The Colonel's Daughter

by Lili Tufel

  “Well, it’s complicated…sweetheart, you see…your father—”

  “Gidget!” Colonel Johnston opened the patio doors and called out to his daughter by the old nickname.

  “Hi dad,” she stood and embraced him.

  “I was looking everywhere for you two. Did Chelsea tell you I was coming?”

  “I was gettin’ to it James.” Chelsea gave him a quick peck.

  The old Colonel took a seat. “So what were you two ladies talkin’ ‘bout now?”

  Abby turned to her father and narrowed her eyes. “About how complicated you are dad.”

  Chelsea poured him a glass of iced tea. “And I was telling her that the word is stubborn. That’s what you are, you stubborn old man.”

  “Well,” he cleared his throat. “Will you look at the time?”

  “Oh you’re not getting out of this that easily mister.” Chelsea placed both elbows on the table and stared down the Colonel.

  “Do you want to know how many times I’ve been interrogated?” He fidgeted with his watch.

  “Are we making you nervous James?” Chelsea sipped her iced tea.

  “You always do Chelsea.”

  Chelsea glanced at Abby then back at the Colonel. “I think now’s the perfect time to tell her James.”

  The Colonel sighed. “Sweet pea, you know when you were a little girl, and you would catch me hiding a gift from your mother, I would tell you, don’t say anything because your mom is not on the need to know.”

  “I’m not five years old dad, I understand the whole—need to know—thing.” She rolled her eyes.

  The Colonel’s cell phone rang. He looked at the number. “I gotta get this,” and he walked off near the water far enough to have his voice muffled by wind.

  Chelsea took hold of Abby’s arm. “I’ll go check on the baby. You sit here and wait for your dad. Make sure he talks to you.”

  “Thanks Chelsea.” Abby gave her a half smile.

  The Colonel came back to the table in a sudden haste. “Something’s come up Gidget, I gotta go. Give my love to that grandbaby of mine.” He went to kiss her.

  She pulled away. “No dad. You can’t just rush off without an explanation whenever you feel like it and expect everyone else to be ok with that.” She stood up. “Have you ever considered how it makes me feel whenever you disappear and we don’t hear from you for weeks sometimes months? Have you?”

  “Come sweet pea, it’s my job. You know that. Now this is an urgent matter that I have to take care of.” He grabbed her shoulders and looked her in the eye. “You know that I love you. What is it that you expect from this old man?”

  “The truth dad, the truth,” a tear ran down her face.

  He stared at his daughter for a moment then began, “Alright, I been working clandestine with the CIA since before you were born. It was not my idea to involve your husband and it sure as hell was not my idea to involve your sister’s husband. Don’t get me wrong, they’re two of the best soldiers I’ve ever known but…” He checked the time on his cell phone while stalling, “I definitely didn’t want them out there where they are right now in a hostile country where our military can’t even get to them.”

  “Where are they, dad? Is everything alright?”

  “Well, they’re still alive, that’s the good news. Now I’ve told you the truth. I hope that someday you’ll accept my love the only way I ever knew how to give it.”

  “I already do dad.” She hugged him tight.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Thirteen

  From the back of an old hard top jeep, Dallas studied the geological structure surrounding the convoy. Walls of shale rock surrounded the narrow winding path permeated by dust. Sitting next to Dallas holding a small notepad, Javi jotted down a bunch of numbers and calculations. At the front of their caravan were two motorcycles followed by a small pick-up truck. Several police officers, bribed by the drug baron, trailed the group on horseback.

  Glancing over at the passenger seat, Dallas noticed a very nervous Serpia Khan taking an old flask and repeatedly gulping vodka. He then looked out at the rocky hills and as he caught sight of an armed man running between the ridges he secretly motioned to Javi. Javi slid his notebook into the front pocket of his suit. Unarmed but specially trained to use their bodies as weapons, they waited on alert.

