Dalton came back to the flatbed truck, steadied his sights, and squeezed off three more rounds. They punched through the metal hood with an audible clang, paint chips and metal slivers flying up, with a distinct meaty impact as one of the rounds. .h.i.t its target. A small man on the far side of the truck fender fell back and away, his rifle flying onto the rocks.

Time to deal with Mohawk.

Dalton spun sharply around on one heel and brought the Colt up just as Mohawk came skidding to a clumsy stop less than fifty feet away, freezing with his AK halfway up into a firing position.

No sign of Smoke. Had Dalton killed him? As easily as that? Not b.l.o.o.d.y likely. Mohawk, a barrel-bodied packet of bone and gristle with a squashed nose and scarred skin all around his eyes-maybe a boxer?-squinted into the muzzle of Dalton's Colt, the big revolver steady as a gravestone and aimed right at his forehead.

This usually gives one pause, as it did Mohawk. He saw two of his men near the flatbed truck, one lying in the ditch and very still, the other lying in the road in a fetal position and holding his belly, his legs kicking, whimpering. Wisps of gun smoke hung in the chilly, pine-scented air.

Mohawk looked around for his partner. Not a sign. He looked up. Nothing but Prussian blue. To either side of him, a wall of trees. Behind him, a chopper he did not know how to fly. And in front of him, a tall, rangy blond-haired man with a granite face and pale blue eyes holding a ma.s.sive stainless-steel revolver.

"Put the weapon down and live," said Dalton in a low, carrying tone, icy calm, but very aware that he had only one round left in the Colt and that if the man had good eyes he'd know it too.

Mohawk's eyes flickered around the area as if he were hoping for Smoke to appear, for a shot out of the forest, to save him.

Then he came back to Dalton.

"You are Dalton?" he asked with a heavy Serbian accent.

"Put the weapon down."

He shook his head.

"No. I put weapon down, Vukov kill me."

"Is Vukov the man with the burned face?"

"Yes. You are Krokodil. Krokodil. You are the man who burns him." You are the man who burns him."

"Glad to hear it. Now, put your weapon down."

"I . . . can't . . . Vukov, he don't like cowards."

"What's your name?"

"My name?" he repeated and then stiffened, his expression hardening. "I am Branislav Petrasevic. I fight in Kosovo, in Srebrenica, in Pristina. Kill all my enemies. I am . . . Skorpioni Skorpioni!"

"Vukov is the coward, Petrasevic. Not you. You stayed to fight. Like a soldier. Like a Skorpion. Good for you. But I will still kill you if you don't put the gun down."

Dalton said nothing more, concentrating on the forward sight of the Anaconda, which was zeroed on the man's forehead, thinking, Where the h.e.l.l is Vukov Where the h.e.l.l is Vukov? One AK shot from the tall gra.s.s, and I'm through. Where the h.e.l.l is he? Wounded? Dead? One AK shot from the tall gra.s.s, and I'm through. Where the h.e.l.l is he? Wounded? Dead?

In the taut stillness, Dalton heard no movement from the little wood where he had last seen the man, no stealthy flanking approach coming through the long gra.s.s. Just silence, other than the soft breeze hissing in the gra.s.ses and the chuffing sound of the man's breathing, which was short and sharp, and getting shorter and sharper as his body reacted to the adrenaline racing through his body. Mohawk's eyes were fixed on Dalton's face, pale brown eyes with a gold fleck in them. His leathery skin was seamed, weather-beaten, scarred, and he had not shaved for a couple of days, the beard on his face showing ash gray against his sunken cheeks. Dalton could hear his mind working.

Fight or surrender?

Live or die?

Something changed in the air between them. The man's eyes widened, his knuckles whitened on the stock of his rifle, the muzzle began to move, and Dalton put a .44 Magnum round through the man's forehead. The round blew the back of the man's head apart, the crown of the skull spinning away like a saucer. What remained of Branislav Petrasevic went straight down, collapsing into itself, until the knees struck the ground. And then his body toppled forward, hitting the pavement face-first, no bounce. The jagged bowl of his exploded skull dumped blood and pink brains out in a lumpy arc across the tarmac.

DALTON, reloading, ran back to the flatbed truck, found the man with the belly wound lying at the side of it. He was a very young, very skinny kid with a wet white face and wild blue eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks. He was lying in a lake of blood, his lips blue, his hands clutching his belly, purple ropes of intestine bulging through his b.l.o.o.d.y fingers. His breathing was shallow and rapid. reloading, ran back to the flatbed truck, found the man with the belly wound lying at the side of it. He was a very young, very skinny kid with a wet white face and wild blue eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks. He was lying in a lake of blood, his lips blue, his hands clutching his belly, purple ropes of intestine bulging through his b.l.o.o.d.y fingers. His breathing was shallow and rapid.

