s.h.i.t. s.h.i.t. Nathan had nothing to fire at, not that he would shoot if he did. What could he do? He could only think of one way to proceed. To know for sure whom he was taking down. He dropped the rifle, pulled the serrated combat knife from the sheath on his belt, and began clawing his way up the riverbank.

He stayed quiet when he reached the top, listening for signs of struggle. Nothing. He was edging forward with the knife held in front of him when a pair of strong hands grabbed his wrist, immobilizing the knife, while another pair wrestled him to the ground from behind.

"Nathan!" said a vaguely familiar voice. "G.o.d d.a.m.n it, Nathan. Chill the f.u.c.k out. We're on your side. Keira and Owen are fine."

"Where are they?" he said, fighting to shake free. "Who are you?"

"It's Sergeant Graves. I'm kind of hurt you didn't recognize my voice."

It all came back to him in an instant. Graves had operated the armored vehicle's countermeasures systems when they had been attacked by Cerberus on Interstate 8.

"I remember," said Nathan, letting go of the knife.

The grip on his hand released as soon as the knife hit the ground.

"Where are Keira and Owen?"

"They're close," said Graves, pulling Nathan to his feet. "We didn't know how you'd react, so we kept them quiet."

Nathan sat up. "You could have just announced your presence. Would have been a whole lot easier."

"We could barely see your outline with the thermals. Cantrell didn't want to risk the possibility of you shooting first and asking questions later."

"Staff Sergeant Cantrell? He's here, too?"

"At your service," announced a nearby voice. "I have your wife and son right here."

"I can't see any of you," said Nathan.

Someone b.u.mped into him.

"Dad?"

"Hey, buddy. You had me worried there for a minute."

"I thought Mom was dead," said his son. "I thought you were dead, too."

He grabbed Owen and hugged him. "We're fine, Owen. Just like I promised." He felt Keira's arm on their son's shoulder. Nathan pulled her in tight and held both of them for a few moments.

"You all right?" he whispered in her ear.

"As long as we don't have to get back into that SUV."

"I had something a little more robust in mind," said Cantrell. "Let's get you and your family inside my vehicle. David should be there already."

"Clean air?" said Keira.

"Purified. Filtered. Smells like the mountains," said Cantrell.

"Sounds good to me," she said.

They started back, following the spotlight like a beacon.

"Staff Sergeant," said Nathan. "How did you find us?"

"A little birdie told us you took a detour."

"You have an informant in one of the SUVs?" said Keira.

"No. Nothing like that. I can't really talk about it," said the Marine.

"Did you come through Wikieup?" said Nathan.

"You didn't hear us?"

"Jesus," replied Nathan. "Sounded like a small war going on out there."

"That's just what it was. The cartel had at least fifty guys out there waiting for you with RPGs, heavy machine guns-all kinds of crazy s.h.i.t. Everything but thermal-imaging scopes. We put them down pretty quick."

"Good," said Owen.

"We'll drive through again and mop up anyone that survived the first pa.s.s. You're welcome to control the gun turret, Owen. Just like a video game," said Graves from somewhere to their immediate left.

"Yeah. That's not going to happen," said Keira.

Interestingly, their son didn't protest.

"You all right, bud?" said Nathan, squeezing his hand.

"I just want to go home," said Owen in a quiet voice.

"Me, too," said Nathan. "When we get to Las Vegas, we'll work on finding a new home."

"I don't want a new home."

"I know, sweetie," said Keira. "But we can't go back to California right now. We'll make our new home big enough for Grandma and Grandpa. How does that sound?"

"And a pool," added Nathan.

CHAPTER 60.

David crouched in the rear compartment of the Marine armored vehicle, leaning against one of the automated harness systems and taking deep breaths of the purified air, forcing it out of his nose to clear his nasal pa.s.sages. The effort was futile. He'd taste this dust for days.

"Good to see you again, Captain!" yelled Corporal Reading.

He was seated in the vehicle systems operator position, behind the driver, operating the turret remotely with a joystick. The center screen embedded in the back of the driver's seat displayed a slowly panning thermal image of their surroundings. No wonder they'd been able to find Nathan so easily. They had probably tracked him with thermal imagery all the way to the river.

"Back at you, Reading," said David. "What have you been up to for the past few days?"

"The usual. Riding around the desert."

"Did you get Artigas back to his family?"

Artigas had been killed during the ambush along Interstate 8 a few nights ago. A 50-caliber sniper bullet had essentially decapitated him, dropping his headless body into the AL-TAC during the ferocious firefight that followed their crash.

"We got him on a plane back to Pendleton before the battalion towed a new vehicle out to Yuma. They sent us out right away."

