After easing Bull down from his horse, and face down onto a ground cover tarp Tony spread, Peace began covering Bull’s wounds with bandages from their first aid kit, coated in disinfectant. Tony followed up with gauze wraps, which he wound around the Chief’s chest and legs, as Bull pushed up far enough for Tony to get the wrap around him.
“What happened to your vest, Chief?” Peace asked, helping Bull up to a sitting position, which Bull carefully eased into, leaning against the outcropping.
“Man, I don’t know,” Bull conceded. “We were dogging them when the tanks opened up… firing everywhere. I felt the blast, and then nothing… till I came to with those assholes dragging me. Peace… you got any more of those pain killers?”
“Yea, but I have to save them for my shoulder,” Peace quipped, as Tony laughed, and Bull pointed at Peace menacingly.
Peace handed the Chief three of his 800mg aspirin, and his canteen. Bull rinsed his mouth out, grimacing from the pain of his teeth, before downing the aspirin and water. He handed the canteen back to Peace shakily.
“Jesus, my teeth hurt worse than my back end,” Bull admitted, rubbing his jaw with both hands tenderly. “Did you… get ‘em all, Peace? You know… the ones who were… dragging me.”
“Yep, they’re with the virgins even as we speak,” Peace confirmed.
Bull nodded with some satisfaction.
“Can you find where the blast hit you?” Peace asked. “If you’re up to it when the dust settles, we need to go find Ibrim.”
“I’m up for it right now,” Bull stated grimly. “I’ll find the spot. We were to the right of the column. We tried to get in front of them, but we ended up cutting in too close. After the blast, we must have been in the path of the edges of their column.”
“How’s your jaw, Chief?” Tony asked, peering at the discolored swelling. “Your face is really swelling up.”
“I don’t think it’s broken,” Bull replied, his words a little garbled, as he tried to speak loudly enough so his friends could hear him over the explosions going on only a couple of football fields away. “That son-of-a-bitch really did for my teeth though.”
“I’ll climb up, and see how things are going, and make sure none of the Iranian army’s running this way,” Peace said, getting to his feet.
“Your sniper rifle’s still up there, Peace,” Tony told him.
“Good, I was hoping I wasn’t going to have to lug it up with me,” Peace replied. “We’ll go get Ibrahim as soon as I see whether the coast is clear.”
“Hey, Wolvy, you think we’re Daddy’s yet?” Bull asked.
Peace grinned at his friend, and sighed. “I don’t know Cap. Last word was Jill could go into labor any day. That was over a month ago. Holly would be close right now. I guess we could be. Thanks for the pick me up.”
Peace turned, moving quickly towards the rocky face of the escarpment. Bull picked up Peace’s MAC 10, Peace had left behind for him. Tony offered Bull an MRE, but the Chief shook his head.
“No thanks, Tone. The aspirin are kicking in, and I don’t want anything to get between them and my achin’ mouth. The pain in my mouth has made me forget the pain in my ass.”
Tony jumped to his feet in a crouch at the sound of Peace’s sniper rifle. The string of spaced shots went on for nearly thirty seconds, and then silence.
“Well, there’s eight dead,” Tony commented. “I better recon the area. I’m not much for surprise guests.”
“I’ll be here,” Bull said. “Don’t get into Wolvy’s line of sight.”
“Roger that,” Tony agreed, heading in the direction they had come.
After nearly a half hour, no sounds of battle could be heard except for occasional small arms fire. Bull heard Peace working his way slowly down the escarpment. Peace came into view minutes later, his breath billowing out in the frosty air of late fall. Bull noted how much Peace resembled one of the Iranians they had worked with since entering the country. His dark, scarred face, irregular beard, and ragged outer clothes enhanced the Seal’s native look.
“All you’d need is a better looking face, Peace, and you could pass for a native.”
“Yea, well you ain’t no bowl of hot soup either, Cap,” Peace retorted with a smile. “Tony go recon?”
