Weve got a problem, he murmured.
No kidding, Katie replied, jerking her head toward the cot. She wants to kill her baby.
Alex went still for a moment. Then he asked quietly, Was she raped?
Of course. Young. Beautiful. Unmarried. I hadnt thought of that, Katie confessed. She turned to the girl and murmured a quick question.
The girl shook her head in the negative. Hmmm.
Regardless, Alex interjected, we may have to get out of here sooner rather than later. A line of rebel troops is advancing up the valley. If Karshans local militia doesnt hold the road until daylight, well be overrun.
Katie frowned. If the fights on the road, how are we going to drive out of here?
As always, you grasp the crux of the situation unerringly, he muttered.
Were trapped? Where will we go?
He shrugged. Up.
Up the mountain? she demanded in disbelief. With her? She jerked her head toward the laboring girl again.
I scouted around a bit. Karshani tribesmen are entrenched in the village up the valley. Rebels have the road and the lower pass covered. Over the mountain will be the only safe retreat for us.
But the girl
Shell have to make do. I cant stop the war for her to have a baby. Ill do what I can for her. He moved toward the rear of the tent and his patient. Keep an eye outside. Watch the road down where the river bends. If you see any movement, tell me immediately.
Katie nodded her understanding. The scene outside was surreal. Tracers streaked across the black sky like comets. Explosions peppered the hillsides, lighting up gun emplacements and clusters of shooters behind rocks and outcroppings.
The girls bouts of heavy panting inside the tent came closer together and longer in duration. Katie heard Alex demonstrating breathing techniques, exhaling in short hard bursts. The girl mimicked him obediently. It wouldnt be long before the girl delivered. Thank God her labor was progressing quickly.
But not quickly enough. Headlights came into sight at the bend in the dirt road beside the river. Vehicles coming up the road, Katie announced.
What kind?
Cant see yet. Its loud. Probably not civilian.
Alex swore quietly, and the girl let out a groan from behind the towel she was biting into.
The vehicle came into sight. Crap. Armored personnel carrier, Katie reported urgently over her shoulder. It stopped halfway in view, and the front hatch opened.
Youre kidding, Alex muttered.
I wouldnt joke about something like that. And I know my military vehicles. Its an APC. Late-model version with the wedge-shaped, anti-IED bottom.
Alex swore quietly again.
Special Forces troops exiting it now, she mumbled. God knew, she recognized the gear and way of moving. Half her brothers were men just like that. She couldnt count how many times shed stood by her father during training exercises watching soldiers egress APCs into simulated combat.
Special Forces? Alex echoed in dismay from the back of the tent.
Yes, she answered with conviction. They may be wearing civilian clothing and rebel colors, but no way are those regular soldiers.
A barrage of machine-gun fire exploded from over her right shoulder, and she jumped violently. Where had that come from? She craned her head to the right and spotted the muzzle flash up the valley a little ways. A very little ways. The weapon rat-a-tatted loudly, and the soldiers at the river hit the deck, diving for cover.
This was nuts. She was standing in the freaking middle of a no-kidding combat zone. The unreality of it struck her forcefully. She might have wanted adventure, but she didnt do combat. This was a bad dream. She was going to wake up any minute and it was all going to go away.
Alex joined her in the doorway, and she pointed out the action quickly. Locals have the soldiers pinned down for the moment, but those troops will send out a patrol to flank the gunners and take out the position. The patrol will have to pass right by here to get to the gun, she whispered frantically.
He nodded in quick agreement with her assessment and breathed, Time to go. He picked up a rucksack from the floor just inside the door and shouldered it. Get the girl and follow me. Ill find us a route up the mountain.
Katie whirled and ran to the laboring girl. We have to leave.
The girl stared up at her in disbelief.
I know. But were about to get overrun by soldiers who will shoot first and ask questions later. Ill help you.
Awkwardly, the patient sat up. Katie wedged a shoulder under her armpit and levered the unwieldy girl to her feet. A moan escaped her. Alex slipped outside and turned to the left, toward the advancing soldiers. Better them than the local gunners, Katie supposed, given that they had a laboring girl in tow. Although the soldiers would probably be inclined to shoot her and Alex for rendering medical aid to the locals anyway. Because it was such a huge crime to help innocent girls give birth to tiny, future terrorists, she thought bitterly.
