He stopped smiling when he looked down at the boy. The child didn't cry or fidget in his arms. He didn't blink as his glassy eyes looked up at Baker. He didn't breathe, although his mouth was wide open. Baker felt the boy's blood soak through his shirt. The limp lifeless body bounced like a hollow shell as the Hummer sped down the unnamed road.
Chapter Five: An Unwinnable Situation
Shaw tossed the folder on the table in a theatrical display of exasperation. "And in the three weeks since then, I've had the local news media claiming we kidnapped the kid and killed Popanjar when he attempted a rescue. Local militias have threatened to step up their attacks and the State Department is accusing us of derailing their diplomatic efforts with our negligent operations." He pinched the bridge of his nose to add to the drama. "Add in the lost asset, the dead kid, and the cost of your injury, and I think we have the textbook definition for a complete cluster fuck."
Trent sat back and folded his arms. The scars on his dark skin made Baker think of tribal tattoos. "The opposition intel was suspect. Popanjar had a whole team of insurgents hidden in his office. We walked into an ambush. We were lucky to get out without higher casualties."
Carpenter didn't react well to the accusation. He leaned into the table, balling his hands into fists as he spoke. "Popanjar wouldn’t put himself at risk to set us up. We poked the bear, and we got bit in the ass for it." The next statement was directed at Baker, even if Carpenter didn't turn to look at him. "If we stuck to the script, the op wouldn't have gone sideways. Popanjar was a quality asset. We just didn’t handle him the right way." And by "we," Baker knew who his partner meant him.
Chu leaned in to challenge Carpenter on Baker's behalf. "We were in an unwinnable situation. How the hell were you supposed to ignore Popanjar's pedophilia, when it was thrown in your face like that?" Chu's unspoken question toward Carpenter, "How could you support and condone that shit in the first place?" lingered between them before Shaw jumped back into the argument.
“It doesn't matter if the intel was bad. You are paid to deal with the situation that arises. It doesn't matter what Popanjar did with the kid. Your assignment was clear; meet the asset and determine his worth. Your rules of engagement were the same as they were for any recruitment op and those rules don't include firing three rounds into an unarmed man."
"He was a..."
"I don't care what he was!" Shaw's eyes bulged out of his head when he shouted. "I don’t care, Trident doesn't care, the State Department doesn't care—so you don't care!"
He pointed an accusing finger down at the file. "Do you really think this is the first pervert we recruited as an asset? Fuck, Chu, almost every one of the people we deal with in this war has some kind of twisted shit going on behind closed doors. That's how we get them. We feed their needs in exchange for what we want. If your field commander wasn't such a faggot, he would use that to his advantage instead of overreacting and nearly getting you all killed." Baker noticed Chu didn’t even flinch in response to the homophobic slur. After spending years in DSS and a year at Trident, he had probably heard a lot worse.
The silence in the room was oppressive, but Baker let it sit for a while. Now that they had all had a chance to talk around him, Baker knew it was his turn to defend himself, lash out, or give up. He wasn’t in a rush to speak. The throbbing in his wounded leg felt like a never-ending stab of a knife in his thigh. The sound of the child's whimper still resonated in his memory, like the glassy look in the dead boy's eyes. But this meeting had to end sometime, so Baker turned to Shaw and his bulging eyes, giving him his best warm smile. "Ladies, we all know how this story ends, so why don't we just play it out and move on with our lives?"
Shaw smiled back as he gathered up the files in front of him. "I'll tell you how the story ends, Baker. It ends with your summary dismissal; effective immediately. Even if you were mentally sound for field operations, which you clearly are not based on this debriefing, your disability makes you useless for field work. You're done in this business, so please feel free to move on with your life." Then Kevin Shaw turned on his heel, walked out of the conference room and slammed the door behind him.
"Bullshit," Trent said to everyone and no one.
"We can get him back in," Carpenter said, looking around the table for support. "Ghost has a proven track record and a long list of contacts in his pocket. I can smooth things out with Shaw. It will only take a few phone calls once he's back on his feet..."
Baker shook his head. "I’m not crawling back to Trident. Not like this." He looked down at his leg. "Mr. Shaw might be right. It might be time to move on."
Carpenter was clearly confused. "What about us? Who’s going to run Nightwatch?"
It took Baker a moment to slide out of his chair and up to his feet. He still wasn't used to the new cane. "You've been waiting for your chance for a field command. This might be your time to step up."
