I held my gun nervously.
Cannon's lips were slashed in a thin line of concentration.
I'm not afraid of heights, you can't be as an agent, but the ice and the snow and the cold wind was getting to me.
Oh, that and the fact I was standing on a wall a foot wide with Cannon right beside me.
I inched to the side and slowly put my hand onto the rope on my side. I took the looped end and dropped it on the rock. It tightened and I breathed a long sigh of relief.
"I'm still here." Cannon reminded tensly.
I walked to him and slowly took out the other loop. I dropped it over his head and Cannon secured it around his waist.
We both let out long breaths and began ascending to the wider ledge above us.
Glory and Delta were all ready there.
"I'm so sorry." Glory grabbed my arm and hefted me up.
We took in gulps of air.
Delta is a great climber and easily pulled himself up and secured the rope. Glory went up next, but as he helped me up, he was distracted by a falcon and dropped me onto the ledge.
I hit Cannon and we both hurtled into a snowy bank where we had to free climb all the way back to where we had fallen.
"Let me check Maxell." I let the holographic map pop up.
"That's the last time we'll ever go the hard way on somewhere all ready impossible to avoid Midnight Sky."
"There are seven guys two ledges above us, hidden underneath a snow cave. They've got sniper rifles with great scopes. They could pick us off this ledge without a problem if they looked over the bank."
"So I guess coming the hard was a good idea?" Glory tried to redeem himself with a weak grin.
"We'll decide that whether we have to wear these or not." I patted my pouch where the green bandana was.
"How do we get them off then?" Cannon asked slowly.
"Cake. We climb along this ridge, come up here. Silver shoots him, she's the only one who can fit there. And the rest of us pick off the others." Delta hefted the Uzi we'd relieved of an agent yesterday.
"Fine. I'll need a boost up this ridge. Or, if I take the JohnKnife, I can melt a foothold."
"Take it." Glory handed it to me and we all started up the ridge.
I found my cue and melted a hold. I hefted up and rolled silently above the cave that the seven where holed up in.
Across from the cave entrance was a snow bank that the guys dug into and aimed their guns out of, making them practically invisible.
I plunged the Johnknife into the cave roof, melting a hole and looked down it through my gun scope.
Snap
I hit one cleanly in the head.
He reached up, unsure what hit him. Seeing the paint he silently put on the bandana and fell down. It was against rules to yell maday after death.
"Hey French, what's wrong?"
Snap
The girl next to him sat on the rock with a glare of surprise.
"We're under attack, get out of the cave." The other five ran out into the greeting of clean paint shots.
I stood in triumph.
Pop
Before being shot, one manages to fire right at me.
The force of a paint bomb hitting my legs knocked me backwards. I skidded on the ice until I hit a rock and leaned back in pain.
Unwillingly, I strapped the green bandana to it.
"Don't gloat till they float Silver! That was so stupid!" Cannon barked.
"Leave her out of it Can. Without you would be dangling off the side of the mountain still. Only she could inch to the safety rock and strap you on." Glory yelled.
"God! That's a 100 dock for a injured SIT." Delta took Cannon's side.
"Well, thanks to her inventions we got 1000 more for knocking these dudes off." Glory shot back.
They picked up rappelling gear and the 1000 point key around one of the agents neck.
The agent took a syringe and inserted it in the kneecaps of both my legs. They both dropped, numb and useless to the thigh.
"We're never going to do this." Cannon sighed. "We have to carry her down the mountain now since she's hurt. Or radio a chopper, which is stupid."
"Lucky you're a girl." Delta looked at me.
"We can finish the ascent tomorrow. We did what we came to do. We'll take turns and carry her down."
I looked away, my eyes and nose burned with shame.
I'm supposed to be the hero. I should have stayed down till they were all wearing green. It was a stupid, prideful mistake.
"I got a bazooka harness in my bag. We'll carry her down like a backpack, how much she weigh?"
"105. I checked her records." Cannon wiped sweat away and looked at the top of the mountain, which looked so close.
We were supposed to be the first up there.
"Let's just go up." Glory said suddenly.
"If we have a body we should never-" Delta began.
"Forget rules. We have to be the first. It's fifteen minutes away, all a walk, not even a rappel. From there we can go down the east side of the mountain rappelling." Cannon interjected.
"We have a stiff remember?"
If I had been less ashamed to talk I would have chewed Delta out and thrown him off the mountain.
"No." Cannon grinned. "We can go up to the top, look around, then rappel. We can send her down like a backpack. She won't be in any danger, and she could grab things if something goes wrong. We'll get docked if something goes wrong and she has to save herself, but it'll save us a good three hours and having to climb this thing again tomorrow."
They looked at me and I nodded. I didn't want to slow them down. I felt bad enough all ready.
I didn't say anything. How could I? It was my fault. A dead leg is like being dead. You can't run, you can't, climb, you can't even rappel with one leg!
Delta strapped me up with a x-harness and pulled me on his back like a backpack. I wheezed in discomfort, then sucked it all in.
I knew my deadweight wasn't a huge deal. We have to scale mountains with huge backpacks strapped to our backs at training. I tucked up my feet on the stirrups and held the top of the strap.
"Get Maxell." I told them.
They took it and checked the coordinates. There was no one else near the top, fortunately, but there was some nice, heavy duty rappel equipment on the top.
I felt myself fuming as they hurried up the mountain.
