Instinct: A Chess Team Adventure - By Jeremy Robinson Page 0,55
risk hitting Sara and wanted to scoop her onto his shoulder before the last Death Volunteer hit the ground. This speed would only come with being close. Any VPLA in the area would hear the gunshots and rush to inspect. The time between firing at least five shots, grabbing Sara, and exiting the camp had to be minuscule. Efficiency was key. Fifteen feet would have to be close enough. He raised his M4 and took aim.
The soldier on the ground next to Sara rolled her over and began tugging off her backpack. Sara’s eyes popped open and locked on King’s. She’d been awake the whole time. He read her lips as she mouthed a single word to him. “Run.”
But it was too late. Four fifteen-foot-long hatches sprang open in front of each row of tents. From each leaped ten VPLA soldiers, their weapons trained on King. None fired.
Queen’s barely discernable whisper entered King’s ear. “Clear your throat if you want me to hold off.”
King cleared his throat and lowered his M4 to the forest floor. He raised his hands and looked in the eyes of the men surrounding them, turning slowly. He saw anger in the eyes of each and every one of the men. Except one. He was shorter than the others, yet carried more confidence . . . and no weapon. A single yellow star adorned the right shoulder of the man’s black and brown tiger-striped camouflage uniform.
“Major General,” King said with a nod.
Trung grinned and glanced at the gold star. “Major General Trung.” He walked around King, looking him up and down. Then he leaned in close, removing King’s KA-BAR knife and holstered pistol. He shouted an order to the five men still standing over Sara. They yanked her up, all of their casual aura vanished. An act.
Sara shrieked as she was pulled up. Her arms were twisted back by one man while a second pulled her up by her hair. With wide eyes, she began to whimper as the general approached. He held the razor-sharp KA-BAR knife up to her face and allowed Sara to see her own horrified expression in the blade’s reflection.
He drew the blade slowly across her cheek.
It felt like little more than a pen being dragged over her skin, cool and hard. But when the intense sting set in, Sara realized he’d actually cut her! Warm blood seeped from the four-inch slice and ran down her cheek. Sara’s chin shook as tears filled her eyes.
Trung moved the knife from Sara’s cheek to her neck.
“Please,” Sara said, as the first of her tears mixed with the blood on her cheek, burning in the open wound. “Don’t . . .”
King’s fists were clenched tight. His breath lodged in his chest. His eyes locked on the knife approaching Sara’s throat. He believed the VPLA general was testing his nerve. They wouldn’t kill Sara. She might have answers. It would be a strategic blunder, and from what he’d experienced this day, the VPLA had their shit together. They wouldn’t screw up something as elementary as killing their most useful captive.
Blood began to drip from Sara’s neck. He looked in her eyes, which were trusting him to keep her alive at all costs. That was the mission.
The knife stopped moving, though its blade remained buried in a few layers of skin. Blood ran down the gleaming metal and gathered around the hilt before dripping and slapping onto the dried leaves below. The general looked back at King. “Your female partner. She has thirty seconds to show herself.”
King’s jaw muscles bulged as he bit down in frustration. This backwater major general and his squad of men who’d never seen action outside their own country had them pegged. Trung’s perfect English was icing on the cake. His few spoken words, lacking any kind of accent, said, “I know you better than you know me.”
And that was the truth.
King shook his head. “Queen.”
Several of the VPLA soldiers jerked their weapons up as the canopy shook. They knew she was hiding. They didn’t know where. Bark shredded from the tree as Queen slid down to the forest floor. She turned her UMP around and handed it to the nearest soldier. She raised her arms as the man took her knife and sidearm. The man shoved her from behind, pushing her toward King.
“Watch it, buddy,” she said with a growl. They might have taken her firearms but she still possessed her most lethal weapons. To remove those would require several amputations.