Page 18 of Her Righteous Protector

6

Max got to see the sun come up. They were currently parked in the middle of nowhere; God knew how the truck that Leo was in charge of had managed to limp along, but it had. Max had found it funny that the trucks were actually twenty-two-wheelers in Pakistan, but now he was thankful because the extra tires meant they’d been able to continue to drive to safety.

He pulled the corpse of one of the hijackers out of the cab and let it fall to the ground with a thud, then grimaced with pain. He dragged it the forty meters over to where the other corpse was that Leo had disposed of, then ripped off the man’s bloody overshirt. He took off his less bloodstained undershirt and carried it with him as he walked back to Leo’s truck.

Max leaned against the seat, contemplating wiping up the gross amount of blood with the dead man’s shirt. He was amazed that there wasn’t a scratch on Leo.

“Take off your gear,” Kane said emphatically as he walked toward him.

“I’m fine,” Max assured him.

“That’s not going to fly. Raiden told me you were injured and he’s worried about your lung. Take off your gear and let me check you out.”

“I’m fine.” Max started to heft himself up into the truck, then took a step back.

Dammit.

Kane looked him in the eye. “Don’t fuck around. I’m serious, take off your gear.”

Max stood up and started pulling off his body armor. “Have we received any transmissions from the commander?” he asked.

“Nothing from the States. I haven’t sent anything, figured I’d wait until we got to Kandahar. Checked in with Ali, he’s bringing the third truck here. We really want all the trucks to arrive in Kandahar at the same time.”

Max hissed in a breath as he pulled his shirt over his head.

“Jesus, you really did a number on yourself.” Kane winced. The bruise was on his back, so Max couldn’t get a good look at it or probe it himself to see if it was a real problem. “This looks like a perfect bullseye,” Kane said right before he started palpitations. Max gritted his teeth as he waited to hear his friend’s conclusions.

“I’m not feeling that any of your bones are loose, and this happened over ninety minutes ago, so I’d say your lung is fine. But you definitely have one or two cracked ribs. I’m going and getting Raiden’s pack and getting some pain meds. Take them if you need them. I’m serious, Max. I’m also going to grab a compression bandage and tape you up. You’re going to need that with all the gear in these goddamn cages and for whatever else comes our way, but they’ll come off at night so you breathe deeply. That will ward off pneumonia.”

“Whatever.” As long as his lung wasn’t compromised, he knew the drill—six weeks before he’d be back to normal.

Zed walked up to him, wiping the sweat off his forehead with a towel. Max looked over at the truck Leo had been driving and saw that all of the tires had been replaced, but it still wasn’t straight.

“Can you break it down for me? I want to know exactly what happened.” Max had been too busy helping Raiden with Ezio to get the details earlier.

“The hijackers pulled out in a van in front of Leo, causing him to swerve off A75. I don’t know what happened to the driver of the van, he took off, but one had an AK47 and pulled it on Leo and that’s when he and his buddy boarded the truck. Meanwhile, I pulled over to the side of the road about a quarter of a mile back. When I did, I grabbed my MP7 from under the seat and texted everyone. Thank God they needed Leo to drive the truck so they didn’t kill him. When they started back up, I followed.”

Max nodded and Kane came back with the compression bandage and started to apply it.

“And then?” Max asked.

“They pulled off the highway. I followed, figured I would get in front of them and stop them, or shove them to the side of the road. Anything.” Zed shrugged.

Max understood. It was a crapshoot; Zed had to do something and he was flying blind.

“As soon as I started pulling up to their side, they started shooting. I sideswiped them and Leo took advantage and took one of them out. But the shooting kept happening, so I knew it wasn’t over with so I plowed into the rear—not too hard, didn’t want to kill you guys,” Zed grinned.

“Much appreciated,” Max gave a wan grin.

“Did you consider us?” Kane gave Zed an exasperated look.

“Not really.” Zed shrugged his shoulders.

“Max, by the time your truck pulled over to the road and I got to the cab, it looked like a slaughterhouse. I don’t know how he got that truck to a stop and wrestled the gun away and kill him, but he did.” Now Zed was grinning.

“Yeah, fat lot of good you were,” Leo said as he wandered up. “You kept ramming the truck and messing with my aim.”

Max looked at the two men; they didn’t look any worse for the wear. He glanced over to where Raiden was kneeling beside the back of Zed’s truck. Ezio was lying down underneath it for some shade.