Forged in Honor (1995) (55 page)

McCoy cringed hearing Josh's pistol reports. "Goddamn you, Hawkins!" he mumbled as he crawled back toward the others.

Josh squeezed the trigger again and spun to face his fifth target. The stunned soldier was still seeing flashes before his eyes when Josh squeezed the trigger. The sixth soldier got his rifle up and fired a burst. Josh didn't flinch as bullets tore into the wall beside him-he was focused completely on his target, whose eyes were filled with horror. Josh squeezed the trigger and screamed, "Stephen!"

Stephen was issuing orders to his assault team leaders when the explosion and the pistol shots echoed through the hallway. When he heard the familiar voice shout his name, he ran for the stairway and yelled for his men to follow him.

In the tunnel Tan stepped over a dead Strike soldier and approached the company commander. The captain motioned down the tunnel, which was littered with bodies. "We lost twenty men, General."

"And the rebels?" Tan asked.

"Five of them were defending the entrance to the tunnel to the Defense Ministry-they're all dead. However, the door into the ministry is locked. My men are trying to open it now.

If they can't, we'll blow it open."

Gunshots rang out. A sergeant yelled, "We shot through the lock! It's open!"

Swei stood in the middle of the lobby with his security chief and two bodyguards. Security men and Strike platoon soldiers were positioned behind barricades made of desks and tables in front of the shattered glass doors at both ends of the huge hall. Others were at windows in the first-floor offices.

Mortar shells were still impacting on the roof, causing plaster to fall from the ceiling. Everyone and everything were covered with a fine white dust.

The Strike platoon leader strode up with a worried frown.

"Prime Minister, we've got the rebels outside pinned down, but the offices in the west wing are on fire. If the fire spreads, the smoke will force us out."

Swei motioned to the steps leading down to the basement.

"The Strike company will be here any minute. They are clearing the tunnel and the command center. Once they get rid of the rebels down there, we'll fall back to the DDSI compound and let the army finish it."

Another explosion on the roof shook the wooden panels from the walls. The security chief took Swei's arm and guided him toward the small conference room. "It is safer inside here, Prime Minister."

As Swei and his security men stepped into the room, Stephen and Josh rushed into the lobby along with the seventeen surviving members of the Shan assault force. A Strike sergeant turned at the sound of boots on the marble floor. He screamed a warning, then paid for it with a burst of bullets in his face. Stephen opened up on those at the front barricade while Josh fired at those positioned at the rear entrance. They stood back to back in the middle of the lobby. They and the other Shan screamed in defiance and riddled their hated enemy, who had been caught with their backs turned. The killing was easy.

Swei spun around when he heard the screaming and shooting in the lobby. The security chief pushed him back, unholstered his pistol, and ran toward the door with the two bodyguards.

Stephen saw them at the door. He whirled to fire but a bullet tore into his left arm and knocked him back.

Beside Stephen, Corporal Chee turned in a single motion and sprayed the men coming out of the doorway. His spray of bullets was low and hit two of them in the legs. They fell as if they had been tripped up by an unseen wire, but the third man kept shooting. Chee saw the attacking man's eye muscles twitch as he pulled the trigger and felt the burning pain of a blow to his chest. For an instant he thought he would be able remain on his feet, but his knees buckled and he sank to the floor.

Josh turned around, feeling Stephen bump hard against his back. He saw Stephen had been hit and by reflex caught him before he fell. Holding his brother in his arms, he could dc, nothing to stop the oncoming attacker who was aiming a pistol at him. Then Josh saw the brilliant flash. The pistol fell to the floor, along with the soldier's hand. Xu Kang swung his sword again, burying the blade in the security chief's neck.

The shooting stopped, and cries of surrender echoed down the hallways from the few surviving Strike platoon soldiers and security men.

Helped by Josh, Stephen remained on his feet. He stepped toward his father but froze when Swei strode through the doorway.

Xu Kang and Horseman Lante raised their swords. Xu Kang snarled as he laid his blade against Swei's neck. "Get on your knees, pye dog, and beg for my mercy."

