Chapter 15: Sniper School Thursday 13 September 2007

Khudabah, Pakistan — Morning of day fifteen

What a terrible goddamned night I had. It took the rats three hours to finally eat enough of the little boy to kill him. His cries for help are imprinted on my mind, and when it became light enough for me to see this morning, it was even worse; the mother fucking rats were still there eating him. I puked my guts out and turned my head away.

As bad as last night was, today is even worse. After the guards tie me to the chair, Mustif comes in. "Good morning, Sergeant Major Bennie Blaine. I trust our little entertainment yesterday and last night was enjoyable for you." He sneered at me.

I wonder how in the hell he got my real name until he throws a copy of the New York- Fricken-Crimes newspaper on the desk in front of me. It's from five days after my capture. The headlines read, "American Hero MIA and Presumed Dead."

Mustif starts beating me across the face; he's really pissed. "So you thought it was funny to tell us you were Alfred E. Newman. You fucking American pig. You embarrassed me. I should just beat you until you can't move, let the men rape the shit out of you, and then let the rats eat you." He keeps beating me until he's breathing hard and doesn't have the strength to continue.

"So you're a fucking Marine American hero. Let me tell you how your America is treating you now." Mustif continues reading from the paper. "After helping five wounded Marines into a rescue helicopter, Sergeant Major Bennie Blaine jumped into a different helicopter. His helicopter was shot down and burst into flames minutes after crashing with no survivors. There are no plans for a rescue attempt because the presence of Islamic militants is too strong in the area of the crash."

"So, you fucking pig, I guess your ass is mine until I grow tired of you and let the men have their way with you," Mustif says. "Then your ass will be theirs." He laughs at his evil humor.

He injects me with the drugs they've been using on me and leaves for a couple hours, leaving the paper in front of me. From time to time, he comes back to give me another injection. When the swelling in my face subsides, I read some more of the article. It mentions Jens is sure I am still alive, and she won't rest until I am found. At least she is doing better than when I left on this fucked-up mission. Even though she's the most incredible woman in the world, I don't hold much help of her saving me. That's something the General would never allow.

I am shocked when Zarika comes late in the day and cleans me up, taking care of the new cuts and bruises on my face. Then she redresses my feet, shaking her head and telling me in Russian my feet don't look good. Finally, she feeds me some more stew and gives me a bunch of water.

I manage to string together enough Russian to ask her why Mustif still lets her take care of me. She replies that he doesn't know about it and that she bribes the guards to let her help me. When I ask what she bribes the guards with, she just looks uncomfortable and drops her gaze to the floor. I realize with a sickened feeling that she's letting the guards fuck her so she can take care of me.

She tells me she heard Mustif and the leader talking. They want information out of me about where the Americans hold prisoners because that's where the leader's brother is being held. And the leader told Mustif I had better not die because he was planning on trading me for his brother. She asks me about my American girlfriend and if she is pretty, and what life is like in America. I try to tell her the best I can.

When she hears the guards coming, she smiles at me, gives me a kiss on the cheek, tells me not to lose hope, warns me not to anger Mustif, and promises she will try to sneak in to see me tomorrow.

The guards tie me to the ceiling and surprise me by leaving the lights on again. I am sure it must be because of Zarika; I probably owe her my life.

At least my Jens is well; I have been really worried about my love. I hope I will have dreams about her tonight.

Kaneohe Bay Hawaii — Thursday, Day Twelve

It was a good thing I'd put on my bionic ears, because no sooner did we leave the hiding place than I heard a patrol. They were close and moving away from us.

I keyed my mic."Looks like we have a patrol just ahead on the trail at about four hundred meters moving away from us. Let's sneak up on them and take them out."

"Wow. I can't hear them at all. But my ears are still ringing from the last skirmish. What did you hear?"

"Someone isn't using a camelback. They're using either a water bottle or a canteen, and I can hear the water sloshing in it," I replied, and continued, "Someone else has a nervous habit of tapping on his weapon. One person has a stuffy nose. Another person just slapped at a bug ... should I keep going?"

"Damn. I have got to get a pair of those," She said.

"Ouch! Make sure you whisper," I said.

"Sorry, my love," Jens whispered.

We slowly worked our way up to the patrol until we could see them in our night vision gear. I said, "Looks like a small patrol, I count eight."

Jens replied, "The trail curves ahead. If we wait I think we can get a shot on all of them."

