Instinct: A Chess Team Adventure - By Jeremy Robinson Page 0,29
her moving at a pace she’d never have believed possible. She knew if they stopped, she’d never get started again. But she didn’t think King would give her a chance to stop. The man was a machine. He hadn’t told her why they were hauling ass up the steep grades of the Annamite foothills, but she recognized a twinge of fear in his voice when he gave the order to run. And in that fear she saw a twinkle of hope. His fear gave her confidence. She didn’t know if he feared for his life or simply feared failing the mission, but his trepidation let her know that he wasn’t cocky to a fault. He knew when to fight and knew when to run.
Only she hoped the running would end soon.
It did. Thirty minutes later, after running four miles and ascending eight hundred feet, they broke out of the jungle’s shadow and into a clearing. The late-day sun beat down on them, making them squint, but it also freed them from the moisture of the jungle and clouds of mosquitoes.
“We can stop here,” Somi said between gulps of air. Even the stealthy jungle veteran was out of breath. “Anh Dung is a half mile to the north, through the field.”
“Anh Dung?” Sara asked.
Somi nodded. “Our target, yes.”
“I thought it was in Vietnam?”
“There are no ‘Welcome to Vietnam’ signs in the bush,” Somi said, shaking her head with a sarcastic smile. “Or on the roads, for that matter.”
“We’ve been in Vietnam for about an hour,” King said. “We’re almost there.”
Sara felt rejuvenated. This nightmare was nearly half over. “Then we need to keep moving,” Sara said. This drew odd looks from the exhausted team. “We’re not going to be able to walk in there, say ‘Aha! Here’s the cure!’ and walk out again. I don’t know how long this will take.”
King took a deep breath and nodded.
“You’re sure?” Somi asked. “You’re not going to be able to think well if you’re exhausted.”
Sara took a drink of water, screwed the cap back on, and wiped her mouth. “We don’t want to be caught, do we? No more object lessons.”
King grinned. Sara was more resilient than he expected. He turned to Somi. “Do you have any more motion sensors?”
“A few,” Somi said.
“I want them placed at the most likely entry points to this field. If they’re still following us, I want to know about it before they’re knocking on our front door. Rook, you’re with Pawn Two. Knight, Queen, I want trip wires set wherever there isn’t a motion sensor. Make them loud. Bishop, you’re with me. We need to sweep a clean path through this field.”
Rook handed Sara her backpack. “You’ll be needing this.”
Sara took the pack and slung it on her back. The weight of the world seemed to land on her shoulders, not only because of the pack’s thirty-pound load, but because the instruments it contained, combined with her mind, were all that stood between the human race and extinction.
The team split up without another word. Somi, Rook, Knight, and Queen headed back into the sultry jungle without complaint and disappeared into the darkness. Bishop slung his FN over his back and then quickly assembled a portable metal detector. He began sweeping the device back and forth as he entered the tall brown grass.
King motioned for Sara to follow and she did. He brought up the rear, his M4 ever at the ready.
Tension racked King’s back. The mission was turning into a disaster and it seemed the seven of them, six really, would have to hold off a superior force long enough for Sara to finish her job, however long that might take.
King watched Sara as she walked in front of him, keeping in tight formation behind Bishop, only pausing when Bishop stuck small orange flags in the ground, marking the location of land mines, which turned out to be an easy job as the locals had already marked the mines with stones. Though from the height and withered condition of the field, it was clear they still avoided its deadly soil. She seemed to be comforted by the wall Bishop’s large body created, or perhaps she was simply hiding from the sun in his shadow. She seemed to avoid direct sunlight whenever possible. But she had come a long way from the distractible woman he’d met at Fort Bragg. Hell, they’d landed in a war zone and she had actually warned him of danger.