Chapter 16: Time and Time Again

Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not. Time takes it all, time bears it away, and in the end there is only darkness. Sometimes we find others in that darkness, and sometimes we lose them there again.
Stephen King

The Cave, Afghanistan

Tues., June, 26 9:30 AM (Local), Tues., June 26 05:00:00 (Zulu)

The two groups, the Taliban patrol and the fugitive party were equally surprised at this unexpected encounter but the difference was that the former were armed with AK-47 assault rifles. The two men started yelling orders and questions to everyone; getting angry and frustrated with the lack of response, until Azalea finally convinced them that they would have to use her as a translator. It infuriated them to have to deal with a woman, especially one who dressed so "indecently" and acted so independently.

They forced her to fashion a head covering and veil from a bed sheet and to prostrate herself before them. Although Azalea was perfectly capable of handling the discussions on her own, the Taliban forced her to constantly go and consult with James and Darryl rather than admit, even to themselves, that a woman might actually understand what was going on. They struck her, spat on her and even Darryl's meager street vocabulary was enough to know that she was being called a whore. Finally, they sent her back and she gathered everyone around.

"Officially, I am to tell you that you are prisoners of the Taliban and being infidels are at the mercy of the judgment of Allah; In this case, as determined by them. Don't worry, they speak no English at all, I'm sure of that. I'm sure they are not here in any official capacity. They just stumbled on this cave while looking for loot. In fact, they are afraid of getting in trouble. They are arguing about what to do. The taller one wants to skim some of the best loot and bury it for later retrieval, rape me since I'm just a foreigner's whore anyway, turn us and the cave over to higher command and become heroes. The short scruffy looking one seems somewhat less devoted to the cause. He wants to rape me, then kill us all and bury us in the sand and keep the cave to loot at leisure. So far the only thing they have agreed on is raping me. After that our fate is in the air."

"I won't stand here and let those animals rape you Azalea, whatever the odds."

"Dear sweet Darryl, yes you will. It will be hard but I will not have you throw your life away to save my virginity, I've been tempted often enough to give it to you anyway."

Darryl just stared at her. "Azalea I had no idea."

"I know, but this is not the time and place to discuss that topic. If you wish to risk your life I think you must do it to try to save us all."

"What do you have in mind?" asked Cheryl.

"We would all have to agree but I think we have to take a chance and try to overpower these dangerous fools rather than depend on their mercy or sense of justice."

"I agree," said Darryl, "Let's call the roll. Everyone be honest. It's all our lives we're gambling with. And quickly, I think our friends' patience is running out. James, starting with you."

"Hell, you know my vote is to try to get free, I just wish I could really help."

"Cheryl?"

"I'm a rebel Honey, no surrender."

"Azalea?"

"You see the future I have with them. I'm a Durrani, I fight. Same for Nura."

"Well I'm in," said Darryl, "now any ideas?"

"Yes," said Azalea, "I'm going to try to get the raping moved up before anyone gets hurt. They aren't going to do it in public so whichever one goes first is going to take me in the other chamber. That's obviously our best chance. It's the only time they'll be split up."

Lake House

Tues., June, 26 1:00 AM (Local), Tues., June 26 05:00:00 (Zulu)

Courtney was sleeping in her own bed but a sound awakened her. She listened, 'scratch' skreetch', it was coming from the French windows. She sat up in bed. There stood the wolf, her eyes gleaming. Courtney arose and went to the window and opened it. Was the wolf coming in? No the wolf awaited her. She exited and they walked together to the lake.

"You have never come without me seeking you before."

"I had to come, there are ill winds"

"Did I fail?"

"No, you did well, your champion has done well?"

"What is not well?

"Time has betrayed you, fate has betrayed you"

"What can I do?"

"Those that would rescue must go sooner"

"How much sooner?"

"If they go when they are now to go they will be far too late."

"How much sooner should they go?"

"If they go as quickly as they can, the race may be won by minutes or seconds, but not hours"

"And if they lose the race."

The wolf for the first time did not answer her.

"Please, you have to tell me, what if they lose the race."

The wolf's eyes turned to her filled with pain and emptiness. "Why make me say it when you already know the answer."

Courtney gasped and started running as fast as she could, an almost ghostlike creature in a diaphanous nightgown running across the Lake House lawn to Jaclyn's apartment. She beat upon the door until a few moments later a sleepy Jaclyn opened it.

"Courtney, what in hell, it's the middle of the night, what's wrong?"

"I have to talk to Karl, right away."

