Die Trying

Fourth of July,” McGrath said. “Tell him the linemen are all off duty. Tell him it could take us all day to get them back.”
    They stared at each other. Glanced at Johnson. He was right out of it. Just slumped against the rock face, white and inert, barely breathing. Ninety hours of mortal stress and emotion had finally broken him. Then the radio in Webster’s hand crackled again.
    “Well?” Borken asked, when the static cleared.
    “OK, we agree,” Webster said. “We’ll fix the line. But it’s going to take some time. Linemen are off duty for the holidays.”
    There was a pause. Then a chuckle.
    “Independence Day,” Borken said. “Maybe I should have chosen another date.”
    Webster made no reply.
    “I want your Marines where I can see them,” Borken said.
    “What Marines?” Webster said.
    There was another short laugh. Short and complacent.
    “You got eight Marines,” Borken said. “And an armored car. We got lookouts all over the place. We’ve been watching you. Like you’re watching us with those damn planes. You’re lucky Stingers don’t shoot that high, or you’d have more than a damn helicopter on the ground by now.”
    Webster made no reply. Just scanned the horizon. McGrath was doing the same thing, automatically, looking for the glint of the sun on field glasses.
    “I figure you’re close to the bridge right now,” Borken said. “Am I right?”
    Webster shrugged. McGrath prompted him with a nod.
    “We’re close to the bridge,” Webster said.
    “I want the Marines on the bridge,” Borken said. “Sitting on the edge in a neat little row. Their vehicle behind them. I want that to happen now, you understand? Or we go to work on Holly. Your choice, Webster. Or maybe it’s the General’s choice. His daughter, and his Marines, right?”
    Johnson roused himself and glanced up. Five minutes later the Marines were sitting on the fractured edge of the roadway, feet dangling down into the abyss. Their LAV was parked up behind them. Webster was still in the lee of the rock face with McGrath and Johnson. The radio still pressed to his ear. He could hear muffled sounds. Like Borken had pressed his hand over the microphone and was using a walkie-talkie. He could hear his muffled voice alternating with crackly replies. Then he heard the hand come away and the voice come back again, loud and clear in the earpiece.
    “OK, Webster, good work,” Borken said to him. “Our scouts can see all eight of them. So can our riflemen. If they move, they die. Who else have you got there with you?”
    Webster paused. McGrath shook his head urgently.
    “Can’t you see?” Webster asked. “I thought you were watching us.”
    “Not right now,” Borken said. “I pulled my people back a little. Into our defensive positions.”
    “There’s nobody else here,” Webster said. “Just me and the General.”
    There was another pause.
    “OK, you two can join the Marines,” Borken said. “On the bridge. On the end of the line.”
    Webster waited for a long moment. A blank expression on his face. Then he got up and nodded to Johnson. Johnson got up unsteadily and the two of them walked forward together around the curve. Left McGrath on his own, crouched in the lee of the rock.

    MCGRATH WAITED THERE two minutes and crawled back south to the Chevrolet. Garber and Johnson’s aide were in front and Milosevic and Brogan were in back. They were all staring at him.
    “What the hell happened?” Brogan asked.
    “We’re in deep, deep shit,” McGrath said.
    Two minutes of hurried explanation, and the others agreed with him.
    “So what now?” Garber asked.
    “We go get Holly,” McGrath said. “Before he realizes we’re bullshitting him.”
    “But how?” Brogan asked.
    McGrath glanced at him. Glanced at Milosevic.
    “The three of us,” he said. “End of the day, this is a Bureau affair. Call it whatever you want, terrorism, sedition, kidnapping, it’s all FBI territory.”
    “We’re going to do it?” Milosevic said. “Just the three of us? Right now?”
    “You got a better way?” McGrath said. “You want something done properly, you do it yourself, right?”
    Garber was twisted around, scanning along the three faces on the rear seat.
    “So go do it,” he said.
    McGrath nodded and held up his right hand, the thumb and the first two fingers sticking out.
    “I’m the thumb,” he said. “I go in east of the road. Brogan, you’re the first finger. You walk a mile west of the road and