Sandals slapped against the stairs. Metal rifle sling buckles banged metal barrels and wooden stocks. The heavy breathing of men charging downstairs lasted for what felt like forever.

Mike let his head, one eye at a time, expose itself to the hall. The sound of the guards racing downstairs continued, but no one was waiting for them.

He stepped out and waved the rest forward. The first out was Randall, dragging the boy behind him. The bio-nerd’s focus was on the stairway down and not on the kid. Mike saw it as it was about to happen, but he wasn’t fast enough to stop it.

Distracted, Randall walked the boy into the door frame. The boy rebounded off the metallic frame, tripped on Randall’s foot, and fell. His knee hit the cement floor, and he released a frightened yelp. He pitched forward onto his chest, his chin striking the ground. With the gag on, the muffled scream was louder than Mike would have thought possible.

Everyone froze. Mike bent over and grabbed the boy, still screaming and crying through his gag and blindfold. Mike guessed he was more scared than hurt.

Randall turned, his mouth open. He shook his head as if to signify it wasn’t his fault.

Mike mouthed, go go. Tom ran up the stairs, Al, Niki, and Julia followed.

A barrel came around the corner of the landing below. Mike threw the kid to Randall and fired a wild, unaimed burst down the stairs.

“Run!”

A head showed itself from around the corner. It was the Giant. Their eyes found each other. Intense hate hit Mike. He saw the same emotion redden the other man’s face. They looked into each other's eyes, hostile rage and venomous loathing. Badi’s teeth were exposed through his black beard. Menace radiated from the man. If Mike hadn’t felt an almost overwhelming intensity to go at the Giant, he would have noticed the hair on his arms standing up. Before he could lift his rifle, the machine gun let off a long burst.

“Go.” He ran after the others. Machine gun rounds slammed into the walls of the stairwell and hallway. A few rebounded off the cement and flew into the lab’s exterior room.

Mike ran past Randall and the struggling boy. Randall looked back, wrapped the boy in his arms, and ran.

Mike caught up to Niki. She was struggling to get up each step. Her head was down arm on the wall to help her with each step. He put his arm around her waist and lifted. She stifled a scream, moving her injured arm out from between them. Niki, in his left arm he, pointed his AKS down the stairs.

“I got you.” He fired a burst of automatic fire down the stairs and ran to the next landing. The machine gun barrel wedged around the corner and fired. The noise from the Giant’s machine gun in the enclosed space made his ears ache.

He hitched her up, adjusting Niki under his arm. She didn’t move or cry out this time as he ran up the next set of stairs. Spinning around the next corner, he dropped her and fired down into the hallway, hoping it would do some damage. He wasn't even sure what floor he was on anymore.

Not waiting for the Giant to let loose another burst, he grabbed Niki and ran. The gun went off behind him. He stopped at the next landing. He dropped Niki to her feet and readied his weapon.

Al ran down, breathing as hard as he was.

“Take her.”

Mike shot a quick three-round burst to allow Al to get the girl and run back upstairs. The barrel appeared, and he fired at it, letting his gun go empty. He turned and ran up the stairs, ejecting the magazine. It dropped, hit his thigh, and flew to the floor behind him. He stopped at the next landing, inserted a full mag, and waited.

“Mike.”

Al stood at the top of the stairs and waved him up.

Up two stairs at a time, Mike crested the last step and went to the right of the open stairwell. Tom sat in the yellow tractor used to pull the helo in and out of the hangar. As soon as Mike had rounded the stairs, Tom drove it straight into the doorway.

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The yellow tractor was about three feet high and too wide to fit in the doorway. But it made an excellent though short barrier.

“Don’t shoot, or you’ll kill the boy,” he shouted to the Giant. That should stop him from indiscriminately firing his gun. Mike pulled the boy out of Randall’s hands and sat him on the tractor facing downstairs. He wrapped his hand around the kid’s shirt collar, slung his weapon, and pulled the tomahawk from his belt.

He put the blade on the boy’s exposed neck and waited. The boy realized what was next to his skin and tried not to move, but he jerked every time he took a shallow breath. Tears rolled down his face onto Mike’s hand.

The Giant peeked upstairs. Mike and the boy were the only ones exposed. Al and Tom stayed behind the corners of the stairway, far enough not to be a threat but still to see the Giant.

The Giant pulled back and screamed in Pashtun.

The side of Mike's mouth lifted at the Giant’s impotence. Nothing else on his face suggested mirth.

They heard the Giant speak. A voice on the other end of the radio responded. A man’s voice rose, lowered, rose again, then became a whisper.

