Just Once... And Yes, I Mind Pt. 02

Once there, I made sure the team was locked down for the night. I gathered up some items, then headed back out of the hotel. The guards at the front gave me a look. I suddenly understood that they had gone from keeping people out of the hotel, to keeping people in. The one man was big. Like a dump truck given human form. I wasn't sure that he had a neck. And his shoulders seemed as wide as he was tall. In my prime...nope, in my prime, he still would have kicked my ass without much effort. And he had back up. And around 20 years of youthfulness. I wasn't going to get out of here unless I used my head.

I looked around, pretending to be embarrassed, then made a circle of fingers with one hand, and pushed a finger from the other hand in and out of the hole. I then flashed some local currency and the guards understood: I was looking for female companionship, and I needed to do it away from the others. The big guy laughed and clapped me on the shoulder and for one horrifying instant, I worried that he misunderstood that I was propositioning him. He stepped aside and said in horribly broken English "Good time, cowboy!" I grinned at him, and walked through the door as they both laughed loudly, not caring about my "privacy".

A short drive later, and I was where I saw the buzzard from that day. The hyenas had been there all right, but there was still enough of the corpses to see about 20 different bodies, even in the light from my car. I stopped for a second and apologized to the women for what I was about to do to their bodies. Knowing they had underwent worse tribulations in their lives, I still felt badly for desecrating their remains further. I cut a finger from each body, placing them into a separate plastic bag, hoping there would be enough DNA in the bone to identify them. Packing them into the plastic container that I had filled with ice, I had to get the remains out of the country and I needed to do that as soon as possible. Once back at the hotel, I called our handlers and related that I had a sensitive time critical package that needed delivery. Their reply was to be at a particular set of coordinates at 8 AM.

The guards were changing out as Janice and I were leaving and starting laughing and talking amongst themselves. Janice got tense, then, once in the car, asked my what the hell I was doing, going off to buy a hooker for the night. "God, I thought we were actually getting somewhere. It's not like I hadn't made myself available to you. And a prostitute? Have you heard of AIDS? Or muggers? Or warlords? What the fuck, Rick?"

"Give me a second and I'll explain everything...wait. You've made yourself 'available' to me? When did this happen?"

"Don't change the subject. And after what you did last night, that availability has changed for good. I can't...where are we going" noticing for the first time that we weren't on our way to the general's location. In fact, we had left the main road and were traveling down a dirt path to a fairly flat LZ. Most landing zones for helos are about 100 ft sq, but this was a wide, flat area, so the bird that was sent in could drop down anywhere.

I reached into the back seat of the car and removed the plastic container. I had set my alarm for every two hours in the hotel, so that I could refresh the ice to keep the fingers from further degrading. When Janice saw through the clear side, to the contents within, her eyes widened, and she looked to be re-swallowing her breakfast.

"Yesterday, I noticed a buzzard a couple hundred yards from where the soldiers were," my voice rising to surpass the volume of the incoming helo. "It could have been anything, but as reserved and strained as they looked, I had a bad feeling. I am hoping that they can identify the remains through DNA."

"You're thinking Ami's family."

I nodded. Janice stepped into me, wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. Her breath against my cheek, she said into my ear "You thoughtful, wonderful man. And the 'prostitute' was to get past the guards?"

"Guilty as charged."

The helo landed and a figure strode out to meet me. The helmet came off and there she was, big as life and twice as bold. Diedre. "What the hell..."

"Good to see you too, Rick," grinning at me. "And who is this," her eyes sliding to my right.

"Hi, I'm Janice Saito, I'm his interpreter, and I'm quite capable of speaking for myself."

"Feisty. I like her. Look, when I heard you were out here doing your thing, Rick, I asked to be assigned operational overwatch. The entire show is yours, but if you needed something, help, I wanted to make sure it happened, without question. I...owed you that much."

"Thanks, Diedre. And you owe me nothing...but, if you could, I need these sent to a secure lab as soon as possible. I need DNA profiles done on them ASAP. And I'll get one more sample - hair this time - that I want typed for possible matches. Can you do that for me?"

