Luke was a true hero. Megan’s heart soared with sudden, nearly overwhelming desire for him. The only luck she had had was being assigned to his hut. She might not be able to kiss him, share her growing love for him, but at least she was near him. It was enough under these dangerous circumstances.
Chapter 8
“Stay safe out there!” Megan called as Luke opened the door. Dawn had chased away the night. This morning, he was scheduled to go out with a search-and-destroy team to scour the east slope of the mountain. It was a daily and dangerous job because the enemy hid among the thousands of large gray boulders. By day they hid from roving Marine patrols and by night, they fired grenades into the compound. Last night had been no exception, and Megan had spent half the night huddled in one of the many bunkers along with other Marines. She felt a twinge of sadness. Had it been three weeks since they’d shared that day at Bagram? Since then, Megan had settled into the rhythm of the company.
Luke turned, medic bag slung over his left shoulder. “Promise.” Megan looked tired, shadows beneath her eyes. But who didn’t? She had yet to wrap her hair into a ponytail. The urge to slide his fingers through that crimson mass was real. No one else was in their hut, and it would be easy to do. Yet at what cost? Neither was willing to push the relationship because of the circumstances. Giving her a half smile, he asked, “Are you staying in the compound today?”
“Yes. I’ll be holding clinic at 0800.” Megan sat down on the cot and pulled on a pair of clean, thick green socks.
“Wish I could be with you.”
“I do, too. Please be careful out there, Luke....”
“Always.” He saw the Marine squad assembling near the gate and the two Humvees. “Are you going to see Mina today?”
Shaking her head, Megan pulled on her boots. “No, she’s gone across the mountain to Jabbar Gholam’s village to talk with her friend Tahira. Her husband sent two of his soldiers to protect her. She said she’d be back in a week. I guess the way across the mountain is rugged and hard.”
“Not to mention over ten thousand feet in nothing but boulders, gravel and scree.” He made a face. “And that’s where we’ll be today, hunting Gholam’s soldiers.”
An unusual coldness crept through Megan. She sat up and gave him a tender look. “I’ll keep you and the guys in my prayers today.”
He blew her a kiss. “Good thoughts count. See you later.”
Megan felt the warmth in the house disappear after Luke left. She busied herself with her pack, forcing her mind on the clinic. As she hefted her pack across her left shoulder, she wished she had kissed Luke goodbye. Megan hurried out the door and shut it, the chill seeping into her jacket. The noise of two Humvees filled the air. They left the compound.
Another Marine squad was mounting up in a truck, and two more Humvees went to search the road to the village for IEDs. It was always dangerous work. Looking to her right as she headed to the small clinic near HQ, she noticed Luke’s squad in Humvees heading across a flat plain toward the massive rocky slopes of the mountain to the east.
Would Gholam’s soldiers be up there waiting for them? Yes. Captain Hall had verified Gholam was working with al-Qaeda operatives—fellow Pakistanis. He was now on the wanted list. Hall felt the tribal leader was responsible for the attacks on the compound. He had planned for weeks to find and kill him.
“Hey, Doc!”
Halting, Megan turned toward the call. A short, stocky young Marine, a private first class, trotted up to her. On his jacket was his last name: James, R. “Yes?”
“You holding clinic this morning?”
“Headed that way. Why?”
The Marine fell in step with her. “Doc, I’ve got one hell of a toothache.”
“No dentist here, but I’ll see what I can do.” Field medics were trained across a broad spectrum of medical and dental issues.
“Is there a dental team scheduled to come out here?”
She saw him rub his swollen left jaw. “No, but I can make the request to Captain Hall after I examine you.”
“Could you? Because this sucker’s been hurtin’ me for five days now.”
Megan felt for him. The clinic door was locked. She fished the key out of her pocket and pushed the wooden door open. There were three other Marines waiting in line.
