Easy Day for the Dead (23 page)

The Hummer slowed down and ran off the road.

“Leila?” Alex called.

No answer.

Alex turned to see Leila slumped over the steering wheel. “Leila?!” Alex shouted. He reached out and grabbed her arm, but there was still no response.

The Hummer ran through the front of someone's yard and into a field. They headed on a collision course with trees bordering the edge of the field.

“What's going on?” John asked, continuing to shoot at Major Khan and his men.

“Just keep 'em off our ass!” Alex yelled. The back of Leila's head was gooey wet. He pulled her off the steering wheel and took it, turning the Hummer away from the trees. Then he took her foot off the gas pedal and parked the vehicle so they'd stop rolling. Alex grabbed gauze from his blowout kit and secured it to the back of her bloody head before moving her into the passenger seat. “Leila, stay awake.”

Leila opened her eyes and said something, but her voice was so faint, he couldn't hear it. He put his ear to her lips, and her voice came out in a breathy whisper. “Alex.” When he looked at her eyes again, they were closed.

“Wake up, Leila. We're going home.”

Alex climbed into the driver's seat. He knew that if he didn't get them out of this mess quickly, they'd all die. He stepped on the gas
and wheeled them around in the direction of the road. Major Khan's Range Rover drove off the road and headed straight for the Outcasts. They appeared to be aimed at each other for a head-on collision. Alex took both hands off the wheel, picked up his AKMS, leaned forward, pressed the muzzle against the windshield, and rapidly fired at Lieutenant Saeedi in the driver's seat. Saeedi ducked, so Alex pivoted to Major Khan and unloaded, but he ducked, too. He couldn't see Pistachio in the back, but he fired into the seats anyway. The Hummer and Range Rover passed so closely that their side mirrors broke off. In the rear of the Hummer, John's AKMS sounded possessed as it blasted hell at Major Khan and his men.

Steering the Hummer with one hand and holding his AKMS in the other, Alex tore onto the main road and stomped the gas pedal to the floor. As he sped northwest, wind howled through the holes in the windshield and windows. The wind must have been cold, but Alex didn't feel it. He checked the rearview mirror—Major Khan was still more than a hundred yards behind them. “Leila, you're going to be okay. Just hang in there.”

“Pancho, wake up, buddy,” John said. “Come on, Pancho, wake up!”

Omar's men better be at the rendezvous site, or there'll be hell to pay.
Alex raced into the city of Laboue and slammed on the brakes before turning left toward the Assi River. Soon he was off-road, blazing a trail through the woods. Major Khan couldn't catch Alex, but Alex couldn't lose him, either. Alex wanted to drive faster, but if he wrecked, they'd be in worse shape.
Smooth is fast.
His frustration level threatened to max out, but he couldn't let it. He pushed the Hummer as hard as he dared, dodging in and out of trees until he slid to a halt next to the water's edge. Fortunately, Omar's men stood by ready with rubber boats.

“We need to hurry,” Alex said. “Bad guys coming.” Alex wasn't sure if they understood him, but Omar's men helped unload Leila,
Pancho, Hassan, Dalal, and Youssef from the car and into their rubber boats.

“John, drop smoke,” Alex said.

“Dropped smoke and a Bouncing Betty,” John said. John often carried U.S. military smoke and explosives, but on this mission, he went sterile, carrying Iranian goodies to hide the Outcasts' country of origin.

Good
.

Omar's men and the SEALs pushed off the rubber boats and paddled into the river until a swift current carried them away. Behind them, white smoke expanded up and outward from the ground.

W
ith a blown-out front tire, the Range Rover skidded to a stop in front of a wall of white smoke. One side-view mirror dangled and the other was missing. Most of the front windshield was blown out, and the vehicle looked as if a flock of giant steel-beaked woodpeckers had attacked it. Lieutenant Saeedi's shirt was torn where a bullet had ripped it. Flying glass had cut into the side of Major Khan's face, bloodying it. Pistachio had taken a round in the left shoulder, which he had already bandaged.

The three jumped out of their vehicle and Lieutenant Saeedi sprinted ahead into the smoke. Major Khan and Pistachio followed close behind. They lost sight of Lieutenant Saeedi, but they could hear him. Major Khan heard a dreaded sound:
click
. Lieutenant Saeedi had triggered a booby trap. As Major Khan's adrenaline sped up, time seemed to slow down.
This is the end.
Instead of the boom of an explosion, there was a distinctive delay of a Bouncing Betty.
I still have time.
“Hit the dirt!” He dropped and heard a
whoosh
of air as the body of the mine hopped about three feet high into the air. The resulting explosion was deafening. With his face in the dirt, Major Khan couldn't see the explosion, but he knew its shrapnel would shred everything in a thirty-meter radius from about the waist up. Consistent with its design, everything on the ground was safe.

Major Khan stood and carefully walked out of the smoke. Lieutenant Saeedi was in the water. “What happened to you?” Major Khan asked.

“I slipped and fell in the freezing water! What the hell does it look like?!”

Major Khan had been so focused on getting under the Bouncing Betty's explosion, he hadn't heard the splash. Major Khan gave Lieutenant Saeedi a hand out of the water. “Did you see Alex and his men?”

“No, they got away. That explosion wasn't what I thought it was, was it?” Lieutenant Saeedi asked.

“You're lucky you fell in the water.”

“Where's Pistachio?”

They walked through the smoke toward their vehicle. When they exited the smoke, they spotted Pistachio on the ground. The explosion had left his legs intact, but his upper body from his groin to his face was a bloody, mangled mess. “I can't move my body,” Pistachio said almost unintelligibly.

“Aww, shit,” Lieutenant Saeedi swore.

Part of Pistachio's jaw seemed broken. “Hospital,” he pleaded.

