by Kim Hornsby
“Please tell me that these men were blond, blue-eyed, Midwestern Americans.” He waited.
“Swedish, American, and Canadian. No one had black hair although they joked about getting some Grecian formula to dye their hair to fit in.” She pled her case. “I haven’t left my room since I checked in.” She tried to make him understand. “For all I know, Jamey, you are lying in some jail cell, unable to wake up, and have been like that for a week. If it was me in a coma, wouldn’t you fly across the world to help me?” She looked in his eyes and waited for him to calm down. “Wouldn’t you?”
“I can’t believe you’re in the Sand Box.” He stared out the window. “That you even got permission to get into this country. That they issued you a visa.”
“I didn’t get a visa. I told them it was a family emergency; that you are dying on the base, and I have to get to you.”
“Did you give anyone my name?”
“No.”
“Where do your parents think you are?
“Afghanistan. I came because you’re in a coma.”
He spun around. “How did you message Milton?”
Tina stood firm. Jamey was mad, that she understood, but she made her decision based on what had to be done. Jamey was probably close to death in a coma. “Pops had his number and left a message that I was coming. And I tried to get a message to him though a distant cousin who’s in the Canadian infantry at some Camp near here, to tell him I can help Freud.”
Jamey shook his head like she’d gotten in way too deep. “Pops won’t get through. Milton changes his number every month. Anyone else know you’re here?”
“Just Pops, Mom, her cousin, the Canadian soldier, the men on the flight, the hotel front desk, and hopefully Milton.”
Jamey hung his head. “I know you have no idea how secret all of this is, and how many oaths and promises I had to take before coming here, but this is a serious breach. Sixth Force would let me die in this dream before compromising the security of the mission.” He looked at her. “They’d try to bring me back, but they’d let me rot before bringing in a civilian to help, someone without clearance.” His voice sounded dead.
Tina’s blood boiled. She’d just flown across the world and into a war zone to try to rescue her boyfriend from a surreal situation, and he was sorry she’d come because it breached some soldier’s code. “I don’t give a flying fuck if Milton is uncomfortable with me knowing you’re stuck in a dream. Don’t you see? I came here for you. I’m not a soldier, bound by a code. I’m a woman in love who saw no other way out of this horrible mess but to come to my man and save his life.” She tried to keep her voice low, just in case. “And I don’t really care if that’s what you want or not, because that’s the type of person I am. My husband died, and there was nothing I could do to prevent that. I didn’t even know what was going on. His best friend shot his brains out in my backyard, and I didn’t even remember because I was so traumatized. And my father died of a heart attack a week ago, and I couldn’t do anything to help him. Now I’m here in the war zone in some cinder block hotel, dream jumping into a nightmare you can’t get out of, offering to help you, and you’re talking about Lieutenant fucking Milton and how mad he’s going to be. I don’t care about the military. Do you hear that? I don’t care. They’ve done very little for you except use your gift and leave you here to die.”
Jamey took a deep breath. He moved to her. “Your father died?” He embraced her. “Oh, Honey. I’m so sorry. For all of it.” He stroked her hair. A moment passed. He took a deep breath and let it out. “I’m lucky to have someone come into this war zone to try to help me. I am. And I’m so sorry about your father. So sorry.”
She had no tears. He was comforting her for something that had been pushed to the back of her heart to allow the immediate problem to take precedence. “We need to get you out, Jamey.”
“I know. We will. I have a plan.
Chapter 29
Jamey was pretty sure the sniper was still at his post, but he didn’t want to take any chances. He and Tina had waited until dawn to put the plan in place, sitting on the floor of the room, talking about things that had nothing to do with either her father’s death or what would happen if Jamey couldn’t get out of the dream. She told him she’d met Carrie and he’d winced, asking her how that went.
“Fine, we liked each other. She has a great admiration for you. Said she’d never seen you so happy, which was very generous considering you were together seven years.”
He agreed. “She thinks I just met you this year and I’d like to keep it that way.”
