“So if I kill Zahed, your boss gets to keep all of the
profits.”
“That’s what he thinks, but you and I know better.”
“We do?”
“There’s always another man to take over for Zahed.”
“Yes, there is. Do you know who that might be?”
“I have a cousin who works as a courier for Zahed.”
“You do? Why did you wait to tell me?”
“To protect him. And my family.”
“I see.”
“I will get more information from him.”
198 GH OS T RE CON
I finished my tea and smiled at Burki. “I really appre-
ciate this help.”
He raised a brow. “Okay, okay.” He made a gun with
his fingers. “You kill Zahed.
As we drove back through the town, we took a side street
that ran parallel to the bazaar. A few kids on old bicycles
were racing along the street and pointing as they passed
the alleys. A huge crowd had gathered along the shops
and stalls, and I could see people throwing things into
the center square. Were those rocks? I couldn’t quite tell.
“What’s going on?” I asked Shilmani.
“Nothing. Never mind. We have to keep going.”
“No way,” I said. “Pull over.”
“Please, Scott. You don’t want to go there.”
“Why not?”
“Because you won’t understand.”
“You heard me. Stop this car.”
Shilmani took a deep breath. “You have to promise
that if I stop, you will not interfere.”
“What are you talking about?”
He pulled over, threw the car in park. “You’ll see.”
NINETEEN
Harruck had never mentioned this issue to me, and I
later found out that he’d known all along and had simply
been hiding it. The news was simply another of the bur-
dens he’d carried on his shoulders, and it made me
understand—at least a bit more—why his stress level was
constantly in the red zone.
I ran down the alley and reached the back of the crowd.
Treehorn and Shilmani were just behind me.
There, in the middle of the road, was a brown sack,
but when I got closer, I realized that a person was cov-
ered in that sack and buried up to the shoulders. The
person was struggling, so I had to assume the hands were
tied behind the back.
“Boss, is that what I think it is?” cried Treehorn.
200 GH OS T RE CON
“Aw, jeez.” I gasped.
A circle had been drawn in the road around the vic-
tim, and no one stepped inside that circle. From the
periphery, they threw their stones, occasionally hitting
the person in the head. Each time a stone made direct
contact, the crowd roared.
“I did not want you to see this,” said Shilmani. “And
I did not realize it would happen so soon. We would
have planned the meeting another day.”
“Why is this happening?” I asked as the crowd
chanted God is greatand my mouth fell open.
“This is retribution for her sins.”
“Her sins? What the hell did she do to deserve this?”
Shilmani didn’t answer. A rock crashed into the wom-
an’s head, and the sack began to stain with blood. The
crowd grew even louder, and a blood frenzy now widened
the eyes of those nearest the circle’s edge. The women hur-
tled their rocks even more fiercely than the men. I started
forward, but Shilmani grabbed me—as did Treehorn.
“If you interfere, you will commit a crime,” said Shil-
mani.
“Okay, okay,” I said, fighting for breath and relaxing
my arms so they could release me.
“Her hands are tied behind her back, but if she can
escape the circle, she will be free,” Shilmani explained.
“She’s only buried up to her shoulders to give her a
fighting chance. Men are buried up to their heads.”
“You didn’t answer my question. What did she do?”
“She had sex outside marriage.”
CO MB AT O P S
201
“I knew it,” said Treehorn. “These women can’t do
anything without getting punished for it.”
“We’d have to kill most American women if this were
our rule,” I said.
“I know. It seems you Americans engage in this
behavior quite a bit.”
“It just happens,” I said.
Shilmani made a face. “I still don’t understand how
he convinced her to do it.”
“You mean the guy?”
He hardened his voice. “Yes, the American soldier
from your camp.”
I considered going to Harruck’s office and telling him
what I’d seen, but I realized the men needed something
from me. And I felt badly for them. They’d been lying
around the billet all day, just wondering what the hell
was happening.
Ramirez had come back from the hospital with some
antacid to soothe his stomach. He was lying in his bunk
with his arm draped over his eyes.
I called the group forward, and after a few seconds,
he was the last to gather around.
“Got a couple things going on. We’ll be back up in
the mountains tonight. Engineering op. We’re going to
blow those tunnels.”
“Hoo-ah,” shouted Brown and Smith in unison.
“I want to do everything we can to avoid engaging
202 GH OS T RE CON
the enemy. They don’t call us the Ghosts for nothing.
We’ll show them why.”
Hume raised his hand. “Any word back on the HER F
guns yet? Do we know if they’ve got more?”
“I know the spook is working on something, and we
have to assume they have more. Nolan, we still got two
spare Cross-Coms, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Good, I’ll be taking one and Joey’s got the other.”
Ramirez frowned at me.
He was still in command of Bravo team. I wasn’t
going to change anything. I’d decided that my paranoia
should have no effect on the way I ran my team. And in
retrospect, I think that was a good decision.
Up to a point.
“Something else going on you should know about.” I
looked to Treehorn, who just sighed. “The water guy?
Burki? He wants us to kill Zahed. Seems the fat bastard
screwed him over on the deal with the new well, so that
guy, the translator guy Shilmani, is going to help us set
up a meeting with Zahed.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Brown. “How’s that going
to work? You don’t plan to go in there alone, do you?”
“Shilmani says he’s got a cousin who’s a courier for
Zahed. I’ll probably be going in with him.”
“And when does this happen?” asked Nolan, wincing
over the whole idea.
“Pretty soon, I’m guessing.”
“Then we need to work something out. The HER F
CO MB AT O P S
203
guns don’t affect the chips in our bodies, so we can still
track you.”
“You mean in case they take me prisoner.”
“So let me get this straight,” said Ramirez. “You’re
going to walk into a meeting, put a bullet in Zahed’s
head, and expect to walk out of there alive?”
“With a little help from you guys.”
The group chuckled. Ramirez’s expression remained
deadpan. “Boss, I think it’s crazy.”
“Couple other things,” I said. “Higher’s planning a
big offensive to sweep through Sangsar. They’re using
Warris’s capture as an excuse. It’ll take them a couple of
weeks to work out the logistics, so we need to drag our
boots on Freddy’s rescue . . .”
“Hey,” Treehorn began, throwing up his hands. “I
got no problem with that, since that punk wants to burn
us all.”
“All right. Let’s go over the maps, plan the detona-
tion points, and be ready to roll for tonight.”