Ron Schwartz - The Griffins Heart.txt

by The Griffin's Heart(Lit)

  The old tribesman had joined them. “Colonel, we are out of ammunition also. All that we could continue to do now is to use up the rest of your food and water.”

  “I understand.” Rob knew this was the old man’s way of saying good-bye. “Thank you for everything you’ve done. I only hope that someday we’ll have the chance to meet again.”

  The old man smiled as he placed his hand on Rob’s shoulder and spoke too quietly for the others to hear. “Too many men have given their lives for you to fail now. Their hope for your success will forever be with you. Remember, the situation is never as hopeless as it seems.”

  Rob watched as the old man motioned his men to follow, and they disappeared into the desert. Then he knelt down and placed a dot in the sand. “This is our position. I want to know what I can expect to find in each direction.”

  Wright knelt down beside him and placed his finger in the sand. “To the east is Samarra, from where we just came. There is most certainly a military presence there by now, and they must be aware of our direction. To the west is a military unit of unknown size and strength. Those jeeps came from that direction, and they were most certainly attached to another military unit. Baghdad and a number of military installations are south of us. We have no idea what is north of us other than more desert and prairie...”

  “Wait a minute. Are we talking airbases?”

  “Where?”

  “To the south!”

  “Yes. In fact, the one you landed at is due south.”

  “How far?”

  “Sixty miles or so, but even though it’s just a minor base, a convoy this size could never get close to it.”

  Rob smiled. “I wasn’t thinking of us.” He rubbed his forehead. “Let’s say that you take the convoy north and find a place to hide while I head south and try to steal some supplies. There’s bound to be supplies close to Baghdad. If I happen to come across an airfield, maybe I can get an aircraft or something.”

  Wright was quiet for a minute, considering the idea. “Who would be going with you, and what would you need?”

  “No one would be going with me, and there’s nothing for me to take. You’ve got no ammo or water to spare. Besides, the fewer of us, the less chance of being spotted, the better off I’d be.”

  “I want to object, Colonel, but I have no alternatives to suggest other than why you?”

  “Like I said, I might come across an airfield and be able to steal an aircraft.”

  “Okay, should I have Rock get a canteen and a rifle into the hummer?”

  “No, Captain, I’ve got my nine millimeter pistol, and that’s all I’ll need. The hummer is too big, too easily spotted. Besides, you’re going to need the fuel from those vehicles a lot more than I will.”

  Wright looked confused. “Not even a canteen of water?”

  “There’s none to spare. You’re going to need everything you can get your hands on to survive. You just get this convoy north of here and hide it until I get back. Somewhere along the way, find a place to bury those warheads so they don’t make it back into Iraqi hands.”

  “You’re going hike sixty miles across this desert on one drink of water?”

  “Captain Wright, you’re in command until I return.” He turned to the south to leave.

  Wright grabbed Rob’s arm. “Colonel, how do you expect to find us if you are successful? How are you going to know where we’ve gone?”

  Rob just smiled. “Actually, that’s the easy part. Compared to stealing supplies from some enemy base or stealing an aircraft or some other vehicle to transport it in, finding you will be a cinch.”

  Wright shook his head. He was obviously uncomfortable with the orders.

  “What is it you don’t like, Captain?”

  “I just don’t like it. We head north with two days worth of supplies and wait for two days for you? If something happens to you, we’ll be out of supplies by the time we need to make a run for it.”

  “You don’t have gas to do much else, Captain. Do you have any other suggestions?”

  “I don’t know... No, I guess not.”

  Rob smiled, then gave his final orders to Taylor and Wright. “Wright captured a radio before he joined up with us. It’s in the hummer. If I don’t return, or you’re attacked, use the radio to call for help. I know that it’ll be intercepted by the Iraqis, too, but at that time, it won’t matter anymore. Just make sure to dispose of the nukes first.” He reached out to shake their hands, then walked over to where Marie and the children stood.

  Marie had been listening and couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She marched forward to meet him. “What do you think you’re going to do?! You know I’m not going to let you do this! It’s someone else’s turn to be the hero! You’re not going to leave me and the children here! If we’re going to die, we should die together! You belong here with me! Let someone else go!”

  He took her and held her tightly. “It’s not that simple,” he whispered into her ear. “It has to be me. No one else can fly a plane or helicopter if we can get one.”

  She pushed him back. “You can’t either, Rob! You’re not a pilot, remember! You don’t know that you can even start one! You’re a programmer, Rob! You’re not a soldier, you’re a businessman!” Her eyes pleaded with him. She could tell his mind was made up. She couldn’t get through his stubbornness. She began to cry.

  Rob lifted her chin to gaze into her deep blue eyes. “No, you’re wrong. Today I am a soldier. Today!”

  Her face hardened in anger. “If you’re going, then I am, too!”

