Charles Henderson - Terminal Impact

“Stop it!” Jack yelled. “You’re going to make it. I promised you that I would take you to America.”

Giti smiled at Jack. “You killed Abu Omar. Just like you told him in the prison.”

“Yes, I did,” Jack said, and kissed the girl on her forehead. “I promised him I would. I keep my promises. Now, you stay awake.”

It took ten more minutes for Elmore Snow and the MARSOC crew to arrive on scene. The colonel called for a medical evacuation helicopter, and Cotton Martin grabbed the medical kit from the Hummer and went to work with Jack getting Giti stabilized.

Rattler trotted around the trucks, inspecting the enemy dead. When he was satisfied he had no work to do, Sergeant Padilla took out the Kong. The dog commenced running and retrieving like a day in the park, doing the one thing that made his life worthwhile. Jorge and a little rubber toy.

Cotton and Jack had Giti’s feet elevated, keeping her blood high in her body, talking to her until the rescue helicopter arrived. She watched Rattler play, and smiled. It kept her mind busy, thinking of living.

Bronco, Jaws, Sage, and Jewfro took care of Miriam and Amira, zipping them in body bags that the first sergeant had packed in the back of his command vehicle. Items they hoped they never had to use, but too often did.

Alvin Barkley walked to the back of Abu Omar’s truck and took off the Jamaat Ansar al-Sunnah black battle flag, rolling it around its staff as he walked up to Jack and Cotton, and nodded down at Giti.

“I’ve seen worse, little girl,” the Marine with the big knife hanging down his thigh said. “You’re going to be fine. Those through-and-through gunshots, they bleed a bit, but you’ll live. Got to watch out for infection, though. Docs at Al Asad Air Base medical will get that all cleaned up. Get you fit as a fiddle in no time.”

He looked at the Marines carrying the bodies of Giti’s sisters. “Sure hate to see that happen to those other two children.”

“Miriam and Amira,” Giti said in a weak voice. “My baby, if she is a girl, she will have their names.”

Jack rode the medical evac chopper to Al Asad, along with Elmore Snow. The colonel left the MARSOC team with Staff Sergeant Martin and First Sergeant Barkley. It took them the rest of the day to get back to Haditha Dam and catch Osprey flights south to the air base. They would fly to Baghdad with Gunny V and the boss.

When they landed at Al Asad, Jack and Colonel Snow went to the hospital with Giti and did not leave until the doctors had her out of surgery, safe in the recovery module.

The gunny sat by her bed, holding her hand, waiting for the girl to awaken. Colonel Snow sat with him.

“Does this young woman have any next of kin who need to be called?” the doctor asked, coming into the room.

Jack shook his head no. “All murdered by the Hajis.”

“She lost a lot of blood, but she’s a super trooper. Hung in there,” the doctor said. “Baby looks good, too.”

“It made it?” Jack asked, surprised.

“Yes. We could have terminated the pregnancy during surgery,” the doctor added. “But before we put her under, the little mother told us to save her child at all costs.”

“She’s a Christian,” Jack said. “More faithful than anyone I ever met. Presbyterian from up toward Mosul.”

“These Iraqi Christians tend to be pretty tried-and-true,” the doctor said. Then he added, “Would have been a lot easier for her long-term recovery if she let us take it.”

Jack thought about Yasir and Sabeen, started to say something about how Giti’s faith had made the difference there. About the white oryx and his three doe, too. But he decided to just nod and agree. He didn’t mention Sabeen or Yasir to anyone, thus he couldn’t tell the story of the Arabian oryx. It would remain his and Giti’s tale. Perhaps she would tell her daughter one day about the beautiful animals and the old goatherd and her only surviving sister, Sabeen. He figured that Yasir and Sabeen would have an easier time getting away if no one looked for them.

Then a light came on in Jack’s head.

“How about her clothes?” he asked.

“We bagged them,” the doctor said. “They’re pretty ragged and full of blood. We can toss them out.”

Jack shook his head no. “We need them. And the clothes belonging to the two girls who were killed.”

“You looking for something?” the doctor asked.

“A piece of paper, folded up. A note,” Jack said. “I thought Giti might have it in her pocket, but it could be in Miriam’s or Amira’s. Definitely, one of them had it.”

“Is it important?” the doctor asked.

“Very important,” Jack said.

“We’ll search the pockets and bring everything we find to you,” the doctor said. “Where will you be?”

“Right here,” Jack answered.

“You don’t want to get cleaned up? Grab a shower?” Elmore said, looking at the gunny, who was wearing blue scrubs pants and a hospital gown over his bare upper body.

“She has to see my face when she wakes up,” he told Elmore. “She has no one else.”

“What do you propose to do?” Elmore asked. “She’s not a puppy, Jack. You think Liberty can accept her, competing for your affections? Regardless of the circumstances, she is human, and jealousy can get to even the best among us.”

“We’ll work it out,” Jack said. “I promised Giti that I would take her to America. Her and Miriam and Amira. If we escaped, I would take them to America.

“Giti made it, so I have to keep the promise. She will live with my mom and dad. Have her baby in El Paso, and live there, where people will take care of her.”

Elmore looked at Jack and took a big breath. “What about you? What about that FBI agent girlfriend of yours?”

“I’ll be her big brother, and Liberty will have to accept it on those terms,” Jack said, holding Giti’s hand.

“So you’ve got it all worked out,” Elmore said.

“Yeah, so far. Pretty much making it up as I go along,” Jack said, then smiled at his old friend. “Got it all figured, except the part of how we get her out of Iraq and to El Paso, Texas.”

“That may take some doing, but I’ll bet that we manage,” Elmore said, smiling, and put his arm over his gunny’s shoulders and waited for the little pregnant Iraqi girl to wake up.

“By the way, Jack,” the colonel said, still looking at Giti and now noticing her eyes flutter. “What’s on that note you got the doc fetching? Something sentimental?”

“You could say that,” Jack said, and spread a wide grin at Elmore. “The directions to Zarqawi’s safe house. Where he’s hiding right now.”

“Ghost in the hide,” Jack said on the intercom that Lieutenant Colonel Elmore Snow also had patched into a covered command frequency, with an on and off switch. All ears at the unified command headquarters listened. So did several sets of important ears in Washington, DC.

“Roger,” Elmore responded. “Call when target verified on location.”

Jack gave his microphone button two clicks and switched off the command channel output so he could talk to his Marines without the world listening.

“Cotton,” Jack called.

“In the hide,” Staff Sergeant Martin replied, Sergeant Sammy LaSage tucked at his side. Covering the back half of the house outside Hibhib, he had a powerful night-vision and daylight, high-definition spotting scope with satellite uplink of supersharp video feeding real-time action to monitors and recorders watching from Baghdad to the Pentagon and the White House.

Sergeant Cochise Quinlan lay next to Gunny Valentine, covering the front of the same al-Qaeda Iraq safe house where they believed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi hid. With the same HD high-power lens, the eight-man team had two sharp pictures feeding the satellite both front and back views.