Guerilla by Mel Odom Read Free Book Online Page B

failing, then he felt the flames eating into his body.
    0358 Hours Zulu Time
    Noojin struggled to roll over and force herself to drag her knees under her as she fought to suck in oxygen. The impact had driven the air from her lungs. Her first thought was for Telilu, hoping the girl was all right. The second was that the rounds from the soldier’s rifle had come within millimeters of them—­he had almost killed them. And the third was that two stories was a long way to fall without preparation.
    She pushed herself up to her knees and looked around as the echoes of gunfire rang in her ears. She tried to pull in air again, and this time she succeeded.
    â€œTelilu! Telilu!” Her voice came out in harsh barks.
    Images of the little girl’s body ripped to pieces by the gunfire threaded through Noojin’s mind, layering one horrible nightmare onto the next. Other images of the child impaled on a tree branch followed. Noojin didn’t accept any of them. She would never be able to explain what had happed to Jahup or Quass Leghef if Telilu was hurt.
    Or worse.
    Banishing that thought from her head, Noojin forced herself to her feet. It will not be worse! I won’t allow it! “Telilu!”
    â€œI’m up here.”
    Following the sound of the girl’s voice, Noojin looked up into the trees and spotted Telilu clinging to a branch three meters from the ground. Her face was scrunched up fearfully and tears shone on her cheeks, but Noojin saw no blood.
    â€œAre you all right?” The ringing in Noojin’s ears persisted as she reached up for the girl.
    â€œI’m okay. But why did the soldiers shoot at us?” Shaking and uncertain, Telilu climbed down the branches and dropped into Noojin’s waiting arms. She clung tightly, her arms wrapped around Noojin and her small body quaking all over.
    â€œI shot at them first.”
    â€œWhy would you do that?” Telilu’s voice took on a sharp note of accusation.
    â€œI wanted to warn them. Someone was about to attack them.” Noojin paused long enough to gather her bow and quiver. Some of the arrows had spilled out, but some remained. She didn’t want to be reduced to her knife if things turned out badly. She wanted to keep Telilu safe.
    â€œWho would—­”
    The deafening thunder of a close-­proximity explosion blew away Telilu’s question and a sun seemed to dawn on the other side of the house. Hot wind blew through the space between the structures.
    Noojin hunkered down and protected the younger girl as much as she could. Two more explosions followed, each one louder than the last, and long bursts of automatic fire chopped into the rolling detonations.
    Creeping between the houses with Telilu held tightly against her, Noojin stopped at the corner and peered back at the alley where the attack had been launched. Before she could focus through the harsh light spreading in a pool across the ground at the foot of the fence, a man ran into her, knocking her down and coming down on top of her in a tangle of limbs.
    Noojin released Telilu as the girl cried out. Placing herself in front of Telilu, Noojin drew her hunting knife and crouched warily as the man sprang to his feet.
    Even in the scant moonslight, she recognized his blunt features and the burn scarring that mottled his left cheek and turned his ear into a twisted stub.
    â€œMosbur.” Noojin held her knife down and ready.
    The man had been a hunter, one of the best trappers she had known. After the ships had come, he had become a guide for the drug cartels and bio-­pirates. Last year he had been brought in wounded, nearly dead. No one had ever learned how he’d been injured, and Mosbur had never told, but everyone suspected it was related to criminal activity.
    Mosbur searched the ground for the pistol he’d dropped during the collision with her, but the blazing light given off by the explosions had night-­blinded him. His