Scene 53

X Marks Mountain

As I approached in silence, all the men had their attention focused on following Julie. I slowly crept up behind the rear guard.

I had to carefully silence the man, but I didn’t really want to harm him. After all, he was just doing his job. I rose behind him and quickly clamped my hand over his mouth, bringing my knife to his throat at the same time.

The man started to struggle, but quickly stopped when he felt the blade. I took his rifle from him and set it aside as quietly as I could.

I took the knife from his throat and quickly brought the pommel down on the back of his head. I quietly eased him to the ground as he slumped into unconsciousness.

I was moving up on the next man when gunshots rang out. Some of the men had spotted Julie and were firing at her.

As I watched, I saw Julie dive behind a group of rocks for cover. She began to return fire.

The Bureau men all took cover as I watched. One of the men gestured and I saw two smaller groups move off to the side, obviously trying to flank Julie’s position.

I quickly weighed my options and decided my best chance would be to outflank one group of the flankers. I moved quickly to circle around.

It took several minutes to make the circle, as I didn’t want to be detected. Meanwhile, the shootout continued. I peered over a rock and spotted one group of flankers ahead of me. Unfortunately, I could see that they had closed on Julie’s position and could see her ahead, unaware of them. Two of them were raising their rifles to fire at her.

I quickly brought my rifle up and fired, taking one of the flankers in the back. His shot went wild.

The other man, however, fired true and the round caught Julie in the back. She fell forward against the rock.

The other two flankers spun around to face their new threat, only to be hit by the shots from my rifle. The man who had shot Julie tried to turn, but I shot him before he could.

I sprinted to Julie’s location and dove to her side.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded through her pain. “You’re supposed to be getting David to safety.”

“He is safe; the others took him into the mountain. I came to help you.” I quickly examined her wound. It was bad.

“That was stupid,” she choked out. “You should have gone with them.”

“I couldn’t, I don’t leave a member of my team behind. Don’t talk, you’re hurt pretty badly, but you’ll be okay,” I lied to her.

She coughed and shook her head. “No, I won’t. I’m glad I got to know you; you’re a much better man than our Dave ever was. I hope you can forgive me for trying to kill you.”

“Completely forgiven,” I told her.

She smiled, then coughed again and breathed her last.