We got the fire roaring and, huddled next to it, we gradually began to thaw out. Danny dug a ration pack out of his backpack. “I’ve only got one,” he said sadly. “I only brought that from force of habit. We were only meant to be out of the chopper for half an hour. But it’s something.”

There was a sachet of beef stew and a sachet with some sort of peach cobbler. We heated them over the fire and shared them, and I felt the hot food start to warm me from the inside out. I was ravenous: the last time I’d eaten had been on the flight, over twenty-four hours before.

When we were done, we lay down on the tarp. The fire bathed my front in heat. Then Danny spooned me from behind, using his body heat to keep my back warm.

Immediately, the tension started building. As I lay there staring into the fire. I could feel his eyes on the soft skin at the back of my neck, feel his breath stirring the tiny hairs there. What if I just turned over, right now, and faced him? What would happen? My chest was tight with anticipation. Do it, do it, do it!

But I couldn’t. JD would never forgive him. Both of them would lose their best friend and I couldn’t do that to them.

I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep: not out in the open, not with soldiers searching for us. Then Danny wrapped his arms around me and it was like everything bad in the world was being shut out. I was thousands of miles from my burrow in Vegas, but it was the safest I’d ever felt. I relaxed, the exhaustion rolled over me in a wave, and I slept.

31. Becker

31

BECKER

We’d been searching all day, scouring the hills for any sign of them. It was bitterly cold but my men knew better than to complain.

Me? I welcomed the cold. It reminded me of swimming with my father. He’d take me down to the river each morning, even when it was so late in the year that the sky was still black and there was snow on the rocks. The cold stripped away your weaknesses and you came out pared down and iron hard.

One of the two-man search teams radioed in. “We’ve found tracks coming down from the peak and into the forest. Two men, one smaller than the other. We can go after them at first light.”

“We can go after them now,” I hissed. I ordered my men to gather at that location. If the Americans stopped to rest for the night, we could be on them by morning.

32. Danny

32

DANNY