"Yeah, of course, no...what the fu...are those FINGERS?" Diedre peered over the top of the container at me, then broke into a grin. "Welcome back, Sir! Holy shit, collecting trophies off kills...I didn't know you had that in you..." She saw the look in my eyes. "Not trophies. These are victims. Motherfucker. I'm sorry. I didn't think..." Deep breath. Looked back at Janice, then to me, then back to Janice. After the times and places we served together, there were damn few people who knew my mind like Diedre did. Even that mistake she just made; that was me, in another life, in another time. No, I didn't collect trophies, but there were some times when I had to be hard, when my soul had to be buried. I wasn't the monster I made myself out to be to Marcy. But, at times, when I needed to be, I was worse.

"Janice," she said, "take care of him. He's one of the good ones." She put a hand on my shoulder, nodded once, then turned back to the helo. "I'll let you know what we find out by lunch."

"You're going to need to fill me in on that one," Janice confessed, turning back to the car. "Oh, and I'm back to available."

*****************

Diedre's call weeks later confirmed my suspicions, all female. One mother daughter pair. I told her that the sample I next sent in should be compared to those two. On our next visit to the orphanage, while I went to talk to Ami, Janice and Armelle went to Ami's mat and found her brush. Janice had a baggie and pulled some of the hair from the brush, placed it into the bag, and sealed it.

While Janice was doing that, Ami had sat next me, instead of across from me, as she usually did on our almost daily visits. We had been talking for months, learning about each other, and it felt like when Rhonda was a young girl, how we could talk for hours. Oh, when she became a teenager, those talks dried right up, but up to that point, yeah, we could and would talk. That was one of the hardest parts of my time in Korea. One solid year where Rhonda and I couldn't talk to each other. Letters were good, but there is nothing to compare to hearing the inflection in another's voice, watching their body language, and seeing a large part of the conversation as well as hearing it.

It hit me, like waking up from a dead sleep. I was bonding with Ami, the same way I had bonded with Rhonda. This sweet, intelligent, BRAVE little girl was working her way into my heart. My breath caught for a second, I felt my eyes get a little misty, and then there were two little arms wrapping themselves around my bicep. Ami leaned into me, her head resting on my upper arm. I looked down at her, she looked up at me, and I was done. Nothing bad was going to happen to this child, my little girl, if I had anything to say about it. Ami got up, came around and sat on my lap, and started crying, quietly. Not distressed, just letting everything out that had been inside her for so long. I wrapped my arms around her and whispered "I got you, I'm here, just let go, sweetheart."

Her crying slowed down, and then her breathing evened, and I realized she had fallen asleep. I slowly rocked her, repeating my whisper to her, until Janice returned. She looked at us, quickly understanding what had happened, and sat next to me, in Ami's spot. She put her arm around my waist, her head on my shoulder. "What are we going to do, Rick? She's all alone."

"She has us. She's not alone."

"What happens when our assignment is over? What then?"

I shrugged. "I'll figure that out when the time comes."

**********

The time came, as it were, about 3 hours later. We were all settled in our rooms for the night when the bedside phone rang. Knowing that landlines could be compromised, and cell towers were spotty at best, official communications were routed through our satellite phones. But command had set it up that if an emergency arose, the hotel landlines were quickest.

I picked up the handset, put it to my ear. "Go."

"Chatter," the voice on the other end said. Chatter was our code that communications had been intercepted about a possible attack.

"Target?"

"Mouth and Boss". Mouth was Janice and I was, of course, Boss. I doubted Janice would appreciate her handle, but it was due to her interpretation duties, not on the size of her mouth.

"Time?"

"Two hours."

"Say again?"

"Two hours." That made no sense. Why would they, whoever they were, be so transparent about an attack that wasn't going to happen for another two hours? I called the team to my room and explained the situation. We obviously weren't going to wait two hours for them to attack us, so I had Charlie, our satellite phone operator, call for an evac at the same LZ they used before. I knew a couple of different ways to get there, so even if the attackers were aware of our plans, I could figure out ways around possible blockades. Still, two hours. Made no damn sense.