“Hang on, Pistachio,” Lieutenant Saeedi said. “We're going to fix you up and get the bastards who did this to you!”

“Hospital,” Pistachio said weakly.

Major Khan brought his rifle up to his shoulder.

“Aww, no,” Lieutenant Saeedi said. “We have to get him to a hospital.”

Pistachio groaned.

Major Khan pulled the trigger.

“No!” Lieutenant Saeedi cried. Tears ran down his face. “You killed Pistachio!”

“That's what friends are for.” Major Khan walked to the Range Rover.

“You coldhearted bastard! You're just going to walk away from Pistachio?!”

Major Khan stopped and turned around. “You think I'm happy about losing him?”

“Say his name: Pistachio.”

“Get in the car.”

“Say Pistachio!”

“Let it go.”

“You can't say Pistachio's name because you just killed him!”

“There's nothing we can do about it here.”

“There's something we can do about it!”

Major Khan stared hard through Lieutenant Saeedi, waiting for a suggestion.

“We can say something in honor of him,” Lieutenant Saeedi reasoned.

“You do that.” Major Khan returned to the truck, sat inside, and slammed the door.

Lieutenant Saeedi stood alone shivering, wet and bawling like a baby over Pistachio's corpse.

I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country.

—
GEORGE S. PATTON, ARMY GENERAL

I
f Alex and his crew didn't get Pancho and Leila to the operating room on the USS
Kearsarge
soon, they'd both be dead. Alex, John, Hassan, Dalal, and three of Omar's men paddled in a large, civilian, blue and white inflatable raft carrying Pancho, Leila, and Youssef. Omar's men in the boat weren't militia types, but they were experienced white-water rafters. Everyone wore red life jackets except for the SEALs, who already wore gray life vests that they could inflate if needed. John inflated Pancho's life vest—just in case.

The river flowed so swiftly that they didn't need to paddle for forward movement. They paddled only to keep the boat from turning sideways or backward. Rocks poked up out of the water and the paddlers maneuvered the boat around them like they were moving through an obstacle course. Farther downstream, more and more rocks appeared, creating white water and small waves. The raft rode over a ledge that dropped two feet—
no problem
. As they proceeded, the river became deadlier with more white water and larger waves. Alex and the others worked harder to avoid the larger rocks. At the next ledge they dropped five feet at a 45-degree angle and hit the water below hard enough to make Alex worry that they might lose someone over the side.

As the number of rocks increased, it became more difficult to
avoid them, so they ran over them, picking up speed on the downstream side. The water rolled back on itself, creating a white, foaming hole. Alex, John, and Omar's men paddled hard through the white water so they wouldn't get stuck in the hole. Hassan and Dalal worked hard, paddling as fast as they could, but their strokes were short and shallow, having less effect. Alex and the others muscled their way through the water. The Assi River was tougher than he'd anticipated. Now Alex wished they had Pancho's brawn to help them.

The Assi calmed down, and although Alex wanted to catch his breath, they still had to get Pancho and Leila to a surgeon as quickly as possible. Alex and John continued to dig their paddles into the water and pull long strokes. The others followed their example.

After their boat rounded a bend, the river was all white water for as far as Alex could see. Then he saw a drop ahead—it looked like a big one. John stowed his paddle and grabbed hold of Pancho and Leila. Hassan and Dalal held on to John. Omar's two men on the starboard and port sides paddled diligently to keep them straight while the man in the back steered.

Youssef stood up screaming and waving his hands. Alex tried to pull him down so he wouldn't fall out of the boat. Alex didn't want to lose a hostage, and he didn't want to perform a rescue swim in icy water. Hypothermia worried him more than drowning. Youssef broke out of Alex's grip. The ledge appeared up ahead. The other side angled down at 45 degrees—a ten-foot waterfall. Alex grabbed a handful of Youssef's shirt and jerked him down to the deck just as they edged over the top of the waterfall and began to drop. When they hit bottom, the front of the boat folded upward. Still holding Youssef by the shirt with one hand, Alex landed with such force that his other hand lost its grip on the boat, but he clung to the boat with his legs. When the water calmed, Alex was happy that he and Youssef hadn't taken a swim.

They reached their rendezvous point and paddled out of the river's main current and landed onshore. After exiting the boat, Alex
and the others pulled it farther inland, where Cat and Brutus were there to greet them. Brutus's two drivers each sat behind the wheel of an idling vehicle.

“Youssef!” Brutus hugged Youssef and kissed him on the left cheek, right cheek, then left—a common Lebanese greeting between friends and family.

Youssef cried tears of joy.

Brutus kissed Alex: left cheek, right, left.

Alex didn't think he'd be happy to be kissed by a man, but he was. “I'm sorry I can't stay, but we've got a medical emergency.”

Alex needed Cat to translate for him, but she stood staring at Pancho and Leila.

“Cat, I need you to translate for me.”

She remained in a daze.

He put his hand on her shoulder. “Tell Brutus that we have a medical emergency and need to go.”

Cat translated, her voice trembling.

Brutus helped the Outcasts load Pancho and Leila into their van. Alex gave a hurried wave before sitting in the passenger seat. Cat peeled out, then sped along small roads before she reached the main road.

As she barreled along the highway, Alex radioed JSOC and told them about Pancho's and Leila's critical conditions. Alex requested a helo medevac but was told to follow the original extraction plan and that two surgeons on the
Kearsarge
would be standing by with their staff and operating rooms prepped.

Cat raced through Tripoli. Alex noticed a tear in her eye. Even though Pancho and Leila meant more to Alex than most people, his eyes were dry.
Maybe I do need to learn how to love. Maybe I do live in a lonely little dysfunctional world. But in situations where most people would've shit themselves, I kept my cool. I made the impossible become possible. And because of that, Pancho and Leila are going to survive.