by Sam Sisavath
“Even if she tells us to head back?”
“She’s the boss. Isn’t that why you joined up? Because of her? You’re going to disregard her orders, too?”
Rita didn’t answer.
Keo glanced back at her. “Cat got your tongue, Ortega?”
The Latina shrugged. “I didn’t join up because of her.” She paused briefly, before adding, “Not completely, I mean. Partly, but not completely.” Then she smiled at him. “I don’t have to ask why you came back.”
“Truth, justice, and the American way, of course,” Keo said, turning around before she could read the lie on his face.
Apparently, it hadn’t been fast enough, because he heard her saying, “Riiight.”
Keo wondered how much Rita actually knew about his relationship with Lara. How much did any of the others know, if anything, beyond gossip? It wasn’t as if what happened five years ago between them was common knowledge. Maybe Danny had a clue, but he knew for a fact the ex-Ranger’s wife definitely did. Carly and Lara were as close as sisters, and sisters tended to talk. A lot. About everything.
“I don’t think you’re her type, anyway,” Rita was saying behind him.
He smiled, but only because he knew she couldn’t see it. “You don’t think so?”
“She’s into guys in suits.”
“And how do you know that?”
“I saw the guy she was dating a few years ago. I don’t think he could lift a rifle, never mind actually use one.”
“Is that right?”
“I can see why she’d prefer the type. She’s around gung-ho soldier boys all day, so a regular civvie in a suit makes for a nice change of pace.”
“‘Regular’ guys, huh?”
“You know what I mean.”
“How long ago did she date one of these regular guys?”
“The last one? I heard a few years back.” Then, with more than a little humor in her voice, “What’s with all the questions? You planning on taking your shot at the ring, Keo?”
“Just curious, that’s all.”
“You’ll have to get in line. I know a lot of guys who signed up because they wanted to meet her in person. Know a lot of girls, too.”
“But not you.”
“Maybe a little, but it was mostly for the nice duds.”
Keo was going to say something, but he stopped and dropped to one knee, lifting the submachine gun to aim first.
“Don’t shoot!” a familiar voice called from behind the tree that Keo was aiming the MP5SD at.
“Goddammit,” Keo said under his breath. He relaxed his grip on the weapon and stood back up. “I almost shot you.”
Rudolph appeared from behind the tree, while Gholston did likewise from another one nearby.
“Good thing you didn’t,” Rudolph said. “That must have been the quick instincts that got Mercer.”
“Must be,” Gholston chimed in.
“Make more noise, why don’t you,” Rita grunted.
“Hey, you guys were making plenty of noise yourselves with all that chatter,” Gholston said as he and Rudolph walked over to them.
“Where’s Wells and Springer?” Keo asked.
“They’re being evac’d to Darby Bay as we speak,” Rudolph said. “Helo swooped by and grabbed them about an hour ago after Rita took off after you.”
“You made contact with Command?”
Gholston nodded. “Skies finally cleared up. The chopper was making a supply run from Cordine City and detoured to pick up Springer.”
“I told Wells to go with them,” Rudolph said.
Keo didn’t have to ask why; he remembered the sight of Wells, sweating profusely in the aftermath of Calvin’s ambush this morning. Apparently Rudolph felt the same way about their navigator that Keo did—the kid wasn’t ready for primetime.
“What did Command say?” Rita asked.
“When I told them that Keo ran off by himself, the response was, and I quote, ‘Why the hell would he do something stupid like that?’” Gholston said.
Keo sighed, and thought, Sounds about right.
“She wants to talk to you,” Gholston said. “She didn’t sound very happy.”
“Of course she’s not,” Keo said.
Rudolph, meanwhile, was glancing from Keo to Rita, before finally asking, “So. Anything fun happen while you two were traipsing around out here?”
“Tell me the truth,” Lara said over the radio. Her voice sounded a lot stronger than the last time they spoke, but that could have just been wishful thinking on his part. “Is the mission over?”
“No,” Keo said into the microphone attached to the radio sitting on the ground next to him.
“Is that the truth, Keo?”
“Yes.”
“Are you lying?”
“No.”
“I can’t tell if you’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“Keo…”
“Lara,” Keo said with as much conviction as he could send over the radio waves. “The mission’s hit a bump in the road, but it’s not compromised. The plan was to insert into Fenton through the spy. That part is still very much intact.”
“What about all the other parts?”
“That will depend on how much freelancing Calvin was doing out here.”
“Calvin. That’s the Bucky sniper.”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“He told you his name?”
“He did.”
“Why did he do that?”
“He was…chatty.”
“And you think Chatty Calvin was all alone out there?”
“I know he was all alone out here. We kicked up a hell of a ruckus this morning when we stumbled across him. If there were any of Buck’s boys around, they would have been all over our asses by now. But it’s been hours since that gunfight, and we haven’t seen a peek from them. Calvin pretty much confirmed to me that he was out here alone before he died.”
