“I’m a Delta man,” he said with a laugh. “Delta mon, Delta mon, Delta mon, me son,” he repeated, this time with a West Indian accent.
The two soldiers looked toward the door. One smiled at Mark and shook his head. The man in the chair followed the soldier’s gaze and turned his head toward the door. Captain Jay stomped toward the chair and knocked the man in the jumpsuit to the floor. The two Delta soldiers grabbed Captain Jay. Tommy, Arlan and Charlie were on Captain Jay a second later.
“You prick. Where’s Lisa?” a red-faced Captain Jay shouted and tried to break free of the soldiers.
The man on the ground showed no recognition of Captain Jay, or anybody else in the room, except his Delta babysitters. He smiled while on the floor, grabbed the floppy hat that had been knocked off his head and said, “Delta mon, Delta mon. I and I am Delta mon.”
Arlan frowned and looked to Tommy, who looked just as confused. Even Captain Jay relaxed a little, the red leaving his face.
Charlie didn’t know Boiled Bob as well as the others. He asked, “Is this Boiled Bob?”
Nobody responded.
The man in the jumpsuit stood, walked back to the chair and sat. “Boiled Bob, Boiled Bob, Boiled Bob. I’m Boiled Bob,” he said with a broad grin.
Arlan said, “I don’t think this is Boiled Bob. But damn, he’s his twin.”
The resemblance was remarkable—same size, same hair and the same wild eyes.
“S-something is not r-right with him,” Tommy said.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Captain Jay said.
“Who are you?” Arlan asked the man, who was rocking gently forward and backward with a smile.
The man cocked his head as if thinking about the question and said, “Who are you, who are you, who are you?”
“Jesus,” Charlie said and looked to Mark for an explanation.
The man in the chair then said in a strong, coherent voice, “I’m Boiled Bob of the Delta Force team.”
Boom! Boom! A slightly more muffled sound of ordnance being fired from the anti-aircraft weapon shook the drugstore walls.
Mark glanced at the man in the jumpsuit, then turned to Charlie and said, “We were part of a team sent in early yesterday to rescue some people at the prison. It was heavily fortified and got too hot to safely rescue the prisoners. We had to abandon the mission.”
“We learned that from Colonel Faulkner. He’s coming to get you guys out today sometime,” Charlie said.
Mark pointed to his radio and said, “These are shit, and we haven’t heard anything, but we figured as much.”
Arlan absentmindedly put his hand into the front pocket of his shorts and felt his wallet—a rubber band stretched around a driver’s license, a few bills and a plastic card. He then thought of the pay phone he’d seen near the cash register when they entered the store.
Charlie nodded to the man in the jumpsuit and asked, “How’d you end up with him?”
Mark said, “We knew some other Special Forces were in the area, so we decided to get close to the harbor after we abandoned the prison. A lady dressed like a nurse spotted us and led three people dressed in jumpsuits to us. She recognized us as US military, probably from our weapons and color, and told us that we were responsible for bombing her hospital and, therefore, responsible to take the two women and this man off her hands and to safety.”
Charlie frowned.
“It’s not like we had a choice. She told them to stay with us and left. The three people in jumpsuits followed us. We ran into the SEAL team just a little ways from here. We all agreed to take up positions close together and wait for reinforcements. We took this end of the block. They took the other. The three people the nurse left with us stayed close, probably scared shitless of the bombs and gunfire.”
“Wh-what happened to the w-women?” Tommy asked.
“The owner of this drugstore saw us, recognized the jumpsuits as patients from the mental hospital and asked if he could help. We told him our situation, and he said we could hole up in his store. His wife came and took the women to their home. This guy…” Mark said and pointed to the man at the table who was now mumbling. “They said he had to stay with us. They didn’t have room for all three.”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Arlan looked at Boiled Bob’s look-alike and shook his head. Even Captain Jay had to admit that this wasn’t him. Arlan pulled his rubber band wallet from his shorts and thought about the phone again. Then it clicked.