Alex jumped up on the boulder beside their tent. The laboring girl reached up, and, with Katie hoisting from below and him pulling from above, they got her up onto the outcropping. What scrub there was up here was sparse and mostly dead. They had to rely on rocks and terrain for what little cover they could find.
Seeking cover and ways up the nearly impassable terrain, Alex doubled back to them often when one route dead-ended out and he had to find another. Katie put an arm around the girls shoulders to steady her as they moved a few dozen yards up the steep slope. Without warning, the girl bent over, breath hissing between her teeth as she grasped her swollen belly. She devolved into a fit of coughing interspersed with low moans of pain.
Alex looked over his shoulder impatiently as Katie and the girl fell behind. He slid back down the gravel-strewn slope to them, pistol in hand, to wait out the contraction. Finally, the girl exhaled and nodded. They resumed picking their way up the hill.
During the girls next contraction, Katie looked over her shoulder down the valley. She couldnt see the unidentified, definitely military, patrol headed their way, but she could feel it as surely as she felt the girls fingers digging painfully into her forearm. A few more coughing breaths and the girl nodded once more.
They were able to go maybe thirty feet up the mountain between each contraction. It was agonizingly slow, particularly when the gun emplacement lit up once more. Sure enough, soldiers down the hill fired back. At least a half-dozen weapons returned fire in a wide arc that would roll right over their tent any second.
They were maybe a hundred yards from their shelter when another contraction gripped the girl. This one drove her to her knees, and she doubled over, grasping her belly. I have to push, the girl grunted.
Not yet, Alex snapped under his breath when Katie translated the girls words.
Katie relayed his order, but the girl shook her head. Youll die if we have to leave you out here, Katie whispered frantically. A few more minutes. Well find a place to hide and then you can push.
I cant go any farther, the girl moaned.
Keep her quiet, or well all die, Alex bit out.
Im trying, Katie retorted, panic climbing into her throat.
I cant go any farther, the girl moaned.
Keep her quiet, or well all die, Alex bit out.
Im trying, Katie retorted, panic climbing into her throat.
The girls contraction passed, and Katie heaved her to her feet. They made it only a dozen yards before the girl collapsed again, groaning into her hand pressed over her mouth.
Shouting erupted below them. Katie looked down as a burst of flame lit the night. The soldiers had just torched their tent. Cold terror washed over her. What if they hadnt left when they did? Theyd be dead right now. The rebels probably had mistaken it for a local headquarters of some kind. The more immediate problem, though, was the wash of firelight illuminating the entire hillside.
Get down, Alex ordered, yanking Katie and the girl down behind a waist-high boulder. A barrage of machine-gun fire raked the mountainside close enough to make Katie flatten herself to the ground.
Fear like shed never known before roared through her. They were going to die. The three of them were not soldiers. They were barely armed, they had no gear and their only escape was up a forbidding mountain that only a seasoned climberor a mountain goatwould attempt to scale.
Another drone flew past, barely higher than eye level, raking the ground with gunfire from a pair of machine guns mounted on its belly.
The girls hands clamped around Katies elbow just then and squeezed so tight the circulation in her hand felt entirely cut off. Uh, Alex, she whispered. This girls going to deliver pretty soon.
Alex had picked up a few phrases in the local dialect, and he used one now, biting it out succinctly. Dont push.
Cant...stop... the girl ground out from behind clenched teeth.
Katie translated grimly.
We have to keep moving, Alex whispered in English. Were not out of the line of fire, and the patrol will sweep the area looking for whoever was in that tent.
They would never outrun highly mobile soldiers. Katie shook her head in disbelief and denial, but it made no difference. He was right. She told the panting girl, Crawl if you have to, but keep moving. Do you understand me?
I cant, the girl wailed under her breath.
It was becoming a familiar refrain, but Katie replied fiercely, Find a way. Ill drag you if I have to.
