Page 59 of Lethal Pursuit

“Fuck.” Sandberg rolled behind a rock as Jackson dragged Maya behind cover and flattened himself on top of her. She jerked and bit back a gasp of pain as another round impacted, closer this time. The report echoed too much for Jackson to get an accurate read on the location.

Maya struggled beneath him, trying to lift up on her good arm. Jackson pinned her flat. He knew he was hurting her but didn’t care at the moment if it saved her from getting shot. He cut a scathing glare at Sandberg, who had his AK up and aimed. “You set this up?”

In answer, he got an annoyed eat-shit-and-die look and a clipped, “Does it look like it?”

From the way he was returning fire, no. But the timing of this new threat seemed pretty damn suspicious.

Haversham belly-crawled toward them, his grunts of pain muffled behind gritted teeth. He slid up beside them with a pistol in one hand, gaze darting across the hillside across from them. “See anything?”

Jackson scanned the horizon. “Not yet.” Sniper could be anywhere out there. The ground here was too uneven and exposed. They couldn’t move using any kind of cover, but staying put made them sitting targets. And whatever enemy force the shooter was attached to had to be on the move now that they had a bead on their location.

The moment he thought it, an eerie howl rose into the clear afternoon air. The hair on his arms stood up.Holy shit.

Beyond the far side of the riverbed where the hill curved up and away, a group of men dressed in dark clothes charged toward them, weapons glinting dully in the sunlight. Jackson rolled away from Maya and aimed his rifle just as the roar of gunfire filled the tiny valley.

* * *

MAYA SCRAMBLED UPon to her right elbow when Jackson’s weight left her, using the edge of her splint to pull back the slide on her pistol. The rattle of automatic weapons fire made her heart slam, but it was the enemy’s shrill cries that sent a spiral of fear corkscrewing down her backbone. Her fever and aches forgotten, she kept her eyes on the men racing toward them and held fast to the pistol in her right hand. Jackson and the others were deathly still beside her. What were they going to do? They were pinned down with nowhere to go.

“We gotta take out as many as we can and make a run for it,” Sandberg yelled over the noise, firing precise bursts from his weapon.

Jackson didn’t respond, focused on the attackers, methodically firing single and double taps. The sound of the M4 was distinctive among the bark of the AKs. Two men near the front of the group fell and crumpled to the ground, but the others rushed on. At least a dozen of them, maybe more. “Stay down, Maya,” he ordered without looking at her.

She did, but only because the sidearm was completely useless at this range. Haversham was so close his hip pressed against hers, his broken leg bumping her foot as he waited with her, unable to do anything yet. Her heart thundered in her ears as she watched Jackson and Sandberg fire repeatedly. No matter how many attackers they hit, the rest just kept on coming, trying to overwhelm them with sheer force of numbers, splitting their force into groups that charged from different directions. Some of them ducked down behind whatever concealment they could find, making it impossible to hit them.

“Can’t help at this range,” she yelled to Haversham, ducking on instinct when a bullet buried itself in the rock wall over their heads. Jackson and Sandberg were damn good shots, but they had their hands full. The enemy charging on the right put their flank at risk. She had to protect their right flank. Twisting her head to look around, she spotted a group of large rocks a few yards away and got Haversham’s attention. “Over there.” Pointing, she started to inch away from her cover, assuming he’d follow, only to be brought upshort by Jackson’s angry shout.

“Don’t you fucking move, Maya.”

The abrupt command made her hesitate for only a second before she resumed crawling.

“Maya!”

“Shut up and shoot!” she yelled back, gritting her teeth at the sharp twinge in her ribs.

Three enemy fighters broke off and darted to her right. The one in the lead was smaller than the others, and when he was close enough for her to see his scraggly beard, she realized it was that kid, Mohammed. Someone shouted something at him that made him stumble and twist around to look behind him. When Maya saw who it was, her blood ran cold. Then the heat of rage transformed it into a heat so molten it burned in her veins.

Khalid. He was at the rear, orchestrating this whole attack, both arms wrapped in bloody bandages. If Maya had her way, he’d be losing a lot more than blood today.

Cursing at the pain in her broken bones and the rocks digging into her flesh, Maya crawled over behind her new cover and peeked around the rock before her, her pistol up and ready. It seemed to take forever for them to come into range.

Mohammed yelled something back at his leader then turned toward her, his expression full of determination and fury. Suddenly he jerked and went down, clutching his leg where either Sandberg or Jackson had hit him. But he didn’t stay down. He dragged himself up, his face twisted with pain and rage as he brought the barrel of his rifle up and fired a wild burst that went wide, peppering the rocks between her and Haversham. The others were all occupied trying to pick off the other shooters, and Mohammed was close enough now.

Maya didn’t hesitate.

Rising to one knee, she took aim and fired three shots, hitting him twice in the belly. He dropped his rifle and fell clutching his middle, writhing on the ground. Another man rushed up to him. Maya fired again and again, emptying her magazine, but only managed to wing him in the shoulder. On his belly, he began dragging Mohammed back to their own lines.

Out of ammo and with her quarry too far away even if she’d hadany bullets left, Maya could only watch as the survivors on her right flank hauled the wounded boy back to where they’d come from. The others followed suit, leaving their dead behind on the battlefield as they periodically wheeled to spray bullets in their direction. In the lull, Jackson and Sandberg stopped shooting. The sudden silence was almost as eerie as those terrible battle cries had been.

Maya’s eyes were glued to one particular spot across that deadly space. There was no sign of Khalid, who had melted back somewhere into the shadows. But he’d been there and couldn’t have gone far. He was just biding his time, regrouping for another attack.

“What the fuck do you think you weredoing?”

She tensed at the terse whisper beside her. Bracing herself for the coming argument, she turned her head and met Jackson’s enraged gaze.

TWENTY

JACKSON WAS SOfucking angry he was shaking. He’d flat-out ordered her to stay put and she’d deliberately disobeyed him, taking an unnecessary risk with her life.

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