  Loud revving sounds coming from one of the motorcycles, whose driver had just been shot, set off nearby AK rounds, and sent it crashing beneath the pickup truck. Both vehicles flipped onto the jagged rock with an explosion. Serpia Khan suddenly pointed his gun at Javi who sat directly behind him. In one swift move, Javi took the gun, grabbed him by the chin and gave his head a powerful twist. Javi shoved the gun it onto the driver’s forehead and shouted, “Hemshi, hemshi!” telling him to keep going in Arabic. They rode past the flames from the explosion.

  While reaching under the seat for weapons or explosives, Dallas spotted loose wires and followed them. “There’s a damn tilt fuse down here. Oh, shit! It’s gonna fill with mercury as soon as we go up that hill. Get the hell out of the car!”

  In unison, Javi and Dallas each opened a passenger door and jumped out. After rolling on the dirt road, Dallas removed his torn designer jacket leaving it on the ground and ran for cover. From behind a large stone, Dallas’s blue eyes reflected the exploding car. “Are you alright, Jav?” He called out.

  “Ugh. I think so.” Javi lay on the ground.

  Dallas ran over and helped him to his feet. “I don’t know why you agreed to having Faisal meet with us alone, Javi. We could have used some help right about now.”

  “Now’s not the time to second guess my decisions.” Javi limped behind the large stone and pulled out his notebook.

  “What the hell have you been writing anyway?” Dallas jumped onto a larger rock trying to see down the road.

  “Coordinates…I’ve been jotting down our grid coordinates. We’re about five hundred kilometers from the border. Now, where’s my phone?” He patted down his torn jacket pockets, his pant pockets, his belt holster, and “Damn it.”

  “Your phone could be anywhere.” Dallas jumped from the top of a large boulder back onto the dirt road looking around Javi’s landing site. No sooner did his feet hit the ground than rounds of bullets began striking the large boulder missing his body by only inches. He dove on the ground and crawled across the dirt to a bend on the road. Squeezing between ridges along the high road walls, he hid from the shooter.

  “Over here, Dallas. This way,” Javi trotted past him and started climbing the rock wall.

  Struggling to find safe footing among the calcareous rock Dallas followed Javi up a cliff then after walking across the top of the cliff, they continued to climb using parapets formed along the mountain. They climbed until their forearms would almost burst making their way into a cave in the mountain where they would be undetected. The cave was only a few feet deep but was large enough in diameter to house the two while they rested.

  “Looks like someone’s been here before, there’s remnants of a fire.” Javi kicked the charcoal on the ground.

  “Yeah well, I don’t want to be here long enough to find out.” Dallas peered out the ledge assessing their surroundings.

  “We don’t have a choice, it’s about to get very dark…very soon.”

  “Shit,” Dallas struggled with his phone.

  Javi, with a torrent of blood still pumping into his forearms he placed both hands on his hips. “You’ve had your phone all this time, Dude?”

  “It’s smashed bro. I can’t get it to work. Don’t you think I would have told if it was working?”

  “Give it here, let me see it.”

  Dallas handed the phone and placed both hands on his head sighing, “This really sucks, bro. We’re gonna have to build a fire. I’ll go find us something to eat.”

  “Here use this,” Javi bent down to his ankle, lifted his suit pants and out of his sock pulled out a knife, the only thing left after being checked for weapon
s by Faisal’s men. “You made fun of my little knife and look, your big ass shit got confiscated and what you got now?”

  Dallas chuckled. “Damn bro. I can’t believe it. You’re still carrying that tiny thing. Well…” He took a hold of it. “I guess it’s better than nothing.” He headed out climbing up the shale rock.

  After gathering some dry branches, Javi started a fire and took a seat close to the flames to warm his hands. It quickly turned into a cold and dark night on top of the mountain. Javi sat alone in the cave near the crackling flames, using their projecting light, while carefully taking apart the cell phone.

  Glancing out at the opaque sky, Javi listened to an alerting rustling sound. Emerging from the shadows outside the cave was a skipping happy Dallas, a proud hunter holding his trophy, or half of it.

  “Where have you been?” Javi put the cell phone pieces down and ran over to examine the prize. “Be careful you don’t make a mess with that.”