Jens was right as usual, and whispered, "I'll take the back four, you take the front four. On three. One ... two ... three." We opened fire with our suppressed M4s, and by the time the patrol figured out what was going on, they were all dead.

I grabbed Jens and threw her to the ground, just in time, and shushed her. "There's a sniper on the ridge to our left, I think about five hundred meters. I know who it is because he always clears his throat right before he shoots. He didn't see us in our ghillie suits until we fired. Then he saw our muzzle blast. We will need to be careful whenever we fire."

"Thanks, my love. I owe you one," She whispered. "So, why doesn't everyone use bionic ears?"

"Let's start working our way towards the right side of the ridge. I'll tell you as we move," I answered, and we started crawling up the hill.

"You're the only person that knows about this other than Jack. When I said they're a secret, that's what I meant. You see, sometimes my luck had some help."

"You know, now some things make sense," Jens replied as we kept creeping towards the ridge. "There were times my simulations of you didn't make sense, and I wondered if you had ESP. Now I know about the ears, those times make sense."

"Well, some of those times might have been me trusting my feelings. So maybe they were ESP. We need to be very quiet now so I can listen," I said, and Jens fell silent, even measuring her breathing.

I listened. "Yeah, this is George; I can tell by the sounds he makes. He's good, but we can take him, especially since he can't see us with these IR suits. He's right at the point of the hill, about three hundred meters away. I think if we continue to the right, we can find a position to take him out. He always shoots an M40 in 300 Winchester Magnum. I want his rifle for our use. Besides, it will really piss him off when we take his it. No noise from now on."

Jens more than complied, she had really listened to me, and I could hardly hear her. We got to the top of the ridge on the right, and I broke the silence.

"Shit. We can't get a shot from here. Jens, I'm proud of how quiet you are. Because of that, I think we can sneak up and take them both out with our knives."

"My love," She answered, "Did you forget about our suppressed Ruger MkIIs? Once we get within twenty-five feet, they'll be the perfect."

"Damn, I forgot all about them. You're totally right. This will be much better than trying to sneak close enough for knives. Thanks for reminding me, my beautiful and deadly witch." I said.

Jens squeezed my leg, letting me know she liked the compliment.

We took our time and found a clearing at twenty-five feet, but we still had a problem — we couldn't see them with our NV gear because they had on the same IR suits as we had. Using my bionic ears, I had a good idea where both of them were, but I wasn't one hundred percent sure. Finally Jens started making a mewing sound like a kitten, both George and his spotter turned, and the movement told us where they were. Four shots from the Rugers, and they were dead.

I half-whispered, "You can leave all your gear, George; we're going to be using it."

George swore. "Son of a bitch. I knew we were in trouble when the BG sent us in after you, Banzai. I tried to tell him you would end up killing us and using our weapons. You know you really ripped them up when they attacked the hill. That was one of the best tactical plans I have ever seen. I guess you have been studying."

"George, I'm not smart enough to come up with this plan. My new spotter and fiancée came up with it; she is the beauty and the brains of this unit. George and Frank, meet Jumpin' Jens," I replied.

Jens shook their hands. "Pleased to meet both of you. I've studied you. You're very good."

George looked at me. "I'd heard you were pissed about having a woman as your new spotter. Then I heard you two were engaged, and I figured she must be really good for you to change your mind. I was right."

He turned to Jens. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you the future Mrs. Blaine. So, if you're the beauty and the brains of the unit, what does that make Banzai?"

Jens replied, "Thanks George. Banzai is the boss and the brawn of the unit."

Jens started to explain it to them, but I interrupted, "Hey, I hate to do this, but we have to get moving. We'll take care of your weapons like they are our own, and we'll let you know where we leave them after we run out of ammo."

George answered, "I'm not upset; I knew you would do this. When I missed the shot on one of you, I told Frank you would be coming for us. We thought about leaving, but figured we would die either way. This is a good rifle, it's sighted in at five hundred meters, and I have one hundred rounds of ammo with it. To be truthful, we are just happy to be able to leave and get some sleep. Give them hell Banzai and Jens."

"Orraaahhh," we both said, and watched George and Frank take off.

I asked Jens, "Well, we have a new sniper rifle. Why don't you bring out Lassie and figure out which location would be the best."

Jens setup the computer and satellite dish and booted Lassie. "Wow," she remarked, "I can't believe how many ghosts are on the screen. We're lucky we're here; this one area is relatively empty. Damn, there are four other groups of snipers, and they're all hunkered down just waiting for us. At least we know where they are now and can either go after them or avoid them. Since this area is sort of clear, please give me a few minutes, my love, to analyze all this data and come up with a plan."

