“No, I'm very serious. When you fell downstairs it could have dehisced.” He paused and looked up at Stark as if waiting for recognition. “You know, bust the wound open. It didn’t. The tissue still looks healthy and pink. The dark blood looks like it is coming from a hematoma rather than from a fresh bleed. This is very good indeed.” Dr. Stover blotted at the blood with more 4x4s and began to redress the wound with fresh bandages. “Sergeant Stark, you may not be able to see it yet, but an amputation is not the end of the world. With today’s advances in prosthetics, you could be walking again in six months to a year.”
This did seem like the end of the world. Everything he knew, everything he had planned, was shit now. “You don’t understand. I was supposed to go to alpha school. My best friend Sergeant Colin is dead, and Kira …” His voice trailed off.
“Did you know her before the mission?” Dr. Stover paused and asked, “Are you allowed to disclose that information?”
“We are from the same base in Colorado,” Stark responded. He sighed thinking of what could have been and stared at the glass window into the hallway. He could see the group of officers pacing around, looking impatient. “She’s a doctor.”
“And a captain,” Dr. Stover finished, nodding as he finally put the pieces together. “So going to alpha school, becoming a captain, is really important to you.”
“Was,” Stark corrected. “The army was my life until I met her. I guess I wanted my fucking cake and eat it too. I just couldn’t give up the team, but I couldn’t let her go either. Now Colin’s dead, Kira is hanging on by a thread, and I am about to go stand in line with my walker at the fucking nursing home.”
“None of those things are your fault.” Dr. Stover looked him in the eye as he spoke, “If you still want to …”
A rap at the door interrupted the conversation. Before Dr. Stover could complete the sentence, the barrage of officers began to file into the room once again.
“All fixed up,” Dr. Stover said, changing his tone. “If you need me I will be making rounds, just have the nurse page me.” He finished and left the room.
Stark looked from one officer to another, meeting each one eye to eye and sizing them up. He knew this was routine procedure, but this mission was anything but routine to him.
“Sergeant Stark, my name is Major Stephens. This is Lieutenant Harris from JSOC, and this is Captain Meadows. She is a psychologist here at Walter Reed. She will be sitting in for this initial meeting if that is ok with you. She will be working with you while you are here. Let me start by saying, thank you for your service son, and I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you, sir. Will any of my team be available for the debriefing?” Stark asked the older man.
“I’m afraid not. Sergeant Miller, Sergeant Taylor, and Sergeant Reed were debriefed as soon as they got back to the Isofac,” the major answered. He was calm and measured, but not overly formal. “May I sit down?” he asked Stark, pulling a chair closer to the hospital bed.
“Yes sir,” Stark responded politely. He was careful never to take anyone at face value. Stark had participated in many after action reports in the last decade. The exercise followed every mission both in training and live combat.
“I want you to feel free to talk about what happened and how you are dealing with it,” the major said soothingly. Stark knew this was to put him at ease.
Owen Stark knew his duty to the Army. He knew that despite his current personal hell, this was the mission at hand. He began to recount every detail beginning with them fast roping into the jungle. The major and his team took notes as he spoke.
He told them about their trek through the jungle and Sergeant Miller’s near miss with the land mine. He talked about the harrowing minutes of talking Miller through backing out of the deadly situation, and the team rerouting of that area. He described each vehicle in the convoy that passed. He listed every weapon that he could remember seeing in the men’s hands and the sense of urgency he felt to get to the compound.
He paused, watching them write. For them, this was a simple exercise. For him, as he remembered and recounted each minute, he was walking his best friend to his death all over again. Stark already knew how this story would end, and what it would cost them all. He stretched his neck side to side and took a deep breath.
The quiet psychologist, Captain Meadows, got up and approached him. Her reddish-blond hair was tucked into a tight bun, her dress uniform crisp and perfect. However, her face was not that of a hardened soldier. She had a softness about her. Pale green eyes batted at him innocently, as she reached for a pitcher of water and poured him a glass.