Arlan asked the Delta master sergeant, “Are you based at Fort Bragg?”
“Yes.”
Arlan pulled an AT&T calling card out of the rubber band, handed it to the master sergeant and said, “Call them up from the pay phone near the cash register, and have them contact your ship offshore to call in the strike.”
The three Delta soldiers, Tommy, Captain Jay and Charlie stared at Arlan for several seconds.
The man in the chair rocked back and forth and said, “Fort Bragg, Fort Bragg, Fort Bragg.”
Mark took the card and walked into the main store and to the pay phone. In a few seconds Arlan heard him talking to an operator and reading the numbers off the front of the card. A minute later Arlan and the others could hear a series of “Yes, sirs” and “No, sirs,” and then Mark gave a description of the building where the anti-aircraft weapons were located.
Charlie looked at Arlan and said, “What the hell?”
“It’s from your friend who I let stay at my house when you were off island, the AT&T executive. He and his wife had a great time and sent the card as a thank you gift, I guess. I’ve never used it.”
“Shit, Rookie,” Captain Jay said, “You’re smarter than you look.”
Arlan smiled and said, “I’m just tired of hearing those guns go off. My ears hurt.”
A few minutes later Mark came back into the room and said, “Heads down in five minutes. I’m going out to get my guys and warn the SEALs. Shit’s going to go bang soon.” He started to leave and then turned to give Arlan his card back and said, “Good job. Did you know there was a two hundred dollar-credit on this card?”
Arlan was surprised. He glanced at Charlie and then told Mark, “Keep it. You might need it to call in more strikes.”
“I’ll have the government send you a new one,” Mark said and left.
Five minutes later the sound of helicopter blades chopping through the air grew as gunships flew close overhead. A series of deafening explosions shook the drugstore so hard bottles fell from shelves. Everybody instinctively ducked, except the man in the jumpsuit. He laughed, stood and jumped around the room. “Boom. Boom. Boom,” he shouted and then said, “Let’s go get ‘em.”
Tommy was closest and grabbed the man before he made it out of the room.
“Y-you need to be c-careful,” Tommy said as he led the man back to the chair.
“I-I need t-to b-be careful,” the man replied, stuttering with a smile.
Arlan looked at Tommy, expecting him to knock the man to the ground.
Tommy smiled at the man and said, “W-we need to give you a n-name.”
Then, with lucidity and clear eyes, the man said, “I’m Ben Joseph. I moved here with my family from Canada when I was young. They are dead now.”
“Why are you a patient in the hospital?” Arlan asked him.
The man’s crazy eyes returned, and he jumped up again and shouted, “I’m Boiled Bob, Boiled Bob, Boiled Bob.”
Arlan shrugged and said, “Okay. We’ll call you Bob.” He then added, “It’s clear that you’re boiled.”
Mark returned and said, “That should allow the troops to get in here quicker. Thanks again for the card,” he said to Arlan. “I learned on my call that the marines have landed just north of here at Grand Mal. They’re heading here to rescue our guys and the governor-general, and then they’ll move south to the other medical school
campus at Grand Anse. The 82nd Airborne and some Rangers are moving north to the campus from Point Salines. There seems to be a lot of resistance near the campus. We’re joining up with them a few hundred yards south of here in two hours.” He looked toward the man in the jumpsuit who was saluting him and said to Charlie, “Can you take him with you?”
“Where?” Charlie asked.
“Can we take him back to the hospital?” Arlan asked.
“The hospital is destroyed. I learned on my call that a bunch of the patients were killed. This guy’s lucky,” the master sergeant said.
Charlie said, “What are we supposed to do with him?”
“I don’t know, but we can’t take him into a battle, and I don’t want to leave him here by himself.”
Charlie looked to the rest of the group and said, “I need to contact Desmond. It’s clear that this guy isn’t Boiled Bob.”
“I’m Boiled Bob. Boiled Bob. Boiled Bob.”
Charlie rolled his eyes and said, “The real Boiled Bob may have returned to the boat, if he’s still alive.”