He looked up as Dalton walked over. He opened his mouth, started to say something, Dalton had no idea what. Dalton leaned down, touched the muzzle to the kid's temple. The kid jerked his head backward, said, "Jesus no, Jesus," but Dalton put a round into his head anyway, shattering the kid's skull like a pumpkin..

Then he walked around the tailgate to the far side of the truck, found the other man sprawled in a ditch, his AK a few feet away. Another half-formed kid, barely in his teens.

Dalton's round had struck the boy in the throat, blowing it wide open. His head was almost completely severed from his neck, attached only by some stringy sinew and what was left of his spinal column. Dalton stared down at the ruins.

What were these clowns thinking thinking?

And who was training training them? Or failing to train them? them? Or failing to train them?

Raise them up on stupid hate, prattle on about glory, about the motherland, but teach them f.u.c.k-all about fire control or small-unit tactics and then stuff them into the grinder. Such a waste.

Dalton picked up the kid's AK, checked the magazine: seventeen rounds left. He stuffed the Colt into his belt, hefted the AK into patrol position, moved through the long gra.s.s and up into the little wood of twisted trees where he had last seen Vukov.

It was cool and shadowed inside the thicket, although sunlight dappled the rust-colored, needle-strewn ground, and beams stirred like golden straws in the rich green darkness. He moved as quietly as he could, which was very quietly indeed, slipping over the ground, stepping carefully across the deadfall and the broken branches of long-dead trees, breathing through his open mouth, listening with all of his mind and heart.

He saw something flit through a pillar of sunlight a hundred feet away, got a glimpse of a squat, bulky figure dragging an AK, limping badly. Dalton had had hit him, at least once, but he was still covering the ground, moving very fast. hit him, at least once, but he was still covering the ground, moving very fast.

"Vukov!" he shouted.

The running figure stopped abruptly, a dun-colored shadow barely visible through the trees and the prairie gra.s.s like a lion on the veldt, and shouted back at him, "Kill all my boys with that f.u.c.king big gun? You pretty d.a.m.ned good, Slick. No matter. Next time coming. And the woman. I do her first, make you watch!"

"Talk, Vukov. Gutless talk. Come and finish it."

"f.u.c.k you, Slick. Come and get me."

And then he was moving again, nimble, fast, darting through the gra.s.s and scrub trees, going up a slope, Getting away.

Dalton, his blood up, started after him, got no farther than three steps, and then he realized that he couldn't leave Mandy alone. She would be waiting for him to come back or for Vukov to double around, find her, and kill her. Which was what would happen if he was stupid enough or angry enough to take the bait.

Protect your base of fire, the first principle of combat. Mandy was good, but Vukov was probably better. And Vukov wasn't the main point right now. The main point was reaching Kerch, finding Dobri Levka, trying to take this whole thing apart.

As a consolation, Dalton fired off a three-round burst. He saw Vukov in the distance dodge, tumble down into the long gra.s.s, get back up on his feet in a second, his tan figure melting into a stand of poplars. Dalton sent another long burst into the trees. The muzzle blast slammed and boomed and echoed in the stillness. The c.o.c.king bolt locked open, and the weapon was empty, the sounds of the gunshots dying away into a rumble. Slender showers of bark dust came drifting down through the shafts of sunlight all around him, the gun smoke curling inside them too, the cool air full of the coal oil and carbon reek of burnt cordite.

"Soon, Vukov," he shouted into the silence, his voice echoing off the hills all around him. "Soon!"

Dalton stood there for another minute, his heart rate slowing, his anger cooling, suddenly very tired, his unprotected ears ringing painfully from the gunfire, half deaf, in a muted, m.u.f.fled world.

He sighed heavily, turned, walked out of the thicket, crossed the road, and went in again on the far side. The stand of trees here was dappled and silent as well, as if waiting for something to happen. He stood there for a long moment, listening.

"Mandy? It's Micah. Are you here?"

A rustle forty feet to his left, and Mandy, rising up out of a little hollow filled with dead leaves and pine needles, got to her feet, needles and leaf bits clinging to her hair, her jeans, and her leather jacket. "Yes, I'm b.l.o.o.d.y here."

Dalton walked over to her, started to help her brush the needles off, but she smacked his hand away, handed him the SIG, pulled the leather jacket off, and then her turtleneck sweater, Mandy frantically running her hands all over her body, swearing like a trooper.

"What's the matter?" he asked, picking her jacket up.

"Go to ground, you said." To his damaged hearing, her voice was sounding as if it were coming through cotton. "And didn't I just? Something was eating me! Something crawly and horrid. Can you see anything?" she said, turning around and brushing at herself.