“Yea, and I heard a MAC 10 not long ago. I…”
Both Seals attention snapped to their left, weapons at the ready, Bull with Peace’s MAC 10, and Peace with his 45cal. Colt sidearm.
“Hello the camp,” Tony called out. “I bring guests.”
“I hope it’s the pizza I ordered,” Peace joked, watching the direction Tony’s voice came from with curiosity.
Three men approached from left of the escarpment. The man in the middle limped along, his arms over the shoulders of the two men supporting him. Tony smiled as the trio drew near.
“Look who I got.”
“Ibrim!” Bull shouted, grunting in pain as he tried to stand up. He clutched Peace’s arm, as the smaller Seal helped the Chief to his feet.
Bull trudged forward on his own, helping Tony ease the wounded man to the ground. Ibrim smiled crookedly up at Bull with a look of intense relief.
“When Tony… told me… you were alive and well… I… I…”
“He cried like a baby,” Tony interrupted, good naturedly patting Ibrim’s shoulder. “Our disobeying young Iranian here was giving Ibrim a ride in our direction, when a few of our more hostile Iries shot at them. Luckily, they’re no better shots with small arms than they are with their tanks.”
“Yes… it… was just so,” Samud said excitedly, shaking hands with Peace. “Tony… ah… how do you say… ah… sent them all virgin hunting… yes? I thought to be dead as my horse.”
All of the men laughed, as Tony and Peace administered to Ibrim’s wounds. Bull sat down carefully beside Ibrim, grasping the man’s hand tightly in his own. But for a shattered ankle, and a crease along the right side of his skull; which had felled him, and saved his life, the CIA special ops man was in good spirits.
“How the hell did you get clear?” Bull asked in a hushed, and garbled voice.
“The blast got you full in the back,” Ibrahim explained. “I saw you go down just before something hit me in the head. It felt like it took my head off. When I came to, and pulled myself out of the rubble, you were gone. I had to sit around holding my head while they vaporized the tank column. When… Samud found me… I… I was sitting there like a boot camp with my hands over my head.”
“Did I not tell you to find Lieutenant Commander Righter, and stay with him, you insubordinate savage?” Peace asked in Pashto, causing both Samud and Ibrim to laugh.
“The Commander Righter wished to contact all of you without breaking… ah… wire silence. Three of my friends and I volunteered to find your teams,” Samud explained in Pashto, and then finished in English:
“I am Jake, right?”
“Yea, you’re Jake all right,” Peace replied in English with a laugh, and then continued in Pashto. “I assume the Lieutenant Commander wanted to warn us to stay away from the tank column for a while after the first attack on them, right?”
Samud looked almost disappointed. “How is it you know this?”
“When the Air Cav attacks, they always hit real hard, and then wait for a time, letting the target think they can come out. When they do, the second attack hits,” Peace answered.
“That is very effective, I think,” Samud commented sagely. “I am glad I am on your side.”
“I am too, my young friend,” Ibrim added. “Thank you for my life. I will make sure they replace your horse.”
Bull had been listening intently. Over the months since arriving, Peace had been coaching him in the Pashto dialect, along with the rest of Seal Team Six. Bull followed the conversation, and smiled at points, believing he knew the drift of the conversation. He liked the young Iranian a lot. Bull held out his hand to Samud, who shook it with a big smile on his face.
“Thank you for saving my friend’s
life,” Bull said solemnly.
Samud nodded. “I am very pleased to have been of service… Captain America.”
The other three men laughed, with Bull pointing warningly at Peace.
“Samud has been hanging around with you too much, Peace,” Tony added with a grin. “I…”
The sound of helicopter gunships forced the five men into the shadow of the escarpment. Over the next half an hour, they huddled under cover, listening with some satisfaction to the clean up operation. The United States military had learned the hard way in Afghanistan and Iraq the price of benevolent wars, where they left the enemy’s military intact. By the time Peace had scrambled up on top of the escarpment after the departure of the second wave attack, the Iranian tank column had been obliterated. He climbed back down to where his friends waited.
