Black Smoke (18 page)

“It’s my decision. No one else’s. Mine. Stop screwing with my head!” he said aloud. The outburst caused every one to look at him. When he realized it, he took a deep, long breath through his nose, then let it out his mouth. When he didn’t feel the sense of calm he always felt when he did this, he repeated it.

The thundering of propellers went a long way to bring him back to some sense of reality. He stood listening to the low pitched thwap, thwap, of the blades. His heart seemed to beat in rhythm with it. He stood with his eyes closed and let it take over his body. This is what he needed, this familiar sound, the familiar scent of aviation fuel. The job.

Straightening his back and jutting out his chin, he turned toward his men. “Let’s get them ready to travel. Boomer, you help Ricochet.” He pointed toward the two men they’d rescued.

“You two can walk. Follow them.”

With the orders barked out, he turned back to Sam. Without letting himself think, he lifted her into his arms, picked up their two packs and headed toward the chopper as it began to land.

Boomer helped Ricochet get the woman inside, then pulled the two men in. Once they were settled, he held out his arms to take Sam from Kong.

Kong simply stepped inside brushing past Boomer. He wanted to hold her. He knew that for himself. No voice had to tell him. He had to hold her, just for a few moments.

Once inside, Boomer slapped the pilot on the back, letting him know they were ready. The chopper lifted gracefully off the ground and headed toward the American base. Kong would get hold of Cannon when they got there, let him know what went down. Sam would be looked over, stabilized and put aboard a plane bound for home. That’s the way things should be.

Organized, thought out. Not directed by some disembodied voice.

Kong sat staring straight ahead oblivious to his teammates’ gaze.

“He has it bad Boomer. Real bad,” Ricochet said.

Boomer could see what Ricochet couldn’t. The turmoil that was going on behind the eyes. The desperation, the fear. Fear for Sam or for himself, Boomer wasn’t sure. Just fear.

Chapter Fourteen

When the chopper landed, three gurneys were wheeled toward it. The woman was removed first. Disgust, horror and hatred crossed the soldiers’ faces as they moved the frail woman onto the soft gurney. Many of these young soldiers hadn’t seen what the Taliban could do to a female body. Now it would haunt them in their sleep.

The red-haired man helped his fellow hostage from the helicopter and then helped lift him to the next gurney. When a soldier started pushing him toward the remaining one, he held up his hands.

“I’m fine. You have an injured soldier in there. Take her,” he shouted over the sound of the helicopter blades winding down.

The news that a soldier was injured caused a rush toward the door. Kong stood with Sam in his arms. He would carry her to where she needed to go. No one was touching her until he was sure they knew what they were doing.

“Sir, let us take her! We’ll help her!” The soldier shouting at him was young. Far too young to be seeing gunshot wounds and torn bodies.

Kong looked down at the young man. The concern in his eyes was enough to keep Kong from shoving him aside. “I’ll carry her. Show me where.”

The young man nodded, then led the way. Ricochet and Boomer followed. The doors to the makeshift hospital flew open. People were shouting orders, nurses were jogging from one bed to another. No one paid attention to the tall man cradling the small woman in his arms.

“Put her here,” the soldier said gently. “I’ll make sure she’s seen as soon as possible.”

Kong gently laid her down on the soft bedding. Somehow she looked more frail now. The white sheets of the bed seemed to wash her out. Hours ago she was kicking ass without taking names. Now she looked like a china doll that would shatter with the slightest touch. His heart squeezed hard in his chest. No. He was becoming too attached to the situation. Still looking down at her, he began to back away from the bed.

“I have to contact Cannon. Let him know what went down,” he muttered to his friends.

“We’ll stay with her,” Boomer told Kong as he turned to leave.

“Suit yourselves,” he said indifferently then stormed out the front doors.

The two men were left standing wondering what the hell was happening. One minute he wouldn’t let anyone touch her. The next he acted as though he didn’t care.

“Cannon, it’s Lowe. Mission accomplished,” Kong growled into the phone.

