47 Echo by Shawn Kupfer Page A

cleared.
    “Well…that’s about the most awful thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Nick said, resisting the urge to turn and vomit.
    If Andrevich was bothered by the corpse at all, he certainly didn’t show it. He grabbed the corpse by the shoulder with one gloved hand and pulled it from the seat, the body’s melted polyester uniform peeling away as Andrevich tossed the body out onto the road.
    “Look at the inside of this thing. My, my. So many fancy toys.” Andrevich smirked.
    Nick had to admit that Andrevich was correct, and looking at the inside of the CDM was the easiest way to avoid staring at the barbecued corpse on the asphalt behind them. There was, unfortunately, no way to ignore the smell.
    The pilot’s cabin was small, just enough room to turn the chair around, and mounted at the very back of the vehicle. Every available surface was crowded with flatscreens, buttons, and lights. An assault rifle was strapped to the cabin’s low ceiling, and Nick took it down.
    “The Chinamen, they have nice guns, eh?” Andrevich chuckled.
    “That they do.”
    “Where are you stationed, Second-in-Command Morrow?”
    “We’re out of Justice at the moment.”
    “There’s a friend of mine at Justice. A Major Harrison, used to work in Intelligence. You think he’d be able to do something with this?”
    “I’m sure he’d like to try.”
    “Then I suggest you take as much of it back as you can carry.”
    “Agreed. Anthony! Kenneth! I want you two to tear as much of the tech out of this thing as you can! You’ve got one hour, so work fast. The rest of you, we’re going over the Cougar to see how bad the damage is.”
    “We’ll stick here to help you out. Anything we can do, you just ask.” Andrevich grinned.
    “Thanks, sir. I’m sure we’ll take you up on it.”
    Christopher and the rest of the Echoes started to walk around the Cougar, inspecting the damage. With a passing nod to Andrevich, Nick joined the rest of his crew at the Cougar. He walked up to Christopher and put a hand on his shoulder.
    “Chris. The Russians. Do what you do,” Nick muttered.
    “On it, boss.” Christopher smirked.
    Peter walked up next to Nick as they checked out the passenger side of the Cougar, which looked like a dented tin can. Nick paused over the rear tire on the passenger side. It was completely shredded.
    “Hey, Nick,” Peter started.
    “Yeah?”
    “I thought we were fighting the Russians, man.”
    “Some of ‘em. When the Chinese declared war, about half of the Russian Army decided to side with them. The other half decided not to.” Nick shrugged. “So in addition to fighting the Chinese and the North Koreans, we’re in the middle of a Russian civil war.”
    “Why would the Russians want to side with the Chinks?”
    “Look at your history, kiddo. Russia was Communist for a long time, and there are still a lot of hard-liners around. They’d jump at the chance to go Commie again.”
    “So how can we be sure these Russians are on our side?”
    “I’d say the fact that they toasted that CDM puts them in our camp.” Nick lowered his voice. “But don’t worry. We’re keeping an eye on them.”
    Peter looked over at the Russian tank crews, who were laughing with Christopher over by their parked vehicles. A quick count showed that the Russians outnumbered the Echoes four to one. He shook his head. “Man, I sure hope so.”

Chapter 10
Seeing Red
    The Cougar limped back to the pickup zone, and from the rattling in its engine, it wouldn’t be worth salvaging. Andrevich was kind enough to provide two of his tanks as escorts, as the Cougar had lost its only weapon running from the Chinese.
    At 5:15 a.m., Nick tried to raise the Chinook. “Phantom 1-1, this is Cougar 4-7 Echo.”
    “Go for Phantom 1-1,” the response crackled back.
    “We are standing by at the pickup zone.”
    “Roger that. Your transmission is extremely weak.”
    “We’ve taken a lot of damage. Cougar’s probably a