Patton realized this conflict with Asher was becoming a chess match. This analogy was ironic—their first interaction started with an offer to play chess on the train to Utah. Patton turned Asher down that time, but now he was being forced to play. People’s lives were at stake. Asher had set the new board. Patton just made the first move. He knew there was no way to keep his new town a secret forever. Governor Asher would discover it at some point. It was up to Patton to figure out what Asher would do when he found out. He just hoped that things would fall into place before that happened.
CHAPTER 26
Patton slammed his laptop closed in disgust. The sound startled Jennifer.
“What the hell Patton!”
He glared at her but said nothing. He set the computer on his nightstand and slid further under the covers. She could see that it wasn’t his usual sense of annoyance. He was angry and disturbed by something.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, gentle now.
“Varner just emailed me.”
“And?”
Patton shook his head. “They’re not going to do anything. The researchers have no proof and right now it’s almost impossible to get anyone in here to monitor what’s happening. He said they used to have a huge network of cameras but that was shut down months ago.”
Jennifer let out a loud breath and closed her book.
“Not surprised are you?” she asked.
He shook his head. There was something else.
“He said he disagreed with the researchers and went over their head. He contacted the senator that sponsored the bill. He contacted the agency that supplied the grant money. He says they all ignored him. He hasn’t even heard back from the senator. Some bureaucrat sent him a generic email. He says he’s stuck.”
Jennifer moved to him and laid her head on his chest. He wrapped his arm around her.
“I don’t know…” he said quietly. “Something bad’s going to happen. I just hope—”
“—What? That you can save everyone?” she asked, raising up on her elbow.
Patton sat up and began to speak but Jennifer cut him off.
“I know this is what it’s about and it’s okay. I can’t talk you out of it. I know you and I know how you operate. And it’s a big part of why I love you.”
Patton was stunned. He’d expected a lecture instead of this. She continued.
“If you want to stay I’ll support you. But if you want to buy our way out and go home I’ll support you. If you leave for the wrong reason you’ll never forgive yourself.”
Patton was still silent. He couldn’t disagree with her. He laid his head back down, obviously deep in thought.
“I’ll think about it,” he said grimly. “I feel like I’ve given so much already.”
She laid her head back on his chest and quickly fell asleep. Patton, however, laid awake for hours and pondered his next move.
Smoke flew into his face as he surveyed the scene before him. The feet of children and adults—mostly women—were intertwined in the rubble. Patton removed his helmet and held it at his hip.
“Sir,” came the voice of one of his team sergeants.
“Yes?” he said, distracted, looking at a child’s foot.
“You’ve got a call from the general,” holding a satellite phone towards him.
“Yeah, thanks,” he said, still not looking at his subordinate. He took the phone.
“Yes sir?”
“I need an update, Major Larsen.”
Patton began to speak but choked on his words. He couldn’t take his eye off of the girl’s tiny foot.
“Major?”
“Sorry sir. They’re all dead,” was all Patton could say before the emotion crept back into his voice.
“What happened?” the general asked, his tone softening.
“The enemy hit the village from down below with mortars and machine guns. It looks like they formed up and killed anyone that survived the mortars.”
“Any survivors?”
“We’re checking that, Sir. There don’t seem to be any, though. All of the buildings are demolished. We have a stack of bodies here.”
There was silence from the other end of the line then, “Keep me posted, Patton. I’m sorry you had to see that.”
Major Patton Larsen ended the call and put the sat phone in his cargo pocket. The sergeant returned.
“Drone shows the tangos are still close. We need to—”
Patton felt something warm and wet on his face. When the sergeant fell, Patton realized the man had been shot. There was an explosion behind him and bullets tore the ground at his feet.
“Get down, Sir!” yelled another of his men.
Patton dropped to the ground and came face to face with his fallen comrade. The man’s eyes were still wide with fear, blood gushing from a wound in his neck. Fire continued from down below him. He activated his mic.
“Where’s that fire coming from?” he yelled into his helmet-mounted microphone.
“Hundred meters down, behind those boulders!” came the voice of one of his men. He didn’t recognize which.
“Get some fire on that. Do we have drone coverage?”
“Yes Sir. We’ve had one on overwatch!”
“Call in and get them to engage!” Patton yelled into his mic.
He got to his knees so he could better survey the chaos going on around him. There was another explosion, followed by yet another. Patton stood and pulled his fallen sergeant into a fireman’s carry. He ran towards a demolished building as bullets continued to pepper the ground around him. Something impacted his leg—it felt like someone had hit him with a baseball bat.
Once he got behind cover, he realized he’d been shot. He examined the wound. It wasn’t bleeding badly so he turned his attention to his comrade. While working on him, trying to get the man’s throat to stop bleeding, he heard his name in his ear.
“Patton! PATTON!”
There was another explosion outside. It was probably a hellfire from the drone taking out the enemy down below.
“PATTON!”
Someone was grabbing his shoulder and shaking him.
Patton woke with a start and found himself lying in his bed. He was in Blue Creek, not in a demolished village in Iraq.
“Patton, what’s wrong?” Jennifer said, still shaking him.
He mumbled, trying to gather his wits.
“Patton!”
“Okay!” he said, pushing her hands away.
“You were yelling in your sleep. I’m sorry, but you were freaking out,” she said, trying to calm herself.
He sat up in bed and realized he was covered in sweat. He rubbed the scar tissue on his thigh—the mark that would forever remind him of those events.
“What were you dreaming about?” Jennifer asked, still not quite calm. She’d lived with him for over two years and had never seen him do this.
Patton was still breathing hard. Not sure if he should drag his wife through his memories. He wasn’t sure if she wanted to know.
“Sorry,” he said finally. “I was just dreaming about something that happened in Iraq.” He wanted to leave it at that, but knew she would press him.
“And?”
Patton shook his head, indicating he didn’t want to talk about it.
“Come on, Patton, I’m your wife.”
Once Patton calmed down, he told her about the Iraqi village that ISIS fighters flattened with mortars and then killed any survivors they could find. Patton said they were actually able to save the lives of two children, but everyone else, nearly a hundred people, had been massacred that day. As he relayed the story, even while awake, he could still see the little girl’s foot. He shuddered involuntarily and then tried to change the subject. Jennifer could tell that he wanted to end the subject so she let it go.