Halo Two - Five Ch. 01

I understood others would be listening, General Shithead being one of them.

"Kitten won't last another day. They are willing to take her alive, so I only have tonight as a window. After that the numbers will be too great."

All I got was an acknowledgment from Tony and then told to hold. Something in my head told me it was time to pay the piper. My boss came on next; his tone gave him away long before he got to the point. It seems General Shithead had been busy, and the order was now in my boss's hands.

"I'm sorry Halo; I'm looking at it right now. You are to take any and all measures to keep Kitten alive, and out of reach of any and all insurgents." The pause was my boss's way of giving me a moment to digest what he had said.

"Halo, this order comes from God's brother. Bring her home, Halo."

Just who the fuck was this woman? Why the HELL was she even in a war zone, let alone being a hairs breadth from being front page news tomorrow morning? All I could do was acknowledge the order. In the space of three hours I went from being a sniper on loan, for a milk-run operation that hit the shit so fast it was still raining it all the way down here, to a bodyguard for a woman I had never met.

"Kitten: chances are they will try again in the half-light of dusk. Holster your Sig and your knife, and only use what's left."

"Oh, great! More party-crashers."

I had to admire her bravado, if nothing else. It was also time for me to sort out my own kit. When I went to get her we would be in the middle of a running battle, so I separated what I had, dumped most of it, and had to hand what I would need in a hurry. By now dusk was upon us.

The gunfight that came was swift and brutal; the fact that I was still alive surprised some. When the first assault met deep resistance they played the waiting game once again. By eight-thirty I had broken down my sniper rifle and booby-trapped the kit I couldn't carry, and was already snailing it across the square. By the time I got to the other side of her body wall I could hear her breathing steadily in her sleep, utter exhaustion having overcome her wish to stay awake.

My night scope obscured part of my face, and the rest was covered by green body paint. She jumped out of her skin when I placed my hand over her mouth, thankfully managing to grab her wrist when her knife came into view.

"Now now, Kitten; that's not a nice thing to do to the cavalry."

Her eyes were saucers and she immediately dropped the knife, her hands going around my neck as she gave me a hug.

Between sobs all I got was, "I was beginning to think you weren't real. I mean, I knew you were, but because you were just a voice in my head."

"Well, I'm as real as it gets, so sit back and be quiet."

I pulled my spare water bottle out and handed it to her, telling her to drink in sips. I watched her carefully to make sure she did just that, then pulled something else from my pocket and told her to eat it. She took one bite and, even through night goggles, I could see her face scrunch up. She hated it.

"Fuck, that's so sweet! What is it?"

It took me a moment to get past my smile.

"You ever seen those glass plates on the wall that say 'in case of emergency, break glass?' Well, this is an emergency, so eat it and sip water at the same time."

She had eaten about half the bar before she asked again.

"I have to know what this is so I can avoid it at all cost from now on."

She was funny; I had to give her that. My finger went to her hand and tilted it towards her mouth once again. She got the message and set about eating, while I told her that it was a sugar bar. It was sold to the general public under the name of the town that made it, and called a cake, but the high percentage of sugar that was in it made it ideal for instant energy.

"So it's called a cake, but it's actually a candy bar?"

Other than shrug my shoulders I left the rest to her. The pause in conversation worried me slightly. It sure felt like she would try to get more information from me.

"You're British."

She took another bite from her self-proclaimed candy bar.

"Actually, I'm Australian."

Kitten almost choked on what she had in her mouth, and looked really closely at me when she recovered.

"If you're Australian, then my momma is half Eskimo."

I used the time she took to drink from the water bottle to scan everything through my night scope.

"Okay, I lied. I'm actually from New Zealand."

"Mmmmm, and your nose is growing as well - Pinocchio."

She eventually got the hint that I wasn't giving her anything about myself. She also seemed to look on it as some type of victory that she had finished all of her sugar bar as well. She even emptied my spare water bottle, probably to chase away the taste of sugar. We sat in silence for a few minutes through what seemed to be the calm before the storm. I looked at my watch twice, the double click through my earpiece simply letting me know that all was ready.

