Chapter 7

Clint's ceremony was a nice one. The minister said a few words; the team was in dress blues and saluted as his mother set the flowers on his casket. Ell-tee stepped up and gave her a folded flag and told her that on behalf of a grateful nation and the years of service her son had given, it was an honor to give her this symbol of his service. He stepped back came to attention and snapped off a crisp salute. She returned to her seat, located between Karen and Tiffany. I was in a nice suit and stood behind Karen.

The team came to attention and slowly raised their hands for a final salute to a fallen teammate. I had tried to arrange an honor guard but had no luck. When it was over, we all kind of filed out and moved to the cars. Ell-tee told me that the boys had to get back to CA and that next week the combined wake for Doc and Clint would be at McP's. I told him I'd be there and he shook my hand before heading to his rental. Hannaberry, Rogers, and Connors came over and said a few words about Clint but I could tell that they really didn't feel comfortable talking about it. I shook their hands and told them I'd see them in a few. Karen, Clint's mom, Linda, and Tiffany were standing by the cars when I turned and walked over to them. Linda told us that she and Tiffany were going to her house as they had some things about Clint to talk about. Karen asked it they would be ok and Linda told her that she had buried her husband a few years ago and she could handle this better than Tiffany was, so she was going to comfort her as they had both loved him, one as a son and the other as a spouse to be.

We said out goodbyes and Karen and I got in the car to drive back to the hotel. It was a quiet drive. She broke the silence and asked me if I had died would she had gotten a flag. I told her I didn't know. She asked about the problem I had in Seattle and how was that going to go away. I told her what I was told, that it never happened and the records were sealed. She was quiet for a little more before asking me how could I be sure. At the next signal light, I told her that if it wasn't, then I was looking at being an old man before I would ever see her again. I drove some more in silence and we pulled into the hotel parking lot without another word. I had more nightmares that night, awoke several more times bathed in sweat but couldn't remember them in the morning. I finally nodded off only to woken up by the room phone. I fumbled for it and answered it. It was Linda. She told me that Tiffany had decided to stay a little longer and meet more of Clint's relatives that lived in the area. I told her no problem as I thought that it might do her some good and let her know what kind of person he had been. She told me thank you for bringing her son home to her. I didn't know how to answer that. I croaked out a your welcome and she hung up. I rolled over and looked to Karen's side of the bed. She wasn't there. I sat up and then heard the shower running and her singing to the radio. She hadn't heard the phone ring. Maybe that was a good thing. I dropped back down on the bed and must have dozed off.

A sudden noise next to the bed woke me and I reacted by jumping up and grabbing the person that was leaning over me. I grabbed them in an arm lock around the throat and put them on the floor, flipping myself over and on top, my knee on their chest, left hand on the throat and right hand raised for a strike. Screaming froze my hand. It all became clear. My knee was on Karen's chest, my hand to her throat. I blinked a few times and saw her terrified face on the floor looking up at me with wide, scared eyes. I got off her, stood up and offered her my hand. She tentatively reached for it and I helped her to her feet, apologizing for my actions. She was still scared but now a little angry. She asked me what the hell I was doing, and what was I thinking, trying to keep her voice calm and level. I told her that I had been asleep and a loud noise woke me and a shadow was leaning over me and I reacted. Now she was getting calmer and told me that she had dropped her makeup case on the floor by the bed and was leaning over me to make sure that nothing had gotten on the bed when I jumped up and put her on the floor.

At first she had thought I was playing but it wasn't until she screamed did she realize I hadn't known who it was. I apologized some more and she said that if only I moved that fast at home, there would be a lot less pending honey do projects. I knew then that she was a strong and special woman to handle what had just happened as casually as she did.

We flew out the next morning to San Diego. We checked into an older hotel close to Old Town San Diego, and spent some time wandering playing tourist before having an early dinner and heading back to call Ell-tee. He told me what time the wake was and we decided to arrange a cab for the evening as neither one of us wanted to drive here. The cab picked us up out front just after 6pm. McP's had a sign on the door stating closed for a private party when we got out. I paid the cab and then took Karen's arm and told her that this was actually a send off party and not a real solemn event. We walked inside to a blast of loud rock music, one of Clint's favorites, Bonnie Tyler's 'I Need a Hero'. It was blaring from the high-end sound system that McP's boasted. The room was crowded with team members and their respective others. Ell-tee wandered over and took us to a booth.