I told everyone that we were leaving, and to only bring essential items. Nothing that could bog us down or tip someone off that we were aware and bolting. We would preferably leave with just the clothes on our backs, and that was our way out. The guards knew to keep us in, but not to let on something was happening. I had everyone change for a night out, giving everyone a chance to rummage through their rooms and gather what needed to go. Everything else was being left behind. Nothing classified; I had the shredder working hard. Luckily, I was always proactive and only had those items absolutely necessary intact. Within 30 minutes, we were walking to the front door of the hotel, through the wide open, empty lobby. It felt like everyone was hiding, as though in the final gunfight scene in an old western. A tumbleweed blowing through the lobby wouldn't have surprised me.

The guards got up as we approached the exit and looked to stop us. I looked at them, made the same finger in the hole hand sign I did last time. The guard glanced over at Janice. Damn, he wasn't buying it. Janice said something to him, his eyes got wide as dinner plates, and then all the guards started roaring, stepping aside to let us leave. "What did you say to him?"

"I told him that I like to watch," she smiled.

"We're gonna have a talk after this," I said grinning at her.

Everyone piled into our cars and started out. Charlie got on his phone, which luckily we were able to hide from view by having him in the center of our group, and confirmed the helos were 10 minutes out. Plenty of time.

"Why two hours," I mused out loud. "Such a long lead in, it makes no sense."

"Boss," Greg, our finance wizard, said, "what about that kid you two are always talking to?"

"What kid," Janice said. She knew he was talking about Ami, but we never advertised our relationship with her. How would he have known?

"I overheard the desk clerk talking to the guard. I know enough French that I understood that you had une fille here, a daughter. I knew you didn't but that's what they called her."

Fuck. The car fishtailed as I slammed on the brakes. "They're going after Ami first, THEN us. They're going to use her as leverage."

"Why would they do that," Charlie asked.

Greg had that answer. "This deal means hundreds of millions of dollars. I don't know what all is going on, but if they were worried about losing out...I've seen the contracts. The arms, the cash, the equipment; this agreement meant their entire defense budget would essentially be picked up by Uncle Sam."

There were 3 helos on the ground. I found Diedre walking over. "Get the team onto the other two choppers and out of here. You and I are making a special trip."

"The hell you are," Janice yelled. "I'm going with you, she's as much my little girl as she is yours."

"Both of you, get in, we need to leave," Diedre shouted back. I glared at Janice, not angry at her, but scared of her getting in harm's way. The other two copters lifted off, Janice and I strapped in and put on our helmets. I saw Diedre key her mike, before Janice got her helmet connected. "Don't worry, Rick, I won't let anything happen to her."

The ride to the orphanage was short, but it felt like days. As we approached, there were two cars driving in the same direction, lights off. Diedre commanded the ship to drop down on the other side of the orphanage, and kicked Janice and I out, telling us to get Ami and meet us back in the same spot in 5 minutes. Janice remembered how to get to the room, and quickly explained to a bewildered Armelle what was going on. She told her that Ami's life was in danger and we needed to get her out of there. Janice then scooped the child up, I grabbed her small bag of belongings she had gathered since her arrival (most of which came from me and Janice) and we ran out the door, our footsteps drowned out by the muffled sounds of gunfire. The helo returned shortly and the three of us got on board. As we left the area, I saw the two vehicles, burning. Diedre grinned and shrugged. "There was an Apache providing support. They supported."

As it turns out, we didn't even fly back to Liberia. The powers that be thought is safest to go to Douala, where a Navy boat would take us out to a nearby hospital ship. We would all stay on board while the ship sailed to Rota, Spain, where we would be flown back to the US. I left Diedre with the hair sample, and asked her to get it processed as soon as possible. Janice strolled over, took Diedre's hands in hers and kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you for everything," she said, and walked toward the boat.

"Don't let her get away," Diedre said, heading back to the helo. "Either of them."

***********

The trip to Spain took just over 3 weeks. The hospital ship was running fairly light. We three were given one of the officer's wardrooms, with me on the top bunk, and Janice on the bottom. We created a third "bunk" for Ami by putting multiple mattresses on the deck. The ship was large, so there was little to no rolling, but to be on the safe side, we secured the mattress stack to the deck with the help of a couple hastily welding tiedowns and cargo straps. The crew gave Ami an extra large t-shirt to sleep in and one of the crew, a Chief Boatswain's Mate, actually pieced together a US Navy coverall in her size from some of the ones in the ship's store. He originally was going to make her a set of the Navy Blueberry uniforms but we explained what she had been through and how she might still be traumatized by it.