Luke had the clinic laid out very well. She quickly got out of her jacket, kept the Kevlar vest on and pulled a crinkled white jacket over her shoulders. In no time, the Marines had stepped inside. Another Marine, Marty, a lance corporal, appeared. He nodded in her direction and then took a seat at the front behind a desk. The lance corporal would log in each Marine patient—name, rank, symptoms—and keep things in order.
Looping the stethoscope around her neck, Megan grabbed a blood pressure cuff and gestured to James to come and sit on a chair next to a gurney.
“I know the drill,” James said with a lopsided grin. He took off his jacket and exposed his burly right arm so she could wrap the blood pressure cuff around it.
“Good to know,” Megan answered with a smile. She held a hand thermometer and placed a clean plastic glove over the tip. After James sat down, she pressed it gently into his left ear. She wrote down the temperature, then took his blood pressure and listened to his heart and lungs. Hands covered with protective gloves, Megan leaned closer and gently examined the right side of his jaw.
“Hurt?” she asked.
“It might if Doc Collier was rootin’ around,” James said, glancing up at her. “But a woman’s touch definitely makes it feel better.”
Megan was used to such teasing. “Open your mouth, James,” she instructed. Peering into it, she saw how swollen the gum had become around the rotten molar. As she pressed her gloved fingers against the whitened gum line, she saw discharge ooze from the gum. “That has to hurt,” she said in apology. Megan removed her fingers. “Relax, James. Close your mouth.” She picked up a clipboard, writing down her examination. Next, she wrote out a script.
“Man, what’s that awful taste in my mouth?” James complained, rubbing his jaw and scowling up at her.
“Discharge, James. You’ve got an abscessed tooth that needs to be pulled. I’m going to put you on some serious antibiotics, give you a sick chit and you’re going to take the day off.”
“Okay, but are you gonna pull it?”
“No,” Megan said, handing him the script. “But I am going to call in a dental team. The antibiotics will help you a lot. You’re running a fever, too.”
James nodded and kept gently massaging his jaw. “I feel like it.” Brightening, he said, “It’s really nice to have a woman medic around here. Thanks.” He got up and moved to the front desk. James handed the prescription to Marty, who would fill it for him.
Megan walked back to her desk and picked up the radio. She called Lieutenant Speed on it and requested he get a dental team to fly in as soon as possible. Megan knew the dental teams were located at Bagram. She looked up to find five more Marines waiting patiently in line to be helped. It was going to be a busy day. There were one hundred and forty men and plenty of medical ailments could crop up among them. Grateful to be busy, Megan didn’t want to worry about Luke out on the hunter-killer patrol.
Just then, Captain Hall entered the clinic. Everyone snapped to attention.
“At ease,” Hall said, taking off his helmet. His gaze fell upon Megan. Walking over to her where she was examining another Marine, he said, “Good morning, Doc. How’s clinic going?”
Megan wondered if the C.O. was checking up on her. She was never sure Hall really wanted her with the company. “Fine, sir. No problems.”
Grunting, Hall looked around, a pleased look coming to his face. “Need anything?”
Grateful for his concern, Megan said, “Yes, sir. We need a dental team flown in here ASAP. I’ve got a Marine with a badly ab
scessed tooth and I already made the request to Lieutenant Speed.”
“Okay, I’ll see what I can do to hurry it through channels. We’ve been needing a dental team out here since we arrived two months ago.”
“It would be a good idea to get them in here,” Megan stressed.
Hall smiled a little and tapped his jaw. “I got a tooth that’s on the fritz, so I’m behind your request.”
She smiled in return. “Is it abscessing, sir? Do you want me to look at it?”
Shaking his head, Hall put the helmet back on his head. “No, I lost part of a filling, is all. I’ll be okay.”
“Yes, sir.” Megan watched the tall, broad-shouldered officer stride out of the clinic. She had found out from Luke that Hall was a Navy Annapolis graduate, or ring knocker. He had the walk of a leader, there was no doubt.
