Echo Six: Black Ops 7 - Tibetan Fury (15 page)

He called her over. The Italian was holding up a military walkie-talkie. Talley didn't understand the language that poured out, but the tone was angry, real angry. Someone was very pissed. He looked at Grace, and she started to translate.

"He's trying to find out the situation here. He's an officer, a major." She grimaced, "I believe it's Major Xilong. He's the Ministry of Security man from the prison."

"He doesn't sound like good news," Guy growled.

"It isn't, he's psychotic, the worst of them." She held up a hand for him to wait, "He said they're bringing in reinforcements from the prison, a company of his own men to reinforce the men here and help hunt down the foreign bandits. He said the monk Tenzin Davaika is to be caught at all costs, dead or alive." She listened intently to the last sentence, "He says he'll be here in twenty minutes, and to get the technician to check out the radios because he can't hear what we're saying from this end."

Brooks joined them and listened to her translation. He looked up at Talley.

"Shit. We can't fight off that many troops."

"Right. But first, we have a situation here, a bunch of nuns, freezing their…well, freezing to death on the trucks, and civilians in the corral, also freezing to death. What are we supposed to do? We can't take them, and we can't leave them."

Brooks nodded. "They have to get out, somehow. There's no other way. They can't stay."

"Let's see what the Abbess has to say."

They went over to the nuns who were still on the truck, and Brooks called up to the Abbess.

"Ma'am, you've seen what happened here. There are more Chinese troops on the way, and they'll be vowing revenge. You have to get out. "

Abbess Dolma shook her head. "We cannot leave this place. We have a duty to stay and look after those who cannot care for themselves."

"You know where they were taking you, to a prison camp in Northern China where you would have certainly died? It won't help anyone if you're dead, Ma'am. Can't you go to another nunnery, somewhere they won't look for you?"

She thought for a few moments. "There is no alternative. They have infiltrated all the religious orders inside of Tibet. This was one of the last to hold out. That is why we could hide those people."

Brooks spread his hands in exasperation. "We don't have time for this. There has to be someplace you can go."

"There is nowhere." Her voice was calm, but adamant, "Our fate is written. We cannot change it."

Rovere nodded his head. " O God! That one might read the book of fate, and see the revolution of the times, make mountains level, and the continent, weary of solid firmness, melt itself into the sea!"

Brooks looked irritated. "What was that?"

"Shakespeare, Admiral."

"I know that. How does it help us?" Brooks snapped.

"It doesn't."

"Right, shut up, Lieutenant. Commander Talley, we'll have to get the nuns away on the trucks, and we'll find somewhere they can hide later. Get the rest of the men aboard the trucks. We're leaving."

"The children!" Abbess Dolma exclaimed.

He looked weary. "Yeah, I kinda forgot. The children too, and any wounded, like that old monk we saw beaten up."

"He is a Rinpoche!" she said indignantly.

"Whatever. Get 'em loaded. We're pulling out."

"And the others, the women, old men?" she said sharply, "If what you say is true, they'll be killed if they stay here."

He thought for a few moments. "Tell them to start walking and head for Lhasa. Maybe they can find some shelter there. They can travel across country, and try and stay out of sight of the military. We'll be heading south in the opposite direction, and we'll drop you off as soon as we find a suitable place, a small town, a village; there has to be somewhere." He frowned as he saw her expression turn to obstinate anger, "Look, Abbess Dolma, I'm sorry, but we're about to get hit by another Chinese unit. They'll be well armed and could even call in gunships. We have to move fast, and we can't take the civilians, period. Tell them to start walking. Commander Talley, we need to get moving."

"Admiral."

It took five precious minutes to load the children and the wounded on the trucks. They put them with the nuns and positioned their trucks in the center. Echo Six was split between the vehicles at front and back; each truck carried a Minimi. They watched the refugees start hiking north toward Lhasa. Talley climbed into the cab of the leading truck with Grace beside him to show the way, and nodded to Kaz, who was behind the wheel.

