She hesitated only a second. Turning, she lifted her M-4, her heart pounding. Had they been set up? Who was attacking them?
Gabe pushed the door open. Taher was nowhere to be found. Gabe called the medevac, hearing more RPGs being fired. No answer. d.a.m.n!
"Stay close," he growled to Bay.
Fear rolled through her. The night was almost complete. She could see fire and dark, thick black clouds rising in the air. "It"s true. We"ve been set up!" she gasped.
"Get your helmet on. You need NVGs," he rasped.
Gabe had worn his Kevlar helmet into the village, his night-vision goggles already in place. Dropping her pack, with shaking hands, Bay pulled the protective helmet out of her ruck. Her NVGs were next. Breathing hard, Bay quickly pulled the ruck back over her shoulders and picked up her M-4. "What are we going to do?"
"Get the h.e.l.l out of this village," he snarled, angry at himself for not paying more attention. "Follow me!"
Gabe ran for the slope of the mountain. As a sniper, he knew to take high ground. It meant safety. He had seen a wadi, a ravine, about two thousand feet above them. The Taliban could be hiding in there. Best to avoid it entirely.
"What about the medevac?" Bay rasped, following on his heels.
"They"re dead."
Oh, G.o.d... Tears filled her eyes for the three-man crew. "We were suckered in," she cried, stumbling and digging in on the rocky slope.
"Yeah, dammit."
"You"ve contacted the chief?"
"Yes. Come on, we"ve got to hide. We have no idea how many Taliban are around here. Or where they are." He scrambled up the steep slope like a surefooted mountain goat. The rocks were many, gave way and began to tumble down past him.
Her lungs began to burn as they faded into the night. They climbed a thousand feet up the slope. Bay turned once, gasping for breath, seeing the medevac helicopter enveloped in flames. She pushed up her NVGs up because bright light of any kind would destroy her night vision. The flames had spread out, an orange dancing circle around the destroyed helo.
Gabe halted, breathing hard himself. The village sat at eight thousand feet. Now they were close to nine, and he was laboring, too. Grimly, he watched the helo burn. Three good men had just died. And for what? Anger roared through him.
They knelt on the mountain side, using some small bushes to crouch behind. He called in their GPS position, requesting a drone. There was one coming on station as he spoke. Cursing, Gabe wished there had been a drone active over the valley before they"d flown in. It could have picked up the hidden Taliban in the hills above the village. And saved the lives of four men.
Bay knelt at his shoulder. "How many mags you got on you?" he asked.
"Twelve. You?"
"Same. Pistol?"
"I got four mags."
"Good. Water?"
Bay knew how important water was out here. "I"ve got a full CamelBak and six bottles in my ruck."
"I"ve got the same." He looked around, keying his hearing. Below, he could see at least twenty Taliban approaching the helicopter, AK-47s in their hands. "d.a.m.n, that"s a big group," he muttered.
"They were waiting for us." She wiped tears from her eyes, her heart broken. Bay worried about the pregnant woman, but there was nothing she could do to help her now. Had the leader and his wife been threatened by the Taliban? Had they threatened her life if they didn"t call in for American medical support to lay the trap? The Taliban knew they would respond. And they"d fallen for it.
Gabe reached out and gripped her shoulder. "Come on, we"ve got to find a hide."
"I wish I had my Win Mag," she gritted out, rising the turning to follow him up the mountain. The night air was freezing, the wind blowing in gusts across the ridge above them.
"Makes two of us," Gabe said. Pulling down his NVGs, he studied the wadi a thousand feet above them. The snow line was at the top of it. Would the Taliban be using in it? He had no way of knowing.
"I hope we find out how many Taliban there are," Bay huffed, following at his heels.
"We"ll know shortly when Hampton calls us."
Once they reached the lower end of the wadi, Gabe stopped at the edge of the thickets and crouched. Bay moved next to him, alert, looking around. They were high enough now that they couldn"t hear the burning of the helicopter anymore. The village looked far away. She quickly took a drink from her CamelBak, glad she"d filled it before they"d left.
Gabe spoke quietly on another channel on his radio. Unable to hear, Bay continued to scan the area. She saw nothing on the slopes on either side of the wadi. Maybe this one was too high and too d.a.m.n freezing for the Taliban to use. Shivering, she hadn"t packed her winter gear. Her hands were numbing around the M-4. She hadn"t brought gloves, either.
Gabe scowled as he completed the transmission to Hampton. He reached out, touching Bay"s sleeve. Tugging on it once, she moved closer to him to hear his lowered voice. "Hampton says the drone is picking up approximately two hundred Taliban on the hills to the east of the village."
