Yet Sarah was determined to at least show some sympathy. This woman is pouring her heart out to her.
“That’s awful, Rosa. That’s awful. I can understand why Nicholas is so upset.”
“No,” now she’s sobbing. “That’s not it. You don’t understand. They were ordered. It was the bad guys or his platoon. They were ordered.”
“What were they ordered to do, Rosa?”
“My son, he’s a sharpshooter. He could hit them. He could shoot the bad guys. He knew he could. He’d kill them. But they were ordered to blow them up instead.”
Stay callous, Sarah ordered herself to keep as callous as possible or she’d scare Rosa off.
“What do you mean? How did they blow them up?”
“The lieutenant, he told them. It was them or the bad guys. They were outnumbered. The bad guys were shooting at them from behind the children, holding the children up in front of them with one arm, shooting at my son’s platoon with the other. So they took their grenade launchers and blew them all away. All of them, the bad guys, the villagers and the kids, all of them, all dead.”
Tears were streaming down Sarah’s cheeks. “Okay, so I’m not all that callous,” she thought, but she still had a job to do and as horrific as this was, it was not a story.
Sarah needed corroboration and she didn’t have the contacts, as if they’d leak anything to a reporter from a rag like she worked for. New York Times, sure, Our News, no way.
“Rosa, I need to talk to your son. Is there any way you can let him know?” Okay, now Sarah had to use blackmail. Would she hate herself for this? No, it was a job and she wanted this. Rule two after never asking a question you don’t know the answer to was offer them anything they want to get what you want.
“In order to do the story I’ll need to talk to your son. You have my phone number. I’ll give you my email. Let him know I need to talk to him to do the story.”
It was shortly after that request that the phone kept ringing, but none of the calls were from Nicholas.
First it was his brother Edmond, “He got shot in the thigh during the fighting around Fallujah near the end of April, shortly before they were relieved. They wanted to send him home but he refused because as a sharpshooter he felt that he was needed to protect his “brothers” and he wanted to stay with his platoon. He’s remaining there until the unit is sent home.”
Then it was his sister Julia, “I tell him he’s my hero. For me he’s helping our country. My brother likes to joke around a lot. He’s always laughing and always happy. I think my brother and I have always been close. I don’t ever remember, ever in my life being mad at my brother. He was never mad at me. We never fought. If I got mad at him or he did something, the next minute he would say or do something funny and I’d be cracking up. I could never get mad at my brother.”
Aunt Christina Maronetti was next, “Nick is a very unusual boy, and crazy and good hearted. He’s good at every sport. He’s almost killed himself at every sport but no matter what, he always plays to the end. They would carry him out on a stretcher and they’d need him at the end of a game you’d see him running back. Very dedicated to the team. That’s why all the teachers and all the kids loved him He comes off as being a really tough guy but he’s got a heart of gold. Kids adore him always; they always look up to him. His older sister adores him to death.”
Then the older sister Anita called, “His birthday is June 14. He turned 21 in Iraq and he’s a member of the Third Marine Division, First Platoon in Easy Company. My brother always wanted to join the military. Even as a little boy he’d be playing at soldier. I think he picked the Marine Corps out of all four branches because, the Marine Corps is the most difficult, the most challenging and my brother’s a very strong person and he likes a challenge. He’s very physical and likes the camaraderie and he’s really good with teamwork and stuff like that. That’s why he picked the Marine Corps.”
Even his father, divorced from his mother called, “I’m very close with my son. It’s heartbreaking especially that he’s so young and so early in his career in the Marine Corps to be sent to war. But he knew what he was getting into. We all know when you join the military what could happen but you don’t think it’s going to happen to your son. It’s just really hard to deal with.
“He was hurt by 9/11. It made him even more proud to be a part of the Marine Corps and to know that he’s able to fight for his country and some part in fighting terrorism.