Carpenter looked up at him in bemusement. "I didn't want it like this. I didn't want my shot to cost you your career."
Baker was quite sure Carpenter didn't care if he lived or died, as long as he got more power in the end, but he gave Carpenter the same warm smile he offered to Shaw. "It's a cutthroat business, Silence. We do what we need to do. Let’s go. I’ve got some time to kill before my flight and I need some liquor for pain management. I’ll let you boys buy me some farewell drinks and tell me how much you’ll miss me."
"Bullshit," Trent said to everyone and no one.
Chapter Six: The Master Plan
The four operators spent the rest of the afternoon drinking and mocking each other with the affection men reserve for their true friends. When it was time for Baker to catch his flight back to the States, Chu drove him in the Hummer. The two men rode in silence for a while before Baker spoke, almost to himself.
"Trent was right. Popanjar was a setup."
Chu looked torn between keeping his eyes on the road and looking over at him. "What about what Silence said? Why would he put himself in harm’s way like that? Why not just have us ambushed from a safe location?"
"Popanjar wasn't the mastermind. He was the bait. Kata’ib al-Karbala probably found out about his fetish toward young boys and blackmailed him with it. They force him to find a Western devil and entice us with promises of intelligence. He gets us to the location and we're so preoccupied with the kid we don't even notice the AKs pointed at our heads."
Chu sighed like a world-weary fighter. "And they told Popanjar if he did what he was told, he would get to live?"
“Probably, but deep down he might not have believed it. That would explain the nervous sweat and the desperate tone. He was looking for a way out and he couldn’t see one. I didn’t see one either, not for him. He was dead as soon as Kata’ib al-Karbala found him and the boy. I was just the instrument of his demise."
"So Carpenter walked us right into a shit show?" Chu’s hands gripped the wheel tighter than necessary to make the next turn.
"Maybe, he was so blinded by the promise of a high-value asset that he might have ignored the warning signs. But there might not have been any signs to see. I didn't put it together myself until I saw how insistent Popanjar was to rape the boy in front of us."
"And that's when you shot him."
"That's when I shot him."
They drove for a moment, then Baker saw Chu smile. After a few seconds, his friend started to laugh. "You are so full of shit."
The statement caught him off guard. "What are you talking about?"
"You saw Popanjar abusing that kid and decided to save him. That's all. That's why you dragged him out of that apartment. Maybe it was a setup from the beginning, but you didn't know that when you took the shot. You didn't care about all that. You saw something wrong, and you decided to do something about it.”
Baker didn’t respond and Chu wasn't finished anyway. “You're giving the whole thing an operational spin now to make yourself feel like a tough guy. Maybe you're trying to dull the pain of losing the kid. I get it. M
aybe you're trying to convince yourself you can be like Shaw and ignore the fucked-up shit people like us do to get our job done. But I don't think you can. In spite of the image you're trying to push, you actually care. That's all this is about."
Baker rubbed his wounded leg and smirked at Chu. "You have an opinion of me that can't be healthy in the long run."
Chu stopped the Hummer in front of the terminal and shut off the car, scanning the other vehicles for trouble. "I know you've got your shit together, unlike our former employer."
"Trident is my former employer. You still have a place in Nightwatch if you want it."
"I'm not sure I want to work for a shop that needs to support perverts and scum to make things happen."
Baker shook his head. "Kevin and Chris have a point. It's hard to get away from the reality of who our assets are. Not everyone is going to put a bullet in the head of a child molester."
"I know. That's why I've decided to follow you around."
Baker chuckled. "That might not be a wise career path. There might not be a lot of work out there for a cripple."
Chu chuckled along with him. "Bullshit is your default setting, isn't it? We both know you're not getting out of the life. You don't know anything else, and you're not the retiring type. I'm willing to bet you already know your next landing spot. All I’m asking is you keep me in mind when you need boots on the ground. Even if you do get out of the life, you'll still need someone to drive your crippled ass around for a while."
They both laughed. "I appreciate the support, but this doesn't change anything. I'm still not going to let you fuck me."
"Don't flatter yourself. I don't want you. I'm just trying to get close to your hot wife."
"You wouldn't know what to do with my wife, kid."
"I'd do better than you."
Baker eased himself out of the car gingerly and reached for his bag with a free hand. “Trident is getting desperate. The Iraq accounts won’t last forever. It might be better for me to move to a command and control position in a new shop now, before everyone here is out on the street looking for work.”
Chu shook his head and smiled. “I knew you had an angle. Part of me thinks getting shot was part of your master plan.”
