by Max Vos
Abbas roared the van through a small village, nearly taking out a man with a cart, blowing the horn almost constantly.
“Yes, Lieutenant Stone, hold a moment for the commanding officer.”
“What? They put me on fucking hold? Unbelievable!” Stone yelled at the phone
After only a few seconds, “This is Commanding Officer Anderson. Stoner, is this really you?”
“Sir, yes sir, this is Samuel J. Stone, sir.” Stone had to smile at the CO’s nickname for him. “Benoit and I have just escaped from a compound where we were held for ten days. We also have six sympathetic civilians with us who are helping us. We have already come under fire once, and are afraid that there will be more to come.”
“Okay, hold on a sec, Stoner, let me see if we can’t get a GPS off that phone you’re using.”
Abbas raced down a much better road this time. As they passed an intersection, another truck, loaded with men, and a jeep behind it pulled in behind the speeding van.
“Oh, shit!” Benoit yelled.
The men standing in the back of the large truck opened fire on them.
“Sir, we are under attack!” Stone yelled into the phone, making sure he was being heard over all the noise.
“We gotcha, Stoner,” Anderson said. “We’ll have two choppers in the air within minutes. Are you able to return fire?”
“Yes, sir, we are returning fire.”
Abbas was driving like a madman. With his one good eye, he kept looking from mirror to road to mirror to road, making sure that they stayed ahead of the vehicles behind them.
“Abbas, try and keep it as steady as you can!” yelled Benoit from the back of the van. He had the grenade launcher already on his shoulder.
Benoit took careful aim, waiting, trying to get a lock on the large truck. Even though the road was better there, it was still extremely rough. When he thought he had it, he fired. The shot didn’t hit the truck, only next to it, causing it to veer off the road, but not taking it out. Now the jeep was in front the truck back on the road, behind them now.
“Sonofabitch!” Benoit screamed. “That bastard is still alive!”
Turning completely around in his seat, Stone looked out the busted-out back windows. Standing in the back of the jeep, beside a mounted machine gun, was Abdul.
“Stoner, you still with me?” asked Commanding Officer Anderson.
“Sir, yes, sir. Sir, we are in deep shit! Sir.”
The machine gun opened fire. One of the side windows imploded, sending glass flying inside the van. The women screamed. A piece of glass sliced the back of Abbas’s neck, nearly causing him to run the van off the road.
Blood poured down the back of Benoit’s head, and a shard of glass was imbedded in his cheek. Saaleh also had a deep-looking cut across his forehead, blood running down either side of his face.
Benoit picked up his gun and opened fire on the jeep. He missed the tires, but it looked as if he might have gotten the radiator, and the man who was riding shotgun.
“Hang in there, Stoner; help is on the way.”
Abbas jerked the wheel wildly to the right, throwing both Saaleh and Benoit off balance and Stone nearly to the floor. Shards of glass shifted on the floor like a bizarre ocean wave.
“What the fuck, Abbas?” Benoit yelled.
Soon, Abbas explained. There was a huge hole in the road that he had not seen or been able to avoid. When the jeep hit the pothole, the driver lost control, going far off the road, but still operational. The large truck was now coming up on them again, fast.
Saaleh and Benoit were firing on the truck. Stone saw that Benoit was aiming for the driver, and Saaleh was just shooting, hoping to hit anything. After a few moments, Benoit hit his target. The truck went wildly out of control, running off the road, before turning over. That left only the jeep with Abdul in it.
Stone could see that Abdul’s shoulder was bandaged up, when he shouldered the man operating the mounted machine gun out of the way. They were just close enough that Stone could make out Abdul’s face. Pure fury was written all over it. He was determined to kill them, no matter what it took. He opened fire.
Bullets riddled the back of the van, striking both Saaleh and Benoit. Blood went everywhere, and Stone screamed, “No!”
His scream was drowned out by the sound of helicopters zooming in and opening fire on the jeep, blowing it straight to hell. If there was one square inch of anything remaining, Stone would have been greatly surprised. Stone only wished he could have seen the look on Abdul’s face that last, miserable second of his miserable life.
