by Leila Haven
“Major Atoll ordered me to join you today.”
“Just what I need. Fine, let’s move out.”
I didn’t dare say another word. Between Atoll and Rafter, I couldn’t see my day getting any better. Maybe there was something in the food that made them all cranky.
The last thing I wanted to point out was the fact that if Shaun wasn’t on the mission, my own mission of observing him wasn’t going to happen. I was better off just keeping my mouth shut. And who knows? Maybe I would find another suspect to add to the list.
Private Cooper assisted me with putting on some protective gear. The bulletproof vest and helmet were extremely heavy and only added to the heat of the desert. We all filed into the truck and then left the safety of the base gates.
Corporal Rafter explained to the group as we drove that we were patrolling the marketplace today. They had intel that warned of some members of the Taliban using the markets to trade illegal weapons. If the wrong people spoke to the right traders, they could obtain dangerous guns that would be used against their own people and us.
The soldiers spoke a language all of their own while on the mission. They communicated with hand gestures and moved as stealthily as panthers. I had to give my all just to keep up with them.
The marketplace was an open-air area about the size of a few blocks – it was hard to tell exactly. Ordinary people did their shopping while we, in full camouflage uniform, walked alongside them. They paid us no attention, so used to seeing the military presence that we were a simply part of the scenery now.
It all seemed so surreal. If the army patrolled markets back home like this, someone would put it on YouTube. Even I wasn’t so easy with all the guns the guys held, and I was on their side.
If I was a tourist, the marketplace would have been idyllic to walk around. All the vibrant colors of the fruit and spice stalls begged for my attention. The fabrics of the tunics that hung in racks were alluring. It was difficult to imagine such sinister trading was also being done behind the curtains.
We were right in the thick of things when all hell broke loose. A gunshot rang out, so close to us I thought one of us had to have been taken out by the bullet.
Everyone in the troop reacted immediately, crouching down and pointing in the direction of the noise. I followed suit, my heart pounding against my ribcage as true fear pumped through my blood.
Another crack of a gun.
Followed by another.
And then a constant rumbling of the sound, so loud it could be mistaken for thunder.
The soldiers around me formed a protective barrier, keeping me behind them, but I was still in the line of fire. I’d never been so scared of anything in my life before – and that included the other day, at least it was only a knife used there.
People screamed and scattered as they were caught up in the fray. I saw several of them cry out as they fell to the floor. Blood started to flow on the concrete and mud floor of the marketplace.
The bullets seemed to be coming from all directions. The troop fired back, but only when they spotted a target. Our side didn’t agree with just blindly shooting, not when there were so many civilians still in the middle of it all.
“Stay down,” Rafter warned beside me. I hadn’t been planning on doing anything else. I liked my head where it was, I didn’t fancy it being blown apart anytime soon.
“We’re surrounded,” Cooper said to the group. The voices all travelled around me like I was in a dream rather than really living the nightmare.
“Bastards knew we were coming.”
“Look for a gap. There has to be a gap.”
“Hamilton’s down!”
“Fuckers are just shooting and hoping they hit someone. It doesn’t matter who.”
“Ridley, get back!”
“Base, this is Rafter. We are in urgent need of backup at mission location. Repeat, urgent backup is needed.”
“They’re not going to get here in time.”
“We’ll keep fighting until we’re dead then.”
“Fuck, Hamilton has been shot!”
“He’s gone, there’s nothing we can do to save him now.”
“Fucking hell, there’s blood anywhere.”
“Samson, do a recon.”
“All points are covered, sir. There has to be at least two dozen of them.”
“Bloody hell.”
“Hold on for backup, men. We are not going to die out here today. It’s not going to happen.”
Everything went quiet then. Not the bullets, but the voices. The troop were focused on not dying, their concentration was required. I huddled in the middle of them, trying not to think of what would happen if they all went down.
Because then I would, too.
I didn’t dare raise my head to look around the area again. From my hiding place I could see some of the bodies sprawled on the ground. Vacant eyes stared at the sky like they were waiting for salvation.
My stomach was tied in a knot and time seemed to stand still. I felt useless in amongst it all, I wanted to help but there was nothing I could do. And to think, I had been excited about the mission. It was so stupid of me to forget about the danger that the soldiers live with every moment of every day.
There was no way I could observe the men to search for the traitor. Each of them were doing their jobs just to stay alive. There was only a united front here, nothing more and nothing less.
