Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

operations involving conflict with an
    opposing foreign force, or while serving with friendly foreign forces
    engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which
    the United States is not a belligerent party.”
    Divide & Conquer | 279

    “Damn, Ty, are you reciting military guidelines?” Zane asked,
    sounding both impressed and horrified.
    “Yes, shut up. It‟s helping. Accomplishment or performance of
    duty above that normally expected, and sufficient to distinguish the
    individual among those performing comparable duties is required.”
    Zane snorted softly. “What‟d you do to earn it?”
    Ty breathed in deeply, the air shuddering out of him just as
    quickly. “I killed a whole lot of people.”
    Zane was silent for a moment, then shifted against Ty to hold him
    more securely. “Tell me about the rest.”
    Ty shook his head and strained his eyes to find light. When he
    could make out nothing in the blackness, he reached up for the ceiling.
    If Zane wouldn‟t hold it up, maybe he could.
    He touched the cold stone, and he felt Zane raise his arms to help.
    “I‟ll hold up my end, if you‟ll hold up yours,” Zane said.
    “Don‟t humor me, Garrett. Just hold up the ceiling for me, okay?”
    Ty snapped, but he was laughing at his own words.
    “Yes, Staff Sergeant,” Zane said smartly.
    A deep rumble and a shiver in the stones interrupted Ty‟s stinging
    retort, and Zane grabbed him and yanked him down, covering his head
    as the stones started to shift and fall again. The shrieking of the rock
    shearing filled Ty‟s ears, and just as he thought his heart might stop,
    just as everything around them shook violently, several large stones
    behind Zane toppled in the opposite direction, giving them a little more
    room and letting in shockingly bright dull-gray light.
    Ty stared at the shaft of light as if he could actually use it to pull
    them out of hell. His arms tightened around Zane, fingers digging in
    reflexively as he fought down the stark terror. It wasn‟t something he
    could really control; it was ingrained in him to fear the darkness and
    spaces that closed in when he couldn‟t see. Even this hint of light and
    Zane‟s arms around him couldn‟t fight back the impending panic attack
    for much longer. He was surprised he‟d staved it off for this long. He
    firmly believed it was Zane‟s doing, him saying the right things at the
    right time.
    280 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    Another stone fell away, then another, and as the hole got bigger,
    Zane literally dragged Ty over his lap and shoved him toward the
    opening. Voices started to echo around them, their names bouncing off
    the stone as people called.
    Ty crouched at the narrow opening, trying to fight through the
    haze of panic to judge if he could make it through. He didn‟t think he
    could, and forcing the wrong stone to shift could bring the whole thing
    down. He didn‟t try it, instead calling out to the rescuers and sliding
    back into the darkness to sit with Zane. His hand trembled, but he
    reached for Zane‟s and gripped it hard anyway as he met his lover‟s
    eyes. “You asked me not to leave you alone in the dark.”
    Zane didn‟t reply, but he pulled Ty‟s hand close and pressed his
    lips gently to Ty‟s knuckles.

    “YOU two look like shit.”
    Zane stopped on the threshold to Dan McCoy‟s office and
    scowled as Ty pushed past him. “Worse than that,” Zane disagreed. His
    headache still raged, his eyes still felt swollen and full of the rock
    particle dust that had been kicked up into his face numerous times, and
    he could just feel the bruises coming up all over.
    Better than the alternative.
    “You okay?” McCoy asked, looking back and forth between the
    two partners.
    Zane still wore his ruined suit, now almost gray from the sand
    and stone ground into the fabric and boasting a few split seams, and
    several red scrapes scored one side of his face. Ty‟s dress blues had
    suffered as well, but Ty had insisted on changing immediately, even
    when that meant into the spare running shorts and T-shirt stuffed in his
    locker downstairs. It was a scarlet-red T-shirt, with a dancing rock, a
    quivering piece of paper, and an awkward pair of scissors standing in a
    rough circle, all with guns in both hands and aiming at each other.
    Despite their ordeal, Ty had managed to come out looking like an
    action hero at the end of the movie, hair perfectly mussed, a delicate
    Divide & Conquer |