Zerzan kept her eyes focused on the road ahead. The sky was clear and the moon was bright. Our headlights hit the road, making the sand scattered over the blacktop sparkle. "I can't leave.”
“Why didn’t you dispute the video Daesh made where they claimed to kill you?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Just tell me.”
“I enjoy being a ghost. It is safer in its way.”
“So it is safer to stay, to continue the fight. I am asking you to be braver than that. I understand that you're worried about abandoning your troops. But you'd come back. And you'd bring weapons, more fighters, and intelligence with you.”
"How can you promise me those things? How would we even get out of here?"
"I was hoping you could figure that out, but if not I can make some phone calls."
"The airspace is impossible to penetrate without permission. The Americans, the Russians, the Iraqis, and the Turks are all watching. Additionally, ISIS has weapons that can take aircrafts down. We could go over land, but that it is very difficult terrain and the borders are hellish. They are clogged with refugees. There's no way to leave that is easy."
"I think I know someone who can help."
"Even if you can find a way out, I'm not going."
"Don't you think that it's important? Can't you see that everything you're asking for is outside this place?"
"You don't understand." Zerzan looked over at me again and I took my eyes off the road to catch her gaze. Were her eyes teary? No, it was just a trick of the low light. "Even if we can get out, how will I get back in? It's just too risky for me."
I returned my attention to the road.
If a woman who charged a man firing a machine gun with nothing but a knife said my plan was too risky, it must be totally insane.
"Let me make a phone call," Zerzan said. “Mujada should be with the platoon I suggested we join. I will get a clearer location.”
Zerzan pulled out one of the burner flip phones we'd taken off the Daesh fighters and dialed.
The voice that answered was a man's. Zerzan's mouth fell into a deep frown. She said something in her native tongue, her voice low and gravelly. The man answered her and her scowl deepened.
Zerzan responded and the man laughed. Zerzan hung up and pushed the mobile phone back into her pocket. "What happened?"
"Mujada is being held hostage. And they want to exchange her for me."
I slowed to a stop and put the Humvee into park. The engine purred, waiting for my next command.
"Where is she?"
"Not far. Maybe a day of travel." Zerzan's voice was hollow, almost echoing with emptiness.
"Only a day, that's an improvement."
"Will you come? Will you help me?" She wasn't the type to ask for help. She wanted to be the one helping. But I was her only ally here.
"Yes, I'll help. But we probably need more weapons."
"Yes, we probably do."
"I happen to know the location of a very well-stocked armory."
Zerzan's lips twitched into a smile. "And I happen to know a major who can get them for us."
I twisted the wheel, executing a tight U-turn that made Blue fall into the door, and Zerzan press against him. Zerzan said something in her native tongue that sounded like a curse.
I was driving fast, the Humvee eating up the road beneath us as we raced back in the direction we'd come.
We spotted Garcia walking along the side of the road. When she saw our headlights, she broke into a run, heading into the scrubby trees. I slammed on the brakes when we reached where she'd entered the bush, and, throwing the Humvee into park, I jumped out of it.
I released Blue with the command to take down the major. He took off into the wilderness, his white tail a streak of light as he disappeared into the brush.
I followed him at a slower pace, not wanting to injure my ankle again.
Blue barked. He'd captured her. Zerzan yelled to me when she reached them and a few moments later, I came upon the scene.
Major Garcia was on the ground with Blue standing over her. His front paws weighted down her shoulders and his face was inches from hers. Blue’s lip quivered above his teeth and a low growl emanated from his breast. The major stared back at Blue, her mouth set into a straight line and her body tense beneath him.
Zerzan was next to them, her pistol pointed at the Major. I called Blue off and he bounded to my side, tail wagging. I stroked his head and told him that he was a "good boy."
The major eyed me, her expression defiant. "What now?"
"Well, we felt bad about leaving you out here. Figured it wasn't safe. So we want to give you a ride back to the compound." She stared at me, her expression unchanged. "You can get up now, let's go back to the truck."
