by Alex Howell
Kyle smiled at her as he continued, “—for you I think it would be just perfect.
Clara asked, “Really? You think so?”
Kyle nodded, “Hell yeah, with your analytical and perceptive mind, I know so.”
This was probably the nicest thing that Kyle had ever said to her, prompting her to give him a huge, warm hug as she told him, “Thanks Kyle! You’re the best!”
MEANWHILE BACK AT THE TERRORIST’S SAFEHOUSE
While David, Luke, and Raina were speaking with the known hostages, Chris Bradley was in the process of patiently searching through the house. They were currently at a standstill since one of the hostages remained unaccounted for and Maureen—the mother of the children was hesitant to leave the home out of fear of what might happen to her son.
In many ways he wasn’t even sure what it was that he was looking for, it was just a gut feeling—a kind of special intuition that he had developed in the field that told him that there was still something of note to be found in the house.
He had looked through just about every cabinet, kitchen drawer, and nook and cranny, when that same gut instinct somehow told him to head down the hall toward the back of the house. Here he just stood and listened carefully for several moments. Most would have turned back, feeling that they were wasting time.
But Chris just knew somehow, that something was there. And then he heard it. He distinctly heard the sound of shuffling in a nearby closet. It was only for a moment, but he knew what he heard. He paused and listened again, to see if he could hear it once more, but now whatever was behind the sound had decided to become still and silent.
Nevertheless, Chris went to the door of the closet and grabbing a hold of the doorknob slowly pulled it open. For all Chris knew there was a terror suspect hiding in the closet waiting to ambush him, but this was most certainly not what he saw on the other side of that closet door.
Instead of a gun toting terrorist, he was greeted by the big, frightened eyes of a little boy. To his amazement, he realized that the terrorist scum had lied about having the child in a separate location, he was right there all along. Chris realized that the child must have been hiding here for a while, undetected by both the terrorists and his family.
The terror scum not wanting to admit that he had gotten away must have simply made up the story of holding him at a separate location as a helpful ruse to achieve their insidious ends.
Upon seeing Chris, the child had no way of knowing if he were friend or foe and readily assumed it was a case of the latter. Chris watched as he pathetically attempted to hide himself behind a couple cardboard boxes of Christmas lights, with one of his feet clearly poking out from behind one of them.
It would have been almost comical if the situation wasn’t so downright sad and disturbing. Nevertheless, Chris knelt down and, in a voice, that the gruff soldier tried to make as gentle and soothing as possible, he told him, “Hey—don’t worry, I’m here to help.”
When the boy didn’t respond, Chris, answered in the only way a little boy might understand, “Hey come on now don’t be scared—I’m one of the good guys.”
For a child that no doubt lived and breathed superheroes and supervillains such a simplistic explanation was all he needed to hear, as he poked his head out and confirmed in a high-pitched voice, “You are one of the good guys?”
Chris smiled, “Yes—yes, I am.”
Chris then held out his hand and he was relived when the boy took it. Chris then led him out of the closet and sought to reassure him, “Don’t worry now… me and my friends have gotten rid of all the bad guys.”
The child scrunched up his face and asked, “Where did they go?”
Chris answered simply, “To jail.”
The child seemed to like this as he repeated, “Go to jail! They need to all go to jail!”
As they walked Chris patted him on the head as he agreed, “That’s right son. For what they did—they need to all go to jail.” As he turned the corner Chris added, “Everything’s alright—you’re safe now.”
Stepping into the living room the boy’s eyes grew wide as he saw his mother Maureen. He immediately broke free from Chris’s grip and made a beeline for her shouting, “Mommy! Mommy”
The child leapt right up onto Maureen’s lap and as she embraced her son she shouted with pure joy, “Philip! You’re alright! Philip! Oh, thank God!”
As Maureen showered her son with affection. Raina and Luke were both duly amazed, with Raina giving voice to their astonishment, “Oh my God Chris—how did you find him?”
Chris shrugged, “It was nothing.”
Luke Simon turning toward Chris, heartily disagreed, “We were looking everywhere for this kid—I wouldn’t call it nothing.”
Raina then spoke up, “How’s you do it?”
The thought of which caused a grin to play across Chris Bradley’s face as he informed her, “Well Raina, let’s just say that I’ve played a few good games of hide and seek in my day.”
The muscle-bound Bradley talking about playing hide and seek, was not exactly what she expected to hear in that moment, as she inquired, “What? Hide and seek?”
Chris chuckled, “Yep, I figured the kid might have got scared, and hiding somewhere—and so harkening back to where I might have hidden when I was kid, I just started looking in the most likely places. I looked inside cabinets, behind furniture, and most especially inside large walk in closets.”
Whatever it was, it certainly paid off, because even while the other Onyx team members were at their wits end struggling to find the child’s supposed whereabouts—following false leads that turned out to be blatant lies cast by the terrorists—Chris seemed to pull the child right out of thin air.