"That's impossible; they're at a top secret forward base now, probably in Pakistan. There are no calls in or out, it'll take days to go through channels."

"Fuck channels! There's no time. C'mon Jaclyn give. You and Karl are mad in love. You have some way of communicating, don't you? Some little secret."

"But Courtney, if I admitted something like that, I could get some people in trouble."

"And if you don't, you could get some people dead."

"OK Courtney, there is one way but I can't guarantee it'll work. We've never actually tried it and we didn't have a lot of time to discuss it before he left."

"I've got zip now, so let's hear it."

"Karl says that they block email, instant messenger, ftp and anything going out but they allow plain old surfing so the guys can get their porn and sports scores and stuff. So I have a little private space tucked away on the courtney.com site that I can post things and Karl supposedly checks there. In an emergency I could put a disguised message and he'd get it. I've never posted anything and I have no way of telling if he checks it or not."

"Well, for right now, it's the best shot we've got. What do I have to do?"

"You have to think of some way of disguising the message so that it looks completely innocuous."

"Shit, how do you hide a wolf?"

Jaclyn thought a moment, then snapped her finger. "Perfect, hot damn Courtney, I've got it! Make it look like a children's story."

"Excuse me? Won't that seem suspicious? A grown man reading kiddies stories?"

"Not really, Karl collects them off the internet all the time to tell to his nieces and nephews. It's his favorite thing. He also does story telling sessions in childrens' hospitals."

"I didn't know that. What a great dad he will be."

"I think about that all the time Courtney. It makes me really look forward to having his children someday."

"Well if I don't get to work writing a great children's story I may never get the chance to have Darryl's."

"You'd better write fast, it's already midmorning there and I from what the wolf told you they need to mount the mission tonight. That's an impossibly short time to put something like that together."

The Cave, Afghanistan

Tues., June, 26 10:00 AM (Local), Tues., June 26 05:30:00 (Zulu)

"A single guard isn't going to let anyone close, we'll need a distraction."

"That's my department," said Cheryl, "thinking about his buddy in the backroom with Azalea will make the one left here pretty horny. Darryl, make sure you're on a different eye line from me. I'll give that guy a good look up my skirt, sans underwear, and that ought to give you a second to move."

One of the Taliban starting shouting and gesturing for them to separate, so Azalea responded meekly.

"They are getting suspicious so we have to break up. They want food so Cheryl, you help me fix a meal, then I'm going to turn on the charm and the rest of you get ready. I'll explain it all to Nura."

She took Nura to the make-shift kitchen area to help. There she whispered the plan to the young girl. She had to be careful that the Taliban didn't overhear. Nura hardened by a lifetime of exposure to war accepted the situation and her part in it as calmly as if she were being asked to wash dishes after a church social. In fact, she had seen a steel pipe lying under a storage cabinet earlier and had retrieved it for future use. She had already noticed that the Taliban, with their general contempt for the ability of women, paid her very little attention. Getting the heavy weapon and concealing it in her voluminous clothing would prove surprisingly easy.

When the meal was ready, Cheryl and Azalea served it. They also shared it as the Taliban made them eat first to make sure that there was no poison. Azalea served the shorter soldier judging him the easier to seduce. She acted properly subservient, intimating how nice it was to be back among real Moslem men instead of these decadent infidels. For a common soldier to be faced with such a beauty was a rare occurrence and he never stood a chance. He was soon so erect, he was afraid he would cast his seed upon the ground if he didn't move to deposit them in the belly of this beautiful if sinful concubine.

He turned to his comrade. "Watch these others, while I take this whore with me for some religious instruction. Perhaps when I am finished you may wish to instruct her as well."

The tall soldier laughed. "Yes, I have been looking forward to spending time with her to correct her shameful behavior. Teach her well."

Azalea tried to put up just the right amount of struggle to be convincing, which wasn't hard because she had never been so afraid in her life. Darryl tried to close his eyes and his ears to her screams but he had never found it so hard to maintain discipline, nor to forgive himself for his inaction. Gradually her screams faded as the soldier dragged her into the other chamber.

Lake House

Tues., June, 26 1:30 AM (Local), Tues., June 26 05:30:00 (Zulu)

Courtney wrote frantically for the next thirty minutes. She gave the result to Jaclyn who very quickly edited it and put it in HTML format for a website. She dressed the page with artwork she had gathered while Courtney wrote. If anyone other than Karl stumbled on the site they would just see it as a harmless children's story. Hopefully so would anyone monitoring the sites Karl visited for possible security breaches.

