Lying in the dark tent with only a chemlamp to keep her company, she had found it impossible to believe that their marriage was over. After all that they had been through together—the love they had for each other—Joe, without warning, had thrown it all away. She could only hope that after this mission they could salvage something.
Now, straightening her slumped shoulders, she walked slowly toward the men. Dan, seeing her approach, immediately came to stand beside her.
“Ready?” he asked grinning at her.
Katie nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose,” she said, giving him a small smile in return.
“You’ll do okay, Katie,” Dan reassured her gently. “Everything will be fine.”
“You think?” Katie responded—unconvinced—trying to quell the butterflies that were quivering agitatedly in the pit of her stomach.
At that moment, a loud familiar voice ordered, “Okay, marines, form up.”
Jumping slightly, Katie saw Joe exiting from the operations tent followed by Sergeant Eastman. Trying to remain as composed as possible, heavily burdened with both her packs and weapon, she and the squad quickly formed up into two lines. She took her place in the front row, standing to attention, her personal pack placed neatly in front of her in line with those belonging to the others.
Refusing to turn her head to watch her husband, she stared straight ahead but as he and Louis Eastman took up position in front of them, both wearing full combat gear and carrying weapons and helmets, her gaze darted to his face.
He looked calm and relaxed but alert, his eyes studying his men as they stood silently. His gaze seemed to rest on her for a second before moving on and Katie felt a sharp pang of hurt at his seeming indifference.
Joe, I love you but screw you for doing this to me.
The small, forlorn thought popped unbidden into her mind and brought with it the sting of tears to her eyes.
I miss you and I want you. I don’t want to lose you.
Katie bit down hard on her bottom lip, tasting the brief tang of blood as her teeth penetrated the soft flesh, causing a sharp pain that was enough to banish the unhappy thoughts. She once more focused her gaze directly ahead until she suddenly saw, from the corner of her eye, a further person exit the operations tent to join Joe and Sergeant Eastman. Her eyes darting to the new arrival, Katie felt her whole world take a nosedive.
What the fuck is she doing here?
She was shocked as she recognized the woman who strode over to stand beside Joe.
She was tall and elegant, even attired in full combat gear, with ash-blonde hair and beautiful, high cheek-boned features. Katie watched the woman smile at her husband and felt the first stirrings of unease. It was the sinking feeling that every woman experiences when she perceives a threat to her marriage and to the love that she always believed was hers.
The newcomer was Sergeant Dana Edwards, the woman who had been involved with Joe before Katie had entered his life. Katie grew rigid with tension and—yes, let’s be honest—jealousy.
She watched as Joe turned to the woman, say something to her then smiled, and Katie suddenly wanted to scream aloud, run to him and lash out, hurting him as badly as he was hurting her. He looked as though he didn’t have a care in the world, as though Katie, along with their baby daughter and unborn child, did not exist. She wanted to run as fast and as far as she could. Instead, she stood stiffly, gritting her teeth, focusing her attention to the front again, hoping and praying that she could maintain her control long enough until she was alone.
“Right, Marines,” Joe suddenly announced. “Let’s get this show on the road. Designated drivers and crew-served gunners, go to your places. The rest of you load up.”
Lima squad broke ranks and moved toward the two huge MRAPs and the truck. Katie went to the open doors at the rear of the first MRAP—the head vehicle of the convoy—and waited at the end of the line for the men to climb aboard. To keep her mind off the unexpected appearance of Dana Edwards in the squad, she studied the heavy vehicle she was about to board with intense concentration.
Over the last two days, she had learned a great deal about the transport that she and her squad were going to be virtually living in for two hundred kilometers, so for her own peace of mind, she went over the statistics.
The sand-colored Cougar mine-resistant, ambush protected vehicle was a powerful machine. A six by six, seven-meter long monster, it could carry ten troops, a crew of two plus equipment and supplies. It had an armored, reinforced base offering added insurance that its occupants would be reasonably protected if a mine or IED was to go off beneath it, with sides that were reinforced with enough armor to stop 7.62-millimeter armor-piercing rounds and rocket-propelled grenades. The semi-circular gun turret, positioned in the center of the roof, was made of reinforced armor plating disguised with sand-colored netting which protected a remotely controlled weapon station with a fifty-millimeter heavy machine gun.
It would never win any beauty contests but Katie was fully aware that she and the rest of the squad were going to be reasonably safe while traveling in the confines of the Cougar MRAP, and she allowed herself to relax slightly.
She became aware that Joe, Louis Eastman and the female sergeant had joined the line behind her, interrupting her assessment of the monster vehicle. Determined not to give any sign that the arrival of Sergeant Edwards had unnerved her, she completely ignored their presence, waiting patiently as the men in front of her moved forward, each one, on reaching the open heavy hydraulic doors, climbed the two metal steps up into the vehicle’s dim interior. As Katie herself prepared to take her turn climbing aboard, Dan Reed, who had entered the vehicle immediately before her, reached down to take her personal pack from her.
