail, he was confident they’d get the hostages out in time.

Blade peered through the night vision scope ahead into the tunnel. He guessed they had at least twenty to thirty yards to go before they broke ground. It was doable, as long as the enemy weren’t waiting for them at the other side.

Things hardly ever went according to plan, this mission a classic case in point. Prepare down to the finest detail but inevitably something would happen to fuck things up. The enemy was an unknown force, impossible to control. Hence the constant question—what if?

What if there were more fighters than they’d expected? What if the hostages weren’t there? What if one of them was injured? What if the helicopter couldn’t make it to the emergency rendezvous point?

Good thing Blade had plenty of contingency plans.

At the covert air base in the desert, before the Black Hawk had brought them to the mountains, he’d studied drone footage of the area and knew tunnels crisscrossed for miles from cave to cave. He was betting the enemy below hadn’t yet realized they’d found another exit. That would give him several hours to get Lily as far away as humanly possible.

It was pitch-black in the tunnel, and he used both the NVG and the head light to show them the way. They must be close to the end now, but it just seemed to go on and on. Nothing to tell them how far they had to go. The only clue he had was the cooler air making his eyes water. They must be close.

The tunnel curved, so he crawled around it—and hit a dead end.

What the?—?

He reached out with his hand but all he could feel was cold, hard stone. His heart sank. No, this couldn’t be. He heard Lily scampering up behind him. “Why have we stopped?”

He hesitated. How could he tell her there was nowhere to go?

Another blast of icy air hit him. It was coming from above. He glanced up.

Hell, yeah! He hadn’t noticed it before, but the tunnel made a ninety degree turn upwards. A hole loomed above them through which he could see the stars and a scant canopy of leaves.

Brilliant. They’d made it.

There was a crescent moon tonight, which was perfect. It would give them enough light to see by but wouldn’t leave them too exposed, and the trees and crags would provide plenty of shadows in which to hide.

The only problem was getting up there. He judged the distance to be about ten feet. Too high for him to reach by himself, but together they might have a shot.

“We’re at the end,” he called to Lily who’d stopped behind him. “There’s a hole vertically above us, but it’s high. We’re both going to have to squeeze in here for me to lift you up there.”

“There is? Oh, thank God.” He heard the relief in her voice.

“I’m going to stand, then you crawl until you reach my legs. Use my body like a ladder to climb until you’re standing next to me. From there, I’ll boost you up. Okay?”

“Got it.”

He got to his knees, scraping his back against the stone roof of the tunnel. Sometimes, being this tall had its drawbacks. Gritting his teeth, he maneuvered himself into the vertical shaft and held onto the walls as he straightened up. It was tight, but there was just enough room for the two of them. The problem would be getting her into a standing position.

His shoulders raked the sides. Pressing his back to the rock, he tried to leave enough space for her to stand. Jagged edges dug into his back, but he ignored them. “Your turn.”

He heard her scramble forward until he felt a hand on his shin.

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