When he told her the plan and addressed the possibility of her jumping out without him, he’d said to get a message to Milton. “Tell him to wake up Atash.” They probably tried that days ago, but it was worth a shot.
Tina told him, “No more talk about you getting left behind, okay?” She insisted they proceed like all they had to do was get to the portal. That was something he loved about this woman. She was a survivor, like him, refusing to give up. When they’d been searching for Hank’s body back on Maui, she’d had such tenacity and hope, even though her determination might have worked against her in that circumstance, keeping her from moving on. “If this doesn’t work,” she said, “we can try tomorrow night and just go skipping around the marketplace in the dark, hoping to end up over the portal.”
He tried to smile at her joke but knew they’d either get killed today, or leave the dream. Nothing in between.
The only sounds on that airless morning as they crept along the streets were their quiet footsteps and breathing. Not a bird or a machine humming or a plane flying overhead. Very unlike Kandahar, if that’s where they were. Reaching the market place, Jamey turned to see that Tina was behind him, waiting for the signal to creep silently into position. Everything was in place for the distraction, including the sniper who probably sat watching the marketplace.
The distraction had to be good enough for the sniper to take his eyes off the dusty street in front of him. It had to be something so interesting, they’d have at least ten seconds to run and jump. Jamey thought they had a chance at this. He’d rigged up a fire that would catch and spread along a line towards the sniper. He’d been stashing stuff he’d found for weeks, thinking he may need supplies. Today, with some rope, gasoline, and a jar of matches, he had hope for the first time, knowing that after he lit the fire, he had to get back to Tina fast enough to run to the portal.
But as they closed in on the sniper’s position, Jamey didn’t see him. Atash wasn’t where he’d been. Jamey waited and signaled for Tina to stop following. After weeks in the same place, had Atash picked up and moved? Or had Jamey misjudged where the sniper hid? Shit. Looking around, Jamey saw nothing, no one. If he threw a rock in the open square to see if anyone shot at it, the element of a surprise distraction later would be diluted.
He watched the open area, scanned the buildings. Probably a trap. Motioning for Tina to step in behind him, their backs to a wall, their fronts to a metal dumpster, Jamey pointed and gave her the signal that the sniper was gone. She understood.
They could make a run for the portal and hope to hell that no one fired at them. Tina waited as he thought about what to do. For all they knew, the sniper might be far from here, scouring the streets and buildings of this village, trying to find a man in fatigues. He wouldn’t be looking for this sexy woman beside him in jeans and a T-shirt. Jamey almost smiled to think of how surprised any man would be to see a gorgeous female in this hellish setting.
Nothing had changed in the street. No bugs, birds, people, no wind, no sand flying around, absolutely nothing. He’d never been in a dream that was so dead. Where was the sniper? This couldn’t be good. If in doubt, he always assumed the worst.
Jamey’s hand went up, telling Tina to stay put. The fear in her eyes made him whisper, “I’ll be right back.” He gave her a little kiss on the lips and then checked the area before he ran to the next building. No bullets. Whoever was out there might be
letting him advance to the hiding spot. Three more sprints to get closer and Jamey wasn’t dead yet. That had to be a small success. He couldn’t see Tina anymore, but hoped she was still hidden and safe.
Suddenly, Tina was running across an open expanse behind him, an M4 in her arms. What the hell? She zigzagged. Man, she was agile. Still no gunfire from the sniper. When she landed against his chest, the look in her eyes told him she was proud to have a gun. She held it up for his approval.
“How did you get that?” he whispered.
“I summoned it.” Tina looked as surprised as Jamey. He tried to imagine one in his hands but nothing appeared. “Give me one.”
Shit. He held an M4, the same as her, full magazine. “I’ll be damned,” he said, gripping the gun. “It must be your dream now. Or something. Let’s not take any stupid chances though.”
“I have no idea how to shoot this thing.” Her eyebrows knit together.
“Whatever you do, don’t point it at me, or yourself. If you see the enemy, just point quickly and pull this.” He pointed to the trigger. “Do you see your portal out there?”
