Collision Course (A Josh Williams Novel)

by Joe Broadmeadow

  Scotton moved off alone to a separate area with his prize.

  The Taliban fighter, legs and arms tied, began to stir. Scotton let him regain the remnants of his physical abilities, Allah the merciful should have spared him. As he recovered, Scotton began his interrogation. Among the Gunny's many talents was an uncanny ability with languages. He began by smiling, welcoming the Taliban, in fluent Pashto, to his home, and then cutting off the fighter's thumbs.

  To say the man was screaming, or more correctly trying to though the gag, is a flagrant understatement. Scotton then asked a series of questions, while running the blade over the remaining fingers. The man was whimpering and begging for his mother. This seemed to drag on for hours. In spite of Scotton's threats, the man retained the ability to count to eight.

  Scotton learned, the group was not the rear security team, but the point of a larger force massed just on the other side of the border. One quick radio broadcast of no more than 10 seconds duration and Marine Aviation and Artillery would send Allah a few hundred more Martyrs. Unfortunately, Pakistani pride and politics outweighed the lives of US forces. As long as they remained on that side of the border, they were untouchable.

  Suddenly, Machado saw a change come over Scotton. The Gunny started pacing back and forth, conversing, pleading, and crying out, to an unseen presence. Scotton looked back at the Taliban, ran at him; bayonet raised, screaming, and sliced the rope binding his arms. Eyes are not made to open that wide except in the presence of absolute terror.

  The man fell to his knees, looked up, and yelled some Pashto version of "You fucking asshole," as he lunged at Scotton. The Gunny shot him dead with his M9A1 9mm sidearm. He looked at Machado and said, "Michael told me to let him die a warrior, how can I argue with that?"

  Machado and Sanchez exchanged glances. Sanchez, trying to lighten the moment, said, "Fuck Sarge, it's not like he could thumb a ride back to Bumfuckistan."

  The Marines began policing the area for anything the Taliban might use against them, preparing to move out. Just as they readied themselves to leave, death decided it wanted three more.

  The Rocket-propelled grenade round, reaching the limit of its range, caught Sanchez in the chest, knocked him on his ass, and fell, without detonating, to the ground. Sanchez looked at Gunny and Machado and rolled himself onto the round.

  Nothing happened.

  Gunny Scotton laughed and said, "Sanchez, get up, dumb ass, you look like a monkey trying to fuck a football. It's a fucking dud."

  "Fuck!" Sanchez grimaced as he tried to stand up, "I think my ribs are broken."

  Scotton came over, probed a bit until Sanchez started swearing in Spanish. "Listen, son, you just have to be tough. We cannot leave anything behind, so suck it up and let's go.”

  Grabbing Sanchez by the arm, Gunny said, “One other thing, I speak Spanish as well. If you ever say something about my mother again, I will shove a working RPG up your ass, comprende' Pancho?"

  Machado hoisted the communication equipment and started down the trail. Sanchez in the middle, Gunny covering the trail as best he could. They went about three kilometers; Machado motioned for them to stop.

  He saw movement ahead.

  Sanchez set up a position to cover them. Scotton moved off to the flank, while Machado kept on point to identify the target.

  He did not have to wait long.

  The group of Taliban moved quickly. Machado guessed they knew their lead team was compromised and decided to intercept the Marines. The Taliban knew these hills and mountains so well they seemed to be able to materialize out of nowhere.

  Sanchez spotted the sniper, leaving him no choice. He squeezed off a burst of fire, cutting the man in half, eliminating the threat but alerting the larger group to their presence. Gunny threw five fragmentation grenades into the middle of the group and beat feet back to Sanchez and Machado.

  "Sanchez," Gunny pointing to the likely route the Taliban would use to get to them, "keep their fucking heads down so Machado and I can get around them. We'll set up crossing fire positions and take 'em out."

  Sanchez smiled and set his weapon on full-auto, readied extra ammo, and waited for them. "Aye, Aye, Sarge, I got it."

