The Independents (4 page)

Bishop didn’t
even try to justify his habits.
“Terri, telling you this
stuff
brings back so much…
I dunno...
H
ell, I might clean it again before I leave.”
Bishop punctuated his reply with a forced grin in an attempt to elevate the mood.

But
Bishop’s tone seemed uncharacteristically
serious to Terri.
“
All right
,
Bishop.
You don’t have to tell me
the rest of the story
if it’s
that
bad.
But now,
I
am
curious as to how this all ties into checklist
s
, timetables and cleaning your rifle multiple times though.”

Bishop started laying out e
quipment on the floor. As he arranged
his l
oad, he
looked
at her and continued.
“
At first, the security team
really
had tried to work with the man.
But i
t quickly bec
a
me
clear
that Mr. Mossback
had little respect for
us
Neanderthals
.
He
stormed
out of the initial security briefing
,
mumbling the word “ridiculous” over and over.
I tried
;
I really did. I even
scheduled a one-on-one meeting with Frank, hoping to use professionalism and diplomacy to work
together
.
We got off to a rocky start that day. Can you believe that little shit looked me
square in the eye and informed
me
that his name was Franklin or Mr. Mossback, a
nd to please address him as so. The relationship
kind of went
downhill from there.
”

Terri
was clearly puzzled by this world in which she had no experience. She interrupted Bishop’s story once more.
“Why didn’t you go to
the Colonel
?”

Bishop’s words were marked by the sound of exasperation.
“
Oh
I did, but he was
no help.
When
I aired my concerns,
he didn’t even glance
up from his paperwork. I believe his exact words were
,
‘
Earn your fucking pay
,
or I will find someone who can
.
’”

A grimace crossed Terri’s face.
“Ouch.”

“Anyway, the whole deal was screwed up from the beginning. We didn’t get the normal amount of lead-time to prepare for a job like that. I never did find out why.
Our cargo plane
landed in Brazil
,
and the two leased helicopters were there waiting on us. The problem was they couldn’t fly at night
,
so there was only time for one trip that first day. This caused another confrontation with Mr. Mossback. He refused to leave his equipment behind
,
and there wasn’t enough room in the birds for my team, our
gear,
and Mr. Mossback’s equipment. In a way, I don’t blame him. He was responsible for some pretty expensive seismic gear
,
and none of us felt comfortable leaving our stuff unattended overnight. I decided to leave two of my guys behind to guard the
equipment
.
I figured
they
c
ould join us on the fi
rst flight the next morning.”

Terri sighed.
“So you went into a dangerous area without your entire team and
had to leave
equipment
behind
? I can see where this is going. I
’m
starting to get the picture
why you keep such detailed lists.”

“Oh, it got worse.
When we arrived, the chopper hovered over the area
where Peg 1 was supposed to be loc
ated.
That spot just wasn’t
going to
work
. The
terrain
looked prone to flooding, already muddy as hell
,
and completely exposed on all four sides. That’s what you get for trusting satellite images
,
I guess.
The mineral rights we had obtained included a region where the jungle rose up into
some
foothills
.
I had the pilot
fly
about a kilometer
toward the nearest
hill
and found a pretty good location
. He
radio
ed
that Peg 1’s coordinates had changed
,
and then we put down at the new spot. That change probably saved
our
lives.”

Terri
replayed her husband’s last statement in her head
,
but it didn’t help
her follow his meaning
.
“
Bishop, what do you mean? I don’t understand.
”

Bishop realized he
had
skipped around a bit a
nd needed to backfill his story.
“T
here were all kinds of shady-
looking characters hanging around the airport. It was part of the reason why we were so uncomfortable leaving any gear behind. I remembered later that one of these hard cases came over and talked to our pilot. I can’t prove it, but I would bet the ranch he bribed the pilot to find out where we were going.”

Bishop suddenly stopped talking
,
and his eyes glazed over. Terri sat still just watching him, waiting for him to continue. He turned away from her again
, and she noticed
that his fists were clenching, the knuckles almost pure white.
After a minute or so, he exhaled and took several deep breaths. The
words came out much faster now.
“As Reaper put it, the whole thing was a ‘fi
rst class rolling cluster fuck.’
We started unpacking equipment and
didn’t have
half of what we needed with us. We had
some
ammo for our mid-ranged rifles an
d almost none for Reaper’s long-
range weapon. The battery was missing from our satellite phone, so we had no way of calling for help. We had tents, but no pegs. It was just r
idiculous. Somehow, the food was
left behind as well, but that really didn’t matter much in the long run.”

