Finish the Course (The Barnes Family Book 1)

by Riker, Becky

  Having a woman in camp was not going to be a good thing. It wasn’t because the chief was any sort of chauvinist. Having a mixed-gender team simply complicated everything; sleeping, formation, and taking care of personal needs were easier with a single gender.

  “Are you able to get through, Porter?” Slater asked the communication sergeant.

  “Not yet. At the very least, command knows where we are.”

  Barnes looks up, “You aren’t thinking of staying here until someone comes back to get us,” she frowned as she pointed to the flaming aircraft, “as soon as that dies down, they’ll be looking for whoever was not on that chopper.”

  Porter didn’t disagree, “By ‘they,’ I assume you mean the hadji, and not our guys?”

  Slater cleared his throat at Porter’s choice of words.

  Barnes raised an eyebrow, “I meant whoever it was that shot us down.”

  Porter shrugged, “Maybe they’re looking, but maybe not.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Chung was looking at his map, “we’re wearing GPS devices.”

  “Handy,” Barnes commented, “are they in your uniforms?”

  “Nah,” DeWitt was leaning back on his elbows, “they’re inside us.”

  Barnes looked horrified.

  “Sergeant DeWitt,” Slater rolled his eyes at the man.

  Most of the men chuckled.

  Slater looked up the hill, “Before we all make our way up to the ledge, let’s have a look at what’s up there. Hall, you and Chung go look at the situation.”

  DeWitt scratched his head, “Too bad Emerson’s not here. He loves the spelunking scene.”

  Nobody corrected the man’s present tense reference to his dead team member.

  It didn’t take long for the men to return.

  “There’s plenty of room up there,” Hall offered his opinion, “but there’s also ashes near the entrance.”

  “Is that bad?” Barnes spoke from her place by the tree.

  Slater glanced over his shoulder at her, “Maybe not.”

  Chung responded more bluntly, “Could mean there’s been Taliban around these parts.”

  “Could just be some shepherds,” Slater was annoyed with his intelligence specialist.

  The captain rose and brushed the dirt from her uniform, “How can you tell?”

  Hall shook his head, “We can’t; so we keep watch.”

  Barnes breathed in deeply before nodding, “Okay. What would you like me to do?”

  Slater wanted to tell her she could just stay out of the way, but he thought better of it.

  “Can you handle Garret’s pack?” he nodded at his medical officer.

  She reached for the pack the man was already taking off.

  Slater issued directives to the rest of his men while attempting to keep an eye on the woman. She managed to strap herself into Garret’s pack and pick up the weaponry she had carried across the field. She might do okay.

  “Into the Sked,” Garret smirked at DeWitt and pointed to the rather crude transportation device.

  “Unh huh,” the injured man shook his head, “I went on one of those things during a training exercise. I’d rather pull myself up by my teeth than get into one of those coffins.”

  Garret guffawed.

  “May as well get it over with, DeWitt,” Slater checked the area to make sure they hadn’t left anything behind. Everyone had gotten their MRE wrappers; no personal items had fallen from pockets.

  The squad trudged up the bluff, dragging DeWitt behind. He wore a mask of pain the entire trip, but he didn’t make a sound.

  Slater kept to the rear with the Sked, “You okay? They’re not burning holes in your britches are they?”

  DeWitt grunted.

  “Holes?” Barnes grabbed a small tree to pull herself up.

  “The bottom side gets hot,” Hall grunted as he pulled his share of the weight. “It’s the friction.”

  The trip up the hill took almost as long as the trip across the field.

  Garret and Hall released DeWitt from the Sked and rolled it back up. The injured man looked like he was in more pain than before

  “Chung,” Slater forced his attention to a more pressing topic, “where are we, and where do we want to go?”

  Barnes answered the question, “We’re about twenty miles south and a little east of Muzaffarabad.”

  Slater glanced up at her, “You must have circled back a little.”

  “I didn’t want to be too far away from the planned drop point.”

  Slater nodded, “Good thinking.”

  Chung continued, “I think we should try to complete the mission.”

  Slater wasn’t surprised the man thought that way. As far as Slater knew, the intelligence sergeant didn’t understand the meaning of fear.

  “Do we have any hope?”

  Chung pointed his chin at DeWitt, “We’d have to leave those two here.”

  There was no question as to who the other was.

  Captain Barnes didn’t flinch, “You’re only eight miles from where they are passing through. You certainly have a chance of intercepting them.”

  It occurred to Slater that Captain Barnes did not know what she was suggesting.

  Turner spoke up, “We’re going to have to skip the Xuereb. We don’t have the man power.”

  Slater knew the brass wanted the courier almost as much as they wanted the team’s main target. He wished he knew what Teague would do in a situation like this.

  “Turner’s right,” Chung offered as he moved rocks around to make himself more comfortable in his allotted space. “We can’t afford to separate. We run the risk of losing the package.”

  It dawned on Slater right then that he knew exactly what Teague would do. He would listen to his men’s reasoning and base his decision on logic. He realized Chung and Turner were right. They could perform the mission, but they would have to forgo the secondary plan. There was only one problem.