“Put a fork in them, they’re done,” Peace announced.
“A fork?” Samud repeated questioningly. “In who?”
Peace explained the expression to Samud, who nodded agreeably.
“Were we to call Lieutenant Commander Righter after the battle?” Tony asked Samud.
Samud shook his head negatively. He spoke quickly to Peace in Pashto.
“I was to tell the teams I found not to move around until the Commander contacted you. He does not know your men have been injured. There is a small village near here. I will lead you there, so your men can be treated.”
“Is the village safe?” Peace asked.
“There is some danger,” Samud admitted. “I have not been there since before the war. It will be very cold tonight though. Can you not call back one of your helicopters for your wounded friends?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Peace answered in English with a shrug, relating the finer points of the discussion to Bull and Tony, who had followed some of what had been said. “What do you think, Chief?”
“I can make it until we get the call, Peace,” Bull answered. “How about you, Ib?”
“My ankle is the worst,” Ibrim answered. “It feels better since Peace and Tony wrapped it up. I’ll live. Lieutenant Commander Righter will know where we are anyway. I sure feel better about having those location chips implanted now. He can collect us if he gets the okay.”
“Yea,” Bull agreed. “I had my doubts about these damn location chips; but if Peace hadn’t spotted me, there ain’t no way I would have ever been found.”
“After Air Cav finished, we probably wouldn’t have found anything of you anyway, Chief,” Tony commented, “but I know what you mean. Man, I’ve thought of being taken in the middle of this.”
“Do you know anyone we can stay with in this village you’re talking about, Samud?” Peace asked.
Samud hesitated, a small smile flashing across his mouth. “I have a very good friend there. His sister lives with him. Their parents were killed by the secret police. They will take us in for the night. If we leave now, we can be there by dusk.”
“A sister, huh?” Peace kidded the young man, who quickly looked down. “That settles it. If we have your approval, Chief, we’ll go stay with
Samud’s girlfriend.”
“We’re there,” Bull confirmed.
“She is not my…” Samud protested; but then shrugged resignedly as the other men laughed at his sudden discomfort, which confirmed what he was in the process of denying.
“I would like her to be,” Samud admitted with a grin.
“You will need a dowry,” Peace announced, rubbing his bearded chin. “What would be a fitting reimbursement to your friend for the loss of his beautiful sister?”
“I… I…” Samud stuttered comically.
“We’ll take up a collection,” Tony volunteered. “He’ll have it made in the shade.”
“I’ll cover the dowry,” Ibrim stated. “Hell, it’s the least I can do.”
“Samud will need a stake, so he can get a place of his own,” Peace continued. “Ib can handle the dowry, and we’ll take care of the collection to get the happy couple a place of their own.”
“This is very… kind of you,” Samud said hesitantly, “but I do not know even… if Zehra… would consent to become my wife.”
“We will have to go and see,” Peace replied. “Let’s get the Chief and Ib as comfortable as possible in the saddle, and then move out. I will act on Samud’s behalf to secure the beautiful Zehra for his wife after this unpleasantness ends.”
“Great, Wolvy’s a matchmaker too,” Bull said. “Hey, any of you guys have a down pillow I can sit on?”
__
The small band reached the outskirts of the village just after sundown. The village’s paved streets and well-constructed housing seemed in vivid contrast to the smaller villages Seal Team Six had visited in the prior months. The streets were deserted and quiet, due to the sounds of battle the inhabitants must have heard in the distance. Peace and Samud scouted a hundred yards in advance of their party, searching for any sign of ambush or retreating survivors from the just concluded battle. Tony remained with the mounted Bull and Ibrim.
“I will go and see my friend Mohammad,” Samud whispered to Peace in Pashto. “If I do not return within the hour, take your friends and leave the area quickly.”
“That is not how we do things, my young friend,” Peace replied, shaking his head in the negative. “You must be careful, and return safely. If you do not, many here in the village will die. We do not leave our friends behind.”