There was a psychologist onboard - I wasn't sure if he was there by chance or by order, but he told Janice and me that he would be available if we would like him to work with Ami. Janice and I talked about it that night after dinner, which we ate on the mess decks with the rest of the crew. We were able to do so because, bless her heart, Ami was getting to know the crew of the ship and had sat down next to one of them, an Electrician's Mate, who was explaining how the emergency lanterns came on if the power went out.

"I don't want her to get comfortable with the doctor, only to have to leave him behind when we go stateside" Janice said, watching Ami point out the lights to the EM, who then pointed out the ones she missed.

"Why don't we see what the doc thinks, whether in his professional opinion she would be better off waiting a couple of weeks or getting started now, when she gets stateside?" Before I could hear Janice's reply, Ami came back to the table, bubbling over with information. She REALLY liked the overalls that the engineers wore; I was looking forward to her getting her own set tomorrow.

So, there we were, the three of us, in the doctor's office, which I'm sure was also used as a broom closet and held a spare nuclear reactor. It seemed every area of the ship held double or triple duty. "Well," Doctor Smith said (why yes, I did say "the pain, the pain" to him, which got a grin from him and a confused look from Janice - did I mention she was younger than me), "what do you think, Ami? Would you like to sit every now and again and talk with me?" Ami shrugged, shyly. She was smart enough to understand that this would not be fun but would be helpful. Janice and I had this discussion with her a few days after coming aboard when it was time for her to get her childhood shots. She had missed out on them her first 6 years, so she needed to get caught up. She never cried out loud, but tears did come to her eyes before the second shot and Janice was about to break my hand squeezing it.

Doctor Smith looked at Janice and I and asked, "Where's home for you two? If it isn't near me, I'm sure that I can find someone who specializes in PTSD treatments. No one as good as I am, of course" a slight grin on his face.

Damn, I had no good answer for him. Janice was looking at me, Ami was looking at me, and I couldn't come up with an answer. "I've been...transient recently."

"Care to explain that," he queried, looking over the top of his glasses. I had the feeling that was a learned trait, not something that happened due to his eyesight. He was younger than I was, by maybe 10 years. Fit, probably 5 foot 10, passes his fitness test without even breathing hard. Just wait, I thought, when you get to my age, you'll WISH you had the eyesight, blonde hair, and 6 pack you have now. Now I just needed an onion to tie to my belt.

Watching Ami, trying to pick my words carefully, I took a breath. "About 2 years ago, my wife went off with her..." little eyes staring at me "...boyfriend. I got rid of the house, joined SHAPE, and lived out of hotels most of the time. I had a post office box for any snail mail, and stayed at billeting the rest of the time. I went home for my daughter's wedding, almost a year ago" my voice rising, making that a question, that Janice nodded at, "then came straight here for the next assignment."

"With me," Janice added, taking my hand in hers. I looked at her, really looked at her, and realized that I had fallen for her, and, it appeared, she had likewise fallen for me. Doc cleared his throat, causing us to blink.

"And where do you live, Ms. Saito?"

"Wherever he goes...if he wants."

"He does," I grinned.

"Well," Doctor Smith said, closing his notebook, "why don't we pick this up tomorrow, when you two have figured out where it is that you live. Unless you plan on living out of suitcases for the remainder of your lives. Once you've given Ami to a stable family." He walked out on that note, leaving Janice with the most stricken expression.

"What are we doing," Janice asked me later that night. Ami had missed what the doctor had said, so she was her usual self - as long as she was with us, she was content. She had a ways to go for happiness, but I thought that would come in time. Right now, our little girl was laying on her mattress, sound asleep, worn out by her day's excursions through the engineering section of the ship. She had seen every non classified part of the ship during our time on board, and the captain had made her an honorary Ensign, complete with rank insignia and her own dress whites (I owed a certain Chief a steak and lobster dinner for that). The dress whites, while still a uniform, looked so different from what she had seen in Africa that wearing them didn't bother her at all. She stood so proud while Janice and I put her butter bars on her, and then she received her plaque. The ship's photographer took a couple of shots and sent them to us in an email; we'd wait until we got home - wherever that was - to print them out.