  As Gunny and Machado made their way to flank the Taliban, a burst of fire told them Sanchez was at work.

  Then it all went to shit.

  They heard Sanchez screaming. Gunny pointed Machado toward the top of the rise and ordered him to continue while he went back for Sanchez. As he made his way down the reverse slope, a round caught him just above the knee, broke his leg, and sent him rolling down the hill, almost landing on top of Sanchez.

  Machado made his way to the top and looked down onto a group of ten Taliban, the taller one, standing in the middle, was clearly the leader. They were all listening as he spoke; gesticulating toward Sanchez's, and now Gunny Scotton's, position.

  Machado took him out with one round to the head, and then managed to kill or wound seven more before bailing from the position. Now that they knew he was there, he would move somewhere else.

  The Hajis would assume he'd go help the wounded Marines.

  He was going to do that, but not directly.

  If Gunny Scotton and Sanchez were alive and conscious, they were still dangerous Reconnaissance Marines, not taken easily. If they were dead, Machado could not fix that, but he would take out as many of the bastards as he could.

  Machado moved away from his position to the rear of the Taliban. He came upon two wounded fighters and insured they would not recover. Grabbing an AK-47, he moved further off and began firing the Taliban weapon. The AK-47 has a very distinctive sound, readily identifiable by anyone familiar with the weapon.

  Machado was going to use the Taliban's lack of field immediate communication to draw the others to the sound of the weapon, which he hoped they would assume was their own.

  Moving a hundred meters away from his original firing position, he watched as three more Taliban cautiously made their way to the ravine bottom. He pulled the pin on a frag, threw it at the Taliban, and then moved perpendicular to his position. The grenade went off, killed one of the fighters, wounded the other two, one severely.

  The lightly wounded fighter moved toward Machado's last position, trying to lure Machado into a direct confrontation. These bastards aren't pussies, Machado thought, as he moved ninety degrees to the right.

  The Taliban, surging with adrenaline, ignoring the intense pain from his wounds, yelled for Allah's help, and ran over the top of the rise. Firing quickly, spraying the area with automatic weapon fire.

  Machado rolled to his left, firing back, catching the guy in the left shoulder, spinning his body. The weapon continued to fire as the Taliban spun down to the ground.

  Two rounds caught Machado. One bullet passed through the lower leg muscle, the other through Machado's upper-right shoulder. The rounds exited without hitting any bones. Neither was fatal, as long as he stopped the blood flow, but they were painful.

  Machado fired once more, killing the Taliban fighter.

  Machado knew he needed to get back to Corporal Sanchez and Gunny Scotton. If they were dead, he did not want the Taliban defacing the bodies. If they were wounded but alive, he did not want them captured.

  Using his field medical kit, he wrapped his wounds as best he could, slowing his blood loss. Once he was back with the other two Marines, he would do a more permanent job.

  As he worked his way to a position, he spotted two more Taliban setting up a mortar. Taking them both out, he made his way to the mortar. Machado lobbed a few rounds into the surrounding hillsides before dropping a grenade into the mortar tube, rendering the weapon useless.

  Returning to his original approach, he peered over the top and saw Sanchez, with a compress field dressing on his shoulder, putting a splint on Gunny's leg. Making his way down the slope, he counted fifteen dead Taliban.

  "Will you look at this Sanchez, the fucking prodigal Marine returns." Gunny Scotton smiled, looking at Machado, "Whe
re the fuck have you been while we were killing these bastards?"

  "Killing the rest," Machado replied.

  The Marines tensed as the sound reached them.

  The mortar has an unnerving sound, deep and guttural. One feels it as well as hears it.

  You know the round has left the tube. You can run. But which way? If you run back, and the trajectory is long, you are dead. If you sit still, and the bastard knows his stuff, you are dead. You make yourself small as possible, a part of the earth, and hope...

  Machado regained consciousness.

  He heard the sound of the wind; but there was no wind.

