“What the hell’s going on?” Tom says, eyes darting from Nathan’s face to his hot gun and back.
Nathan shrugs. “Orders.”
“Orders? What’re you talking about? Ahmadi is dead. Those were our orders.”
Nathan rolls his eyes. “Go see the captain.” He shrugs them off like this isn’t his concern; then he kicks down the door to the next room and goes in firing. The action is too sudden for Tom to try to stop him. He hears the screams of terrified women inside the room. Children too, he thinks. Tom and Zeke look at each other, then take off running.
Tom has never turned a blind eye to Captain Dale’s past indiscretions, nor those of his two sycophantic followers. When they smuggled poppy seeds back to the US, he reported them. When they went trigger-happy on a past mission – as they are tonight – he reported them.
The CIA and the US government, however, have always seemed more than happy to turn a blind eye.
Yeah, sure, we’ll look right into it. Don’t worry about it.
Tom knew he was being brushed off. They didn’t try to hide it. They weren’t interested. So long as the dirty jobs were getting done, they didn’t care what else happened, what other extracurricular activities Captain Robert Dale and his friends were getting up to.
They find the captain and Simon together, rummaging through a room. Two dead men and a woman lie sprawled upon the bed and the floor. Simon is admiring a brooch. Tom wonders if he has taken it off the dead woman. As he goes to put it in his pocket, Tom grabs it from him, holds it up close to his face. “Is this what all this shooting’s about?” he says. “You’re killing everyone off so you can steal a few damn trinkets?”
Simon grins, pulls his arm and the brooch back out of Tom’s grip. “Think you’d better tell him, Captain.”
Elsewhere, they can still hear gunfire, Nathan moving from room to room.
Robert steps forward, both hands resting on the gun strapped across his chest. The captain is powerful looking, a deadly mix of speed and strength. Tom has seen him work. Lesser men would be intimidated by him. Would cower in his presence.
Tom steps forward, defiant.
“Orders are we kill them all,” Robert says, his face unchanging.
“Orders are we kill Ahmadi,” Tom says. “Just him. Nothin’ about women and children, nothin’ about the whole damn household.”
Robert raises his eyebrows, just a little. “That’s the part we kept from you, Tom. You and your buddy.” He flicks his chin past Tom to Zeke.
“What the hell?” Zeke says.
“Didn’t wanna have to listen to y’all pissing and moaning about what needs to be done,” Simon says, sounding like he’s laughing.
“We kill them all, make it look like the work of another warlord,” Robert says. “Those were our orders. Couldn’t have the two of you compromising that, so we kept you busy elsewhere.”
Tom’s mind races. They kept this from him. The prime details of the mission. Kept them from him and Zeke, knowing they would object.
And now it’s too late. They can’t object.
It’s already done.
“You son of a bitch,” Tom says, taking a step forward.
“Uh-uh,” Simon says, stepping in front of him. “Don’t you and your boy go doin’ somethin’ stupid, now.”
“Who you callin’ boy?” Zeke says, and from the sound of his voice, Tom knows he has come forward, too.
Simon doesn’t respond, just grins.
Robert watches them all, impassive. Tom notices his finger is close to the trigger.
Behind them, Nathan has filled the doorway. His gun is pointed at them. “Took it exactly how we thought they would, huh?”
Tom takes another step forward. Robert’s finger inches closer to the trigger. Simon’s smile fades.
“Don’t do it, man,” Nathan says.
Tom’s eyes are locked on Robert’s.
This is it. It’s happening. In a way, he always knew it would.
Zeke places a hand upon his shoulder. “Easy, man,” he says.
Tom takes a deep breath.
“Listen to your boy,” Simon says.
“Call me ‘boy’ one more time, and I’m gonna break your jaw,” Zeke says.
Simon acts faux scared.
Robert calls beyond them, finished with this situation, to Nathan, “It done?”
“It’s done.”
“We gonna stand here all night staring at each other,” Robert says, “or are we gonna get the fuck outta here?”
Robert leads the way back to the extraction point. Tom and Zeke are made to walk in the center of the group, Simon and Nathan behind them, watching them. They don’t trust them not to try anything stupid. Mostly, they don’t trust Tom.
They won’t have to worry about Tom for much longer.
He’s made up his mind, his resolution growing stronger, firmer, with each step across this night’s cold desert.
He’s done.
Once they’re back in America, the second their plane hits the ground, he’s out.
It’s over.
1
Anthony and Alejandra are at home when he gets the messages. They’re watching TV, sitting together on the sofa, engulfed in its glow, one of his arms around her shoulder and his other hand resting upon her pregnant belly.
His phone buzzes in his pocket. His work phone. He keeps it in his left pocket, his personal in his right, so he always knows which is which. Whenever that left leg vibrates, he tenses up. He grits his teeth. He knows that whatever it is, he’s probably not going to like it.
It buzzes again, a second time in quick succession.
Alejandra looks at him, raises an eyebrow. “That you?”
He nods, wordless, pulls the phone out, glances at the screen.
He goes stiff.
His stomach drops.
Alejandra is still looking at him. She sees the changes. “What’s wrong?”
He can hear the panic in her voice.
The first message: we know
The second: RUN
“Shit!” He leaps to his feet, grabbing Alejandra by the hands, pulling her up as gently but as quickly as he can. “We gotta go.”
She didn’t see the messages, but she understands. This is the situation they