“So our surveillance hasn’t been completely useless,” Lara said. “There’s that, at least.”
Keo sat against the tree with the receiver to his ear. Gholston stood about ten meters in front of him, but there were no signs of Rita or Rudolph. They were somewhere out there keeping an eye out for those missing Buckies that should have been all over them by now, but weren’t.
“You know how to tell if you’re the best at something?” Calvin had said. “You put it all on the line against the best. And if you beat him, then you know. That’s the only way you’ll know for sure.”
You better not be telling fibs, Calvin, you piece of shit.
“Did you know them well?” Keo said into the radio. “Chang and Banner?”
“I knew Chang well,” Lara said. “He was one of Mercer’s men. And one of the first to join me after Black Tide. Banner came a few years later.”
“The way they were around one another, I’d assumed they were old friends.”
“I guess they hit it off. Which was strange, because they really didn’t have a lot in common.” Lara paused briefly, before continuing. “Chang had a wife and a son, but Banner wasn’t married.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“I mean, I’m sorry that you’re going to have to tell Chang’s wife about what happened to him.”
“She’s a good woman. The kid looks just like him.”
“Can you get someone else to do it?”
“I can, but I won’t. I sent him and Banner out there.”
And I led them to their death…
“That’s part of the job,” Lara continued. “I hate it, but I can’t avoid it.”
“You have an excuse this time,” Keo said.
“It’s not a good one.”
“Are you kidding me? It’s a pretty good excuse, if you ask me.”
“Not for me.” She paused again. “Were you telling me the truth? About the mission?”
“Yes. We can still make this work. We have plenty of daylight left
to reach Fenton and make contact with the inside man. The plan itself is still intact.”
“Can you do it carefully? That’s the question, Keo. Can you get there while avoiding further trouble? According to aerial reconnaissance from the last few days, Fenton’s been constricting their forces, bringing those Buckies of yours closer to the city. It’s only going to get harder.”
“Only if they know we’re coming, which they still don’t.” Keo glanced down at his watch. “I think we can still do this, Lara. You sent me out here for a reason.” And Chang and Banner died because of it, he thought, but he said, “Let me finish it. Let me make today count.”
Lara didn’t answer him right away, and Keo took the opportunity to glance over at Gholston nearby. Keo couldn’t tell if the Georgian had been listening to his conversation with Lara this entire time or not.
Finally, Lara said, “You have to promise me one thing…”
“Which is?”
“That you won’t take any unnecessary risks. Do your best to make the rendezvous point and get inside Fenton, but if it doesn’t happen, then it doesn’t happen.”
“I can do that.”
“Keo…”
“I won’t take any unnecessary risks.”
She sighed. It was heavy, and it came through the radio as if she were sitting next to him. “I know you. You’re not the type to just give up. But this isn’t personal. You can’t make it personal. If it’s not there—if you can’t complete the mission without risking yourself or the others—I need you to abandon it. Tell me you understand.”
“I understand.”
“Say it.”
“I’ll drop it if it’s not there.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“I don’t want to die out here, Lara. Not if I can help it.”
“I just wanted to make sure you weren’t going to do something stupid.”
“Again?” he smiled, then remembered she couldn’t see and felt a little stupid.
“I wasn’t going to say it, but yes. Again.”
He thought back to the last time they had a conversation similar to this one. They were on an oil rig back then…
“So do I have your okay to proceed with the mission, boss lady?” Keo asked.
This time, the sigh from her end was all exasperation. “I hate it when Danny and Gaby call me that. So you need to cut it out, too.”
“I thought you’d be used to it by now.”
“From other people, yes. But not from you or Danny or Gaby. You guys aren’t like everyone else.” Then, before he could say anything, “Keo…”
“Yeah?”
“The mission is important, but it’s not everything. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”
“Yes,” he said, and checked to see if Gholston was watching, but the man still had his back turned to him.
“Okay,” Lara said. “I just wanted you to know that. Be careful.”
“I’ll see you when I get back. Keo out.”
“Oh no, you don’t.”
“What are you talking about?”
“That’s not your call sign.”
He groaned. “Don’t make me say it. It’s stupid. Just like Danny’s stupid for coming up with it.”
“It’s protocol, mister. So you have to say it.”
He wouldn’t have indulged her—protocols be damned!—if he didn’t think it would put a smile on her face. And that was the only reason he did it.
He pressed the transmit lever and said into the microphone, “KY One, out.”
Eight
They moved cautiously back to Chang and Banner, taking their time and listening for evidence that Calvin was lying after all, and that there were Buckies in the area. But there was no one around the ambush site when they arrived, and no signs there had been except for some animal footprints. Rudolph and Gholston retrieved the bodies of their dead comrades, then carried them about fifty meters to give them proper burials.
Keo and Rita stood guard as the other two did the hard work behind them.
“Did you know them well?” Keo asked her.
“Banner,” Rita said. “We joined up about the same time. Chang was already here. But no, I didn’t really know either one of them that well.”