“I think so, just in that lane.”
He looked over to see no other way in but from the front. “Okay,” he whispered. “Let’s get as close as we can under cover of these buildings. When I say, we’ll make a run for it.” For about five seconds they’d be out in the open. “I’ll fire in one direction in a sweeping motion, like this,” he demonstrated, “and you’ll fire as you run. Just don’t shoot us, okay? We’ll grab hands when we get there. Drop the gun.”
She nodded emphatically.
“If either of us gets hit by a bullet, we’ll probably come through the jump with no injuries. So if I get hit and you can pull me quickly to the portal, do it, but if it can’t be done quickly, go ahead without me. You understand.”
“Yes.”
They skirted the perimeter of the open area, located the general spot in the dirt where Tina’d come in. He nodded at her. “If you lose me, just run and jump.” He wasn’t sure a woman who flew to a war zone to try to save him, would leave him dying in the dirt if it came down to that. “Jump no matter what. You can always come back later.” He hoped it was the truth. “I love you, Tina.”
“Me too.” Her eyes said fear, but the set of her mouth looked determined, like in her heart she was all warrior.
“1, 2, 3. . .” They took off running as fast as they could towards the scuffmark ahead of them. Three seconds, no shots fired. He saw the scuff. Still no shots. They dropped the guns, grabbed hands, and jumped.
Chapter 30
Jamey’s eyes flew open for the first time in almost a week. “She got me out.” He tried to focus.
“What did you say, Freud? She got you out? Who?”
It was Ranger talking by his head. “I got out, I said.” Jamey’s voice was weak. He blinked and looked around the room. A blur of activity surrounded his bed. Someone put drops in his eyes. The lights were lowered. Murmurs contained words like “Milton” and “Thank God.” When the drops cleared, he took a deep breath. Recognizing members of his team, he stared at them individually. “I said, “I got out.” He stared at Ranger. “I have to go somewhere.” His voice was scratchy from disuse. His throat hurt to swallow. “Water.”
A nurse held a glass of water to his lips and he took a sip from the straw.
“I need a jeep.” He couldn’t say his girlfriend was at a Kandahar hotel and he had to get over there to make sure she was okay.
“Welcome back, Freud.” The man they called “Bingo,” who he knew to be an expert in psychic phenomenon, stood over him. “Do you know where you are?”
A doctor checked his eyes with a light.
“Kandahar Base Hospital. May. I’ve been stuck.” He wiggled his toes, clenched his hands and stretched his neck. Lying in the bed for a week had left him stiffer than a corpse. Swinging his feet over the side of the hospital bed, he tried to use the momentum to sit up but then he felt like he was going to pass out. His vision went black and Ranger pushed him to lie back. Someone lifted his legs back in the bed.
“I gotta go somewhere.” Jamey had never felt so weak.
“Whoa, Cowboy. You’ve been in a coma.” The nurse smiled at him and fit the stethoscope in her ears. “Your legs are probably not going to hold you if you try to stand up.”
Taking a couple deep breaths, he looked for Milton in the group and didn’t see him. “Milton?”
“He’ll be here soon.” The woman he called Professor, part of Sixth Force, stood at the end of his bed. “Lie back for now. You’ve been out for eight days. You can’t stand yet.”
Someone jabbed a needle into his left arm and pushed something through. “What is that?”
“It’ll give you a boost,” the nurse said. “Standard.”
“Save your questions for when Milton gets here,” Bingo said. “He’s been told you’re awake, and I’m sure he’s coming right now.”
Where was Tina? Back at the hotel? Jamey looked at Professor, someone he wasn’t supposed to know personally, but he did. They’d had a heart to heart talk once, almost more. Months ago, they’d stopped in the hall at Sixth Force headquarters and talked about living on the Kandahar base. She was a sympathetic ear. He’d needed human contact. They’d ducked inside his quarters to talk, and considered sleeping together. He was horny, she was pretty, but after some heated kissing, they agreed it would be a terrible idea. She’d probably get reassigned if anyone found out.
