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“He’s one of ours,” Bowers said. “Looks like he’s dead.”
“I’ll radio it in.”
While Diehl radioed for instructions, Bowers squinted at the wounded man. “Wait. He’s alive!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. He just moved.”
Diehl updated Central Command and looked back toward his partner. Since coming home from Iraq and accepting their jobs with Bohdan’s army, their assignments had mostly been about escorting drug shipments through the jungle. They’d never been tasked to track someone before.
Bohdan himself came on the radio with the order: “Bring him in. But watch the jungle. The bastard might be trying for an ambush.”
“Roger.”
Diehl swung wide and descended to the clearing. Bowers leveled his mounted gun toward the jungle.
The soldier rolled over as the helicopter’s rotors kicked up a tornado of fine dirt. The uniform was even bloodier in back, Diehl thought.
He touched down just twenty feet from the soldier, and Bowers leaped from the open hatch. He ran toward the wounded soldier, who looked up and managed a faint nod. With support from Bowers, the man stood and limped back toward the helicopter hatch.
As they readied themselves to climb aboard, Bowers suddenly tensed. “Stop. Something’s not right.” The wounded soldier whirled, raised his gun and fired eight quick shots into Bowers’s chest.
RAT-AT-AT-AT-AT-AT-AT!
***
Caleb leaped aboard the helicopter and leveled his gun at the pilot. “Don’t move.”
The pilot stared at him in shock. “You’re not one of ours.”
Caleb gestured down to the too-tight bloodstained uniform. “I assume this would fit better if I was.”
The pilot craned his neck to see his dead partner on the ground outside. He looked back up with anger and sadness. “You killed a great man. Bowers was my friend.”
“If he was a great man, he wouldn’t be working for a monster like Bohdan. And neither would you.”
The pilot crossed his arms in front of him. “I’m not taking you anywhere. You’ll just have to kill me too.”
Caleb nodded and looked over the instrument panel. “I’ve never flown an Mi-26 helicopter before, but it can’t be that different than a Mi-24. Can it?”
The pilot didn’t respond.
“You stopped for wounded. I don’t really want to kill you. Take your gun out of the holster, toss it onto the floor, and get out.” Caleb raised his gun. “Unless you’re really wedded to the idea of me blowing your brains out.”
The pilot hesitated and then tossed his sidearm onto the floor and stepped toward the hatch. He turned toward Caleb. “Bohdan will find you, wherever you go. You know that, don’t you?”
“Let me worry about Bohdan. You’ll have enough problems when he finds out that I took the helicopter from you.”
The pilot left the helicopter.
Caleb slid into the cockpit and took off. As he increased altitude, he could see the hundreds of soldiers now searching for him in and around the jungle.
The pilot had been right about one thing: Bohdan would never stop looking for him. It would never be over until that son of a bitch was dead.
But that wouldn’t happen today, Caleb thought with regret.
Soon.