The major shot her a disapproving look as she was breaking protocol. She was to sit quietly and not interrupt unless asked. Stark watched her blush and avoid eye contact with the major, but she continued fixing his cup and brought it to him.
“You looked like you could use a little break and a drink,” she offered with a small but kind smile. It took Stark a minute to realize it, but she could easily be Colin’s beautiful little sister.
“Thanks,” he said smiling back, “you don’t have any Jameson to go with that do ya?” The joke was lost on the room. Stark missed the way Colin would joke through any situation. Their debriefings were hands down the most entertaining in the military. Stark swallowed the water hard. He choked back the thought that he would never hear that laugh again.
They sat looking at him, so Stark continued on. He described their actions as they reached their target location. He described the hacienda. The compound was surrounded by a wall. Inside the courtyard, Stark had identified the convoy they had seen earlier. At least twenty men armed with fully automatic weapons walked around the grounds.
He remembered Colin being the first to spot the targets on the second floor, third window from the end. Stark could still hear Sergeant Colin reporting, “Primary targets visualized.” He could imagine Colin sitting in the room, giving him hell for not seeing them first.
He told how they convened on a hill just out of range from the compound. They each did sound checks on their equipment, and verbalized that this would have to be a simultaneous shot. Stark acknowledged that they knew after the shots were taken, enforcers would begin to fire and fill the area. He noted they would have an extremely short window of time to get back to the rendezvous point and then move to the extraction location. Stark detailed how they split up and moved into their positions. Each man had checked in and identified the target best in their sights. All was going well until he noticed a person in a burqa. Due to the subject’s small frame and movements, he determined that it was a woman. He had radioed in to situation command to see if she was a target or an innocent. Orders came back that she was a target. Stark noted that he had the best visual of her and lined up his scope for the shot.
Stark felt bile rise up into his throat. He had lain there on that hill with Kira in his sights. Stark took a drink of the water. It clashed with the hot acid in his mouth.
“There was something about her that didn't add up,” Stark said, as his lower lip started to quiver. “Her little hands trembled as she typed on the computer. It makes sense now. She was a hostage, not part of their group. God, she must have been so scared.” Stark started to rock back and forth. “The count had started. I knew it was my duty to take the shot … but I … it …”
Stark paused and wiped a tear from his eye. He struggled to continue but could barely breathe.
“You were following orders,” the major said confidently. “Was there anything visible on the woman that would identify her as a United States soldier?”
“Not at that point,” Stark answered, dread building like a lead ball in his gut. “As I said, the count had begun.”
Stark remembered Colin going through the count. “One,” Sergeant Colin called out.
Stark put his target square in his sights. He watched her tiny trembling fingers move across the keys.
“Two.”
How could he have not known it was
her? Stark’s heart raced beneath his hospital gown. He could never forgive himself for shooting her. If he hadn’t hesitated, she would be dead.
“Three.”
All operators fired. Stark recounted how he hesitated. The other targets dropped and he had snapped back to reality. His target moved, but was still in his sights. He had quickly pulled the trigger and watched the bullet make contact with his target. The shot was off center, but still, pink mist had been visible just before she dropped to the floor.
Stark gripped the bed rail and struggled to breathe as he remembered how her head bounced off the ground and she lay motionless in the pool of her own blood. Stark closed his eyes. All he could see was the brown leather and metal band on her delicate wrist.
“As she fell, I saw her bracelet and I knew it was Captain Riley,” Stark admitted quietly. He knew if he admitted to the major that he was the one that gave her the bracelet both of their careers would be over. On the other hand, if he lied, his story wouldn’t add up. He could give two shits about his career at the moment. But when Kira woke up, he didn’t want to jeopardize her career. This was not her fault.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Sergeant. How did you know it was her? Did you know Captain Riley?” the major asked, a deep crease forming across his forehead.