Swei's simmering eyes locked on the old man, and he replied with sneering contempt, "To a Shan? Never!"

Xu Kang smiled and lifted his sword. "So be it. You will never bark ag-"

An ear-shattering barrage of gunfire stopped him in midsentence. Xu Kang turned just in rime to see the three Shan soldiers who were guarding the basement stairs topple over.

Swei started to grin-the Strike company had finally arrived!-but he shuddered as Xu Kang's bloodcurdling scream filled the hall.

"Ayeee!" the old man screamed as he and Horseman Lante ran toward the stairway with their swords raised. Stephen joined in the assault, as did Joshua and the remaining Shan soldiers. The men flung themselves down the steps to attack the oncoming human wave of brown-bereted Strike commandos.

The lead commandos coming up the steps did not see the screaming Shan until they leaped and were falling onto them.

Then they saw only blurred steel as the swords slashed downward. It was too late to shoot-all they could do was scream in horror.

The Strike captain ducked Xu Kang's blade and it slashed into his lieutenant's shoulder. The captain tried to raise his rifle, but in the close quarters he couldn't free the barrel. He lunged instead, knocking the old man back. His weapon now clear, he began to squeeze the trigger when Stephen shoved his pistol into the captain's face and fired. The officer dropped like a stone.

Upstairs, Swei stood transfixed in terror, then relief. The old Sawbaw and his men had temporarily stopped the momentum of the commando attack by the sheer ferocity of their charge, but now the numbers were telling as more and more Strike soldiers pushed up the steps. The few remaining Shan were like boulders in the middle of a stream, surrounded and trapped by the press of bodies eddying around them. Swei smiled and began to back up, knowing the boulders would soon be gone.

"Ayeee!"

The new war cry froze Swei in place. A screaming Shan soldier ran past him, then another and another, all sprinting toward the fight on the stairs. Swei turned and saw more Shan soldiers pouring through the shattered doors and over the barricade. He felt something tear at his cheek before he could take cover. Another bullet thumped into his chest and knocked him back against the wall. Writhing in agonizing pain, he slid down to the floor, leaving a bloody smear on the wall. He tried to breathe, but his bullet-torn jaw was attached by only a few strands of sinew. No air came, only a deep gurgling in his chest. As the last of the Shan soldiers passed by, he finally managed a tortured breath. Suddenly the burning pain became a distant throb and everything around him stopped spinning. He saw a new flood of attackers running through the shattered doors-students, men and women, screaming like animals. They ran into the lobby, picked up rifles from the dead and wounded, and joined the fighting on the stairs. Their determined faces sent a shudder of despair through Swei's weakening body. Too tired to fight any longer, he lowered his head and saw pink bubbles oozing out of a round hole in his chest. As he watched, the pink froth spread like a living thing. He tried to stop the oozing bubbles, but his hands were too heavy to move. As his heavy eyelids closed, Swei knew his dream was gone forever.

In the basement, Tan yelled for the Strike soldiers to keep pushing forward, but a cry went up from the top of the stairs:

"Fall back! Fall back!"

The men in front turned and ran. Tan shouted and tried to shove them back up the stairs, but it was like trying to hold back a flash flood. He raised his pistol and fired into the mob of rebels, then turned and fled with his terror-stricken men.

Ghostly pale and weakened, Xu Kang could not lift his blood-covered sword. Stephen held him around the waist and fought to keep them both on their feet as they were propelled forward by the screaming Shan and students. Finally, Stephen managed to step into the spacious command center and pull his father out of the rampaging flow.

Xu Kang's sword clattered to the floor as he collapsed into Stephen's arms. His head rested on his son's shoulder, and the old soldier whispered, "Son, they are calling for me."

Stephen hugged him tightly to his breast, willing him not to give up. "No, Father, you can't leave me now. I love you.

We have so much yet to do."

With the last of his strength, Xu Kang lifted his head and locked his fiery eyes on Stephen. "My ... my sword."

Stephen lowered his father to the floor and placed the sword hilt in the old warrior's hand.

