Page 101 of Viral Justice

“Fuck, it’s Parker,” one of her men said.

“We can’t leave him here,” Ali said. “Could one of you take him to the old hospital?”

“Yeah,” said the guy who identified him. “I’ll do it.”

He picked up his buddy in a fireman carry and strode off.

Ali looked at her remaining man. “I’m sorry. You’re Warren, right?”

He nodded. “Not your fault. We’re dealing with some dangerous men. They don’t care who they kill as long as their leader is happy.”

She started walking again, looking for another crumb on the trail and found another bad guy’s body this time. “How do you know that?”

“Before the Howitzer got rolled out, we talked to a bunch of village elders. They had heard enough to know that this whole clusterfuck is a trap.”

“A trap for who?”

“Us. You. The colonel.”

“Well, that’s shitty.”

Ali and Warren kept going in the same direction as the trail seemed to be taking them. Another body lay on the ground in front of them, not a Special Forces soldier. Gunfire from up ahead told her that they were on the right track.

As they neared the fighting in the outskirts of the village, they slowed down and approached cautiously.

Rounding the corner of a house, Ali saw a group of gunmen all firing at the same building. Whoever they were shooting at was inside and returning fire through a window. Two gunmen slipped away from the main group and came toward Ali and Warren. They both ducked back before they were seen.

The gunmen came around the corner and face to face with Ali and Warren. Both men opened their mouths to yell at the same time as raising their weapons, but the two Americans were prepared for them and didn’t hesitate.

Ali knifed one man in the neck, while Warren did the same to the other one. Both went down fast and quiet.

With hand signals, Ali and Warren discussed a couple of options for an attack and decided on flanking positions. Warren went around to the far side of the militants’ positions while Ali counted to thirty slowly.

At thirty, she inched along the stone wall of the house until she could just see around it. She picked out the man she thought was the leader, standing at the rear of the group and issuing orders, and shot him. She methodically shot the next man closest to him, and the next man.

Men started to go down on the other side, which meant Warren was in position and was doing his fair share of damage.

Whoever was inside the house made good use of the confusion and took out a few bad guys, as well. Until there were none left.

“Nolan?” Ali called out.

She was about to call his name again when he responded, “Yeah, I’m in here.”

She crossed the street without relaxing her vigilance in case they missed a bad guy, and cautiously entered the house. “Where are you?”

“Back here.”

Ali found him slumped below a window, blood smeared across his chest and the wall. Another Special Forces soldier lay face down on the floor. She checked him first, but there was no pulse.

She turned to Nolan and he gave her a watery smile.

“Did you kill those fuckers?” he asked, breathing harder than he should have been.

“Every last one.” She examined him, searching for the wound that resulted in all the blood.

“Excellent.”

Warren ghosted into the house and crouched next to her. “Hey, boss. You sleeping on the job?”

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