I nodded to several of the guys on the way by. Pineapple was sitting at a table with his wife and raised his beer mug at me as I took a seat. Ell-tee told me that Doc and Clint had their names added to McP's wall and motioned over to the wall by the bar. Lee Greenwood came on next with 'God Bless the USA' and the party really went into full swing as the crowd at the bar sang along. At the end of the song, they all toasted Doc and Clint and emptied their beer mugs. Over the course of the next few hours, the guys made the rounds and said a few things about Clint and how I was missed in the team and other such comments. Pineapple stood and in a brief moment of silence yelled out a toast to those like us and damn few left. A roar from the crowd as they all returned the toast.

The party wound down a little before 130am and the guys started to file out. Pineapple, Ell-tee and myself and our respective others were the only ones left. We all agreed that Doc and Clint had one hell of a send off. I waved to McP's bar staff as we all went outside. Pineapple and his wife said their goodbyes and he told me that he had hoped that we wouldn't have had a team reunion like this, but it was still nice to see me. He called me Slick before walking off to their car, his wife the designated driver. Ell-tee and his girlfriend, a different one than the one he had the last time I had seen him, were left. He told me to watch my six and keep twenty. I nodded, shook his hand and watched as he got his jeep. I turned to Karen and she smiled at me. One of those million dollar smiles, the kind that spoke a thousand words without any vocalization. The cab arrived and we rode back to the hotel in silence.

We flew back home late afternoon the following day. It was good to be back home and spend some time together. I still couldn't shake that feeling that I was forgetting something. We would leave the house to go out for an errand and I would sit in the car and think about what I was forgetting. A few times, I even went back in the house and looked around trying to find what I was leaving behind. I shook off the feeling and tried to forget about it. This went on for several days until it finally hit me, I was looking for my rifle and the feeling I was getting was not having it with me. I could deal with it, just a habit from the last seven months and the years of operating in hostile countries.

We spent the next week getting reacquainted with each other and enjoying life. The little problem I had been having, the nightmares, were over or suppressed, as I didn't get anymore the entire time I was home. All too soon, the time came for me to head back. I held Karen and told her I would be home and soon, less than four months and we'd together again. She drove me to the airport and hugged me tight at the boarding gate and told me to come back to her and not in a box or she'd kill me. I saw her eyes were watery and kissed the top of her head and told her I'd be back before she missed me. I waved from the gateway and then turned and boarded the plane.

Getting back into ROC and then into DRC made for an almost audible click when the shuttle helo set down at the airfield just outside of our hanger. Smiley met me and led me to one of the Suburbans. I didn't see Joe around and asked where he was as we left the airfield. Smiley just smirked and told me that some things had changed. I asked and he told me I would find out soon enough. I watched the countryside go by as the trip was made in silence. It wasn't until Smiley pulled into the hotel driveway that the change was noticeable. Several white land rovers and wheeled armored vehicles were parked inside the circular driveway, sporting the white paintjob and the black 'UN' logo.

With the UN now in our AO, things were about to change. As we pulled up in front and I got out, I took note of the looks I was getting from the combined force soldiers that watched our entrance. When I stepped inside, there were several more blue bereted soldiers and officers wandering around inside and one short, stocky fellow engaged in a heated conversation with Webb. I walked up, stood to one side and checked this little guy out. He had an accent like maybe Dutch or German and was telling Webb in no uncertain terms that any operation that his team did in the future was to be done with a UN inspection team tagging along. I saw his eyes glance towards me and then dart right back to Webb. When he was finished, not allowing Webb to speak his piece, he spun on his heel and walked/marched away. I half expected to see him snap his heels together and throw a Seig Heil. Webb turned to me and just shook his head.

