“We gotta take a break,” said Christian finally.
“Keep moving.”
Zeus caught sight of a bridge spanning another road. Apparently the camp had been set up at the confluence of several roads heading south.
They sat in a clump of bushes, wordlessly staring at each other as they rested. Both men were tired, but there was no question of spending the night this close to the Chinese. They’d move farther west, find a place to cross.
“I wonder what happened to the girl,” said Christian.
“Solt can take care of herself,” said Zeus.
“I mean that little kid the spy rescued. With the scientist and the Delta guys? Remember?”
“They were SEALs,” said Zeus.
“Whatever.”
“Big difference.”
Christian shrugged. “You liked SOCOM?”
SOCOM was Special Operations Command, where Zeus had been assigned prior to his promotion to major.
“It was good,” he said.
“You thinking of going back?”
“I’d like to.”
“This’ll help,” said Christian. “You got your career all mapped out?”
“Funny time to be talking about careers, Win.”
“What else we got to talk about?”
“True,” said Zeus. “No. You?”
“I used to. I had a line drawn straight through to chief of staff,” continued Christian, his voice softening so that it was barely audible.
“Perry has his eye on you.”
“You’re his fair-haired boy.”
“I thought he hated me because of Red Dragon.”
“He liked the fact that you kicked our ass in the war game.”
“Isn’t helping too much now.”
“All right,” said Christian, rolling slightly to the side and getting up. “Let’s go.”
“Be careful near the road,” said Zeus. “I’ll go first.”
Zeus slipped through the brush, slowly approaching the bridge. It had been built over a wide but shallow ravine, possibly a spot where water ran during the rainy season, or had run — the weather patterns were so hard to predict now. The Chinese hadn’t bothered to post guards, either because it was so close to the camp or because they simply didn’t expect the Vietnamese to be able to attack them from this direction.
They made their way to the bridge along the south side of the gully. Zeus paused under the bridge, noticing a set of wires overhead. The bridge had been wired with demolition charges.
The ravine narrowed into a deeper cut, slicing back to the north. They walked in the middle of it until they came to a pool of water. When they climbed up the side, Zeus saw a fence through the trees to his left.
He walked toward it, expecting that it was the border fence. But instead he saw green splotches and rectangles on the other side — they were still near the camp.
A field had been bulldozed from the jungle on the other side of the fence. It was filled with tanks — at least two dozen from what Zeus could see. There were other vehicles as well: personnel carriers, supply trucks. All were arranged in neat rows, as if they’d stumbled upon a used-car lot.
“Wow,” said Christian. “Where the hell did these come from? There have to be two companies, at least. That wasn’t in any of the briefings.”
The engine noises they’d heard earlier were a little louder here, but didn’t seem to be coming from the tanks. Zeus put his head against the fence to try and get a better view.
What was going on in there?
He dropped to the ground.
“What are you doing?” hissed Christian, dropping beside him.
“I’m going to go get a better look.”
“Where?”
“Inside.”
“Are you nuts?”
The fence was staked every six or eight feet. Zeus couldn’t budge the first one, but the next one he tried came out easily.
“Zeus,” hissed Christian as he slipped beneath the fence. “
19
Mara was just checking into her room when her cell phone rang. She pulled it from her pocket and without checking the number, answered.
“This is Mara.”
“Mara Duncan?”
“Yes?” she answered.
“This is Kyle O’Brien from CNN.”
Mara felt her fingers clench against the plastic of the phone.
“Ms. Duncan?”
“What can I do for you?” she said.
“I saw the video on YouTube — ”
“On YouTube.”
“What are you talking about? Who are you looking for?”
“Mara Duncan. Listen, Ms. Duncan — do you want to talk off the record?”
“Off the record about what?”
“Malaysia.”
“This conversation is over.”
It was all she could do to keep herself from slamming the phone to the ground.
According to the hit counter, the video had already been seen 3,289 times. It appeared to have been posted only an hour or two earlier.
Mara’s phone rang again. This time she examined the number before answering. It was an agency number.
Peter Lucas.
