Gordon Stevens - Kara’s Game

She knelt by them and wet their lips, knelt by Jovan and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

The door opened and the two men came in. Guns in their hands, packs on their backs and goggles over their eyes. Moving quickly, closing the door and checking the room.

‘Picked up your trail,’ Finn took off his bergen and knelt by Janner. ‘It’s okay, Ken and Jim are wiping it, chopper’s due in soon.’ He pulled open Janner’s jacket, took the syrettes from the parachute cord round Janner’s neck, and gave him the morphine. First rule, even if the injured man was your best friend. Always use his morphine on him, never your own, because you didn’t know when you yourself might need yours. To his left Steve did the same for Max, then marked the M on his forehead so the medics would know what he’d been given.

‘Minefield,’ Janner struggled to tell Finn.

‘It’s okay,’ Finn calmed him. ‘They know.’

‘The woman saved us,’ Janner tried to tell him. ‘The woman brought us in.’ His voice and breath were slipping. ‘Interpreter for the food drops.’ The morphine was relaxing him. ‘Carried us out through the minefield. Max first. Then came back for me.’

Two more men came. ‘Clean,’ they told Finn. They slipped off their packs and pulled the makeshift stretchers together.

‘Oboe Oboe,’ Finn called Hereford again. ‘Bringing out own casualties.’ He gave Hereford Janner’s and Max’s NAAFI numbers, the codes agreed before, so that Hereford would already be checking blood groups, already getting things rolling. ‘Cas-evac and hot extraction.’ He confirmed the six-figure grid reference. Over the hill and into the valley on the other side. ‘Confirm landing site not, repeat not, secured.’ So the crew would know what they were flying into.

‘Romeo Victor two three four five hours,’ he was told. ‘Cab already airborne. Medics on board.’

‘Moving now.’

Kara held Jovan close against her and watched, body numb and mind bemused, Jovan pouring sweat and jerking in pain, and Kara trying to comfort him. Finn emptied his bergen and gave her the remaining ration packs, the other men doing the same.

‘What’s your name?’ he asked.

She was still confused, still frightened. Still numb. ‘Kara,’ she told him.

‘You were Ian’s interpreter for the food drops?’

‘Yes.’ The response was a long time coming.

The others laid Janner and Max on the stretchers.

‘We owe you, Kara. Janner and Max and I. And we’ll never forget. Anything you want you have. Anything you need you get.’

‘Take my son with you,’ she asked him. ‘He’s ill, he needs help. He’s dying, and there’s nothing I can do.’

Time to move it, one of the men was telling Finn, time to get going.

‘I’m sorry,’ Finn told her. ‘I can’t.’

Because it’s going to be rough anyway getting to the RV. Because there may not be enough space in the chopper. Because we’d have to take you with us. Because the shit’s going to hit the fan anyway after what we did on the hill to stop the bastards shelling Janner and Max. Because we don’t know what the hell is waiting for us between here and the RV or at the RV itself.

‘You said if there was anything I wanted, anything I needed.’ Her voice was suddenly firmer, suddenly like ice.

He was picking up his end of the makeshift stretcher. ‘Yes.’

‘I asked you for something and you said no.’ The voice colder, stronger.

Oh Christ, Finn thought.

‘I saved yours,’ Kara stood in front of him and stopped him leaving. ‘Now you won’t save mine.’

Because I can’t. Because my sole function at the moment is to save Janner and Max. Because my sole responsibility and my sole allegiance is to them. But you said you owed, he knew the woman would say. Anything I want I can have. Anything I need I get. And all I’ve asked is one small thing, but you’ve refused me.

‘I’ll be back,’ he told her.

Why commit yourself, Finn? Why say that? Why say anything?

‘When?’ She refused to move, refused to let him go. ‘My son is dying, like your people are dying.’ Therefore tomorrow, next week, next month, will be too late.

‘Tonight.’

‘What’s your name?’ she asked.

‘Finn.’

‘Don’t let me down, Finn.’

She stood aside and opened the door for him.

The room was dark and getting colder. Kara sat at the table and watched the candle flame flicker, knelt by the stove and fed the remaining wood into it. The shells were still falling – somewhere, everywhere – but at least Jovan was sleeping.

It was midnight, closing on one.

The man called Finn would be back soon, because he’d said he would be.

Finn wouldn’t be back, because he didn’t exist and what she thought had happened that night had not happened at all. Except there was blood on the floor where she had laid the two men. So the man called Finn did exist, so he would be back.

Except he had his own to look after. But Finn had promised, and she had believed him.

It was one in the morning, going on two.

She was hungry now, crying now. She knelt by Jovan and felt the fever on his forehead – red hot and burning now. Knelt on the floor and began to wash the blood from it.

It was two in the morning, almost three.

The door opened and the men came in. The ice was frozen in their eyebrows and their faces were grey with cold.

Finn was taking off the strange thing he wore on his head, taking off the pack on his back, putting the gun he carried by the table, then kneeling by the bed and pulling little Jovan out, feeling his brow then his pulse.

Steve was helping her up, telling her she was cold and hungry and asking her why she hadn’t eaten the food they’d left her.

‘What food?’ she asked.

He opened one of the packs, poured the contents into a saucepan, and put the pan on the stove.

Ken was tending Jovan, Finn spreading a map of Maglaj on the table and asking her where the hospital was. Steve took the pan off the stove, poured the stew into a bowl, and gave it to her. ‘Easy, it’ll be hot.’ She took it and smelt the stew, was shaking, crying again.

‘It’s not a hospital, it’s a medical centre.’ She held the bowl of stew tight and showed Finn on the map.

The shells were still falling, the mortars still coming in.

Why did you come back? she asked at last.

Because I said I would, he told her. Any way to the new town other than over the bridge, he asked.

‘No.’ She was numb, confused.

Finn was emptying his bergen, cutting two holes in the bottom. ‘We’ll take three food packs with us, leave the rest for when you get back. You know how to use them now?’

Yes – she was nodding. But we can’t go now, even though little Jovan needs to go. Because the shells and the rockets are falling and we’ll be killed.

‘Warm coat and boots?’ Finn asked her.

‘Yes.’ She began to put them on.

‘Where’s your husband?’

‘At the front.’ She was still numb, still confused. ‘Two days on and one off.’

‘When’s he due back?’

‘He’s already overdue.’

The others were standing, pulling on their bergens.

‘What’s his name?’

‘Adin.’

‘Leave him a note in case you and Jovan are still at the medical centre when he gets here.’

She did as he told her. Tightened the coat round her and laced the boots.

Finn lifted the boy from the floor, wrapped the coat and blankets round him, and slid him into the bergen so that his legs were hanging out of the holes in the bottom. Then he pulled the top over him and strapped the bergen on to his back.

‘Steve in front, Ken looks after Kara. Jim behind. Put this on.’ He gave her Janner’s PNG.