  He saw Gunny Scotton lying on the ground next to Sanchez. He tried calling to them. He could not hear his own voice. Just the whistling sound of the wind.

  Machado started to move toward the two wounded Marines. With each motion, he felt searing pain. From his shoulders to the small of his back, he felt as if he was on fire. Reaching back, his hand returned covered in blood.

  Painfully making his way to Sanchez, he checked for a pulse, it was weak, but he was breathing. Gunny Scotton began to stir and tried to rise up. One hand torn to pieces, covered in shrapnel wounds from his feet to the top of his left shoulder, and his right eye swollen and distended.

  Sounds slowly returned. He heard more rounds incoming.

  Crawling toward Sanchez, spitting blood, Scotton ordered, "Go find that mortar, Sergeant, I'll take care of Sanchez, if they fire with the same trajectory again we're screwed."

  Machado made his way toward where he thought the mortar was set up. Gambling the guy would be firing a pattern out further from his position, trying to bracket the Marines. He heard another round, and it gave him a fix on the position. The round arced further east, giving Machado the opportunity to focus on killing the bastard and not worrying about his two friends.

  Rising slowly to the top of the rocky tableau, he caught sight of the mortar. There were five Taliban. Two were operating the mortar; the other three were in the process of setting up a DsHK 12.7mm machine-gun.

  They were trying to lure the Marines back to their position, get them to attack the mortar, and then take them out with the heavy automatic weapons' fire.

  Not bad, not going to work, but not bad, Machado thought.

  The two mortar men carelessly left their AK-47's out of reach, making them less of a direct threat when he opened fire. Planning his attack, Machado would take out the machine-gun team first, and then go after the mortar men. It would take them time to react to Machado's initial assault. Enough time, Machado hoped, for him to eliminate them before they got to their rifles.

  Then, for once, chance intervened in a positive way.

  The three Taliban working on the machine-gun, laid down their weapons, walked over to the mortar position, and began arguing.

  Machado's elimination of the leader left a void.

  Quickly revising the plan, Machado threw two frag grenades into the group and opened up on them in full-auto mode.

  Not as economical as his previous work, but quite effective.

  Moving down the slope, he retrieved some Russian grenades from the dead, used them to destroy the mortar and machine-gun, and headed back.

  Making his way back to Gunny and Sanchez, Machado set up the communication net and called for a medical evacuation chopper. Using the encrypted channel, he provided their position and situation. The response was as expected. Within minutes, several Super Cobra helicopter gunships and a Huey transport chopper arrived on scene.

  Hoisting Sanchez onto the chopper first, then Gunny Scotton, Machado threw off his pack, weapon, and helmet and jumped in. The chopper pilot began climbing out. The force of the liftoff threw Machado headfirst into one of the supporting pillars, knocking him unconscious.

  The medic, working on Sanchez and Scotton, looked over, saw Machado was breathing, and continued to work on the more severely wounded Marines. He would get to Machado when he could.

  On arrival at the Medical Station, the staff evaluated the Marines. Machado regained consciousness, but was having trouble moving his right arm, difficulty speaking, and was unable to follow simple commands.

  The doctors managed to stabilize Machado and ordered him transported to the airfield. Within an hour, he was airborne to Germany.

  JoJo served his last tour.

  Chapter 4: Welcome Homeless

  On December 24, 2004, Staff Sergeant Anthony Machado received an Honorable Discharge from the United States Marine Corps. A consequence of his designation as medically unsuitable for duty due to wounds suffered on 5 October 2004 in Combat Operations, Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

  Staff Sergeant Machado received the following decorations for actions while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  Navy Cross

  Bronze Star with "V" Device

  Purple Heart with three Oak Leaf Clusters

  The citation for the Navy Cross reads as follows:

