That wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
“Shields and the others know right where we are, and I’ve got an encrypted satellite phone in my backpack. But for now, it’s up to us to save ourselves. I’ll call them once we’re away from here. Our priorities at this moment are survival, evasion, and escape. Do you understand?”
She nodded, but he was pretty sure she didn’t get the big picture. How could she? She had no military training. Nothing in her life as an attorney and the daughter of wealthy academics could have prepared her for this.
He’d gotten them out of one hot mess and landed them straight in another.
“We need to get away from this crash site as soon as possible. There are probably choppers on the way to our position right now. Turn off the encrypted cell phone we gave you. We don’t want Naing getting a ping on our location.”
“I thought you said you could still track a phone even when it’s off.”
“That’s using the IEMI number. No one outside of Cobra has that information for these phones. But any cell tower or stinger set-up can get a ping off a phone that’s turned on. Shields will still be able to follow us. We take what we need from the helicopter and get moving.”
She seemed to get ahold of herself, fishing the phone out of her handbag and shutting it down. “What can I do?”
He climbed up on the crumpled boom, opened the baggage compartment, and tossed down a first aid kit and Hatch and Davis’ luggage. “Search their bags. Put anything that might help us survive in your handbag, but remember, you’ll be carrying it all the way to the border.”
With that to keep her busy, he climbed back into the bird, opened the rear storage compartment, and took out what they needed. A backpack with a first aid kit and a jungle survival kit. Emergency rations and water. A K-Bar knife rig for his ankle. An M4 rifle with a BE Meyers MAWL infrared laser scope and six loaded thirty-round magazines. Extra ammo for the rifle and for his Glocks.
After that, he checked the corpses again. One had a lighter in his pocket that might come in handy. Both had water and energy bars. He stripped both men of their IDs so that Shields could have a go at them. He located his radio near the co-pilot’s feet, but it was smashed, useless. Well, they were out of range anyway.
He jumped down, found Shanti sorting through the contents of Hatch and Davis’ bags, tears on her face. He should have known that would be a hard job for her.
“This one had a photo of his wife and kids.” She slid it into her handbag. “His malaria pills are here, too. Mine were in my luggage, which never made it on board. I hope there’s enough for us both.”
“Good call. If he’s got rain gear, bring that, too. Can I have one of those Advil?”
She dug around in her massive handbag, opened a small bottle, put a yellow pill in his hand. “Your head hurts, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah.” He popped the pill, took a drink. “When Naing’s men come down on us, and they will, they’re going to try to kill me to get to you. They’ll try to take you alive. He wants to know what you know and—”
From behind him came a strange, low grunt.
Crunch!
The helicopter shuddered.
He turned, dropped to one knee, weapon raised, to see a massive black bull with curved horns. The animal was pissed off, its body rippling with muscle.
“It’s a wild gaur,” Shanti said softly. “He must think the helicopter is an intruder. My father told me they’re not usually aggressive toward people.”
The enormous animal didn’t seem to notice them but rammed the nose of the chopper once more.
Crunch!
“Shit.” Connor lowered his weapon, shouldered the backpack, and checked the M4. “Let’s get out of here. Leave the phone.”