Luckily, she’d left his quarters, her uniform still intact. What Jamey had to say now might be a slap in her face. “Professor.” He called her over to whisper. “My girlfriend is at the AMTEX. She knew I was in a coma and flew here. I need to get over there. Can you help me get a jeep?”
If the words hurt her feelings, she didn’t show it. “How did she know you were in a coma, Freud? And how do you know where she is? Can you communicate down there?” The crease between her eyebrows deepened. “You’ll need to tell Milton.”
Jamey nodded. “I will, but he’s not here. Can you help me, Professor? She needs to know I woke up.”
The woman in front of him looked torn between helping him and doing the right thing for the team. She shook her head. “You’re too weak to go anywhere.” When he stared into her face, he knew he’d hurt her feelings by asking this favor, taking advantage of their relationship.
“Tell you what.” She motioned for him to settle back into the bed. “I’ll go over with someone, maybe number three here, and I’ll tell your girlfriend that you’re okay.”
“Thank you.” That would work. She’d get in trouble for doing that but he appreciated her sense of adventure. And romance. “Her name is Tina Greene. Tell her to go home. I’ll see her soon.” He was seconds from passing out, so he closed his eyes while the nurse covered him with a second blanket. Then the shivers started.
When Milton walked into the room a few minutes later, accompanied by Professor and guard #3, he whispered with Ranger, then approached Jamey. “Freud.”
“Lieutenant Milton.” Jamey spoke through chattering teeth.
“Welcome back. You’ve had quite a time of it. Were you roaming around somewhere for the last week?”
“Months is more like it. I’ve been stuck down there a long time.”
“How did you get out?” Milton pulled up a chair and sat down.
“It wasn’t easy.” He did not want to mention Tina. Reveal that she jumped him out of the mess. “A week ago, Atash must’ve jumped out, intending to leave me there.” He looked at Milton for affirmation but got a steely look. The nurse gave him another sip of water and he continued. “Did Atash wake up recently?”
“I can’t tell you that just now.”
Jamey knew how this worked, so he continued, “Atash came back and guarded the portal so I couldn’t leave. I hid.” He was interrupted by Milton.
“Can you ID the place where the hostages are held?”
The mission. Jamey nodded. “I haven’t go
t an exact address. It’s a house at the edge of Kandahar. Big compound. At the end of a street.” He coughed painfully while Milton shot a look to Professor, and she left the room.
“Atash was gone, not guarding the portal today, and I jumped out.”
Other Forcers on his team had moved in to hear his story. There were six of them besides Guard #3 and Milton. He was always amazed that he actually had a team who monitored what happened in these dreams. As a civilian, he was totally on his own in his dreams, but in the military, his dreams were theirs. To do with what they wanted. Even with his amazing ability and his celebrity status within Sixth Force, no one told him anything they didn’t clear first.
The person they called Ranger stood beside Milton filming the conversation.
Jamey talked about a cache of mortar and rockets, boxed up and labeled as plumbing parts. He and Atash had delivered the box to the gate of the hostage house. They’d stopped along the way to pick it up. Milton left the room momentarily, and when he came back in with a laptop they were able to look at aerial views. Professor arrived shortly afterwards with a map she spread out on Jamey’s legs.
“You haven’t found the hostages?” Jamey asked.
Milton shook his head.
As he recounted his story of running around a deserted area, he expected that no one would volunteer any information to support or deny his findings. If he was lucky, he’d hear little bits and pieces of what they knew. Questions were expected. Days and days of questions.
This jump hadn’t been an easy mission. There was no way he’d be home in a few days, even though he hoped to get the final debriefing stage over with as quickly as possible. After they questioned him, they’d do a full workup of his health--testing, MRI’s, then more interrogations. He’d see the shrink at Ramstein and be lucky to be home in three to four weeks, if they were truly finished with him and didn’t need him for another jump. Damn it. Now that he knew Tina still loved him, he wanted out as soon as possible. Hopefully, she’d be on a plane home that day.