"Olshaker, Mark - Unnatural Causes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Olshaker Mark)

of the mangrove swamps. His knees buckled. He stumbled and struggled
to keep his balance. After a while his shoulder went numb, and he began
to feel light-headed from loss of blood. But the ground was getting
gradually more solid.

Then something whizzed by his head and struck a tree. Another. Bullets.
AK-47 rounds. The Cong had found them.

No chance to duck. He'd have to run for it-dart between the trees on
the firm ground. Don't give Charley a steady trail.

He ran with all his might, trying to cushion McNeely from the shock as
best he could. His chest heaved from the exertion. His heart tried to
break out of his rib cage. The shots kept whistling by him. Closer and
closer.

Then he saw it. Like a vision out of the Bible. The landing zone. A
packed-earth clearing in the midst of this green ooze, just like
reconnaissance said it would be. The chopper was there waiting, its
rotors turning, its door gunners poised for attack.

As soon as Thorpe reached the clearing he saw Hugh Stanway emerge from
the chopper and run toward him. A medic came out and took McNeely from
his shoulders. Thorpe collapsed in Stanway's powerful arms as the door
gunners laid down covering fire. Within seconds they were airborne.

They laid McNeely out on the floor, and the medic felt his neck for his
carotid pulse. He placed his cheek right next to McNeely's nose and
mouth and held rigidly still.

"How is he?" Thorpe demanded.

The medic only shook his head.

It couldn't be. He couldn't be dead. Thorpe's mind was whirling. It
was a clean amputation. He had stopped the bleeding. What had he done
wrong?

The medic turned McNeely on his side. "This guy saved your life," he
said to Thorpe.

"What ... how?"

The medic pointed to a small hole slightly below McNeely's shoulder
blades. "If you hadn't had him on your back, you'd have taken that
bullet."

The drumming whir of the chopper blades rang in Brian Thorpe's ears as
he allowed himself the luxury of unconsciousness.