Mesmerized by the sight of her, full of joy for all that had happened at the church, Delroy went to her. He stood on the opposite side of the fence.
“Glenda,” he whispered, looking down at her. After that, he couldn’t speak. There were too many things that he wanted to tell her: That he was sorry. That he was glad to see her. That he still hurt over Terrence and his daddy. That he was so confused about what he was supposed to do.
Her gaze was hot and hurt, her eyes wet with unshed tears. “All this time you’ve been in town, Delroy, and you haven’t even been considerate enough to stop in to check on me. Not even to see if I was still here.” She shook her head. “Ain’t that something? Even as bad as everything got, I really didn’t think it would ever come to this.”
“Glenda—”
She held up a hand. “Don’t you talk to me. I don’t want to even hear any of it now, Delroy. You just go on about your business, and you leave me out of it like you left me out of everything else these past five years.” Without another word, she turned and walked away.
Delroy threw a leg over the fence and started after her.
“Chaplain.”
Caught astride the fence, Delroy looked back at Phyllis.
“You want some advice?” Phyllis asked, looking at him with a raised eyebrow and her hands on her hips like a woman who’d better be listened to.
“You and Walter,” Delroy grumbled.
“Well, Walter ain’t here right now, so I figure I best go ahead an’ handle this. Probably more my area of expertise anyways.” Phyllis nodded toward Glenda. “You go after that woman right now, my guess is you’re gonna get your head ripped right off. That woman’s been done wrong. Got her heart all fulla pain an’ regrets. Don’t know what-all you done to her, but you best be sorrowful an’ apologizin’ all over yourownself next time you see her. But for now, be best if you just give her some room.”
Delroy watched Glenda walk away. “If I don’t go after her, I may never see her again.”
Phyllis sighed in exasperation and rolled her eyes big and white. “You menfolk. I swear I don’t know why the Lord made y’all so stupid about love, but He done did an’ there it is. I suppose He had a reason, an’ they’s probably a joke in there too. ‘Course, a few of you He done went an’ give some looks to. You ain’t no Denzel yourownself, but you’re a right good-lookin’ man when the light catches you just right.” She smiled. “Now you get on over here an’ fill you a plate an’ let that woman take care of herself the way she wants to for right now.”
Delroy stared after Glenda, watching her disappear around the corner.
“Don’t you go frettin’ none over her, Chaplain,” Phyllis said. “She be back.”
“You think so, do you?”
“I know so. Bet you a twenty-dollar bill against it, an’ you can give me a five if you win. Which you won’t.”
“The Lord frowns on gambling,” Delroy said.
“Shoot, Chaplain—” Phyllis smiled sweetly at him—“ain’t no gamble to it. I know I be gettin’ that five bucks just as sure as we hung that bell.” She shook her head. “That woman loves you. That’s writ on her face just as certain as the hand of God writ on Moses’ tablets.”
Operation Run Dry
26 Klicks South-Southwest of Sanliurfa, Turkey
Local Time 1813 Hours
Full dark hadn’t yet descended over the Syrian fuel depot when the sixty Rangers arrived at the area after their fifty-three-klick run.
Goose waved them to ground among the low hills overlooking the war zone, well out of sight of the Syrian guards posted at the perimeter. They maintained radio silence, communicating through hand signals and messengers the way Rangers had since the Revolutionary War.
Lieutenant Keller lay in the same shadow-covered ditch that Goose used for shelter. Both of them were already soaked from the incessant rain and buried deep in the mud that sucked at them. Thankfully, though, the rain and the mud were warm, not cold as they had been in many places Goose had been before.
Goose took his 10x50 binoculars from his chest pack, switched them over to light-amplifier mode, and scanned the Syrian hard site. To his west, to the right from his current northerly position, a small airfield stood covered with camo-colored tarp. Three Syrian cargo helos, Russian Mi-8s that reminded Goose of the army Hueys, sat under the tarp. Eight men, two to a side, guarded the airfield. They stood under the tarp, though, and smoked cigarettes, indicating that they didn’t feel threatened.
To the east, Goose’s left and forward, the ruins of an ancient city stuck out of the mud. Archeological maps Remington had shown them indicated the existence of huge rooms beneath the ground. Remington said that the Syrian army had stockpiled barrels of fuel in those rooms, laying in a supply for their next advance.
Alpha Detail’s mission was to take out the fuel stockpile—the reason the mission was called Run Dry, because their efforts were supposed to cause the Syrians to “run dry” on fuel—and to execute some of the higher-ranked Syrian army commanders. Bravo was supposed to destroy the armored cav foundering in the mud, secure the airbase, and take the Mi-8s hostage to use for escape. Failing that, Bravo was supposed to destroy the helos along with the armored cav. Any escape at that point would be on foot.
Goose took in the Syrian armored cav units, counting four T-55 main battle tanks and two of the newer and heavier T-72s. The T-55s carried a 100mm cannon, a 12.7mm machine gun, and a 7.62mm machine gun. The T-72s were armed with a 125mm cannon and 12.7mm and 7.62mm machine guns.
Five BMP-1 APCs sat next to the tanks. The armored personnel carriers held
