At least she thought she was.
She patted herself just to make sure.
No blood, as far as she could tell.
Just a bump on her head.
Still gathering her senses, she glanced at the ladder above and tried to remember everything that she had seen before her fall.
The hatch. The giant. His gun.
Then it hit her. ‘Simon!’
Dade clambered to his feet. His neck ached and his ribs were broken, but he had to fight through the pain. His quickness was the only advantage that he had over his bigger, stronger opponent, and he couldn’t use it lying on the ground.
Kamal raised his fists like a boxer. ‘Come. Fight like a man.’
In response, Dade flung a fistful of sand in the giant’s face, momentarily blinding him. Then he charged forward, hoping to use the moment of weakness to incapacitate his opponent with a swift kick to the groin. The plan probably would have worked on a shorter man, but due to a combination of things — Kamal’s height, poor traction in the desert sand, plus Dade’s inability to swing his foot high enough to even reach Kamal’s crotch — Dade barely grazed his target. Instead of inflicting excruciating pain, his foot got stuck between the giant’s thighs like a car getting wedged between two walls.
‘Son of a bitch!’ Dade said, embarrassed by his failure.
Soon his shame would turn to pain.
Still blinded from the sand, Kamal couldn’t fully see his challenger, but he could feel his foot in a place it shouldn’t be. He responded by grabbing Dade’s leg and twisting it with so much force that the ligaments ripped in his knee and ankle.
Dade screamed in agony and tried to pull away but was unable to break the giant’s grip. He frantically clawed at his tormentor, hoping to break the vise-like lock as the shooting pain in his leg took hold of him. He was on the verge of passing out when Kamal finally released his grasp.
Not out of sympathy.
But to end Dade’s life.
The thought of Dade had driven Sarah to her feet. She knew he was defenseless, having dropped his shotgun before ascending the ladder. She scrambled to find the weapon, knowing that it was still fully loaded.
Dade hadn’t fired a shot.
She had seven chances to settle things.
She grabbed the gun in one hand and climbed the ladder with the other. Her progress was slow and lurching as she struggled with the awkward, single-handed climb.
Still, she couldn’t give up on him.
Not in his time of need.
Kamal’s anvil-like fists rained down on Dade, unleashing a torrent of pent-up rage: for the indignity that he had suffered at Hassan’s house, the humiliation of tracking the Americans through the sewers, the devastating loss of his entire crew, and his displeasure at accompanying Dade in the city and during the long ride through the desert.
It was simply too much to handle.
Enjoying every single moment, Kamal had started low and had methodically worked his way up. Now that he had reached Dade’s face, he stared down at him with a crazed look in his eyes. He grabbed Dade’s jaw and smiled, making his next target clear.
‘For Tarek,’ he growled in English.
Dade defiantly spat blood in the thug’s face. ‘Fuck Tarek.’
Infuriated by the insult to his dead best friend, Kamal grabbed a softball-sized rock from the sand and swung it at Dade’s head. The bones of his face collapsed under the pressure, killing him instantly. But Kamal continued to pound away, releasing his hatred with blow after angry blow. The giant never let up, not even as Dade’s skull was reduced to nothing but a sopping stew of bones and brains and hair in the arid desert sand.
79
Sarah reached the top of the ladder and crawled into the moonlight. No more than twenty feet away, she could see Kamal hunched over Dade’s lifeless body.
The fight was already over.
She was too late to save another friend.
The grief was nearly too much to bear — even for someone like Sarah.
If she had wanted to, she could have run to safety. Kamal was clearly lost in his rage, and he assumed that she was dead. It was likely that he never would have noticed her. She could have easily slipped past him and returned to base camp.
But the thought never crossed her mind.
Without saying a word, Sarah lifted the shotgun to her shoulder, trained it on the unsuspecting thug, and opened fire. The shot tore through Kamal’s arm, spinning him to the ground. The second shot splintered his leg. He cried out in agony, but she was all out of sympathy and would be for a very long time.
Clinging to life, Kamal did the only thing he could.
He reached for his pistol, determined to go out fighting.
Sarah granted his wish, unloading the remaining rounds into his chest before he could brandish a weapon. With every shot she moved closer, growing more and more satisfied with every pull of the trigger. By the time she reached him, it was very clear that he was dead, but she kicked him a few times just to be sure.
Garcia had watched her carry the shotgun up the ladder, and he had heard the shots shortly thereafter, but he had no idea what had happened. Once she had left the bunker, he could no longer track her movement with the network of cameras.
‘Sarah,’ he said, ‘can you hear me? What’s your status?’
Cobb waited several seconds for a response. He wasn’t the type to panic, but considering what had happened moments earlier, the prolonged silence was deafening. ‘Hector, give me an update. Where’s Sarah?’
‘I have no idea,’ Garcia said. ‘I watched her and Simon crawl up the wormhole, but I think they were attacked outside the bunker because I watched her drop back down the chute, pick up a shotgun off the floor, and head back to the surface. Next thing you know I’m hearing multiple shots. And not from a wimpy Glock; something a lot more powerful.’
Cobb had heard the shots as well. Not only in his earpiece, but in the distant desert. Now that he knew they were from Sarah’s gun, he needed her to check in. If she didn’t, he would have no choice but to track her down.
‘Sarah, it’s Jack. Are you out there?’ He waited a few seconds before he continued. ‘If you can hear my voice but can’t talk, just tap on your comm and give us a signal. Josh and I will come to you.’
‘Don’t,’ she ordered.
Cobb, Garcia, and McNutt breathed a sigh of relief.
‘You had us worried,’ Garcia said.
‘Don’t be worried about me. Be worried about yourselves.’
Cobb didn’t like the ominous tone of her voice. He knew that she was hurting from the loss of Jasmine, but now wasn’t the time to lose one’s cool — not with danger lurking in the desert. ‘Sarah, where are you? Are you with Simon?’
‘Simon’s dead,’ she announced as she continued to run from the compound. ‘Kamal killed him, so I killed Kamal.’
Cobb groaned. Losing one friend was hard enough, but losing two back to back had to be devastating. ‘Sarah, I’m sorry about Simon. I really am. Where are you?’
‘Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself.’
‘What does that mean?’ he said, confused.
‘Are you clear of the compound?’
‘Yes,’ he said, struggling to comprehend.
‘What about Josh?’
‘What about me?’ McNutt asked from his sniper post.
‘Are you clear of the compound?’
‘Yes, I’m clear of the goddamned co—’
‘Wait,’ Cobb shouted as a feeling of dread washed over him. From the tone of her voice and her line of questioning, he sensed what was about to happen. ‘I know you’re hurting, but think things through. Don’t do something you’re going to regret.’
‘I won’t regret it.’