Gravedigger by Mark Terry Read Free Book Online

the left common carotid artery.
    Blood spurted over his hand and spattered across Derek’s face. The man howled and collapsed, taking Derek with him.
    Picking up the AK47 and snagging the other dead man’s weapon, Derek threw himself to the ground, rolling to a stop next to the boulders.
    He had just long enough to catch his breath. Through the NVGs three men raced toward him. Derek set his sites on the man in the front. And fired twice.
    As that man went down, he aimed for the second. Fired twice. The third man threw himself to the ground. Derek had been prepared for that. His next two bullets took off the top of his head.
    Rolling, Derek jumped to his feet and raced for the ridge.

8
    Two more men appeared. By Derek’s count, there were still two unaccounted for. These men carried powerful flashlights and were shouting. The flashlights caused problems with his NVGs, green light flaring in his vision until the dampening technology adjusted. As soon as they found their dead comrades, they started firing at anything that moved.
    Derek hit the top of the ridge and flung himself to the ground. He tossed aside the AK he’d been using, unsure of how much ammo it had left. He grabbed the other, scanning below him for the two remaining muj .
    They had cut their lights and disappeared.
    He surveyed the area, coming up blank. Where had they gone?
    He saw the bodies littering the ground. Carefully Derek counted them. Five. The two from the ridge he’d killed. The three that had rushed blindly into an ambush. He was too far away to see the two who had been guarding the terrace, his first victims.
    He settled his gaze on the cluster of boulders he had been using as a blind. Were they there?
    Quietly, he checked the magazine of the AK he had tossed aside. It was a good call. He had a single round left. And probably five or six in the one he was using. Plus his Beretta. Plenty of ammunition for the Beretta, but he had no desire to get into a firefight with a handgun against a couple assault rifles.
    He settled in to wait. If they were out there, he could outwait them.
    Derek was right. They weren’t pros and they were frightened and impatient.
    But they weren’t stupid.
    Without any kind of warning the two mujahideen exploded from both sides of the tumble of boulders. They fired simultaneously toward the ridgeline. Derek fired once at the man on his right, simultaneously rolling to his left.
    He missed. The man continued to run, spraying gunfire everywhere. But in a second he was out of bullets. The muj slid to the ground, fumbling for a spare magazine.
    With a clear field of fire, Derek shot him. He rolled back to his right.
    He turned his attention to the other man. This muj had found cover behind a scraggly tree. The NVGs were good, but not so good that he could pick out enough of the man behind the tree to take a shot. At least not with only a handful of bullets for the rifle.
    So he waited.
    The snow came down harder, mixed with sleet. The wind whipped it into whirls and eddies, hard, sharp pellets that bit at exposed skin. Derek began to shiver and wondered if that was the muj’s plan. But surely he was cold and wet, too. Maybe he didn’t know that he was sole survivor. Maybe he was expecting backup. Or maybe he was willing to wait until his boss and his second-in-command came back—
    The muj sprinted for the ridge, spraying bullets everywhere.
    Derek felt a searing pain along one shoulder. He took a deep breath.
    The muj dropped the magazine and slammed in a spare, continued to fire.
    Derek let it out. Squeezed the trigger.
    The muj crumpled to the ground.
    Derek waited. No movement. Two flashlights glowed from the ground. One pointed at the sky, illuminating the blowing snow and rain. The other glowed off at an angle.
    Scanning around, he saw no one. Carefully, he crept down off the ridge and approached the mujahideen. Studying him, he saw a boy. Maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. Too young to even grow a beard. Derek’s