PART 8
Riley rolled just as a fighter came over the rock with a knife in one hand and rage in his eyes.
The blade missed her ribs by an inch.
He hit her hard.
Her rifle slid away.
Dust filled her mouth.
He grabbed her vest and slammed her shoulder into stone.
For the first time all morning, Riley made a sound.
Not fear.
Pain.
Then anger.
She drove her knee into his side, ripped the knife hand away, and struck him across the jaw with the edge of her radio.
He stumbled.
She kicked him backward down the slope.
He hit the rocks and did not get up.
Riley crawled to her rifle, hands shaking now that the danger was almost over.
Almost.
A voice crackled from below.
“Ghost, this is Beckett. Tell me you’re still breathing.”
Riley pressed the mic.
“Depends who’s asking.”
For the first time all day, Beckett laughed.
It sounded broken.
But it was real.
“Name’s Beckett. You just saved Romeo Two-Zero.”
Riley looked down at the ravine where the medevac lifted with Danvers aboard.
“Then get your people out.”
“We are,” Beckett said. “But I’m not leaving you on that ridge.”
Riley glanced at the enemy movement still scattered below.
“Chief, your bird has wounded.”
“And my mother raised me better than to abandon the woman who answered when command didn’t.”
She almost smiled.
“Your mother sounds terrifying.”
“You have no idea.”
Ten minutes later, the extraction team hit her ridge.
Beckett was the first one up the slope.
His face was caked with dust.
Blood ran from a cut near his temple.
He stopped when he saw her.
Riley Harper was smaller than he expected.
Lean.
Sunburned.
Dark hair tucked under a dusty cap.
A split lip.
One sleeve torn.
Eyes steady in a way only exhausted people can manage.
For a second, neither of them spoke.
Then Beckett looked at her rifle.
Then at the bodies scattered across the lower approach.
Then back at her.
“You Ghost?” he asked.
Riley wiped dust from her cheek.
May you like
“Depends if I’m in trouble.”
“You are definitely in trouble.”
