Shadows of War

A twinge of suspicion came back. He patted his pocket. “Yeah, I got it.”

“Who’s the girl?”

“M?.”

“Who is she? Was she on the expedition?”

“No, she found me. She was tracking me through the woods, and then the Chinese soldiers grabbed her. They would have killed her.”

“You saved her?”

“Yeah, I saved her.” Josh felt his face flush. “I haven’t eaten or slept that much in a couple of days. Otherwise I would have pounded your head into the ground. You’re damn lucky.”

“Then you’re lucky, too,” said Mara mildly. “But I don’t know that we have much more luck than that.” She looked at the girl. “Ten em la gi?”

“M?.”

“Mara.”

She held out her hand, but M? wouldn’t take it.

“You have bullets in that gun?” she asked Josh.

“It’s empty.”

Mara put her hand to her ear, cupping an earpiece for her radio.

“Right,” she told whoever was on the other end. Then she pulled a pistol from beneath her tac vest. “Take this. I hope you’re a better shot in the daylight. Come on. We have to move.”

Josh scrambled to follow her as she ran down the trail. He felt angry — she was treating him like he was a jerk, or worse.

She stopped near the road, catching him as he ran up.

“Hold, hold,” she said. “Easy.”

He flicked her hand away and slid next to a tree, gun ready. When M? finally reached them, she threw herself over Josh’s back as she had before. It felt somehow reassuring, though his ego was still deeply bruised.

“Our trucks are just up the road. My guys will drive down this way in a second,” added Mara. “Take the girl when they come. I’ll cover you.”

As she said that, gunfire sounded up the road.

* * *

Jing Yo split his small squad in two, sending Wu and three others across the road while he worked up the near side with the rest. They came under fire before they were in sight of the trucks, bullets splashing into the macadam and the trees behind them. Chest pressed against the side of the road, Jing Yo caught a glimpse of someone retreating near the command vehicle. He wore black clothes — clearly not a Chinese soldier.

Jing Yo turned to Ai Gua. “Tell the helicopter to destroy the trucks. The troop truck first.”

* * *

Mara heard the truck rumbling toward her and got ready to launch herself into the road. She glanced to the right, looking at Josh and the girl, M?. The girl was another complication, but it was very possible that she would be a valuable one — not only did they have an eyewitness and video footage of China’s brutality, but they also had a victim. It would be a PR jackpot.

Assuming she got them back to the UN safe and sound.

Jimmy Choi and one of his men started laying covering fire from across the road. The bumper of the truck appeared as it rounded the bend.

“Let’s go,” said Mara, starting into the road.

A helicopter’s heavy rotor pounded the ground. Mara stopped and turned back, looking for Josh. He was still by the trees, picking up the girl.

“Come on!” yelled Mara. She stepped toward them. “Come on!”

Something flashed behind her. Mara felt herself thrown forward. Then everything went black.

Survior

Electronics Giant Stai-On Declares Bankruptcy Amid Japan Electronics Downturn

Tokyo, Japan (World News Service) — Japanese conglomerate Stai-On today officially filed for bankruptcy protection.

“This move will allow us to reemerge as a stronger, though smaller company,” said Masura Takai, company spokesman. “We expect to continue operations through this difficult period.”

The chairman of the company was found dead in his Tokyo apartment last week. Police have not revealed the cause of death. Rumors continue to circulate that he committed suicide in the face of the company’s financial crisis.

Stai-On, known for its exports of electronic consumer goods, has been in trouble since worldwide exports declined in 2009. Until then, Stai-On was the number one electronics exporter in Japan, besting the Sony Corporation by about $3 billion in exports annually.

Electronics purchases declined sharply in the U.S. beginning with the 2008–2009 recession. While sales were essentially flat in 2010 and 2011, an even sharper decline in 2012 drove many companies into financial disarray. Among the firms…

Congo Brushfire Spreads; Smoke Plume to Affect Climate Through Rest of Year

BUMBA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, CENTRAL AFRICA (AP-Fox News) — Firefighters reported today that two wildfires previously thought to have been brought under control have spread past firebreaks and are now racing toward the Congo River.

Approximately five thousand square kilometers of savannah and forest have been burned so far. Smoke from the fire now covers much of western Africa and is expected to linger in the atmosphere for several months.

Joseph Kituba, a local fire warden, said that the spread of the fires was fanned by unexpected winds that reached upwards of sixty kilometers per hour overnight.

“Under normal weather conditions, we would never see something like this,” said Kituba. “But the weather that we have had here the past few years has been anything but normal…”

1

Northwestern Vietnam

The explosion threw Josh forward, tumbling him over M? into a heap of dirt at the side of the road.

It was too much, all too much.

For a second he gave up, capitulated to despair. He was dirt, dust — he lay there helpless, ready to let the Chinese take him, let them chew him up like everything else they were chewing up. He gave up completely, utterly.

Then M? moved beneath him, whimpering. He heard her, and for a moment he became the boy who’d run from the murderers at roughly her age — the scared, desperate little boy.