Nick picked up his weapon and grabbed Selena's arm. They ran for the far corner. The ground along the wall was flat for twenty feet or so until it dropped away in a steep slope to the right. They ducked and dodged between piles of fallen stones from the broken walls. Bullets whined and ricocheted all around.
Ronnie was almost to the corner when a clatter of automatic fire came from behind and he went down. Nick turned and fired, Selena beside him. They brought down the shooter. When they reached Ronnie, they dragged him around the corner.
His leg was bloody. There were two holes on the back of his uniform, but his body armor had deflected the rounds and kept him alive.
"Shit," he grunted, face tight with pain.
"How bad?"
"Thigh shot. Probably broken ribs. God damn it!"
"Selena, cover us. Keep your head down, quick looks, reach around the corner and fire in their general direction."
She nodded, grim-faced, stuck her H-K around the corner, and began firing short bursts. Nick cut Ronnie's pants leg away. The bullet had gone all the way through, from the back to the front of his thigh. Nick bound him up with a strip of cloth torn from the pants.
"Looks like it missed the bone and artery, amigo. Think you can stand on one leg?"
"Yeah."
Ronnie was pale. Things had just gotten more difficult.
Harker's voice sounded in his ear.
"ETA for extraction, eleven minutes. I can see eight hostiles still moving around plus Wu and Choy."
"Tell them we've got wounded. Tell them to expect ground fire. I'm going to try to get to the northwest corner."
"Roger that."
The sky was a dirty yellow color, dust from the explosion drifting everywhere. He knelt by Selena.
"How's your ammo?"
"Getting low."
He gave her another magazine. "We have to get to the next corner. There's a chopper coming. We need to stay alive and knock down a few more of them."
"How's Ronnie?"
"We'll have to help him. You're doing great. You help Ronnie, you and he watch the front, I'll cover the rear. Up there." He pointed. "Go!"
She jumped up and helped Ronnie to his feet. They started toward the far corner, Ronnie hopping on one leg with his arm around Selena's shoulder. Nick risked a look around the wall, ducked back as flying chips cut into his face. He reached around, firing, and saw another enemy soldier collapse.
Selena and Ronnie had made it to the end of the wall. He caught up with them. They crouched behind a tumble of rock at the corner.
"ETA six minutes." The voice of the Director was distorted again by atmospherics. "Wu and four others are back at the trucks. Four coming toward you, around the corner."
"Coming this way." He pointed. "Let them get part way down the wall." They waited, weapons leveled. Four men appeared, running low and hard. Selena and Ronnie and Nick opened up at the same time. The storm of bullets ripped through the soldiers and turned their crisp uniforms into bloody rags. They crumpled and slid down the side of the hill.
"Just five left, now, down there." He gestured toward the Chinese trucks parked fifty yards away, visible in quick glances between the rocks giving them cover. "They have to come to us. Let's wait here."
"Suits me." Ronnie looked white and haggard. Blood stained the improvised bandage on his leg. Selena looked flushed. Carter's face was swelling where he'd taken the blow and his jaw hurt. His back felt like it was in a vise.
"ETA three minutes." Harker's voice echoed in his ear. "You should hear them any minute now. We sent you a Pave Hawk with Apache escort."
That made him smile, even though it hurt. The Pave Hawk only had a couple of fifties or 7.62's on it, but the Apache was a different animal altogether. Colonel Wu was about to get a big surprise.
"Tell them to take out those vehicles as soon as they can get a lock. Make sure they know where we are. I'll make smoke."
"Roger that."
He pulled a smoke marker from his pack. In the distance, he heard the choppers.
"ETA two minutes."
He pulled the pin and tossed the marker. A bright orange plume of smoke billowed upward. Chips flew off the rocks around them from a barrage of automatic fire that said Wu knew where they were. It wasn't going to do him much good now.
Three helicopters popped up over the next ridge, laboring hard in the thin air, two Apaches leading the way. A big man stood up by the Chinese trucks with a shoulder launcher. Carter recognized the man from the porch in California and locked him in the sights of his MP-5. He gave him a full magazine. Choy went over backwards as the launcher fired.
The missile snaked straight up into the air, stretching a white plume of smoke behind. It wandered uncertainly, then turned and headed straight for one of the Apaches. Carter held his breath.
A dark shape streaked out of the lead helicopter and met the missile in mid-air. The explosion slapped against their ears.
The Apaches launched rockets.
Nick hit the dirt. The blast rocked the ground. Stones tumbled off the wall, bouncing around them. When he looked again, two of the trucks were engulfed in flame. The gunners on the Apaches opened up with 30 millimeter chain guns and the burning trucks and remaining vehicles blew apart. The smoking remains of an engine sailed out of the sky and buried itself in the ground ten feet in front of him.
The Pave Hawk settled down hard on a flat area. Six troopers jumped from the hatch and fanned out to form a perimeter while the Apaches hovered overhead. Carter stood.
"Selena, you take one side, I'll take the other."
They carried Ronnie at a trot toward the helicopter. A medic came out to help and lifted him in. They climbed in after him.
"Good Morning, Gentlemen."
The voice belonged to a Captain wearing Army Rangers flashes on his uniform. His name tag said Riggins. He looked surprised when he saw Selena.
"And Lady. Strap yourselves in. We're leaving. Just the three of you?"
"Right. Nice to see you, Captain. The Gunny here took a hit in his leg.
"Saw that. We'll get to it right away, Colonel."
He didn't ask any questions. Captain Riggins said something into his radio. The troopers on the ground pulled in and boarded.
The Pave Hawk lifted and turned south toward India.
Carter looked out the open hatchway. The courtyard of the temple was littered with bodies. The temple was a jumbled pile of broken stone. Nothing moved but dust and smoke eddying in the chill wind. No one was going to visit the Emperor for a while.
Flames rose fifty feet into the air from the remains of the Chinese convoy. There was no movement on the ground, no weapons fire toward the chopper.
Safe.
He felt the tension start to drain away. His back was an agony of fire. He shifted on the hard seat and turned to Selena.
She was staring out through the open hatch, watching the Himalayas slide by as the helicopter descended into a long, wide valley toward India. Overhead, the steady beat of the blades drummed away.
She turned toward him. Nick had seen that look before, when someone came face to face with their own, violent death. When they began to understand the power of life and death they held over others.
In combat everyone was an instrument of death. The initiation wasn't easy. Some broke. Some got stronger. He could see Selena was one of the strong ones.
"You're all right."
She said nothing.
"People go through months of training to prepare for something like that and screw it up. You did everything right. You could have been a Marine."
She almost smiled. Then a distant look came into her eyes. After a few seconds she said, "Now I know what you meant."
"About what?"
"About shooting back. About defending yourself. I felt like a different person back there. I don't know who that person is."