SEAL Team Bravo: Black Ops IV (36 page)

The pain was terrible. The lights shone in his eyes, like the questing gaze of a nightmarish demon. He was being tortured. He realized that.

They can forget it! I won’t say anything, not a single word. Fuck ‘em!

“You have to talk to us,” the voice commanded. The voice hidden behind the lights.

“No, not a word.
 
Fuck you!”

The pain, oh God, it’s almost too much to bear. Almost. What have they done to me? It feels like they’re using chemicals. Yeah, that’s what it is. Let them try; I’ll die before I tell them a single thing.

He vaguely remembered the crash, inside Waziristan. Pakistani territory.

So this is a Pakistani torture cell. So much for fucking allies. They shelter a worthless piece of shit like bin Laden, with his misogynistic bunch of religious crazies, but when an American soldier comes in to do something about it, they shoot at him and then torture him. Dear God, it hurts. Bastards!

“You feel bad, do you?”

The voice isn’t unkind, oh no. They try to be sympathetic, pump me full of chemicals, and pile on the charm. Fuck ‘em! Forget it, you bastards.
 

“No! I won’t tell you!”

“Kyle.”

He recognized the voice.

Is it some kind of trick?

He tried opening his eyes, but they’d been glued together. He tried again, and the small effort of lifting his eyelids sent a shaft of pain ripping through his head. He tried yet again, and this time he got them open a fraction. He squinted up at Mariko.

“What…”

“Kyle, it’s okay. We made it back. We’re at Bagram Air Base. This is the hospital.”

“But, how? We’re in Pakistan, I know.”

“No. They sent another helo to pick us up.”

Another helo? How could they do that? There were missile-armed Pakistani fighters, supersonic F-16s?
He winced as he felt a sharp pain in his arm, and then it was all black again.

When he awoke, he could see. They’d done something to his eyes. He could open the lids, and it didn’t hurt quite so much. Mariko Noguchi stood in front of him, wearing a khaki US Marine officer’s working uniform. She looked good, and as she leaned over him, he smelt her, and she smelled good too. He gripped her arm, and she winced at first, but he couldn’t let her go, couldn’t. He stared into her eyes.

“It’s not a trick, we got back?”

“We sure did, yes. Those fighters didn’t get to us, but when the Chinook went down, an AWACS aircraft was watching the action, and they vectored a flight of F/A18s in to help us out. The Pakistanis didn’t like it, and they threatened all sorts of retaliation, but in the end they backed down. The F-16s returned to their base after our pilots threatened to blast them out of the sky. When it was clear, they sent in a replacement Chinook and got everyone home. ”

I’m home. We made it!

“Boswell? What about him?”

“He’s okay. He was badly hurt, but they’ve patched up his wounds, and he’ll make a full recovery. As will you.”

“How did I get hurt? Where?”

He felt a momentary panic and reached down to check his limbs were all intact.

“You were hit on the head, a piece of flying metal. You’ve been in a coma, but they say that now you’ve woken up, you’ll begin to recover pretty fast.”

“A coma? How long?”

She hesitated. “It’s been a while.”

“How long?” He didn’t mean to shout, and he noticed the nurse who was making notes on his chart throw him a sharp look.

“Six weeks.”

Six weeks of my life! Gone, gone for good. No!
He closed his eyes.
In six weeks,
anything could happen, and probably had. Like I could have been discharged from the Seals, from the Navy, even. After all, those cops wanted my ass.
Am I about
to be court martialed?
He realized she was still talking.

“Because you were under so long, your wounds have healed without you experiencing the worst of the pain.”

He looked up at her. “Believe me, I’m experiencing it now.”

“It would have been worse if you were conscious. They’ve had to repair a lot of damage, and with you out of it, your wounds healed naturally.”

He nodded, or tried to. But his head hurt too much.

“How long before I can get out of here?”

“They say another week. If there’re no problems, you can go then. But you’ll need a lot of R&R, at least three months.”

“I can’t take three months off work. That’s impossible.”

She smiled. “Doctor’s orders. You don’t have a choice. Admiral Jacks has been in to visit several times, and he concurred. He said it’s either that, or you’ll be discharged from the Seals. If you’re not fully recovered, you’re no use to him. Besides, there is another reason you’ll need three months R&R.”

“Yeah? What’s that, to defend myself when it comes to my arraignment, for rape and murder?”

Her face creased up in concern. “Of course, you don’t know. It’s been cleared up. They know now it was Whitman who did it all. He tried to blame you and laid a false trail to Lucas Grant as well. But you recall when he boasted about it, in that stairwell inside the residence? I got it on my cellphone. I heard him talking, and when I realized what he was saying, it was a golden opportunity to record what he said so it would clear you afterward. Nazir Masih also swore an affidavit that it was the truth, and you’ve been completely exonerated. It’s finished, Kyle. All over, except for one thing.”

He looked up, suspicious. “What’s that?”

She glanced around the hospital room, but the nurse had gone. “Your R&R. If it’s okay with you, I’ve booked us into a hotel in Hawaii, four weeks of sunshine, sea and surf. And fucking.”

“What!”

She grinned. “You heard.”

“Excuse me!”

She jumped as someone cleared his throat behind her. Rear Admiral Drew Jacks stood in the doorway, watching them.