"I'm not going anywhere with you. If you want me, you can drag me."
"Really?"
I looked over at Zerzan. The anger, driven by the fear she had for Mujada, radiated off of her. "Should I just kill her?"
The major didn't seem worried. I had to admire her. We'd abducted her, dropped her on the side of the road, then come back and chased her down, my giant dog taking her to the ground. Now Zerzan, looking like an ice cold killer, was aiming the major's own gun at her, but she was refusing to cooperate.
"Bring her along." Blue bounded back over to the major and gave a short bark. When she didn't respond he nipped at her feet. She twisted away from him but didn't get up.
Blue kept going, barking and nipping, pushing her with his nose. When she lashed out at him, Blue caught her wrist in his mouth and looked over at me. She threw her free fist and hit him in the side.
Blue dug his teeth into her tendons and yanked hard enough that she tipped over. He dragged her by her hand as she screamed.
"Release." Blue let go and returned to my side, blood staining the white fur around his mouth. The Major cradled her wrist to her chest as she sat up.
"Ready to go now?"
"I won't endanger my soldiers. I would rather die."
"Well, if she wants to die, who are we to stop her?" Zerzan asked.
"I get you," I said to the major. "How many people do you have with you?"
"I'm not telling you anything. I'm not doing anything you want me to do. And I'm certainly not helping you breach our base."
"You keep saying that as if the base is American. It's Iraqi."
"Kurdish." Zerzan corrected me.
"Iraqi." The major corrected Zerzan.
Zerzan's finger tightened on the trigger.
"Well, in any case, it's not American. We can all agree on that."
"Those women are my allies and I'm not going to let you hurt them."
"For the record, I was your ally not so long ago. Did you know Mary Leventhal?” The major didn't answer. "Do you know what she was doing here? What I was doing here?"
"I know who you are, and I know where you belong."
"Who do you think I am?"
"A member of Joyful Justice. You’re a terrorist. And you should be locked up."
"The thing is, Mary brought me here. Obviously, I didn't come here of my own free will. Why would I?"
"You're working with FKP. Another terrorist organization," she sneered, looking over at Zerzan.
"I get you think we’re bad news," I said.
"Bad news? I don't think you're bad news, I think you're dangerous criminals."
"Worse than Daesh? Come on, do you think we're on their side? Can't we agree that the enemy of my enemy is my friend?"
The major laughed. "If you were my friends, you wouldn't have needed to escape from a military base. You wouldn't have shot Declan Doyle. I wouldn't be bleeding." She held up her torn wrist.
"We're actually very much alike."
The major laughed again. Her shirt was soaking with blood. "We are nothing alike. I have spent my life working my way up the ranks of the U.S. Army. My life has been about discipline and following orders and working for the good of my natio
n. You are terrorists. You're not going to convince me to help you."
I looked over at Zerzan. She was staring down the barrel of her pistol at the woman. "I say drag her."
"Go ahead," the major dared us.
"What was Mary's reputation?"
"What?" The major asked, confused by my quick change in topic. Blue tapped my hand with his nose, waiting for his next command, sensing that it was coming soon.
"What was Mary's reputation?"
"She was a tough, smart, out-of-the-box thinker."
"Would you trust her with your life? Would you trust her with your soldiers’ lives?"
"Yes, we were on the same side."
"She trusted me."
"And look how that turned out."
"I, unlike you, don't have access to drones or bombs. I tried to save her." I could still smell the stench of that fire: caustic plastic, roasting flesh, and coppery blood.
"I don't know what happened. I wasn't there."
I shook my head, looking down at the woman. Her soft jowls, hard eyes, thin, brown hair in disarray—she'd lost her hat somewhere along the way. This was the problem with the world. So stuck in her beliefs, just like me, so stuck in mine. The big difference: I was right.