"Yes, I can," he said, his voice too loud in his own skull, "And it's all quite lovely."

She stopped, gave him a look through her tousled hair.

"Bugs, I mean, you toad! G.o.d, I hate hate nature. We're not paving it nearly fast enough! Soon the whole b.l.o.o.d.y planet will be infested with b.l.o.o.d.y nature. 'Go to ground,' he says! nature. We're not paving it nearly fast enough! Soon the whole b.l.o.o.d.y planet will be infested with b.l.o.o.d.y nature. 'Go to ground,' he says! Chipmunks Chipmunks go to ground, Micah. Next time, go to ground, Micah. Next time, you you go to ground and have crawly things climb up go to ground and have crawly things climb up your your b.u.m. I'll be happy to stand around and shoot people. Have I got anything horrible crawling on me? Stop leering, you pervert. I mean it. Have I?" b.u.m. I'll be happy to stand around and shoot people. Have I got anything horrible crawling on me? Stop leering, you pervert. I mean it. Have I?"

"Nope. You're bug-free," said Dalton, keeping the grin under control as he shook out her sweater and her jacket, handing them back in the appropriate sequence. As her head popped up through her turtleneck, her hair in a state, she nodded toward the road.

"How did it go? I heard that hand cannon of yours. I trust you were of some practical use out there? I certainly wasn't."

Dalton was about to tell her what happened when they heard the sound of the chopper's engines beginning to whine.

"Dammit," he said. "Vukov!"

Dalton, followed closely by Mandy, ran back out to the edge of the highway, getting there in time to see the rotors spinning, smoke rising from the Kamov's exhaust. Even at two hundred yards, they could make out the face of Vukov through the windshield.

Dalton, dumping his empty magazine, ran back to the truck where the dead kid with the belly wound was lying, found a spare mag in his pocket, smacked it home, released the c.o.c.king lever, set the fire selector to single shot, got the b.u.t.t up against his shoulder and his cheek on the stock, and started firing methodically at the chopper, taking his time, adjusting after each shot, the weapon kicking back into his shoulder. He was putting out aimed fire at a target that was right in the middle of the AK's effective combat range. And he was getting hits. Yellow ricochet sparks flickered off the fuselage of the Kamov as each round came in.

Armored, thought Dalton. thought Dalton.

Now the rotors were at full speed, and the chopper was off the ground, banking hard to the left, showing the underbelly of the c.o.c.kpit.

Dalton switched to full auto and put out another ten rounds, walking his fire onto the rear slope of the c.o.c.kpit floor. He saw the airframe judder from hits, but Vukov tilted his machine forward, full military power, and clawed his way into the sky, gaining distance with every cycle, the prop wash shaking the tall gra.s.s and whipping the tips of the trees into a lashing blur.

Definitely armored.

Dalton, frustrated, angry with himself-I should have chased him down- emptied the rest of the magazine into the rotors, which ought to have been shredded by the rifle fire. But somehow the Kamov held steady, going straight northeast toward Staryi Krim, shrinking into a small brown dot that finally, after a flash of sunlight off the tail boom, disappeared into the blue. emptied the rest of the magazine into the rotors, which ought to have been shredded by the rifle fire. But somehow the Kamov held steady, going straight northeast toward Staryi Krim, shrinking into a small brown dot that finally, after a flash of sunlight off the tail boom, disappeared into the blue.

Mandy walked over and stood beside him, looking around at the dead men on the ground, at the flatbed truck sitting in the middle of the road, its engine still ticking over, at the litter of spent sh.e.l.ls scattered all over the highway.

"Christ, what an unG.o.dly mess," she said. "What now? We sit here and wait for Triple A?"

Dalton looked across at the Lancer, jammed up against the pines, tilting crazily, both doors wide open.

"Can you see if the car will start? I'll police up the sh.e.l.ls, dump the bodies in the truck, drive it back to that side road."

She looked down at the spray of blood and brains in the middle of the highway. "And . . . this ghastly stuff?"

Dalton looked down at it, gave her a haggard smile.

"Roadkill."

AFTER some fiddling with the wiring, the Lancer, to Mandy's delight, started on the third try, coughing to life, something metallic clanging loudly under the hood. She popped the fairing and jerked a piece of plastic grillwork out of the cooling-fan housing. The rounds had chewed up the headlights and the hood, and a large hole had been punched into the windshield-wiper tank. The engine block had a shiny groove carved into its side, but the slug had not come in at a direct enough angle to break through three inches of steel. This was a very lucky Lancer, she decided, putting the car in gear, backing it out into the highway, and heading back down to the side road after Dalton. some fiddling with the wiring, the Lancer, to Mandy's delight, started on the third try, coughing to life, something metallic clanging loudly under the hood. She popped the fairing and jerked a piece of plastic grillwork out of the cooling-fan housing. The rounds had chewed up the headlights and the hood, and a large hole had been punched into the windshield-wiper tank. The engine block had a shiny groove carved into its side, but the slug had not come in at a direct enough angle to break through three inches of steel. This was a very lucky Lancer, she decided, putting the car in gear, backing it out into the highway, and heading back down to the side road after Dalton.

