The Charm School

it.”
    Hollis hefted Burov over his shoulder. “Try to stay alive long enough for me to kick the shit out of you.” Hollis followed Brennan in a low crouch.
    Alevy knelt behind a large pine tree to the side of the lane, drew his pistol, and fired randomly into the trees on both sides. Suddenly there was an explosion, and Alevy saw a ball of orange fire erupt up the lane, and he knew the Trans Am had blown. He called out for Mills, but got no answer. Alevy slapped his last magazine into his pistol and began making his way toward the cabin, firing as he went.
    Hollis covered the last few feet between the lane and the cabin and sank to his knees in the doorway. Brennan took Burov off his shoulder and laid the unconscious man beside Dodson just inside the door. Hollis stood and noticed that the cabin was dark now, but he could pick out Lisa crouched below a window and nearby three corpses in uniform stacked neatly against a wall. Lisa said, “Sam… are you all right?”
    “Fine. Stay low.” Hollis took off the KGB topcoat and threw it over Dodson.
    Brennan picked up his Dragunov sniper rifle and went to the window, focusing the night scope on the nearby tree line. He said, “I don’t see Alevy or Mills on the path, but I see figures moving through the trees.” He took aim and fired, the operating rod of the silenced rifle making a metallic noise louder than the muzzle blast. He reaimed and fired again. “It’s a nice rifle, but the scope is not as sharp as ours.”
    Hollis saw three AK-47’s stacked against the other window, and near them was a metal ammunition box filled with thirty-round banana clips. He knelt at the window, took a rifle, and knocked out the glass.
    Brennan said, “Don’t fire yet, Colonel. They don’t have a fix on this place yet.”
    “Right.” Hollis looked at Lisa kneeling beside him. “I’m going back for Seth and Bert.”
    She grabbed his arm. “Don’t you owe me something?”
    Brennan glanced over at them. “Hey, why don’t one or both of you guys get out there and see if O’Shea’s still hanging around? Tell him what’s happening.”
    Hollis took Lisa’s hand and led her to the door. “Keep low.” He pulled her away from the cabin and toward the clearing where they knelt in the knee-high grass. About a hundred meters out, Hollis could see the white helicopter against the black tree line beyond it. Above the sound of the gunfire, Hollis could hear the turbines running. “Do you see it?”
    “Yes.”
    “Tell O’Shea we’re all right and we’re coming.”
    She looked at him. “You’re coming with me.”
    “Later.”
    “Now!”
    Hollis grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “I need you to go out there and tell him we’re coming or he might take off. I have to go back for the others, Lisa.”
    “I’ll jump off, Sam. I swear I will. If you’re not there, I’ll come back for you—” Tears filled her eyes, and her body began to shake.
    Hollis turned her toward the helicopter. “Run. Low. Go on!”
    She glanced back at him, then began running through the grass toward the helicopter, turning her head back to him every few strides.
    Hollis watched her silhouette getting smaller against the distant helicopter, then turned toward the cabin and found himself face-to-face with Alevy.
    Alevy watched Lisa disappear into the night, then looked at Hollis. “Go ahead, Sam.”
    “I’ll get Burov.” Hollis moved past Alevy and headed back toward the cabin, Alevy beside him. Alevy said, “At least she listens to you. She never listened to me.”
    Hollis didn’t reply. The sound of gunfire was closer now, and Hollis could see green tracer rounds streaking through the woods, though most of them were impacting in the trees.
    Hollis and Alevy sprinted the short distance to the open door of the cabin and dove onto the floor. Brennan said, “There are a lot more of them now. They’ve fanned out into the woods and are moving tree to tree. They’re playing it cautious, but they’ll be here in about ten minutes.” Brennan added, “If they break out of the tree line over there by the clearing and see the chopper, we have a problem.”
    Alevy nodded. “We have to slow them up a little.” He grabbed an AK-47, poked the muzzle through a window, and fired long bursts into the nearby trees until the thirty rounds were expended.
    The firing from the woods slackened for a few seconds as the Border Guards took cover. When the firing picked up again, Hollis