Page 21 of Close Pursuit

“She really can’t go on,” Katie told Alex. In a flash of mortar fire, Katie saw the frustration and futility that crossed his face. He nodded, though, and angled off to the right.

It was only a half-dozen yards to where he stopped and waved for them to join him, but Katie didn’t think she and the girl were ever going to make it to his side. Each step was a herculean effort for the girl, who was in so much pain she couldn’t stand unaided. Only Katie’s arm around her kept her upright.

Thankfully, Alex rejoined them and lifted the girl in his arms. He moved quickly into the shadows.

Katie made the mistake of glancing down and saw that they stood at the top of a nearly vertical cliff face. Only the narrowest of ledges kept her from plunging hundreds of feet to the valley floor below. Sick to her stomach with terror and vertigo, she plastered herself to the rock wall at her back and edged forward. Alex ducked into a low opening and she fell to her knees beside him in relief.

The three of them were crouched in a tiny crevasse that didn’t rise to the exalted status of a cave. It was no more than a dozen feet deep and three feet tall at the opening, narrowing to a few inches tall in the back. But it afforded them a little cover from the battle raging outside and a moment to catch their breaths.

The girl started swearing under her breath so colorfully that Katie felt an incongruous urge to laugh. Or maybe that was just hysteria threatening. Either way, the girl’s voice broke on what would have been a scream had she not jammed her burka in her mouth and bit down for all she was worth.

It was Alex’s turn to swear. He unceremoniously shoved the girl onto her back to examine her. “Baby’s trying to crown,” he muttered. “Push with the next contraction.”

Katie was so relieved she could cry. The contraction came and the girl strained, bearing down in the age-old way as Katie supported her shoulders from behind.

“Again,” Alex ordered.

After several more contractions, Alex fumbled in the rucksack and pulled out a flashlight. Covering himself with the girl’s burka, he took a quick look at affairs. When he emerged, he spoke so calmly in English, Katie’s blood ran cold before she even comprehended his words.

“Tell her to rest for few minutes and just breathe through the next few contractions.”

Doctorsnevertold women to take breaks in the middle of a delivery. Once the baby entered the birth canal, it was important to get them birthed and out of the tight space as quickly as possible.

“What’s up?” she murmured in English.

He answered in the same language, “Head’s too big to pass through the pelvic opening. The baby can’t be born.”

“What do we do now?” she asked as calmly as her exploding alarm would let her.

“Two choices. Leave the girl and her baby here to die. Or do a C-section and save the kid.”

“And the mother?”

“It’s a major surgery. If blood loss doesn’t get her, shock and hypothermia probably will. And then there’s the problem of noise. If I cut her open without anesthesia, she’s gonna scream her head off and get us all killed.”

Katie stared at the shadows wreathing his face. How in the hell were they supposed to choose between those options?

He stared back. At length, he muttered, “Welcome to playing God.”

A barrage of gunfire below them made them both jump. For a minute, there, she’d forgotten about the war raging outside. The girl lying on the ground beside her panted fast and hard as another contraction gripped her.

“What would you do?” Alex asked low.

Katie shook her head, horrified to the core of her being. “Ask the mother. It’s her baby. Her life.”

“How very pro-choice of you,” Alex replied wryly. Then he said more sharply, “So do it. Ask her. She’ll take the news better from you.”

Katie was shocked that he’d declined to make a unilateral decision. It was so very…human…of him.

She waited out the end of the contraction then took the girl’s hand in her own. She said quietly, “Your baby is too big to be born this way. Doctor Alex can cut the baby from your belly, but he has no medicine for the pain. If you make any noise, we will all die.” She took a deep breath and added reluctantly, “And you may die from the surgery.”

“If I have no surgery?” the girl asked.

Katie answered honestly, “You will become exhausted eventually. The placenta will separate from your uterus. Your baby will suffocate and die, and you will begin to hemorrhage. That means you will bleed inside your body. You will die from blood loss.”

The girl was silent considering her options. “I hate this baby. I do not care if it lives. But I want to live.”

Alex nodded briskly. “Then the baby must come out of you.”

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