As Luke wandered back out of the room, Raina turned to Luke Simon and remarked, “They may call me ‘Radar’—but Chris Bradley’s bandwidth is operating on a whole other level.”
17
The Nature of the Frayed Ends of Sanity
Mason was still in the middle of his Q and A session with the terrorist ring leader, Kareem, when he heard the telltale beeping of his comm link informing him that he had an incoming transmission. Mason looked to the man that he had been interrogating and ordered him, “Just a second….”
He then heard the voice of Chris Bradley come onto the line as he informed him, “Hey Mace! All clear in the house buddy! All of the hostages have now been recovered and are accounted for!”
Mason responded to the info with, “Alright, good job Chris, that’s great news.”
Bradley fired back, “He was in the closet no less. I knew all those years of playing hide and seek as a kid were good for something!”
Mason laughed, “You got that right…
Glancing at his increasingly agitated subject, Mason sought to quickly wrap things up however, as he told Bradley, “Alright man good job. But I gotta go. Keep me updated.”
Mason then turned back to the man and began, “Alright, where were we….”
The man then showed his intuitive nature by inquiring, “So they found the boy huh?”
Mason began to answer, “Yes… they did….”
Before becoming angry at the fact that this terror suspect that was supposed to be answering his questions had managed to so thoroughly turn the tables that Mason was the one supplying queries to him instead.
Mason, tried to counteract the effect by coming on strong, “Look buddy, I’m not here to answer your questions all day, I need you to answer mine.”
The suspect then shot back, “Alright Mason, you’re the boss.”
Mason was aghast, Kareem and his team had researched him and the other SEALS so thoroughly that they literally knew them on a first name basis. This was the point with which Mason began his line of inquiry, as he asked, “Hey and that’s another thing—where do you get off calling me Mason? I’ve never met you before in my life!”
Kareem shook his head as he cryptically replied, “You haven’t? Are you sure about that?” He then pointe
d to what looked like deep burn scars on his face and asked, “You mean to tell me you don’t recognize the handy work of you and your SEALS? It doesn’t haunt you when you sleep at night?”
Mason’s tired, sleep deprived mind immediately went back to the nightmare that he had had the previous night as he thought to himself, ‘Could it be?’
Kareem stared up at the ceiling as if he were in deep thought, then after a moment he laughed mirthlessly as he remarked, “Look, I know that you think that I am the scum of the Earth right now. Some sort of terrorist cockroach that only comes out of the woodwork to cause trouble. But I’m a human being as well. I came into this world as my mother’s cute and loveable bundle of joy, full of feelings, hopes, dreams, and aspirations just as you did.”
A remark that prompted Mason to growl, “Just like me? Uh—yeah right. I beg to differ. When I was a kid, while I may have wanted to be an astronaut, a fireman, and a soldier—my aspirations never included terrorist activity.”
At this the man bristled, “Is that all you think that I am Mason, a terrorist?”
Kareem’s face darkened, “But what if I told you that I view you as the terrorist?”
Mason braced himself for what he knew would be a ‘blame America first’ rant in which the suspect would blame the U.S. government for each every one of his foibles. He had heard this kind of schtick before, but he allowed the man to speak anyway.
Kareem continued, “Haven’t you ever heard it said that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter? It’s all a matter of perception and perspective.”
As Kareem met Mason’s incredulous gaze he doubled down with his rhetoric, remarking, “We are both fighting for a cause, just for different reasons and on differing sides.”
Mason then ventured, “And what is your cause Kareem?”
Without hesitating, Kareem responded, “Freedom.”
Mason replied, “So you really are a freedom fighter then? But just what kind of freedom are you fighting for?”
Kareem replied, “Freedom from coercion, freedom of choice, and freedom to live life on our own terms without the threat of American imperialism at my back.”
Mason was incredulous as he scoffed, “And that’s it? You are just thumbing your nose at America and American values? But that still doesn’t explain why you are attacking the family members of the SEALS… These are not governments, armies, or NGO’s you are attacking—these are innocent people who just happen to be the relatives of individual servicemen, what did they ever do to you?
Looking Mason right in the eyes, Kareem asked quietly, “Do you really want to know?”
Mason then answered him with another question, “Yes I do—why is it that you guys are attacking SEAL families?”
Kareem then softly intoned, “For revenge.”
Mason still didn’t understand and kneeling down right in the man’s face he growled, “Revenge for what?”
Kareem somberly answered, “Revenge for those that killed our families.”
Of all the things to say, Mason was not expecting this. These guys were killing families in order to get revenge on those that killed their families? What was this all about?
He conveyed his surprise, “Revenge for those that killed your family? Who killed your family?”
Kareem grew quiet, as he asked with menacing incredulousness, “You mean to tell me Mr. Walker that you don’t know?”
Mason getting impatient and frustrated snapped, “Obviously I don’t.”
The man growled, “Well let me remind you then…”
He then moved his body around to display his shackled bicep that appeared to be covered in burns.
Mason muttered, “Shit—what happened to you?”
Kareem grunted, “Burns from an explosion.”
