risk. She needs to be where I can keep an eye on her.”
“Fine,” Thate said. “But with you or without you I’m leading my men in.”
“Not if I kill you first.”
It seemed, then, that all the weapons came to bear at once.
“Men,” Alli said disgustedly. She stood up. “Did any of you testosterone machines think about asking me? It was my idea, I like it.” She turned to Jack. “It’s a good plan, or as good as we’re going to get. I’m going in with Thate.” She held out a hand. “Now give me the iPod and earphones.”
The kid looked into Jack’s surprised face and laughed. “Fucking piece of work, ain’t she?”
THE TWO groups decided to take different routes, so Thate and his men, with Alli in tow, headed out before Jack and Paull, who would take the route outlined by the satellite intel. Each group had a sat phone for coordinating their assault—one Thate’s men had, the other that had been confiscated in the firefight at Dolna Zhelino.
Before he left, Thate went over the topography Jack and Paull would encounter, seemingly leaving out no detail. Jack was grateful to him, but he was also terribly apprehensive as he watched Alli, amid Thate’s band of Kazanskaya thugs, vanish all too quickly into the dark.
“Another insane scheme that’s dependent on whether or not we can trust that kid,” Paull said as he hefted his assault rifle. He checked to make sure the magazine was fully loaded. “Talk about a delicate balance.”
Jack stood brooding. Then they set off, following the path laid out for them by the geotechs at the DoD.
ALLI WAS aware of the tension in the men as one is aware of the electricity in the air during a lightning storm. The stars were very clear above them, winking in and out as gaps in the trees presented themselves and then closed. No one spoke, for which she was grateful. After last year, one of the things she had done to help her overcome her grief was to learn Russian from the Rosetta Stone program. She was astonished at how effortlessly she picked up the language, and she suspected that she’d be able to learn most any language with similar ease. She recognized root words almost instantly, and making sense of the grammar allowed large chunks of phrases to slot into her rapidly expanding understanding.
Oddly, she felt comfortable among these thugs. They didn’t resent her or think she was a freak. On the contrary, they understood her function in the plan—a function none of them could fill, and which might very well lead to victory. She felt like their little sister; she felt as if she belonged, as if she had been born to the wrong parents in the wrong country. Now and again, her nostrils flared. She smelled Russia on them; she liked that smell.
For one hundred minutes, they moved silently without incident. By that time, the forest had given way to plowed fields with the occasional stone barn, then the farms were stamped out by a jumble of houses. Then the paved streets began and, along with them, the gridlike order imposed by all gatherings of human habitation, whether they be villages, towns, or cities.
The men grew more cautious and, for a time, their progress was slowed as they took more and more frequent detours to avoid the citizens of Tetovo. Skirting the town proper, they moved northwest with the intention of looping around and coming upon the stronghold from the north.
Of course, there were obstacles to that route—knots of Xhafa’s guerillas strategically placed along the perimeter of Tetovo. But guard duty was inherently boring. Night after night, peering into the flickering darkness could cause the attention of even the staunchest fanatic to occasionally waver. There was no antidote for this boredom, Thate had explained to her when they had begun their trek, and it was this inattention he proposed to exploit.
The first to present themselves to Thate’s men were three guerillas. He kept Alli beside him as he used hand signals. Three of his men nodded and melted into the darkness. They returned soon enough with trophies: AK-47s, daggers, and a satellite phone. Not a sound had been uttered. The band moved on. Alli saw the three guerillas sprawled on the ground, their throats slit. Their blood glittered black in the starlight.
“THERE HE is.”
Paull’s whisper came to Jack along with the other night noises.
“We could go around him,” Jack pointed out.
“We can’t go around them all.”
They were crouched in the protection of a clump of underbrush. The guerilla was outlined against the starlight. To his right was a ridge, black as a pit. To his left were lights at the outskirts of Tetovo.
Paull scrambled off and Jack put down his assault rifle, shrugged off his backpack and camouflage jacket. Then he ducked out into the starlight, came around a bend and, seeing the guerilla, continued on.
The guerilla, for his part, came immediately alert and brought his AK-47 down to the ready position.
Jack stopped several feet in front of the guerilla and said,
The guerilla nodded.
“Ozomiste.”
The guerilla laughed.
He pointed to the east, a direction behind Jack. As he did so, Paull, stealing up behind him, jerked his chin up, exposing the neck, which he slit. The guerilla’s eyes rolled up in his head and he slid to the ground.
Ten minutes later, after spotting and skirting two groups of guerillas, they came within sight of the schoolhouse and began to set up shop.
“You’ll have to watch out for those groups,” Paull said. “Once we start firing, they’re bound to be drawn to this spot.”
“I’ll be ready.” Jack pulled out the shoulder rocket launcher and loaded it.
When Paull was set up, he called Thate to give him the signal to go ahead. Then he manned the machine gun he’d set on its tripod and waited for Thate’s call.
THE MOMENT Thate got off the sat phone, he signaled his men forward. They spread out in a rough semicircle as they slipped through the trees. Keeping to the shadows, they approached the rear of the schoolhouse. Along the way, five of Xhafa’s men were overpowered and killed without them opening their mouths. There were more in the woods, of this Thate had no doubt, which was why he now widened the cordon of his men. He had only six men, plus Alli, but he was ready to pit any one of them against two or even three of the guerillas.
There was another knot of guerillas lounging around the back door, talking and telling jokes. Two of them were dozing. Thate signaled his men, then unhooked Alli’s backpack and took her assault rifle from her. She unbuttoned her shirt and pushed the waistband of her trousers lower around her narrow hips, exposing her midriff.
“How’s this?”
He fluttered his hand back and forth. “It will have to do.” Then, in response to her scowl, he gave her a big grin.
“You’ll do fine. Don’t worry, okay?” he whispered. “We have your back.”
She nodded.
“Are you frightened?”
“I think so.” In fact, her heart seemed about to explode through her chest.
He laughed soundlessly. “That’s the right answer. So am I.” He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Time.”
Alli appeared in the light, weaving slightly. The guerillas saw her and she began to sing “Gimme Shelter.” She was close to them, under their scrutiny and their guns when she got to the chorus.
“‘War, children, it’s just a shot away, shot away…’”
Just as Thate predicted, their eyes were on her opened blouse, not her face, and certainly not on the