Handing it up to him and acknowledging his assistance with a small smile, she shrugged out of the rucksack on her back, ready to give it to him, when she heard quite clearly from behind a female voice order, “Get a move on, Corporal. We haven’t got all day to stand around waiting for you.”
For a brief moment, Katie felt her whole body freeze—at first unable to believe that she had indeed heard those words—the soft but firm voice barely hiding a hint of rudeness. She hesitated, debating on whether to retaliate, then with irritation getting the better of her she turned slowly to face the female sergeant who was standing with her arms folded and an impatient look on her beautiful face.
Katie noticed Joe and Louis Eastman standing behind the sergeant, both showing expressions of surprise. Standing her ground and choosing her opening words carefully, she stared for long seconds at the woman in front of her then responded with a stilted and controlled, “I beg your pardon?”
Sergeant Edwards glared back, and Katie instantly realized with an intuition that only women have, that she and this woman had one important thing in common—a man— and for that reason, Katie felt an immediate personal antagonism.
“You heard me, Corporal,” Sergeant Dana Edwards snapped in an unfriendly manner, her dislike of Katie evident in the look of contempt she gave her.
Katie straightened slowly, outwardly calm but seething with anger inside.
“With all due respect, Sergeant,” she began, taking a deep breath, her voice sounding icy with fury to her ears, “if you’d kindly have the manners to wait for a few more minutes, I’ll be out of your way.”
Her green gaze held the sergeant’s blue one, knowing that the tone of her words as well as the words themselves had been bordering on the insubordinate and Katie didn’t care in the least. She waited for the resultant explosion.
It was her husband’s voice she heard instead when he ordered, “Move on, Corporal.”
Turning her gaze away from her adversary, Katie glanced briefly at her husband, glared dismissively back at Sergeant Edwards then finally dismissing all three, turned her back on them. Trying to keep her hand from trembling, she handed her equipment up to Dan, who was leaning out of the back of the MRAP studying the confrontation with an amused look, and she
climbed up the two steps into the interior of the vehicle, taking the last seat on the left, closest to the doors.
Hastily she strapped herself in, using her legs to push her personal pack beneath her, then, straddling her medical pack, she rested her weapon across her thighs. She could feel the double layer of sandbags and rubber matting beneath her boots, the depth of the reinforcing material already making her limbs feel uncomfortably cramped, but she would have to deal with it.
“Nice one, honey,” Dan said quietly, tilting his head toward hers. “I’m impressed.”
Turning to the young corporal, Katie grimaced. “Dan, that was nothing to be proud of,” she replied quietly and distastefully. “I just don’t like being spoken to like that for no reason, even if she is a sergeant.”
Not wanting to discuss the confrontation any further, she leaned back against the side of the vehicle and, closing her eyes, heard what must have been the two sergeants getting into the vehicle, knowing that Joe would take position up front in the cab.
She listened to the hydraulic doors hissing shut, the heavy locking mechanism engaging then the engine starting with a low rumble. Radios, both personal and from the MRAP cab, crackled harshly, then Joe’s voice sounded, giving the order to move out. There was a jolt as the heavy vehicle began to roll forward, then they were increasing speed and pulling out onto the main road leading to the first checkpoint at the base entrance.
Once they were on the move, Katie opened her eyes and gazed around the interior of the enormous vehicle. It was almost dark inside with the exception of dim light seeping in through the partial partition of bulletproof glass separating the cab from the rest of the MRAP. Apart from the dull rumbling growl of the engine, it was quiet. Some of the marines dozed, their helmeted heads swaying to the rocking movements created by the powerful suspension and some gazed into space, possibly thinking about the upcoming mission or dwelling on their own personal thoughts.
Turning to look out of the back window, Katie could see the lights of the airfield and motor pool receding into the distance, comforting halos of luminescence with flitting firefly pinpoints of torchlight and twin cones of headlights from the vehicles driving along the road.
In the direction they were traveling to leave the base, there was a slight golden glow in the sky as dawn began to break, tendrils of lemon and citrus and orange beginning to spread out to silhouette the distant peaks of the mountains. If Katie had been feeling in a better frame of mind and not so depressed and lonely, she would have admired the beautiful sight. Previous sunrises had always given her a sense of freedom, made her feel refreshed and ready to start the day, but not today and probably not for a number of days to come.
She sighed and shifted uncomfortably on the metal and canvas seat. Seething with barely concealed anger and experiencing a sharp pang of jealousy at what had occurred back at the base, Katie turned again to stare unseeingly out of the back window, wondering whether her husband was deliberately antagonizing her and playing on her love for him. If that was the case then he was not the man she had known and loved.
Despite feeling hot and claustrophobic in the confines of the vehicle, Katie eventually closed her eyes again. She just wanted to sleep, blank her mind and slip into a dreamless oblivion. She wondered drowsily what, if anything, Joe was thinking.
Does he still care about me? Does he really want to end our marriage? Did he ever love me at all or has he finally reached the conclusion that he made a mistake?
