Chapter 88

Flashback – Ben – Back at the formerly captured hospital

I called my improvised sniper team, complete with the M25s, over and ordered, “The fucking towelheads are using the remaining piece of that building to hide behind.” I pointed to the wall which was about five feet high. I continued, “I’m going to use the M107 to start blowing some fucking holes in the wall and the fragments from the wall should kill most of the towelheads. The ones who try to escape will make great practice targets for you five to clean up. Are there any questions?”

One of the snipers raised his hand and asked, “What’s the range to the wall?”

I looked at the rest of the team and asked, “Please tell me that one of you can figure out the range to the wall.”

They started scanning with their scopes and one of them said, “I’m getting .52 mils on a dead towelheads chest. He looked at his sheet and estimated, “That gives a range of about 900 yards.”

I pulled up my laser range finder, zapped the wall and confirmed, “That’s pretty good, this says 908 yards.”

We set up on the edge of the roof with two of my improvised sniper team set up too close to the M107 so I ordered, “You two need to back off a bunch. The M107 has a ‘tank’ style muzzle break on it and the blast from it comes back on both sides.”

We were finally set up so I slapped a magazine into the M107, took aim midway down the wall and touched off the first round. A cloud of red mist curled up over the wall, so I knew I had made some kills. I began to empty the magazine into the wall until the fucking towelheads finally figured out they were not safe anymore and began to exit at each end of the wall. My improvised sniper team was waiting for them and started to mow them down. I made sure to watch the team and figured out which one was the best shot.

George walked up and said, “Damn Banzai that was something to watch! It worked perfectly so I guess we won’t have to worry about them hiding behind that wall again.”

I smiled at George and corrected his guess, “Sir, they will be back so we will need to clear them out every hour or so.”

George said, “I’m glad you’re here to do that.”

I replied, “Sorry Sir, but I’m handing the M107 off to the best sniper we have here. I have the recon mission that we talked about earlier to complete.” I could tell George didn’t like it but I already knew that Colonel Maggie would approve so I wasn’t worried.

I called the best sniper over, gave him instructions on the M107 and ordered, “About every hour fire a few rounds through the wall.”

He answered with a bit of a grin, “Yes Sgt.”

I walked around until I found the Corporal who had Jack’s spotting scope, walked up to him and asked, “You told me you watched for the suicide bombers, which direction did they come from?”

He pointed toward a building about four blocks away and said, “They all seem to run from that direction.”

I briefly thought about having George call in a fire mission on the building, but I wanted to capture the motherfucker who was strapping the vests on young girls and boys. I looked at the Corporal hanging onto Jack’s scope and asked, “Have you ever done a recon mission?”

He replied, “No Sgt. but I can be pretty damn quiet when I need to be.”

I smiled at him and said, “Okay, hand Jack’s spotting scope off to someone you can trust and let’s gear up for a recon mission.”

He was back in about five minutes and we began to check each other for anything that made noise. I taped the straps on his pack because they made a hell of a noise. Then I took a piece of duct tape and taped his dog tags to his chest. He began to complain until I said, “Look, if we get caught we’re dead anyway.” We loaded up with a fuckload of grenades, making sure to tape the handles so they wouldn’t rattle. I finally grabbed a military tazer and put it in one of my molle pouches.

The Corporal asked, “What’s that for?”

I replied, “If we catch this fucker, he’s going to wish he was dead.”

I put on my ghillie suit, handed one to the Corporal and ordered, “Put this on and pretend you’re a bush.”

We were ready and I suggested to George, “A distraction right now might be a good idea, just make sure they don’t shoot us.”

George got the majority of the men to start firing while the Corporal and I hauled ass out the door, hit the ground and began to crawl toward cover. We got behind a wall, stopped and took a breather. I asked, “How are you doing?”

He swore, “Shit, I need to take a piss.”

I laughed and ordered, “Welcome to being a recon, now take your piss.”

The Corporal asked, “In my suit? Won’t they smell me?”

I laughed and replied, “Hell, they all smell worse than your piss so don’t worry about it. Now let’s move.”

We began to crawl again toward the direction the Corporal gave me. I heard something and froze - thank God the Corporal did the same!

I heard someone giving instructions to someone else. I finally figured out it was the asshole who created the vests. He had just loaded up another poor girl with a vest and was going to send her toward the hospital.

I slipped the military tazer out of my molle pouch, slipped my hand out from under my Ghillie suit, made sure I was close enough and tagged the fucker with the tazer. He went down and began to shake like an aspen leaf in the wind. The young girl had no idea what was happening and she began to take off her suicide vest. I yelled, “No don’t!” But it was too late and the vest exploded. I shocked the fuck out of the bastard again just because I felt like it! Then we crawled up to the fucker, I got a good look at him and it made me sick because he wasn’t Taliban - hell he was as white as I was! A fucking traitor, that’s what we had found! I shocked him again because it made me feel better, then I said to the Corporal, “We need to let this fucking traitor wake up so we can have him take us to his bomb factory.”