“It took some time for him to get used to being in Iraq. He had to go through a lot of stuff that we haven’t heard yet but there’s a lot of stuff he’s had to deal with over there that no 20-year-old here would ever see in his lifetime and you can hear it in his voice some times when he has the chance to call.”
It was 4 p.m. Between answering the calls, typing up her notes, doing Internet searches on everything there was to know about Nicholas Santos and tearing her hair out trying to make all this time and effort into something to pay off, Sarah had yet to drink that orange juice.
She was about ready to get her unlisted number changed. This stuff would be great, if she could do a profile of the guy but even that had to be tied into a news event and so far there was nothing. As awful as it all was, this was the same story as any other soldier.
Knowing that if she didn’t eat something she’d really snap at the next caller, she let the phone ring as she pushed away from her desk.
She let it ring some more as she walked into the kitchen and she let it continue to ring as she poured herself a glass of juice. But then, try as she might, she couldn’t help but listen as the answering machine picked up.
“Ma’am, hello ma’am, this is Marine Lance Corporal Nicholas Santos.”
Flustered, Sarah missed the table trying to put the glass of orange juice down before running over to her phone. Unfortunately, her foot didn’t miss the broken glass. So now she was going to be cold, hungry and bleeding as well.
“Nicholas, yes, I’m here. I was hoping you’d be able to call me. Your family is very proud of you, we all are.”
“Thank you ma’am. But ma’am, I don’t understand what all the fuss is about, why are they proud?”
Sarah was absolutely dumbstruck. “Well, I think it’s because you’re over there doing a very difficult job and that you’re doing it well.”
“I’m just here killing people ma’am. That’s all, he just said that all I have to do is kill people.”
Again, the mysterious “he” crept into the conversation. Yes, Sarah remembered that through the long litany from his family of how wonderful Nicholas was.
“Your lieutenant?”
“No, well, yeah, he told me to shoot people. He said they’re bad guys and were going to kill us.”
As much as Sarah hated using the phrase, she had to say it, “Nicholas, you were following his orders. No matter how you might or might not have felt about them, if you hadn’t followed them, he could have shot you in time of war.”
There was quiet on the line for a moment.
“You know then ma’am, you know about the children?”
Sarah realized too late that in trying to deal with Nicholas she had revealed too much.
“Know about what Nicholas?”
“You know about him, what he wants me to do?”
Now Sarah was totally confused.
“No, no, I don’t know. Who is he?”
Another long pause, and maybe a sob, it was hard to tell.
“He—he wants me to join him ma’am he wants me to be a bad guy.”
Now, suddenly, after all this time, this was news. Sarah was practically jumping out of her skin but cautioned herself again to patience. This just couldn’t mean what she thought it meant, an insurgent trying to recruit an American Marine, WOW, PULITZER.
She took a deep breath to contain her excitement, “Join the insurgents?” Sarah asked cautiously.
He was laughing. “G-d no, oh no, they’re not the bad guys ma’am. I shoot them, I just shoot th
em. They’ll kill us or we’ll kill them. Everyone says they’re the bad guys, but no, they’re not really bad.”
Now Sarah was really confused and she was faced with the problem every reporter dreads, having to ask questions without already knowing the answers.
“Nicholas, just tell me what you want to tell me, okay, what is it you need to tell me?”
“I don’t have that much time ma’am. I have to tell him. I have to make a decision.”
Sarah quickly looked at her computer screen. With the eight-hour time difference, it was closing on 1 a.m. in Iraq. What was an off duty Marine doing awake at one in the morning?
But she had learned early, never ask a threatening question until almost everything else was answered.
“What type of decision do you have to make, Nicholas?”
“To become like him. He’ll, he’ll stop killing the children if I become like him.”
More and more confusing and still so little information but she couldn’t let this stop now.
“He wants you to join him?”
“He wants me to teach him ma’am. He wants me to teach him so he can be a Marine. Ma’am, what should I do ma’am?”
It was rare that as a reporter, Sarah was asked by anyone what he or she should do. But as a reporter, maybe, since the basis of decision-making was to list all the facts you know, this could be another way to get at the story. Whatever works, right? Do whatever it takes but get the story.