Corporal Rafter’s radio crackled to life. “Backup on location. Request brief.”
Rafter replied with a hurried explanation of where they were and what was going on. The relief on the soldiers’ faces was palpable. They’d done it, they’d survived until backup arrived.
My relief was palpable too.
After a few more minutes, each one feeling like hours, the men were able to stand. The gunfire fell back as we moved as a unit through the market. The backup soldiers had come in behind the Taliban members and taken out enough of them so we could move.
We were still outnumbered, but no longer trapped. I was ordered back to the truck while the soldiers attacked to reduce the enemy’s numbers.
My whole body was shaking while I listened to the barrage outside. It was impossible to tell which side was winning, if any. At the end of the day all both sides were doing was adding to the body count.
There were no winners in war.
Shaun had said that to me the other night and now I fully understood what he meant by it. It was fine to sit at home and see the updates on the news, but it was a whole new ballgame when you were actually on the frontline. My heart went out to all the soldiers.
They were gone for hours before finally leaving the marketplace. Privates Hamilton and Ridley had both lost their lives in the carnage. We had to take their bodies back to base in the truck. I kept my gaze forward so I didn’t have to look at their lifeless corpses.
It was selfish of me to be grateful that Shaun wasn’t on the mission today. I shouldn’t have valued his life over any of the others, but I did. I couldn’t help it. My heart beat for him and no amount of denying it would change that fact. It was something I needed to keep deeply hidden inside.
I’d never been so happy to see a military base before. Only when we passed through the gates did I breathe a sigh of release.
We climbed out of the vehicle, dirty, bloodied, and traumatized. I leaned against the fence for a moment to take it all in.
“You okay, officer?” Corporal Rafter asked. His face was brown from dirt and his vest was covered in someone else’s blood.
“Yeah, just a little…”
“Take it easy tonight and forget everything you saw.”
I wished it was that easy. My feet started moving but I walked like a zombie. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do now. How did you return to normal after seeing what we’d seen out there?
When people you’d only spoken to that morning, had died?
I ended up in my meeting room office, needing some time alone so I didn’t break
down in front of everyone. My head went down onto the desk and I let out the tears I’d been holding in.
More than anything, I wanted to be in Shaun’s arms. He would whisper sweet lies into my ear and make it all better. I needed that kind of comfort, that sense of safety you could only find in a lover’s arms.
The daylight outside turned dark and still I sat there. My stomach was rumbling, telling me it was past dinner time.
I wiped my face before I returned to the public realm. The mess hall was beckoning me with the smell of mass-produced food. I didn’t care what it tasted like, I just needed it in my stomach.
The hall was relatively empty as I made my way through the line quickly. I sat at a table by myself and tried not to think of the two soldiers who wouldn’t be joining us tonight.
I said a prayer for them and hoped some higher force heard me.
The moment my tray was returned and I was ready for a long-overdue shower, I ran directly into Major Atoll. “There you are. I need to talk to you in my office, now.”
I trailed after him without argument. He was understandably wound up. Corporal Rafter was already in his office and waiting for us.
The major closed the door behind us. “Private Simon is missing,” he started. “After what happened today out there, that is proof enough of his guilt.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. My brain was too foggy for the discussion.
Rafter explained further, “We were ambushed in the marketplace today. The Taliban knew exactly when we would be there and knew exactly how to kill us. Simon hasn’t been seen all day. If he was on that mission, he would have been ambushed too. He knew to stay away and now he’s hiding with the enemy.”
The evidence was there, it did seem very suspicious. I could understand why they wanted an arrest quickly after losing our own, but I still had to follow my protocols.
Or was it just because it was Shaun that was making me hesitant?
“Issue an arrest warrant immediately, Officer Ramirez,” Major Atoll said. There was no room for argument.
I nodded. Maybe by the time we found him, the emotions wouldn’t be riding so high.
Shaun’s absence was troubling for more reasons than one. If he wasn’t the traitor, he might be in serious trouble. At least issuing the warrant would motivate people to help search for him.
I hoped he was okay.
He had to be.
Chapter 10:
Private Simon
҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉
Everything was quiet. It was like I had stepped into an alternate universe where nobody talked. I didn’t really know where I was, let alone who was with me.
I was supposed to be meeting Kincaid to do additional training with her but she was nowhere in sight when I arrived in the gym. Maybe I should have been wary when the note she left for me was typed and not hand-written.