When Jens gets into her analysis mode, she totally concentrates on her duty. I went over and introduced myself to the weapon. It was a pretty nice rifle. "I think I hear something," I said. Jens was still busy, so I started looking around.

I took a look through the scope and said, "My love, do you see any ghosts about fourteen hundred meters away from us?"

That broke her out of her trance, "What? What are you talking about? I don't see anything."

"Well, I can see three ghosts wandering around and I need ranged," I answered.

"Shit," She answered. "I'll be right there," and he slid down to the spotting scope. "Son of a bitch. I want them dead and then I want to go see what they're wearing. Range on left ghost, fourteen twenty-four meters; elevation, minus ten; wind, four at three fifty-four. Wait. Hold your fire! They're civilians."

"Shit! What are civilians doing in the training area? That explains why they're so noisy and they look like they're lost." I sighed. "I guess I have to make the call." I keyed my mic on the emergency call-all frequency, "Unit Bravo Juliet calling the RSO, we have identified three suspected civilians in the training area. Please advise."

The radio crackled, "This is RSO Colonel Sanderson to all troops in the training area. The exercise is immediately on hold. Cease all training activity and movement until Unit Bravo Juliet verifies the presence of civilians in the training area. Unit Bravo Juliet, you are ordered to contact the suspected civilians and verify their identity. If they are civilians, detain them and radio your location. We'll send the MPs to pick them up. Also, if they're civilians, treat them with the utmost respect and courtesy."

While I was on the radio, Jens was digging in her pack. She pulled out two Kimber and handed one to me along with two mags.

"Put this on, and be careful. This is a real Kimber with real ammo. I don't think so because they're so inept, but these civvies could be assassins."

Jens phone started vibrating. "One minute, my love." She answered the phone. It was the General on the line. She hung up the phone and continued, "That was daddy, and he told me they are probably a news crew but to be very careful. He also authorized me to carry the Kimbers we have and if necessary to fire live ammo in the training area. He told me to be very careful with them and to not say anything in front of them. When we go down there, you'll stay concealed and cover my back. If they are terrorists looking for you, they probably won't shoot me."

I shook my head. "Bullshit on that last part. That's not what the General said. You're forgetting I have on my bionic ears. I heard both sides of the conversation. Here's how we will handle this. It's evident they don't have NV gear; shit, I even saw them turn on a flashlight. We'll sneak in front of them and contact them. These are my orders."

"I don't agree with you on this, but I live and love to serve you," Jens replied.

The adrenalin was flowing when we slipped down the hill. As we got closer to them I started laughing and keyed my private frequency to Jens.

"Yeah, this is a news crew, all right," I chuckled. "There's even a woman in it, and she's swearing at the two guys for getting them lost"

Jens answered back. "We still need to be careful."

She was right as always, so we were not just careful; we were very careful. When we were about fifty meters from them Jens could even hear the woman, and whispered to me, "You were right, my love, this is funny. Damn. She can really bitch. It's a shame we have to capture them; it'd be much more fun to let them wander around until daylight."

I keyed the emergency frequency, "This is Unit Bravo Juliet, giving a status report. We are within fifty meters of the suspected civilians and are about to make contact."

"Roger, Unit Bravo Juliet. Please lock down your transmit button so we can record your contact with the suspected civilians. We will contact Juliet on an alternate frequency if we have instructions for you," Colonel Sanderson answered.

We were in position with Jens on one side of the trail and me on the other side. I locked the transmit button down and said in my loudest Marine voice.

"Halt where you are. Put your hands in the air and do not move!"

The woman screamed and fell to the ground. The other two slowly put their hands in the air.

I continued, "What happened to the woman?"

One of the voices replied, "You scared the piss out of her and she fainted. Please don't shoot us, we're lost."

I answered, "You just lied to me. You're not lost. Don't lie to me again. You're trespassing on USMC property and are currently surrounded. Do not make any sudden moves or we'll be forced to fire. Do you understand my orders?"

Both the men said, "Yes."

"Tell me who you are," I commanded.

One of them said, "We are a news crew from CCCN. I'm Jon, the audio engineer; this is Bernie, the cameraman, and the woman on the ground who pissed herself and passed out is Elizabeth Morgan. We're here to try to film this exercise. We weren't lost when we came in here, but got lost later."