"Be honest Jaclyn, what do you think?"

"I think you did great. Anyone finding this would believe it to be part of an ordinary children's story. I don't think anything here seems phony or out of place. But to Karl it would be as crystal clear as a newspaper. There is no mistaking the message."

"So what do think the odds are?"

"Not great, I'm afraid; first, is Karl even going to be online, will he check the site, can he convince David Worthy to take any of this seriously, and even if he does, will it be even possible to put together and launch the mission on that short a notice? On the other hand, I don't know anything else we can do. Let's post it on the net and pray."

Adventure Stories from the Lake

(Click on title to see the page they posted for Karl)

The Cave, Afghanistan
Tues., June, 26 10:15 AM (Local), Tues., June 26 05:45:00 (Zulu)

Darryl tried to get further away from Cheryl so that he would be out of the guards peripheral vision when she started her 'up skirt' distraction but the soldier kept motioning them back together. Time was running out and the sounds of struggle were getting fainter. Darryl was going mad thinking about beautiful Azalea being savagely deflowered by that brutish soldier. He had finally decided to take his chances the first time that the guard's eyes were not on him and leap for the assault rifle. Then suddenly he got an unexpected opportunity.

The cry that came from the other chamber was not fear, it was mortal pain, it was not male or female it was animal. All eyes turned to the opening as though they could see through the very rock wall. Darryl would have turned too except that he was already poised and ready to leap and so he did. He very nearly made it. The guard saw the motion in his peripheral vision and reacted surprisingly quickly as he turned towards the attack. Darryl managed to get his hand on the muzzle of the AK-47 and deflect it downward just as the soldier fired. Instead of disemboweling him, the shot went through his thigh missing bone but blinding him with a red flash of pain. His momentum carried him into the Taliban's gut in a fairly good football block knocking him down but he hung on to the assault rifle. Cheryl made a dive for it but the soldier leapt clear and sprung to his feat like an athlete. He turned the rifle on Cheryl and Darryl both sprawled on the ground at his feet and looked as though he was debating whether or not to shoot them out of hand.

He raised the lethal rifle until the muzzle was just inches from Darryl's ear. It was fairly clear that he, at least, was going to be punished for the assault. The next sound was indescribable and sickening. You heard great force striking liquid, and shattering thin bones and thicker bones. It was a sound that hurt even before you knew that it was striking a human. It was the sound of Nura taking a swing like a designated hitter with her sequestered steel pipe and totally destroying the guard's right knee. He collapsed in shrieking agony, his precious firearm dropped without thought. Everyone in the room knew that he would never walk on that leg again. And her next hit would be his head...

Darryl grabbed the weapon and rose to his feet. His violated thigh burned as though a red hot poker was stuck in it. He felt nothing. He was obsessed with stopping the nightmare that was going on in that other chamber. To redeem the shame he felt for failing to protect her, he was prepared to sacrifice his own life. As he rushed towards the entrance, he almost collided with Azalea rushing the other way also carrying an AK-47. Except for a few rips and blood spatters on her clothes she looked OK. Especially her eyes which did not show the fear and intimidation of a woman just raped. They had only fire.

"Azalea, my God, are you alright? Did he hurt you? Did he... did he... ?"

"Rape me? No Darryl, I am fine, believe me, I am unhurt in any way."

"But how?"

"I am a Durrani; I was raised by five brothers and taught how to protect my honor. No man calls a Durrani woman a whore and lives. I waited until he had uncovered just enough of my body to lose track of my hands." She laughed grimly, "Men are easily distracted by the female body. I used the knife I always carry under my skirt and avenged my honor. You Darryl, come from a society where a woman's honor is not protected in this way. I ask you not to go in that chamber so that you will not think of me in terms of what you may see there. I fear it would offend your western eyes."

"I promise..." Darryl's wound caught up with him and he fainted.

"Darryl" she screamed, "you're hurt! Is it bad?"

"I haven't had a chance to examine it," said Cheryl, but I think it went through the fleshy part of the thigh. Unfortunately, it means our entire male contingent is on the injured list. It's up to us gals now."

Azalea reached under her skirt and produced a nasty looking little dagger. Cheryl had no doubt that it had served as the instrument of retribution against her would be rapist. Now it found a more peaceful use as she used it to slit open Darryl's pants leg in order to examine the wound. She was relieved to see that the bullet, traveling at a high velocity near the muzzle and meeting no hard resistance had passed through without tumbling or fragmenting. It left a big hole through the muscle, and it was going to be very painful for a good while, but Azalea's medical judgment was that he would recover completely except for two round scars the size of a quarter.

