Course of Action: Out of Harm's Way / Any Time, Any Place. Merline Lovelace

      Chapter 2

      Travis hissed a curse as he saw six riders coming right around the slope of a mountain. It was barely dawn, grayness tinging the mountain peaks above him. He used the Nightforce scope on his sniper rifle and counted five Taliban riders guarding someone in the center. That had to be Madison Duncan, but he couldn’t positively identify her with a black hood over her head. His eyes narrowed as he watched the horses moving at a swift trot. They were only three miles from the border. He spoke into his radio transmitter.

      “Raven Main, Raven Actual. I have the package in my sights.”

      “Roger. You are authorized to take action.”

      Dammit, this was not going to be easy. Travis moved his scope, checking out the ground between him and the enemy. The Taliban were smart in remaining near the slopes. There was one piece of flat and open land where he could take his shots. Already, he had two more mags of three bullets each beside his left hand. He had to take out five men.

      His lips lifted away from his teeth as the group turned in his direction. The woman’s horse had its reins tied to the back of a Taliban soldier’s saddle. That was not good. The possibility of the horse bolting, frightened and wild-eyed, as he started taking his shots, was very real. And with Madison Duncan helpless, there was no way she could jump off even if she wanted to. He saw the rope beneath the horse’s belly, saw her ankles tied to each end of it. Sonofabitch. Travis quickly painted a verbal picture for his master chief.

      His heart slowed down because he willed it. Snipers could control their bodies like no one else could. His finger brushed the two-pound trigger on the Win Mag he had shoved against his right shoulder and pressed tight to his cheek. This didn’t look good for the American woman. There was a good possibility that when he shot the rider and he fell off, the horse would leap and run away.

      His only recourse was to put a bullet in the head of the fleeing horse to drop it. And when it collapsed, Madison’s horse would more than likely plough into it. The belly rope around her ankles would stop her from being hurled over its head. Madison had no way to safely dismount and would very likely be crushed beneath that thousand-pound horse she rode. These were problems Travis had not expected. No one had. It put her at real risk.

      His mind moved at the speed of light. There was little wind this time of morning, which was a plus. The light was getting brighter, and he could now see the group clearly through his sights. Which one to take out first, second, third? He tried to guess what the soldiers would do once they saw one of their friends lifted out of the saddle and punched six feet backward, dead before he hit the ground. The bullets were supersonic, moving faster than the speed of sound. The boom of the Win Mag would follow. That gave Travis time to pump more bullets into the targets before he had to drop the empty mag and slap another one into his rifle. By then, all bets were off. It would come down to the element of surprise and him shooting fast enough so that none of the soldiers could shoot Madison Duncan, once they knew they were under attack. And shoot her they would.

      His other concern was that his Win Mag did not have a muzzle suppressor. If one of the soldiers saw the flash of his rifle being fired, they would target him. Travis had no problem with that, but he worried more that the soldiers would scatter to minimize the chances of the rest of them being killed.

      This wasn’t going to be easy at all. He’d hoped they’d tie her hands in front of her. Hoped they wouldn’t have put a bag over her head. For a moment, he wondered how much pain she was in, knowing she’d been captured ten hours earlier. She was probably frightened out of her skull. If she got injured, there was no medevac flying in to take her out. It was simply too dangerous for a helo and its four-person crew to come anywhere near this area right now. So it all fell on Travis’s shoulders.

      He watched the group move straight toward him. They would be across the half mile of open, flat ground shortly. It would be there that he’d take them down.

      Travis was under cover five hundred feet above them, well hidden in the scree, lying prone on his belly. He kept his ruck beside him. His heartbeat slowed even more. His first target would be the rider who had Madison Duncan’s horse in tow. Watching the Taliban spread out more, he smiled a little. These would be one-thousand-yard shots, easy enough to accomplish with the Win Mag. Travis set the dials on the rifle and settled in. There was a point where a person’s breath stopped. It was called the still point, a magical half second lull between the inhale and the exhale. And that was the point where a sniper would shoot.

      His finger brushed the trigger. The boom of the rifle jerked and rippled all the way through his body. He didn’t even wait to see if the bullet hit his target, moving to the second and third horsemen. By the time he released the spent mag and slapped in the next one, Travis was settled and situated. He was minimally aware of men flying off their horses. He couldn’t hear anything at this distance, but he saw one horse rear up and then turn to gallop off. Quickly, he sighted on the other two soldiers who were now looking around, fear etched in their faces.

      Too late, you bastards. You’re going straight to hell.... And he took the fourth and fifth shots.

      Travis leaped to his feet, leaving his rifle behind, jerking the 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol out of his drop holster and hurtled down the scree. Below, five men lay unmoving. The horses, thank God, startled and upset, had moved together, circling one another, wild-eyed. He hit the flat plain and ran hard toward the milling group of anxious horses. He kept his eyes on Madison Duncan who was sitting very still on her horse. She was doing the right thing, Travis thought, pulling up his Sig as he approached the carnage.

      His gaze moved swiftly to each of the soldiers. None of them moved. He crooned softly to the horses, walking slowly toward them. The animals milled, snorting, their ears moving back and forth in fear. Okay, the soldiers were all dead. He holstered his pistol and approached to within six feet of the first horse.

      “Ma’am?” he called, “I’m Travis Cooper, U.S. Navy. I’m here to rescue you. If you can just sit very still until I can get my hands on the reins of the horse, that would be helpful. Don’t talk. Don’t move. Just slowly nod your head once if you understand me.”

      Madison quivered violently, unable to see anything. The soldiers had put the hood back on her head but they hadn’t gagged her. Sweat had covered her as she’d heard men screaming, then nothing. The horses had become frightened. When she’d first heard the loud, booming sound, she knew it was a rifle, but she couldn’t see anything! The man’s Texas drawl brought down her fear just a notch. Her shoulders were still numb. She slowly moved her head forward as he’d requested.

      The horse she rode snorted. She could feel the animal tense. Oh, God. Who was this man? Definitely American. Her mouth was dry and she wanted to see him.

      Madison sat quietly. She heard his voice again, a soft sing-song as he came closer. Her horse snorted and moved sideways.

      “Easy, easy, son,” Travis crooned, not meeting the horse’s eyes, knowing that would threaten him. He approached the horse from the side and slowly eased his hand toward the animal’s sweaty, glistening neck. The horses had been ridden hard and ruthlessly. Their nostrils were