Shadow Men – 16 – Rafe and Steele

Steele shot awake and instinctively reached for his gun. Rafe sat up quickly, looked at Steele, nodded, and pulled his own gun from its holster at the back of his waist. As he did he realized he'd slept with it and for a second wondered if he'd have a sore back as a result. Not that sleeping on the cold, hard cave floor hadn't given him one anyway.

Steele inched his way to the cave entrance, glad that the bright morning sun would keep anyone from seeing past the bushes into the darkness of the cave. As his eyes adjusted to the light he saw what had awakened him. Two men in camouflage gear stood several yards down the slope from him. One held a pair of binoculars to his eyes as he scanned the area. Steele froze as the man slowly turned to face the rock wall that held the cave. For a moment the man's movements paused as he seemed to focus on where Steele stood and then he continued his search.

"Think they're the only ones?" Rafe whispered, his lips a fraction of an inch from Steele's ear.

"Probably," Steele whispered back. "But I'm not willing to take that chance. We'll wait it out." He moved to the back of the cave where Rafe joined him. Still whispering, Steele asked, "How's your leg?"

"Better. It doesn't hurt as much. Now my back…" Rafe chuckled quietly.

"Know what you mean." Steele touched his toes several times and did a few knee bends. Rafe did the same, wincing when pain flared in his thigh. Soon enough, however, it went back to a dull ache, which he could deal with.

Steele returned to the cave's entrance. From what he could see the two men were gone but no way was he willing to take a chance and leave just yet. He turned to find Rafe right behind him. Rafe cocked an eyebrow, to which Steele shook his head. It was just as well that they hadn't spoken because the sharp crack of a twig breaking beneath someone's foot said their hunters hadn't left after all. In point of fact, from the sound of it they were very close to the cave. Too close. Steele pointed to one side of the entrance and Rafe moved there, his gun holstered now and knives in both hands.

As they waited Steele attached the silencer to his gun then gripped it in one hand. In his other he held the long, slender chain that usually hung around his neck. A small but heavy steel ball weighted one end.

Steele looked down, saw a stone by his feet, and kicked it so that it flew from the cave to land with a soft plop a few feet down the slope. He heard a sharp intake of breath just a couple of feet away before silence reigned again. Amateur, he thought with a tiny smile of triumph.

A shadow darkened the cave entrance. Seconds later a man stepped into view to lay down a spray of bullets from his assault rifle. Steele hissed as a bullet ricocheted off the cave wall to scour a trail across his bicep.

Rafe took advantage of Steele's hiss, and the attacker's momentary hesitation as he tried to locate him. He lashed out, the blade of his knife severing veins and tendons in the man's wrist before it hit bone. The man immediately whirled to face him, obviously in extreme pain but unwilling to let that stop him. Rafe dropped down to one knee and thrust up with his other blade just as the man squeezed the rifle's trigger. Bullets showered the wall behind Rafe, shards of rock hitting bare skin like needle points. Then man and gun hit the cave floor. Before the man could react to the continued twists of the knife in his gut, Rafe removed it to slit his throat.

Meanwhile, Steele was dealing with a second man who had appeared moments after the first one. Steele swung his chain so that it wrapped around the man's forearm and yanked hard enough to swing the man around to face him. He pressed his silenced pistol under the man's chin and fired.

"Damned fucking amateurs," Steele growled as he looked down at his fallen prey. "Where the hell is he finding them?"

"Got me," Rafe responded. He wiped a hand over the back of his neck to get rid of the tiny bits of rock lodged there. Then he saw Steele's blood soaked shirt sleeve and immediately went into EMT mode. "Sit and let me look at that," he ordered.

"Not 'til we're sure it was only a two-man team," Steele told him as he retrieved his chain.

Rafe nodded, stepped to the entrance, and barked in surprise when Steele yanked him back. "Damn," Rafe said sharply, "how else are we going to know?"

"I swear you're either stupid or insane," was Steele's terse response.

Rafe smirked, still on an adrenaline high. "I just want to get out of here and find a real bed to share with a good man." He winked at Steele.

Steele shook his head and moved much more cautiously than Rafe had to look outside. All seemed still but he wasn't reassured until he heard the chirp of some crickets and a bird's song echoed by a second one. "Now we can move," he said. He retrieved their backpacks and gave Rafe his.

Rafe dug into it to take out his small first-aid kit. Then, despite Steele's protests, he made him remove his shirt long enough to ensure that it was just a flesh wound, which he then covered liberally with antibiotic cream and bandaged. "Now we can leave."