Page 3 of What is Found

And, he’d added,my wife feel pain in back.

Which worried the heck out of John.

Come on, little guy.The last time he’d done anything like this had been in med school during his OB-GYN rotation. Then, they’d had a specialized stethoscope to make hearing the baby easier. The baby’s dad, translating for the mother, said the baby was almost thirty-five weeks. So, late enough in the pregnancy, barely, if push came to shove, which he sincerely hoped it wouldn’t?—

“Worthy.” This time, the speaker tapped his shoulder. The voice was male and now loud enough for John to catch his CO’s tone.

This time, he answered. “In a second, sir.” He still didn’t turn, even though the dad’s eyes were now wide with concern. The father, a translator whom the Taliban would almost surely execute, knew about command structures.

Everyone, take it easy.Of course, not hearinganythingwasn’t necessarily bad. All depended on the placental placement or the way the baby was lying. John listened so hard his ears rang.Come on, I know you’re?—

A sudden wallop under the bell of his scope that was so hard, John jumped as the baby gave a ferocious kick and then squirmed so violently a rippleran across the mother’s belly from left to right. At the same moment, the baby’s heartbeat came through his earpieces loud and clear:thumpthumpthumpthump. He counted, checked his watch then beamed at the couple and gave a thumb’s up for good measure.

“Sounds good to me.” Unplugging his ears, he held the earpieces out to the parents. “Want to listen?” As the father, all smiles now, helped the mom, he caught the tech’s eye and held up a finger:One more bag.He wanted this mom as tanked up on fluids as possible before sending both parents for processing.

Now the only thing to figure out was whether he could get the parents on a transport.Should check with the Marines who brought her in.Once the mom was stable, maybe he could grab one to help him walk them over to the State Department guys.Can’t let her have a baby here, in this place...He wasn’t sure if he meant the airport or Afghanistan, and it hardly mattered. Still thinking how he could swing this, he turned on his heel.That dad’s got a bull’s-eye on his?—

“Whoa!” His CO, wearing a scowl, brought up both hands. “Not so fast, Captain.”

“Oh!” He blinked, ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry, sir. I forgot you were?—”

“Yeah, yeah.” The colonel waved away whatever else John was going to say. “Have you seen Captain Keller?”

At the mention of her name, his heart did a somersault in his chest. How long had it been since he’d thought about Roni? Well, since surreptitiouslyeye-checking her station several times, though for once he hadn’t minded being up to his elbows in work. The only time he’d snatched for himself had been ten minutes to take care of nature’s call and then hydrate. He’d thought of her then, though, as he uncapped that awful orange drink.

“I honestly haven’t been paying attention, sir,” he said. This was, as they say, close enough to the truth for government work. “Haven’t seen her since this morning.”

“I saw her, sir.” It was the tech returning from stores with an IV bag in hand. “She was with a bunch of guys. I don’t think they were Marines, sir. Hair kind of not regulation, you know. Probably private contractors. I’ve seen them around here and there.”

No.John’s heart withered in his chest, andthatpissed him off. He didn’t care what she did now. He didn’t give two sh?—

“Oh.” The colonel’s eyebrows pulled together in a frown. “Do you know where they were headed?”

He could have stepped in then, volunteered that Driver and his guys hung in a particular hangar. But he kept his mouth shut. Because this only confirmed where Roni’s priorities lay, didn’t it? She’d chosen Driver, unless she was into group sex...

Oh, grow the hell up.Given that the CO was, well, theircommandingofficer, the guy probably had a good reason for wanting Roni. “I’ve seen them, too, sir,” he said. “They usually gather at a hangar, on the flight line.”

“Oh, they weren’t heading that way, sir.” The tech was changing out the pregnant woman’s IV bag. “They were on their way east to the Gate.”

What?John’s eyebrows arched toward his hairline.Why would Roni?—

“Oh,” the colonel said again. “Well, look...if either of you men see her, tell her to come find me. I’m heading to get a briefing on logistics for breaking down our operation day after tomorrow, but there’s something that’s come to my attention...” The colonel looked at his watch. “Worthy, it’s 1650. Aren’t you rotating off? You’re an hour overdue.”

“Had stuff to finish, sir.” Then, against his better judgment, he said, “If you want, I’m heading down to the Gate anyway.” One of the Marines who’d brought the pregnant woman in was a sergeant whom John had seen escorting refugees to the State Department people across base. “If I see her, I’ll tell her to find you. I can go now, if you want. I just needed to clear out as much of the mess from the day as I could.”

“You do that. As for the mess, well, that’s the hell of Afghanistan, isn’t it?” the colonel said as he turned to go. “It’s like Sisyphus. No matter how much you shovel out, there’s always more rolling downhill.”

He resisted the urge to point out that Sisyphus’s problem had been a very big rock, but he held his tongue. Same diff, really.

Because truer words.

CHAPTER 4

Once outside,he walked the alley toward the Abbey Gate. The closer he got to the actual checkpoint, the worse the stink got. To his right, across the sewage canal and through coils of barbed wire, a line of densely packed refugees stood, patiently waiting their turn on one of the canal’s narrow banks. They were the lucky ones. Even more people who were not so lucky stood in the thigh-deep gray water of the sewage canal.

On his side of the canal, a few contract security people stood by themselves, hands in pockets, chatting. About a hundred yards farther, he came on a clutch of Marines standing next to an off-white civilian flatbed. All the civilian vehicles in use had been hot-wired by the Marines first on the ground, seeing as how the Afghan Army had simply melted away and been inconsiderate enough not to leave the keys. (On the other hand, three months earlier, theAmericans had turned out the lights and skedaddled from Bagram in the middle of the night and done exactly the same thing. Turnabout only seemed to be fair play.) A big, drippy, olive-greenBhad been spray-painted on both sides of the vehicle to mark the squad to whom the vehicle now belonged.

He spotted the sergeant who’d brought the pregnant woman to the med tent with a clutch of other, much younger Marines next to the truck. All the soldiers were relaxed, chatting, seemingly on break. Most guzzled from either water bottles or energy drinks. When the sergeant saw him coming, he excused himself, walked over, and asked, “Hello, sir. How’s that mom? Is the baby okay?”

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