Sniper Elite Read Free Page B

fucking duck here!”
    The four remaining Rangers were still a hundred yards off across the village, running hard for the chopper as Sandra flipped the switches in the cockpit and the rotors began to turn. “We’ll be airborne in sixty seconds.”
    â€œWe don’t have sixty—!”
    A mortar struck the tail section of the helicopter, lifting the hind end of the bird into the air and causing it to slew wildly around. Mitchell was slammed against the bulkhead, splitting his head open, and Sandra was thrown from her seat to the other side of the cockpit. The sound of small arms fire filled the air. Bullets snapped through the fuselage as she tried to call for support over the radio.
    â€œIt’s fucked!” Mitchell grabbed for her arm. “We gotta dismount!” A round struck him in the chest and he dropped dead to the deck.
    Captain Bordeaux leapt into the bird, grabbing Sandra’s collar and hauling her from the aircraft against a hail of gunfire. They were both hit and fell out the open door. The other three remaining Rangers took cover as best they could near the fuselage, but it seemed they were surrounded on all sides, and the cover among the rocks was sparse at best.
    â€œDid you get off a call for help?” Bordeaux asked, firing a few rounds into a coppice of trees to keep the enemy’s head down.
    â€œThey took out the radio first thing,” Sandra said, gasping against the pain in her thigh where she’d taken a round from an AK-47. “I think it’s up against the bone, Sean. Fuck me! It hurts like a holy bastard.”
    Bordeaux grabbed up Mitchell’s M4 and jammed it into her hands as he half-carried, half-dragged her toward the rocks where his men were digging in as best they could with the butts of their carbines. “We’re in some deep shit here, guys. No cover and nowhere to run.”
    One of the other men went right to work applying a pressure tourniquet to Sandra’s leg. Shock was setting in fast and she’d already begun to fade.
    â€œWe’d better think of something fast,” one of the other Rangers said. “When they correct fire on those mortars, we’re dead.”
    â€œThey could’ve done that already,” Bordeaux said. “They’re maneuvering to take us alive.”
    â€œOr her,” said a sergeant named Tornero.
    â€œOr her, yeah.” Bordeaux spat in disgust. Their radioman had been blasted to hell, and it would be at least another hour, maybe two, before anyone tried to raise them and thought to send another chopper. This was supposed to have been a very secure zone, which was why it had been chosen in the first place. Something was wrong. “I don’t know, guys, but it feels like they were here waiting for us.”
    Tornero was jamming cotton wadding into a shoulder wound. “Yeah, well, the way they’ve been blabbing about the op back at HQ, it don’t fucking surprise me.”
    â€œI don’t like having a woman in this shit,” Bordeaux said.
    â€œMaybe you can trade me,” Sandra groaned, fighting the urge to vomit.
    Another furious fusillade of gunfire erupted, forcing them all belly-down against the earth as the enemy maneuvered still closer.
    â€œThere’s at least twenty!” shouted one of the other Rangers, firing away, finally managing to kill one. “They’re gonna jerk the noose tight.”
    Bordeaux knew their time had run out. It was time to surrender or break out across country, and there was no way to break out without leaving Sandra behind.
    â€œSergeant, you three haul ass for that defilade!” he ordered. “There’s no other way. Try to fight your way north toward friendlies. Surrender’s not an option here.”
    Tornero exchanged looks with the other two members of theteam, all of them shaking their heads. He looked back at Bordeaux and grinned. “I think we’ll stay, Captain.”
    â€œI