  He turned to Captain Barnes, “You realize you’d be stuck here until we get back with Hanbali?”

  “Hanbali?” she frowned.

  Chung frowned; Turner cleared his throat.

  “It’s our package,” Garret took the chance to flash a grin at the woman.

  Slater rolled his eyes.

  Captain Barnes didn’t respond to the man’s attention, “Your package is a man?”

  Slater looked at Hall who shook his head.

  “It’s irrelevant right now, Captain. I just need to know if you can protect yourself and DeWitt while we’re gone.”

  She looked at the injured man. He was dozing.

  “How long?”

  “Four days, tops, but you should watch for a chopper as early as first light.”

  It was her turn to nod.

  “I would leave someone else with you, but we’re already short- handed.”

  She frowned, “I understand, Captain.”

  “He’s ‘Chief,’” Chung commented.

  “Sorry, Chief,” she corrected herself.

  “Not a problem.”

  “If we don’t hear that you’ve been picked up, we’ll try to get back after our mission is complete,” Porter offered, “but we may not be able to.”

  Slater thought he saw a snippet of fear pass through the woman’s eyes, but it was gone quickly.

  “I assume you have a contingency plan in that event.”

  Garret leaned a little closer to the woman and lowered his voice, “Nobody’s gonna leave you out here, Captain.”

  Slater shot the man a look that he hoped said, ‘No flirting on a mission.’

  Turner finally had something to say, “They may get you before they get us. You radioed your location, and they’ll probably come looking.”

  “Oh, they’ll come looking alright,” Barnes sounded like a teenager who had stayed out past curfew. “When it comes out that they let me on this mission, there’s going to be a boatload of trouble going down.”

  Slater narrowed his eyes at her before gl
ancing to Hall. That sergeant was beginning to look a bit uncomfortable. Even Chung had stopped what he was doing.

  “Um, Captain Barnes” Porter was the first to speak, “you wouldn’t happen to be related to General Thomas Barnes, would you?”

  CHAPTER THREE

  “What do you mean she’s not here?” the general had not left his own post to speak to his daughter just to discover she had left on some mission.

  The colonel knew it was going to get worse before it got better, “She flew a special forces team across the border.”

  Barnes looked at the Air Force officer over the top of his glasses, “My daughter is in Pakistan?”

  Colonel Olson stood a little taller, “My experienced and capable pilot is in Pakistan, Sir. She volunteered for the mission.”

  The general was not appeased, “When was this?”

  “Early this morning, Sir.”

  “It’s nearly nineteen hundred,” the older man looked at his watch. “Why isn’t she back?”

  The colonel refused to wince, refused to stand back, “She went down. “

  The general’s face went white, “She went down?”

  “She radioed her location just before the crash, but we have been unable to make contact since then.”

  “Are the men moving?”

  “We’ve picked up the signal on eleven of the twelve, sir.”

  “And?” the general sat down heavily.

  “Six of them haven’t moved at all. The other five moved several hours ago, but they’ve been sitting still for a while now.”

  “And they haven’t made contact?”

  The colonel shook his head, “I assume they will when it’s safe.”

  “If they’re able,” the general croaked out.

  The colonel had to offer the man some hope, “Captain Barnes managed to control the chopper for twenty miles after they were hit. She spoke with us as she was going down to find the best location to put the craft down. ”

  “Then why,” the general rose again, “are there at least six men who are not moving?”

  Olson knew he was going to have to tell the General the rest of the story.

  “We lost the signal on the six about two hours after the crash.”

  “They destroyed their own GPS?”

  Olson breathed deeply, “Not likely.”

  “Are you sending someone in to pick up those who are remaining?”

  “We’re sending a Pave out in the morning.”

  “To the current GPS or the Chinook?”

  “There’s only one hundred yards difference, Sir.”

  General Barnes, “I want to speak to the pilot.”

  The colonel frowned, “Sir, I must respectfully – ”

  The general frowned, “Don’t cause more trouble for yourself, Olson.”

  Colonel Olson sighed and turned to his lieutenant, “Get Hanes.”

  Olson couldn’t keep the general from haranguing the pilot, but he made copious notes on the incident.

  General Barnes was also present to watch Hanes take off in the Pave the following morning. Colonel Olson wondered if the Army officer had slept at all the previous night but had better sense than to ask. He also had better sense than to mention that four of the five working trackers had moved during the night.

  “Hey, Barnes,” DeWitt was sitting by the entrance of the cave, “what does that look like to you?”

  Barnes crawled to the mouth, “It’s a Pave.”

  “Ours?”

  She pulled out her binoculars, “It appears to be, but I wouldn’t feel too good about betting my life on it.”

  The chopper landed gently next to the Chinook. The larger aircraft was still smoking.

  “It’s Hanes,” Barnes turned toward DeWitt, “I’m going to go get him.”

  DeWitt smiled, “Don’t forget to come back for me.”

  She grinned, “I wouldn’t think of it. You owe me twenty bucks,” she pointed to the cards.

