A minute later he was at the entrance, his friends beside him.
“Did you find it?” Christine murmured.
“I took the only laptop in there. A Dell. Is that it?”
“Has to be.”
Drake looked toward the pair of Shans and nodded as he took a deep breath and swung the door open.
The air outside stank of burning chemicals, and the conflagration at the shack belched black smoke into the night sky. Drake surveyed the exterior, the ground littered with the bodies of fallen Red Moon shooters, and whispered to Uncle Pete, who called a warning to the Shan soldiers so they wouldn’t open fire.
The two Shans emerged first, guns sweeping the area, followed by Drake and Christine. Uncle Pete led Spencer and Allie out next, and let go of Allie’s hand once they could see by the firelight flickering from the ruins of the supply structure.
Shots rang out from the corner of the building, and rounds ricocheted off the concrete. Drake spun and fired as the tall Red Moon leader tried to duck for cover, but one of Drake’s rounds hit him in the chest and he flew backward, firing into the air as he dropped. Drake continued shooting until his magazine was empty, and then ejected the spent one and slid a fresh one home. He continued toward the corner and only stopped when he saw the man gasping, his rifle a few feet away.
Drake toed the weapon out of reach and watched wordlessly as the Red Moon leader struggled to breathe, the chest wound burbling with each effort. Christine limped to where he stood and stared down at the man, her face an ugly mask of hate.
“He was going to sell me into slavery after he and everyone here raped me. The only reason he hadn’t yet was because of my injuries.” She spit on Lee’s face. “Burn in hell, you bastard,” she hissed in Chinese. Drake’s fingers on her arm seemed to startle her, and then her expression softened.
“He’s not going to make it,” Drake said.
“Good. Or I’d put the final bullet in him myself. I just hope he suffers for a long time.”
Drake lowered his gun and nodded. “Let’s get out of here. Think you can manage a hike?”
“Try stopping me.”
Drake took her to where Allie and Spencer were standing. “Where’s Joe?” Allie asked.
He told her about the plane. She gasped when he described it crashing into the jungle over the rise. “Oh, God… so he sacrificed everything for us?”
“Yes. Without his distraction, we might not have been able to get you out alive,” Drake said.
Another shot rang out from near the airfield. The last of the stragglers were being dispatched by the Shans, who were showing their adversaries no mercy.
“Where’s Uncle Pete?” Drake asked.
“He ran off toward the jungle over there. Maybe he’s going to go look for the plane?” Allie said.
“I don’t know about you, but the faster we’re out of here, the better I’ll feel,” Spencer said. “I don’t want to learn the hard way that there are more of these Red Moon characters lurking around, do you?” He paused. “Or that the Shan aren’t much more honorable and might start thinking about ransoms rather than rescues?”
Drake nodded. “Point taken. But in a few hours, the whole Shan army will be here.”
“Then let’s agree that we won’t be.”
“What about Uncle Pete?” Allie asked.
“He’s the expert tracker. He’ll find us,” Spencer said, moving to a dead guard and scooping up his AK. He handed the gun to Allie and then walked to where another rifle lay abandoned and snagged it before turning back to Drake. “Any idea where we are?”
“Yes. According to Joe, there’s a dirt road that leads to a small town, Mong Tum, about nine miles south of us. From there we should be able to make it to the Thai border. We can stop and rest whenever we get tired, and still probably make it by morning.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Drake eyed Christine. “You ready?”
She stared at the fire dancing from the smoldering ruins and then at Drake’s face, her expression determined.
“Lead the way.”
Chapter 46
The journey south, even with the night vision goggles, was brutal with two injured travelers, and it was obvious by the time they’d arrived at the halfway point that Christine wasn’t going to make it in one go. They found a spot by a stream and decided to wait until morning, when the danger of a misstep was lessened — she’d almost gone down twice on the trail, which would have been incapacitating with her clavicle broken.
Allie inspected Spencer’s wound, which, as she’d feared, was showing signs of infection. They had no medications and couldn’t even use the stream water to clean it due to its questionable origins, so all she could do was commiserate.
Spencer put a brave face on it, but they all knew that time was of the essence in reaching anything remotely resembling civilization, because in the jungle the progression from infection to sepsis could be all too rapid.
Spencer lost the hushed argument with Drake about who would stand watch while they slept, and soon was dozing, his breathing deep and regular. Christine was slumbering with her back against a tree, and Drake sat up the bank, where he could spot any threat before it reached them — at least, that was his hope.
After half an hour, Allie rose and joined him. They sat side by side in wordless communion, exhausted from the events but relieved to be safe, their ill-fated adventure hopefully nearing its end. As time wore on, the clouds dissipated and the stars came out, and Allie inched closer to Drake so her voice wouldn’t wake the others.
“No Uncle Pete,” she observed in a whisper.
“He’s a big boy. I’m sure he’ll be along, if he wants to.”
“If he wants to? Why wouldn’t he?”
“Beats me. I gave up trying to understand anything about this place about three days ago.”
“Horrible about Joe, isn’t it?” Allie said.
“He pretty much saved us all. Just goes to show you can’t tell how anyone’s going to react when it comes down to the clinch. I would have bet he’d sell us out in a blink.”
“Not me. Uncle Pete, on the other hand…”
“He’s not so bad. Little gruff, but hey.” He turned to her. “What about you, Allie? How are you holding up?”
“Pretty good, all things considered. But if you’re asking whether I’d do it all over again, that’s a no.”
“Me either. Hope Spencer’s going to be okay.”
“We need to pick up the pace tomorrow and get him to a doctor as soon as possible. Even in the moonlight I can see it’s going the wrong way.”
“What about Christine? What do you make of her?”
“She’s not super talkative. Then again, I think if I had a bunch of broken bones and was strung out on heroin, I might not be all that chatty, either.”
“Good point. Did she say anything while you were in with her?”
Allie shook her head. “Not much. She told the Red Moon thugs we didn’t speak English, so we didn’t want to risk much discussion.”
“Quick thinking. Wonder what her deal with the computer is?”
Spencer moaned in his sleep, and they exchanged a worried glance. “How long until first light?” Allie whispered.
Drake looked at his watch. “Four hours.”
“You going to make it with no sleep?”
“After what we just went through, I’ll be lucky if I ever sleep again.”