them an out. Going in and doing an extraction at the camp would be dangerous. Lives could be lost, but I needed to be true to my word. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t. Surprisingly, my entire unit was with me. Since we didn’t have the backing of the U.S. government, we would need to go in, do the extraction, and get back across the border and into the safe zone without being detected or firing a single shot. It was a smaller camp set up at a hotel, but it was still risky, especially without having the luxury of time to properly plan. We were pretty much going in blind, hoping his wife was still alive.”
“You didn’t even know whether she was alive?” Mackenzie asked.
He slowly shook his head. “No, but I knew I would regret it if we didn’t at least try to go in. The following night, we made our way the few kilometers from our base camp and into Bosnian territory. As we approached the hotel, the screams I heard were chilling. The cries…” He shuddered.
“I wished I couldn’t speak their language. That way, I wouldn’t understand their words, begging for their abuser to stop, saying they’d rather die than have to suffer through any more brutality.”
He buried his head in his hands and tugged at the little hair he had. The room was still as we were on the edge of our proverbial seats to find out how the mission went. Francis slowly raised his head and, with a furrowed brow, met my eyes. “I had seen a lot of things during my time with the Rangers,” he started, his voice strained. “And I have seen a lot of things since. But nothing compares to what I witnessed that evening. It’s stayed with me always, and I have a feeling it will until my dying day.”
He stared into the distance as a lone tear trickled down his cheek. I barely saw any combat during my time in the navy, so I had no idea how I would react to the sights and sounds he was describing, albeit vaguely. I knew enough about the conflict in Bosnia to fill in the blanks, though.
“Viktor went in first and made small talk with the Serbian guard stationed at the front, giving us an opportunity to sneak in. Once inside, we broke into teams of two to search for our target. Harrison and I were pretty lucky, finding her in the first room we swept.”
“Harrison Mills?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Wait a minute,” Mackenzie interjected. “Is that…?” She raised her eyebrows, her father simply nodding in response. “How did I not know that?” She leaned back in her chair as she rubbed her temples.
“Not know what?” I asked, feeling like I was missing something.
“That one of the members of my unit eventually moved in next door to us when he transferred to Counterintelligence.”
“Damian’s father?” I looked at Mackenzie.
“Yes.”
“So, besides you, he’s the only one from your team who’s still alive, although he’s supposedly been missing for years.”
He shook his head. “He’s not missing, but we’ll get to that.”
“Okay,” I agreed, curious as to what the story with Mills was.
“Like I was saying, Harrison and I found Viktor’s wife and did a quick extraction. She was in a room with roughly twenty other women, all of them chained to the wall. They were pleading with us to be set free, to take them with us, but I couldn’t. We weren’t even supposed to be there, and I needed to do everything to minimize the potential backlash of causing what could be viewed as an international incident. I hated what I did, but I simply shook my head without giving them so much as an explanation. Later, when I found out that only about twenty women ever made it out of that camp alive…” He let out a breath. “Well, I don’t have to tell you how much that guilt still eats at me to this day.”
“I can imagine,” I commented.
“We were lucky to have even been able to get in and find our target with no issues. But luck eventually runs out, and I knew ours would, too. As we were approaching the lobby, where Viktor was still distracting the guard, I heard two gunshots come from down the hall, followed by frantic shouting from some guards. I knew I shouldn’t have looked back, that I should have kept going, but I needed to know. I saw two of my guys,