The sister who spoke English was already moving towards Saaleh and Benoit. She reached Benoit first. She pulled off her headscarf and pressed it onto Benoit’s shoulder as he screamed in agony. Saaleh wasn’t moving when Stone got to him. His eyes were open, and he was breathing, but he appeared to be in shock.
He'd taken a nasty hit to his thigh, Stone thought. There was blood, but not enough to convince Stone that the artery had been hit.
“Give me that,” Abbas’s sister said as she reached behind her and snatched her sister’s headscarf off her head. The other young woman cried out, and tried to cover her bare head with her hands. The English-speaking sister handed the scarf to Stone, who wrapped it tightly around Saaleh’s leg to stop of the bleeding. Saaleh seemed to come out of it then, and smiled up at Stone with his puppy-dog brown eyes, despite the pain he must have felt.
The two helicopters hung with them as Abbas sped down the road, one in front and one behind them, giving the small troop one hell of an escort.
The cell phone was passed back to Stone, who heard Commander Anderson repeatedly yelling his name.
“Sir, I’m here, sir.”
Stone heard the sigh of relief on the other end. “Thank God. Those choppers will stick with you until you get to safe base, and I’ll get there as quickly as I can. Anyone hurt?”
“Yes, sir. Benoit took one to the shoulder, looks pretty bad, and a deep gash to his head. One civilian shot in the leg, another civilian has a deep cut on the back of his neck and head. Everyone else seems to be okay, other than a little shaken up,” Stone gave him the rundown on all the injuries.
“Okay, got it.” Stone heard Commander Anderson give orders to have medics waiting, repeating the list to someone there on his end. “Looks like you’re about thirty minutes out. A team of medics will be there to meet you. I’m going to get off here now so I can get a lift over there. I’ll see you soon, Stoner. Oh, and by the way…nice to have you back soldier; good work.” Then the connection ended.
Chapter 15
Abbas slowed down to a somewhat reasonable speed. He was still driving rapidly, but not at quite the breakneck speed he’d driven earlier. Now he was in a hurry for an entirely different reason. Saaleh and Benoit were seriously injured and needed medical attention. He himself, was also injured, but his sisters had been able to bandage him up fairly well as he drove.
Stone was still in the cargo area of the van, keeping as much pressure as he could on Saaleh’s leg. Benoit, beside him, had lost a lot of blood and was weaving in and out of consciousness. Stone’s own arm had gone from a slight burning sensation to throbbing. He figured it was due to all the movement and bouncing around, and tried to ignore it as best he could.
When they approached the safe base, the gates opened and the helicopters backed off, going back the way they had come, presumably to make sure that there were no more Taliban to be dealt with.
Once inside the base, Abbas stopped the van, got out, and went around opening the side and rear cargo doors. There were teams of medics there, at the ready, to help with the injured. Immediately, they got Saaleh onto a stretcher. The poor kid yelled out in pain when they picked him up. He gave the big blond Marine a weak smile and a squeeze of his hand before they took him off. Stone had made sure to tell the medics that he didn’t speak English, and to take good care of his new friend.
Benoit was still going in and out of consciousness, and
hardly noticed that he was being moved at all. They rushed him away, already working on him. It was bad, but Stone had seen a whole lot worse, so he felt confident that his best friend would be okay.
Abbas and his family were gathered at the side of the van. A medic attempted to treat him, but he was too busy trying to calm his family. When Stone got there, he insisted that Abbas go with the medic, and get the needed medical attention.
“Abbas, go. I will see to your family,” Stone said.
Stone pulled another lieutenant aside and told him who these people were, and what they needed to do for them. He took notes and got further information from Abbas’ English-speaking sister. The family seemed to calm down after they understood that they were going to be taken care of, and not separated.
“Stoner!” Stone turned, hearing his nickname, and saw Commanding Officer Anderson, with long strong strides, walking towards him.
The commander stuck out his strong hand, took Stone’s, and shook it firmly. “Good to have you back, soldier.”
“Thank you, sir,” Stone said, and then his world went black.
