For What It's Worth

For What It’s Worth

A Novel by

Lloyd Freestone

For What It’s Worth

Copyright © 2020 by Lloyd Freestone

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Tellwell Talent

www.tellwell.ca

ISBN

978-0-2288-3945-3 (Hardcover)

978-0-2288-3944-6 (Paperback)

978-0-2288-3946-0 (eBook)

Table of Contents

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Chapter XIII

Chapter XIV

Chapter XV

Dedication page

This book is dedicated to my older brother, Bruce. He served in the RCAF many years ago. We lost him to cancer in 2017, but not before he read this book and wondered out loud how I could read his mind from 400 miles away!

Needless to say, he really liked this book.

Thanks for your input and rest easy. I miss you Bro!!!!

Chapter I

Johnny glanced up from the laptop computer he was using and smiled at the woman lying naked on his hotel room bed. He stayed that way, content, for a few moments before turning his attention back to the computer on the table in front of him.

The pictures he’d sent the previous night had been received and instructions regarding those pictures were soon being downloaded onto the small screen.

Instructions from Evers? asked the woman on the bed.

Johnny glanced at her again and smiled as his partner swung her body around to face him. Then she lay on her stomach, her head resting on her arms, a big smile on her face. Yes, ma’am, Johnny said to her. It looks as though some of the people we snapped photos of are on the wanted list.

Are we going after them, she asked, or is the rest of the team?

It looks like the colonel wants the rest of the team to do it, Johnny told her. However, we are to proceed to London Tower and check out a few of the restaurants around there. There are supposed to be a lot of suspicious people there for us to examine.

Makes sense to me, she said, smiling impishly, and why do you have that silly little look on your face?

I was just thinking back to the first time I ever saw you naked on a bed. I must say, you look much livelier now than you did then, he told her suggestively.

You saved my life then and you didn’t even know me, she said, her grin turning serious. I always wondered why.

It was just something I had to do, he told her affectionately.

Bullshit! You could have left me for dead. You almost died yourself. She was firm in this statement.

I didn’t even come close to dying, he told her. You, on the other hand, were very close to it.

Thanks to you, I survived, though, she said gratefully.

I’m certainly glad you did. I’d feel awful silly sitting here by myself, he teased.

Why the Hell would you be sitting in a honeymoon suite by yourself? she asked, puzzled.

That’s why I’d feel silly, he deadpanned.

She laughed. I guess I can understand that. Come over here and tell me why you were in that place, at that time. I never did hear the whole story, she suggested.

I’ll be there in a second, as soon as I reply to Evers, he said, turning back to his computer.

The lady turned around on the bed once again and lay down, watching Johnny as he finished at the computer. When he was done, he rose from the chair and walked toward her, letting his robe drop to the floor as he approached the bed. He lay down beside her, and as his head settled onto the pillow, her arm reached across his broad chest.

The weather in Iraq was unbearably hot, and laying in one spot for several hours was doing nothing for the good nature of the man on the small rise who was quietly observing a small, earthen structure in the distance, just over 800 yards away. It had been four hours since he’d taken up his position on that small hillside, and he knew he would be there until dark if need be. There had been some suspicious activity in that structure in the past three days, and command had deemed it necessary to watch it.

He had been on similar stake-outs before, but none of them in such hot weather. He just hoped the hot sun didn’t totally fry his brain before he was finished this one. He was drinking water, taking it in through a straw carefully placed right in front of him so as to limit his movement. He didn’t want anyone to see him. His camouflage was perfect and the only thing that might seem out of place was the small hump he made at the top of the little hill, though he was sure it looked quite natural. As far as he was concerned, he was virtually invisible unless someone walked right up on top of him.

The small earthen structure was centered in the crosshairs of his rifle scope and a small but powerful parabolic radio dish was aimed at it so he could pick up any sounds or voices coming from the building. The remarkable thing about his whole setup was that he’d designed and built it himself. The scope had the dual purpose of scope and powerful lens for the camera he’d built into the stock of the rifle. The small antennae on top allowed him to access satellite technology, enabling him to send pictures anywhere he needed to. This specially designed unit even took video footage for those moments when a single picture just wouldn’t do. Further, the rifle was deadly accurate at any distance. He amazed his friends and superior officers with his marksmanship, which he attributed in part to the quality weapon. He could shoot and hit almost any target, at any time, with remarkable speed.

