What's next

This all started because I swore something that I never would have the year before.

That's not to say that I wouldn't have made this particular vow; it's just that before a few days ago I didn't know that there was a reason for me to swear to kill a yet to be decided number of people.

I know that might seem horrible. Honestly I have to say that no matter the justification; no matter the type of people involved, it is a rather horrible thing that I am contemplating.

So now i’m in the back of a patrol car he thinks to himself. He could see how his behavior could be considered suspect; especially with what had gone on this past week. He didn’t blame the law enforcement officer; although he didn’t care for the guys’ attitude. He wasn’t under arrest: in fact he was cooperating because he had a tremendous amount of respect for law enforcement; and because he hoped that he might be able to find something, anything that could help him figure this thing out.  Also he was so cooperative because at the end of the day, the officer had a gun; and if things went really wrong, the officer could use that gun to kill him. Hopefully the officer would at least have bad dreams about it; but the end result was still death! 

 All he really wanted was to find the girl. She was in second grade and she had been taken. She was his; though he had been unaware of this fact 2 days earlier and a continent away. He had sworn to her mother; "I can try and sort things out. I can find out who is responsible, he offered. "and then what"? she asked? "and then he said, “if they have harmed the girl... I can kill them all!"

To that end he had gone to the shopping center that housed the private school from where the 7 children had been taken. The center was directly next to the “Lake” from which the small city derived its’ name. There were actually 2 man-made lakes in the city; this being designated as Lake #1, it was the oldest in the city and had many houses and businesses around it’s shores. He had grown up here and for most of his life, the city had been named after the Marine Base near which it existed. Funny thing: there had been a vote in the city to change its’ name from the old to the new one. He had been away in the Army when that vote occurred; but he would have definitely voted to keep the old Bull themed city name. 

He had spent half the day stationing himself at varying points around the complex which included the school, several restaurants, a drug store, and a large chain grocery store. He spent almost an hour at each location simply observing the center and his surroundings. He watched and listened: looking for patterns or anything that stood out to him as unusual. He didn’t talk to anyone; even though he “noticed” things. Things like foot and vehicle traffic. Things like how many people and vehicles came into the center and where did they go; and how long did they stay. For as long as he could remember he had been good at puzzles and figuring things out. It was like an internal competition for him; and he didn’t like to lose, so he would focus on whatever it was before him. This usually helped him overcome whatever obstacle was in his way. It had also served him well once he decided to study martial arts. His stubbornness / focus had helped him obtain 4 Black Belts in 4 different forms of Martial arts. 

One of the last things he “noticed” before he was encouraged to join local law enforcement in the back of one of their vehicles, was a bank of shrubs: some form of evergreen, he didn’t know for sure which one…Dammit Jim! I’m a veteran, not a Botanist he thought to himself when he couldn’t identify the greenery. And as he entered the back of the patrol car; 2 things occurred to him. One: that there was a pretty good view of an otherwise isolated part of the private school yard from those shrubs, and Two: that there seemed to be an opening near the base of them that would provide a clear vantage point to that part of the yard. And as a subset of Two; he was pretty sure he saw some blankets through that opening. 

Interrogation rooms are boring he thought. He had been in a few of them over the years; on both sides of the table. It made sense that they were designed that way: after all you didn’t want your suspects to enjoy themselves. He had already been here for several hours: another tried and true tactic to put your subject at unease. They could have at least offered me some coffee or water or juice, those jerks, he was thinking as the door opened and a handsome gentleman entered the room. 

His second thought after: whoa! Nice suit!, was…hey, I know this guy. You know statistically you can link anyone in the U.S. through a chain of 6 people or less. That’s probably how that whole 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon game originated. It turns out that the handsome man and he went to high school together. 

So why is this guy’s file so fucked up? Is what the officer he had dubbed “Deputy Douche”; based on his dealings when picked up by him at the shopping center, had asked. The handsome man informed the Deputy that the “guy’s” file was redacted. But he’s not one of ours. By that I mean he is not a part of the intelligence community: although it looks like several attempts were made to recruit him. The Deputy; who might eventually become a good cop if he could lose his attitude opined….so what’s the big deal, the guy was creeping all over that complex; maybe he’s involved. The handsome man pointed out one page of the guy’s file to the Deputy.  “This page is just awards for service: he has a whole page.” Multiple Army Commendation Medals, Soldiers’ Medal, Distinguished Service Medal, 2 Purple Hearts, Bronze Star, Silver Star, Distinguished Service Cross…the handsome man said -Jesus; this guy’s a goddamned Hero….the Deputy added, that doesn’t mean he can’t be some kind of creeper. The Deputy asked: “what does this K.B.E. at the end of this page mean?” The handsome man offered; “I think it means the creeper is a Knight”. The Deputy said; that’s bullshit! And the handsome man said; “that’s what it says”. The Deputy stated:  “well I want to be in the room when you go at him.” The handsome man gave the Deputy a “look”, but sighed and said, “fine; but it’s my interview.” 

"I know you;" he told the handsome man.  He was then told, "I know. Wait," he said to the handsome man, "you mean you know that I know you or you know that I know that you know?" The Deputy rolled his eyes and made a grunting sound. He looked at the Deputy and said "hey slick! You have to hit the can?" The douche asked him, "What?" He offered this; "it sounds like you might be constipated." The Deputy frowned and the handsome man smiled. The handsome man then offered; "yes, we went to high school together." "As I recall" he said, "I saved you and your pal from taking a beating one time." The handsome man said; "that’s right. There were 3 jocks picking on us and you came over and shut them down." 

