Shadows of War

Northern Vietnam

Jing Yo bristled as the infrared operator repeated the scan.

“Looks like it’s just embers, Lieutenant. Like I said, you burned it down pretty well.”

They were looking at the remains of one of the small settlements they had searched earlier in the day.

“Why are some spots hotter than others?” Jing Yo asked, letting the suggestion that he had burned down the village pass.

“It depends on what burns. Different materials produce different hot spots. We haven’t trained with building fires,” added the operator, “but the principle is the same.”

Jing Yo watched as he switched to a wide view, scanning the fields again. The lieutenant noticed something on the corner of the screen.

“Did that move?” he asked.

“Which?”

“Back here — the building. Inside.”

The operator returned the screen to close-up mode of the area. “No. The building’s warm. That building is almost intact. A lot more to burn there. We’re seeing individual parts of the fire, I believe. Look at these ruins. You can see the shape of the embers. Really hot spots blow out the resolution and we back it down like this.”

“Okay,” said Jing Yo.

“This looks interesting, though,” added the operator, switching back to the earlier screen. “This out in the jungle. If we could get the pilot to change course, I think you might want to get a much closer look at this.”

* * *

Josh and Mara kept their eyes pointed toward the ceiling as the helicopters moved away.

“What do you think?” asked Josh.

“If they move off, it’ll be okay.”

They waited. The sound faded but didn’t die.

“They’re hovering nearby,” said Mara. “About a mile. A little more.”

“Is that too close for the SEALs to parachute in?”

“Too close.”

“Maybe we should go farther east. Take the road.”

“The road goes south.”

“It’s still away from the helicopters. I think we should do it.”

Mara looked at her watch. The SEALs should be roughly thirty minutes away, perhaps a little more. “If we move, they won’t be able to find us,” she told him. “We don’t have a phone, remember? The battery is dead.”

“We have mine.” He dug the sat phone out of his pocket.

“The Chinese can track that. Besides, it’s not on the same circuit the SEALs will use.”

“It’s better than nothing. Peter will hear it. He has before.”

“It’s a good backup,” said Mara. She wasn’t sure that Bangkok would still be monitoring the frequency, or how long a delay there would be before Lucas got the information. “I think we should wait and see if they move off.”

* * *

Jing Yo leapt from the helicopter as it touched down, running quickly to catch up with Sergeant Wu and the rest of the squad. The operator had spotted an overturned truck on a rutted farm road. The engine was slightly warm — an indication that it had been driven or at least turned on within the past three or four hours.

And there was a man, or maybe two, near the side, partly hidden from the scanner by the body of the truck.

Wu saw him coming and waved for him to get down; Jing Yo bent toward the ground but kept coming, sliding on the hard-packed dirt as he slipped in next to his sergeant. They were at the edge of a fallow field; the truck was ahead on the road, which lay just beyond a narrow band of trees.

“Somebody there, definitely,” said Wu. “I have Ai Gua going around the side. When he’s in position, we can close in.”

The truck looked like a hazy gray box in Jing Yo’s night goggles. Was that an arm curled around the side of the steering wheel — or part of the dash that had pulled away in the crash?

Jing Yo moved to his right, crying to get a better view through the trees. The front third of the truck was in the shallow ditch at the roadside; the rest of the vehicle angled back on the road. The cab was wedged into some brush, which made it hard to see the top and side.

“One person, maybe two,” said Jing Yo. “Close to the side of the truck.”

Ai Gua flashed a signal back through the squad members that he was in position across the road. The truck was now surrounded.

“Let’s move in,” Jing Yo told Wu.

They rose. Guns pointed at the truck, they moved forward.

The brush near the truck rustled.

“Watch out!” yelled Wu.

Jing Yo saw it for only a split second before he fired — the dark shadow of the devil, leaping at him.

The three rounds from his rifle hit the tiger in the head and neck, severing several arteries. But the beast had built up considerable momentum, and it crashed onto the road, still alive, leaping at its target.

Jing Yo stepped to his left, all trained instinct now. He wheeled. The gun became a pointed spear that slammed into the animal’s rib cage.

The tiger lashed at him as it fell to the ground. It rolled back, ready to fight, spurred by pain. It shoved its fury forward, teeth bared, claws wide. Jing Yo’s rifle smashed the top of its skull, breaking the bone and sending the animal to the ground, gurgling its last breath.

“Lieutenant?” said Wu, standing a few feet away. He seemed to be in shock.

Jing Yo looked at him, then turned his attention back to the truck. He moved quickly around the side, wary.

Ai Gua had heard the commotion and come running through the trees. He was standing a meter from the truck, gazing at the body the tiger had been eating when they arrived. It was a gory mess.

Jing Yo knelt next to it. The animal had mauled the corpse so badly that it was impossible to tell if it belonged to an Asian. The clothes looked Vietnamese.

He’d have to see if there was identification.

“Search the vehicle,” Jing Yo told the others. “I’ll attend to this.”

* * *

At least one of the helicopters was in the air north of them, a mile or two. It was too close — the SEAL aircraft would be spotted almost immediately.

She checked her watch. They should be over the area in roughly fifteen minutes.

“If they see the helicopter in the area, will they still parachute?” asked Josh.

“Depends,” said Mara. “It’ll be up to them.”

Most SEALs would. But that wouldn’t necessarily be a good idea. A firefight would be counterproductive. The helicopters would call in reinforcements quickly.

“I wonder if we could walk back to the spot where I was in the preserve,” she said. “They could jump near there.”

“How far is it?”

“A few kilometers.”

“We could make it.”

“We could walk by the side of the road and hide from the helicopters,” said Mara. “The trees are pretty thick.”

Mara tried to repicture the area. Was there a place where the SEALs could parachute in?

There had been a field nearby. They could use the highway intersection as a meeting place.

Yes, it was a better plan. But was it worth the risk of using Josh’s phone?

Yes.