"Halo... I ..."

She sure looked like she wanted to be someplace else rather than say what she wanted to; wringing her hands only filled me with dread over what was going through her mind.

"Halo... I need to pee."

Thank goodness she didn't see me smile! I quickly buried the laugh that threatened to escape as well.

"Sorry, Kitten: you're going to have to squat and go there. We're going to be leaving in a minute and I can't have more attention directed at us by you sneaking over your wall and going."

She sighed; she knew I was right. "Okay, close your eyes."

"Will not."

Something about her changed just then. She seemed to think I was handing her a challenge: her jaw set and her hands moved to her belt. I will admit the temptation was there to stare but, even through all this, I had to afford her something in the way of privacy. I adjusted my seating, and my hand went into one of the pouches on my belt and pulled out a silencer, screwing it on as I looked over her wall and checked everything in the square.

The sound of running water came next and I continued to watch everything but what was going on in front of me. Finally she sighed and I could hear her pull up her pants and clip her belt together. She wasn't the only one to breathe a sigh of relief now that she'd finished.

Kitten then moved to sit next to me, making it easier to talk rather than whisper.

"We leave in a few minutes. You're to carry only what you're standing in, and that's it. We need to be as silent as possible until it's too late to be silent, and that's when we run like fuck."

"Bold plan."

"More like as stupid as the one that sent you lot in here in the first place. But at the moment the insurgents are busy looking that way, and we need to keep them looking that way for as long as possible."

"So you're my one and only cavalry?"

"Mmhhmm... Depressing, isn't it?"

Rather than wait for a reply I hit send on my radio, "Control this is Halo Two-Five, we're on the move. Make it rain."

I pulled out a cloth, doused it with water and handed it to her before pulling her goggles down from her helmet and over her eyes. Smoke started hitting the town square, obscuring everything. I grabbed her free hand and we left, the shouting in Arabic starting just seconds later. We got a good distance from the square before we met anyone; although Kitten had her Sig in hand, she let me and my silencer deal with him and his friend.

Another twenty yards and I pushed Kitten into an alley; we had swapped places by the time we got to the other end. My mind's eye still focused on the map of the place in my head, trying to find the route of least resistance and willing to go around what we found. The good thing was that whoever was in charge out there simply couldn't figure out the route we were taking, so his attempts to intercept us fell back on luck alone.

And, like all things about lady luck, she gets bored real easy.

The shouts in Arabic were getting closer. The dump was only two hundred yards away, but over a hundred of that was open ground. I flashed my thumb light in the direction of the dump - three on; pause; two on. Repeat after ten seconds.

"Control, this is Halo Two-Five. Confirm they have seen my signal?"

A shot pinged over my head and I did start to wonder if they thought keeping Kitten alive wasn't worth it anymore.

"Confirmed Halo Two-Five; three by two."

I grabbed Kitten by the shoulder and looked at her, my own face still half obscured by my night goggles.

"OK. This is the part where you show me that you don't run like a girl."

I pointed into the darkness.

"Run - and I mean RUN. Because they will be chasing you, and you don't want that. Make it two hundred yards in that direction and you're going home. Don't make it and I'll put you across my knee. Now get going."

I pushed her and she was two paces out of cover before she glanced back at me. She knew I wasn't coming; I had to keep the mob off her so she could. I watched her run the first fifty before bullets started flying in her direction. That's when I unscrewed the silencer and made lots of noise taking the first two down, thus giving me an AK and spare ammo. I never looked back; I didn't need to. The roar of a helicopter came from the dump within a couple of minutes of Kitten running for it.

An Apache joined in the roar and started laying down covering fire for Kitten and the snatch squad to get the last ten yards. Within minutes the noise from the dump disappeared into the darkness. I spent the next four hours on the roof of the building opposite. It's interesting listening to people argue in Arabic, and the sound of a single shot meant that the leader wasn't too pleased with the person he was arguing with either. Failure came at a heavy cost for one person that night.

