“Right.” Mike pressed his lips together, his cheeks forming dimples. “We’re worse off now than when we got here. We’re tired, beat up, and they know we’re here.”

Julia pointed to Randall and Niki. “We have two more bodies that should increase our odds.”

“Yeah,” Al looked uphill. “Niki’s a mess. I don’t know how much help she can be. She’s got a bad limp and maybe a broken arm. Sorry, Niki.”

She glared into his eyes and then dropped her head.

“And, we got a bio weenie. Whose usefulness is questionable right now.”

“Questionable?” A hint of red spread across his face. “I know more about diseases, their weaponization, their effects, and just about anything else related to the subject than everyone. Get me in there to the data, and I’ll figure out what's happened.”

Tom glanced over at Mike. “It might be too late for that.”

“I get it, but we have to try.” Somewhere inside himself Randall found some courage, the character to act like a soldier. “I’m either an asset or a liability. Give me a gun, and I’ll show you how much of an asset I can be.”

Tom's mouth smirked down at the smaller man. “I'll bet the only time you’ve fired a weapon is range qualification once a year if that. Besides I wouldn’t want you to shoot Mike in the back accidentally.”

A small blood vessel on Randall’s temple pulsed visibly. “I know what he did to my Seeta. She’s the only woman I’ve ever truly loved, and I know there was something inside her that loved me too.”

Tom opened his mouth, thought better, and pressed his teeth together his lips forming a tight line.

“I told you her name isn’t Seeta and she's worked for Hotak for years, and she used you to get you here.” Niki didn’t feel the same about restraint.

“Shut up!” They glared at each other until Randall turned back to Tom.

“I know the stakes here. It’s not about Seeta. It’s not about Hotak. We're talking about millions of people potentially.” His eyes darted to Niki and back. “It’s not about any of us. I don't know what the rate of infection will be until I see some data. What I can tell you is it is a really nasty, deadly virus that the world is not ready for.”

He had everyone's attention. “If Mike’s theory is correct I’m the only one who can decipher the methodology employed to deliver the pathogen. I’m the only one who can determine how much damage the strain developed can inflict on the population. And I’m the only one who can communicate my findings back to a competent authority.”

“Okay.” Mike rubbed the back of his shoulder to relieve the tension in his neck. “We need to figure out how we're going to get back in there.”

Mike let out a long breath through his nose. “We have three options as I see it, and they all suck. We can go back up through the hangar, but I’m sure there will be guards up there. They’ll keep us from getting back in. And I’m guessing they’ll coordinate the search for us up there since they can see the whole valley. Next is the north entrance of the tunnel. From here to get over the mountain, through this terrain without food and water, I figure it will be about a day and a half of heavy movement to get there. Then when we do, we’ll have to worry about whatever number of guards in the tunnel. Finally.” His thumb pointed over his shoulder. “We got the south entrance to worry about.”

“I'm not a tactician,” Julia said, “But I agree, all those options do sound disagreeable.”

“Thanks.” The corners of his mouth twisted up. “There are only three ways in through the south, the well and the tunnel entrance. One, we bum rush the tunnel entrance using the machine gun to support us. That only works until we're inside the tunnel and out of sight of the gun and who knows how many more bad guys are in there. Two, we go back through the tunnel, but we’ll stand out like a sore thumb moving through the burnt bamboo. They’ll either kill us trying to get to the well or they wait for us at the end of the tunnel.”

Al snorted. “Shit plan one and two.”

“Option three, we make our way down to the south side of the valley. Once we're there, we have to kill the guards. Next, we hijack the next truck and pretend to be Afghani drivers. Then, we drive up to the tunnel entrance guards and kill them. And finally, we drive into the tunnel the machine gun covering us the whole way up to the tunnel entrance. Of course, that ignores any radio procedures between the guard posts." He looked everyone in the eye. "What do we do with the truck driver? He’s innocent. Tie him up? And, what will we run into inside the tunnel.”

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Al rolled the back of his head on a tree trunk. “I think I like shit plan one better.” He sat up, rubbing his head. “Who stays with the gun it has to be Tom and Niki?”

Niki’s face went deadpan. “I told you I’m not staying here.”

Julia touched her arm. “You can’t go like that. You’re injured.”

“You people don’t understand. I’m going back inside, I am going to kill Hotak, and nothing is going to stop me.”

“And what are you going to do if we don’t take you?” Tom said.

Niki turned her head to Tom and her mouth curved into a broad smile. No one mistook it as she was jovial. “I told you. My father and Hotak have been enemies for a long time. They’ve been fighting for control of the opium market in this area for years. When he found out Hotak was using outside contractors to work on the mountain, we discovered a few things. These workers mainly come from outside Afghanistan. They’re all on retainer, are very loyal, and do construction work for Hotak around the world. He pays them well, and they rarely talk to outsiders. It took huge amounts of money to get a few of these people to reveal any information, and they died soon after under questionable circumstances.”