“Everything went well?” Walt asked with relief.

“We ended up grabbing three hostages instead of one. Two male, one female.”

A woman. Walt sighed. “How bad?”

“Bad as she can be without being dead.”

“Well, if I had known.”

“With all due respect Sir. If you had known, your niece would probably already be dead.”

Kong regretted the outburst as soon as it left his lips.

“What the hell are you talking about Lowe? What happened to Sam?” Walt’s heart leapt into his throat. “Well?”

“Your niece decided to go solo at the end. She walked in on two Taliban warriors. Killed one then took a bullet in the leg. We couldn’t get a clean shot at the guy, so Smoke decided a grenade was in order. She’s at the base hospital as we speak.” Kong slowed himself, took a deep breath then continued. “She lost a lot of blood Sir. And they’re going to have to pull shrapnel from her body.”

Walt sat dumbstruck. What had happened? She never got hurt on a mission. She swore her guide saw to it that she never got hurt. Killed. She actually killed a man? Sweat beaded over Walt’s brow.

“I want a full report by the time you return Lowe. I want every blessed detail, right down to what color boxers you were wearing. Is that understood soldier?”

“Perfectly Sir.” Kong’s tone mirrored Walt’s. Both were angry at each other. Both blamed the other for things going wrong. Kong blamed Cannon for getting this woman involved in rescue work. Cannon blamed Kong for not watching her back.

When Kong slammed the phone down, he scrubbed his face with his hands. How was he going to tell the man that she’d lost contact with her guide for crying out loud. If she lost contact with her guide, that meant she lost her focus. And that was something a soldier never does. She let personal feelings cloud her judgment and if it happened once, it damn sure could happen again.

Walt sat at his desk, his hands fisted. If he unclenched them they would shake. His Sam was hurt, shot. How could that be? She went solo? Sam never went solo when she was working with a team. “Your niece would probably already be dead.“ The words played over and over in his head. How did Lowe know she was his niece? He hadn’t said anything. That meant Sam told him. But why? Questions, too many questions. He needed to see Sam. Relaxing his hands, he picked up the phone and dialed.

Kong stood outside the hospital for fifteen minutes before working up the nerve to go in. He didn’t want to walk in and find out she was dead. Just the thought made his stomach knot. But Boomer and Ricochet were inside waiting for him. Turning toward the door, he walked in as if nothing in the world bothered him.

He found the two men sitting in chairs. Boomer had his head in his hands. Ricochet had a blank look on his face. The knot in his stomach tightened. His legs felt like lead as he walked toward them.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked.

Boomer lifted his head. “They have her in surgery,” he said quietly.

“That’s good. Right?”

“Yeah. Great,” Ricochet responded.

“What about the other three? Heard anything about them?”

“Yeah, our main target is fine. They didn’t have him long enough to starve him. The other guy, well, it’s going to take a few days to find out how extensive his damage is.” Boomer’s voice was flat, expressionless.

“What about the woman?” Kong asked.

Ricochet turned his head slowly, looked up at his oldest friend, then stood. “She has gangrene all over her body. She’s so dehydrated and malnourished that her body was feeding on itself to stay alive. Her hair is falling out, her fingernails are gone and she was so brutally raped that if she does survive, she’ll never have sex again because her insides are hamburger.”

Hatred, fury, the need to kill again was so strong in Kong that he looked away and cursed. Humanity never ceased to amaze him. Why God didn’t just wipe the face of the earth clean and start all over again was beyond him. Where were these so-called guides when this woman needed them? Why didn’t they stop it? Why let this woman be brutalized? What was the point in having a guide if it didn’t protect you from animals? More reason for him to distance himself from the situation.

“Did you get a hold of Cannon?” Boomer asked, snapping Kong from his warring mind.

“Yeah, I got him. He wants a detailed report of what went down. Right down to the color of our boxer shorts.” Deciding it was time for them to know some of the truth, he pulled them away from where they were standing. “Listen,” he whispered. “Sam is Cannon’s niece. So he’s not at all happy right now. He’s gonna want someone’s head for this. So I’m giving him mine.”