"Two hundred?" The disbelief in her voice was a whisper, but Bay felt terror work through her. "They must have planned this for a long time?"
"Yeah," Gabe whispered, drinking water. Wiping his mouth, he pushed up his NVGs and took his binoculars out of his ruck. He focused on the burning helo below but couldn"t see the enemy. The Taliban would know the Apaches would come and hunt them down. Most likely, the enemy was already scattering throughout the hills to avoid retaliation. The enemy could be coming their way, too. "b.a.s.t.a.r.ds," he snarled.
Bay nodded, still trying to catch her breath. According to the Geneva Convention, no one was allowed to shoot at a medevac helicopter, no matter from what nation. It had a bright red-and-white cross painted on its nose, easy for anyone to see. "I feel horrible about this."
Gabe lowered the binos and put them back into his ruck. "Don"t. We had no idea. The Taliban is smart and they know we"ll come to an aid of a woman in labor." He pulled his NVGs down, gazing around the area above, beside and down below them.
"Do you think they know we"ve escaped?"
"I"m sure of it. They"re probably going house to house right now searching for us."
Fear twisted in her gut. "How are we going to get out of here?"
"Hampton"s working on it with the LT." Gabe wiped the sweat off his temple. "We need to go into sniper mode, Bay. We"ll work our way quietly off to the left of this wadi. Once the Taliban don"t find us in the village, the next place they"ll think we"ve hidden is in this wadi." Snipers never chose obvious cover to set up their hide.
Nodding, Bay knew his logic was sound. "Yeah, thank G.o.d for sniper training. Never hide under a tree, a bush or in a ravine because it"s the first place the enemy will look."
"Right." Gabe studied the slope above them. He pointed upward. "Those boulders at the snow line should do it. Let"s hoof it up there and check it out."
Bay slowly eased from her crouch. She was freezing but didn"t say anything. They"d been working in high desert, not in the mountains. "I wish I had my winter gear on me," she said, following him.
"Makes two of us. We can"t carry everything in our rucks."
Wasn"t that the truth? Bay could feel fear eating at her. In the black ops groups, they never left a man behind when they were in trouble. She was sure Hampton and the LT were working at light speed to figure out a way to drop a Night Stalker helicopter in to pick them up. As she watched where she was putting her boots, Bay knew it wasn"t as simple as she made it out to be. There could be other Taliban around. They might be hidden up among the boulders, where they were heading. A group of unknown size might be on the other side of the mountain ridge. It would take time for the drone to fly around the mountain and send back live video feed into the SEAL compound at Bravo.
Gabe halted about five hundred feet away from the boulders. He crouched and so did she. Breathing hard at his shoulder, Bay studied the monoliths that resembled a string of stone pearls halfway around the mountain.
He received another call. She waited, her heart pounding, her hands now numb.
Gabe hissed a curse after signing off. Twisting around, he rasped, "Bad news. There"s about fifty Taliban on the other side of this ridge where we"re located. And they"re coming directly at us."
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
FEAR GALVANIZED BAY as she followed Gabe higher. The gusts sliced across the ridge, about five hundred feet below where they wanted to hide. The stars were bright, huge and close. If she hadn"t been so scared, she might have appreciated their beauty at this alt.i.tude. The good news was, there were no clouds, which meant no snow or sleet would fall to make their situation even more miserable.
Gabe walked quietly, M-4 in his right hand as he chose a lay up between where the drone had spotted the Taliban coming over the ridge and the wadi. They had some luck as he discovered a depression of rocks, a vertical slit that would fit both of them into it. The rocks surrounding it weren"t very high, but they would conceal their presence from anyone walking nearby.
Using hand signals, he ordered Bay down into the depression. Moving around the area, Gabe hunted to make sure there were no goat paths near it. If there were, it would be the wrong place to wait because the Taliban used these paths to traverse an area. He saw one about one hundred feet away, but it wasn"t close enough for them to be spotted in the depression.
Bay quietly moved some rocks out of the way, making it a bit deeper as well as easier for them to lie on their bellies.
Gabe clicked the radio once. It told her he was returning to the layup. Any time the enemy was near, SEALs relied on radio clicks to communicate. No voices were ever utilized, because they could give away their position. The wind gusted above them and she was grateful to avoid some of it in their hiding place.
Slipping quietly into their spot, Gabe was breathing hard. He sat down and contacted the chief once again, giving their GPS position in a low voice. Some communications could not be clicks, and with the enemy still not in sight, it was safe enough to speak.
