Stephen Coonts - Combat

Bolde observed the flash of the missile kill. “Brake hard! Now!” he bellowed.

ABLE ’s wheels locked up and her tail came around as she broke loose and slithered to a halt, broadside on. And then submunitions shells burst overhead and the desert hissed and sparkled as hundreds of deadly little antiarmor bomblets rained out of the sky just beyond the stalled Shinseki.

“Might as well just let her sit, Rick,” Bolde continued calmly. “If they still have us acquired, we’ll never get out from under the next one.”

The only sound the soft steady-state whine of the turbines. Bolde, Shelleen, and Santiago sat unspeaking in the darkness, thinking their own thoughts and counting the seconds. When fifteen had passed, the next salvo fell … half a mile away along the course they had been following. The next dropped at twice that range as the thwarted Algerians stabbed blindly into the dark. Bridget Shelleen chuckled softly at the wonder of being alive.

Bolde released a breath that he had been holding for what seemed to be an amazing length of time. “Rick, get us out of here. Brid, advise Mary May that we’re disengaging and tell her to head for the extraction point. Fun’s over, people, let’s go home.”

At a solid 60 K an hour, ABLE and the CHARLIE drone roared south toward the looming refuge of the El Khnachich range. Bolde kept ABLE ’s weapons pack trained aft as they fled, scanning their back trail for signs of enemy pursuit or activity.

Beyond the burning wrecks of the battalion they had decimated, the Algerian division was reacting like a kicked ant’s nest. Thermal blossoms dotted the night as hundreds of vehicle engines kicked over, the neat pattern of laager sits dissolving as unit commanders strove to regroup into combat formation. Flares and flashes of gunfire danced around the perimeter as gunners blazed at ghosts in the darkness or even engaged in “blue on blue” duels with their own side.

Bolde grinned. This kind of battlefield hysteria could do more damage to the enemy in the long run than his own direct assault. The smile rapidly dissipated as Brid spoke up from her station. “We’ve got major problems with the scout team. They’ve got the Algerian recon company immobilized with about half of the elements destroyed, but they’re pinned down as well. They can’t get back to the extraction point.”

“Get me a direct link with Mary May.”

“Not possible. She’s too far down in the pass and we’re radio blocked. All we have is a relay through Nate and Johnny on the squad circuit.”

Bolde twisted around in the command chair. “What in the hell is she doing down in the pass?”

“Lee Trebain apparently took a bad fall down into the cut. Mary May is with him but he’s been injured too badly for them to get back up to the ridgeline.”

“What about Nate and Johnny? Can they get to them?”

“Again not possible. Nate and Johnny are pinned down by an Algerian patrol at the southern end of the pass about a kilometer away. They haven’t taken hits yet, but they can’t move. Both fire teams are requesting instructions.”

Requesting instructions. The polite military term for begging the CO for a fast miracle. Bolde lifted his wrist to his mouth and wiped away the salty dust caked on his lips. This was his run. He’d set this plan up, and his people had every right in the world to expect that he would get them out the other side of it. Simple statements like, “I misjudged” or “I overlooked something” were not an option. Her face outlined by the screen glow, Brid Shelleen looked at him, calmly, expectantly.

“Brid, tell the scouts to hang on and stand by. We’re coming to get them. Then pull CHARLIE back in with us. Rick, new game plan. Forget the route over the saddleback. We’re going out through the pass.”

Through the SABR’s infrared sights, Mary May picked out a ghostly pale sphere hovering a few inches off the ground, the face of an Algerian trooper. Gingerly he was crawling forward to peer around the turn of the pass, hugging close to the rubble along the edge of the roadway. The face was there for a moment and then gone as the trooper ducked back.

Flicking the selector setting to AIRBURST Mary May rested the sight crosshairs just above the point where the Algerian had disappeared and squeezed the SABR’s trigger.

At the trigger crossed its first detent in its pull, the SABR’s ranging laser produced an invisible pulse of coherent light that touched its targeting point and reflected back. The microprocessor in the SABR’s stock computed a range from that laser reflection and as the grenade launcher itself fired, an inductance coil wrapped around the launcher’s barrel transmitted that range to a microchip buried within the shell as it screamed down the tube.

The shell itself dispassionately counted out the distance in flight and, over the target, it detonated, spraying the environment with a handful of shrapnel.

The Algerian trooper did not return.

“What’s happening, Five?” Trebain asked.

“Nothin’ much. Just a snooper. How are you doing?”

The breath rasped in the Texan’s throat. “You were right about the leg. I liked it a lot better when it was numb. I’m trying to tell myself I’m just imagining it, but I think I got a couple of busted ribs, too.”

“That’s no fun. That happened to me once when I fell off a hayrack. As long as you’re breathing all right you’ll be okay. You want a hit of feel good?”

“No. I want to stay clear. Maybe I can do something … Mary May, maybe you’d better start thinking about getting out of here. Like you said. I’ll be okay.”

She rolled onto her side and looked back at Trebain. “What’s with you, Lee? Do you honestly think I’m going to run out on one of my guys? Get real!”

“Aw hell, Five. It’s just that … I don’t like the idea of the Algis getting their hands on you is all.”

Mary May nestled back behind her weapon stock. “Well, thanks, but I don’t like the idea of the Algis getting their hands on any of us. And that’s not going to happen. The lieutenant’ll get us out of this. One way or another.”

Almost as if by one of Brid Shelleen’s conjurations, a familiar and most welcome voice sounded in their helmet. “Saber Six to Scout Lead. Do you receive?”

Mary May almost broke the transmit key on her lip mike. “Roger that! We copy, Lieutenant!”

“Okay, Mary May. We’ve got the Cipher drone up and we’re relaying through that,” Bolde replied over the circuit. “We also have you and Lee spotted, not to mention our friends the Algerians. We see three BRMs around the bend in the pass about two hundred meters south of your position. Do you verify?”

“I verify, Lieutenant. I can hear their engines idling. We’ve hurt them pretty bad. I don’t think they’re exactly sure of what they’re up against yet.”

“Better and better. We’ll be up with you presently, but we’re going to need a little bit of assistance. What’s your ammunition state in regard to 20mm grenade?”

“Uh, six clips between Lee and me, counting the one in my weapon. Mixed antiarmor and smart round.”

“Excellent,” Bolde’s filtered voice replied with satisfaction. “When I give you the word, I want you to rapid fire it all down the pass in the direction of the Algis. Don’t worry about hitting anything in particular. Just make a lot of noise and keep their heads down. Then you and Trebain stand by to mount up fast. Understood?”

“Understood, sir.”

“Very well. Then let’s proceed. Stand by to commence firing … now!”

Mary May’s finger closed convulsively on the trigger. As rapidly as she could she hosed the bend in the canyon with high explosives, the sharp popping of the grenade bursts reverberating up and down the pass, the echoes building upon themselves. Ejected shell cases tinkled around her and the frame of the SABR grew warm and then hot as she poured fire through it. Lee, ignoring the pain of his fractured ribs, fumbled clips out of his own harness pouches, feeding her.