The Corporal replied, “Sgt., there is no way we can trust him to take us to his bomb factory. I say we kill the traitor and have the artillery blow the hell out of this area.”

I got a better idea so I pulled up his man dress, put a new cartridge in the tazer and connect the probes into his genitals. When I was finished I shocked him just to see what happened. He literally jumped three feet off the ground. Then I searched the shit out of him to make sure he was not hiding any weapons. I told the Corporal, “We’re going to march this son of a bitch back to the hospital and let George interrogate him.”

I was kneeling beside him as he awoke and whispered, “If you say anything I’m going to shock you to fucking death. Now stand up and slowly march toward the hospital. He mouthed off, “Go to hell you mother...”

I shocked the shit out of him and he passed out again so we waited for him to wake up. He finally came to and I said, “Now stand up and slowly march toward the hospital.”

This time he did what he was told but because the Corporal and I were crawling, I did have to slow him down several times.

We approached the hospital and I ordered, “Put your fucking hands over your head so you don’t get shot.”

He raised his hands and thank God no one shot him...

One of the men called to me, “Sir, you’d better come see this.”

I moved to his side of the building and saw a man walking toward the hospital and damn! ... Beside him are two Ghillie suits crawling toward us on the ground. The Marine who called me over asked, “Should I shoot the fucker?”

I replied, “If you do that the Sgt. is going to be pissed off at you. Can’t you see the bushes beside him that are moving?”

I hauled ass downstairs and met Banzai at the entrance to the building. He handed me the tazer and said, “This is connected to his genitals, if he gives you any shit shock the fuck out of him.”

I asked, “Who the hell is he?”

Banzai said, “He’s the bastard who has been building the suicide vests. Not only that, I think he’s British.”

Our prisoner swore, “I’m not telling you anythin...”

He never got to finish because Banzai reached over and activated the tazer and he fell to the ground unconscious. While he was down Banzai kicked him a couple times. I complained, “Sgt., that’s not within the parameters of the Geneva Convention.”

Banzai replied, “Sir, he and all of the towelheads don’t give a flying fuck at a rolling donut about the Geneva Convention.” Then he suggested, “Why don’t you get on the horn with Colonel Maggie and let her know of the enemy we’ve captured.”

It made sense to me so I called Colonel Maggie and was surprised as hell.

Flashback – Jack and John – Back at the base.

We hauled ass to HQ and then I did some major bullshitting and got us a refrigerated semi. I drove it over to supply, did a bunch more bullshitting and had it loaded to the gills with fresh food. We hauled ass back to our base just in time for me to head to work.

John asked, “Sgt., can I use some of this food to cook breakfast?”

I laughed and said, “Of course, that’s what we stole it for.”

John replied, “Thank you so much Jack. I will bring you and the Colonel some food when I’m finished.”

I walked into Colonel Maggie’s office and she asked, “Jack what’s this I hear...”

We’re interrupted when John walked into the office with two plates of food. Colonel Maggie asked, “What’s this?”

John smiled and replied, “Just a little breakfast I whipped up, it’s called eggs benedict”

Colonel Maggie looked at it, then sniffed it and said, “Does this have anything to do with reports I’ve started to hear about last night?”

I didn’t wait and dug into mine - it was damn good! Colonel Maggie finally tasted hers, smiled and said, “Jack don’t worry, last night is already forgiven.”

John said, “Sir, I wanted to prove to you and the men that I can cook if HQ doesn’t send me garbage to cook with.”

Colonel Maggie praised him, “John, this is as good as any food I have ever eaten.”

John suggested, “Sir, you didn’t try the coffee.”

That reminded me I didn’t try mine. I took a sip, smiled and said, “Now that’s a hell of a cup of coffee.”

The Colonel tried her coffee then asked, “John, why is this so much better than what you served in the mess?”

I cleared my throat and suggested, “Sir, you really don’t want to know.”

John scored big points when he said, “For lunch today we’re having Chicken Cordon Blue.”

Colonel Maggie put down her fork, looked at John and again apologized, “John I’m sorry for all the grief I gave you about the food, you’re a hell of a cook!”

Then she looked at me and said, “Jack if HQ doesn’t send us better food, feel free to take one of your midnight trips anytime.”

John asked, “Sir, am I still the cook or do you want me to continue to be Jack’s aide?”

Colonel Maggie said, “John get back to the kitchen where you belong.”

