other arm, pausing only long enough to grab the straps of his backpack. He looked at the officer. “My friend is back in the cave. We need to get him out of there. He needs to know he’s supposed to evacuate.”
The Russia Today man glanced at Lourds. “I will get your friend.”
Before Lourds could reply, the man was gone, sprinting back toward the cave. Lourds started carrying the wounded man, hastening to keep up with the pace set by the other officer.
Anna followed.
21
39 Miles Southwest of Herat
Herat Province
Afghanistan
February 14, 2013
Colonel Sergay Linko focused on the cave as he zigzagged up the hill, never letting himself think for a moment that he’d be hit by one of the bullets flying all around him. Another body toppled from the ridge over the cave and splatted on the ground. Acting on reflex, Linko shot the man in the face twice as he passed to confirm the kill.
“Get in here! Quickly!” Professor Boris Glukov waved to him from the cave mouth. “You’re going to get shot!”
Linko knew there was no time to waste. In minutes, the ANP, the ANA, the ISAF, and probably a large contingent of the United States Army were all going to descend on the area. Whatever Glukov had found inside the tomb would be impossible to acquire at that point.
As Linko reached the cave, a warhead from an RPG-7 rocket launcher struck a vehicle twenty meters away. Staggered by the concussive force, the colonel almost went down. Then the professor had his arm and was pulling him into the cave.
“Come on. I’ve got you.”
Linko leaned into the professor, accepting the man’s help. From the corner of his eye, he saw the vehicle struck by the rocket settle back to the earth, already a whirling ball of flames. Twisting spirals of smoke spun up into the sky.
“Are you hit?” Boris Glukov checked him over, obviously concerned.
Deciding to try it the easy way first, Linko turned to the professor and spoke in Russian. “What did you find in the tomb, Professor?”
Startled, Glukov drew back. His hands doubled into fists, and his eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Who are you?”
“No one you know, comrade, but I have my orders, and time is obviously running out. Tell me what I need to know.”
Glukov waited a beat too long before making his reply. “I found a dead man in a tomb. Nothing more.”
Linko stared at him. “I do not believe you. You called your friend Lourds to this site.”
“Only to do a translation on some documents that were also found.”
Some of that was truthful. “What documents?”
Glukov shook his head. “I do not know. I could not read them. That is why I called Thomas and had him come.”
From all his years of interrogation, both in the field and in private basements, with fear alone as a prod, and sometimes with terrible torture tools, Linko knew the professor was telling a half-truth at best.
Abandoning the easy way of getting answers due to the time constraints, Linko decided to go with the easier way. He smashed the butt of his rifle into the professor’s face, knocking the man back against the wall, then throwing a hand against Glukov’s chest to keep him upright.
Bleeding profusely from his split lips and broken nose, Glukov swayed drunkenly. He struggled to focus on Linko.
“Can you hear me, Professor?” Linko released his hold on the man’s chest, slapped the professor’s face hard enough to turn his head, and caught him again before he fell.
“Yes...I hear you...”
“Tell me what you found.”
“A dead man... Only a dead man.”
Linko grabbed the man’s hair and bounced his head on the stone wall behind him. Glukov howled in pain. Linko punched him in the face, hitting his nose again.
“Talk to me, Professor. I do not have much time, and I have no patience at all.”
Glukov’s fingers worked feebly at Linko’s hand on his chest, but his disorientation stripped his strength, and he couldn’t break Linko’s hold. Setting his feet, Linko threw a shoulder into his prisoner and bounced him into the wall again.
“What else did you find?”
Sucking in air, frightened and hurting, Glukov broke. “Scrolls... There were scrolls.”
“What kind of scrolls?”
“About Alexander the Great...”
“What was on those scrolls?”
“I don’t know, I swear. Thomas only got here a short time ago. Even he hasn’t deciphered them yet.”
That excited Linko. He still had a chance to get something substantial for Nevsky. “Are the scrolls still in the tomb?”
“No.”
“Then where are they?”
Glukov thought just for a minute about not answering, or