"Let's go."

He hesitated. "Boss."

"What is it?"

"Headlights, heading toward us. They're here."

The trucks were coming up the rise, their headlights slanted up into the sky. Three minutes maximum before they reached the crest and saw the bodies in front of the nunnery, and the four trucks making their escape.

"Fuck!"

"We have to head for Lhasa," Grace shouted, "It's the only way. They'll see us if we head south."

"We need to hide."

"I know a place we can use. It's in Lhasa. Abe, we don't have a choice."

He nodded at Kaz. "Head north."

He stared around at the devastation. The size, the enormity of the disaster astonished him, coming after the prison escape. He found the ruined body of Captain Lao inside a room next to the hallway. He'd been slashed with a knife. It almost looked like his attacker had been a wild animal. Xilong knew it was no animal that had killed his subordinate.

Special Operations troops had done this, without a doubt. He stopped to consider who might be involved.

Americans?
No,
hardly likely, they’re working hard to improve relations with China, not destroy them. Russians? It’s possible; they’re always trying to embarrass their neighbors. Except it makes no sense. Unless... Yes, of course, the prisoner, Tenzin Davaika. For whom is he spying?

If Xilong could find that out and capture the bandits, it would go some way to restoring his battered reputation. He had to find the foreigners who'd committed this outrage. It wasn't for duty, or revenge. For him, it was a matter of survival.

He stared around the open countryside. Nothing moved, although the snow was crisscrossed with tracks; evidence of the military vehicles that had spent so many fruitless hours searching for the intruders. But he didn't need to follow any tracks. There was only one direction they could have gone. South, toward Nepal, and from there they could travel anywhere in the world. He was about to give the order to his men to mount up and move out, when he stopped to reconsider.

The man who led these bandits was very clever. So far, he'd managed to make Major Xilong look a fool. It was time to show him the error of his ways. Time to demonstrate that the Major could strike back even harder. He called for a radio and contacted his headquarters in Lhasa. He recognized the voice of the man who answered, Corporal Deng.

"Deng, we are searching for a party of bandits who attacked and murdered our men. They'll be heading for the Nepal border, possibly traveling with a party of civilians, women and children. I want gunships up in the air to start searching for them. I will also need additional troops to reinforce the frontier."

"Yes, Sir. When we find them, what do you want us to do? Arrest them, Major?"

His voice slashed back at the fool, "Arrest them? I just told you, they're responsible for murdering our men."

"But, Sir, you said there were women and children!" The man sounded incredulous.

"They are equally responsible! As soon as you find them, open fire and shoot them on sight. I want them dead. Kill them all! Unless you feel the murder of our brave soldiers warrants anything less?"

"No, Major, of course not, Sir, gunships and reinforcements to the border. At once, Sir."

"And Deng, the monastery outside Lhasa, the one where we picked up Tenzin Davaika."

"Yes, Sir, I remember it."

"Send a squad up there and arrest the monks. Every one of them and take them to the prison. Lock them away, separate from the main body of prisoners. Then you can put out a broadcast. If Tenzin Davaika is not returned to my custody inside of three days, they will suffer his sentence. They will all be killed."

He heard the Corporal suck in a breath, shocked at such extreme brutality, even for Xilong. "Er, Sir, is that not..."

"Do it, man. Remember, these criminals murdered our comrades. They shall pay the extreme price, unless they wish to return the prisoner and surrender. In which case, I may mitigate the sentence on those monks to imprisonment with hard labor."

Or I may change my mind, and they can die anyway.

"I shall see to it, Sir."

He finished the call and passed the radio to a subordinate. Dawn was breaking, and with luck, the gunships would soon pick up the trail of the stolen trucks. Was there something he'd missed? He realized a man was trying to catch his attention.

"Major, the bodies of our soldiers. How do you wish to dispose of them?"

Xilong stared at him, and the man looked down, shuffling his feet in fear.