“You’re going to have to give me a bit more information first, Nicholas. When did you first meet him?”
“It was last night ma’am, just last night just before I called my Mom. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know. But ma’am, I’d seen him through my scope. I tried to tell the lieutenant that I had shot him. I killed him I know I did. But he just told me to shoot him again until he went down. But, but he didn’t stay down ma’am.”
Sarah couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Are you sure you hit him?”
“Ma’am, I’m a sharpshooter, almost an expert marksman by just a couple of points. I know when I hit dead on.”
“And you hit him dead on?”
“Yes, I did but it didn’t stop him. He was killing the children, ma’am. They’d used them as shields against us, shooting us from behind them. But I was shooting the ones who were holding them. I was getting them ma’am, killing them so they couldn’t hurt the kids. I hate it when the kids get hurt. They shouldn’t even be here, ma’am. I hate it when they go down.”
Almost so quietly that she doubted she’d even heard herself, “so you were trying to save the children but this man was killing them?”
“Ma’am, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. That night, after the explosion, after all those guys were dead, there were children still alive. We did it that way, shot into the middle of the crowd so that the kids and villagers on the outside wouldn’t get as hurt. So many of them died, so many. But there were still some kids alive. I know there were. I could see them through my scope. I wanted to go help them, to get them to an aid station cause I know they were hurt. But we were told not to go there to check until we got more back up, so we waited and we watched.
“That’s when I saw him, ma’am. At first I thought he was trying to help the kids so I looked through my scope to see. Ma’am, he’d touch a kid, they were just babies ma’am, just kids. They didn’t hurt anyone. He’d touch them and those that were still alive, he’d pick them up, and he’d…you’re not going to believe this ma’am. I can’t believe it and I saw it. But ma’am, he’d bite them. I mean, that’s crazy, right? He’d have to be crazy. But he was biting them and sucking their blood ma’am. I could see that. The blood, it dripped down his face.”
It had been a good thing that Sarah had heard from Nicholas’ family before she spoke to him because if she hadn’t she’d be sure this was nothing but an elaborate joke. The man they described to her, this man, was not capable of that type of sick humor.
“I couldn’t watch him do that man and not do anything so I shot him ma’am. I know I hit him cause he fell down. But then he got up ma’am. He got up and just took another kid. So I shot him again, and again he took a kid. Ma’am, I kept shooting him. I kept killing him. I know I was killing him. I saw the blood. I saw him fall. But he kept getting up and the more I killed him the more he killed.
“No one would believe me, no one. I kept telling the lieutenant. I told him to look through my scope, to look for himself but he wouldn’t believe me and he told my buddy to go back to base with me. He wanted me to get some shut-eye, said we were all stressed out.”
“Well, maybe he was right Nicholas. He could have been. You’ve been through a lot.”
“Ma’am, we’re Marines. We’re trained to live by a code. We’re trained so that we can survive when others can’t, we can do what others can’t because of that code. We tell the truth. I know what I saw ma’am. But I followed orders. He wanted us to go back so my buddy and I went back. That’s when it happened.”
“What happened Nicholas?”
“He was there ma’am, waiting for me, on the road back. I’m a Marine ma’am, I saw the enemy, and he was the worst enemy I had ever seen. I aimed my rifle and I shot him ma’am. I didn’t even think about it, just like they teach us ma’am.
“But, ma’am, he dropped, but he didn’t die. He got up and he grabbed my buddy and I could see his teeth ma’am. They grew, they grew and I knew what he was going to do. I drew my knife then ma’am. I ran at him. But I couldn’t get there fast enough. He was so fast ma’am.
My buddy was screaming as he sank his teeth into him. I ran at him and gutted him ma’am and there was blood, so much blood, and he laughed ma’am. He laughed and threw my buddy down on the ground.