"What happened to him?" asked Azalea indicating the taller Taliban lying in obvious shock with his lower leg at an improbable angle.

"Let's just say he forgot to watch little Nura and being a typical child starved for attention she decided to rearrange his kneecap with a steel pipe. Incidentally saving all out lives in the process."

Azalea examined him briefly. "Nothing will help him except a total knee replacement and there is virtually no chance he'll ever have a chance to get one."

"Well, we better get organized and figure what's next."

"First we need to secure the guard in case he gets over the pain enough to become a problem."

"Nura took care of that, she used these giant tie wraps I thought were for garbage bags or something but apparently they have replaced handcuffs. How'd she know that?"

"She has lived her entire life in a war zone, regrettably, that's the kind of thing she does know. If we get out of here I want her to learn the things she missed like playing with dolls. We will have to cut him loose long enough to get his uniform. We will need the other one as well although it's a little bloody I'm afraid."

"I'm glad to hear it Azalea. I've been raped and I've seen too many other women that have been also. I don't think men really understand what it does to a woman. I heard what you said to Darryl about seeing the body might shock him, and it probably would. But I want you to know that whatever you did to him is fine with me. I would have cut off his dick and stuffed it down his throat and let him choke to death."

Cheryl noticed that Azalea did not respond to this except with a strange little enigmatic smile.

Cheryl's eyes grew very large and she gasped. "Oh my God! You did, you actually did. You are my hero. But you're right, don't let Darryl see, he would probably never feel completely comfortable around you again."

"Then I'll finish taking care of Darryl's wound while you sneak out and take a look around and see what our situation is."

Azalea cleaned and dressed Darryl's wound. He was feeling more comfortable but at this moment when they needed him operational, it was obvious that he was not even going to walk unassisted and he certainly would not be doing any more hand to hand combat.

Covert Operations Base, Near Afghan Border

Tues., June, 26 10:30 AM (Local), Tues., June 26 06:00:00 (Zulu)

With about 36 hours to go before the rescue operation, Karl found himself getting restless for action. He was impressed with the quality of resources the Dave Worthy had pulled together. The four man SEAL team was razor sharp and thoroughly professional. Karl would trust them covering his back anywhere. They would be riding in on a MH-53M Pave Low designed specifically for low-level, long-range, undetected penetration into denied areas, day or night. If you had to sneak into bad guy land to do a rescue there was no better ride. Now he just had to deal with the waiting. He wondered into the library to the short row of PCs, and remembering the arrangement he had made with Jaclyn he sat down and logged on... Knowing that detailed logs were kept he didn't go there right away but just wandered around to innocuous sites. Finally he went to the URL they had agreed on expecting a blank page. Instead he found a children's story but the title alone told him it was no ordinary children's story. He read it quickly.

"Oh shit!" he thought, "I've got to get this to Dave. I hope the hell he's in a reading mood today."

The Cave, Afghanistan

Tues., June, 26 10:40 AM (Local), Tues., June 26 06:10:00 (Zulu)

Cheryl returned from her reconnaissance. They had set up a bed next to James, for Darryl and they all gathered there for a strategy meet. Cheryl reported first.

"The good news is they left us a dandy little truck complete with a machine gun in the rear. The bad news is that if we tried to go anywhere, at least in daylight, we'd be lucky to make it a thousand yards. Our only chance is at night and that's gonna be tough enough. I'm worried about a deserted truck sitting outside. There isn't enough brush to cover it effectively and a half assed attempt could be worse than nothing at all. James, you're the most experienced, what do you suggest?"

As he always did, James thought carefully before he spoke. I agree we have to sit tight until night. An abandoned vehicle will attract attention so we are going to have to use our captured uniforms. It should be two "men". Azalea, you have to be one because of language. You'd better practice your baritone. Darryl, you up to sitting in a truck looking like a bored soldier?"

"Sure James... Dad, I'll manage."

"Get Azalea to make you up to get the right skin coloring, you've got a good tan to help. You guys take the AK-47s but remember, they are props only. If our little tableau fails to fool anyone don't play hero. We're surrounded by half the Taliban army; you're not going to win a fire fight."

"If challenged, what are we doing just sitting around?" asked Azalea.

"Bluff, claim that some colonel discovered a cave that is heavily mined and booby trapped to explode if anyone tries to enter. He ordered you to stay and keep everyone away until he could return with an ordinance team."

"It's as good a story as any, just hope no one comes along that knows all the colonels."