“We are from the same base as you know. I know both Captain Riley and Captain Holt from the clinic. Captain Riley did my post deployment physical when I was injured on an assignment. I saw her for follow up as well,” Stark replied honestly. That was how he met Kira and Holt.
“So how did you recognize her from a bracelet? Was it a military bracelet?” the major’s crease deepened into a canyon.
“It was a brown leather bracelet with a metal plate that read ‘Relentless’.” Stark answered, his voice lowering.
“So how did you know there weren’t thousands of bracelets out there like that? You put your entire team at risk because …” The major stopped himself. Passing judgment during a debriefing was discouraged. It caused the soldier to go on the defensive and clam up.
“It was unique,” Stark answered. He looked the major dead in the eye and stated, “I know, because I had it made for her.” Stark sat back in the bed. Stark set back in the bed. There it was. The truth filled the room like a deadly gas. The weight of which rendered everyone in the room speechless for a moment.
Finally, the major spoke. “When was the last time you spoke with Captain Riley before she was shot?”
“I haven’t been able to reach her since her deployment. I have tried but her phone always says she is not taking messages at this time. She did leave a couple messages asking about a mutual friend of ours, so I know she wasn’t completely avoiding me. We … we broke up a couple of months ago. Our lives are just too different, I guess.” Stark paused, and looked down at the freshly wrapped stump. Now our lives are very different.
“So, you had no information about Captain Riley or Captain Holt being at the hacienda of Gerson Galvez?” the major asked.
“No. I knew that she was deployed to Lima, Peru. But I thought she was working in a lab catching bugs, or testing bugs. I don’t know, something safe. I never dreamed she would be wrapped up with a drug lord and a terrorist. That’s why even after I saw the bracelet, I sat there dumbfounded. I just couldn’t believe it, but at the same time my gut told me it was her,” Stark finished, closing his eyes. He could still see her lying there. The growing crimson pool made him physically ill.
“Sergeant Stark? Do you need to take a break?” the major asked, after a couple minutes, breaking the trance.
“No sir, I’m sorry. As I was saying, I couldn’t move. The rest of my team started to fall back to the rally point as planned. I guess Sergeant Colin was trying to reach me over the mic but I don’t remember it. The next thing I know, he was there beside me checking to see if I was injured. He is always … he was … like that. He always put his fellow soldier first.” Stark paused, and took a drink of the water. It felt glacial compared to the desert of his mouth.
“After we made the shots, enforcers began to rapid fire in our direction. He was trying to get me to get up and go to the rally point with the others. We returned fire to some approaching enforcers and I explained to him what I saw. At first, he thought I was crazy, that I had lost my mind.”
He could hear Colin’s voice loud and clear as he kept going. “‘What the fuck? No. I’m not letting you do this,’ Colin yelled and grabbed me by the shoulders. He said, ‘something is very wrong with you right now. Going down there is suicide. Even if it was Kira, which it’s not, you took her down. She is dead by now.’ He shook me, desperate to get me to listen.”
“But you didn’t listen,” the major observed.
“I couldn’t. If there was even a chance that she was still alive I had to try to save her.” Stark began to wring his hands. “I refreshed my magazine and got up. Colin tackled me.” Stark reported every detail of their scuffle.
“As we rolled into the foliage, a group of enforcers came up on us. We froze in our underbrush cover. One of the enforcers paused for a moment, right beside my face. I could hear Sergeant Miller calling over the mic so I depressed the remote PTT button for my throat mic. Sergeant Miller acknowledged my signal and said that they would draw them off.”
“Did all of the enforcers follow Sergeant Miller and the rest of the team?” the major asked.
