Read Gears of War: Anvil Gate for Free Online Page B

you’re okay?”
    “I’ll wet my pants and cry later.” Bernie suspected she might well do at least one of those, but the operative word was
later
. Right now she took a strange comfort from the fact that she could still handle it. She was scared shitless and in shock, but the hardwiring created by years of drill pushed that aside and went straight into a defensive routine. “Let’s call a cab. If we start walking, we’ll get picked off or hit another mine.”
    She had to assume that. The words were out of her mouth before she remembered that she had to leave more decisions to Anya.
Never mind. Either way, she learns
. Anya pressed her finger to her earpiece, her voice just a little shaky.
    “Control, this is P-Twelve. Control, come in. This is P-Twelve. We’ve been hit, position grid six-delta, main road—”
    “P-Twelve, we’ve got you,” Mathieson said. “We’re scrambling a bird.”
    “No hostiles spotted, but we might be bait.”
    “Understood. Injuries?”
    “We’re both T-three.” Not in immediate danger—and if either of them was bleeding internally, they were too pumped on adrenaline and shock to feel it. “The Packhorse is wrecked.”
    “P-Twelve, I’m diverting another squad to Byrne’s position. Wait one.”
    Bernie edged around the rear of the vehicle, head level with the burst nearside tire. There was a ragged crater about thirty meters behind them. One side of the road had been ripped up, and lumps of concrete were scattered around. It was a smaller hole than she expected.
    Shit, we drove over it. Or we hit it and it threw us forward. A few seconds—that’s all that saved us
.
    That reality would sink in later. The tailgate of the Packhorse looked like someone had hosed it with random caliber rounds. The front end was just mangled by the hard landing, still hissing hot, rusty water from the broken radiator. The vehicle’s tail had taken the blast. Whatever the device had been, it had detonated late. And it had been planted since yesterday’s patrol. It was hard to spot disturbed soil out here because of the thick vegetation that flanked the roads.
    Astonishingly, Mac was wandering about, sniffing the churned soil around the vehicle and looking none the worse for his experience.
    A fresh trail for the dog. Shit, now would be the best time to track these bastards
.
    “You don’t look too good, Bernie,” Anya said. “You sure nothing’s broken?”
    “I hit my head. I can use that as an excuse for being cranky for days.” Bernie had had more than a few close calls with ordnance over the years. Doc Hayman said an explosion didn’t have to kill you or even knock you out to do brain damage. “I really should get the dog on the trail. It’s less than a day old.”
    “You’re going straight to triage,” Anya said firmly. “And that’s an order.”
    Bernie suddenly felt that tracking these bastards was more important than anything. Mac seemed okay. And if she had any brain damage, there wasn’t much Doc Hayman could do about it. They had no state-of-the-art neurology unit. The COG had just lost a century in technology terms.
    She could hear the clicking of cooling metal, so at least the blast hadn’t deafened her. Eventually it gave way to a distant droning sound overlaid with the chatter of rotor blades. The Raven was coming.
    “Two explosive devices today,” Anya said, still scanning trees a couple of hundred meters away. “You think they’ve got a new strategy?”
    “If they have,” Bernie said, “I’d love to know how they’re being resupplied.”
    “P-Twelve, this is Byrne.” Sam’s voice buzzed in Bernie’s earpiece. “Rossi’s in position. You’re going to miss the party.”
    Bernie supposed that was Sam’s way of checking they were still okay. “Sorry for the no-show. I’m sure we’ll get another chance to have a girls’ day out with extreme violence.”
    Mac paused in his investigation of the soil and stared out across the grassland into the