Captain Jay put his hand on the shoulder of the man in the jumpsuit and said, “No. You’re Bob. Just Bob.”
“Just Bob. Just Bob. Just Bob,” the man repeated with a grin.
Charlie turned to Mark and said, “Can you get us a ride back to Point Salines?”
“I would think so. Come with us to the rendezvous point. The marine colonel is a friend of yours, and I’m sure he can spare one of his choppers to ferry you guys and your new friend to Point Salines. We need to leave in an hour.”
The bombing and return fire stopped less than an hour later. The drugstore owner returned and said he’d learned from the local grapevine that the US forces had control of the forts and the prison. As far as he was concerned, the fighting was finished, and he and other business owners were returning to their shops to clean up.
“Can you take this man from us?” Charlie asked the store owner and pointed to Bob.
“No. Der are too many people at my house. Some of de patients from de hospital are wanderin around the streets. I heard dat some of de nurses and doctors from de hospital are lookin fo a new building to house dem patients. You will have to keep him wit you, or let him go.”
“We c-can always bring him back h-here later. Or m-maybe the military at P-Point Salines can t-take him,” Tommy said. He looked over at the man in the jumpsuit and said, “Y-you okay, Bob?”
Bob saluted Tommy and said, “O-okay, s-sir.”
Tommy smiled and shook his head. Everybody else laughed.
“Bring him,” Charlie said. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 18
Day 13: Oct 26 (Afternoon)
The Delta and SEAL teams led Charlie and his group along the mile and a half road that ran south from St. George’s to the north end of Grand Anse Bay. The hillside road had given them a view out to sea where they could see a dozen military landing craft filled with marines from the 22nd Amphibious Unit cruising from the north toward the beach at Grand Anse Bay. There they would land at the north end of the beach and rendezvous with the Delta and SEAL teams.
The medical school campus at Grand Anse was a thousand yards farther down the beach to the south. Arlan could see US gunships striking positions on the hill above the campus. Twenty minutes later the marines landed in the landing craft and started to disembark and form up. The same three helicopters they saw with Colonel Faulkner on the beach north of St. George’s the day before landed on the beach just beyond the landing craft, and Colonel Faulkner disembarked with two aides.
“About time the cavalry showed up,” Charlie shouted to his friend as the two groups met a hundred yards up the beach.
Boom! Boom! Rat-tat-tat!
Arlan ducked and looked a half mile down the beach at the attacking helicopters and return gunfire from somewhere up in the hills.
“Better late than never,” John said and nodded to the Special Forces teams. “Good work back there. How’d you figure out to use the damn pay phone to call air strikes?”
Mark, the Delta leader, nodded toward Arlan and said, “He figured it out.”
John looked approvingly at Arlan and said, “Good thing you were along. These muscle heads would never have figured that out.” He turned to Mark with a smile and said, “That damn rooftop weapon did a lot of damage and held us up for half a day.”
John then looked to the back of the group at the man in the jumpsuit wearing a floppy military hat and a goofy smile. “Who the hell is that?” he asked. “Looks like your man in the photo.”
Charlie said, “It’s not.”
“Th-this is our n-new recruit,” Tommy said. “H-his name is B-Bob.”
“Boiled Bob, Boiled Bob, Boiled Bob,” Bob repeated.
Tommy looked at him and said, “N-no. Not B-Boiled Bob, just B-Bob.”
“Just B-Bob, just B-Bob, just B-Bob.”
The colonel rolled his eyes and looked to Charlie for an explanation.
“A patient from the mental hospital that was bombed. Looks exactly like the man we’re looking for,” Charlie said.
“What’s he doing with you?”
“We’ve sort of adopted him. He has no place to go until somebody finds a place to house him and the rest of the patients that survived.”
Rat-tat-tat! Boom! Boom! Boom!
“Jesus, what a war,” John said, to nobody in particular. He then looked down the beach at the helicopters flying low through the smoke.
“Well, we’ve got some students to rescue. What can we do for you?” he asked Charlie.