“Then, then he attacked me ma’am. I know how to kill with my bare hands. I can snap a neck. I can pinch the carotid, I can punch a nose in so the bones pierce the brain. I know so many ways but he was so strong. We fought but no matter what I did, I couldn’t kill him.
“Then he got me pinned and bit my neck and sucked my blood and I thought, he got me, I’m dead. But he stopped. He held me down and said he wasn’t going to kill me.
“He said he’d seen me, watched me from the shadows all day and that I was a really good killer and he wanted me.”
“He wanted you for what, Nicholas?”
“He wanted me to teach him to kill like I do. He wants me to teach him to learn to kill like a Marine.”
“Why?” was all Sarah could choke out at this unnerving story.
“He said, he wants to be a Marine ma’am,” Nicholas was sobbing now.
“I said no Ma’am. No, no way no how was I going to help him. He’s no Marine. He couldn’t be. He kills children ma’am. He kills them.
“He said he needed to learn to kill like Marines so he would always be strong enough to kill men, kill more of my buddies, more Marines.
“I said no. No way. I wouldn’t do it. There was nothing he could do to make me.”
“That’s good Nicholas. I’m glad you said that,” Sarah couldn’t believe she was being sucked into what had to be a mad hellish delusion. But despite all she knew couldn’t be true, she was being sucked into it because Nicholas obviously believed this and because he did, she did.
“That’s when he offered me the deal Ma’am. That’s when he said he’d stop killing the children if I taught him to kill like Marines. He told me I had a choice ma’am. He told me if I taught him to kill like a Marine, he wouldn’t kill any more children. He said if I joined him I’d know how to kill him and if he broke his word, I could kill him and everyone like him.
“But ma’am, that would mean he’d kill my buddies, just like he did on the road. That would mean he’d kill my brothers, and we don’t do that ma’am. We protect our own.
“He said he knew the only reason I tried to kill him before was because he was killing the children so he’d give that to me, he’d give me the lives of all the ch
ildren and I could let them live or die if I went with him and taught him how to be a Marine.”
“Nicholas, you can’t let him kill, not the children, not your buddies. You can’t teach him to be better at killing. You know that,” Sarah was breaking every rule in the book. She knew it. The story be damned.
“Don’t you think I know that Ma’am, I can’t let him kill like we do. I can’t. But I can’t let him kill the children.
“I didn’t know what to do, but the sun was coming up and he left ma’am, just as quickly as he had come he was gone.”
“What did you do then, Nicholas?”
“I’m a Marine ma’am. We don’t leave anyone behind. I picked up my buddy’s body and I carried him back and reported in ma’am. I reported in and they asked what happened.
“I told them, I told them everything but they don’t believe me ma’am. They think I killed my buddy. How can they think I could do that ma’am? They said they want to charge me with murder. They want to execute me. But ma’am, you’ve got to believe me. You’ve got to. No one else does.”
Do I believe him? she thought. Sarah had heard some wild stories but never anything like this. Was he driven so mad by being a near expert killer that he thought someone else was making deals with him?
“They let me call my mom then ma’am. I told her what happened. But you talked to her ma’am. You know, she doesn’t believe me. She wants to believe me. I know she does. But she’s too scared to believe me. No one believes me ma’am. He came again ma’am. He came to where they were holding me and told me he’d give me to sunrise and no longer. He said if I went with him and taught him I’d live and he’d kill no more children. But if I stayed I’d die here and he’d just kill them.
“I didn’t know what to do and then my mom called. They let me talk to her again. She said to call you, to talk to you. Ma’am, what should I do? He’ll be here soon.”
Sarah couldn’t force a sound through her constricted throat. The pause lengthened, as all she heard was the hiss of the tape in her line recorder, the line recorder that was not blinking green. It was not picking up what he had said. “I’m a Marine ma’am, I’m a Marine and we kill the bad guys, we kill them ma’am but he won’t die and I have to stop the killing of the children. Ma’am. Ma’am, what should I do?”
Vampire's Dilemma Page 9
