“Thanks a lot for all your help!”
Fifteen minutes later I was getting my gunshot wound
treated. All the girls had been taken back to the hospital
as well, and they were all staring at me, as if to say thank
you. Hila had been rushed into surgery.
I was patting my fresh bandage when Brown came
running into the hut and cried, “Captain! Get out here!
You’re not going to believe this!”
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I rushed away from the nurse and made it outside,
where Warris was being helped out of a Hummer. He was
ragged and filthy and still reeked. His eyes were bloodshot
and he just looked at me vaguely as I rushed up to him.
“Fred, where the hell were you?”
It took a few seconds for him to focus on me. “They
found me down in the valley.”
“Where’s Ramirez?”
He swallowed. “I, uh, I don’t know.”
I raised my voice. “What do you mean?”
“I MEAN, I DON’T KNOW! NOW GET OUT OF
MY GODDAMNED FACE!” He shoved me aside and
headed toward the hospital.
I grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around.
“You’re going to talk right now.”
“I’ll talk, all right. No worries about that!”
“Where’s Ramirez?”
“We got separated. I don’t know what happened. I
looked for him, and he was gone. That’s all I know.”
“Where is he?”
He glared at me, then turned and walked away. I started
after him, but Brown grabbed my shoulder. “Don’t . . .”
I talked to one of the doctors, who told me Hila would
pull through just fine. They’d removed the bullet. The
doc did take me aside and tell me she’d found evidence
of rape on all the girls. I explained the situation, and she
said, as I already knew, that none of the families would
want these girls back, and if we revealed what had
322 GH OS T RE CON
happened to them, their fates could take an even sharper
turn for the worse.
“We’ll see if we can get them to an orphanage,” I
said. “The woman who’s in charge of the school project,
Anderson? We’ll see if we can get help from her.”
I still vowed to find Shilmani and tell him I had got-
ten his daughter out of there. I wanted to tell the man
how bravely she’d fought and how she’d literally saved
my life. I wasn’t sure if that would change anything, but
I wanted him to know.
However, the fan was dialed up to ten, and the camel
dung was about to hit it and fly for miles.
I was ordered to Harruck’s office before I even returned
to my billet.
When he was finished cursing his head off and suck-
ing down his drink, he looked at me and said, “I hope to
God you think this was worth it. At least give me that
much. At least let me know that you still believe in what
you did, because if you don’t . . .”
“Zahed needed to die. I’m sorry about the conse-
quences. He’s dead. Maybe things will change here.
Maybe not.”
“Well, I’m done here. I’m out. That’s a change. You
win. I lose. We did nothing here. Nothing.”
I might’ve stolen two hours of sleep before I dragged
myself back up and fought with the guards at the gate,
who wouldn’t let me and Brown leave the base.
“I have direct orders from the CO. Your team is
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confined to the base. You’ll have to take that up with the
CO, sir.”
I did. Harruck was sleeping, but the XO spoke to us.
“Word came down. There are some boys from Kandahar
flying in to talk to you guys.”
“Army Intel?”
He shook his head. “Spooks.”
“Do you realize what you’ve done?” Bronco screamed,
and that was the edited version of his question, which in
truth had contained curses and combinations of curses I
hadn’t heard before.
He and his sidekick had escaped from Sangsar, gotten
treated for their gunshot wounds, and linked up with
their superiors. The group of four decided they would
interrogate the hell out of me all morning. I’d grinned at
the crutches both Bronco and Mikey had used to get
into the room.
With arms folded over my chest and a bored look on
my face, I repeated, “I don’t have to talk to you, and I
won’t. So piss off.”
Bronco attempted to describe the length and breadth
of their operation, and he leaned forward and told me
that I’d ruined years’ worth of work, murdered an unarmed
man, and that the agency would see me hang. Blah.
Blah. Blah.
I told them all where to go, then stormed out. They
couldn’t hold me. They couldn’t do jack. I went back to
Harruck and told him I was going to see Shilmani and
324 GH OS T RE CON
that if he tried to stop me, I’d have him brought up on
charges.
He started laughing and just waved me off. His laugh-
ter sounded more unbalanced than cynical.
Brown and I caught up with Shilmani at the shacks on
the outskirts of town. He was loading water and would
not look at me as we approached.
“Listen to me, please,” I began. “We got Hila. She’s
in the hospital. She’s okay.”
He froze at the back of his truck and just stood there
a moment, his breathing ragged before he began to cry.
I looked at Brown and turned away. I was choked up
myself. I could barely imagine what Shilmani was going
through. He had to convince himself that his daughter
was dirt now because his culture dictated how he should
think. In fact, if we didn’t get the girls to an orphanage
and simply call them “war orphans,” they would all be
arrested and sentenced to prison. That’s right. The sys-
tem did not distinguish between victims of rape and
those who willingly had relations outside marriage.
“Do you want to see her?” I asked.
“I can’t.”
“You would have been so proud. She fought at my
side. And she saved my life.”
“Scott, don’t tell me any more. Please . . .”
“Why don’t you take your family and get the hell out
of here? There’s got to be a way out.”
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325
He finally looked at me, backhanded away the tears,
and said, “This is my life.”
By late in the day I got called to the comm center and
learned that General Keating was waiting to speak to me.
“Mitchell, you make it damn near impossible for me
to get your back when you play it this close to the vest. If
the president weren’t distracted by twenty other prob-
lems, I’d be pulling KP in the White House mess.”
“I understand, sir. And I’ve been running an obstacle
course here myself.”
Okay, I was speaking through my teeth, and though
I highly respected the man, I wanted to unload on him,
too. He’d had no idea what I’d just gone through, but I
wasn’t about to cry on his shoulder.
“I’m pulling you back to Fort Bragg. I’d advise you
to lay low but I know you don’t work that way, so once
you’re back home you’ll be confined to quarters. We’ll