“Lara told me Chang had a family, but Banner didn’t. Did he have a girlfriend?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” She shook her head. “We weren’t really that close.” She glanced back at Gholston and Rudolph as they dug shallow graves with collapsible shovels. “They knew them better than I did.”
Keo nodded. He didn’t know what else to say. His questions had just been to pass the time, to push the crunch-crunch of shovels out of his mind.
The woods were lively around them, with activity above and at ground level, which Keo took to be a good sign. The animals tended to go quiet when they sensed imminent danger in the vicinity. The fact that the chirpings had remained loud since they trekked their way back for Chang’s and Banner’s bodies was a good sign.
It should have been cold around him given the month, but Keo had become acquainted with the unpredictable nature of Texas weather. It was cold this morning when they touched down, but noticeably warmer now.
Don’t like the cold? Wait ten minutes.
Don’t like the heat? Blah blah blah.
When Gholston and Rudolph were done, they walked back over, bringing with them the letters both men had written to give to their respective loved ones. Afterward, they continued with the mission, choosing a different path toward the objective. There was no rush, and the last thing Keo wanted was to run across a Fenton patrol unexpectedly. All it would take was one contact and they were done. The closer they got to the city, the harder it was going to be to extricate themselves from a full-blown gunfight if they had to retreat a second time.
“What happens if the contact’s not there?” Rita asked about a mile into the resumed mission.
She walked next to him, with Rudolph to Keo’s right about ten meters away and Gholston to Rita’s left at about the same distance. Close enough to stay within each other’s lines of sight at all times, but far enough that a shooter couldn’t pick them off all at once with a well-lobbed grenade. The simple maneuver had proven effective this morning.
Well, mostly.
“We’ll improvise,” Keo said.
“You good at that? Improvising?” Rita asked.
“I’ve been known to come up with a plan on the fly once or twice. But we won’t have to this time. Our contact will be there.”
“Why are you so sure?” Then, looking over at him, “You know who it is, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Who is it?”
“An old friend.”
“This old friend got a name?”
“Yes, but I’m not going to tell you, so you can stop asking.”
“Why not?”
“Operational security.”
Rita might have smirked, but he didn’t glance over to make sure. “What if something happens to you?”
“Then you and the boys are to follow orders and retreat back to the evac site.”
“What about the mission?”
“There is no mission if I’m dead. The contact won’t recognize any of you, so they won’t proceed with the plan if I’m not there.”
“I guess we better make sure you don’t kick the bucket, then,” Rita said. “If that happens, Chang’s and Banner’s deaths will have been for nothing.”
They didn’t run across a Bucky patrol until nearly five miles later, and that was only a two-man team that looked to be in a hurry to move on. They waited as the pair—a man and a woman, both wearing camouflage hunting clothes instead of the familiar black assault vests with circled M’s—passed before they continued on.
“I expected to see more of them earlier,” Rita said when they were back on their feet again.
“Fenton’s got limited manpower,” Keo said. “The bulk of their forces will stay closer to home. They know an a
ttack’s coming. That patrol was just part of an early warning system.”
“If they’re so hard up for manpower, why are they picking a fight with us?”
That’s a good question, Keo thought, remembering what Greengrass had told him not all that long ago:
“I think you’d appreciate the scope—the complexity—of it. Buck’s been working hard to put it all together. Years of work, getting it ready.”
Greengrass had been talking about Buck. Lara’s intel didn’t know the status of the man named Copenhagen, who was supposedly running things in Fenton before Buck showed up. Was Copenhagen overthrown? Or was he a silent partner, yielding to Buck’s authority?
Too many questions, not enough answers.
I guess that’s why I’m here.
And there was that other thing Greengrass had said:
“I’m talking about the big picture. You don’t have a clue. Not a whit. There’s a grand plan happening that you don’t even know exists. It’s kind of sad, really.”
That kind of talk reminded Keo of someone else, whose name was the inspiration for the M that Buck’s men wore on their clothes these days. That man had come up with a grand plan, too; a “big picture” that he was determined to push through even if it killed a lot of innocent people.
Everyone’s got big plans, Keo thought as they passed the sixth mile mark, until they eat a bullet.
They stumbled across two more Bucky patrols—including one that had a four-man team, all of them wearing assault vests with circled M’s—before reaching the seventh-mile mark. They were now close enough to Fenton that Keo’s scar along the right side of his face began tingling out of the blue.
During the trip, they heard the occasional roar of aircrafts flying by overhead. He couldn’t tell if they were A-10s, because the canopies were always in the way. But it had to be Black Tide’s air force, because Fenton didn’t have one of its own. Maybe even Mayfield was up there doing recon over the city, getting updates on the movements of Buck’s troops.
What are you doing in there, Buck? Why are you taking on an army without an air force of your own? Are you crazy? Is that it? Everyone knows you can’t win a war without air power. Everyone knows that.