She found him standing by the driver's side of the car, his hands full of papers, some of them bloodstained. He looked up, his expression grim, as she pulled the Lancer into the cut.

He came over to get in on the pa.s.senger side and was still riffling through the papers as Mandy backed the Lancer out, turned east again, heading for Staryi Krim. The front suspension was unsteady, one of the headlight housings was clattering in the wind, and there was a large, crab-shaped bullet-star crack in the middle of the windshield, but the car was still working. And they were still alive. Mandy looked at the dashboard clock and was surprised to discover that the whole encounter had lasted about fifteen minutes.

"What have you got there?" she asked, keeping an eye out for the Kamov, half expecting it to pop up above the tree line.

Dalton looked up from the papers in his hands, smiled across at Mandy. Mandy thought he looked ill, sick at heart, "They were kids. Back there. Poor, b.l.o.o.d.y kids. Look at this one," he said, holding out a black cardboard ID case with a color photo of a bony-faced, big-eared boy with a broad, snaggletoothed smile.

"His name was Giorgy Medic. If I can make out the language, he was seventeen. Makes you feel like a s.h.i.t, killing kids. The one at the side of the truck, he was still alive when I got to him, but he'd been hit in the belly with a forty-four. A miserable death, unless he got medevaced out."

Mandy did not have to ask what Dalton had done. She would have done the same, or she hoped she would have. They drove on a while in silence, a mile later pa.s.sing a faded sign: STARYI KRIM 2 K.

Dalton was still looking at the kid's ID.

"Interesting," he said, holding the card out. "He's from Sid. That's a little town near Belgrade. Sid is where most of the Skorpions came from. The Medic family had a lot of people in the Skorpions. Slobodan Medic was the one who ordered the ma.s.sacre at Trnovo, in Srebrenica, in 1995. The Skorpions even made a video. Walked these Muslims into a little wooded clearing, shot them in the back with their AKs. Talking and smoking and laughing as if it were some kind of office picnic. See this?"

He touched the image in the upper right corner of the ID card, a black flag with red lettering in an arc above a bright green scorpion.

"That's the banner the Skorpions fought under in 1995. They were still using it at Podujevo in 1999. And they're still still around." around."

"What does the other little flag mean?"

She tapped a small rectangle in the upper left-hand corner of the card. "Looks like some sort of symbol. Maybe a clenched fist?"

"It's on all their IDs-at least, the three bodies I searched. The Skorpion banner and this thing. I've seen it before. Galan had it on the computer at his flat. He said he was finding it on some KLA websites. He mentioned it in his note to me. He thought it was some sort of unit crest for the Skorpions."

"It means something something to them if they're putting it on their military ID cards." to them if they're putting it on their military ID cards."

"I'm a little worried about how far ahead of us these guys are. They were waiting for us, had an ambush all laid out."

"You had to expect that."

"I expected them to make a move in Kerch. Not here in the middle of the d.a.m.ned peninsula."

"Even without Galan's attempt to reach Irina Kuldic, which is why they killed him, the Russians-"

"Kirikoff."

"Kirikoff. Yes, he had to know that once you found out about the Russians taking Levka and the Subito Subito you'd come to Kerch anyway just to find out why. He'd got a snootful of your style last winter in Istanbul. He would you'd come to Kerch anyway just to find out why. He'd got a snootful of your style last winter in Istanbul. He would expect expect you to come back at him, which, by the way, is exactly what you you to come back at him, which, by the way, is exactly what you are are doing, isn't it?" doing, isn't it?"

"Yes. I know. Predictable as h.e.l.l."

"I think someone in Sevastopol was put there to watch for you. You're quite memorable. If Kirikoff knew you were in Sevastopol, very likely headed for Kerch, it would make sense to set a trap for you out on a lonely road somewhere. What he didn't didn't count on was you killing three of his men and chasing the fourth into the wild blue yonder with his a.r.s.e shot full of buckshot. But he knew you'd be coming. It's your idiom, isn't it, dear boy?" count on was you killing three of his men and chasing the fourth into the wild blue yonder with his a.r.s.e shot full of buckshot. But he knew you'd be coming. It's your idiom, isn't it, dear boy?"