Everyone heard the wounded German's shout, and ducked instinctively. Troy turned to Moffitt.
"What's he saying?" A harsh, maniacal laughter echoed and rebounded from the walls of the canyon.
"Someone has a grenade, sergeant. And I'll give you one guess as to whom." Dietrich recovered and straightened up.
"Dietrich, get down."
"It's no use, sergeant. We are cornered, rather effectively."
"Yes, yes. Listen to the captain, great rat warrior. You are trapped, and you will die." Troy couldn't see Abu, but he knew he was smiling. He leaned closer to Dietrich.
"Can you see him?"
"My man was pointing over there." Dietrich nodded at the base of a jutting cliff further in the canyon.
"Oh, no, great Captain." Abu taunted. "You are mistaken. I am up here!" A lank, ragged figure stood on a thin shelf 20, or 30 feet high. Cold light illuminated his movements, but not him. In one hand he brandished a small black object.
"Sarge!" Hitch called in an urgent whisper. "That's the explosive I found in the jeep. He's armed it to detonate like a grenade." You could feel the words as they sank in. Troy licked his lips.
"Gonna come down from there, Abu? Or do we need to shoot." A hideous cackle from the dark form.
"The sergeant thinks I am foolish. No, if you shoot, it will still go off. You will not take that chance." Dietrich fought to keep from laughing when he heard Troy swear.
"It seems even though he is insane, he is not stupid."
"Yeah, and that makes him twice as dangerous." Troy shot back. Moffitt called up the cliff.
"Abu! Where is your friend? The one who hit me." This enraged the unstable man, and he began shouting threats and curses in his own tongue. Which confused Moffitt greatly.
"He is in the dirt, where he belongs. I killed him; with my own hands. He was not worthy to be my brother. He had to die!!" He shrieked.
"What is it you want, Abu??" Troy shouted in a panic to distract Abu from the grenade. "Money? A medal? To curry favor with a side?"
"I want you all DEAD!! Like the other soldiers, like my brother. Like ME!!!" He sobbed his last words, and stopped. A low chuckle steeped the air.
All the men felt a horror as they listened to the chuckle morph into hysterical laughter.
Abu pulled the pin of his grenade.
He reached back to lob it at the canyon floor. A crunching crack, and Abu's hideous scream as he plunged earthward. The ledge gave under his sudden movement and sent him crashing to the ground. Bouncing him off jutting rocks with merciless fury.
He hit the dirt with a sickening thump. A single low moan escaped him, then nothing. Moffitt started toward the body. Hitch grabbed him.
"Sarge, he armed that thing before he fell! No telling when it'll blow."
A minute dragged by, and still no explosion.
"I'm going." Moffitt announced. Before he could be stopped, he marched over and examined the body.
"It's alright. He's still got it." The others were there in a heartbeat.
"How?? I saw him pull the pin with my own eyes." Moffitt pointed at the grenade, still clutched firmly in Abu's hand.
"He never let go of the clamp during his fall. He saved our lives."
"A life of betrayal." Dietrich observed. "He betrayed the allies. Then the Germans. Then his own brother. Then himself."
They could all see his features quite plainly, now. His usual, saccharine grin was gone. He stared at the moon with black hatred and pain. On his chest, stark against the colors of his robe, Dietrich's handprint, in Naraheem's blood.
"You almost pity the lowlife." Tully drawled.
Hitch squatted and wordlessly disarmed the homemade grenade. He left it in the dead man's hand.
Troy stared into the vindictive face.
"It's time to go."