Rusty didn’t answer. He stared at Jaybird with wild eyes; they darted from one side to the other as if looking for a way to escape.
Jaybird continued to shovel in the wet sand. A wave lapped up near the grave, then receded. Jaybird worked faster then, and soon had the trench filled. Only Rusty’s head now showed above the sand.
The next wave lapped at the edge of the now-filled trench. Jaybird dug more sand, heaping it up on the length of the grave; then he took one last look at Rusty Ingles. Ingles had stopped sobbing. His eyes were half shut, and saliva drooled out of his mouth and dripped on the sand.
The runner from a breaker hit the sand twenty feet away and rushed up toward Ingles’s head. It barely lapped at his neck, then soaked into the sand, and the rest rolled back toward the Pacific.
“See that, Ingles, you bastard? Those waves are getting closer and closer. Pretty soon they will be washing into your face, and then over your head. Might be a good time to practice holding your breath. Tide will be in full in another hour. By then this spot will be under three feet of water. Just wanted you to know and to think about it, and to think about all those little boys you traumatized with your damn messing around. Just wanted you to know.”
Rusty screamed. His voice came in a roaring blast of fury and anger and fright. The sound careened off the cliff and shattered in both directions up and down the coast. He screamed a dozen times until his voice turned scratchy.
“Jaybird! Jaybird! That’s enough. I’m cured. I’ll never touch anything young again. A promise. Dig me out of here fast, Jaybird. Please. Come on. I never hurt you.”
Jaybird squatted in front of Rusty Ingles and spat in his face, then turned away and walked straight up the beach to the base of the cliff. He sat down and watched the waves roll in.
Rusty still screamed. The volume had dropped off and the raspiness had increased until now the sound came out more as a whimper than a scream.
Jaybird watched a night gull sweeping the surf line looking for chum. It passed the head sticking out of the sand, circled around, came back, and lit on Rusty’s head. A sudden movement sideways by Rusty and the bird fluttered away.
The next breaker rolled in a foot deep when it hit Rusty; it broke over his head and quickly rushed back to sea.
A half hour later, Jaybird could see no sign of Rusty Ingles. He watched the tide surge in higher and higher. Just after midnight it peaked and headed back the other way. Jaybird didn’t need to watch anymore. He took the shovel, folded it, and walked north along Black’s Beach toward the Torrey Pines Beach parking lot.
Someone might have seen his Chevy parked there while he was gone. It wouldn’t matter. Why would anyone remember it or remember his license-plate number? He knew what would happen in the surf. The outgoing tide would pull at the sand. The loose sand in the trench over Rusty would gradually wash away. By the time the last of the waves had left him, the trench would have been emptied, Rusty’s totally dead body rolled out and into the surf. The trench would be filled again with sand from the waves. Rusty would be washed back and forth by the waves, and perhaps pulled out to sea. In three days he would float and begin his journey down the coast, south with the current. He probably would be found one morning where he had floated up on the beach in National City.
Jaybird drove home slowly. Several drivers honked horns at him on the Five freeway getting down to the Coronado Bay Bridge. He was thinking about Rusty Ingles. He had killed many men and some women in his life as a SEAL. This was the first time without his uniform on. The cause was as just. The world and the Coronado Little League would be much better off without Rusty Ingles around.
He parked in front of his apartment and sat there. Something had changed. The act of killing would never be quite the same again, even in a tough firefight with the SEALs. No, he wouldn’t see the screaming face of Rusty Ingles as the last breaker rushed over his head and drowned out his screams. But he would remember the man, and the reason he had eliminated him from the face of the earth and interaction with mankind.
How would Jaybird change? He would be a notch less raucous, a touch less of a loudmouth, maybe a bit more patient with his fellow SEALs and with civilians who fucked up. Yes, but just a touch. He was still Jaybird. He would report to Little League practice tomorrow and be the best damn coach in the world. He would never touch one of the boys, and he would be ultimately patient with them. He was their coach, their friend, their advisor and mentor. That was a lot to live up to.
Hell, tonight had made him into a better coach, and a better SEAL, and a better man. He went up the steps into his apartment. He’d get eight hours sleep, then do a twenty-mile conditioning run, and be at the Little League field early for practice.
Damn, he could hardly wait to get there and back to coaching baseball.
SEAL TALK
MILITARY GLOSSARY
Aalvin: Small U.S. two-man submarine.
Admin: Short for administration.
Aegis: Advanced Naval air defense radar system.
AH-1W Super Cobra: Has M179 undernose turret with 20mm Gatling gun.
AK-47: 7.63-round Russian Kalashnikov automatic rifle. Most widely used assault rifle in the world.
AK-74: New, improved version of the Kalashnikov. Fires the 5 .45mm round. Has 30-round magazine. Rate of fire: 600 rounds per minute. Many slight variations made for many different nations.
AN/PRC-117D: Radio, also called SATCOM. Works with Milstar satellite in 22,300-mile equatorial orbit for instant worldwide radio, voice, or video communications. Size: 15 inches high, 3 inches wide, 3 inches deep. Weighs 15 pounds. Microphone and voice output. Has encrypter, capable of burst transmissions of less than a second.
AN/PUS-7: Night-vision goggles. Weighs 1.5 pounds.
ANVIS-6: Night-vision goggles on air crewmen’s helmets.
APC: Armored Personnel Carrier.
ASROC: Nuclear-tipped antisubmarine rocket torpedoes launched by Navy ships.
Assault Vest: Combat vest with full loadouts of ammo, gear.
ASW: Anti-Submarine Warfare.
Attack Board: Molded plastic with two handgrips with bubble compass on it. Also depth gauge and Cyalume chemical lights with twist knob to regulate amount of light. Used for underwater guidance on long swim.
Aurora: Air Force recon plane. Can circle at 90,000 feet. Can’t be seen or heard from ground. Used for thermal imaging.
AWACS: Airborne Warning And Control System. Radar units in high-flying aircraft to scan for planes at any altitude out 200 miles. Controls air-to-air engagements with enemy forces. Planes have a mass of communication and electronic equipment.
Balaclavas: Headgear worn by some SEALs.
Bent Spear: Less serious nuclear violation of safety.
BKA, Bundeskriminant: Germany’s federal investigation unit.
Black Talon: Lethal hollow-point ammunition made by Winchester. Outlawed some places.
Blivet: A collapsible fuel container. SEALs sometimes use it.
BLU-43B: Antipersonnel mine used by SEALs.
BLU-96: A fuel-air explosive bomb. It disperses a fuel oil into the air, then explodes the cloud. Many times more powerful than conventional bombs because it doesn’t carry its own chemical oxidizers.
BMP-1: Soviet armored fighting vehicle (AFV), low, boxy, crew of 3 and 8 combat troops. Has tracks and a 73mm cannon. Also an AT-3 Sagger antitank missile and coaxial machine gun.