Here it is! Well you know part I of a two part ending. Shout it from the rooftops in your ratty underwear! Thank you, Lone Reader for braving it to the end.
Affaire de Coeur: As per my handy French to English dictionary this means love affair but please keep in mind I don't know enough French to survive an hour in Quebec.
It wasn't until a week after Bina and Jamila that Silas had been able to hitch a ride back to the FOB in a Chinook returning a broken Howitzer to whatever entity at Marez fixed them before the shells started coming out of the wrong end. He had joined the field trip with the pretense of visiting the injured two-fifths of his squad being held for observation at the field hospital but this was hardly the only item he planned to check off his list at the base nor the reason he had wasted four precious hours of his free day waiting for the visiting helicopter to unload its supplies and pick up the unruly cannon to get back again.
First Lieutenant Kai Benally was item number one on the list. He'd certainly visit Pvt. Williams and Pfc. Nassiri at their respective hospital beds and hit the post-exchange for the more exotic luxuries unavailable at the company store –it only seemed to specialize in scrunchies, sports bras and size seven gym socks, but those were minor errands in the grander scheme of things. Mitchell and Del Rio were seated beside him on the helicopter leaving Dumphy alongside Baron in front. The day was dwindling fast when his boots first touched Marez so he was glad to see Baron disappear in the general direction of the administrative maze and Dumphy offer to escort the women to the store.
Silas headed the exact opposite way, towards the curly letters on a nylon banner in the food court. He unfolded a twenty on the Cinnabon counter and ordered the sweetest looking drink on the menu. The clerk sighed, faced with the unexpected intrusion and pushed his body forward to dislodge the chair he'd balanced on the back wall. SSgt. Silas pointed at a tray of trademarked flavored dough and held up two fingers until the correct number of cinnamon buns were dropped into cardboard containers with a thud.
"Coffee," he said dryly before his order was added up.
The clerk poured the hot, stale drink into a Styrofoam cup and slid it to the edge of the counter. Satisfied that no one had spit on his food, at least that he could see, Silas dropped some of his change into the tip jar and turned around balancing a drink and a cinnamon bun in each hand. He had finished almost half of his coffee before walking in the hospital lobby, trying to offset the chill that set in his bones despite the short walk. It was cold now in Mosul, day and night, with no nice sunny intervals in between.
The injured soldier manning the sign-in sheet smiled at the sight of the whipped cream crown on the cup in the staff sergeant's right hand. Silas passed off the drink and watched the man wave him in without the usual interrogation, down the hall to the rare luxury of a private room. He peeked at the name of the chart on the door to makes sure he was in the right place and pushed the door open when it matched what he was expecting to see.
The voice that welcomed him was soft and paused, like Lt. Benally had borrowed lots of sugar and spice from someone down the hall.
"You really know how to treat a girl Staff," Lt. Benally said in way of a greeting, putting her hand out as the smell of cinnamon and cream cheese frosting filled the room.
Silas knew better than to offer to help when Lt. Benally had to climb a stepping stool to get back on the bed, even though the overall effect was reminiscent of a turtle trying to relax on a lounge chair. His good sense wasn't boundless, however and his eyes got stuck. Kai was wearing her hospital gown pushed down about the waist like a skirt. He gazed at the scars on her chest and shoulders where the skin was patterned as if square strips of fish scales had been arranged to cover the unmatched spots. Silas didn't know these were donor sites for the discolored skin grafts that peeked shyly along her lower body as she moved to cover up with an itchy wool blanket. He realized the Lieutenant was following his eyes and that his mother would have swatted the crown of his head if she was alive to witness his indiscretion.
"What's the forecast?" He asked opening a folding chair he placed between her bed and door, to be able to hear anyone walking down the hall and also get in their way if they tried to come in. She reached for a black piece of unidentified metal, not quite the size of a quarter and tossed it in his general direction. Silas caught it in the air.
"I'll need a plastic rib if the screws don't work but I'm hoping for something that'll keep the Homeland Security guys guessing when I go through the metal detectors."
"Going home then?"
"Yup. No more blazing through the ranks for this girl."
"That shouldn't be problem," he said uncapping his coffee, "for someone who was never a soldier to begin with, wouldn't you say?" Lt. Benally closed her eyes. Her reply was dry and straight faced.
"I am not at liberty to confirm or deny your speculations Sergeant." The line of her lips broke into a playful smile. "But I'm very glad you're not an idiot."
"Flattery won't let you off the hook ma'am. I'll still ask you what the fuck this is about when you are through."
"Oh be nice." She squeezed the IV bag hanging beside her bed. "I'm on a 4 milligram an hour morphine drip Sergeant; if you ask me pretty I might just tell you who really killed Kennedy."