“Baabaa Hotak says free his children.” It was a simple statement carefully forced out of a tight throat.

“What else did he say?”

“He said let them go. Men are climbing the mountain behind you who will soon surround you. But, leave the boys, and we’ll pull those men off the mountain and let you leave that way. After that, we’ll meet again some other place some other time.”

Mike looked to his left. “Niki?”

She sat on the floor, leaning on the wall. “Hotak didn’t say any of that.” She lifted her chin in the direction of the stairs. “He is to wait until Hotak arrives.”

Badi shouted up the stairs at her, his voice filled with anger.

Niki lifted herself with her good arm and screamed back at him. She gingerly lowered herself against the wall and held her arm.

Mike didn’t know what they said to each other, but he got the intent. They wanted the other dead.

Keeping his grip on the boy, Mike let his muscles relax. He would have to be clear-headed. Now, it was make or break, survive this or not. No emotions if he was going to kill Hotak and get his people out.

“Badi. Let’s make a deal.”

Mike, again, tried to calm himself, breathing through his nose.

“What deal.”

Badi answered, good. The voice was still angry. He was stalling, but Mike didn’t care all he wanted was an opportunity to present itself.

“I’ll trade you.” He stopped talking, watching the empty landing. “I’m not talking to thin air. If you want to deal, show yourself as I am.”

“I don’t think so. You’ll kill me as soon as I show myself.”

“No. Look. All I have is a blade on this child’s neck. I’ll order my men to move away.” Mike nodded to Al and Tom to move out of sight. With his elbow, he checked the AKS’s position hanging from his shoulder. Easy to grab if needed.

Badi stuck his head out and pulled back.

“Take that blade from his neck.”

Mike complied. He pulled his hand away to the side of his hostage, his other hand firmly gripping the wadded-up shirt.

“Come on. Nothing’s going to happen. I promise we’re only going to talk.”

Badi peeked again. He stepped out his machine gun, vaguely pointed in Mike’s direction.

Mike adjusted the tomahawk in his hand.

“It’s easy. I’ll give you this, kid. You give me the passcode for the satphone.”

Badi inhaled to answer.

Mike yanked the kid to the side and threw the tomahawk. In his mind’s eye, it rotated in slow motion end over end.

Halfway to its target, Badi's mouth clenched, his face turned red. The tomahawk made another half rotation. There was no fear. Badi lifted and pushed the gun at the spinning tomahawk. His reflexes were fast and perfect. The tomahawk deflected up off the gun. Badi didn’t bother to move his head, confident he wouldn’t be hit. The tomahawk’s spike spun a quarter spin off the gun and buried itself in Badi’s right eye. The handle stuck up like a submarine's periscope.

Badi’s head jerked back. His head shook, the gun dropping to the floor. The incomprehension of what had happened made his face go slack. He felt something, a new mental state he’d only seen in others. Was it? He looked down at the machine gun, looked up at Mike, and fell backward. He hit the rear wall and fell behind the corner of the landing, only his legs exposed.

“Stupid fuck.” Mike pulled the boy off the tractor and handed him to Randall.

Tom glanced down. “Holy shit.”

Al shook his head in appreciation, incredulousness, or both. “You got him.”

“Looks like all those hours getting drunk and throwing tomahawks and knives at the tree in my backyard finally paid off.”

Julia stepped up to look down the stairs. “What if you’d have missed?”

“What if I had. We wouldn’t have been any better or worse off.”

“You lied to him.” Randall’s cheeks lifted as he squinted in disgust.

Mike turned on him. “Of course, I lied to him. You think there are rules here. We’re trying to kill each other.” Mike’s voice changed to contempt. “You think we’re going to wave a white flag and parley, and everyone is going to be civilized all of a sudden.”

Randall met Tom’s hostile gaze and Al’s dismissive look. “What? I’ve never been in this kind of thing. I’ve only got my Army training to go back on. I’ve never been outside the wire before, ever.”

Yeah, well,” Al said. “That Army stuff is outdated and based on theories made by politicians and Generals who’ve never been in combat.”

Niki held out her hand. “Help me up.”

Mike reached down and gently lifted her to standing.

“I want to see.”

He helped her lean over the tractor.

“Where is he? I want to see him dead.”

Mike leaned out over the tractor. The landing was empty. It didn’t seem likely that big mother fucker was alive. “He’s dead, contrary to the evidence.”

She put her back on the wall and shook her head.

He glanced at his watch. “Tick Tock.”