Mac leaves Billy at the bottom of the lookout tower and swiftly climbs the metal stairs. She is about to greet the sniper on the platform when he raises his hand, without turning back to look at her.
“Stay behind me,” the sniper says. “We better talk like this.”
“What?”
“It would be like talking to myself. But if you step into my aura, we start interacting. Exchanging glances. Gesturing. It would interrupt my concentration. Besides, I already know who you are and what you are, Mac.”
“How could you?”
“I hear the noise your exoskeleton makes. Your voice is hoarse now it betrays that normally, it is very soft. It sounds very young, too. I’ve heard of only one young Stalker who owns an exoskeleton, because rookies cannot afford one. He was Mac, Uncle Yar’s apprentice.
“Correct, so far.”
“Then I can smell soap on you. You smells better than Stalkers usually do. Adding this to your soft voice, and removing from the equation the not very likely possibility of you being gay, results in the probable assumption that you are a woman.”
“Is that a problem?”
“No. Some of the best snipers in the world were women.”
“Does anything else exist for you apart from sniping?”
“Sure.”
“Like what?”
“Let’s talk about it another time.”
“Will you tell me at least your name?”
“Call me Ahuizotl.”
“Beg your pardon?”
“Ahuizotl.”
“What does it mean? “
“A kind of spook, much like a ghost. Several ghosts, actually, such as the Headless Priest, the ghost dog Cadejo, or the Carreta Nahua, a wooden cart carrying chained lost souls—and some more.”
“¿Eres de América Latina?”
“Sí. Managua, Nicaragua.”
“Vamos a hablar español, porque soy de Argentina.”
“No. I prefer English if you don’t mind. I need some practice and yours is very good.”
“Ahuizotl… For a sniper it’s a great call sign since you are supposed to be like ghosts.”
The sniper nods.
“Now that you know so much about me and me about you only that you’re a hardcore sniper—”
“I preferred you saying, over the edge.”
“—maybe it’s time to tell you what I originally wanted. Shrink wants us to pay a visit to the Stalkers in the Asylum. Their comms are down and I may need to repair it, if that’s why they don’t reply to our calls.”
Ahuizotl shrugs. “All right. Let’s go.”
“Just like that?”
“The boss told us what to do and off we go. What else do you want, a farewell party?”
“Uhm, okay. If you are ready, I am ready.”
Mac is about to descend the ladder when the sniper scans the hills around Bagram once more. Then he fixes his binoculars to the northwest, where the road to the Salang Pass and the Asylum runs through a sparse forest.
“Look at that, Mac.”
Peering through the sniper’s heavy binoculars, Mac’s first reaction is to emit a surprised wow.
“These binocs are fantastic!”
“I know. Zoom in on that road intersection, about two kilometers from here, left from that ruined bus stop.”
“I see — I see a Stalker. He appears wounded. And — Jesus, I see a pack of jackals just a few hundred meters away, between him and the base!”
“He’s dead already,” Ahuizotl coldly observes.
“Shoot those damned mutants! You are supposed to be a sniper!”
“No. Even if all my shots were kills, there would be still enough mutants left to finish him. It makes no sense to waste precious ammunition.”
“You are a coldhearted bastard, you know that?”
Ahuizotl keeps watching the scene.
“Those are not jackals!” he says but Mac doesn’t listen to him. She grasps her PDA and switches to the emergency channel that every Stalker in the range of a few hundred meters receive.
“Wounded Stalker approaching Bagram base from the north-west. Jackals will attack him within a minute. Help! Brothers, help him!”
After a long moment, replies start pouring in.
“Is there a reward for risking my skin for him?”
“Tell him to send me the coordinates of any hidden stash before it’s too late.”
“I’m cleaning my rifle. By the time I get there he would be dead. Too bad, but the New Zone is about taking another life.”
“If he was a good Stalker, we’ll drink to him once more!”
Then at last Shrink’s reply comes and he seems to be the only one who cares.
“Mac and Axe-in-a-Bottle. Get to the URAL immediately. Guards, raise that container and open the gate!”
Praising Uncle Yar for welding the steel ladder such way that the guards can simply slide down, Mac gets down and runs to the armored truck which has a twin-barreled ZU-23 anti-aircraft gun mounted on its flatbed. Shrink has already started the engine and the truck is slowly rolling towards the opening in the container wall surrounding the Stalker base when Ahuizotl reaches it. He grabs Mac’s hand and jumps to the flatbed. Billy follows him with a huge leap.
“Switch to your intercom!” Shrink shouts while he drives the truck through the gate. “You better know how to use that autocannon!”
“You have no one to handle this shit?” she shouts back.
“Of course I have! You!”
Mac almost falls off the flatbed as the truck speeds up but Ahuizotl grabs her arm at the last moment.
“I know how to shoot this,” he yells at her. “Hold on to the handrails!”
Shrink accelerates the massive truck and drives straight ahead towards the intersection. The shortcut through the bushes wins them a few minutes, but also prevents Ahuizotl from firing the cannon forward where the truck’s cabin blocks the cannon’s line of fire.
“Keep right, keep right!” the sniper shouts. “I can’t fire from this angle!”
Ignoring him, Shrink drives the truck directly into the mutant pack. They have meanwhile sniffed out the bleeding man and move in for the kill.
Holding tight on the handrails on the left side of the flatbed, Mac watches the pack. The canine mutants that looked like jackals from the distance are actually twice their size and boast an enormous snout with fangs as long and curved as a saber. That would make them appear fearsome enough, but their red eyes glow with a rage that is insane even for a blood-thirsty mutant.
“These are not jackals,” she yells.
“Told you so. It’s wolves! Shrink! Turn the truck to the right! To the right!”
Putting his trust into the 15 tons of steel driving at full speed, Shrink attempts to run through the pack but the mutants are on their guard. The pack splits and lets the truck drive into their middle where they don’t only keep up with its speed but encircle the vehicle.
“Mac! Keep those beasts away from us!” the sniper shouts. ”I can’t hit them at this range!”
Mac doesn’t need to be warned: she’s already holding herself with one hand and firing bursts from her F2000 rifle with the other. On the flatbed of the speeding and bumping truck, aiming is impossible but she hopes to hit at least the mutants running up the truck before they can leap onto the flatbed. Ahuizotl has also drawn a pistol with his left hand and fires at the wolves closing in on the truck.
“Hold on,” Shrink’s yell crackles in the headset. “We have almost reached the patient!”
“Keep driving instead of trying to be funny!” Mac shouts back.
At the same moment, one particularly agile mutant makes a leap and lands on the flatbed. Billy jumps at its throat but wouldn’t stand a chance against the wolf even if he were a fully grown jackal. Mac pulls the trigger, only to realize that the magazine is empty. The wolf’s massive fangs are about to tear into the yelping jackal’s neck when three rounds from Ahuizotl’s pistol hit it. The mutant shakes its head, as if trying to get rid of the sudden pain, and turns on its human attacker with a growl. Billy snaps after it, his sharp teeth getting hold of the wolf’s foot and interrupting its attack. Mac puts all her strength into the kick she delivers to the drooling mutant. For a second, the red glow disappears from the wolf’s eyes. In the next moment, a long burst from Mac’s rifle tears into the wolf’s head and makes sure that it doesn’t return.