Mason then squinted his eyes and realized that this was one of the suspects he had helped bring in during the hostage situation that took place during his first mission with the SEALS.
Thinking as much, Mason remarked, “Okay so you got some burns—what does that have to do with your family?”
The man glared up at Mason and revealed, “It was during that raid you were a part of Mason… all those years ago. Someone threw a stun grenade at me in that house and managed to ignite the nearby water heater in the blast.”
Mason didn’t have all the details on the raid, but he did know that one of the stun grenades did indeed roll into a water heater in the basement while the SEALS were storming into the living room to rescue the hostages.
Mason knew there was an explosion, but he wasn’t ever sure who all was down there. He just knew that some people had died. For him it was just the kind of collateral damage that went with the territory and he never thought much of it.
Staring at the burn scars all up and down the mans right arm Mason questioned, “Wait—you were down in that basement. What were you doing down there?”
The man answered quietly, “Protecting my wife and children….”
Mason was absolutely floored, he had never heard this before, he had just heard that the grenade had accidentally caused an explosion in the basement by colliding with a water heater. He had heard that a few had died in the explosion, but he had assumed that they were terrorists—he never imagined that one of them had actually brought their wife and kids to accompany them during their terroristic activity.
Mason numbly echoed back, “Protecting your wife and kids?”
The man nodded, and with mock sarcasm responded, “Yes sir…. And whoever the SEAL was that got the bright idea to toss a stun grenade down into an occupied basement is directly responsible for their murder.”
Mason involuntarily cringed at the mention, since he knew full well that he was the one that had tossed the grenade.
He listened carefully as Kareem continued, “Whatever possessed that moron to throw a stun grenade down into a basement not knowing who or what was down there, ignited an inferno that engulfed my entire family.”
The man sadly shook his head, “They were right by the blast—there was nothing I could do for them. I knew they were already dead. They died right before my eyes.”
‘They died right before my eyes’ The words echoed in Mason’s mind. He knew right then and there that this was the reason for all the suffering. Kareem saw his family died right before his eyes and he blamed the SEALS for their deaths. He and his cohorts sought to inflict the same pain on members of the SEALs sending them video of their loved ones being killed, so that they too would have to see the ones they cared about the most perish right in front of them.
Kareem’s voice cracked as Mason thought he saw either sweat or a tear streak down the side of his face as he added, “As it was... I just barely got out with my own life.”
The man then paused before looking up at Mason and grimly adding, “But you know what—ever since that day, most of the time I wish I had just stayed down there and let that fire consume me. At least then I would be with my family.”
Kareem then looked down and sighed, “To tell you the truth Mason, most of the time I just wish that I was dead…”
As much as Mason might feel sorry for the man, he also felt for all the family members of the SEALS that had been butchered under his watch. And even though to some degree he had Mason’s sympathy—when Kareem said that he wished he had stayed down in the basement and let the fire “consume” him, Mason couldn’t help but feel the same. At least then a lot of needless carnage could have been averted.
Mason continued to patiently listen as Kareem continued, “Yes, much of the time I wish I had died in that basement…”
Kareem then looked Mason right in the eye and added, “And the rest of the time all I want is revenge.”
Stunned at what he was hearing, Mason could only mutter, “I see….”
Kareem then remarked, “I hold every single member of that SEAL team responsible—wouldn’t you want revenge for the people that killed your family?”
Mason couldn’t answer for sure, but he kne
w that he would be just as destroyed, if not more so, if something had ever happened to Clara or Raina either one. He fully understood just how frayed the ends of sanity had become for this man due to the trauma that he had been subjected to and he couldn’t really say if he would have been the worse for wear if it had happened to him.
18
The Guilty Conscience of a Soldier
The realization that his careless actions two decades ago had resulted in the senseless deaths of noncombatant women and children hit Mason like a ton of bricks. He could clearly remember tossing his stun grenade down the basement stairs and the loud explosion that shook the whole house afterwards.
Mason knew that it wouldn’t be pretty for whoever was down there but, in the moment, it was kill or be killed, he figured that these extremists had it coming anyway. But now that he looked into the tortured face of Kareem, he realized that he had believed a lie. He always thought of himself as a good man, only using force of arms for the greater good.
But now he knew that his aggressive tactics had needlessly decimated one man’s entire family. The guy was fortunately unaware that Mason was the one that actually threw the grenade. But it didn’t matter, even if he wasn’t the trigger man. He was deemed guilty by association, right along with his whole SEAL Team—and as a consequence, their own families were fair game as far as the terrorists were concerned.
As Mason looked at the man, all he could do was say, “Sorry.”
Kareem’s eye’s flashed, “Sorry? Is that the best you can do?”
Mason then sought to backtrack a bit from his spontaneous apology to a known terrorist by rationalizing, “But you have to understand the high-pressure situation that you put us in.”
The man stared at Mason as he hissed, “High pressure?”
Mason nodded, “Yes! You were holding a diplomat and his family hostage. If it had only been a lower ranking member then maybe…