back of a truck as it rattled its way over potholes and rocky dirt roads.
A small commercial airplane had landed at the airstrip in Germany just hours after we were stranded and Savage and I, after negotiating a ride, took off with threats and warnings ringing in our ears for disobeying orders.
We were fucked if we did and fucked if we didn’t. But one thing I could never be accused of was being a traitor to my country. This mission, after all was said and done, was an important one for the protection of my fellow countrymen, and the rest of the peace-loving world. They could sleep in relative safety in their warm cozy beds at night because of people like us risking our lives to make the world better.
In the big scheme of things I could care less how the job was executed—as long as the outcome was what we desired and we still breathed, it was a success.
“You look like shit, man,” Savage said, rolling a cigar between his fingers. He didn’t smoke, but he always had two cigars in his pocket, and it was our tradition to blow circles of smoke into the air to congratulate ourselves on another mission well executed.
I looked down to where dried blood on my pants reminded me of the lives I’d ended a few hours earlier. If there was one thing that freaked me the fuck out, it was the sight of blood, yet it was part of my fucking job to face my fear head on time and time again. It never got easier.
The airplane taking us home was only an hour away, across the border in Pakistan. After they fixed the technical problem, they’d messaged us. The aircraft had landed a short while ago and they were preparing to make the return trip back to the USA.
I rolled the cigar between my fingers without lighting it. I was far from celebrating. There were still thousands of miles between me and Eva, and countless hours of travel across the ocean before I was even in the same country as what she was.
“We’ve got to get back to the plane. If we don’t, our next chance to get out of this hellhole is in five days. I can’t wait that long to get back. Every day that I’m not there finding Eva is another day it gets more difficult to save her.”
I grimaced as the truck drove over a rocky road and we got thrashed about in the back. It smelled of urine and straw and an ungodly stench from our fellow passengers. I’d seen this in movies and always laughed at how cliché it was, never thinking it could actually happen to me—that I’d be stuck on the back of a truck with a handful of stinking scraggly sheep and two cocky roosters tied together by their claws.
For the price I’d paid the driver to take us across the border, I would have wanted a lot more comfort. But since we had no alternatives, this was the best it was going to get for the next hour until we got to Pakistan and the airstrip. That detour had cost me extra, and I hoped I wasn’t going to have to pull a fucking gun to get the man to stick to our agreement.
“You know those fuckers aren’t going to wait for us, don’t you? As soon as they reload and collect their cargo, they’re flying back home without us. We weren’t scheduled to fly back with them, so they don’t have to take us back.”
I let out a long sigh.
“Don’t remind me. I’m not even sure we’ll be able to convince them to take us. This is so fucked up. We’ve done what we were sent to do; I don’t have time for all the fucking red tape involved. It’s doing my fucking head in just thinking about it.”
Savage chuckled out loud. I didn’t have a clue what he had to feel chirpy about. Raising an eyebrow, I gave him an inquiring look. “I’m not crazy, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m just happy to be fucking alive. A few times during the skirmish today I thought it was the end of us. How the hell you managed to actually pull it off, I’m not sure, but I’m never taking anything for granted again.”
It was my turn to laugh. “You’re so right it’s scary.” I put my hand on his shoulder and stared him down for a few moments. “Savage,