you behind that Bobcat. Split your guys with the automatic weapons up, and two of you go around the perimeter fence to the west. We lost sight of one of them on the fence line. We’re not sure where he is, but he should be easy to spot. He may be bleeding.
“You other two take cover behind the Bobcat. How far can you throw those grenades?”
John looked at Scott and said, “Fifty, sixty yards with accuracy. Longer than that is iffy.”
Scott relayed the message over the radio and Tom said, “That should be plenty. Let me know when y’all are ready.”
John said, Randy, you come with me to the Bobcat. You guys take the perimeter.
The team split up but only made it a few yards before Robbie spotted a shirtless Marut, rolling around in the dirt in absolute agony, fifty yards in front of them. He’d been watching the compound, trying to figure out what was going on, and hoping one of his buddies would come back after him.
He had his back to Scott and his crew. He simply didn’t know they were there.
John went into the prone position and lined up his rifle on Marut’s back.
Then he backed off and looked away.
“I can’t shoot a man in the back. I don’t care how bad he is.”
Robbie said, “No problem.”
Robbie put two fingers at the corners of his mouth and let out a loud wolf whistle.
Marut heard the whistle and looked over his shoulder. Then he scrambled for his weapon, but before he got it aimed at the group, a bullet flew through his eye and his head. He’d never have to worry about his wounded knee again.
“Thank you,” John said.
“Don’t mention it.”
The team split up. Robbie and Scott ran west and south, to the north side of the tall fence surrounding the compound. Then they started working their way along the fence to the west, with plans to follow it all the way around the compound.
Sara took her turn on the radio.
“Scott, the missing man is on the south side of the compound. He’s working his way back toward the house, but very slowly. He is wounded. I see a lot of blood on his upper body.”
Scott knew that if they hurried, they could sneak up behind the man before he made it to the house again. They broke into a run around the fence toward the other side of the compound.
Pike and Gonzalez heard the gunshot from the corn field, but figured it was just Marut finally making himself useful. While they were waiting for the action to start again, they were busying themselves reloading their magazines and debating strategy.
“Should we split up? Shoot from two different directions?”
“No. What we did before seemed to shut them up for awhile. I’m pretty sure we killed at least one of them. Maybe two. Let’s wait until we see their rifles again and keep doing what we did before.”
It was a fateful decision.
-9-
John and Randy were at the Bobcat now. They shoved aside the two bodies that were leaning up against it and took shelter behind it.
For the first time, it occurred to John that he was at a disadvantage. They only had one radio between the four men, and Scott had taken it with him.
John had no way of coordinating his attack with the people inside the house.
But he knew what he needed to know. All the good guys were in the house. Anybody out there in the brush was an enemy.
Tom didn’t know the men he saw huddled behind the Bobcat had no radio. He tried to raise them.
“You guys at the Bobcat, I’m going to try to draw their fire so you can see where they are.”
He got no answer.
So he tried again.
“You guys at the Bobcat, I’m going to try to draw their fire so you can see where they are.”
This time he got a response from
Learning to Kill: Stories