Bay continued to watch the ridge above them and to her right. Her mouth dry. She tried to slip her one numb hand into the pocket of her cammies, hoping to warm it up.
Gabe lay down next to her. He moved his head near hers, his voice low. Chief said the Taliban on the other side of the ridge will crest in about five minutes. There"s a goat path the drone spotted. That path comes a hundred feet from our layup. We"re going to have to be quiet and not move."
"Okay. What should I do?" Their layup was short and narrow. It was barely long enough for Gabe"s body. It was about four feet wide and ten feet long and eight feet deep. They wouldn"t be able to spread out, severely limiting the arc of their shooting. Just having his body against hers gave her a sense of safety. There was nothing safe, however, and she knew it. Gabe was calm, seemingly unruffled by the situation. Bay found his reaction amazing because she was scared to death, adrenaline flowing strongly through her.
Gabe whispered, "No choices. We"ll lie together, aim our M-4s to the right and wait."
"That"s what I thought."
His eyes narrowed. "Taliban..."
Dragging in a ragged breath, Bay saw the first of the fifty of their enemy emerge over the goat trail. How they could see at night without NVGs and only a thin trail of moonlight amazed her. The men all carried AK-47s, some RPGs. They had several donkeys burdened with ammunition, food and water. Her mouth went even drier, and she flattened herself down into the depression, wishing she could disappear.
Gabe was glad to be on the side the Taliban were on. He wanted to protect Bay as much as possible. Shifting his M-4 so that the rifle was pointed directly at the enemy, he slowed his breathing. One of the major duties of a sniper was observation. His only worry was if the enemy picked up an odor they were unfamiliar with as they pa.s.sed. They"d know the enemy was nearby. If Bay had washed her hair with that jasmine soap, the Taliban would get a whiff of it and know it was a strange scent, and it could give them away. The Taliban would stop and start hunting them. Bay always washed her hair after coming off a patrol, but thankfully, she hadn"t had time to do it before they"d been ordered out to the village.
Bay forced herself to breathe through her mouth. Gabe was tightly wedged beside her. She could feel his quiet strength, his focus, his head barely above the layup. There were rocks around the depression and she wondered if his rounded Kevlar helmet looked like just another rock to the Taliban, should the enemy peer in their direction. She hoped so. Her fear amped up as the long, snaking line of silent Taliban emerged on their side of the mountain. Bay froze as the leader walked toward them on the goat path.
Gabe felt her stiffen. He forced himself to remain relaxed, the adrenaline pouring through his veins. He slowed his breathing and watched through his NVGs the grainy green shape of the leader no more than a hundred feet away from him. Wind gusted and he saw the leader draw his heavy wool cloak about him more tightly. The man wore sandals and Gabe found it mind-blowing as the temperature was well below freezing. He keyed the radio, one click, to let Hampton know the Taliban were on top of them.
The Taliban leader was so close. The last thing they wanted to do was fire and give away their position. They"d have to make a stand, and two against fifty Taliban would end their lives.
Time crawled by. The temperature continued to fall. Bay couldn"t feel her hands at all anymore. She didn"t move as the long line of Taliban silently walked past them. The donkeys were tired, their heads drooping. It was good news for Gabe and her because it meant the Taliban weren"t as alert as they might have been. Finally, the last member walked past them.
Relief tunneled through Bay. She released a breath, resting her brow on her M-4 for a moment. Her heart was pounding like a freight train in her chest. She was sweating heavily. Fear gripping her.
Gabe clicked the radio again to let the chief know the Taliban had pa.s.sed by them without contact. When he felt it was safe, he called Hampton and reported fifty-two Taliban, the number of weapons they carried, how many RPGs and anything else that was relevant. He felt Bay move beside him, more like a slight movement of relief. He understood. His own heart was doing a slow pound in his chest.
"Chief says the Taliban is dispersing east to south of that village. This other group that just filed past us is heading directly down toward the village." His mouth flattened, his brow furrowing. "J-bad is on this. They"ve got B-52s coming in, but they can"t just drop daisy cutter bombs on them if they"re too close to that village."
Gulping, Bay nodded. "It"s a Shinwari village. They can"t..."
"Right." He wiped his mouth, keeping his voice very low. "The drone isn"t picking up any more activity on the other side of the mountain, so we should be relatively safe here for now. They"ll call us if there"s any new movement."
Eyes going wide, Bay protested, "You mean we have to stay here?" She moved her right hand, her fingers numbed.
