Page 17 of Trusting the Team

“Find me if you have time,” Dari headed off for the last few miles of her run. Lowell watched her run off.

“Get your head in the game, man. We got work to do,” Ferret said.

A weeklater Dari still had not seen the team come back. She messaged their Commander. Spent more time going through intel, trying to find anything referencing her guys. Her leadership stressed that her involvement would not be permitted in the matter. Finally ignoring her boss, she worked with a translator and arranged a trip to FOB Maz-e-sharif, which also happened to be nearest the location where the team had gone.

Upon arrival at Maz-e-Sharif she worked with the translator to purchase a donkey and set herself up as a local. Based on what they learned in the local community she hiked for four days to where she thought the team was stashed.

She arrives to the cavern and is met with obvious suspicion. She speaks to them in local language, “I was sent to check on the heroes who brought down the Americans.”

The man looks at his fellow insurgents, “Such an honor a woman comes,” and as Dari turns back from showing the donkey, he backhands her with his left hand. The force of the blow, combined with the days of travel in the Afghanistan winter, takes Dari off her feet and she slams down to the ground. For Lowell, the scene was in slow motion. He watched his captor smack his wife with his “unclean" hand, providing further insult, her small frame lifted off the ground and smack down with a solid thud. He rages, yelling and pulling at his bindings. “He thinks he should protect them,” the man laughs with his men as he spits at Dari, unconscious on the ground. “Go see what she brought us. The weather is settling in.” They all turn, leaving the SEAL Team and Dari alone.

Chaos is the closest to Dari and tries to reach her. He can barely tap her with his boot, does not want to kick her. They wait, hoping she will wake up soon. Trey is on one side of Lowell trying to calm him down. Dari jerks awake, her head pounding. She sits up, wiping her left eyebrow clear, her hand coming back bloody. She reaches under her tombaan and wipes the blood onher parahaan, out of sight. She shakily gets to her feet, signaling them to stay quiet so they do not get unwanted attention. She cuts Chaos free first with a knife she pulls off a thigh sheath. She hands the knife to Chaos who moves to Duke, cutting him free. Dari walks across to the other side of the cave and cuts free Hammer and hands him a knife. As they reach the center of the group, Lowell, Dari finishes handing out a knife to each man. “These are throwing knives,” Trey looks at her.

“So, they fit flat. You're welcome.” Dari shifts a pouch underneath her dress and continues, “Here are energy gels.” Handing those out she looks at the team, “does anyone need combat gauze?” They shake their heads.

“We got to get out of here,” Chaos states.

“Out to the left, third right, straight to sunlight,” Dari gives the route out of the cavern.

Lowell's hands cupped her face as he lifted her chin to look at her, “Are you alright? That was a hard hit.” He raised a forearm and wiped at her eyebrow and face again. She squeezed his wrist, unintentionally pulling away from the pressure of his arm. “I'm not done taking hits for this,” Dari answered cryptically.

“I'll kill him.”

“Not if I see him first,” Dari answered.

“Chaos, Ferret, 10 minutes, get what you can find and meet us out of this fucking cave.” Hammer moved the group.

The team headed out looking to pilfer for needed survival equipment. As they dropped down a quarter mile from the mouth of the cave they had been trapped in for a week, Lowell looked over Dari. He was glad she was dressed appropriately for the weather, but she was clearly exhausted, and she needed stitches. In the morning, her face would swell and color. “Where are we going?” Trey asked.

“I came from Maz-e-Sharif but honestly it’s probably closer to Bagram as far as I walked.”

“What the fuck,” Lowell growled.

“I needed a place I could get out of.” She pulled up her dress again and pulled off socks she had taped on, “Clean socks?” They all knew the importance of keeping their feet healthy and started shucking off their boots to switch socks.

They movedanother seven miles south before building snow dens to get some rest. They worked in teams to keep their footprint smaller and allow for smaller security needs. They did not figure that their absence would go unnoticed or ignored. Before settling down the team gathered for updates. “How?” Duke asked, turning on Dari.

“I sat with analysts, figured out by reporting who and where-ish. You didn't come back.”

“You hopped a flight to a FOB and walked off, dressed like that?” Ferret chimed in.

“I escorted a translator as far as I could,” Dari answered.

“You're AWOL,” it dawned on Lowell. The team looked at Dari as she set her jaw, muttering at the snow in Pashto. “Babe, what the fuck?” Lowell added.

“They weren't doing anything. This worked. There are a hundred places you could be, and I couldn't do this. Instead, we are here. I could. I did.”

After an awkward silence Trey pulled her into a side hug and piped up, “Well, I'm glad you did. I was tired of hearing the boys complain about our camping arrangements.” Everyone laughed. The group went back into survival mode, going back and forth on heat, food, and cataloguing injuries. As the sun finished dropping, the team paired off for the dens. Lowell pulled Dari into his den, nearly on top of him so that Trey could fit as well. The two would trade watch every few hours.

In the morning, the entire team at least felt rested, assessing their remaining energy packs, eating snow, and discussing how to get back into Bagram before they were recaptured; Dari pulled her last ace out. She held a small IR strobe that would let off a GPS signal once activated. Since most of their equipment had been stolen when they were taken, they were hesitant to think someone would be watching for it or would respond to it. In the end, Dari activated it, and they continued their trek toward Bagram. If someone thought to check it out, they would find them, provide a faster pick up then hiking back into the base.

Four hours later an aircraft did a fly by, they were identified, and picked up. Dari slid into the airframe like she had when she was nine. Lowell sat down on the floor and pulled her between his legs, wrapping his arms around her. Thankful she was relatively unhurt, angry that she had risked her life to come for him and his team, amazed at her strength and determination to do it anyway. The crew pulled the doors shut. And the team enjoyed what reprieve from the cold they could at altitude. “Why did you come looking?” Chaos asked the crew chief.

“The IR was registered to the Senior NCIS on post. I believe when we land you are all to be met.” The team nodded.

As they disembarked from the aircraft the team surrounded Dari, knowing she was the one in danger now. Their command would be happy to have them back alive, missing gear or not. Her command was unknown, and they were not sure they had the details to fully understand what had allowed her to be up in those mountains. They entered the JOC and were immediately separated, “Agent Austin,” a civilian motioned toward Dari and started moving down a hallway. The team paused watching her peel off from them, looking like hell.

“She needs a doctor. Where is she going?” Lowell asked as they continued to follow their escort.

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