The thought that it might be over between them made Katie realize how much she still loved him and what it would do to her if he left. She was not about to let him go. The presence of Dana Edwards had triggered her woman’s instinct to fight to keep her man. If she had to she would tell the other woman the exact nature of hers and Joe’s relationship and advise her in no uncertain terms that she was not about to hand the father of her children over to another woman without an all-out battle.
The slight rocking from the reinforced suspension of the MRAP and the rolling tidal-like movement over the road began to soothe her and Katie’s body slowly began to relax. As it did so, her head slipped sideways and came to rest on Dan Reed’s shoulder.
Joe, seated in the front of the MRAP, glanced in the oversized windshield mirror and had a clear view of Katie’s pretty face and her head resting all too comfortably on the young corporal’s shoulder. He was not amused by the sight at all. In fact, jealousy had begun to eat at his insides, gnawing away like a tenacious rat. Part of him thought with an element of rationality that she had not rested her head on the man’s shoulder intentionally but that did not make it any easier for him to have to watch.
He was confused. What had been so clear to him back in the U.S.—before this most recent deployment—was now a mixture of indecisiveness and fear. Anger and revenge had been his primary all-consuming thought, the only real emotions remaining after his capture and the death of his men which had prompted him to volunteer for another tour of duty.
He had had every intention of getting to Afghanistan, biding his time then somehow hunting down the insurgents and taking them out. Up until he had told Katie that night at the PX that he wanted her out of his hair—and let’s face it that was exactly how it had come across no matter how he had tried to pretty it up—all he had wanted was to regain his commitment to the Marine Corps and get back what dignity and values he had been gradually losing over the last few months.
Now, something had changed. Instead of his anger and revenge feeding from the tension in the atmosphere, the obsessive urge for resolution had slowly begun to dissipate, leaving him empty of direction.
Katie’s arrival, proving that she was willing to put herself in danger purely to be by his side, had brought him up short. His priority should always have been Katie and his daughter back home in the States but instead, due to his own stupidity, he had screwed up his career and his marriage big time. With startling clarity, he had come to realize that there was nothing more important than Katie and his baby daughter.
He’d made the decision that once this mission was over, he would see a psych doctor at the CTH and get his deployment cut short. He’d hoped that Katie would help him but after what he had done to her, an empty gut-wrenching feeling told him that he might already have lost her.
A sudden violent jolt of the vehicle startled Katie awake, bleary-eyed and dry-mouthed, and after feeling disoriented for a few seconds she discovered with mortification that her head was resting comfortably on Dan’s shoulder. Uttering a small moan of discomfiture, she bolted upright, noticing that it was now broad daylight, and that her comfortable sleep on the corporal’s shoulder was blatantly on show for all to see, including Joe. Heat suffused her face as she turned to Dan, who was smiling at her.
“I’m so sorry,” she murmured with embarrassment.
Dan shook his head. “No worries,” he answered, a smile on his face.
Taking note of the warm expression that Dan was directing at her, Katie shifted uncomfortably, feeling uneasy and sad that this young marine appeared to have fallen for her and knowing that in the not-too-distant future he was going to be hurt. Eventually, she would have to tell him gently that she was not interested, that her heart was already committed to someone else and she was not looking forward to that future appointment.
She turned away from him and glanced out of the back window of the vehicle, hoping that her non-committal demeanor would give him the message.
Chapter Eighteen
Katie immediately noticed that the scenery had changed. Bending forward slightly to look out of the dirty, reinforced glass set in one of the back doors, she frowned and turned to Dan.
“Where are we?” she asked curiously.
Dan leaned forward, his shoulder brushing against hers, his face a few inches from her own.
“Just coming up on Gereshk,” he answered.
Sliding farther forward, almost to the edge of her seat and as much as the belt allowed her to, Katie studied their surroundings.
/>
From what she could see through the dust and grime of the small window, it looked as though they were passing through an agricultural area consisting of small fields of different crops. There was rice, wheat and several vegetables. Men of all ages worked among them, tilling the land, and an occasional woman and young girls assisted with the work and carried water. Dressed in brightly colored Afghan dresses worn over pants, they wore chadors, or large scarves, over their heads, which Katie knew was a sign of modesty and respect.
As the convoy entered the outskirts of the town with its speed greatly reduced, evidence of twenty years of war immediately became visible.
The road they traveled was full of craters and holes from landmines, haphazardly filled with sand, gravel, and rubbish. Lining the road were bombed-out shops and homes and Katie was horrified to see that people still lived and worked in the ruins. Brightly colored lengths of material hung from wrecked ceilings and rafters or from glassless windows, obviously shielding the inhabitants from inclement weather. Cardboard blocked empty doorways and holes, and hammered roughly across ragged apertures in roofs and walls was splintered and broken scavenged wood. She could even see that on the crowded streets, there were people—families—living on the littered pavements in makeshift shelters.
“How many people live here?” Katie asked, feeling a sense of dismay at the living conditions and the mass destruction wrought on the Afghan people.
A Fallen Hero Page 16