* * * * *
Stone was warm. For the first time in a long time, he actually felt warm and comfortable, almost too warm. His feet felt as if they were on fire. What is that incessant beeping noise? Can’t someone hear it and turn that thing off? Damn.
Finally, Stone opened his eyes and tried to sit up, only to be pushed back down by a big, hairy arm.
“At ease there, soldier,” a deep voice commanded Stone.
Turning his head, Stone saw a large guy messing with some tubing. After he traced it, he found it was running into his arm.
“What…” and that was as much as Stone could get out through his dry throat.
The big, burly guy reached around, retrieved a cup, and held it up for Stone. He drank the cool water through a straw; it tasted so good that he drank the cup dry.
“Take it easy, there.” The big man grinned. He wore dark green hospital scrubs, with a surgical cap on his head. From his attire and the tube running into Stone’s arm, the Marine deduced that he was in some sort of hospital.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood from that chunk that was taken out of your arm there, Lieutenant,” the guy said over gold wire-rimmed glasses. “I’m sorry to tell you that you’re gonna have a pretty nasty scar on that arm. Of course, you can always get a plastic surgeon to have a look at it when you get stateside, but that would be on your dime, I’m afraid. Uncle Sam isn’t all that concerned with how pretty you are.” He laughed a deep hearty laugh. He had one of those laughs that you couldn’t resist laughing along with, even if you didn’t think what was said was all that funny.
“Benoit?” Stone’s voice cracked.
“Oh, your buddy that came in with you?” he asked.
Stone only nodded, his throat still dry and scratchy.
“He’s gonna be just fine. It may take some time for him to get completely back to normal,” the doctor explained. “The bullet he took did a number on his collarbone, but it will heal. He’ll have quite a bit of physical therapy ahead of him, but he’ll be as good a new eventually.”
Suddenly, the curtain that served as a door snapped back, and there was Abbas. He was dressed in the same dark green hospital scrubs as the doctor, and wore a bandage on the back of his neck. When he saw that Stone was awake, their eyes met, and a huge grin lit his face up.
“It is good to see you awake, finally, Samuel J. Stone.” Abbas’s voice was music to Stone’s ears, and no one could have suppressed the smile on his face.
When the doctor started talking to Abbas, using all sorts of medical jargon that went way over Stone’s head, he was blown away. As the doctor spoke, he pulled back the rather large bandage on Stone’s upper arm. Stone looked as the doctor explained to Abbas what he had done.
What Stone saw shocked him, making his stomach turn flips. Large, ugly stitches bunched up a roll of skin, holding it all together. Stone could see why the doc had said what he had. That was going to leave one nasty-looking scar.
Abbas must have seen the look on Stone’s face.
“Samuel, the bullet made a large ditch in your arm,” he explained in such a way that the Marine could understand. “You lost a lot of blood. A lot,” he emphasized. “You were running on pure adrenaline towards the end.”
Reaffirming what Abbas had said, the doc added, “I don’t know how you managed to get as far as you did, soldier. Pure determination on your part is all I can think of.”
They both let this sink in for a minute.
“I’m going to get you some more water; I’ll be back momentarily,” the doctor said as he got up, reaching for the cup.
After he had left, Stone looked at Abbas’s handsome face, and his killer eyes that never ceased to draw him in.
“Abbas,” Stone croaked out, “how do you know all this medical stuff?”
“I told you, Samuel, I was going to go to Emory, did I not? I studied pre-med in the UK.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain how you know all this…stuff.” Stone was still confused.
“I was a medical student,” Abbas clarified. “I was to be a doctor, and going to Emory was the final step for me.”
Now Stone understood everything, and why Abbas had been so disappointed.
“Oh, Abbas, I get it now. To get so close and then have the rug jerked out from under you must have seemed so unfair.”
“Here ya go, young man,” the doctor said, returning with another full cup of water. “Try not to drink it all in one gulp this time; there’s plenty more where that came from.” He chuckled.
Stone drank deeply, but more slowly this time, stopping about halfway.
