Code Name: Camelot (Noah Wolf #1)(3)
“That was as far as I got. Mathis raised his rifle and pointed it at me. He said, ‘We can’t let you do that, Sarge.’ I saw that his eyes were wide, and he seemed frantic. I watched Gould and Lindemann out of the corners of my eyes, and saw that each of them was nervously clutching his rifle, watching me.
“I looked back at Mathis, and realized that he was on the verge of killing me in his panic over being punished for what he and the others had done. I thought I would try to defuse the situation, so I lowered my pistol and shrugged. I said, ‘Maybe we can put this off on the LT, we can say he wigged out, killed all these girls himself. No need to put any other names on it.’
“Mathis stood there for a moment, and I could see the wheels turning in his head. He was trying to decide whether to trust me or not, whether to believe that I’d really let it go at that. If I reported that it was only the lieutenant who was actually involved in the murders, and the others made sure their stories agreed with mine, there would be no investigations, no charges. Of course, the trouble was I had just made the statement that I would be placing them all under arrest when we got back to the rear. He knew me well enough to know that I wouldn’t have said that unless it was exactly what I meant to do.
“He grinned, and then he said, ‘Sorry, Sarge, you’re like a bulldog; you don’t let go of something once you got it in your teeth.’ He raised the barrel of his rifle so that it was aimed at my head, rather than my chest, and I figured I had about a split second to live.
“The pistol was in my right hand, and its added weight would slow that arm, no matter how insignificantly, so I swung my left in an arc that brought it around and into contact with the barrel of his weapon. I slapped it to the left, at the same time leaning my head to the right, just as he squeezed the trigger. The bullet that was meant to take my life flew past my ear, but the flecks of burning powder didn’t miss it. I could feel them, like tiny grains of flame that peppered my ear and cheek.”
Mathers suddenly stood, and leaned across the table with her palms flat on it. “Show me,” she said.
Noah leaned forward and tilted his head to one side so that she could look at his left ear. There were tiny black marks inside the cup of the ear, and on the earlobe.
Mathers nodded, and took out her iPhone to snap several pictures. “Those look like powder burns to me, alright,” she said. “Go ahead.”
“Well, while he was trying to shoot me again, I brought up my pistol and fired twice, taking Mathis in the gut with the first round, and through the heart with the second. While all that was going on, Lindemann reacted by leveling his own M-16 at me, so I continued to swing my right hand around until it was in line with his body, and then squeezed the trigger once more. Lindemann fell back, but his rifle was set to three round bursts, and he squeezed the trigger in reflex as he went down. His bullets missed me, but they hit Private Mason, who was standing behind me, in the face.”
“Mason was an accidental casualty, then?”
“Yeah. Then Gould freaked out; he spun and ran, while a couple of the other guys began firing in my direction. We’d been standing in the middle of a little group of small buildings, probably related to whatever they call farming in that area, and I threw myself behind one of them. Gould yelled out, ‘Come on, Sarge, there’s no point in this. We’re all on the same side, remember?’
“I wasn’t interested in trying to argue with him, or anybody else, for that matter. There was a hole in the wall that I was hiding behind, leading inside the small structure. From what I could see, it looked like it might be some sort of simple shelter, maybe a place to get out of a sandstorm. Whatever it was, it offered me a chance to improve my position without being seen, so I crawled through the hole and into the building. There were a number of holes in the walls, some of them just big enough to peek through, while others were as big as the one I had used to get inside. I moved from one to the other, being careful and keeping out of sight, and was able to get a fair idea of where the rest of the men were; then I rolled out and across the little lane between the buildings, and got behind a different one. A couple of shots were fired at me, but none got close.
“Funny thing was, my new position gave me a clear view of one of the men, but he didn’t see me. That was Clark, and since I had no choice but to consider him a hostile at that point, I took him out with a single shot from my M4. Instantly, the rest of them opened fire on the little building I was using for a shield, so I had to run behind another. Gould yelled out, ‘It didn’t have to be this way, Sarge.’ I could tell the general direction his voice came from, but couldn’t pin it down because of echoes.
“Those echoes made it difficult to know which way to move, because I couldn’t tell where the rest of the men were taking cover. Gould was their corporal, and at this point, he was more likely to have their obedience and support than I was. That meant that if I could take him out, there was at least a fair chance the rest would give it up. I moved to the other end of the shelter I was hiding behind, to try to get some idea of which direction he might be in from my position.
“I yelled, ‘We’ve got four dead already, Gould, do you want to make it worse? Give it up, man, we can come up with a story about what happened here.’ He laughed, and I could tell that it was coming from behind another of the little buildings. He was about thirty meters from my position, but not in my line of sight because of the structure he was using to hide behind. I had to move to another position, or it wasn’t likely I was going to be able to take him down, so I rolled again, over behind a different building, because it would put me in a position to get behind Gould. I figured that if I could take him out, there was that small chance that the rest would surrender, and I had to take a shot at it.