  “You sound like my mother, bro. Listen, I ain’t makin’ a mess. I skinned it way out there and wrapped it up. I didn’t leave a trail thanks to my handy six thousand dollar jacket here.”

  “You were wearing a six thousand dollar suit?”

  “No, I said jacket, and what are you my mother? I was in character alright?”

  “So what is that thing anyway?”

  “You should’ve seen it bro, I caught that Persian Ibex head on.”

  “You caught a Persian Ibex with my pocket knife?”

  “Hell no bro, I made this bow and arrow with your pocket knife.” Dallas tugged at the bowstring, which he proudly showed was a cotton strand from his shirt.

  They cooked their game over the fire. After eating, Javi concentrated on the circuit board of the cell phone while Dallas worked on whittling wood for extra arrows. “How’s it looking?” Dallas pointed at the cell phone then continued his carving.

  “Not too bad, I think I fixed it.” Then motioning around the cave he said, “Maybe you can use some of these stones for arrowheads.”

  “It don’t matter if I use those stones or not…” in one smooth motion he drew the bowstring to his face, “as long as I aim at the right spot,” then released the carved arrow, “Bam!” jamming its point in a small ridge at the cave wall.

  “Shit, no signal.” Javi walked towards the jammed arrow trying to get a cell phone signal. “One shot, one kill.” He pulled the arrowhead out of the wall and for an instant, he thought about how Dallas who represented his old military family had now become a part of his new family. He gave Dallas the sort of nod that said I’m proud of you in an older brother kind of way.

  Dallas diligently carved a new arrowhead then looked up. “One shot, one kill brother.”

  The phone suddenly rang. Javi answered immediately. “Hello?” A familiar voice came on the line. “No, this isn’t Dallas, Colonel, it’s me, Javi. How…how did you get this number Colonel? Have you been talking to Abby or Jasmine?”

  The Colonel’s voice was low yet direct. “Tell me your grid coordinates, son. No time to explain, we’re coming to get you.”

  “Yes sir.” Javi rushed to his notepad and read the coordinates.

  “That was the Colonel? Did Abby give him my number?”

  “No, the Colonel’s CIA,” Javi gave a thousand yard stare.

  “He told you?”

  “He didn’t have to.”

  “How come he never told us?”

  “We were never on the need to know, Dallas.”

  “Ah come on Javi, we’re his family now…he could’ve said something.”

  “We’re going after Faisal Shahrivar ourselves.” Javi studied his grid coordinates.

  “What did the Colonel say? Are they coming to rescue us?”

  “Yeah, they’re on their way,” Javi walked to the entrance of the cave and looked out into the star filled sky. A visible smoky trail across the sky drifted into a high altitude revealing a meteor shower. Amid the stars, tiny lines of orange and yellow appeared then quickly disappeared as the earth, traveling around its orbit, collected meteors like a car on a long highway collecting bugs on a windshield. Javi turned back into the cave. “You know, the Colonel and I had that guy Faisal in custody. He’s a punk. We can take him…easy. I say we go see this Faisal character and end this once and for all. I say we complete the mission.”

  “Have you looked around bro? You got no weapon, unless you want to count this pocketknife. What…all of a sudden you think you’re Rambo?”

  Ignoring Dallas, Javi opened his notepad. “Look, according to Khan this is where we were supposed to meet.” He pointed to a small sketch of a map. “We’re here. Now if we approach from this angle, we can catch a guard or two here and take their weapon. It’s a no brainer.”

  “A no brainer,” Dallas tossed the bow and arrow aside. “Two of us against a hundred…a hundred and fifty guys with AK’s, RPG’s, grenades…us getting mortared and shelled? Listen Javi, it’s a suicide mission, think about your wife and your little girl man.” Dallas warmed his hands over the fire.

  Javi stiffened and brought a hand over his heart. “You don’t fucking think I got my family right here,” then he placed a firm finger on his forehead, “Right here? It’s all I think about. I want to end this for the last time. And it ain’t gonna end while this guy’s still in business. Can you rest knowing he’s out there threatening you and your family, knowing he can come after any one of them.”