“To my knowledge, yes. We reported to them that there were approximately fifteen on their trail. I was still determined to go in after Kira. Colin asked me if it was worth it, and ‘What if she was already dead?’ I told him one way or the other I was going to bring her home. I wanted him to go with the others, but he started to follow me. I asked him what the hell he was doing because he had said himself, this was a suicide mission.” Stark stopped gripping the sheets tight in his fingers. It was in this moment Stark had condemned his best friend, his brother, to die.
He closed his eyes. He could see Colin’s stern face as he spoke, “I’m going with you. You have saved my life more times than I can count. You are my brother. I’m not letting you do this alone. If I can’t stop you, then I’m going with your crazy ass to watch your back.” Colin’s goofy grin was replaced by stone resolve. “Let’s go.”
“I took him on a mission that cost his life. It was my fault,” Stark choked out the words.
“Sergeant Colin knew the risk and he chose to go in,” the major replied. “If your team hadn’t gone in Captain Riley and Captain Holt would have died.”
“I should have gone in alone,” Stark said, shaking his head.
“Then you would most likely be dead too. You are an outstanding soldier. You and I both know this mission would not have been possible without your team,” the major offered.
Stark walked them through the approach and taking the hacienda. He reported the positions and actions of each team member to make it work. “When we got to the room where our targets lay, we were able to identify and confirm dead all the targets except Captain Riley. We only found a bloody burqa where she had been. She had been sitting at a computer when she was shot, and fell out of the chair to the floor. I searched all around the desk. Hell, then I searched the whole damn room. Nothing.”
“Were you able to see what was on the computer?” the major asked.
“No, we had cut the power to gain entry to the hacienda, but I did retrieve a flash drive from the computer!” Stark blurted, suddenly remembering the drive. “I buttoned it in my pocket. It has to be with my belongings. I took it, hoping it would be a clue to what the hell she was doing there.”
“Good work,” the major responded, and motioned for one of the other officers to go retrieve his belongings.
“Sergeant Colin remembered seeing some blood on the steps as we came up, so we cleared each room on that floor quickly and moved back toward the steps. On the landing, we were rushed by a woman with a rolling pin. She was more afraid than she was deadly. We disarmed her carefully. I spoke to her in Spanish a
nd asked her about the girl. She told me Javier was trying to help her, and told us which hall they had gone down. She told us that they were headed toward the stables.” Stark told them about finding Captain Holt hooded and bound in one of the rooms, securing him, and making their way to the stables.
“Finding Captain Holt confirmed that Captain Riley was there. He told us that they had been at a bar, or were on the way to a bar, and were kidnapped. He thought we were there because of his SoCom tracker. We didn’t tell him any different,” Stark reported.
He described listening over the mic when Colin was caught on the wrong side of the fence and had to take out the enforcers. He shuddered thinking of the “close as hell” shot by Sergeant Miller, taking out the second enforcer. He told them about reaching the stable, and finding Captain Riley and Javier.
“Captain Holt knew Javier from their mission. Captain Riley was in bad shape but she was alive. We had to stabilize her before we could move her.” The images of Kira lying on that cold metal veterinary table flooded his mind. Her small frame was frail and lifeless. “She had a sucking chest wound. Captain Taylor was on mic and talked me through dressing the wound and performing a needle decompression.”
“What about Captain Holt? He is a doctor,” the major asked.
“Captain Holt … um he …” Stark paused, as much as he hated the little shit he didn’t want to rat him out for flipping out. It was his first mission, after all.
“Speak freely, Sergeant. Remember we have already gotten details from your team who were on mic, but we need to hear it from you,” the major encouraged.
“Captain Holt was very nervous. This was his first deployment, and he had just been kidnapped. He hasn’t developed battlefield skills yet. So while he did help some, I had to move quickly to save her. Once we had her stabilized we called for exfil support and set a new rally point with the team.” Stark walked them through the harrowing ride through the jungle with the enforcers hot on their trail. He told them about picking up Miller, Reed, and Taylor and hauling ass toward the extraction point.
Stark Resolution (Stark Trilogy Book 3) Page 8