Xu Kang smiled and closed his eyes as he joined his Horsemen on an eternal ride through his beloved mountains.

Josh had broken out of the crowd chasing the Strike troops into the tunnel. He hurried into the nearly deserted command center and saw father and son clutching each other among the scattered bodies. He started to run, but Stephen's tear-filled eyes told him he was too late. Stephen slowly stood and smiled through his tears. "The ancestors are very pleased, Joshua. They have in their presence Sawbaw Xu Rei Kang, Chindit of the forest and Protector of the Ri. He will sit in the seat of honor at their side."

Feeling as if his heart were being torn apart, Josh tried to speak but couldn't bring himself to finish the ritual of words.

Stephen had taken one step toward his brother when he saw a man he recognized rise up from behind a computer console behind Josh. Stephen lunged as Tan fired his pistol.

Josh was knocked forward as the bullet hit him in the back of his shoulder. Tan began to fire at Josh again, but Stephen rushed past his friend. Tan locked on this new target and fired, and kept pulling the trigger again seeing Stephen wasn't going down. Jerking with each bullet's strike, Stephen finally fell to the floor, twitched, and lay still.

"No!" Josh screamed, spinning around with his Beretta raised.

Tan snapped off a hurried shot and saw the American stagger back, catch his balance, and raise his pistol again. Tan backed up and pulled the trigger, but the magazine was empty. The Caucasian kept walking toward him, rivulets of blood flowing down his forehead, nose, and cheeks.

Tan frantically threw the empty pistol and it struck the man in the left shoulder. He didn't flinch or blink, and his piercing eyes even seemed to smile. Tan screamed.

Joshua squeezed the trigger twice. He waited until he saw his target crumple to the ground before turning around. He couldn't seem to keep his head up. He saw Stephen crawling toward his father. Bending over to help him, Josh felt himself falling forward. He reached for his brother but a cloud of darkness enveloped him. He didn't hear his gun hit the concrete floor or his own voice cry out for his brother. He landed in a pool of warm blood and closed his eyes. He listened for the ringing mission bell, but there was only blissful silence.

Searching hurriedly through the bodies, Fletcher abruptly halted and yelled, "Christ! Buck, over here! I found him!"

McCoy strode over. "Goddamn it! Help me get his body out of here before the fire spreads to the basement. Holy shit!

Did he just move?"

Fletcher quickly kneeled down to get a better look at the head wound, then felt for a pulse. He looked up at McCoy and said in disbelief, "He's alive."

McCoy shook his head in admiration. "The sonofabitch listened for a change."

"What are you doing here?"

Startled, McCoy spun around and saw Colonel Banta and ten armed men. "Relax, Colonel," McCoy said. "We were just looking for our man. We found him, so we'll be leaving."

Banta motioned to his soldiers, who leveled their rifles at the two men. He strode toward Josh but abruptly halted at the sight of his two leaders lying beside each other a few feet away. Tears welled in the corners of his eyes-he could tell from the trail of blood that Stephen had dragged himself to his father and laid his head on the old warrior's shoulder.

He continued over to Joshua and took his wrist. Feeling a strong pulse, he glared at McCoy and spat, "We will care for him. He is Shan, not your man."

"Hold it, Colonel," McCoy snapped. "Hawkins has to disappear-and fast. The Company can't be involved in this.

We had a deal, dammit!"

Banta pinned McCoy with an icy stare. "It's not finished."

"Not finished? What the fuck is there left to finish?"

Banta picked Josh up in his arms and stood. "You would not understand. Do not worry, U McCoy. I will abide by our deal. No one will speak about the Sao being with us." He nodded his head and two of his men flicked off the safeties of their rifles.

McCoy raised his hands and backed up. "We have Stephen's son. Remember that, Banta, and remind Hawkins of it. If there's a leak, all of our work was for nothing."

The colonel regarded the CIA man for a moment with a pitying look before lowering his eyes to the bodies of the Kangs. "No, U McCoy," he said softly. "No matter what happens this day, it will not have been for nothing."