"Put them inside the nunnery, and then dynamite the building over the top of them. It shall serve as a mausoleum and a monument to our brave fallen."

And a reminder of how Captain Lao and his pack of fools failed.

He looked around for his Sergeant. He would leave a few of his men here to finish up. He had far more important work in Lhasa. He would have to coordinate the search. He'd turn this country upside down until he found those criminals. And when he did find them, he'd torture every single one, and the country would echo to the sound of their screams. An echo that would seem to last for all eternity, or at least until the firing squad was finished.

* * *

The headlights of the oncoming trucks crested the rise, just as they drove into a shallow valley hiding them from view. Kaz drove as fast as the rocky ground would allow, and they left the scene of devastation behind, but they were heading north, away from Nepal. It was the only way to escape, toward Lhasa. Grace guided him in places where the track was almost invisible beneath the carpet of snow, but now they had another enemy to face. Time, or rather dawn, which had broken across the Tibetan plateau. The sun was a fiery orb rising in the sky that foretold a clear, dry day to come. He pitied the civilians. It was cold, very cold.

After a few minutes, they caught up with the refugees on foot.

"Stop the truck."

He glanced aside at her. "What's up?"

"I need a word. It'll only take a few seconds."

They all waited while she jumped down and spoke to the man leading the refugees. He nodded, they shook hands, and she returned to the truck. Kaz didn't wait. He slammed it into gear and they lurched forward. It was a short distance to Lhasa, and soon they could see the outskirts. Jesse called in from the rearmost truck.

"Military jeep, coming up fast from the rear, four men on board. Looks like trouble."

He only needed to think for a second. The moment they caught up with the convoy, there'd be no disguising the Western faces.

"Take them."

There was a hatch in the roof of the cab for a gunner or observer. He opened it and stood on the seat to watch with binoculars. The jeep was only fifty meters from the rearmost truck. The driver was flashing his headlights, and the man in the passenger seat waved for them to stop. Whitefeather took him first. The two rounds smacked into his chest and head, expert shooting from a moving vehicle. He saw the driver look aside, and then snapped back as two further red blotches appeared on his body. The jeep started to veer off the track, and the two soldiers in the back were shouting at the driver in panic, not realizing he was dead. Whitefeather fired four more shots in less than two seconds, and their panic ended.

The jeep started to roll over, flipping twice, and then it came to rest in the snow. He briefly considered stopping to hide the evidence, but it was full dawn, and there wasn't time.

Besides, how do you hide a vehicle and four bodies on a flat
plain?

He looked at Kaz, who'd slowed. "Keep driving."

* * *

They reached a semi-industrial area outside Lhasa. Grace indicated they should turn onto the main road into the city.

"We have to take a chance," she explained, "There's no other way. Just a few hundred meters, then we turn on to a side road. Our destination is only a few meters away."

He nodded and keyed his mic, "This is Echo One. Heads up, we'll be out on the main highway for a short time. You know what to do."

The bumping and lurching ceased as Kaz swung the wheel, and they were on the main tarmac highway that ran south from Lhasa all the way to the border with Nepal. At first, they were fortunate. The traffic was light, just a couple of farmers in beat-up family cars with the rear seats ripped out so they could carry their goats to market. And then he tensed. Soldiers. Jesse called it in.

"Military convoy, coming up behind us."

There was nothing they could do other than pray. And hope.

"Copy that. Everyone, keep your heads down." He turned to Kaz, "Try and look Chinese."

The Pole nodded and grinned. "Yes, Master."

He peered out of the roof hatch and watched the oncoming enemy, ten trucks with a military jeep at front and back. They were clearly looking for trouble, with light machine guns mounted on the tops of the cabs. They came nearer, and he forced himself to relax. If it came to a fight, there was no way they'd get out of it alive. They'd be finished.

Is there anything
I haven't thought of? Apart from getting out of this country twenty-four hours ago and aborting the mission, no. We've been shoved along by events almost from the start. We're not driving this operation along; we're reacting to trouble. How can we turn it around?

