“There are the huts,” said Bloom. She was shaking. “The walls are mud.”
“It still might be better than staying here,” Melissa told her. She pulled the desk back from the door.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to scout the front.”
“What if they’re nearby? Don’t go.”
“Are you OK?”
“Of course not.”
Melissa looked into the older woman’s eyes. She saw fear there for the first time. She hadn’t completely believed the story about Bloom leaving MI6; she thought there was a good chance that she was in fact still an agent under deep cover. But the look in the nurse’s eyes told her it was true.
Or close: maybe she hadn’t quit. Maybe they had eased her out because she wasn’t strong enough.
“They’re not nearby,” Melissa told her.
Bloom nodded reluctantly.
Melissa scrambled across the hall to a room with a window looking toward the road. There was no one outside.
“Marie, come on!” she yelled. “Let’s get out of here.”
“They’re moving out of the building,” said Nuri. “Shit. Why the hell can’t that bitch just do as she’s told?”
Danny felt a swell of anger — not at Melissa, but at Nuri, for calling her a bitch. “She’s just trying to do her job,” he said tightly.
“Bullshit. Her job was getting Li Han. She’s not even doing that. She’s screwing everything up. Typical Agency prima frickin’ donna.”
Boston reached across from the passenger seat and tapped Danny on the knee. Danny glanced over. Boston had his game face on, a look that said he shouldn’t waste his brain on trivia.
Right as usual, thought Danny.
“Give me directions to Agency officer Ilse,” Danny told MY-PID. “Avoid contact. Avoid the warehouse area.”
“Proceed forward one hundred yards.” MY-PID began a terse set of directions that took them over the old railroad tracks, skirting the warehouse area they’d raided. Then the system had Danny turn right and go up a hill; they passed a run of circular huts, each smaller than the next.
A red ball erupted in the city center.
“Mortars!” said Nuri.
“Colonel, these huts are filled with soldiers,” said Flash. “I just saw two guys in a doorway with guns.”
“Yeah, all right,” said Danny.
A second later something tinged on the fender.
“They’re shooting at us,” Flash said calmly.
Melissa heard the explosions in the distance as she helped the woman and child into the front room.
“Come on,” she said in English, scooping up the little girl. The mother grabbed her arm and together they ran out of the clinic, hurrying across the road into the empty field.
“Stay here,” said Melissa after they had gone about twenty yards. She handed the little girl over to her mother. “Here. OK?” She gestured with her hands. “Here.”
“Stay. Yes,” said the woman.
Melissa raced back across the street. She heard automatic rifle fire not far away.
One of the pregnant women appeared in the doorway, holding her belly. Melissa worried that she was about to give birth.
“Here. Quickly,” said Melissa, grabbing her arm. “Marie? Marie!”
“We’re coming,” said Bloom inside.
Melissa started walking the pregnant woman across the street. The woman was gasping for air, clutching her stomach.
“It’s OK,” said Melissa. “Relax. Relax.” A stupid thing to say, she realized, even under much better circumstances.
She steered her toward the other woman and her child. The tall grass made it harder for the pregnant woman to move; it seemed to take forever to get there.
“We have to go farther back from the road,” said Melissa. “Back in that direction — on the other side of those bushes.” She turned and saw Bloom and the other woman just reaching the field. “Come on,” she said, reaching down and scooping up the little girl. “Let’s go.”
A high-pitched whistle pierced the air. A dull thump followed, and the ground shook with an explosion. The girl screamed in her arms.
“Come on!” yelled Melissa. “Come on. They’re shelling us.”
Danny jerked the wheel hard, trying to stay with the road as it swerved between a pair of native huts. Shells fell fifty or sixty yards to his left, and there was sporadic gunfire from some of the houses nearby.
“We’re about a half mile away,” said Boston calmly. He pointed to Danny’s left. “They’re on the other side of that field.”
“That’s where they’re shelling,” said Nuri behind him.
Danny gave his phone to Boston. “Get Melissa on the line and stay with her,” he told him.
The Osprey was barely five miles away. He could call it in if he needed to.
And what then? He’d have to hit Li Han right away, then go for the Russian.
He didn’t have all his gear yet, and their presence would be obvious. But better to blow their cover and accomplish the mission than keep their cover and fail.
The road bucked with a pair of fresh explosions. The mortar shells were coming closer.
“There’s your turn,” said Boston, pointing ahead.
Danny started to slow.
“Duck!” yelled Boston.
The roof of the Mercedes seemed to explode. Someone was firing at them from the hut near the intersection.
“Shit on this,” said Boston, leaning out the window and returning fire.
Danny swerved hard, fishtailing onto the new road in a hail of gunfire. The car lurched to the right as he pushed hard against the wheel, trying to keep moving in a straight line.
“Our tires are shot out,” he yelled. “Hang on!”
Melissa struggled to keep the pregnant woman moving. The mortar shells were landing harmlessly in a wide, rocky ravine no closer than a hundred yards away. But she knew that at any moment the men firing them would adjust their aim.
Bloom and the woman she was helping caught up.
“There’s another farm there — see the building?” said Bloom, nodding ahead. The building was up a gentle slope about two hundred yards away.
“OK,” said Melissa. It was a destination, at least. She glanced to her right, making sure the woman with the child was coming.
A few seconds later she saw something moving through the field on the left. She thought at first it was an animal, a horse or even a zebra. Then she realized it was men — three of them, rushing down in the direction of the clinic.
Bloom started to yell and wave her hand.
“No, no,” hissed Melissa. “We can’t trust them.”
“They’re with Gerard,” said Bloom. “They’ll help.”
“How do you know?”
“I’m sure of it.”
