“That’s fucked up,” Clip said. “I feel for you.”
“Maybe there’s still a chance you’ll be with her,” he added. “If you want one.”
“I don’t know,” I said.
Then Clip reached into his shirt pocket and took a picture out. He handled it carefully. “Lucy,” he said.
She was pretty. She was wearing a green sweater, and I could almost smell it. I nodded lightly. Red hair, freckles, she could have been anyone’s girl. But she was his, and I liked that. I handed it back to him. “She’s beautiful.”
He took the picture back and smiled. “I know.”
Simon and Nichols returned from patrol shaking their heads. Mark looked at his watch and then picked up the radio and made a call. We all watched him.
He hung up the receiver. “He’s not here.”
That was all. That was the message.
“The warlord,” Mark explained. “He’s not here. The Army is moving into the city tonight and we’re to take the compound. We’ll flush him out, then we’ll find him and crush him.”
The others were excited. The adrenaline was pumping, you could see it in their eyes.
“You’re with us now,” said Mark. They all nodded. “We’ll get you back to your company when it’s over. Now we take the compound.”
“Maybe I could use the radio real quick?” I asked.
“That was it,” Mark replied. “That was the one window for our call.” He turned back to the house.
“I just want them to know I’m still alive,” I said. “I should tell them about the others.”
“I’m sorry,” Mark said, “but you’re part of our mission now. Yours is done and you made a mess of it. This is your chance to make it right.”
“Sure enough,” I said. “But I’d just like my parents to know I’m all right.”
Mark shook his head. They set about putting on more camouflage. When they handed it to me I passed it along to the next man.
I asked if there were reinforcements, if there was anyone to support us.
“We have everything we need right here,” said Clip. The others nodded in agreement.
When darkness had settled around us, we crawled out into the desert, heading toward the compound. They used their NVGs and their infrared scopes, while I simply crawled with my cheek to the earth. When the guard rounded a corner and stepped out of eyesight, Mark gave the signal and we stood and ran to the sheep. Mark and the others gave them the drugged feed they’d mixed back at the base.
Suddenly Mark whispered to us to get down. The guard had just walked back around the wall surrounding the house and was in sight again. We crouched among the sheep.
When the coast was clear Mark led his men forward with the sheep. I fell back to the rear, and then turned and sprinted to a low line of trees, half expecting to be shot from behind.
I found their camp a short distance from the trees. They’d taken the radio, but left the rucksacks, so I dug through them and took another clip of 9mm ammunition.
Just as I was leaving, gunfire and a series of explosions broke out in the compound. Sheep and men were running in every direction. Tracers from an AK-47 arched up into the night sky and disappeared among the stars.
I hurried off into the night to look for their Humvee. They had a radio, so I knew they could always call for another one. If I made it back to camp and anyone asked me why I stole the vehicle, I’d simply say I was crazy. People got away with that kind of thing all the time.
I stumbled around for a few minutes and then tracers broke the night open in front of me. Someone was close, firing at me with an AK-47. I hit the dirt and crawled into a thicket. I fired my 9mm at the spot I thought the shots were coming from. I knew I hit my target by the way the night seemed to stop.
I was sure the enemy had me surrounded and was now closing in for the kill. They’d been waiting for us the whole time.
Then I heard a familiar voice. “Fucking shit.” It was Zeller. He screamed, firing wildly into the night.
I wanted to yell out, to let him know I was there. But I didn’t want him to know that I was the one who had shot him.
“I’ll fuck you up, motherfucker,” Zeller shouted in my direction. He fired a few more rounds, then stopped as if he’d run out of ammunition.
I waited about a minute or so, listening to his curses, the wind, and the fighting in the background. But I knew I needed to move, so I jumped up and fired a few rounds into the earth. “Zeller,” I screamed.
“Stantz?” he called.
“I got him,” I yelled. I put a few more rounds into the earth to make it seem as if I were finishing the job. “I killed him.” There were tiny pocks in the earth where the bullets had hit.
I ran over to Zeller and dove down next to him. “We need to get out of here. There’s a group of American soldiers fighting in the compound over there. This is their Humvee. I say we take it and get you to a medic. The Army is advancing on the city. We’ll meet them along the way.”
“Santiago will be back in just a minute,” he said. I could see that his face had been burned horribly in the explosion back on the road. One of his BDU sleeves was missing, and much of the skin had been melted off his arm. Sand spotted the flesh that remained.
“Santiago headed for the fight to see what’s going on.” Zeller was having trouble breathing. “We looked for you. What happened?” He held both hands over his abdomen. I tried to move them away to see if there was anything I could do, but he wouldn’t let me
