More Than Life Read Online Free PDF Page B

was sure he would vomit. “Me? What about you? Do they know who you are? That you’ve been helping us?”
    Isa’s eyes were hard. “If they didn’t before, they do now.”
    The resignation in Isa’s voice hit Mik like a train. Overwhelming grief made him sway on the stairs.
    Isa steadied him and reached into his pocket. “Here. I had these made for the three of you. They say you are Americans so you can cross the borders.”
    Still, Mik couldn’t make his legs move. “But we don’t speak English.”
    Isa tossed a gun down to Leka. “It won’t come to that, but they’ll buy you time until our agents can get to you. Someone will meet you in Albania and escort you south to Greece. You’ll be safe there.”
    The band around Mik’s heart tightened. “Come with us.”
    “I can’t. Not yet.”
    Mik took Isa’s face in his hands. “You’re lying to me. You’re going to fight them so they kill you instead of me.”
    Isa’s resolve seemed to waver briefly. “I have to. We have a chance of outflanking them if we move fast. You are what little remains of the resistance. If you can get away and regroup, perhaps…” His voice fell away. He was clutching at straws now, and they both knew it.
    “But…”
    “Mik, there’s no time.” Isa pulled on Mik’s arm.
    Mik fought him. “Isa, please—”
    Hard lips cut off his desperate plea. Arms enveloped him, and he felt the tremor of Isa’s own torment. Their kiss was goodbye, maybe forever, and they both knew it.
    Isa pulled away and stared at him. “I love you, Mik, more than my life. Whatever happens, never forget that.”
    There was no time for Mik to respond, and reality hit him like a nuclear blast as Isa shoved him down the stairs and toward the back door of the house. It was barely dawn in Pristina, and he followed Leka and Rea out into the lightening streets. Behind him, he felt Isa let go of his hand. He turned, but Isa pushed him away.
    “Go,” Isa said desperately. “You have to go. Mik, please, just run!”
    For a heartbeat, Mik resisted, but Rea’s hand in his spurred him into action. To linger any longer would mean certain death for all of them, and he couldn’t waste her life like that. He cast one last pleading glance back Isa before he turned and began to run as fast as he could.
    His legs moved on instinct. He’d lived and breathed the city ever since he could walk, and he knew every twist and turn like the back of his hand. The desolate, artillery damaged buildings and broken streets made up the only home he’d ever known.
    Fresh gunfire broke out behind him, and the dull thud of a bomb sent him to his knees.
    Rea yanked on his arm. “Get up!”
    Mik scrambled to his feet and ran for his life. Behind him, explosions rocked the earth, and the air crackled with gun fire.
    The Goljak Mountains appeared on the horizon, almost mystical in their beauty. As a child, Mik had always believed they would protect the city from evil. Now, as they were lost to the thick white smoke of a bomb, he truly believed he’d never see them again.
    Another explosion.
    Rea screamed, and Mik hit the ground again. He and Leka covered Rea as debris fell from the sky. There hadn’t been much left of Pristina to destroy, but such great clumps of rubble pounded the earth around them, the Serbians must have found something. Dust rained down on them, filling their lungs and clouding their vision. Behind them, the gunfire began again, but Mik was so dazed, it seemed to him to be moving further away.
    Leka pulled him to his feet. “Brother, come on. We need to keep moving.”
    Somehow Mik’s legs propelled him forward. Sight and smell deserted him. For reasons that couldn’t be explained, the only sense that remained was his hearing. He heard the buildings fall and tanks rumble forward. He heard whizzing bullets, shouts and yells.
    A faraway cry of pain reached him.
    Isa .
    Mik’s head told him it was the wind, but his heart knew the truth. Isa had been hit. Without