“Because of what we bring here.” Shahida leaned forward. “We need you help smuggle in.”
“Smuggle in,” he said. “Onto the airport grounds.”
“And into plane.” She nodded. “Yes. We need you save us.”
“To save your army? Your guys?”
“No, man, haven’t you been listening?” Flowers said. “To save herkids.”
CHAPTER 3
Shahida talked after that.When she was done, he sat for a moment, digesting it all, then said, “Let me see if I get this straight. You’ve had an operation going on for couple of years when you’ve been running around stealing boys.”
“From their pimps,” Flowers pointed out. “From their brokers and, yeah, from their owners. You know Taliban kill some of these kids butnotthe men? Stone them to death, on account of how it’s the kid’s fault for being so irresistible to begin with.”
“There are brokers who go from village to village,” Driver said, “buy the boys and then sell them.”
John shook his head. “How is this even a thing?”
“Islamic law say no man can hold a woman’s hand in public. Even if you’re married, you can’t touch her,” Roni said, and John heard how careful she was to squelch the impatience in her tone. “But there’s nolaw against holding the hand of a pretty boy in public or putting an arm around the kid.”
“Kinda like showing off a prize poodle,” Flowers said.
“It’s also sanctioned by culture and custom, the male-on-male bit. Back in the 90s, popular mujahedeen commanders had entire harems of these boys. People say that’s one of the reasons the Taliban came to power—everyone was fed up with corruption. The problem is…it’s custom.” Driver spread his hands. “Supposed to be principally Pashtun, but you find it throughout the country.”
“There is old saying,” Shahida added. “Women are for making childrens, but boys are for making pleasure.”
“The boys grow out their hair. Put on makeup. They get all dolled up in bells and skirts and then they dance for these pervs at their parties. Except the ‘entertainment,’” Flowers said, inserting air quotes, “doesn’t stop with dancing. A boy can get loaned out for the night to the guy’s buddies and be expected toentertainall comers. And they really, really like the young ones.”
He felt sick just thinking about it. “What happens when the boys get older? When they get to their late teens, early twenties?”
“When they no pretty?” Shahida let go of a humorless exhalation. “Owner say bye-bye. Kick out onto streets.”
“To do what?”
“John, you don’t need to be a shrink for this one,” Roni said, “What do you think happens to an abused kid with nowhere to go? Whose only skill is cross-dressing and dancing?”
She was right; he could see what happened well enough. “Okay, that’s bad, but…take a look, Roni. This whole country is falling apart.”
“And?” She let a beat slip past. “You’ll notice I’m waiting for the punch line.”
“How about, we can’t save everyone? How about we alreadyhavea job that involves a lot of saving of lives in a different way?” When she muttered and looked away, he snapped, “What?”
“Savinglives.” The way she said them, the words sounded almost obscene. “We put on Band-Aids. I draw little doodles on a kid’s bandage and then watch as that same kid and whoever’s decided that she’s the mother or he’s the father… I get to watch our troops march them right back out a couple hours later because either they don’t have the right papers or the adult who’s claiming to be a parent isn’t.This, helping Shahida bring these boys in for evacuation is doing a lot more.”
He couldn’t argue the point. “Why are you helping?” he asked Driver. “How did Shahida even know to come to you?”
Driver opened his mouth, but Shahida said, “This, you see? This is what mens do. You have question about me, you ask me. I right here.”
“Okay, fair enough.” He transferred his gaze to thewoman. “So, I’m listening. How did you know to come to Driver?”
“I no come to him. He come me.”
“How’d he evenknowabout you?”
Something shifted in Shahida’s posture: a tensing of her shoulders, the slight jog of her eyes toward Driver before they ticked back to hold his gaze. “I no go Driver. I go talk Mac.”
That, he thought,is a lie.There was more to this story. She and Driver had some sort of history. Lovers? Somehow, he thought that was unlikely. And what about Driver himself? Way back at DCC, Roni had said Driver was a Marine Raider—and yet here Driver was, with his men who had presumably all been Raiders, working with a guy from the CIA. Aloud, he said, “Tell me about Mac.”