Megan finished at the clinic a little before noon chow. She walked over to HQ. Most of the Marines were out scouring the countryside. About fifty remained within the compound to protect it from attack. Entering HQ, she saw Hall leaning over his X.O.’s desk, intently discussing something on a map. The radio chatter was intense. Frowning, Megan felt suddenly fearful. She heard the voice of Buck Payne come over the radio.
“Red Robin One, this is Red Robin Two. Over.”
Hall grabbed the radio. “Red Robin One. Over.”
“We’ve spotted at least ten Taliban heading up to a cave about a thousand feet above us. All armed and on foot. Three are carrying grenade launchers. Over.”
“Have you cleared the area below you? Over.”
“Roger that. We’ve also cleared our flanks. Over.”
“Engage, Red Robin Two. Over.”
“Confirmed, Red Robin One. Out.”
Megan saw Hall’s face deepen with worry as he placed the radio on the wall shelf. He looked up and saw her standing there.
“Doc?”
Quickly moving forward, Megan handed him the results of her clinic. All the information on each man she’d seen would be placed in a computer. “Here’s the list, sir.”
“Thanks, Doc. Dismissed.”
Megan nodded. “Yes, sir,” she said, and left the HQ. She worriedly glanced up at the mountain to the east. She couldn’t see anyone, but she saw a Marine sniper lying on the flat roof of another building within the compound, his scope aimed up at the slope near the snow line. Judging from the tension in several other Marines’ faces, there was danger somewhere up there.
There was a sudden whummmp from the mountain. It echoed loudly across the valley. Gasping, Megan could see, even from this distance, a frightening amount of rock and dirt flying high into the air and down the slopes. What was it?
“Doc, you’d better get inside,” James told her, pointing toward a bunker.
“What’s going on?” she asked, trying to keep the anxiety out of her voice.
“There’s gonna be one helluva standoff up there. Listen, you need to get to safety, okay?”
Megan nodded jerkily, adrenaline starting to thread through her veins. Another huge explosion reverberated off the mountain. Marines were running for the compound walls and the four towers, rifles in hand.
Captain Hall emerged from HQ, binoculars trained on the slope high above them. His mouth was thinned. Megan turned and headed toward him.
“Sir? What’s happening?”
Hall let the binoculars drop to his chest. “Firefight,” he said grimly. Lifting a radio, he made a call requesting two Apache helicopters to come in and help the Marines on the mountain.
Watching the firefight, Megan squinted, hand shading her eyes. She could barely make out flashes of muzzle fire but couldn’t hear the actual fight. Only the giant dust clouds hanging in the air above the area were proof they were engaged with the enemy. “What’s going on?”
Hall pointed upward. “The Taliban is holed up in that cave. Sergeant Payne is dropping bags of C4 explosives into it to get the enemy to give up and come out. Those were the two explosions you heard.”
“That C4 won’t do the trick,” Lieutenant Speed said, moving to stand alongside Hall. His hands were on his hips, his eyes narrowed on the firefight. “They’d rather die in hell and go to the promised heaven with their rewards waiting for them.”
Gulping unsteadily, Megan had seen firefights before. And sometimes she had been caught in the midst of them. This one, however, was different. Luke was up there with the Marines. Her heart began to thunder in her chest and suddenly she realized just how much Luke really meant to her. It was one thing to have someone you cared for in combat. It was completely different to see it happening in live time and not on some television video on a news network. “What’s going to happen, then?” she asked the grim-faced lieutenant.
“The Apaches are on their way. At that point, we’ll order the squad out of the area and let the combat helicopters bury those bastards once and for all.”
The radio at Hall’s side exploded with yelling and screaming. Hall listened intently. “We’re taking casualties,” he warned his lieutenant.