Samud stayed silent for a moment, and then grinned. “I will have to return then safely.”
“See you soon,” Peace acknowledged.
When Samud was out of sight, Peace jogged back to where the other men were waiting. After he explained what Samud had in mind, Peace and Tony unloaded the M60 machine gun, so that Tony would be ready in case they came under attack. Peace took a silenced automatic out of his pack. Shouldering his MAC 10, he waved to his friends.
“Be right back.”
“What the heck you need with a silencer?” Bull asked puzzled. “If you need to shoot something, make some noise.”
“I will,” Peace replied, looking back, “but I’d rather have this with me in case I don’t want an army chasing me back here.”
Bull nodded with a laugh, which turned quickly into a grimace as the shrapnel remaining in his back, and legs, reminded him not to move anything quickly, especially his neck.
Peace hurried back to where Samud had left him. With his night vision goggles in place, Peace used whatever cover he could find to make his way into the village, following the same route Samud had taken. He picked a spot next to an abandoned shack to wait.
Forty-five minutes later, Peace spotted Samud moving hurriedly in his direction. Allowing the young man to pass by his position, Peace continued waiting, watching Samud’s recent trail. He was just about to follow Samud, when Peace spotted movement along the narrow avenue. Settling in to wait, Peace stayed motionless as three men moved away from the building they had been crouching behind. Carrying AK47’s, the robed men ran diagonally along the avenue, staying hunched over as they noiselessly followed Samud.
Peace hesitated for a moment, happy he had the silenced 9mm with him; but undecided as to whether to face three heavily armed men with it. As the men came abreast of him, Peace decided to gamble. He shot the rearmost man in the head. When the man’s two companions turned to their comrade, Peace fired at them point-blank from the darkness only a few yards away. All three died without any more sound than their weapons and bodies clattering to the ground. Peace fired a round into each man’s head as they lie on the ground, before dragging their bodies to where he had been in ambush. Peace crouched again, watching patiently for others, who may have been trailing Samud. After another ten minutes had passed, he heard a noise from the direction of his friends.
Samud, his own AK47 held at the ready, approached the spot across from where Peace waited. Peace whistled softly, bringing Samud to a halt.
“Too bad you did not move so quietly and carefully on your return,” P
eace called out softly in Pashto, drawing Samud toward the sound of his voice.
Samud drew in a deep breath when he saw the three bodies, and Tony ghosted in soundlessly from where he had been trailing Samud.
“Hey, Peace, you didn’t waste a few civilians just to give your silencer a work out, did you?” Tony joked, looking over the downed men, frisking them for papers or other tell-tale evidence.
“I am sorry, my friend,” Samud said dejectedly. “I was in such a hurry to return with my news, I did not watch my back trail.”
“Just remember the next time,” Peace replied with a smile, “and pray to Allah, giving thanks for his overlooking such a boot-camp error.”
Tony chuckled, having understood the drift of Peace’s dig. Samud nodded solemnly.
“We must leave here quickly, my friends,” Samud told them. “Mohammed told me a force of almost three hundred men are in the town. These three may be members of the force.”
“Where are they at?” Peace asked. “A force of that size is not easy to hide.”
“True,” Samud agreed. “They follow a Shiite cleric, named Ruhollah Khatami, a distant relative to our former Prime Minister. They are quartered in and around the Mosque at the center of town. The townspeople are being forced to feed them. Khatami had been on his way to join in the battle; but withdrew when we ambushed the army. He and his force retreated to the town. Zehra said the men in the group are very angry. They know it was the Americans who ambushed their allies. There are many foreigners among them from Syria, Palestine, and Yemen.” “Did you get a chance to tell the Chief?” Peace asked.
“Yes,” Samud answered, “just before we came to look for you.”
“Let’s go back and see what he wants to do then.”
“His teeth are hurting like hell,” Tony told Peace, as the trio moved carefully toward Bull and Ibrim.
Peace - A Navy SEALS Novel (DeLeo's Action Thriller Singles Book 3) Page 60