That wasn’t lost on the brass; they knew the weapon was only as good as the person looking through the scope—and Johnny was the best they’d ever seen. After his first demonstration with the weapon, he was noticed and interviewed, and it was determined a man with his talents was needed in the field. It was clear he would be a tremendous asset on any team. Now, after seven years of service, he had arrived at this moment in time, where he was laying out in the hot sun, on a small hillside, waiting for whatever might happen next. If nothing happened, he would backtrack several kilometers and call for the helicopter to pick him up. If things heated up, he would do what he had to. But all he could do right now was lay there and wait.

As he shifted position slightly to ease a cramp in his neck, he thought back to when he was a youth growing up on the prairies. His father owned a farm and, once Johnny was old enough, his dad got him a rifle and showed him how to shoot, and how to care for his gun. The main goal of this venture was so that Johnny could hone his marksman skills and eliminate the damn gophers that kept destroying the farm’s crops. However, once his father saw him shoot, he realized that Johnny was special and that he had a keener than average hand and eye. In only the third week after getting the small gun, as the two were having a father and son moment—sitting on a little rise in a pasture, sipping iced tea, eating sandwiches, and shooting any gopher silly enough to stick its head out of its hole—Johnny pointed out three gophers, two that were fairly close together and one a little further away. He said he’d take the two that were close together and told his father to take the loner. Both of them took careful aim; his father fired first and his gopher fell over, dead. Then, when he turned to watch his son, he almost dropped his gun when he saw Johnny take careful aim and, in a matter of an eye blink, drop both gophers where they were standing.

What the hell is going on, Son?, he asked in surprise. You didn’t eject the spent shell before you fired the second shot!

I know Dad, Johnny said proudly. I fixed the gun so it would shoot faster. I filed down the firing pin and made the bolt semi-automatic. It works pretty good!

How did you know to do that? asked his father.

I read it in a magazine, he said matter-of-factly. Then he asked, Did I do good, Dad?

Johnny’s father looked down at his ten-year-old son and just smiled. Yes, he thought, you did good. But how could he tell anyone that his son had just converted an old rifle into a semi-automatic weapon? He couldn’t, and he hoped his son would not tell anyone either.

He handled it the best way he knew how. You did good, Son! However, what you did is illegal. Don’t you ever tell anyone else about this. If you do, they could throw me in jail—and you would be in trouble as well.

Okay, Dad, agreed Johnny. I won’t tell a soul. It will be our little secret. But now that my gun is different from the other kids’ guns, what happens when our Scout troop has its target shooting competition? I’ll need a gun for that.

You can use mine. Just don’t take this one out when anyone else is around, his father replied, and Johnny could tell he meant it.

I won’t, he promised. Then he asked, You want to try it?

Johnny’s father smiled at his son and nodded. He took the gun from Johnny and fired it a few times. He quickly found it to be the perfect weapon for shooting gophers. When a person no longer had to stop and reload every time he took a shot, he could kill three or four gophers before they even knew what was happening.

Makes the job easier, son, he said. Then he shook his head, handed the weapon back to the boy and tousled his hair. He knew his son was smart but he hadn’t known just how smart.

I’ve never been as proud of you as I am at this moment, he told him. Johnny beamed with pride—after all, doesn’t every boy want his father to be proud of him? And it was that positive reinforcement that pushed Johnny to become the man he ultimately became … which today meant a man lying on a little hill in a foreign country, a rifle at the ready, just daring anyone to make the wrong move.

As he lay there, the sun started to go down behind him and the temperature started to slowly drop. It would never drop low enough to be really comfortable, but it would at least stop the sweat from running into his eyes. He took another small sip of his water, not wanting to take in too much of the cool, clear liquid all at once. The last thing he wanted to do was start coughing and draw attention to himself. Suddenly, just as he returned his eye to the scope, a small dust plume became visible in the distance. He knew that whatever was causing the dust wouldn’t arrive at the structure for another 15 minutes, and so he tensed up, ready for action. He was tired, but he was going to see this stakeout through and had no plans to get more comfortable until he’d done so.