  DeWitt watched her move quickly down the bluff. He was impressed with how swiftly she moved across the field. Her fellow pilot must have seen her coming because he and his co-pilot glanced across the field, a new awareness of the danger setting in because of her low crawl.

  He could see her talking to them and gesturing with her head in his direction. DeWitt was no dummy. He knew they were not yet safe. He gathered what he could and made his way out of the cave and down the hill.

  He reached the bottom, but still saw no sign that the others were on their way to him. They were moving between the Chinook and the Pave, but he couldn’t tell what they were doing.

  Grinding his teeth against the pain, DeWitt began pulling himself across the field.

  He had reached the half-way point by the time Barnes and another soldier got to him.

  “You’re an idiot, DeWitt,” she helped him roll to his back and fastened a drag strap to him.

  DeWitt groaned.

  “Hanes, this is DeWitt. DeWitt, Major Hanes.”

  DeWitt grunted, “Hanes.”

  The two dragged DeWitt back to the chopper and loaded him in the belly. He looked around himself.

  “You got my team,” he choked on the last word.

  Barnes sat next to him, “Reed covered them all in tarps, hoping the fire would leave them alone. They’re charred, but we’re bringing them home.”

  DeWitt nodded, unable to say much, “Thanks.”

  Barnes understood.

  The chopper lifted off moments later, and shortly after, they were greeted by the sound of an explosion behind them.

  Barnes waved a hand of dismissal at DeWitt’s look of alarm, “They put a charge in the chopper. Nobody bothered it overnight, but we want to make sure they can’t find anything worth their time now.”

  “I never thought I’d feel so safe in Afghanistan,” DeWitt remarked as his gurney was being carried to the medical tent.

  Barnes squeezed his good leg, “It’s been an honor to serve with you, Sergeant DeWitt.”

  DeWitt grasped her hand, “The honor is mine, Captain.”

  The medics entered the tent with him.

  “Captain,” a voice boomed from behind the woman. She closed her eyes momentarily before turning.

  “General,” the tall woman saluted and spoke respectfully, “I was under the impression you were at Kandahar.”

  “I was,” he shot back, “but I had some details I thought I ought to attend in person.”

  She didn’t comment.

  His shoulders dropped a fraction of an inch, “Are you okay?”

  She nodded, “I’m fine, Dad,” her whispered words didn’t carry far, but he could hear them.

  “Glad you made it back safely,” he was standing up straight again.

  “Will you be here long?”

  “Just tonight. I’m due in Washington on Thursday.”

  She nodded, having assumed as much.

  “I would prefer it if you avoided the special forces.”

  “I know, Sir.”

  “But you refuse to agree.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  He scowled but didn’t press.

  “They certainly do not care to have a woman getting in their way.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “But they treated me fine.”

  He turned to survey the airfield, “I’ve met Teague. Good soldier.”

  Anna winced, “He was killed in the landing.”

  The general was silent a moment.

  “It was my fault, Dad. I could have landed more gently if I hadn’t been so intent on getting away from the area.”

  “You can’t do that, Annie,” he didn’t look at her. “You don’t know who would have been waiting for you if you had put it down sooner. You managed to get most of the people out of there alive. Colonel Olson told me about the damage. You were lucky to get it that far.”

  She nodded, “I’d like to check on DeWitt before I go for debriefing.”

  “Don’t get involved with a Green Beret, Capt
ain.”

  She laughed as she saluted, “He’s happily married, Sir, and I’m not planning on getting involved with anyone.”

  DeWitt was in surgery, so she went to find her commanding officer. By the time she was finished, so was DeWitt.

  “I see you shaved,” she commented on his clean face.

  “I figured Reed was going to make us do it before going stateside anyway.”

  “Do you guys always wear beards while out in the field?”

  He shrugged, “May as well. There’s no brass to tell us not to and no girls to impress.”

  Anna laughed, “And those tan lines are so impressive.”

  DeWitt admitted that was a downside.

  “Have you heard anything about your team?”

  “Major Price came in and said he heard from them briefly.”

  “Where are they?”

  “Sitting right now. They’ll move out again in another hour or so.”

  She grimaced, “Sounds fun.”

  “It’s not so bad. You’ve gotta know what your aim is.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Stop the bad guys before they spot you.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The plan to move out was thwarted. The team was, instead, debating what to do with a group of young men that had inadvertently discovered the team.

  The six kids were huddled in against a pile of rocks. Porter stood, impatiently waiting for the order to shoot them.

  “They’re just kids,” Chung argued in English, pointing to the skinniest one. “He looks like a second grader.”

  The kid was older than that by a few years, but Slater understood what Chung was saying.

  Garret spoke in Pasto to the biggest kid, asking what they were doing out there.

  The boy answered rapidly.

  Garret translated for those who didn’t speak Pashto, “They say they’re going to the village on the other side of the mountain to begin school.”

  “School,” Porter snorted. “That’s what they call their indoctrination sessions, where they teach the kids to kill American soldiers.”

  Slater knew there was little chance of changing Porter’s view on the subject. He had tried to demonstrate compassion to the locals he had encountered, but most of the team had a more violent reaction.