Lindsay McKenna - His Duty to Protect

“How are the other gals taking the assignment?”

“Better than I am. But they don’t have the past history with Hamilton like I do. They were in other training outfits, not mine.”

“This sucks, dude,” Emma agreed, placing her hands in her lap. “Could you use some interesting news that Khalid got wind of the other day?”

Rachel perked up. “Sure. What has he heard?”

Emma leaned forward. “You have to keep this top secret.”

“Oh, I will,” Rachel promised, seeing the glint in her cousin’s eyes. “Whatever it is, it’s big!”

Laughing a little, Emma said, “Oh, it’s an eye-knocker-outer.”

“What? Tell me!”

Emma grinned. “There’s a new Black Jaguar group forming under Colonel Maya Stevens. Khalid has been working with Maya and her husband, Dane, who were both assigned to the Pentagon. Maya was the creator of the original BJS, and she showed the boys in the Army how to use the Apache to stop the drug runners in Peru.”

“Oh, she’s famous for that. She’s the bedrock of the BJS,” Rachel enthused, excited. “But what is this new BJS squadron?”

“Not a flight squadron.” Emma’s eyes glinted. “It’s a U.S. Marine initiative. They’ve asked her and Dane to head up a group of women volunteers from the five military services who will have boots on the ground. They’re specialists in language and Afghan culture. Their job is to be put in individual Marine deployment squadrons that are coming here.”

Confused, Rachel said, “Women in combat?”

“Yes, with a particular mission. They’re in training with the Marines right now at Camp Pendleton. Come October, they’re going to arrive here, at Bravo Camp. This will be their HQ. Maya will head it up because she knows how to integrate women into all male elements. It’s not flying but Maya will also be working with transport squadrons here, as well as Apache deployment.”

Rachel gasped at the information. “My God, it’s really happening. These women are being trained for combat roles among the Marine squadrons?”

“Yes. There will be one woman per assigned Marine squad out in the country working with villages and elders. There’s a whole new effort to win hearts and minds here. And Maya was arguing this right up to the halls of Congress. She told the senators in a closed-door session that if they used women who spoke the language and worked with the wives of the elders in a given village, that more loyalty, more contact and far more information would be shared.” Emma grinned. “You know how women talk to one another. These women are being trained as paramedics, too. They’ll be able to give vaccinations, treat the children, wives and female elders of the village.”

“What a brilliant idea!” Rachel said, amazed and excited. “Brilliant!”

“Khalid has been friends with Maya and Dane for years, so he got the inside scoop. Don’t breathe a word of this. The fun part is that you will be interfacing with BJS ground troops because you’ll be flying the Marine squads out with these women. Maya felt that having an all-woman BJS squadron here already would help give these ground-troop women the support they need.”

“Is the Marine Corps happy about this?” Rachel wondered.

“For the most part, yes. But you know the Marines—only a man can fight. There’s a lot of resentment among some of them, but Dane is working with the sergeants who command these squadrons. There’s no room for prejudice out on the ground. All you care about is that the person next to you, regardless of whether they are male or female, can shoot and kill.”

“And these women are volunteers?”

“Yes, all five services are represented, even the Coast Guard.”

“And they’re enlisted?”

“Yes. Maya and Dane chose from among all the volunteers. These are women with at least four years in the military. They are the cream of the crop. This idea was put into overdrive almost a year ago. These women had to learn an Afghan language, complete paramedic training and then go to Camp Pendleton in California to become rifle qualified. They’re the whole package.”

“That is incredible,” Rachel whispered. She saw the happiness glowing in Emma’s face. “Leave it to Maya to break down more doors. While the squad leader is dealing with the male elders, the woman soldier can be talking to the elder’s wife. I’ll lay you ten to one she’ll get more info from that wife than the sergeant or lieutenant ever will from the man.”

Nodding, Emma said with a grin, “That’s exactly what Maya is counting on.”

“Wow,” Rachel murmured. “Does Major Klein know about this? She must. She was Maya’s executive officer down in Peru.”

“Oh, she sure does. Dallas is excited about it, too. She’s gung ho on the whole BJS ground program.”

“They’ll be together again like they were in Peru. That’s kismet, because we both know they were a successful team down there in stopping drug cartels from getting cocaine out of Peru. The Pentagon, the Chief of Staff know that when Maya and Dallas were a pair, things got done right.”

“And their past history and record probably enabled this program to go forward.”

“Absolutely,” Emma said. She rubbed her hands together and added, “Kick butt, take names.”

Laughing, Rachel felt some of her depression lift. Emma was always the positive one. No matter what life had thrown at her, she made mud pies out of the mud. She never let something bad, like the loss of sensation in two fingers of her left hand, stop her. The Army might have discharged her for that, but being married to Khalid had brought her right back here. Reaching out, Rachel gripped Emma’s hand for a moment, “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Listen, you need to get square with Hamilton.” Emma released her hand, her voice lowered with concern. “When do you have to see him?”

“Today.” She looked down at her watch on her right wrist. “Matter of fact, at 1400 I have to officially get inducted into his CH-47 squadron.”

“Ugh. Not only is he your CO, he’s your flight instructor.”

“How lucky can a girl get, right?”

Emma shook her head. “Well, we know that life is never fair, but this sucks. Will you be okay, Rachel?”

“I don’t know,” she said, looking around the tent that had been her life with BJS. “I have such anger toward him. It just bubbles up and it surprises even me. I didn’t know how much I hated him until he showed up at the dispensary yesterday. Everything, and I mean everything, came back from my flight school days. I was so surprised at how cold and angry I was.”

“How are you going to deal with it? Because the Army doesn’t much like it when personal stuff gets in the way of your duties.”

“I’ll conduct myself as an officer and work to be neutral toward him.”

“You can’t afford to flunk out on flying the CH-47.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I won’t. I’m keeping my eye on the prize—in six months, I’ll be rotated back to BJS and I’ll strap an Apache on my ass again.” Rachel gave her a twisted grin. “I have my priorities straight, believe me. I might hate him, but I’ll be all business in the cockpit.”

“That’s going to be so hard,” Emma said.

Rachel shrugged. “I’m thirty years old. I’ve been around the block. I guess it’s my time to suck it up, see it for what it is—a test.”

Emma chuckled. “Spoken like a true Trayhern.”

Rachel nodded and smiled. “My parents have emailed me about it. They always have good advice about stuff like this. My dad said to just keep my eye on the future and try the best I can to remain detached about Hamilton.”

Emma giggled. “I know your mom. She’s a take-no-prisoners woman. What did she say?”