He willed the Chinese convoy to keep moving. He knew if they were stopped, a fight would see them all killed, no question. Yet if they didn't fight, their fate would be a short and painful incarceration in Chinese military jail, and then the bullet in the back of the head. Without doubt, the nuns traveling with them would suffer the same fate, guilt by association. Better to fight.

He gripped his MP7, tensed and untensed his muscles, and started to identify his first target. The rest of the men would be doing the same. There was no need to give an order, not when outnumbered by so many soldiers. It was every man for himself, and they all knew it. He loosened the Sig Sauer in his leg holster. When he was out of ammunition, he'd use the handgun until he'd fired off the last round from the last clip.

He'd seen enough, and he climbed back down into the cab. Grace had once more adopted the calm, serene expression on her face that he recognized as a trick the Buddhists used. Then she glanced at him.

"Are we going to die, Abe?"

He paused for a second, but it was not the time or place for a lie. "I don't know. If they stop us, yes."

She nodded. "It's been nice knowing you. I wish…"

He forced a smile. "Yeah, me too."

He glanced in the side mirror. They were still gaining, although it wasn't clear whether they intended to go right past or stop them. If they overtook and saw Western faces driving the trucks, it would all be over. The leading jeep pulled out to go past them.

Any moment now!

And then another vehicle appeared, a tracked APC, a Type 63, coming from the other direction. It flashed its lights, and the commander waved at the convoy. The oncoming vehicles started to slow, and within seconds, they were falling back in the rearview mirror. He heard Guy's laconic voice in his earpiece.

"That's what I call close, Boss. Lucky for them, too, I had a fat, juicy Chinese colonel in my sights."

"We were all lucky," he agreed.

Several seconds later, Grace indicated a turning to the left, and Kaz swung the wheel over. They drove onto a road that was little better than the track they'd come in on from the nunnery, but there were no vehicles in sight, and she pointed out a gaunt, two-story, stone-built structure.

"That's it. We go in there. We can hide the trucks at the rear. As long as the Chinese don't conduct a thorough search, no one will see them."

Kaz stopped the truck behind the building out of sight of the road, and the other three vehicles pulled in alongside. Grace climbed down, crossed to the stone structure, and opened a rear door. It was unlocked, and Talley raised his eyebrows. She looked surprised.

"Why lock it? It belongs to the monks. This is Tibet."

"Right."

Tibet, a war-torn, occupied nation, savaged by one of the most brutal political regimes in history. A regime that at times would put the record of the Vietcong to shame.

Yeah, why lock a door?

They helped the wounded inside. It was a single, vast warehouse, with bulging jute sacks piled against one of the walls. She saw his glance.

"They're raw wool. This space is normally filled, but the Chinese imposed a financial penalty on the monasteries. Most of the produce they need to survive is confiscated." She gave him a tired smile, "Another reason not to lock the door. Anything they want, they just come in and take it. We lock the door, and they'll smash it down. Besides, there are people upstairs, and they'd beat them if they tried to keep them out."

He looked at her in alarm. He suddenly noticed the faint hum of machinery up above.

"What is it, what are they doing?"

"The monks set up this place for unemployed locals to turn their wool into yarn, and they make traditional Tibetan garments. Hats, gloves, sweaters, you know the kind of thing. The workers are up there, right now. They'll make sure we're not disturbed down here, unless they need to grab a couple of sacks of wool."

"Can you rely on them to keep quiet about us being here?"

"Abe, they're Tibetans, all of them victims of Chinese oppression. You've nothing to fear."

"Good." He left her and walked up the staircase that gave access to the upper floor. It was subdivided into a dozen smaller rooms. He could see spinning wheels, sewing machines, knitting machines, each with a smiling Tibetan in attendance. They nodded a greeting as he glanced into each room, and he gave them a friendly wave. He smiled.