Alana Albertson - Invincible

Kyle was busying grinding some girl on the dance floor, so I told Vic that I’d meet him back in the room because I wanted to take a walk. He gave me a look, like he thought I was up to something, and asked if I wanted them to come with me. When I said no, he just nodded.

I made my way to the alley near the back of the club. There was a van parked there. A tree was painted on its side door with the words Divi Divi underneath. I moved my rental car around the corner. When the band left, I’d be ready to follow them.

Hours passed. I was tired as fuck but didn’t so much as close my eyes to risk sleep. Staying up casing this van was easy compared to the training I’d endured. In BUD/S Hell Week, I’d survived on only four hours of sleep in five and a half days. To this day, every time I was tired during a mission, I could hear my instructors’ words echo in my head, taunting us, trying to get us to ring the bell three times and quit. “Anybody who quits right now gets hot coffee and doughnuts. Come on, who wants a doughnut? Who wants a little coffee?”

I needed a pick me up. I sprinkled some instant coffee into a water bottle. Time to hurry up and wait.

Eventually, the five-member band loaded up all their equipment in the van. But instead of taking off, they milled around, talking and smoking, no sense of urgency at all.

Another half an hour passed. Finally, they climbed into the van. When it pulled out on to the street, I slowly followed behind them, keeping my distance.

After a few miles along the road, the van stopped in front of a one-story plantation-style house. It wasn’t one of the brothels we’d investigated—I wasn’t even sure if it was a brothel at all. No sign, no man out front, just a door with some metal bars on it and some lights in the windows.

Could Annie be in there?

The men got out. Four of them took off in a different parked vehicle. Then the door to the house opened and the drummer walked inside and greeted another man.

I took out my binoculars and his face came into focus. It was that pimp. The one with my watch, I was sure of it.

Fuck. Annie had to be in there. But was it a brothel? A drug den? Maybe it was a holding place where they drugged up the women before they moved them elsewhere. And how many men? I could see two: the pimp and drummer. But as far as I could tell, only the pimp was armed.

I drove my car around the building. In a window to the back, I could see a girl stare out the window. She had dark hair but even with my binoculars that was all I could make out because she had left the window so quickly. Was she Annie? My gut told me she was, but there was only one way to find out.

I needed my men and my night-ops equipment. I drove off back to the hotel, careful to mark the path in my mind.

I couldn’t wait another day, another chance for them to move her. We had to move in tonight.

I flipped the light on in the hotel. Kyle was passed out in the bed next to some blonde girl, Vic was crashed on the sofa in the small living area. I knew the drill—if one of us was going to get lucky, he’d head up to the room first. We’d hobble in later when the coast was clear and crash on the floor, giving the loving couple the bed. Of course, Vic never did that to us. He was a serial monogamist. We’d always tease him, but I was starting to think Kyle and me were the ones who were fucked up and Vic had the right idea. I wouldn’t be in this mess now if I hadn’t given in to my needs, but then again I would’ve never found Annie.

I nudged Kyle. “Hey. Sorry to interrupt. But we need to go.”

Kyle understood. He rolled over to the girl. “Hey, sweetheart. Sorry, but I need to help my buddy out.”

The girl nodded, almost looked hurt. She reached for her clothes and grabbed them off the floor on the side of the bed. I couldn’t help but stare at her naked body. Great ass, perky tits, nice tan skin. She slipped her panties on, then her jeans, and pulled a pink tank top over her head. She either hadn’t been wearing a bra or didn’t bother to look for it. Kyle gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll call you. We’ll be in town for two weeks.”

Kyle actually might call. He straddled the line of commitment-phobe and romantic. His usual M.O. was to start a fling with a girl, swear that she was the one, then vanish when it got intense, which it always did. Everything we did was intense. Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to have a mellow job, a relaxed life.

I gave the girl an awkward wave. But because I was paranoid about Annie, I decided to speak. “Where you staying?”

“Oh, a hotel down the road. I’m fine to walk.”

Fuck that. “We’ll take you.”

She looked at Kyle. “No, I’m okay. Really. It’s just a few blocks.”

Kyle got dressed. “No, Pat’s right. Sorry, I was about to offer but I was just groggy. We’ll drive you.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Okay.”

She slipped into the bathroom. I signaled to the guys to get their guns and night op gear.

“It’s on.”

Vic slipped on his gun. “You found her.”

“Not sure but think so. Her pimp is there.”

“Good enough for me.” Kyle loaded his pistol and gathered the bag full of our gear. “Hooyah!”

Kyle’s girl walked out of the bathroom, her mascara smudged. But at that moment, I didn’t see this nameless girl, I saw Annie. Annie’s eyes. In one careless, drunken night, Annie’s world had changed forever. Spring break, five years ago, a night like this. The girl that stood before me, she didn’t know that Kyle was a good guy. That the three of us weren’t going to gang rape her. But this girl took a chance, a chance on him, a chance with us. In a foreign country, with different laws. These girls had false senses of security, that they were invincible. But all it took was one wrong drink, one wrong man, and they could end up dead, or in a living hell. Just like Annie.

We headed out of the hotel and piled into the small rental car. We dropped the girl off at her hotel room, Kyle walking her in to make sure she was safe.

He climbed back into the car. “So what’s the plan?”

“Well, we’re going to go back and case the place. Not sure after that and I’m not even sure Annie is there.”

This amateur rescue attempt was so different than the missions we usually went on as a Team. We just had to clear the house, like we’d done many times in Afghanistan. These traffickers probably only cared about drugs and money; they weren’t going to try to start an international incident just to keep a girl that they’d kidnapped five years ago. Chances were, they were looking for a way to get rid of her anyway. Not that I was going to attempt to reason with them.

We parked a block away from the building and snuck up outside the door. It seemed quiet inside and the lights were off. They’d probably be asleep already. I wanted this to be clean.

“I think she’s in that room. Second window to the left.”

“Let’s check it out.”

I was a non-practicing Catholic. Even so, every time I went on a mission, I recited the Family Prayer from my favorite movie, Boondock Saints.

“And Shepherds we shall be

For thee, my Lord, for thee.

Power hath descended forth from Thy hand

Our feet may swiftly carry out Thy commands.

So we shall flow a river forth to Thee

And teeming with souls shall it ever be.

In Nomeni Patri Et Fili Spiritus Sancti.”

Amen. Let’s roll.

Stealthily, we left the car and snuck around the building. I heard a dog bark in the distance. Kyle and Vic stood watch alongside me as I used my night vision goggles to peer into the window.