James Tarr - Dogsoldiers

At the news everyone inside the house breathed a little sigh of relief—at least their delay wouldn’t be for nothing. There were eyes everywhere, and every hour in hostile territory increased the chances they’d be discovered. Not that Jasper knew he was holding up seventy-plus men.

In short order he arrived at the front door, breathless, as if he’d been running. He nearly jumped through the door and darted his head about, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the light. None of the men appeared happy to see him. His appearance had never inspired a lot of confidence.

“You had me wondering whether or not you’d show up,” the Captain admitted to the new arrival.

Jasper swallowed and his brows knitted together in worry. “Why?” he said quickly.

“Because you’re fucking squirrelly, dude,” the Sergeant leaning in the doorway said.

The Captain shot the NCO a look and turned to their local source. “You seem nervous, and so it makes my men nervous,” he said to Jasper. “Any reason why we should be nervous?”

Jasper blinked in the dim light of the house, then snorted. “Of course you should be nervous. You’re in Army-controlled territory. And they’ve got tanks. You’d be stupid if you weren’t nervous.” The thin man was speaking quickly, as usual, gesturing wildly with his hands.

The Captain sighed. “I meant specifically, right now. You were supposed to be finding us a safe route down. Spotting armor, patrols, roadblocks, etcetera. Your so-called inside man give you those patrol routes we were hoping for?”

“Well, see, that’s the thing,” Jasper began, hopping from one foot to the other.

The Sergeant rolled his eyes. “Here we go,” he said.

Jasper gave the man a dirty look, then turned back to the Captain. “No, see, he did. Or he will. He’s supposed to. I just haven’t had a chance to hook up with him yet. He’s been busy or something. But I’m meeting up with him tonight.” He glanced at his watch. “In two hours. He’s gonna have the info for me then.”

The Captain was not pleased to hear Jasper’s news. “Why didn’t you meet with him first? So you had that intelligence when you showed up here?”

“I tried, but I couldn’t make that happen. Besides, I didn’t know for sure if you were going to be here. Plans change. Shit happens.”

“Okay. I’ll send a man with you, for the meet, and—”

“No,” Jasper said, shaking his head forcefully. “This guy, you think I’m nervous, I’m supposed to show up alone. He sees someone with me and he’s gone.”

“I’ll have him stay out of sight.”

Jasper blew a raspberry. “Please. All the empty houses these days, he could be watching from anywhere. He’ll spot your guy, and then he’ll be gone.” He raised a hand. “You just stay here, and I’ll be back before you know it. What this guy’s gonna give you, it’ll help you get right downtown, right on top of them, before they ever know you’re there.”

Neither the Captain or the Sergeant were happy about having to wait several more hours, but there didn’t seem to be any other option. What Jasper’s source was promising was too valuable not to risk it. So the men watched him scurry away down the street, grumbling, irritated and eager to move on, but stymied.

“Sir?”

The Captain looked up. “Yes? It’s Ed, isn’t it?” While he was a new face on the teams, Ed was far from a baby-faced teenager. The man was in his mid-thirties, and did not have the vocabulary of a blue-collar laborer.

“Yes sir. Sir, I know when it comes to war and tactics I don’t know anything about anything. Never been to West Point or read von Clausewitz… but I have a question. Do you trust him? Jasper.” The man in question had left the house fifteen minutes earlier.

“Trust him?” The Captain snorted. “I barely trust myself these days.” Ed nodded. “Why?”

“Because when he was in this house, standing right there, every fiber of my being was telling me to get the hell out. Get away from him.” Ed made a come-hither gesture with his hand and pointed out the nearest window of the house. “That house, right there, at the end of the block. It’s taller than its neighbors, just like this one. Great view of this house. I know we’ve got guns, and drones, but staying here… Put one person there on the second floor, and hide the rest of the squad a couple blocks away out of sight, in a basement or something. Jasper shows up, and nothing looks wrong, he’s all alone, the person in the window there can signal to him when he comes out wondering where the hell we went. Shout, flashlight, whatever. Meet him halfway between the two houses and get whatever intel he has.”

“Are you always this suspicious?” the Captain asked Ed. His expression was unreadable.

“This is the first job I’ve had where the competition actually wants to kill me,” Ed told the man. “I’ve been learning on the fly.” He gestured at the other house. “If I’m wrong, no harm no foul, other than Jasper maybe getting his feelings hurt a little bit. If I’m right…” He shrugged expansively. “I’m just saying, whether you trust him or not, he knows exactly where we are.”

The Captain stared at Ed for thirty solid seconds. “Shit, you’re right,” he said finally. “Sergeant!” he barked.

“Yes sir?”

“You remember that Godawful ugly green house we passed on the way here? Maybe half a mile back? Probably less. You think you can find it again?”

“With my eyes closed, Captain.”

“Well, the house next to it was all brick and stone and obviously abandoned. We’re heading there. On the fucking double. Ed here,” he turned to Ed and smiled grimly, “has volunteered to wait on our skittish friend.”

“Yes sir, glad to hear it sir.” He turned and began getting the rest of the men up. They started pulling down the thick sheets on the walls and stuffing them in packs. The man controlling the eyeball drones that were doing a surveillance pattern over the house hit the recall button.

The Captain turned to Ed. “You’ve got a flashlight if you need it? Good. Jasper shows up, you give him my apologies for not being here. Pressing, urgent matters elsewhere, yada yada. If it’s not just Jasper who shows up, you either go to ground or you pull back to us, whichever is safer. You remember where that green house is? Think you can find it?”

“I think so.”

“Good. Do you know the next rally point, if you can’t make it to the green house?”

Ed always made a point of studying the Captain’s map whenever it was out, and had paid attention to every Rally Point there and back. “Yes sir.”

The Captain nodded. Then he pointed at the grenade launcher slung over Ed’s shoulder. “You fire that thing off, everybody within half a mile is going to know exactly where you are. So my suggestion is don’t, unless the alternative is even worse.”

Which is how Ed came to find himself alone, deep in enemy territory, armed with weapons he wasn’t even sure he could use correctly. He was standing in a dilapidated musty-smelling lilac-painted bedroom waiting for someone to show up. Waiting for something to happen. At first he was terrified, but after an hour of waiting the terror turned to boredom.

Jasper appeared not quite three hours after he’d left, walking down the sidewalk past Ed’s position. The sun was very low in the sky, but it was reflecting off a bank of low clouds. Jasper didn’t appear as twitchy as before, but he also wasn’t moving very fast. He was heading straight for the rendezvous house, not looking around at all.

Ed fought the urge to call out to the man as he walked by below, and instead hugged the window frame in the second story bedroom where he’d been waiting rather impatiently. He watched Jasper walk down the block, away from his position and toward the house they’d sheltered in for nearly twenty-four hours. Ed had the grenade launcher in his hands but had no idea what he’d actually do with it if something happened. And what would happen? What could happen? Jasper was alone and either unarmed or toting a pistol small enough to conceal.