Bishop’s voice then bec
ame very soft,
almost a
whisper.
“They hit us at dusk.”

Terri
wanted to ask what he meant, what was he talking about, but decided to
give him time
.

Bishop
composed himself
by
star
ing down at the equipment scattered around the
Bat Cave
’s floor
. He tried to be mater-of-fact, but Terri knew her husband well
enough to realize it was an act.
“The first hour o
r
so, they just probed us. We were hunkered down in
knee-high
grass and had formed a perime
ter in the sh
ape of a triangle. Reaper,
Elvis,
and I were at each
point
with Carlos and Mr. Mossback
in the middle. We had stacked
the equipment cases trying to give those two some cover.
The Colonel
told me l
ater
the
attackers
were
Hezbollah
,
straight out
of
Lebanon
. I know after what they did to us, they had to be some pretty hardcore dudes.”

Terri couldn’t help herself and spouted, “Hezbollah in South America? Are you sure?”

“Oh yes, I
’
m sure. There is a town close by in Brazil called
Foz do Iguaçu. We were briefed that Arabic was more commonly spoken there than Brazilian Portuguese. It seems that our neighbors to the south
encouraged
a lot of immigration during the 1990s
from the Middle East. T
he porous borders
ha
d
allowed an almost unchecked inflow
ever since
.
”
Bishop’s voice trailed off as the memory became intense again.

Terri gently prodded him to finish the tale.
“I’m sorry
I
interrupt
ed you
,
Bishop, please go
on
. What happened that night?”

“They started
making a lot of noise and popping off a few shots at us from the east. Nothing serious, just trying to get us to shoot back so they could tell exactly where we were.
It’s
a technique
called
reconnaissance
by fire.
The south was next
,
and then the west. I guess they finally figured out we weren’t going to fall for it, so they tried to rush us
.
That was a mistake on their part. About
20 of them came out of the tree line simultaneously
. Reaper was the closest
to them
, and when he decided it
wasn’t just
another probe, he opened up. We had night vision and they didn’t, and that’s probably
the other
reason why I
’m
still here today. Reaper tore into them hard. They had to cross about 150 meters of open terrain
,
and he had a big caliber rifle designed for
five
times that distance. He didn’t miss and broke
up
their attack single-
handed
ly.
Elvis and I couldn’t help him much – we had to keep an eye to our front in case they tried to envelop us.”

Bishop held up his hand to let Terri know he needed to
re
focus for a minute. He took a piece of paper and made checkmarks as he placed various pieces of equipment into his backpack.
He doubled
-
checked all of the gear and then sat down
on the floor and looked
away
. When he began again, his voice was a flat monotone.

“The first attempt to rush us was quickly followed by another. Th
e second
one was a little better lead
, and they got
within 50 meters o
r
so of my position. They didn’t come in a skirmish line like the first time. They used some pretty good techniques, but I
somehow managed to
stop
the
advance on my side
.
” Bishop paused
briefly,
as
something seemed to overwhelm him. H
is voice quivered just slightly.
“
After
that
attempt
, t
he sounds of the wounded were
…unsettling.”

Terri could see Bishop was back there now. His eyes were watery and glazed over, almost like he was in a trance. She was
about
to say something when he started speaking again.

“They really wised up after that
and rushed
us from all three sides at once. I knew Reaper was low on ammo
,
and I kind of freaked out when I heard his pistol start shooting. That was either a sign he was out of rifle rounds or the threat was
very
close.
The night vision doesn’t do you much good
when they get close. It all beco
me
s
shadows…ghosts…movement. I don’t know how to describe it really. I’m not sure how t
hey got into the middle of us. I realized they had overrun our position when s
omeone shot at me from
behind
.
”

He paused and looked at Terri with such a matter-of-fact expression, she thought at first he was through with the story.  “Isn’t the human brain amazing sometimes? There were dozens of AK’s, M4’s,
pistols,
and who knows what else all firing at once. Lead was flying everywhere from
all
direction
s
. I could feel the rounds passing over my chest. Dirt and grass spraying and stinging like a swarm of be
es when it hit skin. S
moke
so thick you could barely see, much less breathe. A
nd so many men screaming - oh god
,
Terri - the screams.
My brain should have been completely overloaded, yet
somehow,
I knew someone
had
shot at me from behind.
”