“It would be great if you could give us a lift over the hill, back to Point Salines. My radio still doesn’t work, and we need to contact my man here on the island. He may have the real Boiled Bob.”
“That’s the least we can do for you,” the colonel said and shouted to one of his aides to get one of the birds ready to take five civilians to the command post at Point Salines.
Charlie and his group thanked John as they climbed into the helicopter for the five-minute ride that would take them out over the ocean to avoid the gunfire on shore and then circle back to land at the Point Salines airstrip.
Desmond was waiting at the compound when the helicopter landed. He’d been told by the Ranger officer he’d talked to the day before to check back every couple of hours to see if he’d made contact with his friends. On his third visit to the command post since early morning he was told that a helicopter carrying his friends had just left Anse Bay and that they would be landing momentarily.
Arlan couldn’t believe the activity he saw at Point Salines as the helicopter approached. There were many more troops, vehicles, planes, helicopters and pallets of equipment and provisions lining both sides of the runway than he’d seen the day before. The temporary concertina wire prison had doubled in size. Arlan strained to find Long Bill and the large Dread. He thought he saw them just as the aircraft touched down, but at ground level he couldn’t see the prisoners through the sea of troops and hardware.
Desmond crouched and ran toward the helicopter, its rotors still spinning so it could return to the action at Anse Bay after dropping off its passengers. The group disembarked with Tommy bringing Bob out last. Desmond stopped in his tracks.
“Dis mon look just like Boiled Bob.”
“Just Bob, just Bob, just Bob,” Bob repeated. He then saluted Desmond, accidentally knocking the floppy hat off his head.
Tommy picked it up and placed it back on Bob’s head. He said, “S-still okay, B-B-ob?”
“S-still okay, s-sir.”
Desmond frowned. Charlie nodded and said, “What do you have?”
Desmond, not taking his eyes from Bob, said, “We’ve got Boiled Bob on de boat. Lisa is okay and staying on de sailboat.”
Arlan, Charlie and Tommy let out sighs of relief.
Captai
n Jay fumed and said, “Let’s go get the son-of-bitch.”
Arlan looked at Captain Jay, smiled and said, “And Lisa.”
“Yeah. That too.”
Desmond led them to his van, looking back at Bob several times. He finally said, “He’s from de mental hospital. I can tell by de clothes.”
Charlie said, “In a moment of lucidness he said his name is Ben Joseph and that he grew up here.”
Desmond turned and said, “Dat’s him. I now know why dat photo of Boiled Bob looked so familiar when I first saw it. Dis mon and his family came to de island about twenty-five years ago. His fadder was a bad mon. Used to beat Benny.” Desmond looked at Charlie and said, “Dat’s what we called him. He had an older sister too. I tink de fadder raped her. De mudder sailed away wit anodder mon and about ten years ago de fadder was found dead. Burned up in his car. De police taut Benny did it and put him in de mental hospital. Nobody wanted him to hang. De sister went away. Benny has been in de hospital fo a long time.”
“Was he always this crazy?” Charlie asked.
“Not so much before he went into de hospital. But he was beaten bad by his fadder many times. Years of living in dat hospital could have made him dis crazy. Dat’s a bad place.”
They stepped into the van, and Desmond drove past the troops and equipment to the road that would take them over the hill and to the dock where the boats were tied. Arlan spotted Long Bill and his Dread friend standing at the back of the coiled concertina wire fence that now contained hundreds of prisoners. Both were still handcuffed.
Ten minutes later Desmond pulled the van into the parking lot near the dock. Captain Jay couldn’t get out fast enough. He stomped down the dock shouting for Boiled Bob. Two large West Indian men stepped from Charlie’s boat onto the dock and blocked his access to the boat. Lisa appeared on the deck of the Happy Hobo and called for Jay, who stopped, climbed over the rail of the Happy Hobo and hugged her. Arlan could hear, “How you doin’ sugar puddin’?”
A Fortnight of Fury Page 21
