Powder slipped on his combat helmet and adjusted his throat mike, listening to Liu’s deep breaths while staring at the IR screen.

“What’s up?” asked Bison, coming on a dead run.

“Sshhh!” Powder motioned him to the gear. “Number two. Cover us.”

“Powder! Yo—”

Bison obviously didn’t want to be left out of the party, but that was tough nuggies as far as Powder was concerned. He trotted to the north side of the hill, opposite RAZOR’S EDGE

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from the angle Liu was taking. He had a little trouble with the rocks, climbing across a sheer cliff for about fifteen feet and losing his sense of direction momentarily. But the starlight mode of the smart helmet projected a compass heading at the bottom right-hand corner, along with GPS readings; he got himself straightened out and then began picking his way down toward the trail. He had the path in sight and his M-4 ready when Liu hissed that their subjects had stopped.

“You’re about fifty yards above them,” said Bison, watching from the sentry post. “It’s just two. They may be setting up weapons.”

“If it’s a fucking mortar, we better hit ’em quick,” said Powder. He loaded a grenade into his launcher but moved his finger back to the rifle trigger. “Go for it, Nurse!” He jumped forward, balancing himself with his gun and yelling a war hoop. He nearly tripped as his feet hit the rutted but clear path. Liu shouted something and Powder saw a blur of images in his visor screen, everything blurring. He pointed the nose of his gun upward, crosshairs bouncing as he ran.

He saw three figures, Liu to the right—marked by a fluorescent “good guy” triangle transmitted by the smart helmet—and two to the left, one lurching toward him.

“Get down! Get down!” yelled Powder, sliding to his knee to steady his aim, cursing himself that he’d left his buddy vulnerable, cursing himself for getting Nurse killed.

“Wait! Wait!” yelled Liu. “Hold your fire! Hold your fire!”

The figure closest to Liu slid backward then collapsed to the ground. Liu dropped down beside him.

Her. It was a woman.

A pregnant woman.

“What the hell’s going on?” demanded Bison.

“Yo—Nurse, Powder. We got you covered!” shouted 152

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Hernandez. His voice was so loud Powder thought his eardrums would break.

“She’s pregnant, real pregnant,” said Liu. “Somebody get me a medical kit! Fast. Real, real fast.”

Powder put his weapon on safety as he walked forward. A thin, worried-looking man stood to the side of Liu and the woman, gesticulating wildly. He held his hands out at Powder and started talking a mile a minute.

“Yeah, listen, I don’t speak what you speak, but I’m on the same wavelength,” Powder told him. “My man Liu’s gonna help. He’s the best.” He pushed his visor up. Even in the darkness the poor husband looked scared shitless.

“Hey, this is a natural thing, right?” he said to the man.

“Happens every day.”

The woman on the ground moaned loudly.

“Where the hell is that medical kit!” yelled Powder.

“Hernandez! Bison! Come on! Get on the ball here!”

Hernandez came down the path in a dead run. “What’s the story?”

“Pregnant lady. See if Liu needs help while I check the road.”

“No way. You help Liu, I’ll check the road.” Bison raced down the hill before Powder could stop him.

“Wimp,” he said.

“Wimp yourself,” said Liu over the com set.

“How we doing, Nurse?” asked Powder, walking over to his partner.

The answer came from the woman on the ground, who screamed louder than an air raid siren. Liu reached down and cleared her feet apart, exposing everything to the air.

Nurse had his armored vest, helmet, and other gear off, his sleeves rolled. His hands moved gently across the woman’s stomach. As Nurse put his ear down toward her belly, the woman screamed again.

“Jesus,” said Powder. “Can we move her?”

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“Too late for that,” said Nurse. “Come here and hold her legs.”

“What?”

“Now!”

Powder took a tentative step forward, but as he started to crouch down, the woman screamed again—and this time even louder.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” yelled Powder, jumping back.

“Shut the hell up, Powder,” said Captain Freah, walking down the hill. “Nurse, you got a handle on this?”

“Baby’s turned around, Captain. This isn’t going to be easy.”

“What are you saying?”

“Breech birth. Kid’s backward. Supposed to come head first.”

“You sure?”

Nurse didn’t answer. “I need that medical kit, ASAP.

And towels.”

“Should we boil water or something?” asked Powder.

“You did take medical training, right?” asked Liu.

“You are a certified paramedic, right?”

“Man, I do not remember anything on birth. No birth.

Nope. Not once.”

“How close is she?” asked Captain Freah.

“If the kid wasn’t turned around, I’d say she’d be ready any second,” said Liu. “The contractions are two minutes apart. Here’s the thing—”

The woman screamed again. Her husband dug his nails into Powder’s arm. The sergeant tried to reassure him, though it was hard to tell if this had any effect.

“Go ahead,” Danny told Liu.

“Captain, this is what they invented C-sections for.”

“What do you mean? You have to cut her open?”

“No way, not here, not me. That’ll kill her for sure.”

“Call for evac?”

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“No time. This kid is coming out now, butt first, or they’re both dying. It’s a squirmy little SOB; gotta be a boy. It’s tiny, so maybe he’ll slide out if she’s strong enough to push. I need to keep the kid warm, very warm, so it doesn’t breathe inside the mother until it’s out.

Shit—I’ve only heard about this, I’ve never seen it done.”

“If we don’t do anything, she’ll die anyway,” said Freah. His voice was calm, almost cold. He took off his vest and then pulled off his shirt and gave it to Liu. “Get some of the chemical hand warmers down here, blankets, everything we got to generate heat,” he said into his com set.

Within ten minutes the Whiplash team had a small tent erected around the woman. A portable kerosene heater had been hauled down from one of the tents above; sweat flowed freely. As the woman’s screams grew more desperate, Freah suggested they give the woman morphine, but Liu said that would affect the baby. Besides, he needed her conscious to help push.

All of a sudden, Powder realized the woman had stopped screaming. He looked down at her; she had closed her eyes.

“Liu! Did she die?”

“Transition,” said Liu, who was stripped to the waist.

He had his hands over a soft shirt and blanket between the woman’s legs. “Her body’s taking a rest before the real work. What I’m thinking is, when she’s ready to push, we stand her up.”

“Stand her up?” asked Freah.

“Yeah. Gravity’ll help.”

The woman moaned.

“Already?” Liu said, looking at her. He doubted if she understood a word of English, but she nodded anyway.

“Okay. Powder, Captain, an arm apiece. Hernandez, you hold her behind.”

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“God,” said Freah.

“We got to try,” said Liu. “I know it’s a long shot.”

“Screw that horseshit,” said Powder, hoisting the poor woman up over his shoulder. “We are going to do this! Yo, husband, you get back here with Hernandez. Let’s do it.”

“You heard him,” said Danny.

“Push!” yelled Liu.

The woman groaned.

“Push!” yelled Liu again, moving his hands below her waist, trying to coax the baby’s rear end through the tiny birth hole.

“Argh!” said the woman, leaning forward and down so hard she nearly toppled Powder and Danny.

“Push!” yelled Powder and Danny and Liu.