Oh, God. No. Megan nearly whispered the words, tension thrumming through her. She knew Luke would be right in the middle of it. He was without protection and would be exposing himself in order to reach any wounded Marines beneath the heavy returning fire from the trapped Taliban. How she wished she could be at his side! She heard Captain Hall order Payne and his squad to retreat. He asked how many were wounded.
“Three, sir. One is—” More explosions followed.
Fingers pressed against her throat, Megan stopped a cry from escaping her mouth. The two Marine officers were completely focused on the slope of the mountain. They became even more somber.
“Sir,” Megan said, turning to Hall, “can we call in medevac?” She knew it could not land up there on the slope where the firefight was taking place, but it could land down here, just outside the compound. At least she could prepare and help when the wounded were brought down off the slope.
“Yes,” Hall said, gesturing to his lieutenant to make the call to Camp Bravo, the nearest CIA base that had a medical detachment.
Megan wanted to do more, but couldn’t. Within twenty minutes, two heavily armed Apache combat helicopters appeared over the horizon. As they drew near, Megan wondered if they were from the Black Jaguar Squadron. She got her answer when Hall called the lead pilot and a woman’s cool, steady voice answered.
While she was hanging on every word of the radio calls, it was apparent to Megan the Marine squad was out of the area where the Apaches would send in their Hellfire missiles.
“Cover your ears,” Hall warned her.
Automatically, Megan pressed her hands to her sensitive ears and opened her mouth. That way, her ears would equalize any blasts and her eardrums would be protected. She saw thick white smoke belch from beneath the stubby wings of the first Apache as the missile was fired. There were thunderous, booming sounds echoing across the entire valley. The earth vibrated and shook powerfully around them. Megan had seen Apaches in action over in Iraq, but not this close. She wondered how the Marines were handling being close to those destructive missiles fired into the cave.
The second Apache swung in and fired off two more Hellfire missiles into the cave covered by huge, billowing dust clouds. Megan closed her eyes for a moment, wishing fervently for an end to all wars. There had to be a better way! Opening her eyes, she blinked back tears. The Apaches swung over the compound, their heavy rotors puncturing the air and hurting her ears.
Automatically, she lifted her hand and waved to them. They were close enough to see the two women in each cockpit. Megan could swear one lifted a gloved hand and waved back to her.
“Here comes medevac,” Hall warned her sharply. “They’ll land over there.” He pointed to a huge, circular area at the south end of the compound. It was free of rocks and pebbles so
the blades wouldn’t kick up the gravel and hurl it skyward, injuring anyone standing nearby.
“Here comes the squad,” the lieutenant called, pointing toward the lower gravel slope.
The dust swirled from two Humvees hightailing across the flat plain toward the compound. They would arrive in less than a minute. The medevac landed, the rotors sending up huge, billowing clouds of red dust flying in all directions, blotting out the helicopter.
Megan knew she’d be of more help to the struggling squad than waiting at the helo. Racing out the open gates, she tore across the road and headed directly toward the two Humvees that slammed on their brakes. Marines piled out of them. As she drew close, she saw to her horror that the three Marines were seriously injured. One had a leg nearly torn off. Shoving all her emotions deep down inside her, Megan spotted Luke helping to carry a wounded Marine out of the second vehicle. The entire front of his uniform was bloodied. She wasn’t sure if he’d been hit or it was the blood of another Marine. He was holding a dressing to the other unconscious Marine’s bloodied head.
Their eyes met for a second.
“Megan, keep that tourniquet tight on the other Marine’s leg!” he yelled hoarsely.
Nodding, Megan shifted and spun to the right. Buck Payne and another Marine carried the third unconscious man between them. Their faces were grimy and covered with dust, sweat creating trails through it. Payne’s eyes were black with rage as they hurried forward.
Megan spotted the tourniquet. It had come loose! Buck ordered the Marine to be laid on the ground. Falling to her knees next to the unconscious man, she quickly tightened the tourniquet in order to stop further blood loss.
Beyond Valor Page 12