“What?” Ricochet growled. “His niece? The man sends his own blood out to risk her life?”

“Yeah, that’s kinda what I think too,” Kong breathed.

“Don’t pass judgment.” Boomer interjected. “We don’t know the whole story. It’s not our place to judge what we don’t understand.”

Ricochet groaned. “Leave it to Boomer to be the voice of reason through all this. Look man, if Cannon wants heads, he’ll take all our heads. Not just yours. We were all there. Sam just went loco. That’s all I can figure.”

“Ric’s right. We all hang together,” Boomer said quietly.

Kong stood looking at them. He should have known they wouldn’t let him take the heat alone. They weren’t that kind of people. They were good people, people that could be trusted and counted on.

“Thanks.”

A commotion started outside the hospital. The three men ran for the doors to see what was happening. When they got there, jeeps were pulling up with wounded men. They held the doors open while they were carried and wheeled inside.

“What’s going on?” Boomer asked one of the jeep drivers.

“I don’t know what happened, but the Taliban just started driving through the streets shooting everyone they could see. My buddy said they were yelling ‘death to all’. Like I said, I don’t know what happened, but whatever it was sure pissed them off.” The man jumped back in his jeep and drove off.

“Damn. You suppose that because of us?” Ricochet asked.

“Un-huh. Sounds like we opened up a can of worms.” Kong replied.

As they helped carry the injured inside, they noticed trucks pulling out loaded with soldiers. Up above, planes and helicopters flew. Tanks rolled by the outside gate of the compound.

“It’s about time,” one soldier yelled to his buddy. “Now we get to fight back. All this time we’ve been sitting with out thumbs up our asses, taking it. Now we get to do something about it.”

Battle cries filled the air. Not one soldier looked as if he was regretting what was about to happen. A twinge of guilt hit Kong. He knew some innocents would die today. Innocents that meant nothing to the Taliban.

As the rush of casualties slowed, the three men ventured back inside the hospital to wait for the doctor performing Sam’s surgery. They watched as gurneys were shoved in the hall, sheets pulled up over bodies. Screams spilled from doorways. Bloodied towels and sheets were tossed to the floor. Chaos reigned here—an organized chaos. The dead were moved aside, then dealt with by another team. The injured were moved from room to room, depending on their injuries.

“I hate this,” Boomer mumbled.

“You’re not the only one buddy.” Ricochet’s stomach wasn’t dealing well with all the blood. He wasn’t squeamish, but he hadn’t eaten in what seemed like sixteen hours. He was just about to mention that they remove themselves when the doctor walked out of the chaos. “Are you Captain Lowe?” he asked looking right at Kong.

“Yes Sir.”

“The surgery went well. I was able to repair the damage to her leg. All the shrapnel was removed and the wounds cleaned. We’ll be moving her to Recovery. I assume you three will want to see her?”

“Yes Sir,” they all said in unison.

“Okay, give her three hours. Then the nurses will let you in.” He turned to leave when Kong stopped him.

“Sir, did Walter Cannon contact you?”

“Not me personally, but he’s being kept up to date.” The man didn’t have time for bureaucracy. He was a doctor. He didn’t give a damn if he wasn’t supposed to let them see her. He didn’t know what they’d done, but they were a team. That was clear. And team members needed to see each other.

Relief slammed Kong right between the eyes. She was going to all right. The other two men shook hands and smiled at each other. Kong started to shake, his vision blurred and his stomach churned. Just when did she become so important to him? He’d only known her a few days. Just a few days and he was acting like his life depended on her.

Rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger, he took a few moments to think. This wasn’t healthy. No way was this even remotely right. Not once in his life had he fallen so hard for a woman that she shook his strength. He’d been with a lot of women over the years, some small, some not so small. Some were highly intelligent, some not so intelligent. Some just wanted to have sex with him, others wanted a life. Every time, he walked away not feeling one bit bad about leaving.