When I deemed it safe enough I double clicked my comms. Tony came back instantly.

"Halo Two-Five, this is control. Proceed to second RV; we're waiting."

*******

I had been home for three months. Tessa and Olivia were pleased to see daddy back from his business trip, and Max and Beth, my late wife's parents, were relieved to see I was still alive. I took all of them on holiday with me and we caught up; or, rather, I caught up on the antics of my daughters. For five and four-year-olds they sure knew how to test the boundaries set by their grandparents!

General Shithead wouldn't let my disrespect of him lie either, right up until God's brother had a meeting with the President and politely told him that hell would freeze over before anything would happen. The President understood and made the call. At best, I was on probation; at worst, my boss had to write a letter of apology to the General that he got his secretary to write before he scribbled a signature. Kitten was a "need to know" and I couldn't be bothered to know. It was a classic case of a person being in the wrong place at the wrong time as far as my boss and I were concerned.

It was close to my fourth month at home when I had one of those feelings. I watched more often, and took the usual precautions, but nothing happened. Even a phone call to my boss got me covered in shadows for a week, but they found nothing.

Yet still that nagging feeling came and went on an almost daily basis. In the end I phoned my late wife's folks and asked them if they could take the children for a week. They instantly agreed, but it was clear that they had questions and I just prayed they wouldn't voice them.

I was sitting on a park bench watching families having picnics and playing on the vast expanse of grass when someone sat next to me. She smelt nice - I had to give her that.

"Hello again, Halo."

A red dot appeared on her chest and she noticed instantly; she was meant to. A middle-aged couple ten feet from me stopped smiling and doing the huggy-kissy thing; they got up and walked over, pulling handcuffs from nowhere. They stood her up and cuffed her before taking her away.

I got a phone call that evening from my boss. Boy was he pissed off, and I'm sure glad it wasn't aimed at me. "She wants to see you. She's at the American embassy. It seems mommy got her diplomatic immunity, so we had to drop her there."

"You promised! I made it a prerequisite that one life wouldn't clash with the other, and you promised. I could have had my daughters with me when all this went down!"

He sighed. I think he expected me to rant, but at least I got it off my chest.

"I know, Rick, and I'm sorry, but she's not going away. I've spoken to God's brother and he has agreed a compromise. Neutral territory; she keeps her diplomatic status so we can't toss her arse out of the country the second she sets foot on British soil, but he has asked me to get you to meet her on neutral territory."

"Where?"

"At God's brothers second home... Chequers, tomorrow afternoon."

He knew I was going to refuse because I was thinking about it.

"Rick, it turns out General Shithead is actually Uncle Shithead. Her mother works for State, and daddy owns half of everything. I don't know what you stepped in over there, but please go see her, talk to her and close this down, because I get the feeling that's what she wants - closure."

*******

The place was crawling with our security and a heck of a lot of men in black. It always seems that sunglasses are a must for these folks, even on a cloudy day. My car was searched twice before I was taken inside. She was sitting on a couch, talking to one of the permanent staff. I asked for coffee and she nodded before leaving.

Kitten smiled, but sat watching me without speaking until my coffee arrived and the door was closed once again.

"Like I said the other day: hello, Halo."

Not saying anything was the only option I took. I was still pissed off at her for making both my lives connect together like this. She leant down and picked up her bag, placed it on her lap and opened it. It took a second to find what she wanted and then she pulled it out, smiling all the more.

"Kendal Mint Cake. It really is called a cake, even though it's actually a candy bar."

I still kept tight-lipped while she used the silence to her advantage. Placing the candy bar back in her bag and the bag once again on the floor, she rested her elbows on her thighs before she looked up and spoke again.

"So go on, Pinocchio: tell me again that you're from New Zealand."

My thoughts had calmed down; well, the ones that wanted to do her damage had, and so it was with genuine interest that I asked her personally this time. "Why are you here?"

Her eyes seemed to take on a distant look before they focused once again as she looked directly at me.