  Dallas ran a hand over his hair then scratched his growing beard. “I don’t know man.” He leaned against the jagged cave wall. “I still think its suicide.”

  “I’ve seen you take on worse situations than this. I can’t believe I’m the one trying to talk you into going.”

  “Things have changed for me, Jav. I want to go home and be with my little girl. I want to see my wife, I don’t want to die.”

  “And you’re not going to. You’re a gifted soldier, the most athletic guy I know, with God on your side, you’re an unstoppable force.”

  “Listen, Javi…” Dallas stood up. “You and I have seen the best of the best get shot and killed in a split second.” He walked towards the opening to the cave. “I say we wait for the rescue team.”

  Javi was silent and clutched the cell phone.

  Dallas looked out at the meteor shower. “The first time I looked up at the sky with my NVG’s, we were way out in the middle of the Afghan desert, I just stood there…staring…there were more stars up there than any black spots.” He looked up at the festive sky. “Some of those meteors…they look like roman candles up there.”

  Javi sighed, “I can see you don’t want to talk about turning this guy’s opium industry into ashes.”

  Dallas turned back, “Alright bro, you win. Let’s do it, let’s burn that heroin pushing opium piece of shit mother fucker once and for all.” He grabbed a carved arrow and blew dust off its tip.

  Javi picked up the cell phone, “Colonel, change of plans.”

  * * * * *

  At dawn, two heads emerged parallel to one another as they scaled the stone walled garden at Faisal Shahrivar’s—resembling a medieval castle—estate. A scent of ginger permeated the cold air. Javi, with a spring pushed away from the wall and ran into the garden. Dallas, straddling the top of the wall drew his bow and arrow to cover his partner. He executed a near perfect shot taking down the tower guard. He quickly turned his precision archery to a courtyard guard and killed him instantly. Dallas jumped off the wall and followed Javi, who was now armed with the dead man’s weapon.

  They made their way into another open courtyard and they trotted past small pool at its center. They caught sight of three armed guards that were pacing back and forth between the high arches of its corridors. Hiding, they leaned against the adobe wall, Dallas grabbed an arrow while Javi double-checked his newly acquired AK and ammo.

  Suddenly a man’s voice called out in Arabic. He had found the dead body. Ten armed men in full Arab dress careened across the courtyard and in one steady mo
tion Dallas drew the bowstring to his cheek and released the arrow striking one of them. He repeated the steady, methodical movement while running towards his victim. He fired his last arrow, grabbed the fallen man’s assault rifle, and opened fire. Like a skilled magician, misdirecting his audience, Dallas gave his partner the opportunity to slip past the guards and enter the adobe building.

  Inside the archaic castle at full tilt across its ivory floors, Javi spotted a carved cedar wood stairwell. He pointed the assault rifle and shot two guards as they made their way down the steps. One of the men triggered a round off his magazine and its ricocheting bullets sent Javi rolling on the ground. Back on his feet, and after taking his loot of ammo from the bleeding guards, he charged up the stairs. Midway, he caught sounds coming from the intense firefight outside the window. He had a bird’s eye view from the half moon window. Assuming the role of his sniper best friend and brother, Javi unloaded his weapon. This gave Dallas enough time to climb the wall and release the iron gates locking the wounded fighters in.

  Taking advantage of their confidence in the efficient reconnaissance of the castle’s construction, Dallas and Javi strategically pinned the group of fighters along the axis connecting the estate to the main entrance.

  Dallas then climbed a schist stone column into a balcony and marched inside through its opulent fabric curtains. As he entered, a gust of wind sent the gossamer veil into a tangle over the canopy of the princely bed. From its arctic emptiness, he caught a chill and searched for a quick exit. A torn crossover strap from his loafer flapped as his heavy foot came down on a cluster of pictures scattered on the floor by the gust. He looked down and picked up a handful, recognizing the protagonist in every one, Maurice Shahrivar in orgies of men. He wanted to marry Abby to get back at his father. He never touched her, hmm, figures…he thought.

  Suddenly like a flash off the corner of his eye, he found himself pointing the barrel at a moving shadow. “I almost shot you Javi.”