“Nope.” Baker closed the door and turned toward the terminal. “But plans change. We’ve got to adapt or die. I’ll reach out in a few weeks. Try not to get killed while I’m gone. I really need someone to drive me around now."
Interlude: Going Solo
Summer 2014
Nikki tried to change the subject to keep herself from screaming. “So did the whole team leave with you to join RSVP?”
The somber darkness left Warren’s face as he shrugged his shoulders. “Not all at once. Chu left Trident a few weeks after me. The other one tried to set up his own team, but that didn’t work out so he came running back to me for help when his freelance work went sideways.”
Nikki appreciated Warren’s reference to “the other one”. They all knew he meant Chris Carpenter, but Baker also knew Nikki had no interest in hearing any more about her former lover. She kept the discussion moving to make sure they didn’t linger on the subject.
“What happened to Harrison?”
Warren shrugged again. “He tried to stay in Trident for a while, but he ran into some complications in the Congo…”
Book Two: Toy Soldiers
Chapter One: The Shit List
Fall 2008
“There is no part of this operation that makes any fucking sense.”
Trent leaned over his untouched whisky in an attempt to keep his voice low. He sat across from his operations officer in the back of the small bar. Trent positioned their discussion close to the bathroom and away from both the bartender and the front door. They shared the dark, dank room with only six other men who all watched a riot breaking out in the middle of a regional soccer league match. All the other men yelled at the TV and argued with each other as if they were caught up in the melee. No one paid attention to Trent’s rant, least of all his conversation partner.
Norman Tolbert drained his Primus and motioned the bartender for another. He only turned back to Trent when he realized the man couldn’t be pulled away from the television. His generous consumption of beer, and his lack of interest in Trent’s concerns made his eyes glaze over. “You’re not really in a position to question mission details, marine, but I’m feeling generous. Why don’t you tell me why there’s a stick up your ass and I’ll give you complete and detailed reasons why I don’t give a fuck.”
Trent fought the urge to break the beer bottle over Tolbert’s sweaty misshapen head and focused on his complaints instead. “First, you haven’t allocated the proper resources for the job. What you’re asking for requires at least a fire team maybe two. If I go in alone, it increases the risk and lowers the probability of success.”
“Ok…”
“Second, your intel is suspect. You don’t have any agents on the ground to direct me to the exact location. I’m going to be wandering around in the dark with my dick in my hands trying to find this cache.”
“True…”
“Third, the entire command and control element is unprofessional and negligent. Shaw doesn’t have any area expertise or field experience. He’s basing his plans on hopes and dreams, instead of facts and analysis.”
“Is there anything else?”
“Only that we shouldn’t be having operational briefings in a fucking bar!” Trent banged his fist on the table in spite of his attempt at control. No one turned around to see what happened. They were too busy arguing over the latest riot footage.
Tolbert busied himself by peeling off the label from his empty bottle. “You know, Shaw told me you were going to be a problem. He said you had issues with authority. He said your time with Baker made you forget the chain of command.”
“I remember what bullshit looks like.”
“Do you remember how it feels to be unemployed and on the run? Are you looking forward to being homeless when you get back to the States, or are you planning to go straight to prison and cut out the middleman?”
“Trident isn’t the only company paying shooters. I don’t need you to find work…”
“Yes you fucking do. One word from me and your name gets put on the shit list. Then no one in the industry will come anywhere near you, not now, maybe not ever.”
Trent sucked his teeth with empty anger. He knew what it meant to be on the shit list. Operators who were outed as part of the extraordinary rendition program didn’t have a bright future in the public or private sector. They had no future at all. Every man on the list became a public relations nightmare. That’s why Trent found himself sitting in a dank bar outside of Kolwezi. That’s why he didn’t break the Primus bottle on Tolbert’s head. That’s why he kept listening now.
“So now that we’ve established who’s in charge, let me address your concerns while I’m still feeling generous. First, you are going in alone at the specific request of the client. They decided it’s better to send one man instead of four---“
“Why, because it’s cheaper?”
“Yes. Welcome to the world of military on demand, boy. We’ve got half a dozen suspected weapons stockpiles headed for Nkunda’s men on the Zambian border. The client is willing to hire a full fire team, but they’re insisting on hitting all six sites at the same time. They don’t want to set off any alarms and risk losing the weapons in the mountains. That’s where you come in. Do you know why they sent you and me down here to fight their little war?”
Smoke and Shadow Page 3
