Page 36 of What is Lost

“Thanks.” The eraser was only slightly worn.Excellent.Unbuttoning a side flap of his cargo pants where he kept his water bottle, he fiddled with the bottle before slotting in the pencil and buttoning up. Once done, he tugged the balky slider shut then climbed aboard just as Parviz cranked the engine which coughed, chugged then grumbled to life in a gray exhaust cloud.

As he settled into the front passenger seat, he noticed Parviz fumbling through a box of cassettes. “No radio?”

Ustinov, still at the open door: “Nothing you would like, and not once you leave this valley. I hope you like rock.”

“In English?”

“Russian. Some Tajik.” Ustinov considered. “It is very bad rock. Do buckle up, please.”

“Just don’t crash,” Davila put in. “I got no seat belt back here.”

“Yes, but look on the bright side, Mr. King,” Ustinov said. “With such a vehicle, no one will be tempted to steal it.”

JUMPERS

AUGUST 2021

By late afternoon,there were a lot of pictures and videos of two men, the ones John hadn’t seen in time, who’d lost their grip or let go after the Moose was already several hundred feet above the ground. One videographer had helpfully circled the tiny figures in midair.

Another reporter mentioned the discovery of “human remains” in one of the Moose’s wheel wells once the plane landed in Doha but didn’t go into detail. Add up hundreds of pounds of metal and rubber, factor in the force of all that weight powered by hydraulics against a human body of just about any size, though, and only those lacking in imagination had any doubt about who won that contest.

John and Roni were too busy, initially, tending to the fallout from the stampede to see any of this.To their relief—because the stampede meant they still were low on supplies—most injuries were bruises and scuffs. A few gashes. John saw exactly one bullet wound, a clean through and through in the fleshy part of a man’s thigh. John cleaned out the wound, patched the holes with duct tape, and gave the guy some antibiotics. He felt bad about the guy getting shot, but at least the man hadn’t ended up as a smashed human blood balloon or crushed into the equivalent of strawberry jam.

Their CO took both John and Roni aside at the end of their shift. Word had come from the Marines on duty along the tarmac, who’d seen the whole thing. The CO thought they deserved a commendation. They declined, pointing out it would be bad press for the military if John Q. Public found out the Army brass were doling out rewards for shooting at civilians.

Besides, sir,Roni said,we’re not the story. All these poor people who can’t get out…they’re the story.

The CO only nodded, unconvinced, mumbled something else about war being hell and then left to go do whatever COs with major logistical headaches do. They watched him go and then Roni said she was going for a walk.Don’t take this the wrong way,butI just need to be alone.

Except what other waycouldhe take it? They’d been in this together.Shewas the one who spilled the beans abouthimto Driver.

But what could he say? A jokey reference to Greta Garbo? She’d only roll her eyes. So, he said something likeokay, have a nice walkor whatever.

After she left, he counted to fifteen. He really didn’t want to chance seeing where she was headed. That was, if she was headed anywhere. The problem was, he thought he knew where shemightbe going.

And why did that bother him?Theyweren’t a couple. Even if theyhad been, she ought to be able to talk to whomever she pleased, right? Besides, he wouldn’t make for the best company at the moment anyway. In the end, he decided he didn’t want to know one way or the other.

Stepping into the heat after the relative coolish funk of the med tent was still a smack in the face. His upper lip instantly pearled with sweat. He spied a crowd of civilians a short distance away, behind yellow police tape, like gawkers at a crime scene. There were also many more troops keeping watch. Once burned, twice shy, he supposed. Given the time difference, no one wanted a repeat of this afternoon to be broadcast while Americans sipped that first cup of coffee.

He stepped briskly toward the tarmac. He looked neither right nor left and most certainly didn’t look toward the hangar where Driver and the others had been that afternoon.

The tarmac was clear. All the discarded clothes,shoes, bits of luggage, and mementos strewn about in the chaos were gone. Here, as around the med tent, the troop presence had been beefed up, too.

Pulling himself aboard a waiting van, he grabbed a lone window seat at the very back and dragged off his helmet. The sun was close to the horizon, just grazing the spiky peaks of distant mountains. He paused to watch the sun sink lower and lower until, suddenly, the sky turned a deep, bloody crimson as if the mountain’s teeth had taken a bite out of the sun.

Stop.Shoving on his shades, he slumped and rested his forehead against the window, which was the temperature of warm milk, and quietly sweated, eyes closed, while the driver waited for others to board. As the van filled, the chatter swelled. Most revolved around resupply planes or which team had it worse, everyone trying to outdo one another like a bad Monty Python sketch.

Then, through the scrum, he heard someone—a med tech, he thought—pipe up, “Those guys are on some CIA thing. Marines, if what I heard is right, but not JSOC, so I dunno?—”

“Man, if they told you that,” someone interrupted, “they’d have to kill you afterward.Thoseguys are hardcore Black Ops. No names, no nothing.”

Except Flowers, Meeks, Harris.Driver’s name was real, so he assumed the others must be accurate.Interested now, he remained still, head lolling and eyes closed, the better to eavesdrop.

Another guy: “Maybe they’re only on loan, you know?”

“Or maybe,” said someone else, “cuz this is whatIheard, theywereMarines, only they aren’t now on account of something bad going down on a mis?—”

“How wouldyouknow?” opined a fourth man. “No one talks outloudabout that kind of thing when it comes to Black Ops. Not unless you want to wake up next morning with a knife in your chest?—”

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