This new guy was a Colonel Van Huesen from the Danish contingent of UN troops now in DRC. The dude could have been a poster boy for the Wehrmacht back in the day. We walked over to the elevators and crowded in the back as more blue beret soldiers entered. We didn't speak the whole way up and had to shoulder aside several of them when we got to our floor. I asked Webb when this all went down and he told me it happened about two weeks ago. Right about the time I was in the states. I'm sure if I backtracked it enough, I could get the exact time and date and it would correspond with the trouble that happened to me in the states.

Webb mentioned that Joe and several of our drivers had been 'reassigned' when the UN stepped in. The UN cited that we were abusive and didn't treat them fairly. Total bullshit. We gave them a comparable wage to what a USA cab driver would make, fed them well and treated them with respect. Webb and I knew that all our drivers were actually from some elite DRC unit but the charade had to be kept up. We sat in my suite for several hours and he got me up to date.

Apparently, some state department staff weenie got several complaints allegedly made from the DRC government through a contact in Zimbabwe that we were inciting violence and training rebel forces within the borders of a sovereign country. I just shook my head at that but Webb pulled out an envelope and letters that were signed by some DRC official that stated just what he told me. It mentioned the market incident, the detainment and search of the 'engineers' and the land mine.

In each case, it stated that we were just a band of mercenaries hired by radical factions working against the Kabila administration and each incident was a direct result of our actions. Each incident was detailed in how it occurred but every time, the facts of our involvement were skewed. The market incident had us going there to purchase illegal narcotics resulting in a shootout with rival dealers and several civilians dead. The 'engineers' were actually there at the request of the Kabila administration to look for precious metals and they were 'rough housed' and 'man handled' just because their vehicle was stopped by our perimeter.

This was priceless stuff.

The person who wrote it could make millions selling ice cubes to Eskimos. I handed the letters back to Webb in disgust. The State Department didn't like us doing what they should be doing but wouldn't because they blamed Kabila for the human rights problems that Mbuto left in his wake. He totally agreed with me and told me he'd see me at dinner.

When I went down the elevator later that evening, I was accompanied by two soldiers, beret on the head, rifle slung and helmet tucked under their left arm. I had my sidearm in a tactical thigh holster, my team radio clipped next to four extra magazines on my belt and my magnum tanto strapped horizontal across the small of my back covered by my shirt. This was my standard dinner attire with exception to the tanto. The two soldiers had been chatting before they stepped inside and once they saw me, all conversation stopped and I got the scowl.

After all, I was part of the big bad mercenary group plotting and training to overthrow the government. Big whoop de do. I got off the elevator on the main floor and made my way over to the dining room. The lobby was pretty full of even more UN troops coming and going and I saw Van Huesen across the lobby, setting up inside one of the conference rooms. Looked like a TOC going in. I went inside the dining room to find the entire team there. Tonight was steak night, hence the tanto. I looked around the room and saw Joe and all our drivers standing in a little cluster by the far wall, talking to Webb. I made my way over to them, greeting and waving to the guys who saw I was back. I shook Joe's hand and said hello to the other men. Webb had been telling them something and then finished it up by reminding them of what he said.

Webb put his arm around my shoulders and steered me back to the main part of the room. Over his shoulder, I saw Joe telling the other drivers something and then leaving the room by the service entrance. I mentioned to Webb about the TOC going in across the lobby and he just grinned and nodded and told me that Watness had already scoped out the room and found out what equipment was being used so that he could monitor it and we'd know what Van Huesen was going to do. I had to smirk. The rest of dinner was uneventful I'd spear my steak with my tanto and carry it to my table where the surgical sharpness would allow me to cut it up. Towards the end of the evening, Webb stood on his chair, yelled out for someone to secure the door, and ordered a toast. To those like us and damn few left. The entire room toasted with him. He also added that the contract was ending early and all of us were going home in two weeks. The room filled with whines, gripes and catcalls.

He motioned the room to quiet before adding that Dickerson and his ass bandits had left DRC and in their place, we had the UN. More catcalls and bitches rang out before Webb got the room back under control. He went onto to state that all courtesy was to be shown to the UN troops and that we were to be receiving the rest of the humanitarian aid shipments in the morning.