Page 119 of Casualties of War
The generalwas dead. The bullet had drilled under the edge of his helmet, through his cheek, shattering the bone. It was a one in a million shot and for the Insurrectos, pure shitty luck. No one among them had the necessary aim needed to pull it off.
Duardo hung his head for a moment, silently saying goodbye.
Then he slapped Juarez on the shoulder. “Let’s finish this. A timed rush. Let Altira know.” Heput his Mauser away and checked the load on the rifle and waved the last of the stragglers behind him to belly crawl their way up to his level. “Let’s go!” he shouted and surged up the hill.
Everyone followed, as the rifles cracked in a volley from across the strait, sounding like a roll of thunder.
* * * * *
A jetty platform made of new wood was attached to the side of the cave. Lights werestrung from pitons hammered into the rock, which confirmed they were in the right place.
As soon as they cleared the mouth of the cave, guns fired from hidden positions farther in and everyone ducked. The men in the prow of the boat lifted their heads high enough to spot the guns and shoot back.
Parris had seen enough in her first sweeping glance to not have to raise her head. She tapped Ramirez’sankle, all she could see from her squat in the bottom of the boat. “Go right past the landing platform. They’re expecting us to stop there and it’ll pin us down.”
“And go where?”
“Just keep going,” she said.
Ramirez grinned. “Brace yourselves!” he called out and opened the throttle again. The nose came up and everyone hugged the bottom of the boat. It cut through the water and the rear endscraped and bumped over rocks and then sand.
Then the boat slid over sand and rocks not covered in water, the metal grinding and scraping with sour notes. The motor roared, then cut out.
“Out and flip it!” Parris ordered and rolled to her left. The boat tilted as everyone followed her, and bullets pinged against the hull as it came up.
Handguns, she cataloged. A decent rifle round would drillright through.
They pulled the hull over until it ground against rocks and leaned over them.
There was a metallic crack and the whizz of a bullet. A hole punched through the corner of the boat.
“They’ve got at least one rifle,” Ramirez pointed out.
“Take a run at it,” she told him. “Everyone, cover Ramirez, then follow!” She slapped Adán’s arm. “You stay behind me, no matter what. Got it?”
He nodded. His expression was calm, which was astonishing. Civilians always flinched and cowed. They couldn’t help it. Their survival instinct made them do it.
She didn’t have time to wonder or worry. She turned back to the boat and lifted herself up to see over the edge as Ramirez launched himself around the stern and ran like a rabbit, dodging and firing.
Everyone laid down suppressing fire.She could see where the Insurrectos were all hugging a break in the cavern wall, firing over the top of them.
Ramirez dropped behind a big rock, ten yards from the Insurrectos and changed out his clip. He glanced back and nodded.
“Now!” Parris called.
They renewed their fire, keeping the Insurrectos ducked down.
Ramirez lifted the rifle and laid it over the top of the rock, sighted carefullyand took a single shot.
An Insurrecto cried out and fell forward, his rifle clattering on the wet, rocky ground.
“Go!” she cried and leapt around the stern of the boat. The others poured out from around the boat, firing from the hip and running like hell. They surged past Ramirez, bounding from rock to rock, up to the level where the Insurrectos were falling back, their eyes wide.
Then theyturned and ran.
“Keep going!” Parris yelled, picking out the slowest of the Insurrectos and bringing him down. “Follow them!”
It wasn’t a tunnel they followed, for a tunnel would have had smooth walls and a horizontal floor, and something that could be called a roof. Instead, the crack in the cliff face they had come through narrowed down and down until they were running through a vertical slitthat had accumulated debris and dirt for millennia. The debris provided a floor for them to run on. The floor sloped up at a sharp angle. It was rocky and shifted under her boots. It slowed the Insurrectos, too.
