“You’ll come in guns blazing and kill me dead,” York said. “Got it. I understand.”
“Good,” the Sergeant said. He then lowered down, bending and unclasping York’s leg restraints. A minute passed and he stood back up, right hand still on his rifle.
“The arms?” York asked. “You promised.”
The Sergeant grumbled, swung his rifle back, and pulled his pistol from the holster. He aimed it directly at York’s head. “Don’t move.”
Click click.
York was free.
The large Sergeant stepped back five paces, weapon trained on York. The other men did the same.
York took a moment, slowly moving his feet, rubbing his wrists where the chains had rubbed them raw. He did so carefully, for he’d been around men with itchy trigger fingers before. “Thanks,” he muttered, though deep down he didn’t mean it.
Elizabeth, now satisfied, turned to the guards. “Out,” she demanded.
“But, ma’am—” the Sergeant began to protest.
“Now,” she ordered.
The guards left, defeated, closing the door behind them. A loud click of the lock and they were gone. No doubt they were watching intently from behind the mirror.
York waved his fingers at it, grin on his face.
Elizabeth remained quiet, ignoring York until the door buzzed again. In came a man, mid-twenties and balding, a bit overweight. He would never amount to much, his biggest task of each day was remembering who gets cream in their coffee and who doesn’t.
“Here’s what you requested,” he said.
“Set it on the table and leave,” Elizabeth ordered.
The man shook as he stared at York, setting the cardboard shoebox on the table and stepping away fast. He turned, nearly running to the door, escaping through the second it reopened.
“What’s this?” York asked.
“What you requested,” Elizabeth replied.
Inside were a pack of cigarettes, matches and a plastic ashtray. Also, a cold can of Coke lay on its side. York grinned, opening the Coke and taking a deep drink. He set it down, opened the fresh pack, smelling down the length of the cigarette. “Ah, it’s been awhile,” he said. Then, York struck the match, watching the flame flair up, touching it to the end of his smoke. He inhaled, taking a deep drag.
Upon exhaling, York was polite, blowing the smoke away from Elizabeth’s direction.
“Guess I can’t deny you’re the gal that gets things done,” York said.
“I lived up to my end. Your turn,” she said, serious and ready.
York took another drag, saying, “Lady, I’ll tell you anything you want to hear.”
“The incident. I want to know more.”
“You keep saying incident. Not sure why. It was a fucking nightmare, okay? We literally entered the gates of hell,” York said.
“Fair enough. The cave. I’d like to know more.”
“All right, off the record, right?”
“Yes. When you engaged the Taliban, one was still alive when you got there. Is this correct?” she asked.
“Yup.”
“Continue…”
51
“He got clipped pretty bad. Gut shot, not a fun way to die. Think Diaz nailed him. Either way, he didn’t have long,” York said.
“Did you question him?”
“One of our boys knew bits of the language. The guy muttered mostly, didn’t really make much sense.”
“What did he say?”
“Talked about the demons. That the valley had demons. Crazy talk! He was bleeding out, turning yellow. That’s how you know you’re dying, when your skin starts going yellow,” York said.
“Did you call for an evac?”
“Nah, no time for that. Put him down instead.”
“You shot an unarmed man?” Elizabeth asked.
“Sure did. Only humane thing to do.”
“That’s…”
“What, against the Geneva Convention or something?” York interrupted.
“Actually, yes. You should have administered aid. Held him for possible interrogation.”
York took another drag, smashing out his smoke and lighting another. “You think protocol exists out here? Fuck, lady, we’re in Khost. Dude was dying, we asked our questions, then I helped him along to his seventy virgins. Welcome to war.”
“Listen, I’m not judging. It’s just—”
Again, York cut her off. “Before you start thinking I’m some sick asshole, I handed him his Koran. Gave him some water. Let him do his praying. When he was ready, I put two in his head and that was all. The team was already moving on. Now you can think it’s wrong all you want, but this is Khost. I’d have done the same for anything that’s suffering, a dog, a goat, whatever.”
She nodded, choosing to not upset the man. “You said he spoke of demons. Did he elaborate?”
“Nah, just crazy talk. We figured maybe he was trying to tell us more of his boys were in the village. More Taliban maybe.”
“So you killed him and moved on.”
“Yup, to the village. Ramirez called base, requested surveillance and all that nice stuff. Apaches would have been nice, but they wouldn’t even send us a drone. We could tell the village was big too.”
“But they sent nothing.”
“Correct. Made some excuse. Patterns were full, something like that. We all called bullshit.”
“I would have too. By this point, you had to have been skeptical. And how long was it until you were called back for extraction?”
“Immediately,” York admitted. “We said we’d head back. The LZ was a day away, so we had plenty of time. And sure, we were skeptical. That’s why we went into the village.”
“Even though there was no backup, even though you were called in? Despite that there might have been hundreds of Taliban waiting, you went in?”
“We’re Delta,” he responded. “We were jacked up, decided to move in.”
“The village? It held no insurgents?”
“None we came in contact with. Normal folk, most of whom seemed surprised we were there. Shocked, actually. You should have seen their faces. Shit, that place is so far hidden from civilization, I doubt many knew why we were even there. We patrolled the streets, spoke with the people. Watched their activity, took some photos even.”
“When were you convinced the village was safe?”
“We were never convinced. See, the Taliban use scouts. Some are young boys no older than eight. They sit outside bases, ready with their cell phones. These are the same kids that sell us bunk CDs and other bullshit we don’t need. They’re allies only when it suits them. That’s just how things are. So, we were cautious the entire time, though nothing eventful happened.”
“And you spoke to some? They say anything important?”
“Not really. Rogers spoke with a few. It was strange, but it seemed the entire village came to greet us. Some talked, the elders mostly. The women and children stayed back, though they didn’t seem scared. That was strange too.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because usually they are. But for some reason, these people seemed happy by our presence. Urged us to stay, but we weren’t going to do that,” York said.
“Well, maybe there weren’t any Taliban there. Perhaps they were what you said… normal people.”
“Taliban are everywhere. I’m surprised they didn’t fuck us up, actually. That valley is their land, and most Afghanis will invite you inside their home one minute, cap you the next. It’s just how they work. So, we moved fast, didn’t overstay our welcome, and got ready to leave.”