As he thought about becoming more comfortable, it was all he could do not to laugh out loud. Comfort was a state of mind, and Johnny had complete control of his own comfort.

It was during basic training that he showed people what he could do, without a gun or a weapon of any kind. The squad leader, a man a year or two older than Johnny (and a real pain in the ass), told everyone to relax while they waited for the base commanding officer to come and address them. In three days, a lot of them would be shipped out for their first assignments and Johnny was looking forward to going to Afghanistan to act as a peacekeeper after that war had ended.

Johnny took the squad leader’s command literally; but while most people would understand ‘relaxing’ as getting comfortable, Johnny’s idea of being relaxed was having a low heart rate and low blood pressure, which he could control at will, something that had stood him in good stead for a lot of his assignments.

Because Johnny and his best friend, Jeff, didn’t like the squad leader, they came come up with a plan to make him look like a real idiot. When the base commander came to inspect and address them, as he finished his address, while they were sitting and listening, Johnny slowed his heart down to about 35 beats per minute. Then, when everyone rose to salute the C.O., when he stood up too quickly, he fell to the floor in a dead faint.

Jeff immediately turned to help him and, concerned, the C.O. came down off the podium to see to the fallen soldier. What happened to this man? he asked with concern.

Jeff looked at the C.O. and then at the squad leader before he spoke. We were worked pretty hard this morning, Sir! I think Johnny has had a heart attack. He told me he had a slight pain in his chest but we both figured he was too young for that, so we put it down to heartburn.

The C.O. looked at the squad leader. Is this true, Sergeant? he asked.

The squad leader was flustered. I didn’t work them very hard at all, Sir. This man has always been in good shape before, and he’s passed every physical with flying colors. I don’t understand this at all.

Johnny couldn’t carry on with the deception any longer. He opened his eyes and looked around at everyone before he spoke. I dreamed I died. I always thought I was going to end up in Heaven, but I guess I was wrong, he said in a whispery voice.

The C.O. laughed, along with everyone else, then asked Johnny, Are you all right, Son?

I cannot tell a lie, sir. I am fine. I just wanted to play a little joke on Sergeant Willows before I was sent overseas.

That was a good one, the C.O. said. We all thought you’d really fainted. Now, get to your feet and dust yourself off before we decide on your punishment.

Yes sir! It will take a moment sir until my heart speeds up again, though, Johnny said.

While your heart speeds up? What do you mean?

I can control my heart, Sir, Johnny said. I can slow it down so much that a doctor would think I needed a pacemaker. That’s what I did while you were speaking … and I didn’t let it speed up again before I tried to stand. I really did faint, Sir. I wasn’t faking it.

The C.O. assessed him, and then quickly said to the sergeant, Sergeant! I want to see this man in my office as soon as possible. Did you know about this talent of his?

No, Sir! This is the first I’ve heard about it.

Just make sure he gets over to my office as soon as possible, said the C.O.

With Jeff’s help, Johnny got to his feet. He’d heard what the C.O. had said, and the Sergeant nodded and pointed in the direction of the office. Johnny went, not knowing what was going to happen to him. He soon found out.

You, Son, are prime sniper material, said the C.O. The only thing left was to determine is if you can shoot. That was soon proven, with Johnny’s range records delivered a moment or two later. Soon, he was off to sniper school.

For the past seven years, Johnny had been second to no one, and now here he was laying on a small hillside in Iraq, doing the job for which it seemed he’d been born.

The dust plume in the distance soon transformed into a truck. It slowly rolled to a stop in front of the structure. Two men got out of it and quickly unloaded several boxes from the back and took them inside. But it was what they removed from the truck next that really made Johnny take notice. All the boxes had been removed from the bed of the truck, but Johnny could see there was still a lump covered with a dusty tarp in there. It didn’t move … at least, not until it was dragged off the truck—then it moved quite a lot, and it wasn’t very quiet either. The voice was female; Johnny was sure of that. What that voice was doing under that tarp was a question that wouldn’t be answered for a little while yet. But Johnny was going to find out. He knew he was going to get dirty this evening.

