Jack Coughlin - Running the Maze

The patrol leader had finally stopped and counted his men, finding only five instead of the six. “Who is missing?” he asked.

The Taliban looked at each other, and one finally spoke. “It is Akhtar again. He can never keep up on a climb. Too old and fat.”

“Then you go back and get him. We will wait for two minutes. When you come back, you had better have the fat fool with you.”

While the other four Taliban fighters plopped down by the side of the path to rest, the one picked to fetch Akhtar stared hard back at the patrol leader, his insides burning with hatred at being told what to do by a worthless Pakistani. He finally obeyed, cursing beneath his breath.

He walked back down the trail for thirty seconds before he saw the shadowy shape coming toward him, the eyes cast down to watch his footing. “By your mother, Akhtar, you are a useless dog! Come on. The rest of the patrol is waiting for us.” He turned on his heel and started back.

The Djinn slammed the stock of the AK-47 into the man’s head and heard a satisfying crunch. He fell on top of the stunned man, with the dagger already out and plunging into the neck, and he was rewarded with a shower of thick arterial blood as he sawed off the head. He picked it up by the ears and smiled at the dead face, then tossed it away, watching it bounce down toward the river. He wiped the knife clean on his own tunic, slid it back in the scabbard, and snapped off the rifle’s safety.

He came upon the others gathered beside the dirt pathway, and he ran at them, screaming and pulling the trigger, spraying out bursts of automatic gunfire. The surprised fighters attempted to roll away as the maniacal figure went charging through their midst without breaking stride, and they did not notice the bouncing grenade he left behind until it exploded.

The patrol leader got off some rounds that hit nothing, then grabbed his radio, just as Sergeant Hafiz came on to demand a status report. “He just came out of nowhere and went straight through us, Sergeant. We have unknown casualties. I’m leaving these people and going after him myself. It makes no sense, but he was headed your way, right into our strength.”

“Very well,” Hafiz responded. “We will clean up the guard detail after we catch him. Fire your weapon into the air, and drive him toward us.”

The Djinn heard the gunshots and saw the lights and stopped to drink some water from his canteen. Then he emptied the remaining liquid over his head to clear his eyes. A sudden weariness struck him like a wave, along with dizziness and nausea, and he leaned over to vomit. He brushed his hand across his sour mouth, his thoughts tumbling about, his muscles aching from so much unaccustomed exercise and running. He needed to rest for a time. Not long. Then he would resume. There was excellent hunting tonight. He put down the rifle, the ammunition packets, and the remaining grenade and staggered away, singing a little song from childhood.

The faint voice of his mother spoke in his head, telling him that safety was not far away: a door into the ground, his entrance to the underworld. It took five struggling minutes for him to reach it, and fatigue had an iron grasp on his legs as he dragged along. He pulled the hidden door open, then closed it carefully behind him.

A cavern gaped before him, and a map appeared in his mind in flashes of memory. Safety lay down one corridor, up one level, and around two corners. The passages were empty as he plodded through, leaving a track of muddy footsteps and, where he brushed against the walls, dark bloodstains. A doorway that he recognized appeared, and he pushed it open, almost ready to fall. The bed was so far away, across miles of floor, but was so welcoming that he managed to stagger to it; then he lay down and closed his eyes, exhaled twice, and was asleep.

KYLE AND SIR JEFF stayed up most of the night as the Vagabond worked its way through the sea. Neither was happy, because the target in Pakistan presented more questions than answers. The bridge stood there like a monolith, silent and brooding, and the mission to check it out was unlikely to resolve all of the riddles.

“There has to be something else in play, Kyle,” Jeff said. “There obviously is some connection between the structure and the multiple attempts on the lives of you and Beth. I like her, by the way. Do you?”

“I’m not taking her out on a date, Jeff. In answer to your point—the damned bridge—from what I can tell, it is just another pile of rocks and steel. We suspect there is a network of tunnels under it, but so what? Could be just for supplies and stuff.” Kyle had his shoes off, and his feet were propped on a low table.

Jeff shook his head. “That cannot possibly be the reason. If so, the medical team would just have been detained, maybe roughed up a bit, and turned over to the authorities. Instead, they were butchered. There remains some unknown linkage between all of that unpleasantness and a dangerous leak somewhere in Washington, someone who can summon professional killers.”

Kyle puffed out his cheeks, thinking. “Still have to go look at the place, so Beth can see whatever it was her brother saw.”

“So why don’t you ask her for a date? The recon mission will be over in two days. You can celebrate with a nice private dinner somewhere.”

“Like the Kandahar mess hall?” Swanson laughed. “No, Jeff. I tell you, though, that I have been impressed with her ability. She’s got a future in this game. Just needs some more training. Any relationship between us is going to stay professional.”

“Quite right. Your track record with women is abysmal. They fall into your hands, and you let them slip through your fingers like gold dust.”

“Bad things seem to happen to women I like,” he said. “Better to keep them at arm’s length.”

Jeff flipped the cover of his laptop computer and logged in to check his private mail. Pat and Jeff had known all of the serious women in Kyle’s life, and some sad times had indeed shadowed them, including some who had been killed or maimed by terrorists. What woman in her right mind would want to enter such a zone of danger? This little one, though, Beth, might prove to be the exception: She seemed to thrive on danger. “Confirmation here on the plane that will fly you from the Azores straight to Kandahar. All squared away.”

“Amazing what money and contacts can do, isn’t it?”

“Not really.” Jeff gave a low laugh. “That combination pretty much works every time.”

“Have you come across anything really unusual about the bridge, Jeff? Your people find anything?”

Jeff opened a file. “Not really. The engineering is quite sophisticated, and it is a sturdy bloody thing. That was shown when the floods hit. Although the power of that much water was an immense force, the bridge was still standing after the waters went down. Needed a bit of repair on the exterior, but the anchoring held, and the span itself survived untouched. Some fine work, that.”

Kyle drank some juice while he thought about it. Dams burst, thousands of people were dislocated, entire villages were swallowed, and this structure had held its own. Maybe they were using it to try out better building techniques so that thousands of Pakistanis would not die every time there was some natural disaster. “Who built it?”

“There we have a bit of a problem. This has been a hugely expensive and technical operation, millions of dollars, with an international consortium involved. With front companies and subcontractors and the foreign banks, it has created a financial thicket that is hard to penetrate. Haven’t figured out yet where it started, or where it leads.”

“Well, it must go somewhere. Have them stay on the money. I have a feeling that it may be important.” Kyle looked at the clock on the bulkhead of polished wood. Time to leave. The helicopter on the fantail was warming up, and Coastie was out there with the deck crew, talking about helicopter things. “We’ll take the first step and see what happens.”