Page 121 of Casualties of War
Chapter Twenty-Five
Guns spoke from far to the left. Parris threw herself against the left wall of the tunnel and glanced around it.
“There’s a passage up there,” she said, pointing. “Thirty yards. Held by three Insurrectos. Hand guns only. I can see daylight beyond.”
Adán hugged the wall beside her. “We have to find the bomb,” he said, his tone urgent.
Parris shook her head. “It’s here,somewhere. That’s all we need to know.”
“They’ll take it somewhere and use it, if we don’t find it!” Adán cried.
“It’s not going anywhere,” Parris assured him. “Trust me.”
Adán’s gaze met hers. For a moment, she thought he would argue. Instead, he nodded. “I trust you.”
Her breath evaporated in surprise. She sucked in more air. There was too much she wanted to say. How she loved that he wouldflat out trust her like that. That he was standing back and letting her do her job. He acknowledged her expertise and wasn’t dripping his male ego all over her because he felt threatened by her competence.
Instead, she found his hand, next to hers, and tangled her fingers in his. “Thank you.”
Adán’s smile was small. Heated. She could see there was a lot more he would say, if they were anywhereelse.
“Go on,” he said, and pushed her hand forward.
“Stir up the people,” she told him. “Get them out of here. This place won’t be here in a few minutes.”
His lips parted in surprised. Then he nodded. “Got it.”
She pushed off from the wall and signaled her men. They had watched her and Adán. They had heard all of it. Yet not a single eye rolled. No one looked irritated or even uneasy.
Shewaved them forward. They swept into the larger cavern, their guns raised, and firing down the passage.
Parris followed them. The passage was longer than she thought, with off-shoots that turned out to be the administration wing of this little installation. A heavy pocket of armed Insurrectos cowering behind bunks and tables.
It was a rout. The numbers were on the Insurrectos’ side but not theimpetus. Parris and her team swept through the rooms and chambers and raw caverns, cleaning them out. She didn’t bother with prisoners. Every time she thought of the frail people back in the larger cavern and what these soldiers had been forcing them to do, her mercy evaporated.
By the time they climbed the smoothed and rolled slope up to the mouth of the cave and out into the sunlight, therewasn’t a single Insurrecto still standing. She didn’t give a damn. She didn’t have the men to spare to watch prisoners, anyway.
They strode out into the bright mid-morning sunlight, to find themselves on a grassy, wind-whipped spit of land at the end of the island. The cliffs dropped into the sea, half a mile away.
Parris waved them onward. “Keep moving!” she ordered. “Amos! Radio!”
Amos joggedover to her and kept pace with her as they walked directly south, away from the cliffs.
Paris took the radio from him. She turned and walked backward, watching the dark mouth of the cave entrance.
“Come on, come on…” she muttered.
“He’s smart, Captain,” Amos said. “He’d wait until the firing stopped.”
She glared at him.
“Just saying, sir.” He grinned.
“Movement!” Ramirez called, raisinghis rifle. They were all walking backward, now, watching the cave.
“Check your targets!” Parris yelled.
The people who poured from the cave shuffled, hobbled and leaned against each other. They emerged with smiles, babbling and waving their hands in victory.