He remembered that because it was the one time he got into a “real” fight in high school. He was on the wrestling team throughout high school and had a mostly winning record throughout; but he had only gotten into that one fight.  During high school is when he had earned his second black belt.  The handsome man offered; "they were football players and one of them was twice your size."  "Well" he said, "not quite twice my size; but he was 8 inches taller and 60 or 70 pounds heavier than me." "Yeah; but you put him in the hospital," the handsome man said. "Well to be fair;" he remarked, "it was an accident. I wasn’t trying to do any permanent damage to the meathead; he just fell “badly”. 

"Now," the handsome man said; "I think I know why you’re here, but there’s nothing you can do. In fact if you try to do anything; most likely you’ll be arrested. I assume you saw news about the abduction of the children?" "Yes," he admitted; "and that’s why I came back." 

The handsome man told him, "Well one of the kids is the grandson of a federal judge; so I get to be involved. What were you doing at the shopping center," asked the handsome man? 

He told him…."Shopping."

"I think you were trying to get a feel for the place; and maybe figure out what happened," opined the handsome man. "Well did you?"

" Did I what," he said. "You know what I’m asking," the handsome man said. 

He considered telling him about his observations at the shopping center but he didn’t know the handsome man. Just because he saved him from an ass kicking when he was a skinny, gawky boy; didn’t mean he trusted him. 

It went on for a while in the interrogation room; the handsome man asking questions and never quite getting the answers he wanted. 

It might have gone on for longer still; but the Deputy for some reason asked, “so what’s it like to kill someone Hero?” Now that’s not a question you ask someone; especially someone like a soldier or law enforcement officer who may have had to do just such a thing. As stated before; the Deputy might be a good cop one day, but today was not that day. 

He looked at the Deputy and asked “Really!” He took a deep breath; almost as if to center himself, and stared into space for almost 30 seconds…then he started talking. 

“imagine the heat. So hot that you feel like you are melting. So hot that you seriously wonder if the heat is going to kill you. It doesn’t help that you are wearing almost 35 pounds of gear over and above your primary weapon. And then there is the smell. A combination of sewer stench and burning rubber. The east African nation you are in has been a mess for several years. Warlords and corruption: but to the natives, that is still better than you. You are an outsider, an intruder. They burn stacks of tires when Americans are nearby. This way they know you are coming. If you are lucky, they’re afraid of you. Indifference is actually the best thing because sometimes fear will drive a person or people to desperate measures. Hostility is the thing you don’t want; but so many times you are faced with it based on your “job”. Imagine being at point, in front of your squad. Trying to be quiet; something I am actually pretty good at. Out of the corner of your eye you see the door fling open and a small figure steps partially out of the doorway and opens fire. The AK 47 makes a distinctive sound when fired at you. You move quickly away from the attack and return fire with several quick controlled bursts; just as you were trained to do. You actually see puffs of dust come from the small figure before it falls back through the doorway that it came through. Center of mass; this aint no zombie movie. Headshots with an automatic weapon don’t happen outside of video games. You rush the door to make sure your target is down. You kick away the assault rifle and look down. The boy soldier looks to be about 10 years old. He might be as old as 14; but he’s small because more than likely he had been malnourished for most of his life.   

You look down on him and watch the life drain from his young body. He was a dark young boy; but as his life drains out of him, he takes on a kind of greyish hue. The boy solider mutters something over and over as he dies. 

You tell yourself that you were doing your duty; god and country and all that…and that makes it okay – doesn’t it? 

You tell yourself that it was him or me. That makes it okay – doesn’t it? 

You know that boy was trying to kill you; and then he would have killed as many of your squad mates as he could before one of them finally got him…that makes it okay – doesn’t it? …DOESN’T IT!” 

The last part he nearly screamed at the Deputy. When he did, the Deputy reached for his holstered weapon; his weapon that wasn’t in his holster but out in a little cubicle where every officer left their weapon before they came in to interrogate anyone. 

.   

The boy soldier had kept whispering Hooyo; softly, over and over till he was gone. It struck him strange how universal it was that so many men; even boy soldiers, maybe especially boy soldiers, often say the same thing as they die on the battlefield. The boy was calling for his Mother. He looked the Deputy in the eye and told him; “you don’t speak to me again”. The Deputy was going to say something; but the handsome man said “Get Out!”. The Deputy said Hey!, but the handsome man simply pointed to the door.  And just like that; Deputy Douche was gone. 

The “interview” didn’t last much longer after the Deputy’s ill advised question. The handsome man cringed inside when he heard the question being asked. He knew better than to ask something like that. The handsome man was fortunate in that he had never had to kill someone; even though he had been in more than a few dangerous scenarios and had fired on “bad guys” several times. He imagined that he could almost see the pain in the other man’s eyes when he answered the Deputy’s question. 

The handsome man tried to continue the interview but his questions were evaded or answered with other inane, unconnected questions; most likely designed by the other man to simply annoy the handsome man. He knew that the other man had gone through SERE training either at Ft. Bragg, or maybe Ft. Rucker in Alabama; so even if the handsome man tried to water board him, the other man could probably hold out for quite a while. And at one point; after a question, the other man simply remained silent for 30 minutes, after which he broke his silence with the unusual, and interesting statement that a possum has a 2 pronged penis. Shortly after that revelation; the handsome man dismissed the other. He did remind him before he left, not to get involved; or most likely he would end up in jail.