16
Blade in hand, Connor jumped back, the bayonet missing him by inches. He grabbed the second soldier’s rifle, used it to yank him down the stairs. The soldier fell with a grunt, landing at Connor’s feet. Connor wrested the firearm from his grasp, bayoneted the soldier through the chest, then knelt, waiting.
Three tugs.
Shanti was safely down.
Whoever they were, these two hadn’t expected to find him. They’d come up behind, looking surprised to see him. Maybe they were off duty and just taking a stroll. Damned bad luck for them.
When he didn’t hear anyone else, he looked over the edge.
Shanti stood near the base of the ladder, looking up. He didn’t need to see her face to know she was probably scared to death.
He motioned for her to step back, pushed the second soldier’s body over the edge, and then hurled the men’s rifles out over the water, where they landed one at a time with an inaudible splash. He ran up the stairs, untied the rope from the tree, and let it fall. Then he put on his pack, slipped his rifle strap over his shoulder, grabbed onto the ladder—and did his best rendition of a fast-rope down to the river.
Shanti stared at him, eyes wide, clearly stunned. “Are … are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He knew this was hard for her, but he couldn’t do anything about that. He would have asked her to help him search the dead bodies but figured she wasn’t up for that. “Gather the rope. Get it coiled up again.”
That seemed to draw her out of her shock, and she went to work.
Connor dropped to his knees, searched each man’s knapsack and pockets, and retrieved 9 mm ammo, two full canteens, and two pouches of snacks. He packed the goods away, rolled one body into the river and then the next, letting the water take them.
He found Shanti watching him. “If soldiers discover their bodies, Naing will know exactly where we crossed. It will narrow his search and make getting home a hell of a lot tougher.”
“I understand.” She handed him a tight coil of rope.
He shoved it into his pack. “These two probably have friends who will notice when they don’t come back. They have infrared scopes like I do. We need to cross this river and climb up the other side before they come looking. The rocks retain heat, and sunset will confuse their scopes for a few minutes. But if they find us while we’re climbing, we’ll make easy targets. Speed is survival. I’ll cross the bridge first. Stay a few feet behind me, and hold on tight to the side ropes. If I fall through, you keep going. When we reach the other side, I’ll climb up first, and belay you like I did before.”
He glanced up at the rim to see whether any soldiers were up there, then made straight for the bridge. It swayed more than the ladder, but it held. Several planks were missing, and some were broken or barely hanging on, but he made good time, Shanti keeping up behind him.
He heard her gasp, looked back to see that her left leg had slipped between two rotted planks, and reached out to help her up. “Easy, Shanti. You’ve got this.”
He kept going, glancing back at the rim every few minutes, knowing that he and Shanti would be easy to hit.
So far, so good.
The first shot came just as they reached the other side, the bullet whining past his ear before he heard the crack of the rifle.
“Take cover! Get down!” He dove behind a jumble of boulders and aimed his rifle, searching through the scope for his target.
There on the rim above stood four uniformed soldiers, one of them aiming a rifle directly at him. If he tried to take them out one at a time, the others could hide or run. They had a better view of him than he had of them.
Shanti crouched behind him now, breathing hard. “What do we do?”
A round hit nearby, a fragment of bullet or rock creasing his shoulder.
Fuck.
“Stay down!” Connor switched his rifle into three-round burst mode, raised it, and opened fire, gunfire echoing through the gorge. Two men dropped, then the third.
The fourth ran.
Connor fired again, and he fell. “We need to get the hell out of here. This area will be crawling with hostiles soon.”
He stood, rifle in hand. “On your feet, Shanti.”
Those soldiers had radios, and it was a good bet they had called this in. It was also possible that a company was encamped nearby that had heard the gunfire. Either way, Naing would soon know precisely where Connor and Shanti had crossed the river.