"Cut the shit," he said gruffly. "The men and women of my platoon are not numbers on a piece of paper. They risked their lives for whatever the fuck you were trying to get out of Bina thinking they were following legitimate orders. I'm not leaving until I know what mighty and well connected three letter outfit you work for that it can undo the last six months' of this Army's work and flatten a goddamn town to get at one man." The silence that ensued grew heavy as Kai unfurled the cinnamon bun on her lap, ignoring his presence in the room until he began to question what he was doing himself.
"The details do not concern you, not that they'll paint you a very thorough picture anyway. Go home. You shut down a major heroin route and none of your men are dead. The operation was a success. Thank you for the pastry."
"Does Captain Baron…"
"Don't threaten wolves with a stick Sergeant," she interrupted. Silas clicked his tongue against his teeth. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk.
"I'm not an idiot remember? Information is wealth, you said so yourself. I'm just shopping around to see where I can get the most for my money."
"What makes..."
"My turn," he cut her off. He put his empty cup on the floor and rested the palms of his hands on his knees, hoping he really had enough information be able to bargain with it. "The way I see it, you are cleaning house and you want the Army to take the blame."
"That's it! Couldn't sneak it past you! I woke up last week and single handedly decided to infiltrate the ranks of the United States Army as a Lieutenant First Class so I could kill Hassan Ghazi because I don't like the way he's been doing his job. I will be forever in your debt if you promise to be discreet."
"Don't patronize me."
"Don't speak without thinking and I might not be so tempted."
"Then maybe you want to explain how Ghazi makes it ten VIPs who can't finish their terms in three months? I don't think this is just about him but I'm willing to bet Lt. Colonel Lyle will want an explanation; I mean he did stand in front of a roomful of reporters and his commanding officer and pretty much admitted he didn't know where the goddamned prisoner had gone."
Silas held up his finger when she opened her mouth. Kai brushed Cinnabon crumbs off her lap but for the first time, her nonchalance was a clearly calculated act.
"I know you already have a good excuse ready but it'll be a lot easier to swallow if he doesn't suspect that the girl spook made him look like an ass in front of all those TV cameras don't you think?" He continued when she didn't answer. "It'll only cost you one way airfare."
"Are you really so homesick you are willing to piss me off that much?"
"Not me; I love this shithole." Silas grinned, relieved that he'd hammered close enough to the nail to elicit a reaction. "But I have a friend," he added, wondering how to explain Jamila "who needs help getting out of Iraq." Kai nodded.
"Jamila Haddad," she said. Now it was Chris' turn to bite back his surprise. "Although for your health, I hope she's only that friendly with you."
"How'd…"
"The Other Government Agency and me like to keep tags on our assets Sarge and I gotta tell you, the tapes of your little Affaire de Coeur last year made me all warm and tingly."
"Wait you mean Jamila is, she was… the house in Al-Hadith was being watched?" Kai nodded the answer to the last question: yes.
"We picked up the slack where your people left off. Her husband sought out Army intel in 2003. She didn't seek us until later, after Phantom Fury," Kai added. Her voice wavered as she tried to fit her fingers into the cast to be able to scratch. "The horny little toad left her with another one of his wives in Fallujah; at the hospital, the night before the 36th captured it. Hell hath no fury like that woman pissed."
"She's already come to you for help hasn't she?" Silas asked leaning forward. He ran his fingers through the eighth of an inch fuzz in the back of his head and cradled his face on both hands.
"There's only one Get out of Jail card in the box Staff, and she gave it to her brother the moment he blew her husband's brains out. The investigation into Mustafa Al-Shahrani's death wasn't dropped by the work and grace and of the blessed virgin."
"Then she's lucky I don't need mine," Silas whispered. The door opening in slammed his chair in the middle of the backrest. Pvt. Dumphy's voice was clear as it began torrential apologies and began to back away. Williams joined the commotion, thrusting his IV pole on wheels in Dumphy's face. Even in a hospital gown, with his ass quite literally in a sling, the Comptonite managed to look imposing.
"Is there a problem girls?" SSgt. Silas asked halting the entire argument with just a show of his face.
"Just Dim being an idiot again," Maurice replied although he didn't tear his eyes from Frank. "I'm trying to say hi to the L T now that she's not gonna die and all but Dim here can't make up his mind about if he's gonna come or he's gonna go."
Silas threw the door open and waved in his squad, everyone but Pvt. King doing his laundry back at camp, and watched them pile in to gather around the hospital bed. He looked in on the five eager heads around the wan smile of the woman they knew only as their Lieutenant, amazed at how great a show she was putting on. Even her hospital gown was pulled up; covering the scars that had kept Silas mystified a minute earlier. The nurse at the end of the hall held up her right hand.
"Just five more minutes Sergeant. Major Rubin is going to start his rounds soon."
Voila!
Thy Author.
Other Government Agency is the standard military/governmental euphemism for the CIA, used when the CIA's presence is an open secret, but cannot be officially confirmed.