“That’s good. Willis, you go with them. Don’t argue!” Willis was about to protest, but Dane’s words stopped him short. “That leg is slowing you down. Besides, if ScanoGen breaks through, all they have to protect them is Kaylin and her .380.”
“Oh, yeah!” Matt pulled Kaylin’s pistol out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Reloads are in here,” he said, handing her a backpack.
“All right.” Willis scowled, clearly unhappy with his assignment, but he wasn’t one to let ego get in the way of doing the right thing. He knew he wasn’t anywhere near one hundred percent. “Let’s get going.”
“What do you want me to do?” Thomas’s face was white as a sheet.
“Help Willis,” Dane said. “Kaylin likes to take risks. Don’t let her do anything stupid.”
“Right, because she always listens to advice.” Thomas managed a faint smile, clearly relieved that he hadn’t been asked to take part in the fighting. “Good luck.” He offered his hand, and Dane shook it. “And thank you.” With that, he was off.
Dane found it odd that, in the midst of an attack, he was contemplating how he felt about shaking hands with Kaylin’s boyfriend. Shrugging off the distracting thought, he turned back to the others.
“I think these explosions are a diversion. They’ve been far away, and always in the same place. Whoever is firing grenades, or whatever they are, isn’t coming any closer. I believe they’re trying to draw the defenders down the path, and maneuver around them.” He turned to Tam. “I killed one of their men during the fighting down in the canyon. How many do you think they have left?”
“Five at the very most, and that’s if that idiot Cy is still alive. Last I saw of him, though, he was running like a debutante toward a surgeon’s convention.” She saw Dane’s confused look. “You know, husbands on the half-shell.”
Bones chuckled. “I like you.”
“Everybody likes me.” Tam gave a coquettish smile. “What’s the plan?”
“They’re going to have to come out of the jungle sometime. The four of us should spread out and take up defensive positions where we can get a good line of sight and maybe pick them off.”
“They have night vision goggles,” Tam said. “So stay out of sight. They’ll see you before you see them.”
“All right,” Dane said. “We’ll rendezvous at the pyramid if they get behind us.”
Tam looked at Bones. “Want to be killin’ buddies?”
“Don’t mind if I do. We’ll take the left flank.” The two of them disappeared into the darkness.
After a quick look around, Dane positioned Matt on top of one of the nearby stone buildings, and then headed off to guard the edge of the settlement opposite where Bones and Tam had set up.
A group of defenders, led by Hamilcar, rounded a building and froze when they caught sight of Dane. Hamilcar pointed at him and shouted something in his native tongue. His men looked at him in confusion.
“There’s no time to argue!” Dane shouted. “The men out there can see in the dark. They have special glasses.” With one finger, he drew circles around his eyes, wondering if he was making any sense at all. “If you run into the jungle, they’ll just shoot you.”
Hamilcar, to his credit, didn’t waste time on indecision. “What should my men do?”
“Bows and arrows are your best bet. We have to assume they are coming after the sacred tree. Hide your men all along the way, and shoot them if they come near. You have to stay hidden, though, because their rifles can shoot a lot farther than your bows.”
As if the emphasize the point, one of the Carthaginian men crumpled to the ground, his head ruined, just as the report of a rifle reached them. Dane hit the ground and rolled behind the relative safety of the closest hut. Another man fell and his companions scattered. Another report came from behind them as Matt returned fire.
“Get back to the tree!” Dane shouted, peering around the edge of the hut for a muzzle flash that would give away the attacker’s position.
Hamilcar barked an order and the men followed him back through the dwellings, toward the pyramid and their sacred tree.
The next shot buzzed high overhead, obviously aimed at Matt, and Dane saw only the faintest flash of muzzle fire. They must be using flash suppressors. He didn’t waste time, but immediately aimed a shot at the place where he’d seen the shot. Matt’s answering shot came a split-second later, and from a different spot on the roof. Dane rolled to his right before their attacker could return fire. No shot came, though. Obviously, the man was on the move. He would be a tough nut to crack.
“Next shot, you fire left, I’ll fire right!” Dane called out, hoping Matt was close enough to hear him.
“Gotcha!”
The night grew eerily silent as they waited for their unseen attacker to make his next move.
Smithson was running out of forest cover, and he had two shooters to dislodge. Maddock and his crew must have beaten them to Kephises. “Locals are retreating to the pyramid,” he whispered into his throat mic. “I’ve got two shooters in the village.”
“Can you slip around them?” Kennedy sounded unperturbed, as always.
“I’m going to try.”
“I want you to stay put for a minute,” Kennedy ordered. “Brown, do you copy?”
“Roger that.” Brown sounded equally calm.
“Change of plans,” Kennedy instructed. “I want you to swing around the right and come in hard. Blow the bastards to hell if you have to.”
“Roger that. Over.”
“Smithson,” Kennedy continued, “you wait for Brown’s attack, and then make your move.”
“Roger.” Smithson hoped Brown would be quick about it.
“What about me?” Wesley sounded like an eager kid on Christmas morning who was afraid he hadn’t gotten any presents.
“Keep doing what you’re doing.”
Wesley didn’t acknowledge. It was a good thing Kennedy didn’t insist on strict military decorum, or he’d have the man’s ass. Kennedy wasn’t one you messed around with. Smithson grinned. Maddock and his crew didn’t know what they were in for.
Chapter 30
Bones heard the shots exchanged, but stayed put, despite his inclination to help out. Maddock wouldn’t want him to abandon his post. Besides, it had been a while since he’d heard the last shot. He wondered what was going on. Perhaps this meant the battle would soon be shifting in his direction.
No sooner had the thought passed through his mind than he heard the sounds of lots of feet running through the jungle. He raised his M-16 and waited.
A group of men broke through into the clearing, all of them natives of Kephises. From within the depths of the jungle, someone fired off three shots in rapid succession, and two men went down. This was it! His eyes probed the darkness, seeking out a target.
He saw a burst of muzzle flash, and the ground erupted beneath the running men. Bones squeezed off two quick shots and hit the dirt, rolling behind a giant fern. Bullets sizzled through the spot he’d just occupied. Nearby, men cried out in pain. A few struggled to regain their feet, but others did not move at all. Bones had seen too many of those glassy eyed stares in his lifetime.
He wondered if the attacker could see him hunkered down here. The fern wouldn’t offer much protection, but it would hopefully hide him from the night vision-enhanced eyes of the ScanoGen men. Another muzzle flash and, before he could return fire, another explosion, this one too close. He squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head as rocks and debris scoured him. Over the ringing in his ears, he heard an explosion from somewhere in Maddock’s direction, and then footsteps pounded close by — the guy was coming right at him. In fact, he was almost on top of him!