The man who’d been manhandling the tarped woman from the truck was clearly having trouble and so he called for help. His partner, as well as two other men who’d been in the structure, came out to give him a hand. As they dragged the tarp out of the truck and let it drop to the ground, her kicking and thrashing about caused it to open up, and Johnny could that she was naked. She spilled out of the tarp and lay there in all her glory, shooting daggers of hate at all four of the men around her. One of them said something and the other three men pounced on her and began dragging the fighting woman into the structure.

Johnny had seen enough. He had cause to infiltrate the house based on the woman’s predicament, though he’d not gathered the intelligence he’d hoped for. However, it was time to act. He started returning his heart, which he’d slowed for the stakeout, back to speed when the door of the structure opened again and all four men came out. The apparent leader, the one who had told the others to get the woman into the house, began speaking. Johnny adjusted the parabolic dish a little and listened very closely to what was being said. He was soon listening to insurgents planning to overthrow the American presence in Iraq. He was concerned about the sophisticated weapons these men were speaking of and knew that this initiative would spread worldwide if things weren’t stopped very soon.

Once the man had stopped talking, the first two men got into the truck and drove off. When he was sure the men in the truck wouldn’t be able to see him execute their compadres, Johnny took aim and fired twice in rapid succession. Both men by the structure fell to the ground, their heads blown to bits by the high tensile bullets that slammed into them from Johnny’s gun.

He waited for minute or two, then got to his feet and stretched out the kinks in his legs. There was a urine stain on the front of his pants and he just hoped the woman inside the structure would be smart enough to realize he wouldn’t piss his pants if there were any other options. He decided that when he’d ensured the woman was all right and that the insurgents had been cleared, he’d rinse off in a nearby river.

He sprang into action, jogging as quickly as he could to the structure, hoping there was no one else inside to see him coming. He was in luck. No one took any shots. When he got there, after pulling one dead man away from in front of the door, he carefully opened it and stood to the side, waiting for a good 30 seconds before quickly entering and closing the door behind him.

A quick glance around the room he was in showed him that she wasn’t going to be easy to find. He wondered how many rooms this place had; not only was the woman nowhere in sight, but the boxes that had been unloaded from the truck weren’t either. He would have to go and explore. He carefully leaned his rifle against the wall and took out his pistol. The Ruger held nine bullets in the clip and one in the magazine. He cocked it, ready for anything as he went around the first corner … well, he thought he was ready for anything—what he saw next almost made him sick, but he managed to hold it together; if he hadn’t, the woman would most assuredly have died.

Under other conditions, the scene that greeted Johnny’s eyes might have been a sexy turn-on. There was the woman, naked and tied spread-eagle to a bed, her legs open wide revealing anything and everything. What made Johnny sick was the cigarette burns all over her legs and belly … but that wasn’t the worst thing that had happened to her. One of the four men must have been a doctor at one time, since he seemed to know what he was doing in a medical sort of way. There was blood spurting out of a small hole in the woman’s upper thigh, from a small needle inserted into her femoral artery, and a substantial amount of blood was on her and on the bed. If he didn’t do something, and damn soon, she would probably bleed to death in a matter of an hour or so.

He ran to the bed and checked to make sure she was still alive. She was, but she was very weak. He took his belt and made a tourniquet to slow the bleeding before he did anything else and then, after a close examination of the needle stuck in her leg, he decided to pull it out. However, he knew he’d need some bandages and sutures handy first, so he got his first aid kit so he could patch her up. First, though, he took a triangular bandage and, designed to be used as a sling for an arm, and gently placed it over her naked groin. He felt it was the right thing to do for dignity’s sake … and also to stop him from being distracted.

He pulled the syringe out of her leg, applied pressure to keep her from bleeding to death and, drawing on army medic training he’d had before becoming a sniper, he stitched the artery as best he could before closing the wound and carefully bandaging the area.

He could do nothing more for her, and she was still unconscious. However, he wasn’t certain yet that it was only the two of them in the building. With that in mind, he got up to explore. He found no other people, but he did find the boxes that had been unloaded from the truck in another small room. He carried one of them into the room where the woman was laying and smiled as he realized that she was still tied up. He quickly cut the ropes, freeing her arms and legs and, without even realizing he was doing it, pulled her feet together so she was a little more chaste-looking before bending to open the box.