The Enhanced Counterinsurgency Platoon had lost a third of its Marines in the ambush on Interstate 8. They were one of the tightest groups of Marines that David had ever served with. The archetypal band of brothers. He'd been too distracted with Alison's death to properly absorb the greater impact of the night's loss on the platoon.

"Sorry about Arty," he said. He was sorry about all of them. "Is this the rest of the platoon?"

"No," said Reading. "We got absorbed into the rest of the company. Cantrell kept me and Graves together."

"And decided to babysit your a.s.ses, too," said David.

"s.h.i.t. You gotta keep a close eye on Graves, man. He's all shifty down there, looking at his screens."

"He's a shifty mother, that's for sure," said David. "I heard he's mean on the remote trigger, though."

"Aww . . . you didn't, sir," said Reading. "You didn't go there."

"Just repeating what I heard. I'm sure the Marine Corps isn't planning on outsourcing the turret gunner job."

"I can't shoot what I can't see. They need to give me some thermal imaging up here."

"I don't know. Sounds like they outsourced you already," said David.

David was back in his element-where he truly felt he had always belonged. The temptation to stay here was overwhelming. The Marine Corps had been his calling, until a 50-caliber sniper bullet had altered his life by taking Alison's.

The rear hatch mechanism clanged, activating a series of powerful blowers. When the door swung open, most of the sand and debris was blown clear of the opening.

Nathan helped Keira and Owen into the cramped compartment, lifting himself inside behind them. Staff Sergeant Cantrell poked his head in through the hatch.

"Captain Quinn, I need to debrief you before we head out," he said, disappearing into the darkness.

That didn't sound good. He wasn't sure why, but it felt contrived to pa.s.s muster in front of the Fishers.

"Be right back," said David. "I hear the Fisher kid is pretty good at video games. He might be in compet.i.tion for the turret job, too."

"A young Marine in training! I can live with that!" said Reading.

"He's not going up in that turret," said Keira.

"I was just kidding," said David, squeezing by Nathan and his family.

When David dropped to the road behind the AL-TAC, he shut the rear hatch and pulled the locking mechanism down to reactivate the cabin's pressurization system. He wished he could see the look on Keira's face when she took her first breath of purified air. She had been on the verge of a complete meltdown in the SUV. The rest of them hadn't been too far behind her.

"Staff Sergeant?" he yelled, edging around the vehicle.

"Right here," said Cantrell, activating a flashlight a few feet away from him. "I have Second Lieutenant Gedmin with me. We're part of First Platoon now."

A second light pierced the sandstorm, illuminating Jason Gedmin's face.

"Hey, Jason. You inherited some s.h.i.t-hot Marines," said David.

"They keep reminding me," said Gedmin.

"They tend to do that. Might be their only flaw."

"It's good to see you, David. Details were kind of sketchy about what happened on the way to Yuma," said Gedmin. "I'm really sorry about Alison."

David sensed a hesitation. Like Jason, he wanted to say more. He didn't want to go down that road every time he talked with one of the Marines. It wouldn't be healthy for him right now.

"Thank you," said David, hoping that would be the end of it.

"David," said Gedmin, "Staff Sergeant Cantrell made an observation while bringing Mr. Fisher and his family back from the river."

"Yeah?"

"I don't know how to say this without sounding callous."

"We're well past the point of pulling any punches here," said David. "What is it?"

"He doesn't know that his father is dead," said Gedmin.

David was pretty sure he'd misheard the lieutenant's statement. Whether it was the last thing he expected to hear, or it simply didn't make sense given the recent call to his own father, Gedmin's words skipped by without making an impact.

"What was that?" said David.

"Colonel Smith called the lieutenant over satcom about ninety minutes ago and told him that Nathan's dad had been killed. That's how we found you. Your dad called Major General Nichols to let him know that you'd be out this way. He told Nichols the bad news at some point. n.o.body was sure if you or Nathan knew. Apparently not. Nathan thinks he's meeting up with his dad in Vegas."

"Are you sure? I talked to my dad about two hours ago," said David. "He didn't say anything."

"Colonel Smith was very specific about the details," said Gedmin. "Nathan's father was killed in Missoula at a friend's town house. Your dad and brother-in-law killed the team responsible for his death. Nathan's mom is safe."

"That's why they were late getting out of Missoula," muttered David.

"Smith diverted us from the Lake Havasu area toward Highway 93. He even used one our ELINT drones to find you. They picked up a conversation over an encrypted handheld frequency that led us here. Just so happens the quickest way to 93 was through Wikieup. Bad news for the cartel. Good news for you."

"Yeah," muttered David. "Good news and bad news."

"Sorry," said Gedmin.