Shadows of War

mountain.

“We’re going to need some way around that intersection where we left the van,” Zeus told Christian. “Find me some little village or something to get through.”

“I’m telling you, there are maybe three roads out that way, and they’re all within one kilometer of each other. The mountains block everything off.”

“Can we go south on 151?”

“You have to go back almost to the van to get there. You want to risk that?”

“It’s either that or we backtrack to the spot where they had that fire-fight,” said Zeus. “You want to do that?”

The SEAL commander had told him everything that had happened. He also assured him that they’d have no trouble rushing past any Chinese soldiers they came across.

Easy for him to say; he was sitting in the back with the others.

“There’s some little village here we might be able to get through,” said Christian. “A couple of klicks from here. Maybe there’s a road through it that isn’t on the map.”

There were plenty of uncharted roads. The problem was, they generally went nowhere, which was why they were uncharted.

“Maybe. We’ll decide when we get there,” said Zeus. “Keep watching.”

* * *

Sitting against the side of the truck, Josh let his body go slack. It was over. He was going home.

It didn’t seem so much like a bad dream as like a piece of his imagination. Time had been balled up incredibly, twisted around.

But it was real. He had the digital camera to prove it.

Josh reached into his pocket and took out the camera. Mara jostled against his side. She’d nodded off practically the moment they’d climbed in. M?, who was tucked around him on the other side, had too.

He flipped the switch to play and watched the screen. There was the village; there were the bodies, and the time stamp. It was all evidence.

They might not believe him. They might think he’d made it up. But this was indisputable.

“What are you looking at?” asked one of the SEALs across from him.

“The Chinese destroyed a village. They murdered everyone there. I got a video. Here, take a look.”

Josh’s sat phone began to ring as he handed the camera to the SEAL. He reached into his pocket and, without thinking, hit the button to receive the call. “This is Josh.”

The person on the other side of the line didn’t answer.

“This is Josh,” he repeated. “Who is this?”

“What the hell are you doing?” barked Kerfer.

“I just — ”

“Turn it off.”

Josh hit the Kill switch. Kerfer grabbed the phone, glanced at it for a second, then flung it out of the back of the truck.

* * *

The location was near a road and a creek that ran east-west. He was moving, trying to get into the mountains.

Jing Yo did have luck with him after all. He leaned into the space between the two pilots, explaining where he thought their target was.

“We’re about ten kilometers from there,” said the helicopter pilot. “North of them. We can be overhead in a few minutes.”

“Can you make the helicopter quieter?”

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant. There’s no way to do that.”

“Switch off the light at least.”

“You sure? They’ll hear us coming anyway.”

“Switch it off. Take us higher. Make a pass as if we’re not interested, as if we’re going somewhere else.”

“Why not go around then?”

“I want to see what it looks like. We’ll spot it, then we’ll set an ambush.”

* * *

The village Major Christian had spotted on the map turned out to be two farm buildings at the edge of a field. Zeus found a path behind them that led in the proper direction, but after driving down it for two hundred yards, they discovered that the path ended in a pond. He had to back up all the way to the road.

Kerfer jumped from the back as he reached the blacktop.

“What’s our sitrep?” asked the SEAL lieutenant, climbing up on the side of the truck.

“I thought we had a shortcut to 151,” said Zeus. “But it looks like the only way back is through that intersection where the Chinese were.”

“No sweat. We can handle them.”

“There may be more troops there by now,” said Zeus. “They’re moving down the mountain range to make sure their main force doesn’t get attacked from the side. There could be a lot of troops there by now.”

“The UAVs told you this?”

“No, the clouds are still too thick. There won’t be data for another half hour at least.”

“So you know that how?”

“I know what they’d do. I’ve war-gamed it.”

“War-gamed it. Shit.”

“Hey, screw you, Lieutenant,” said Christian. “If it wasn’t for us, you’d be walking home.”

Kerfer snorted. “Me and one of my guys will ride in the cab,” he said. “If there’s any trouble, we’ll take care of it.”

“There’s no room,” said Christian.

“You ride in the back with the rest of the luggage.”

“I’m the navigator.”

“He doesn’t need a navigator. He’s going back the way he came, right? Besides, he’s got me.”

* * *

Chinese troops had burst through Lao Cai and were spreading down the eastern side of the Con Voi mountain range, aiming to prevent the Vietnamese from attacking on the northeastern flank and cutting off supply lines south. Jing Yo could see the first advance groups of vehicles along the road as the helicopter headed eastward. The campaign was going well; the Vietnamese would soon be vanquished.

But the victory would be like eating ashes at a New Year’s feast if he did not accomplish his mission.

The clouds were drifting east, allowing the moon and stars to light the ground below. Seeing detail was out of the question, but there was enough light to see vehicles.

“Troop truck,” noted the pilot as they came through a valley just below Route 151.

Jing Yo leaned closer, looking out the window.

“One of ours,” said the copilot as they passed it. “Probably reinforcing that checkpoint ahead.”

“Find a place to land near the checkpoint,” said Jing Yo, pulling up his radio to get division to alert the checkpoint to what was going on.

* * *

Zeus had a simple plan for getting past anyone he came to — hit the gas, duck down, and pray.

And run them over, if possible.

The problem was, he had to make a fairly sharp turn right before he got to the intersection, which meant slowing down.

His fingers tightened on the wheel as he climbed up the hill. The truck’s speedometer read thirty, but that felt optimistic.