He was already certain it was an ammunition box, but he wanted to see what type of ammunition was inside it. The outside said ‘USMC’, which he knew meant United States Marine Corps, but he wanted to know whether the ammunition inside was really American or not. If it was, it was quite likely that the box had been taken from an ambushed convoy, or found at an abandoned site. If it wasn’t, then a foreign power was supplying insurgents with weapons and ammunition.

What he found inside the box made him breathe a little easier. The ammunition wasn’t American; it looked Chinese, or maybe Russian. He wondered if the woman on the bed was American. Perhaps she’d been looking into weapons smuggling and counterfeiting and had been captured.

He stood up and walked over to where she was laying. A closer look at her wounds showed that some of them were a few days old and he wondered how long she had been a captive, or if she had been raped; after all, she was naked and in the company of some very bad men. He checked her fingernails and saw nothing to indicate she’d scratched anyone lately, although with all the dirt under those nails, it would be hard to find skin cells without proper equipment.

He felt sorry for her and so after a quick search, in one of the rooms he found a blanket which he used to cover ‘Julie’. That’s what he started calling her; ‘the woman’ seemed somewhat unfeeling all of a sudden.

When he was sure that she was as protected and comfortable as she could be, he decided he should retrieve his gear from where he’d left it on the hillside. He knew he had a little food, even though it was only C rations, but it was the water he was mostly interested in. He hadn’t found any inside the house, and he knew Julie would need some very soon. He also knew that what was left in his canteen wouldn’t last them very long and he needed to get to the river to get more, as well as to cool off his burning body and clean the dried urine stench and stain from his pants. Before he left though, he figured he better leave Julie a message so she would know she was in safe hands. Hauling a pen and paper out of his first aid pack, he wrote, Gone for water, and then was soon out the door.

The now darkening sky made everything cooler, and even a five degree temperature drop helped. He hastily jogged back to get his stuff and then less than five minutes later, he was standing in the river up to his waist with the canteen pointed upriver to capture fresh water. He didn’t know if the water was safe to drink, and he didn’t care. He had water purification tablets in his pack, so he was sure he and Julie would be fine. Much cooler now, though he longed to just stay in the cool water, he knew he had to get back to the house and look after his patient. Something told him he had to get back there as fast as possible and that’s what he did; he quickly dunked his head once more and then was up and running back to the relative safety of the building.

As he came around the edge of the little hill that stood between the house and the river, he saw the same truck that had brought Julie here returning and he knew that if he didn’t get her out of the house before they arrived, she’d be dead. He couldn’t let that happen, and so he ran as hard as he could. He estimated he’d have about five minutes to get his gear packed up and get Julie out before the men got there. That’s lots of time, if things go right, he thought.

‘If’ is probably the biggest small word in the dictionary. Johnny hated that word. If it rains, we’ll have some good crops. If it doesn’t snow, we’ll make it home in plenty of time for the hockey game. If they hadn’t blown a tire on that icy road, they would have been okay… If ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas. Thanks for nothing!

Johnny ran into the house and it was damn lucky for him that he tripped and fell or else the slug that came at him would have caught him right in the chest. He heard the shot and rolled as he hit the floor until he was right in front of the shooter—Julie. She was holding the rifle he’d leaned against the wall and had shot off a wild shot. Johnny was struck by the irony of almost being killed by his own sniper rifle. However, he quickly took in that she was in shock. It was easy to stand up and take the gun away from here. Then he grabbed her as she started to fall, her blood loss making her weak. She mumbled something as he picked her up and took her back into the other room.

Johnny laid her back on the bed, smiling when he saw she’d almost fashioned a gown out of the blanket he’d covered her with. It would never be a fashion statement, but it did the job. Then he opened his pack and quickly began throwing all his things inside it. The clock in his head was telling him that he only had a minute or so to get out safely. When he was packed, he grabbed another blanket and wrapped Julie in it. Then he then took a grenade, carefully placed it into an ammunition can and went back into the room with all the rest of the metal boxes. He put on his pack and slung his rifle over his shoulder and then he took the pin out of it, doctored the lever so it wouldn’t explode right away, threw Julie over his shoulder, and ran out of the house, back to the hill where he’d spent the day.