"Okay, Blue." His body vibrated with excitement. His tail swinging back and forth as he awaited my next words. "Bring her along."
The major began to rise, getting up to her knees.
Blue barked and circled her nudging her back with his nose and nipping at her heels. She stood slowly, blood from her wrist dripping off her elbow. Blue continued to bark at her and she lashed out, trying to kick him. Blue dodged and launched himself onto her back, knocking her face first into the dirt. She landed with a thud. Blue grabbed the collar of her shirt and began to yank her down the hill. Her face was in the dirt, dragging through the land.
"Ready to walk?" I asked. She couldn't respond. "Blue, hold on." Blue stopped but kept his teeth locked onto her collar.
"Get up."
The major rose to her hands and knees. Her breathing was short and dirt fell off her face and hair. I grabbed her arm and hauled her up. She didn't try to get loose. "We're gonna get you to the truck. You might as well walk."
"No."
Zerzan grabbed her other arm and we dragged her back down the hill to the waiting Humvee. She didn't so much walk as stumble between us.
The Humvee stood as we'd left it, with the front doors open, engine rumbling, headlights sending white columns through the night. Lightning fissured around it and thunder made the road tremble under my feet.
***
I found a first aid kit in the back of the Humvee and wrapped up the major’s wrist.
Blue was excited by the turn of events. His tail was wagging against the seat as he watched me tend to the wounds. There were puncture marks that had torn up her wrist, leaving wide gashes. Blood came out as quickly as I blotted it away. I packed sterile gauze against the cuts and then wrapped more around it. "You're going to need stitches.” She didn't respond. "I get why you don't want to help us but I'd like to tell you why we came back and then you can decide if you want to keep up not helping."
"There is nothing you can say that will change my mind."
"I kind of feel that's one of the big problems we have in the world right now. If we all refuse to listen, how will anything ever change?" The major turned her gaze to look out the window. "Well, I'll tell you anyway. A friend of ours, a brave, young woman who has spent her entire adult life fighting Daesh has been captured. And we are going to get her back."
"She doesn't care," Zerzan said.
"I care about the women that Daesh takes," the major said, her voice low, almost like she was admitting a secret. "It is horrific what is happening here."
"So you can see how it can turn a woman into a terrorist," Zerzan said, her voice dripping with condescension.
The major shook her head and cast her gaze back to the passing landscape.
"This woman, who we're going to save, she is a lot like you. Follows orders, fights for what she believes in, is willing to die to protect those around her. To protect those that she fights with."
"I'm sorry about your friend. But that doesn't change anything."
"What we need are weapons. We don't want to hurt anyone at the base. I shot Declan because of something between us. We didn't hurt anyone else on our way out."
"Only because you didn't have to." The major raised her bandaged wrist. "You're not afraid to hurt people to get what you want. I'm not risking my soldiers around you."
"Aren't you the same?"
She smiled. "No. I'm not the same. Going into extreme danger to save one person. That's not a strong mission. That cannot win this war."
"You think you know what will win this war?” Zerzan asked, her voice an angry growl. "You are an idiot. So many of you Americans think you know how to solve our problems. And all you do is make it worse. All you've ever done is make it worse."
The major was about to respond when I laid a hand on her arm and shook my head. "Listen to me, I want to be real clear about what I'm asking for. You don't have to put anyone in danger. You just have to supply us with weapons."
"Supplying you with weapons is dangerous. How do I know they won't be used against me or any of my troops?"
"You have my word."
"You're supposed to be going to a holding facility."
"What if I promise to come back?"
Zerzan stiffened in the driver’s seat.
"I don't believe you."
"I promised Declan I would let him lock me up. That's how we got here in the first place."
"Right. Then you shot him to prevent that from happening."
"That's true," I laughed, because she had a very valid point. "But we'd made a new deal at that point and I'd followed through, coming here. As you might imagine, this isn't exactly my idea of a mountain vacation. I came here at his and Mary’s request to help them figure out how to get more women to fight. They wanted to create a similar pull through social media and the Internet for women as Isis has done for young men."
