Line of Fire by Simone Anderson Read Free Book Online

through the jungle. They continued to walk through the day, crossing miles of rainforest. They hadn’t seen or heard another human the entire time and more than once they’d stopped to check their heading against the map. The GPS units worked intermittently, the signal not fully able to penetrate the canopy. A breeze filtered through the trees in the dimming light. Night descended and the lack of sleep combined with the rush of adrenaline was catching up to Hayden. He knew Christian would be fighting the same thing, but stopping wasn’t an option. Not now. Not with only two of them.
    Christian stopped suddenly in front of him. “Did you hear that?”
    Hayden froze, scanning the area, listening for anything that might be out of the ordinary. Finally, he shook his head.
    “There it is,” Christian whispered, pointing to their right.
    The sound was followed by swearing. Hayden pivoted and scanned the area and nodded. The words were in English and while the probability was that the person or persons were teammates or Americans at the very least, it was an assumption neither man was prepared to make. Hayden signaled he would go to the right, sending Christian to the left. Moving quietly, they approach the person from two sides, cutting down the chance of escape.
    Silently pushing branches out of the way, Hayden had just moments to verify who he was seeing before one of the two men turned, bringing the muzzle of his weapon to bear on Hayden.
    “Hold fire,” Hayden called out.
    “Damn man, you shouldn’t go sneaking up on people,” O’Shaunessy said shaking his head. “Good to see you.”
    Hayden laughed quietly as Christian stepped forward. The fourth man turned with Christian, allowing Hayden to make out enough features to identify the man as communications expert Neal Edwards.
    “Where is everyone else?” Christian asked, looking around.
    “Making their way towards the extraction point,” Edwards replied.
    “As far as we can figure, split into pairs and small groups,” O’Shaunessy answered.
    Hayden nodded and pulled out his map. He would have stopped for Christian even if they hadn’t shared a bed. Leaving a man behind simply wasn’t done. Several minutes later, they were making their way through the jungle.
    “How’s the arm?” Hayden asked when they stopped several hours later to ascertain where they were at in relation to the extraction point.
    Christian shrugged. “It’s still too dark to see. Worry about it once we’re home.”
    “We’re a little north of where we want to be,” Brian said folding their map. “The plus side is none of O Caudilho’s goons are following us.”
    “Good.”
    “Bad news, we’ll be cutting it close,” Brian continued looking at his watch.
    “Let’s move.”
    The hike through the jungle continued with minimal conversation and only one tense moment when they saw a large cat. Prepared to fire, they watched and waited until its attention turned elsewhere. The cry from whatever animal it had attacked echoed through the night. By mid-morning, they were three klics from their secondary extraction point at the airstrip.
    They arrived at the outskirts of the field that would double as a landing strip in the early afternoon. They were late. Not only that, it looked like part of the Brazilian army had decided to get an early start to the weeklong exercise they’d been planning. Quietly, they moved to the north end of the field, praying that others had made it out and would be there waiting to rendezvous with their ride home.
    “Arm?” Hayden asked after they’d settled into a hiding spot at the north end of the grassy strip. Brian O’Shaunessy and Neal Edwards were scouting the area looking for clues or teammates.
    “Fine.”
    Hayden raised an eyebrow. “Bullshit.” He’d seen Christian stretching and massaging the area more than once through the night. “Let’s see it.” Hayden shrugged out of his pack and pulled out his first aid kit.
    Christian sighed and