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“Sniper,” Roland said plainly, without looking.

“Yep,” Jonah replied in mock defeat.

Roland smiled beneath his helmet and lifted his head.

Settled atop a small platform near the very top of the tallest cluster of trees in the area—just below where the forest met the sky—a lone Kig-Yar crouched, periodically tracking across the whole of the forest laid out before him with his trusty Covenant beam rifle, a sleek, long-range weapon that was extremely deadly in capable hands.

“How did that idiot not see us,” Jonah laughed.

“We’re that good,” Roland affirmed, gauging the distance between their position—belly-down on the forest floor—and the sniper’s roost high above, using his visor’s onboard electronics.

Roland waited a few breaths before adding, “More importantly . . . you owe me lunch.”

“Heh—a bet’s a bet,” Jonah conceded. “I’m more concerned with how we’re gonna get that jackass down from his nest without alerting the whole damn Covenant army.”

“We have a few options,” Roland began, his mind already catching on one idea in particular before Jonah cut back in.

“Why don’t you go ghost—climb up there and give him a little tap—so we can get movin’,” Jonah nudged. He was definitely itching for a fight, and Roland couldn’t blame him. For all the waiting and slow going, it was these few moments before actual contact that were the most nerve-racking. All the work—the effort and energy—it took to cross vast stretches of unknown terrain unseen by the naked eye, and undetected by any number of tracking systems, was in anticipation of the handful of minutes spent face-to-face with your adversaries.

“This is exactly why I get to test out the cool new toys and you don’t,” Roland jabbed.

“How so?” Jonah shot back.

“This cam unit is a precious commodity,” Roland began to explain before Jonah pressed the issue.

“And?”

“And . . .” Roland continued diplomatically, “you’d activate it for no better reason than to give a Grunt a wedgie.”

“Fair point.”

“I, on the other hand, can control such base urges; saving our more limited, and valuable, assets for their appropriate use,” Roland explained with a mocking air of superiority in his voice.

“Geez, does that mean yer not gonna let me borrow the car this weekend, Dad?”

“You joke, but you know it’s true.”

“All right, all right . . .” Jonah was ready to get back on task. “You got a plan for this guy, then?”

Roland made sure Jonah could hear the joy in his response. “I was thinkin’ . . . lumberjack.”

THIRTY MINUTES later.

Roland and Jonah had no problems setting the shaped charges at the base of the Jackal sniper’s lookout and were back on course, slowly making their way to their main objective.

Knowing there would more than likely be multiple rotations between the snipers manning this particular perch before their attack on their first target would begin, the pair had taken extra care in concealing the explosives so as to avoid any unwanted attention. The real danger in leaving the sniper unattended hinged on the possibility that it would have a clear vantage point from which to draw a bead on them once they began their offensive, and while there were most assuredly other snipers in the area, their only immediate concern was in the reality of a known threat.

The novelty in utilizing a lumberjack to eliminate said threat, was that the maneuver served the dual purposes of removing the sniper from the field of play while also providing a brief distraction upon the initiation of their assault on the camp. Besides, Roland always got a kick out this little stunt—placing explosives at the base of an enemy perch, then blowing the charge from a distance, listening to the echo of tearing roots or the whine of twisted metal as the whole thing came crashing down.

They were less than three hundred meters from the edge of the base camp now. According to their intel, they would have visual confirmation of the site just over the crest of the next ridge.

Their normal deliberate pace had slowed once the pair