“There are some very important people who want to talk to you. Seems you stirred up one hell of a hornets’ nest,” the burly doctor said as he made some notes in his chart. For the first time since Stone had seen the staff doctor, he had a serious look on his face. “I’m going to put them off for another hour, so you can get your legs under you a bit, so to speak. That does not mean you are allowed out of this bed. Understand me?”
The doctor then turned to Abbas, “If you need any recommendations from me, Dr. Hakim, to my old alma mater, you just let me know.” The two men stood and shook hands. Then the doctor left, pulling the curtain closed behind him, leaving Abbas and Stone alone.
“So my boyfriend’s a doctor?” Stone grinned up into those beautiful blue eyes, totally lost in them.
The smile he got from Abbas was all the medicine he needed. Everything else faded away.
“I am your boyfriend?”
“I sure hope so, Abbas,” Stone answered. “I…I don’t have a lot to offer you, Abbas…but…”
Abbas put two fingers over Stone’s lips, stopping him from speaking further.
“Samuel, you saved my life, and you saved the lives of my family.” The slight scowl on his face made him even sexier, if that were possible. “For that, I will always be in your debt.”
“I’ll call it a debt paid if you kiss me.”
Abbas smiled. “Readily.”
Abbas leaned over and kissed the reclined Marine sweetly.
“You call that a kiss?” Stone teased.
Abbas’ eyebrows shot up. The pretend shocked look on his face was comical. He leaned back over Stone again and thoroughly kissed him. His tongue did its very best to reach Stone’s tonsils.
The kiss abruptly ended when a loud uh hum sounded from behind Abbas. When the Arab moved, Stone saw that it was his commanding officer.
“Oh shit,” Stone said. He could feel that his face was on fire.
“Don’t mean to interrupt, but I was hoping I could get a quick word with you, Stoner,” Anderson said.
Abbas jumped as if someone had put a Taser to his ass. “Excuse me, I will leave you then,” he said, his clipped English accent suddenly more prominent.
“Thank you, Dr. Hakim,” Anderson said, smiling.
When they were alone, Stone’s
CO sat on the bed next to him. “Well, Stoner, you and Benoit have gone off and made yourselves heroes. I guess Benoit’s head is going to swell up so big it’ll pop like a big ol’ zit.”
“Sir?” Stone had no idea what he was talking about.
“That warlord you took out,” the CO said. “Abdulla Duhdulla and his grandson Abdul were the most powerful khans in the region. We’ve been after them for years. We got Duhdulla’s son a few years back; he was a direct link with Bin Laden. But his father and son have been elusive.”
Stone sat there, shocked. He remembered hearing the name, but he had no clue that he had dealt with those very two men.
“And then here you go…you and Benoit, and take out one of the largest, most dangerous Taliban cells in the region, and got the Duhdulla’s on top of it.” CO Anderson was laughing, enjoying himself immensely.
“Sir, I had no idea.”
“Doesn’t matter, Stoner, doesn’t matter.” Anderson’s smile was genuine. “However, a lot of top brass here are chomping at the bit to talk to you and Benoit, and since Benoit is out of it, they have focused solely on you for now.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Um…I don’t know exactly how to bring this up, but…” He was clearly uncomfortable about something, and Stone had a sinking feeling it was about Abbas. “When they were examining you, after taking care of that arm of course, they found…well, they found evidence of sexual abuse; both you and, especially, Benoit. Is there anything that…well, is there anything that we need to…address, or perhaps downplay?”
“Sir.” Telling his CO what had actually happened was going to be hard, but it seemed that he already knew, so what the hell. “Sir, both Sergeant Benoit and I were sex slaves and were repeatedly gang-raped.” Stone was ashamed, but he knew that his CO already had a pretty clear idea of what had taken place. That didn’t make it any easier to say, and Stone felt his face flush.
Commanding Officer Anderson’s face turned bright red. Stone mistook that for embarrassment until he spoke. “Those dirty fucking bastards.” Stone had never heard CO Anderson so angry. His face was red because of anger, not embarrassment. “Stone, I will do everything I can to prevent that information from becoming general knowledge, but I’m afraid that you will have to tell the top brass about it. This is the type of thing that…well, this is the type of thing that they need to understand that our men and women face over here.”