“Admiral! How long have you been there?”

Her face had gone beetroot red, and she hunched her shoulders and looked away in shame.

“Only just got here,” he said cheerfully. “Didn’t hear a thing. How’s the patient?”

She smiled faintly. “You’re a liar, Admiral Jacks, but a kind one, so I’ll forgive you. He’s doing well.”

“He’d better be.” He looked quizzically at Nolan. “How’s the head, Son? How do you feel?”

“I’ve been better, thank you, Sir.”

“You did a fine job back there, all of you. If that bastard Riyad had made an appearance, it would have fired up the religious lunatics, and we’d have had our work cut out beating them. As it is now, as far as the world is concerned, he never existed.”

“Why do you think he didn’t show himself sooner?” Nolan asked. His head was clearing fast, and there were parts of the operation he still couldn’t fathom.

“Same reason we sent you in there to deal with him, and the same reason we launched Neptune Spear and sent Seal Team Six in to take out his brother. They’re fighting a coward’s war, Chief. They only emerge from their dark holes to attack and kill anyone who disagrees with them. And then they disappear back into the shadows. These people don’t want to stay around and answer awkward questions, like when are their people going to get water, electric power, maybe an education and a job. They attack our Western values, with IEDs and suicide bombers, but give ‘em half a chance, and all they want in life is to come to the States and enjoy some of the benefits of being American. If they came out and stood for election in their own countries, like they do back in the States, they’d lose every time. So they hide in their holes, and they know that when we get wind of them, we’ll go in and deal with them. It’s all a power play, and they’re a bunch of sickos for using their own people’s suffering to achieve their own ends. Like Yasser Arafat, in Palestine. You remember, after he died, they found he had more money than Bill Gates in his Swiss bank account. You go figure.”

“It makes sense, Admiral,” Mariko nodded.

He smiled at her. “Captain Noguchi, it makes a lot of sense. Listen, my Chief Petty Officer won’t be able to take a full three months R&R. We have a war to fight here. But I do agree with your prescription for his recovery, so you get to it.”

She reacted as if he’d thrown a bucket of hot water at her.

“Aw, Jesus, Admiral, you were listening.”

He nodded. “Only the end bit.”

She ran out of the room, and he smiled. “Don’t worry, Chief. I’ll make it right with her. She’s good people.”

“She is all of that, Sir, but I have a partner back in California.”

“That still on? Last I heard, it sounded like the big heave-ho.”

Nolan thought about Carol.

He’s right. There’s nothing left there, but old habits die hard. Like loyalty and trust between two partners. And when I needed her trust, it was notably absent.

“You could be right, yeah. In fact, you are right. It is all over.”

“It looks that way to me, sure. Enjoy your pretty Marine Captain while you can, Chief. She’s a real find, and there’re not many like her around. Life’s too short to pass up a good thing, and she sure is a good thing.”

“I’ll remember that, Sir.”

“You can have a month.”

“A month! But Mariko, Captain Noguchi, she said the doctor had ordered me to take three months before I can return to duty. I have to see my kids as well, and sort a few things out.”

Jacks fixed him with a stare that seemed to drill right through him. “Last I heard; an Admiral trumps a physician. Your guy is a Major, anyway.”

“I guess that’s right. Why the hurry, what’s going down?”

“Your ears only, Chief. It’s Yemen. Our Islamic friends have found a convenient bolthole down there, and it’s become something of a mainstream terrorist hub. I want a small unit to go in and locate their main base of operations, then destroy it. This one’s been on the table for several months. We’ve been looking at putting a crimp in their operations, and our masters are concerned to make sure this one works. You’ll have all the help you need. The Navy will have a Carrier Group offshore, so once you’ve located the target, there’ll be unlimited air and artillery support, and anything else you need.”

“It sounds like a tough call for a single platoon.”

“Yeah, but we can’t send in a larger unit. The second they get wind of impending attack, they’ll run for the hills, like bin Laden at Tora Bora, and you know how long it took to nail his ass. So it’ll be a tight group, well trained, well disciplined, and that means you, my friend. Your success is maybe working against you. The word is that when you need results, you call in Bravo. The Pentagon and the White House, they want these people destroyed, wiped off the face off the earth. So your job is to find them, call it in, and sit back and watch the fun.”

Nolan stared back at Jacks. He made it sound too easy, much too easy. Something didn’t gel.

“What aren’t you telling me, Admiral?”

Jacks looked annoyed and a little embarrassed.

“What do you mean? We’ll spell it all out when you come back.”

“Sir, it stinks. The timescale, I mean. Why not go in now? Why wait for me? There’s something you’re not telling me.”

Jacks thought for a few moments and then sighed. “Okay, you’re right, here it is. They’ll know you’re coming. We sent in Alpha Platoon. They were caught, and their men are due to go on trial in Yemen, in the town of Lawdar in eight weeks time. At the moment, they’re held in a maximum-security prison, and we can’t get to them. When they’re brought for trial, we’ll have a chance to get them out.”

“But, why can’t we do this diplomatically? What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal, Chief, is that Lawdar is currently part of an Islamic Emirate under the control of al Qaeda. This emirate, they call it the Abyan Governorate, is like the Wild West, and they’re literally a law unto themselves in that stinking hellhole. Our guys won’t expect or get any justice when they come up for trial.”