Page 53 of Dead Fall

“On me,” Harvath ordered as he moved toward the front of the shop. Oleh followed.

Harvath opened the door, waited, and then carefully peered out. The gun battle was still going hard in the direction of the school and the APC.

As no rounds had been fired at him, he stepped fully into the open and took a wider look. All clear.

Satisfied that they were good to go, he signaled Oleh to ready his rifle and tighten up.

Once the young Ukrainian indicated that he was ready to move,Harvath gave the command and they slipped out of the shop and hustled to their first piece of cover.

They were sacrificing a little safety for a lot of speed, but it was a necessary trade-off. Harvath had no idea how many, if any, of the Russians the Ukrainian sniper had been able to pick off. What’s more, he had no idea if the rest of the Ukrainians back at the school had entered the fight, though by the sound of the gunfire, they were all fully engaged.

Moving from building to building, Harvath and Oleh arrived at an open space just before the town square. It would get them back to the school faster. With no Russians in sight, Harvath was willing to risk it.

There were two pieces of cover as they made their way across—a burned-out old Russian tank and an equally obliterated Russian APC. Their first objective was the tank.

Counting to three, Harvath sent Oleh running toward it while he covered him. Then he had the young Ukrainian return the favor. They both made it successfully to their first objective. Next was their run to the APC.

As he had before, Harvath told Oleh that he was going to count to three and cover him as he ran to the APC, at which point the young man would cover him. Oleh nodded, but seemed out of it.

Harvath snapped his fingers to get his attention once more and ordered him to focus. The Ukrainian shook it off and appeared to focus.

Using his rifle to scan for any threats, Harvath then counted to three and sent the young man running for the cover of the destroyed APC.

He waited for several seconds for Oleh to get his rifle up and to start scanning for threats. There was definitely something not right with the kid.

He finally got the young Ukrainian’s attention; Oleh signaled back that he was okay and that Harvath could make the dash to the APC.

Ready to return fire if any should come his way, Harvath ran his ass off, not exactly confident that Oleh’s head was fully in the game. He made it to the APC, however, in one piece.

“Oleh, seriously,” he said. “You need to snap out of it. We’re almost there. Can you do that for me?”

The young Ukrainian nodded, but it was another of those halfhearted nods. Harvath was worried that he wasn’t going to make it.

“We’re almost there,” he informed him. “You’ve got this. Okay?”

Once more, the Ukrainian nodded.

Harvath studied the distance from the APC to their next piece of cover. It was the longest they were going to have to be out in the open. He wasn’t exactly crazy about it, but as long as they moved fast, they should be okay.

“See where the front of that building has collapsed?” Harvath asked, pointing at their next objective. “I want you to run toward where the roof has caved in. Okay? Stay away from the window openings. Do you understand?”

The young man nodded, but that wasn’t good enough for Harvath. “Repeat it back to me.”

“Roof. Not windows,” Oleh mumbled.

It wasn’t the committed, emphatic response Harvath would have preferred, but at least he knew the kid had heard him.

“Move fast, keep your head down, and wait for me to get there,” said Harvath. This part was almost over. Once they had fully made it across, if Oleh couldn’t get his shit together, Harvath would park him someplace safe and come back for him once the dust had settled. The only thing he’d be in a firefight was a liability.

After a quick scan, Harvath reminded him to move fast and keep his head down, then counted to three and sent him running.

To his credit, the young Ukrainian moved fast. Not world-record fast, but fast enough. Just as important, he took cover where he had been told to. Now it was Harvath’s turn to cross.

But once again, Oleh wasn’t ready.

In almost any other circumstance, Harvath might have allowed him a moment to catch his breath, but they didn’t have a single second to spare. The kid needed to pull it together. Harvath signaled the Ukrainian to get his rifle up and cover him.

Readying his own rifle, Harvath was about to charge out from behind the APC when a shot rang out, kicking up a cloud of debris as it landed just next to Oleh.