  “No, you’re not! You’re going to listen to me, Marie. You already know why you can’t go with me. You have to trust me. You have to believe in me, Marie, as you always have before. I know I can do this. I have to! No one else can. Besides, if I were going to trust our children’s safety to anyone, it would have to be me. Do you understand? Let me go, Marie, and... and just tell the children I love them.”

  “You tell them! And while you’re at it, you can tell them how you’re leaving us out here in the middle of nowhere to die alone!”

  “What do you want? Do you want me to stay so we can all die?”

  “Yes! If we’re going to die, then we should be together. I want to be here, with you, in your arms.”

  “Marie, I don’t have time to argue with you. I know how scared you are about how this will all turn out. I am, too. But if we’re going to live, this may be our only chance! Think about it! Think of all we’ve been through so far, all the narrow escapes. I can’t believe we made it this far only to fail now. We’re going to make it through this one, too. I know that I asked you this before, and I’m going to ask you again. Trust me, Marie, please. It’s all we’ve got left. Maybe our trust is all we ever had anyway, but now I know that it’s all we’ve got.”

  “That’s not good enough for me, Rob! These men are trained to do what you’re planning to try! Let one of them do it this time! It’s their turn! It’s not even our war!”

  “No, Marie, it wasn’t our war, but it is now. They made it that way.” He shook his head then turned and started walking to the edge of the camp.

  “No!” Marie ran after him. She caught up with him at the edge of the camp and began to pound on his chest. “You’re not leaving me, Rob Anderson! You’re not! I just know that if you leave, you’ll never come back me!” She burst into tears and fell against him.

  Rob struggled to hold back the tears. “Marie, I won’t show you disrespect by lying to you. It’s true that I may die. We all may. But if I don’t at least try... If I don’t at least try...” He couldn’t finish the sentence. He hugged her tightly and stroked her hair.

  She clung to him and cried. “I just know you won’t be coming back. I just know it.”

  Tears welled up in his eyes as he whispered into her ear. “I love you, Marie. More than life itself. I treasure your love more than the very air that I breathe...” He pushed her away and held her by the shoulders to look her in the eye. “And I refuse to
stand idly by and watch as you and our children die. I defy death, and I’m going to do this thing for all of you. I’m not going to die. I won’t fail because as long as my love for you does not fail, I will succeed. I’m the only one who can.”

  He pulled her close again and lifted her tearstained face to his. “Please remember this one thing for me. If there comes a time I can no longer be at your side, then know I will always be in your heart.”

  She gripped him tightly and continued to sob while he wiped his eyes. “Promise me you’ll come back to me,” she whispered, kissing his face. “If you promise me, then I know you will!”

  He kissed her gently, then took her face in his hands again. “Each morning, when you arise and the dew is still on the ground, look toward the east. I promise you, my love, I will return to you again. I will come to you in the brightness of the morning sun.”

  She closed her eyes once again as the man she loved hugged and kissed her one last time. She held him tightly, trying to burn into her memory every thought and feeling of that moment. That hug may have to last me a lifetime, she told herself as she released him to follow his heart. He had to do what he felt was right. He had to go his way. She would trust and believe in him, no matter how hard it was.

  “I love you,” she shouted, watching him trot away.

  He turned and smiled one last time, then waved. The sight of this beautiful woman waving to him was an inspiration. He looked away and etched the memory into his brain. He knew that, before the day was over, heat exposure and dehydration would drain him of his strength. He needed all the inspiration he could get. What was it Wright told him, sixty miles on one drink? He would have to pace himself.

  He looked back again and saw the convoy leaving. He was alone in a sea of sand. The best hope the convoy had now was him. He just had to succeed.

  Wright understood exactly what he had to do, and it wasn’t burying the warheads as he had been ordered to do! He was in command now and would follow his better judgment. He would head north and hide the convoy. He wouldn’t wait for two days. He would explode the warheads at their first opportunity, and then, with no fuel or water, it would be every man for himself.

  He caught up with the young Marine who had nuclear weapons training. “Do you think you could rig these warheads to detonate?”

  “Without a doubt, sir.”

  “We’re going to find a place to make camp, and then you can get started. How long will it take you?”

  “I can do it in a day or two.”

  “A day or two? It’ll take you that long?”

  “Yes, sir. I could do it quicker if you didn’t mind me blowin’ us all up! You see, Captain, first I’ll have to make the tools I need to rig it.”

  Wright nodded. “A day will be fine, soldier.”

  The Marine hesitated. “Sir, I thought we were going to bury them.”

  “Think it through, son. Say we bury them, and then we’re all captured. Do you think anybody here would trade the whereabouts of the warheads in exchange for their lives? If we can’t keep them, then we must make sure no one has them!”