"No, the story won't stand up to any real scrutiny, but it might work for casual soldiers that wander by. We've got hours to go until dark, and we're going to need a lot of luck to last until then. Then we'll need a lot more luck to sneak through an army in the dark driving without lights over some of the roughest terrain in the world. I'm not going to blow sunshine up anyone's skirt on this; the odds are not good. If this was a poker hand I'd fold, and walk over to the bar for a drink. But it's all I've got to offer folks. As Bill Mauldin put it in one of his immortal Willie and Joe cartoons in WW 2, if you know a better fox hole, climb in it."

Apparently no one did know a better foxhole so they all went to work on the plan James had laid out. They stripped both Taliban soldiers, living and dead. Nura washed out the worst of the blood stains and spread the uniform out in the hot sun where it dried in minutes. Azalea enjoyed putting the makeup on Darryl, considerably more than the partially successful efforts to disguise her very feminine figure. They both covered their faces from the nose down to hide the absence of the ubiquitous beard worn by the Taliban. They then took their positions trying to look like the universal image of bored soldiers standing guard over some god forsaken spot that in their mind needs no more protection that their ugly great aunt Tillie's virtue.

Covert Operations Base, Near Afghan Border

Tues., June, 26 1:00 PM (Local), Tues., June 26 08:30:00 (Zulu)

"Listen Karl, if anyone ever finds out I'm laying on ops because you read a children's story on the internet that says your girlfriend's friend got it first hand from a wolf... I'll be lucky to keep my pension."

"But Dave, if you don't believe the wolf, what are we doing here. That's how we know about this whole damn thing to begin with."

"I know, I know, don't remind me. OK, I'm in. But listen carefully. I'll present this information in my own way. You will keep your fucking mouth shut or I'll call this whole thing off. Do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly, it's your show."

The Seal Team, the air crew and the ground crew for the Pave Low arrived and took a seat in the conference room and waited with professional detachment to find out the reason for the unscheduled meeting.

Dave stood up and started without preamble.

"We have just received new intel from a source with inside connections and a very high reliability score. The intel is that tomorrow night, when we had originally planned the rescue will be too late. The prisoners will be dead or removed. If we could and decide to run the mission tonight, as early as possible, we have a chance although it will still be tight. No other details."

The Seal Team leader spoke first. "Dave, your gut feeling; how good is this source?"

"Good enough that we wouldn't be here at all without it."

"Well, I'd rather go when we can do some good than waste the effort. We're ready to go if our rides ready."

Dave turned to the Pave Low crew "It's up to you guys. Be honest, I don't really want to be stranded in Afghanistan. If this rushes you to get ready, say so."

They huddled briefly. The pilot answered for them all.

"I don't see any show stoppers. We have a few items stripped for maintenance but barring the unforeseen they should be back up. We'll give a final Go/No Go at 13:00:00 Zulu."

The Cave, Afghanistan

Tues., June, 26 4:30 PM (Local), Tues., June 26 12:00:00 (Zulu)

It actually seemed to be working. Other than occasion glances they seemed to draw no particular attention and the one vehicle that seemed to be heading for them veered off in response to an officious gesture by Darryl. As the afternoon was drawing to a close they actually were beginning to believe that this part of the challenge was behind them.

Then they noticed two trucks coming across the valley in front of them. They were still a good way off but what was unnerving is that they were following no established vehicle path, and making a straight line right at them. Darryl kept hoping they would turn away but his gut told him this wasn't going to happen. His gut was right. The two vehicles, a machine gun armed truck and an open military Land Rover pulled up directly in front of them. No challenge was made but the machine gun was off safety and definitely pointed at them, if casually. A neatly dressed officer got out of the Rover and strode over.

"What are you men doing here with this vehicle?" he demanded.

"We were ordered to keep people away from this cave by our colonel; it's mined and dangerous until an ordinance team gets here," Azalea responded in a clear and respectable baritone.

The officer seemed more amused than angry. He made a gesture and his men quickly disarmed Darryl and Azalea. "I'm afraid not," he said, "according to the number on this vehicle, I am your colonel and I know everyone in my command."

He stepped forward and took off her head gear. Her beautiful long hair tumbled out and her lovely features were revealed. "And I am quite sure that no one in my command is nearly as beautiful as the sister of Kabir Durrani, for I am in the presence of the lovely Azalea am I not?"

Azalea merely nodded in acknowledgement. The officer then turned to Darryl and removed his head gear unveiling pale skin and blonde hair. The officer chuckled.