When the truck came back into view, Johnny hoped for the best. He had two options. He could do nothing, and have the men in the truck start searching for them when they discovered their dead comrades; or he could kill both of them now, steal the truck, and try to get to his helicopter rendezvous point, though it would mean driving over terrain that would be almost impossible for a vehicle to navigate. It was then that a third option came to him. He would kill the two men in the truck, allow the boobytrapped house to explode and blow up all the ammunition in the truck as well. That option seemed best so, after making sure Julie was comfortable, he got back into his sniper position and prepared to fire.

The night scope worked perfectly and less than two minutes later, both men at the truck were dead. Johnny quickly walked down to the truck to see what else they were bringing to the party. It was more of the same; mostly bullets, but also two boxes of grenades and one special box that held enough plastic explosive to make a very large hole in the planet. Johnny wondered if there was a similar type of box in the house, but he decided against going in there to check it out. He doctored the box of C4 the same way he had done with the box of bullets in the house and he was soon back beside the limp form of Julie.

Well, Sweetie, this is going to be a bit of a pain in the ass for both of us. I have to carry you, and packing you on my back is the best option. If I do that, you’ll have to carry my pack. I think you can do it but you’ll have to bear with me while I make a sling out of this other blanket. I don’t want you to think I’m groping you or copping a feel. I’m doing this so I can get us both to safety. God! I wish you were awake so you’d understand this.

I am, sort of, came a weak voice. Do what you have to do, Buddy. Just get me the hell out of here.

I’ll do what I can. You got a name? Or should I call you Julie?

Oxnard 524, was all she said before she passed out again.

Okay! Oxnard it is. Maybe I’ll call you that next time you come to.

He smiled at her as he unwrapped the blanket he’d rolled her into and, as carefully and gently as he could be, he fashioned a sling that would allow him to carry her in the manner a mother carries a baby on her back. It wasn’t the perfect solution, but it beat carrying her in front like a fireman would. Not only did it leave his arms free, but it was more respectful. She was a very attractive woman who wasn’t wearing any clothes and Johnny felt that keeping her from prying eyes should take precedence over everything except getting to safety. He would do both if it killed him.

He couldn’t remember if he’d put a purification tablet in the water canteen or not, but he took a drink anyway, not caring. If he could survive for another three hours, he’d be in a place where he could deal with the aftereffects of a little dirty water. He clipped the canteen back on his belt, sat Julie up, wrangled her into the bodypack he’d created for her, and put his supply backpack on her back. Then he carefully swung her onto his back, surprised at how little she weighed. If she were over 100 pounds, he’d eat his hat. Then he carefully reached down and picked up his rifle. He knew he’d probably need it as a walking stick before they came to the end of their journey, but he also had a feeling he’d be needing it for protection. Then the pair started off in the direction of the helicopter rendezvous point, some eight kilometers away.

‘If’ … there’s that damn word again. If Julie had remained asleep, they might have managed to get past the small band of rebels unscathed.

Johnny made good time on the way to the rendezvous points and, in fact, they were only about 300 yards away, and taking a short rest, when Johnny heard voices coming from just over a little rise in front of him. Up to this point, the trip had been rather uneventful; now it was about to get interesting.

Johnny estimated that the party coming toward him was about 20 men, and he knew he’d have to be very quiet in order to get past them. He hoisted Julie up and walked in a direction that would take them around the band of men, hoping to avoid an encounter. However, the men seemed to change direction and despite his best intentions, it began seeming likely that he and Julie might run into them. Thinking it wise to hide his radio and other supplies, he bent over to shove his radio under a rock, but when he crouched down, things unraveled in a hurry. He must have hit Julie against something because she let out a bellow that could be heard from a long way off. He quickly released her and she bellowed again, not realizing that silence was the order of the day. Johnny smiled at her before he punched her and knocked her out, then he quickly moved the rock that hid his radio and, with rifle in hand, ran to the edge of the little ridge that separated him from the insurgents and took up position there, waiting to see what, if anything, was going to happen.

One quick look told him all he needed to know. Almost every man in that party out there was coming to see what the noise was. That wouldn’t have been so bad, but they were all armed with rifles and, if Johnny weren’t mistaken, the now increasing light showed a few rocket launchers as well as a lot of automatic weapons.

He had a little time left before they would be upon him, so he keyed into the radio. Lone Wolf calling Arctic Command. Come in, Arctic Command.