  The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Staff Sergeant Anthony Machado, United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving as an Assistant Squad Leader with First Reconnaissance Battalion, First Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force Afghanistan on 5 October 2004, in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. Sergeant Machado was assigned a part of a three-man reconnaissance patrol in the hotly contested Kajaki region of Helmand Province, tasked with locating and interdicting the Taliban's infiltration routes. Machado, along with two other Force Reconnaissance Marines, engaged Taliban fighters in an ambush, killing twelve and destroying a Stinger missile launcher. A heavy volume of small arms and machine-gun fire then poured in on the Marines from three enemy positions. All three Marines were wounded. Despite suffering a concussion and neck and shoulder fragmentation wounds from 73-mm blasts, Sergeant Machado exposed himself to the unrelenting barrage of enemy fire, taking up several positions to engage the enemy with his rifle and grenade launcher and protect his wounded fellow Marines. Despite being wounded twice more, Sergeant Machado continued to engage the enemy, leading them away from the injured Marines. His unhesitating actions resulted in the elimination of all enemy combatants. Sergeant Machado then contacted evacuation helicopters and transported the friendly casualties to a landing zone 1000 meters away. Refusing to seek treatment for his own wounds, Sergeant Machado steadfastly held his position providing protection for his fellow Marines until the responding support elements safely evacuated the patrol area. By his decisive actions, bold initiative, and complete dedication to duty, Sergeant Machado reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.

  At the award ceremony, Machado received heartfelt thanks from Gunnery Sergeant Michael Scotton and newly promoted Sergeant Emilio Sanchez, both of whom recovered from their wounds and returned to full duty.

  On June 6, 2005, JoJo received a letter from the Veterans Administration regarding the application for full disability due to injuries suffered in combat. JoJo looked at the envelope, opened it a skimmed through it.

  Sergeant (Retired) Anthony Machado

  United States Marine Corps

  101 Third Street

  Apartment 21

  East Providence, RI 02914

  RE: Claim 564573USMC-2004, Application for Disability Eligibility

  Dear Sergeant Machado,

  Review of your application is complete, and the result of this inquiry is as follows. Per the requirements set forth in applicable Federal Statutes and Department of Veterans Affairs Regulations, all requests for determination of disability eligibility must meet stringent requirements...

  JoJo did not understand most of it. He tried to read it all but only caught part of it. The last part read,

  Review of the medical reports indicates the injury contributed to, but did not cause, the current diminished cognitive brain functionality.

  A review of the petitioner's prior medical history indicates the prima
ry cause of the condition was pre-natal alcohol and drug use by the birth mother commonly identified as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. This condition indicated by a progressive, long-term, deterioration of brain and cognitive functionality.

  The injury suffered aboard the helicopter exacerbated, but did not cause, the condition.

  Determination:

  It is the determination of this agency that the petitioner's request for a 100% disability is denied, and the petitioner is designated as 20% disabled.

  Petitioner is eligible for the applicable disability payments based on this designation retroactive to the date of discharge from the United States Marine Corps. Enclosed is a check in the amount calculated from the date of eligibility to the end of the current month. Subsequent disability payments will be sent to the address on record on the first of each month.

  The decision may be appealed by filing the appropriate documentation with the Veteran's Administration with 90 days of this notice.

  JoJo cashed the check and threw away the letter.

  Chapter 5: A Time to Kill

  To everything, there is a season… a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up. Ecclesiastes 3-1

  It is unnatural to kill, despite our human propensity for it.

  One of nature's great mysteries is why we evolved to be so efficient at something that can haunt us.

  March 15, 2006 started in the usual way for East Providence Police Sergeant Josh Williams, an early-morning 5k run, followed by breakfast at Julie's Kitchen in Riverside Square, and then picking up his partner, Lieutenant Christine "Swiss Cheeks" Hamlin.

  Christine Hamlin, born into a well-to-do family in Rumford, RI on June 25, 1952 in the midst of the Korean War, was not your typical cop.

  Her father was a major corporate adviser on several Boards of Directors for companies with significant military contracts. Warfare had enriched Chris’s life.