John left with a big smile on his face while the Colonel turned to me and said, “Jack, my phone’s been ringing all morning about your little stunt last night. You took a big risk but it certainly paid off since now I can tell the fuckers at HQ that they were the cause of our food problems. But tell me, why is the coffee so good?”

I smiled at her and shared the secret, “Sir, we sort of borrowed the General’s private stash of coffee.”

Colonel Maggie laughed her ass off and said, “The shitbird deserves it for sending us rotten food.”

Colonel Maggie’s phone rang and she said, “Shit that’s probably him now.”

She answered the phone, waved me over, put the phone on speaker and said, “Lieutenant, please repeat what you just told me.”

I hear George say, “Sir, Banzai and a Corporal just captured a Taliban who is the bomb maker of the suicide vests. It also sounds like he might be from Great Britain.”

Colonel Maggie praised him, “Lieutenant, you’re doing a hell of a job. Sit on him for now. I need to contact HQ on this and they will probably send some interrogators to talk to him.”

George also said, “Sir, we’re going to call in another fire mission since Banzai is sure we know where the bomb makers building is.”

Colonel Maggie ordered, “Son, shell the hell out of the whole area.”

She hung up the phone, smiled at me and said, “Jack, Sgt. Blaine capturing that Taliban probably just saved our asses with HQ. Why don’t you go catch some shuteye while I give them a call.”

I smiled and requested, “Sir, I would like to be here when you talk with them.”

She called HQ and requested to be connected with the General. He came on the phone and swore, “Colonel! Did you know some of your sons of a bitch, Marines stole my coffee last night?”

Colonel Maggie grinned at me and lied her ass off, “No Sir! I had no idea that happened however I will look into it.” Her eyes sparkled as she took a drink of the General’s coffee. Then she said, “Sir, the reason I’m calling you is because Sgt. Blaine and another Marine did a recon mission and captured what they are saying is a Taliban bomb maker. Not only that, they say he sounds like he’s from Great Britain.”

There’s a short pause and the general asked, “I assume he’s being held at the hospital?”

Colonel Maggie replied, “Yes Sir he is. I thought that HQ might want to send some interrogators to the hospital.”

He said, “Colonel, this is bigger than you can imagine. I need to contact someone higher up the chain than me to make this decision. Call your team back and make sure they do everything they can to keep him alive. What a hell of a recon mission! Personally thank Sgt. Blaine for me.”

I could tell Colonel Maggie couldn’t resist as she asked, “General, which would you like me to do first, look for your coffee or call the hospital.”

He said, “Don’t be an ass about this, call the fucking hospital!”

She hung up the phone, took another sip of coffee and laughed, “Damn now that was fun!”

I yawned and said, “Yes Sir! You handled that masterfully. Now if you don’t mind I’m going to get some sleep.”

Colonel Maggie ordered, “Jack, get your flabby ass out of my office.”

I left and headed to my room but made one stop on the way...

Flashback – Masha – the next morning

I had just woken up, realized I hadn’t heard from Jack for a couple days and was worried about him. I started to get out of bed when the phone rang and scared me. I carefully answered and it was as if Jack had heard my plea when he said, “Masha my love, how are you doing?”

I giggled and said, “Jack I’m doing much better. I’m keeping busy during the days taking care of the cutest little girl named Linda and then at night some women come over and we do Taebo and yoga. Now Jack, please tell me the truth, how are you doing?”

Jack replied, “Masha, the doctors say that I’m healing fine and I’m back in my own room, which I share with Banzai. And next week Colonel Maggie is going to have me training some new recruits.”

I asked Jack, “Please thank that Colonel of yours for taking care of the problem with the terrible teenagers.”

Jack asked, “How are you feeling about what you had to do?”

I replied, “Jack, I’ve been so busy I don’t think about it very often. Jack I love you so much!”

Jack said, “I forgot to tell you Masha, I might go up in rank which will mean more money for us.”

Masha said, “Jack have you forgotten I can’t get to any of our money? I am still using the money that Ben left.”

Jack swore, “Son of a bitch, I did forget about that. Let me see if I can do something about that from here. I love you Masha but my time’s up for today, I will try to call again tomorrow.”

The phone woke up Louise and she asked, “Was that Uncle Jack.”

I laughed and said, “Yes it was, I was just getting worried because I hadn’t heard from him.”

Louise asked, “Masha, are you having money problems?”

I said, “Louise, Jack forgot to set up access for me to our bank accounts before he left. Ben, you remember I talked about him before, left ten thousand dollars for me so that’s what I’ve been living on. But Jack promised to get things taken care of with the bank.”

Louise offered, “Masha I would gladly pay rent if you need it.”

I waved her off and said, “Thank you, but it’s not needed. However I do need the bathroom before our morning exercise.”