bursts.
Something scraped on the pavement ahead of him, and Kevin lifted his head to look. Two men came out of the smoke, crawling, dragging a third man behind them. A fourth staggered blindly after them, weaponless, his hands clutching at a spreading red stain on his stomach. The first two crept past him and Kevin’s stomach lurched. The man being dragged was Rhee. He waited for other survivors to follow, but there weren’t any.
He inched back into cover and sat up, staring deliberately away from the already blood-soaked patch of pavement where Echo’s medics were working frantically on the wounded. On Rhee. He closed his eyes, not wanting to think or feel anything. Not anything. This wasn’t his fault.
But it was his fault and he knew it. Twelve men had gone down that street. In the blink of an eye, eight had been killed or mortally wounded. He should have anticipated the disaster. Planned for it. Avoided it. Instead he’d hoped for a miracle and it hadn’t come. Well, Rhee had paid the price for his mistake.
“Hey, L-T?” It was Montoya. “Kilo November wants to know if they should keep firing. What should I tell them?”
“Tell them…” Kevin gagged, fighting not to throw up. “Tell them to knock it off. It’s over.”
“No.” A hoarse, pain-filled voice protested.
He opened his eyes. Rhee had pushed himself up off the pavement despite the medic’s best efforts to make him lie still. The South Korean was a horrifying sight, shot at least twice in the chest. Kevin could see blood still welling from one of his wounds.
“You must not… abandon… the attack,” Rhee gasped out, struggling for breath. One of his lungs must have collapsed. “Take them, Lieutenant… kill the bastards for us.” He fell back, completely spent.
Kevin crawled over to where the South Korean lay sprawled. His friend’s eyes were closed, but he was still breathing, if only in short, panting gasps. The medic pulled a syringe out of his kit and jabbed it into Rhee’s arm. Kevin grabbed the man’s arm. “Will he make it?”
“Jeez, L-T, I don’t know.” The medic winced as Kevin’s fingers tightened involuntarily. “He needs evac right away, though. All I can do is try to keep him breathing for a while.”
“Oh, Christ.” They couldn’t evacuate any of the wounded, not while North Korean fire blocked every route to the rear. Either he took that building or Rhee would die, almost certainly with most of Bravo Company and a lot more of his own men. But that damned apartment building was too heavily defended. It couldn’t be taken, not without more firepower than Echo Company had. He’d need a tank to blast the place open.
A tank. Kevin felt the seeds of a plan growing in his mind. It was what he should have done the first time out. He couldn’t get a tank, but maybe he already had the next-best thing. He pushed himself upright and gripped his M16. They weren’t finished. Not by a long shot. “Montoya!”
“Yes, L-T?”
“Tell McIntyre I want a fire team in one of those houses next to the objective. They’re to lay down a suppressive fire on my order. Then get Geary on the horn and tell him I want Reese and his squad here ASAP. And have ’em bring a LAW for every man in the squad. Clear?”
Montoya nodded vigorously and started whispering into his set.
Kevin turned away and went back to sit by Rhee.
Sohn rubbed his watering eyes, thankful that the American smoke screen had at last drifted away. He smiled at the carnage visible on the street outside. The smoke had been an inconvenience, but it hadn’t prevented his troops from cutting the imperialist assault to pieces. He counted the bodies and laughed out loud in triumph. At least eight enemy dead! And not a man of his even slightly wounded. These Americans might know how to defend, but they were pathetic on the attack.
A nearby explosion wiped the smile off his face. Another attack so soon? He heard more shells bursting in rapid succession.
“Comrade Lieutenant!” Sergeant Yi skidded into the room. “Another smoke screen. This time to the north!”
A machine gun chattered nearby, followed by the softer rattle of American M16s. The Yankees had shifted their axis of attack.
Sohn brushed past Yi on his way out the door. “Pull half the men to the north! And join me there!”
He ran down the hall, unslinging his AK as he ran.
Kevin heard the firing from McIntyre’s diversionary attack, took a deep breath, and released it in a yell: “Now! Hit the fuckers!”
Half a dozen LAWs flashed from concealed positions on both sides of the street, reaching for the barricaded windows of the North Korean-held apartment building. They exploded on target, bursting in brief showers of orange flame.
Now. Kevin lunged outside onto the street and raced toward the apartment building. He heard men running behind him and heard them yelling. A wild rebel yell rising in pitch and volume, bouncing off the high, concrete walls all around. He fired from the hip, felt the M16 bounce in his hands, and saw sparks fly around one of the shattered, smoking windows.
Suddenly he realized that he was yelling with all the rest.
In! He hurled himself headfirst through the empty window and rolled to a stop in a tangle of gear. A North Korean writhed in agony in one corner of the small room, bleeding from half a dozen splinter wounds. One hand clutched a rifle. Kevin shot him and reloaded.
Reese crashed in through the same window and sprawled, covering the open door.
“Take your squad and clear this side! Move!”
The black corporal nodded and got to his feet. He risked one glance through the doorway and then bolted through it.
Kevin followed him into the hallway and turned the other way, moving toward a bend. He heard running footsteps from up ahead and ran faster. He had to make it around the bend first.
He did it and turned the corner ahead of the North Koreans. There were four or five of them just meters away. Kevin saw soot-blackened faces, waving assault rifles, and eyes widening in shock at his sudden appearance.
“Eat this!” He clicked the M16 to full automatic and held the trigger down, pumping a whole twenty-round magazine into the NKs. They were thrown against the wall in spray of blood. An AK cracked once and Kevin felt something tug at his sleeve. A bullet. His rifle clicked empty and he ducked back around the corner, hearing only moans from his victims. He pulled the pin on a grenade and tossed it.
He risked a quick peek around the corner. No signs of other NKs moving to the attack. They’d have to be dug out one at a time. Kevin settled back to wait for reinforcements and snapped a new magazine into his M16.
Sohn couldn’t understand it. The wheel had turned so quickly. How could the Americans have broken in? How could he have let that happen?
He shook his head in dismay and turned to Yi. The sergeant looked like a wreck, with his uniform ripped in a dozen places and a jagged cut across his forehead. He still seemed stunned by the rocket explosion that had so nearly killed him. Sohn frowned. The man was useless in that state.
More shots sounded from down the corridor, closer this time. They were followed by another explosion. The Americans were advancing steadily, eliminating his troops as they lay pinned by fire from the outside. They held the initiative on this floor.
Sohn made a quick decision and wheeled to face Yi squarely. “Get every man who can walk to the second floor. We’ll murder them on the staircases!” He forced himself to sound calm and confident and was pleased to see the sergeant seem to take heart from his orders.
They could still win this battle.
“Grenade!” Reese screamed, and threw himself away from the staircase. Kevin flattened and heard fragments whine overhead as the NK grenade exploded. He crawled to where Reese lay patting himself to check for
