Because of The Brave - lanyon Josh - Страница 33

Nothing.

But that didn’t mean they weren’t out there.

He crawled back to Sean, hesitating for an instant at the sight of that strained and weary face in repose. He rested his hand on Sean’s shoulder and instantly caught the gleam of Sean’s eyes.

“We got to move.”

Sean said, “I thought I dreamed you up.”

“You dream about me a lot?”

Sean’s laugh was stifled but it was his old laugh, and Vic’s heart seemed to swell.

“Not anymore. I got bigger boogey men to worry about than you these days.”

Yeah, wasn’t that the truth. Vic took the slam absently, already recalculating. “Can you walk?”

“I got myself this far didn’t I?” And Sean began to gather himself, pushing upright, though accepting Vic’s help to stand.

“What’s the matter with your leg?”

“Sprained my ankle like the goddamned heroine in a monster movie.”

It was just getting better by the moment.

“Well, we can’t go up. I don’t think anyone knows I’m on the mountain, but they’re going to be wondering what that chopper was doing here. We can’t risk landing topside again, but Grizzly 01 is going to meet us in the valley at oh five hundred.”

Sean pulled away slightly to examine Vic’s face. “You’ve got a chopper going to touch down in the valley?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not kidding?”

“You know me better than that.”

Sean was shaking his head in disbelief. “What time is it?”

“We’ve got two and a half hours to get down there.”

“Too bad you couldn’t have come up with this plan before I climbed up here.”

“Sorry. Your line was busy.”

“Is this pilot in love with you or something?”

“Isn’t everybody?” Vic wrapped an arm around Sean’s waist. “Put your arm over my shoulders. Can you make it like this?”

“I can try.” Sean added grimly, “But if I can’t I don’t want you wasting time up here with a chopper crew waiting in that valley for you.”

They moved slowly down the trail, Sean half hopping, trying not to lean too heavily on Vic.

“I think our best bet is the north face,” Vic said. “It’ll be a tougher climb but whoever is tracking you won’t be looking for you over there.”

“They won’t be looking for me coming back down at all.”

“We’ll have to double back around to the LZ, and we’ll lose some time there….” Vic was still calculating odds. “How much ammo do you have left?”

“Maybe 50 rounds.”

SEALS typically carried 4000 rounds. Vic nodded, accepting this, not commenting on the battle that Sean had waged to get this far. “If we’re lucky we’ll lift out without a firefight.”

They traveled along the narrow trail, having to stop at one point to go single file down a ledge that was like a knife edge. It would have been tricky in the daylight. It was harrowing in the dark. Vic kept one hand clutched on Sean’s arm terrified that Sean would slip or misstep. Having finally found him again, no way was he losing him.

They finally made it across the ridge and Sean slid down. “I’ve got to rest.”

Blood loss, shock, exhaustion. Yeah, he’d earned a rest. Unfortunately, they didn’t have that kind of time.

“Take five,” Vic said, although it was going to have to be more like take three. He squatted as Sean slid down the frosty rock face and leaned back. A couple of gentle snow flakes drifted down.

Fuck.

Vic stretched his arm out. “Here, let’s conserve body heat.”

Sean gave a laugh that was mostly a snort, but he leaned into Vic. Vic folded his arms tight around him. He had always dreamed of this meeting as a new beginning. It was feeling more and more like an ending.

“I lost my entire team,” Sean said suddenly, the words vibrating against Vic’s chest.

Vic nodded, not trusting himself to words.

“We had a direct action. Take out Akhtar Shah Omar. Limited time on target.”

Not recon then. Assassination. He’d wondered if it was something more like that. He thought of the boy he’d known at Annapolis. His eyes prickled. And how insane was that when he wasn’t exactly teaching Sunday School himself. And anyone who knew him would be laughing their asses off. So much for the Stone Man.

There was a long pause and he wondered if Sean had fallen asleep again; he was breathing long, steady breaths – and then Vic realized that he was struggling with emotion.

“What happened?” he whispered against Sean’s cold ear. Tempting to kiss him, but…no. No. He’d lost that right a long time ago.

“We got walked on.”

Walked on. Compromised on a mission. He let his ears brush the chilled shell of Sean’s ear. “It happens.”

Sean said muffledly, “It does. And we all knew what we needed to do. But…it was this little girl. This little goatherd girl. And I couldn’t do it, Vic.”

“Couldn’t do what?”

Sean looked up, his eyes looked wide and so clear they looked almost silver in the paling light. “It was my call and I said we had to let her go.”

Vic said calmly, “Hey, what was the option there? You’ve got to follow the Rules of Engagement. She wasn’t Taliban. She wasn’t al Qaeda.”

“No, she was fucking Heidi. And I let her go and she ran straight to the mujahadeen militia.” He turned away and wiped at his eyes with his forearm. “And my men ended up dead.”

For a few seconds Vic couldn’t say anything. Finally, he said unemotionally, “Sometimes they’re on our side. How’d you end up with the Taliban chasing you?”

“We had to fall back once the mujahadeen showed up. Basic move and shoot maneuver. Pitched battles aren’t our thing.”

No. Seals were not main force units. Seals worked best as shock troops. Stun the target with maximum violence, accomplish the most destruction with minimal effort, and then fade away in the confusion.

“We were okay, but naturally it made a little noise. The Taliban noticed and decided to join the party. We lost Bobby right away. Voss was our communications guy. He got hit trying to radio for help. They shot him a couple of times, but he stayed on the high ground trying to make comms. Salvio and I went to drag him back and Salvio got hit in the head. He died in my arms.”

“Close your eyes and sleep for a couple minutes.”

“No time.”

But when Vic tugged him back, Sean leaned into him and closed his eyes. His breath was warm against Vic’s throat, his hair brushed softly against Vic’s chin.

Vic let him sleep ten minutes. About seven minutes longer than he should have but he justified it as a power nap.

Far down the mountainside he could see stealthy movement, hear the faintest scrape of boots on rock. Every sound carried in this cold, crisp mountain air. Taliban soldiers were slowly navigating their way up the uneven slope. They were being surprisingly cautious. Sean must have made quite an impact on them.

He had a way of doing that.

Vic said against Sean’s ear, “Rise and shine.”

Sean’s eyes opened instantly. He nodded.

The next two hours were a test of endurance. Somehow they made it across the scraggy face of cliff, literally crawling at points, and then climbed with excruciating difficulty down a series of boulders. Vic knew he was going to have nightmares about that climb for weeks to come.

Assuming he still had weeks to come and they didn’t end up in pieces on the mountain in the next half hour or so.

By the time they shinnied down the final boulder, they were both shaking and soaked in sweat. Sean was needing more and more help although he never asked for it once.

Reaching the bottom, they dropped on their bellies and tried to recover their breath.

“Did you ever get married?” Sean asked suddenly, softly.

“No. You?”

Sean snorted.

“I mean…did you find someone…?” Who appreciated you, who treated you like you should have been treated, who had the brains to recognize what you were worth?

“Oh, sure. I found a lot of people.”

Neither spoke for a time.