"Yeah, no joy." Gabe could barely see her face. "They can"t risk picking us up. Too many Taliban in the area. We"re going to stay put until morning. By then, this group will hopefully be south of the village and they can get the B-52s on station and drop those bombs."
"Okay," she whispered, the terror starting to abate. She did not want the Army Night Stalker pilots risking their lives by trying to rescue them. The crew of the medevac were already dead.
Gabe reached out, his hand over hers. "How are you doing heat wise? It"s going to get cold tonight." Her fingers were icy feeling. He could barely feel his.
The unexpected warmth of his hand over hers made Bay feel a sense of protection. His voice was roughened, his calloused hand remaining over hers. "My hands are numb. I don"t have any winter gear. At all. Half my ruck was medical supplies, not extra clothing."
Grunting, Gabe squeezed her hand and slowly got to his knees, ensuring that he made no sounds. He eased out of his ruck and placed it next to Bay"s head. Slowly opening the Velcro straps so they made no noise, he pulled out two blankets and a set of gloves. He dug out some protein bars and handed them to her. After closing the ruck, he brought it slowly around and shrugged it back over his shoulders. The blankets were wool and would help protect them. The gloves would keep Bay"s hands from becoming frostbitten.
He tugged at her shoulder and leaned over. "Let"s quietly turn around so we"re facing toward the village below. Hampton will alert us if the drone sees any Taliban coming over the ridge."
Bay nodded and dragged herself to her hands and knees. The rocks jammed into her joints and lower legs. She understood how quiet they had to be. Gabe remained in a kneeling position, helping her to turn around. Once she was on her belly, he drew two blankets across her body and handed her the set of gloves. And then came to lie next to her.
Opening the protein bars, Gabe handed her one. "Eat this. And drink plenty of water afterward."
The gloves felt incredibly warm to her fingers. They were much too large for her, but Bay didn"t care. She fumbled with the protein bar between the awkward gloves. The blankets protected her and she felt her legs, which had been going numb, start to warm up. As he situated himself down into the hollow, their bodies jammed against each other, Bay frowned. "Do you have gloves on?"
"No."
"But-"
"It"s okay," Gabe said, chewing on the bar, swiveling his head around the area, looking for anything out of place on the slope.
"You"ve got to be cold!"
"Bay, it"s all right. I"ve done this a time or two. You"re going to get colder a h.e.l.luva lot faster than I will."
The Kevlar would work to trap heat in the core of their bodies, Bay knew. She finished off her protein bar, drank a lot of water and felt returning warmth seeping back into her fingers. There was so much she wanted to say to Gabe, but talking had to be kept to a bare minimum. Bay could see his shadowed profile, head barely above the depression, NVGs down, alert and watchful. Grateful he was with her, she felt the temperature dropping even lower.
Gabe lay very still, observing. He used the Night Force scope on his M-4 and followed the thermal body heat patterns of activity to the east of where they lay on the mountain. It was a 32X magnification and he could see the Taliban continuing to disperse over a large area on the hills above the Shinwari village. When he was focused, time ceased. Always sensitive to Bay, the left side of her body pressed against his, he could feel her shivering in earnest.
He glanced down at his watch and saw that it was midnight. They had a long way to go until dawn. And the coldest hours were ahead of them. He could see his breath flow out of his nose and mouth. It was probably twenty degrees now. It could easily plummet to zero by dawn.
"Bay?"
"Y-yes?" Her teeth were chattering uncontrollably. There was a gruff concern in Gabe"s low voice. He had to be an ice cube himself. For the past two hours, he"d lain completely still, observing and pa.s.sing on radio intel to the chief. She"d tried to sleep, but her legs were jerking and trembling, her body"s core heat going deep in order to keep her internal organs alive.
"Come here." Gabe reached across her, bringing her fully against the front of his body. Their Kevlar vests met. He guided her head against his shoulder as he pushed back against the wall of the layup. "This is how SEALs stay warm in cold conditions," he told her, a hint of humor in his voice. He placed his one leg over hers, drawing her completely against him and rearranging the blankets so they were tucked tightly against her exposed areas.
Bay started to struggle. "But-"
"Hush," he said against her ear. "When SEALs go out in teams of two, they"ll tuck their bodies together, not front to front like we"re doing, but one will curve up behind the other"s back. It can stop both of us from spiraling into hypothermia. There. Are you comfortable?"
Bay closed her eyes. The helmet acted like a pillow of sorts. Her cheek rested against his shoulder. "You"re warm...."