Edge of War

The bathroom.

She threw herself forward, firing two bursts at the door.

There was no answering fire. She got up.

“Mara!” hissed Kerfer.

“Stay,” she commanded. She kicked at the door just below the handle, fired a burst into the empty room.

The bullets shattered the commode and part of the sink, but they were unnecessary. The Chinese agent was lying in a pool of his own blood on the floor, already dead.

“What the fuck, ‘stay’?” said Kerfer behind her. “You think I’m a dog?”

“Ask Josh where his medicine is,” she told him.

He growled into the radio. Mara spotted the bottle on the ledge above the sink before anyone responded. She grabbed it.

“Bathroom above the sink,” said Kerfer. “Come on, let’s go. We got people coming up from the stairs. Shit.”

Mara heard the sound of gunfire below.

“They’re coming up the stairs, six of them,” said Kerfer as they reached the hall. “We’ll have to go back to the roof.”

Mara passed the elevator, then went back to it and looked in the car. There was a trapdoor in the ceiling, an escape hatch.

“We can take the elevator shaft,” she yelled. “One of the cars is here.”

“There’s no electricity.”

“I know. We’ll climb down.”

“Now you’re using your head.”

Mara waited by the elevator as Josh and Stevens came out from the stairwell.

“The medicine wasn’t worth this,” said Kerfer.

“If it weren’t for the medicine, we would have run right into them,” said Mara. “Where’s the rest of the team?”

“They’re on floor five.”

“Tell them to meet us outside.”

“We may need them,” said Kerfer.

“Give me a boost,” she said, standing under the trapdoor.

Kerfer stepped over, cradling his hands together. Mara climbed up.

“You’re heavy,” said the SEAL.

“Are you going to criticize everything about me?”

She pushed the door open and pulled herself up into the space, then pulled the goggles up to her eyes.

Josh came up behind her, then reached down for M?. Mara handed him the pills.

“I’m sorry I forgot them,” he said.

“Don’t worry about it. Can you see anything?”

“No.”

“Just stay here. You’re two feet from the edge.”

“Okay.”

Mara leaned over. “It’s going to be okay,” she told M? in Vietnamese.

“Yes,” said the girl in a voice so soft Mara could barely hear it.

The two elevator shafts were separated by a set of girders that were easy to pass through. The next car was several stories below, though Mara couldn’t tell exactly how far. Maintenance ladders were mounted in raceways on the far side of the opposite shaft, as well as the near side here. The easiest thing to do was to climb down the ladder in this shaft and look for a maintenance door, hopefully in the basement. From there, they could get out.

But first they needed to collect the rest of the SEALs, who now found themselves trapped on floor 5 between the Chinese and three Vietnamese policemen who’d responded to the call of gunfire. Kerfer told them to go to the elevator and try to open it. But with nothing to use as a lever, even Squeaky couldn’t pry the doors apart. Worse, more black-clad gunmen appeared as he tried. The SEALs managed to get to the stairway, but they were taking gunfire from both above and below.

“The best we can do is come up behind them,” said Mara. “We climb down, get over to the other elevator car, get out there, and then ambush them in the stairs. How many are there below them?”

Kerfer asked his men. They weren’t sure. Two or three.

“Are they sure they’re Vietnamese?” Mara asked.

“They didn’t ask for IDs.”

Kerfer went to the side ladder and began climbing down.

* * *

The rungs of the ladder were covered with a greasy grime, and there was considerable dust in the air. M?, her arms around Josh’s neck, clung to him as he descended. The submachine gun hung off his back, occasionally swinging out with his momentum and then smacking him in the kidneys as he climbed back.

Josh felt a sneeze coming on. He tried holding his breath to snuff it out, but finally it exploded. His whole body shook.

“God bless you,” said Stevens above him.

Josh sneezed again. He moved his foot down to the next rung, but started to slip. He caught his balance and buried his face in his shoulder as he sneezed again.

“Hope that ain’t catchin’,” said Stevens.

“Allergies. Dust.”

“You okay, Josh?” asked Mara below him. “Let me take her.”

“No, I’m okay,” he said, sneezing again.

* * *

The space from the side of the elevator shaft to the cables at the center was too wide to get across easily, so Kerfer kept going all the way to the basement. He waited until Mara reached him before trying the small hatchway door.

It was locked.

“Little Joe, how are you guys doing?” Kerfer asked over the radio.

“We have them pinned down near the stairs.”

“Make some noise when I count three, all right?”

“Bullets?”

“Unless you got a foghorn.” Kerfer looked at Mara. “On three, we kick this thing out.”

“All right,” she told him, moving over.

“They may be waiting,” he said. “You have right, I have left. Be ready.”

Mara positioned the submachine gun. She had about half the magazine left.

Josh was still sneezing above them. Mara heard M? starting to whimper.

“One,” said Kerfer, counting over the radio.

As soon as he hit three, the SEALs on floor 5 began shooting. Mara kicked at the door with her heel. It gave way easily, flying open. She uncurled herself and dove into the basement, rolling in a thicket of spiderwebs.

Kerfer jumped in after her. Her side of the basement was clear; the only things on the wide floor were support pillars.

“Stevens will stay with you,” said Kerfer. “Get across the river as quickly as you can.”

“We can back you up.”

“No, get the hell out of here. We’ll keep them busy.”

“Listen — ”

“Do your job, spook. You got a baby and the mad scientist to worry about.”

Mara frowned at him. But he was right. Her job was to take Josh out alive.

And M?. Though now she regretted not finding her an orphanage.