“That tracks,” Julia said. “At least from the circumstantial evidence I’ve seen.”

“There's a large cave system under the mountain. The mountain itself was partially hollowed out. A geologist explained it to us. I don’t remember much about it now. What I do know my father bribed, bought, or infiltrated people inside." She scowled at Tom. “And no, we didn't know anything about the biocontainment area or any of it. What is important for our discussion is the escape tunnel Hotak built. It leads from his private office out of the mountain to a maintained covered trail into Pakistan. There are several caches along the route. They're there to feed, shelter, and cloth anyone escaping down the trail if needed. In Pakistan is a small guarded, walled-in compound with a functional Range Rover.”

“Who did he think he was going to be attacked by?”

“The whole facility took years to build and most of it was completed while the U.S. and the U.N. were here. He had control of several Afghani army officers and a few U.N. officers, but he could never be sure if some Special Forces Team might discover what was going on so he made contingencies.”

“That,” Tom said, “is helpful info, a little late.”.

Mike slid his ass down closer to Randall, Julia, and Niki. “This all would have been nice to know before we left your compound.”

Niki shrugged. “I assumed my father told you all this before you left.” She shrugged again looking embarrassed. “I’m sure he meant to tell you.”

“Must of skipped his mind.” Mike wasn’t sure what to think. Maybe he forgot? Maybe he wasn’t all there? Whatever. It didn’t matter now.

“Mike,” Tom slide downhill through the dirt and leaves. “We don’t need this shit. Now that we know it’s there, we can find the escape tunnel ourselves. Let’s leave her somewhere, and let’s get going. The bad guys are going to be out in force soon.”

Mike sighed. “I know how you feel. I do.” He looked her in the eyes. “Look, you’re a liability, you can’t move, you can't shoot, and someone is going to have to take care of you one way or another. We need all the healthy bodies we have in a fight.” He put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “We’ll find a nice place for you to hole up out of danger away from patrols. We’ll get inside, take care of business, and I promise I’ll make sure Hotak dies in there. Just tell us how to get there.”

Niki gave Tom a tight-lipped smile. “You probably could, but no need. I’ll tell you exactly where it is. I'll tell you how to get there. I'll tell you the landmarks, where the steel door is, and how it's camouflaged, I’ll even tell you where the keypad is to open the door.” She faced Mike, and her smile turned sweet. “If you want to get in, though… I know the code, and I’m not telling you. I’m going.”

Mike took a deep inhale, lifted his head to the sky, and exhaled. There was no way he was going to change her mind. He understood her motivation and couldn’t fault her. Wasting more time arguing was only going to help get them caught.

He glanced up at Tom. “You’re on point. Give your AK to Julia and take the machine gun.”

Tom gritted his teeth, and stood, every muscle in his body tense. He pushed the AK into Julia’s hands letting go before she had a good grip on it. Grabbed the gun and walked down to the trail.

The tenseness in Tom’s back remained fixed down to the trail. But he was a pro Mike knew he’d be fine.

Tom checked both directions, gave a thumbs up, and moved onto the trail.

“One of these days you’re going to have to tell me what happened between you two.”

Niki’s eyes strayed downhill. “I don’t know. It wasn’t me.”

“Hmm,” He caught Al’s attention. “You got Niki duty, get her there in one piece, she can guide, and you can call out directions to Tom.”

“Roger that.” Al stood. “Alright, little lady, hop my back, and we’ll get going.”

“Randall, you’re next, Julia you’re behind Randall, and I’m tail-end Charlie.”

Julia grabbed his arm before he could start down. Randall saw, got the hint, and walked down alone.

She watched Randall fall in behind Al. Al slung the AK over his neck and wrapped his arms around Niki’s legs. She struggled to get comfortable pressed into his back but settled into a comfortable position.

“While we had time, I wanted to say thank you.”

“Hmm?” He raised his eyebrows.

“For what you did, telling them you were the one who, you know.”

“It’s far more believable, and Randall is less likely to lash out at me than you.”

“Well, again, thank you.”

Mike bowed his head. “You’re welcome. If nothing else, I am a humanitarian.”

She looked up into the trees above and chuckled. “Holy…You’re not one for gratitude, huh?”

He shrugged. “Shall we.”

“Okay,” She glanced down at Randall. “But, it is eating at me, and I’ve almost been at the point of telling him.” She raised her hand to stop him from speaking. “Don’t worry,” she said with a wry smile. “I took your suggestion. I pushed it down deep where it will continue to fester until it explodes out of me at the most inopportune time.”

The right side of his mouth lifted. “That’s my girl.” He clapped her on the shoulder and went to join the others.