Kincaid would have asked me face-to-face.
Hindsight was a bitch.
There had only been one voice I’d heard since this morning and they hadn’t been back for a while. I wasn’t sure how long exactly, but it felt like at least a day.
Everything was black.
Fucking black.
My head was entombed in a black hood. The fucker had placed it over my head about two seconds before he hit me in the back of my head.
I’d fallen to the ground like a sack of potatoes, completely knocked out on impact. I was in a sitting position now, but I had pulled myself up to that pose after the man had left. The moment I heard the click of that lock, I’d tried to get up.
Sitting was the best position I could move to.
My hands were tied together in front of me. I’d always joked about trying out some ropes in the bedroom but never outside of it. And certainly never with a male son-of-a-bitch.
I wished I’d caught a glimpse of him. Just one little hint about who had done this to me and I would track him down and show him what happened when you gave a soldier reason to seek revenge.
In my current state, with my hands tied together and my ankles bound, I wasn’t in any position to get back at him anyway. I’d get my revenge but I would have to get myself out of the situation first.
I tried to picture where I might have been but there were no clues given to me. I’d been unconscious when moved from the corridors of D Block and I couldn’t see, smell, or hear anything now. I could have been anywhere in the world for all I knew.
The click of the lock grabbed all my attention. I thought I might have imagined it.
Until I heard it again.
Something bumped against the door and then it squealed open. My whole body froze as I waited for what would happen next. It could be someone rescuing me, but I wasn’t that naïve. Chances were better that this person was here to hurt me.
I could feel their eyes on me and the single set of footsteps told me it was probably just one person. My best guess was it was the bastard that had knocked me out.
Feet shuffled.
Someone breathed.
Metal clinked on the floor.
“Who’s there?” I said to the darkness. “Tell me who you are so I know who to kill when I get out of here.”
“I don’t think you’re the one in a position to make threats right now.” It was a male voice, the same one I had heard in the split second between being hooded and punched.
“I’m a member of the U.S. Military and I order you to state your name and purpose.”
He laughed under his breath. “What a coincidence, I’m a member of the U.S. Military too. Do you really think that’s going to get you anywhere here, soldier?”
I was trapped between having a sense of self-preservation and wanting to shoot my mouth off. I had to bite my tongue before I said something that might get me killed.
“What do you want then?” I asked, fishing for more information. I racked my brain trying to place his voice with a face but I just couldn’t make the connection. Perhaps it was my concussion that was making my mind a little fuzzy.
“I want everyone to pay for being infidels,” he said with a growl in his voice. His words sent a cold shiver down my spine. I probably shared a table at mealtime with this man, all the while he was devising a plan to kill us all.
There was nobody I could look at in the base and imagine them capable of something like this. While I knew there had to be somebody, I guess I always held hope that the past events were all just coincidences.
Proof of my stupidity was standing right in front of me. He was the man that should have been investigated for traitorous actions, not me. Jenny should be hunting down this man.
Jenny.
I hoped she was okay and this bastard hadn’t done anything to her. One way to escape detection was to take out the officer undertaking the investigation.
“So what am I?” I started. “A hostage? A future murder victim? Tell me what your grand plans are for me. I’m assuming you have some of those, of course. I’m sure you didn’t take me for my sparkling personality and tight ass.”
He leaned in closer, I could feel the heat from his body roiling off him. He dropped his voice to a cold whisper. “You’re my scapegoat.”
The penny dropped as ideas and memories clicked into place. It wasn’t just a coincidence that everyone thought I was the traitor.
They had been led to believe it was me.
This fucker had framed me.
Anger boiled through me, ready to make me burst and forget all about my sense of self-preservation. My hands balled into fists but they couldn’t get anywhere near him while tied together.
“I hope you go to hell,” I said through gritted teeth. If he was closer, I would have bit him. I would have done any damage to him I could, if I could move.
He started laughing and there wasn’t one breath of warmth in it. My blood ran cold, and for the first time since I was taken, I thought these might be the last moments of my life.
The guy stood up, his boots shifting and then stomping as he reached the door. “T
here’s a knife on the floor. I’m done with you.”
Another squeak of the door and he was gone again. I didn’t waste a minute to start scrambling for the knife. I found it, but clutching it between my fingers and using it was another thing entirely.
My grasp on the handle was brief as it kept sliding through my fingers. Every time I dropped it, I went looking for it again. Over and over again I followed the same routine.
Find the knife.