The major's eyes widened. "That was her plan?"
"Yes, but when she died, so did the plan. Then Declan tried to lock me up. But, at that point, I had already given my word to Zerzan that I would help her."
"That's an interesting story." The major maintained eye contact. The woman's eyes were emerald green with slashes of yellow in them. Wrinkles fanned out from them, proof of a life spent in the sun and wind. This was a woman of action. She didn't strategize behind a desk, she spent her time in the field.
The major's lip curled into a smile or a snarl; I wasn't sure until she spoke. "I love that these men believe if a woman kills them they go to hell."
"Me too," Zerzan said.
We were fifteen minutes from the base now. "You can help us and make sure that no one gets hurt. If you don't, we will have to do it the hard way, and then I can't guarantee that bad things won't happen."
"Are you threatening me?"
"I've been threatening you basically since the moment we met."
"Not from the very beginning. Remember, I gave you a ride."
I laughed. "Right, but pretty soon after."
"I can't help you. It would be risking too much."
"The only thing you would be risking is your career."
"I fought hard to get where I am."
"And that means more to you than what's right?" I shook my head and turned away from her.
When the base came into view, I sat forward and spoke to Zerzan. "We know we can trust the women at the south gate. Let's see if they will just give us their weapons."
"They won't do that. They'd be court-martialed,” Garcia said.
"Even better," I said. "Let's ask them to come with us."
***
Zerzan came to a stop as the guards approached our vehicle. They were in the standard formation, rifles raised, circling the car. The machine guns mounted on the wall were aim
ed down at us. Please let us live long enough to save Mujada.
Zerzan rolled down her window. The guard approaching had on full fighting gear: flak jacket and helmet, handgun holstered at her hip.
The woman asked something in Kurdish and Zerzan responded.
I sat forward. "Do you recognize her?" The woman pulled the flashlight off her belt and illuminated Zerzan's face. Zerzan flinched away for a second but then looked back at the woman, staring into the light. She lifted her chin, exposing the scars on her throat. The flashlight clicked off.
"The Tigress."
"We need your help," I said.
"Anything."
"Weapons and you."
The woman's brows raised. "Me?"
"Yes, you," Zerzan said, finding her voice. "I need you and her." Zerzan pointed at the other woman holding a rifle on us. "And them." She pointed at the two dark figures manning the machine guns on the wall. "Anyone else you can trust to come with me."
"Why?"
"To kill Daesh."
"You can't just abandon your post." The major sat forward, yelling out the window. "You will leave everyone in danger."
"Our shift changes in ten minutes,” the guard answered.
"We need weapons and grenades, anything we can get,” I said.
"I'll let you get what you need from the armory, and then I will go with you,” the guard said.
The guard on the other side of the car spoke. "I will come with you too."
"Thank you." Zerzan said, her voice strong and clear, like a church bell ringing through a town filled with the faithful.
The gate opened and we rolled through. The major sat back into the seat and shook her head. "God dammit."
"At least you didn't have to walk back here. And unless you do something spectacularly stupid in the next ten minutes, you're gonna be just fine."
"Those women are now deserters. They will face consequences."
"They may not live to face them," Zerzan stated.
We parked in front of the armory. I dragged the major out of the car with us and Zerzan held her tight, a pistol pressed into the woman's stomach as I unlocked the armory with the major's keys.
I left Blue guarding the major near the entrance as Zerzan and I ran around gathering arms. We grabbed a crate full of machine guns, hundreds of rounds, and a box of grenades. I discovered the knives and was loading a bunch into a bag when I popped open a crate and found a stash of throwing stars. They glinted in the overhead lights and I smiled, thinking of my trainer, Merl. I picked up one of the blades and weighted it in my palm. Perfect.
The Girl With The Gun (Sydney Rye Book 8) Page 10