  Even after everything they had been through thus far, Wright, like the others, had little confidence in Rob’s success. Therefore, he also planned to send the hummer as far north as possible with a handful of Marines to look search for supplies while the convoy hid. If necessary, he would send out additional teams on foot. Someone had to be successful!

  Salah Ad-Din Desert

  Salah Ad-Din Territory, Iraq

  Rob continued to run through the afternoon and into the night. Heat and fatigue were taking their toll. His feet stung from blisters, his lungs burned like fire, his mouth was a dry as leather, and his lips were cracking. He had trouble concentrating and was beginning to have chills.

  He knew he had to stay focused, so he tried to concentrate on his progress. He multiplied his estimated speed by the time he thought had passed. Twenty miles. At this rate, his journey would take him two days, and by then, he would be so weak that he wouldn’t be able to muster a fight.

  Fatigue was beginning to give way to hopelessness. The loneliness of the night was another enemy to fight. Why don’t you just quit and die, it seemed to taunt. His feet felt as if they were cast in cement. Every muscle in his body begged for rest. Then, almost as if in slow motion, he tripped over a rock and fell to the ground. He laid there, trying to fight off despair. He wanted to cry but knew that he could not give up the body fluids.

  He slowly lifted his face from the sand. His strength was gone. This is impossible, he told himself. With all his effort, he rolled over onto his back and looked up at the stars. The vast ocean of stars staring down at him only echoed his loneliness in the quiet darkness of the night. He felt complete desperation falling upon him. He fought tears as his thoughts turned to Marie. She was counting on him.

  Salah Ad-Din Territory

  Iraq

  Wright had found a good place to hide. The rocky cove in an otherwise flat terrain would adequately hide the convoy from everything but a plane flying directly over them. It was a good place to hide, though he knew it would be the first place he would look if he were the pursuer. He got several of his men working on the warhead detonation. The problem was tools. These warheads required special tools of specific design, and most of the tools they had on their vehicles would have to be reshaped. The job was becoming substantially more complex than he originally thought. He realized now that it would be late the next day at the earliest before they would be ready.

  Marie stood at the edge of the camp and looked out into the night in the direction her husband had gone. The night sky was clear and the stars shone brightly. “Help him find his way,” she prayed aloud into the still night. “Give him the strength to make it. I love you, Rob Anderson, and I do believe in you. Don’t give up! Come back to me. You can do it. I know you can do it. You are not alone, wherever you are.”

  She closed her eyes and listened to the wind. “How far do you think he’s gotten?” Marie asked. The sound of footsteps behind her told her that it was probably Logan.

  He stepped up beside her and looked south. “Somewhere between ten and twenty miles, I imagine.”

  Marie was just barely aware that a hummer was leaving the camp. Wright was sending out his own unit to look for supplies. He felt certain that the way to go was to head north, away from the military buildup that would most certainly be around Baghdad. He put most of the remaining fuel in the hummer and instructed the small unit to search through the night but be back before first light.

  Marie was unconcerned with Wright’s efforts. “Do you think he’ll be back tomorrow?” She didn’t turn to look Logan in the face.

  “Not a chance. It will be several days before he makes contact with anybody.”

  She looked surprised and turned toward Logan. “Can he last that long?”

  Logan opened his mouth to answer but seemed to rethink it before he spoke. “Normally, I would say no. But I think Rob has taught us all to never underestimate his capabilities. To tell you the truth, I really don’t know.”

  “Well, I think he will. He’s going to come back just like he promised.”

  Logan hesitated a moment before changing the subject. “Marie, I need to talk to you.”

  She glared at him, then whirled around to face the desert again. “I have nothing to say to you.”

  He took a deep breath. “I know that you’re probably still mad at...”

  “Don’t you even begin to presume that I will ever forgive or forget what you did. You aren’t even man enough to admit that you were wrong, and I refuse to continue to hash this out with you.”

  “I don’t want you to. I just want to say that I am sorry and that I will never act in such a manner again. Anything I can do to make it up to you, just let me know.”

  She was quiet. His apology was unexpected, but she was still angry. “Leave, then. I don’t want to be around you.”

  He opened his mouth to object but closed it aga
in. He would be compliant if that is what she wanted. He owed it to her. He paused for a moment, then silently turned around and walked away.

  She was surprised that he complied so quickly. She expected much more of an argument. She wanted to tell him that seeing him there helping Rob that morning meant a lot to her, but for now she dare not put her trust in him again. Not until she was sure.

  Salah Ad-Din Desert

  Salah Ad-Din Territory, Iraq

  Rob realized that this urge to feel sorry for himself is as lethal as a bullet in his brain. He wanted to rise, but his arms seemed devoid of strength, and his legs and feet throbbed with pain.

  Suddenly, out of the darkness, he heard something. Marie’s voice! “I love you, Rob Anderson!” Now I’m hallucinating, he thought. He had to get ahold of himself, but now he wondered if he could trust his own judgment.