He was surprised when he was answered right away, and he started speaking in fluent Japanese, a language he used when he was in the field and in situations like the one he was in now. This is Lone Wolf. Am in position for pickup. Have a group of unfriendlies closing in on this position. Need extraction ASAP.

It will take half an hour to reach your position, Lone Wolf, the radio crackled at him.

Any chance of getting some help from our allies to the south? asked Johnny. I have one of their people. I took her from a group of insurgents.

Do you know who she is?

Nope! Only name I got is Oxnard 524.

That’s an odd name, said the voice on the radio.

It sure is. However, I don’t really have time to discuss that right now. Just see if they can help. Give them my transponder number if they say ‘yes’. An Apache gunship would look awfully damn good right about now.

He dropped his radio and took aim at the closest man to him. He saw the target’s head explode as the shell did its damage. He fired once more and took out another man. That seemed to halt the advance, and everyone took whatever cover they could find. Johnny took advantage of the momentary lull to roll a few feet to his left and quickly get off a few more shots before a hail of gunfire made him duck and roll again.

It was just after his fifth roll that a noise from behind him made him turn his head and look in that direction. Two men had managed to flank him and one of them was wrestling with a now-awake Julie, while the other was trying to get Johnny in his sights. Johnny fired first and the man with the gun dropped in his tracks, while the other one tried to use Julie for protection. He wasn’t quite fast enough and Johnny shot him in the head. Then Johnny turned to see what was happening in front of him. Some of the other insurgents had gotten brave during that brief lull and were charging the hill where Johnny lay. He aimed and quickly took out three of them, but a fourth one managed to get down and get hidden, which felt like unfinished business to Johnny. However, he risked a quick look over his shoulder to see how Julie was doing, and what he saw behind her gave him hope. He reached for his radio and it crackled to life.

Lone Wolf! Lone Wolf do you copy on this channel? it squawked.

I copy. I’m going to give you a big kiss when this is all over with.

I’m not that kind of guy, Sir!

Neither am I. Anyway, there are about ten or so insurgents dead ahead, about 200 yards from your position. Most are armed with rifles but there are a few with rocket launchers. Insurgents will be just beyond my blue smoke. You copy that?

We copy. Send up your blue smoke and then duck. We thought there were twenty or more insurgents.

There were when this dance started. There’s my smoke. You see it?

We see it. Duck and cover sir. We will commence firing when it is safe for you.

To hell with me. Get those bastards over there, yelped Johnny.

Yes, Sir!

Johnny ducked and hugged the ground as round after round slammed into the ground just beyond the hill where he was hunkered down. Without getting up to see what was happening, he managed to crawl halfway back to where Julie lay, almost oblivious when silence almost deafened him. He realized the fighting was over, so he stood up and walked the rest of the way to her.

Julie was trying to sit up. Hold on there, Oxnard. You’re still pretty weak. You lost a lot of blood.

What did you call me?

I asked you your name a lifetime ago and all you said was Oxnard 524. I was happy just calling you Julie, he said.

If she liked the name, she never said. She replied, Actually, my name is Lori. Oxnard 524 is my code name. Then she looked him in the eye and asked, That was an Apache gunship, wasn’t it?

Yes ma’am! I called for my ride and asked if they could maybe get one of your boys to come and help out. Once I told them your name they came right out. They must really like you.

She smiled and looked at him. She was about to say something when a hornet whizzed past her and hit Johnny in the shoulder. He just brushed it off and smiled at her. Damn bugs! Didn’t think they had hornets over here.

They don’t. You’ve just been shot, Cowboy!

Bullshit! It didn’t hurt a bit. Besides, there’s no one left to shoot at me. Your friends got all of them.

He looked up from her to see the last, hidden insurgent taking aim with his rifle again. He was only about 70 feet away, so Johnny took his pistol out of its holster, snapped it up and fired. The lone gunman looked at his chest in disbelief and his rifle dropped to the ground. He slowly tumbled down after it and lay still.

Jesus! You really are a cowboy! Lori exclaimed.

I’m not, really. I’m just lucky, I guess. How are you feeling? You look a little wobbly.

Speaking of being wobbly, you better sit down until the boys get here. You’re losing a lot of blood.

Johnny brushed the front of his chest and saw blood dripping off his fingers. He held his hand up in front of him