"So I can call you a bastard, AND to your face."

Even I would have to admit that the temptation was there to tell her to get in line. Hell, even my late wife had lead that parade. She sipped at her coffee again and then sat back in her chair. I followed her lead but continued to watch her.

Her tale started on that run from the side of the building we had huddled against and into the inky darkness towards the dump. One moment she was running for her life towards the extraction point and the next she was lifted off her feet and surrounded by a Marine snatch squad, bundled into a Blackhawk and taken from the area. As she looked down the Apache was firing along the edge of the exact point that I had pushed her. She was transferred to a medical centre and then onto the first available flight out. She was debriefed at her home base and given extended leave.

Mommy and daddy brought her home and got her a complete check-up. They simmered for a while between wanting to tear her a new one and relief that she was safely home. The only thing they couldn't stop, even with all their money, was the nightmares.

"I told my therapist about my dead body wall, and even about you telling me I would have nightmares about it. We got onto the subject of you, and at first I refused to talk about you."

Again she leant over and picked up her coffee. It was as though she was simply going through the motions, since her thoughts still seemed to be on what she had already said. She even stopped the session short so she could talk to her uncle about what she could and couldn't talk about.

"For weeks I thought you were dead, Halo."

Even when her uncle came to visit and she asked him about the man who saved her life, he refused to talk about me, instead venting about why she was there in the first place. Kitten again forced the topic of me onto her uncle, only this time she was backed up by her mother, who had also sometimes sat with her as she screamed through her nightmares into the darkness.

My boss was right all along - she needed closure. As for me, I was the least equipped to give her something like that. Following another conversation I had with my boss, if she had found me then there had to have been some form of security breach, and we needed to find it so we could seal it.

"How did you find me?"

She smiled, and in my mind I was already forming the officially worded complaint against General Shithead. Something like this would either stall his career or end it in its tracks.

"You told me who you were."

Now that confused the hell out of me, so I asked her to explain.

Within a week of being back home she pulled the uniform she had on during that operation from her bag to clean it. The contents of that day were still in her pockets, even the plastic wrapper the Candy Bar came in. She gave it to mommy and asked if it was possible to have the wrapper checked for prints. It was a longshot at best but, sure enough, two different people's prints were lifted from the wrapper.

It seems her mother used up a great deal of favors looking for the name to which one particular print belonged. A friend in the C.I.A. talked to a friend in M.I.6, who then had a pint in a bar with a friend who works for Special Branch who just happened to have a cousin working at Scotland Yard's data base and ran the print.

Mr. Rick Chalmers. Arrested for assault on the man charged with death by drunk driving of a Mrs. Abigail Chalmers. The case was dismissed when the man refused to press charges, and he himself received a three year jail sentence when he pleaded guilty to his own charge.

At least now I knew who the leak was: me. An act of kindness had got my cover blown right open. I would talk to my boss but, as of now, I was useless to him, and once we had our conversation he would know it as well.

"Are we allowed out of here?"

Her voice broke my train of thought, but I still didn't understand her question.

"I mean, can we go for a walk around the grounds? This is Chequers, Halo: your Prime Minister's country residence. I don't know about you, but I have little or no chance of ever coming back here, so can we at least walk the place?"

It took some persuasion, but after a phone call to whoever made the final decision we were walking the grounds within fifteen minutes, accompanied by two sets of sunglasses and two of the permanent security staff. The flowers were giving their best before autumn came, and once in a while Kitten would stop and smell the blooms before we moved on again.

"You never got around to calling me a bastard."

She giggled, and her hand came out and punched my shoulder.

"I really should, you know, for what you put me through, thinking you were dead."

Her eyes scanned the garden for a few minutes, but it wasn't until she looked at me once again that I realized she had been crying.

"I'm broken, Halo, and I don't know how to fix me. At least I get three hours sleep at night before the nightmares come for me. One doctor called it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and gave me a bunch of pills. Mom said I looked, walked and talked like a zombie for two days before she took me off of them."