Midnight Sun (138 page)

Kharzai
glanced
quickly
down
into
the
ravine
,
then
faced
them again,
glancing
from
Marcus
to
Mike
and
back
again.

“
Let
them
know
that
they
need
to
leave
me
alone.
Don't
search
for
my
body
—don’t
try
to
give
me
a
decent
burial.
Just
let
me
die
and
be
gone.
”
He
twisted
his
neck
from
side
to
side,
popping
kinks
out
of
it
as
if
limbering
up
for
the
dive.
“
But
if
they
come
to
find
me,
I
will
haunt
them
—everyone
I
can
remember
from
the
CIA, from the military, from the White
H
ouse. My
ghost
will
hunt
them
down
and
live
in
their
nightmares
,
and
in
time
I
will
kill
them
all.
”

Before
either
of
them
could
say
anything
in
response,
Kharzai
turned
and
stepped
off
the
cliff,
instantly
disappearing
over
the
edge. Deano let out a desperately sad yelp, shocked by his
adopted
master's leap to certain death. Mike and Marcus ran toward the edge of the cliff, Deano barking at them angrily
then turning and whining as if begging them to help
. They hesitated
,
then
warily
scooted
past
the dog
,
turned and peered over the precipice
.

Both
men
reached
the
edge of the cliff and looked over in
time
to
see
Kharzai
’
s
body
slam
against
a
large
,
sharp
-
edged
boulder
among
the
fast
-
moving
rapids,
the
head
twisted
at
a
wild
angle,
neck
obviously
broken.
A
brief
cloud
of
red
colored
the
white
water
that
swirled
around
the
rocks,
quickly
dissipating
as
the
torrent
swept
away
the
mangled
body
.

The animal peered over the edge, sniffed the air, and let out a whine then sat on his haunches staring down into the chasm.

Chapter
32

Arctic Valley

12 miles east of Anchorage

Friday,
June
24th

11:19
a.m

As
they
stepped
onto
the
road
where
they
left
the
truck
,
Mike
’
s
cellphone
rang.
He
answered.

“
Honey
,
tell
Marcus
to
get
back
to
town
.
”
Hilde
’
s
voice
was
shaking
.
“
Lonnie
’
s
in
the
hospital.
”

“
Is
she
okay?
”

The
worried
sound
of
Mike
’
s
voice
shocked
Marcus
. His
heart
dropped
in
his
chest
with the knowledge that
they
were
talking
about
his
wife.

“
Okay?
Of
course,
”
Hilde
said
,
“
but
she's in labor. T
he
baby
’
s
coming.
If
he
hurries
,
he
might
get
there
to
see
it
come
out.
”

*
**

Lonnie
gripped the plastic sides of
on the hospital bed
, her face glisten
ing
with great drops of sweat
.
Wave after wave of pain unlike anything she’d ever imagined ripped through her, like she was being split open from the center. 
The nurse coached her to push, the
n
breath, t
hen
push again. The delivery room door flew open and Marcus stepped in, breathless, still tying the blue hospital gown around his body. Lonnie tried to speak
,
but her breath caught and her eyes bulged as the splitting sensation crashed over her body again. Marcus reached for her hand but she couldn’t see him, blinded by the force of the pain.

The doctor motioned
Marcus
to the foot of the bed.  H
e stepped around and h
is heart caught in his throat as he
watched a
mass
of
thick black hair materialize from within his wife’s body.  Then suddenly,
Lonnie let out a scream
,
and
a
purple
jumble
of body and limbs slipped free from the birth canal and plopped into the doctor’s hands.

A nurse handed Marcus a pair of scissors. He stared at the implement
in confusion
and
looked
up
at his wife where she lay panting on the bed
,
blinking away the exhaustion, a smile on her face as she looked up at her husband and nodded. He still didn’t know what was going on, so he
turned back to the nurse. She
pointed to the baby in the doctor’s hands.

“The umbilical
cord
, sir
. Use
the scissor
s
to cut it.”