Page 130 of Deadly Strain

With one last admiring look at his fabulous ass, she turned and broke into Sharp’s ground-eating run.

***

Sharp’s target wasn’tcooperating. “Come on, you fucker. A little to the right.” He could see a scrap of cloth from the top of the Afghan’spakol, or hat.

Smoke’s whisper was little more than a wisp of fog on a cold day in his ears. “Wind speed steady. Range six hundred yards. Two targets.”

Through the scope, Sharp could see the spotter for the shooter clearly, but he wanted them both. Leaving one alive wasn’t an option.

A moment later, the tip of the grenade launcher rose into the air.Come on, fucker, come on.

The shooter’s head rose.

Sharp took the shot. He immediately repositioned for the second target and fired.

“Both targets down,” Smoke reported.

“Look for movement or a secondary team,” Sharp ordered.

Smoke was already on it, already scanning the area with his binoculars. “No contact.”

Sharp radioed the base. “Targets are down,” he said, then repeated it. “Targets are down.”

“Can you confirm the kill?” the base radio operator asked. Not the same guy as the moron.

“Not without a bio-suit,” Sharp told him. “Advise a one-hundred-yard safe zone around the targets.”

“Understood. Return to base, Sergeant.”

“Roger.” Sharp pulled out of his shooting position. “Fuck, I’m tired.”

“The doc is quiet,” Smoke observed. “Sleeping?”

“She’s been tough to keep up with us this long,” Sharp replied. He wasn’t going to say a word to anyone if they found her sacked out in a hole.

They walked to their rear, looking for her, but she didn’t seem to be about. “You see her, Smoke?” Sharp asked the other man.

“I see her tracks,” Smoke answered.

Sharp joined him.

“She walked this far,” the big man said. “Then she started running.” He pointed in the direction of the route they’d taken from the cave.

“What thefuck?” Sharp stared at the deserted landscape between them and the cave. Nothing.What the hell could she be thinking?

“Only one reason to go back,” Smoke said.

“Fuck me, Smoke, I can’t come up withany.”

“To protect us.”

She would too, do anything to protectherteam. She’d shown her loyalty to them, tohim, in a thousand ways. She wouldn’t think twice.

Frustrated fury made his words come out sounding like they’d been mixed with gravel. “You think that Afghan got her sick?”

“Or had something that could getussick.”

The goddamn woman was doing it again. Taking care of him by putting herself in harm’s way. When he caught up to her, he was going to spank her sweet ass until it was red and she was begging him to fuck her. Sharp radioed the base. “Base, we’ve lost contact with Major Samuels. We’re beginning our search for her.”