Katie had to give the girl credit. She pushed up to her knees, moved her burka aside and staggered up the hill after Alex, using her hands for support on the steep hillside before her. She fell twice, and each time Katie bodily lifted the girl back to her feet. The next time they dived for cover, though, the girls breathing changed. An element of really sharp pain entered her gasping breaths.
She really cant go on, Katie told Alex. In a flash of mortar fire, Katie saw the frustration and futility that passed across his face. He nodded, though, and angled off to the right.
It was only a half-dozen yards to where he stopped and waved for them to join him, but Katie didnt think she and the girl were ever going to make it to his side. Each step was a herculean effort for the girl, who was in so much pain she could not stand unaided. Only Katies arm around her kept her upright. Thankfully, Alex rejoined them and lifted the girl in his arms. He moved quickly into the shadows.
Katie made the mistake of glancing down and saw that they stood at the top of a nearly vertical cliff face. Only the narrowest of ledges kept her from plunging hundreds of feet to the valley floor below. Sick to her stomach with terror and vertigo, she plastered herself to the rock wall at her back and edged forward. Alex ducked into a low opening, and she fell to her knees beside him in relief.
The three of them were crouched in a tiny crevasse that didnt rise to the exalted status of a cave. It was maybe eight feet deep at best and no more than three feet tall at the opening, narrowing to a few inches tall in the back. But it afforded them a little cover from the battle raging outside and a moment to catch their breaths.
The girl started swearing under her breath so colorfully that Katie felt an incongruous urge to laugh. Or maybe that was just hysteria threatening. Either way, the girls voice broke on what would have been a scream had she not jammed her burka in her mouth and bitten down for all she was worth.
It was Alexs turn to swear. He unceremoniously shoved the girl onto her back to examine her. Babys trying to crown, he muttered. Tell her to push with the next contraction.
Katie was so relieved she could cry as she relayed the instruction to the girl. The contraction came, and the girl strained, bearing down in the age-old way as Katie supported her shoulders from behind.
Again, Alex ordered.
Again.
After several more contractions, Alex fumbled in the rucksack and pulled out a flashlight. Covering himself with the girls burka, he took a quick look at affairs. When he emerged, he spoke so calmly in English, Katies blood ran cold before she even comprehended his words.
Tell her to rest for a while and just try to breathe through the contractions.
Hed never told a woman to take a break in the middle of a delivery before. Just the opposite in fact. He always had her give the women pep talks and tell them at all costs to keep pushing until it was over.
She relayed the instruction and then murmured, Whats up?
This kids head is too big to pass through the pelvic opening. The baby cant be born.
What do we do now? she asked as calmly as her exploding alarm would let her.
Two choices. Leave the girl and her baby here to die. Or do a C-section and save the kid.
And the mother?
Its a major surgery. If blood loss doesnt get her, shock and hypothermia may. And then theres the problem of noise. If I cut her open without anesthesia, shes likely to scream her head off and get us all killed.
Katie stared at the shadows wreathing his face. How in the hell were they supposed to choose between those options?
He stared back. At length, he muttered, Welcome to playing God.
A barrage of gunfire below them made her jump. For a minute there shed forgotten about the war raging outside. The girl lying on the ground beside her panted fast and hard as another contraction gripped her.
What would you do? Alex asked quietly.
Katie shook her head, horrified to the core of her being. Ask the mother. Its her baby. Her life.
How very pro-choice of you, Alex replied wryly. Then he said more sharply, So do it. Ask her.
Katie was shocked that he had declined to make a unilateral decision. It was so very...human...of him. She turned to the mother and waited out the end of the contraction.
Holding the girls hand, she said quietly, Your baby is too big to be born this way. Doctor Alex can cut the baby from your belly, but he has no medicine for the pain. If you make any noise, we will all die. She took a deep breath and added reluctantly, You may die from the surgery.
If I have no surgery? the girl asked.
Katie relayed the question, and Alex outlined the answer sentence by sentence as she translated.
You will become exhausted eventually. The placenta will separate from your uterus. Your baby will suffocate and die, and you will begin to hemorrhage. That means you will bleed inside your body. You will die from blood loss.