Jethro’s eyes tracked the progress of the harness up towards the hatch; taking in the shape of the, so far, unseen transporter. It bore a strong resemblance to a very large stealth bomber in shape. The minute the hatch closed the plane vanished and once again the night appeared empty. Jethro felt a faint vibration disturb the night air but, other than that, they would have thought themselves totally alone. Boy! What the SASR could do with one of those beauties.
Slipping his compass from a pocket in his camo pants Jethro took a quick check of their bearings then, dragging Sam’s arm over his strong shoulders, set off towards the meeting point.
“You don’t need to help me walk J.J. whatever they did to me in that machine has my leg feeling nearly a hundred percent.” Sam pulled his arm back off Jethro’s shoulders and with only a slight limp trekked alongside his friend. “But, you can fill in the time by telling me what the hell the situation is with our two gorgeous saviours.” He chuckled dryly then added, “I somehow think that no matter how beautiful they are that they’re not angels.”
Jethro frowned, immediately wary. He trusted Sam like a brother but, he had to protect Tasha in case the situation blew up in their faces.
“For the moment it would be advisable to pretend that none of this happened. I promise I’ll fill you in as soon as we get back home to Australia. Let’s just go with the scenario that I helped you walk away from the ambush and let the rest go for now. I know it’s asking a lot but, I have good reasons for keeping it quiet.”
Sam gave the situation a few seconds consideration before answering Jethro in a calm, serious voice.
“I’m too glad to be alive to argue the point but, I do want your promise to help me track down Staren again—that lady is special, and I get the feeling she just might be my future.” Sam spoke without a trace of doubt. Jethro was stunned by the conviction in Sam’s voice. Where had this acceptance by Sam of the unknown come from? Even he, the part alien, was struggling with the news.
“You’ve got my word on it.” said Jethro, as he accompanied his words with a friendly slap on Sam’s shoulder and a soft chuckle. “Sam, The Man, has finally fallen eh?”
The two men moved quietly through the night in companionable silence for the next ten minutes until Jethro couldn’t resist asking the question that had been bugging him since they landed.
“Tell me, how did you resist the hypnotic program that Staren ran on you? She seemed pretty confident that it would work.”
“No one has ever been able to put me under.” Sam laughed at Jethro’s confusion. “I have some sort of inbuilt resistance to suggestion, just contrariness I guess.” Sam’s smile faded as he continued speaking. “I don’t know what’s going on but, you sure as hell seemed to understand so, I’ll go along with you for now.”
Jethro was warmed by Sam’s faith in him.
“I promise you won’t be sorry, I’ll make sure you don’t get killed.” He laughed as he hugged Sam’s shoulders with one arm as he placed a light, playful a punch on his chest.
That was the end of all conversation for the next thirty minutes as they swiftly covered the distance necessary in amiable, silent companionship. Two hours later a rescue helicopter picked them up and whisked the two men back to camp and a worried commander.
The meeting with Commander Wallis was fraught with sadness at the loss of their men and bitterness at the traitor in camp. Jethro handed over the dead men’s tags with apologies for not being able to bring back their bodies. Commander Wallis shook his head sadly in acceptance at what had to be. “Don’t blame yourself, you got Sam back and that’s all I can ask of you. Now my priority must be to find the traitor in camp before I lose anymore men. Tell me exactly what you remember of your departure, I need all the intel I can gather at this point.”
The three men huddled over the commander’s desk checking maps and personnel records before swiftly putting a plan together. With Jethro and Sam chomping at the bit to even the score, it didn’t take long to work out a viable plan of action. They badly wanted the traitor who had been responsible for the death of the rest of their squad.
Commander Wallis went over the plan one final time so that nothing was left to chance; they would only have this one chance to flush out the informer.
“I’ll arrange a fall out of all personnel on the parade grounds, including the attached Afghan forces, tomorrow morning. Our losses will be announced and that Jethro will recognise the informer by sight.” Wallis waited for Jethro’s nod of understanding before continuing.
“He’ll inspect the troops slowly, at my command, my bet is that the guilty man will be shocked to see you two alive and will make a break for it. We’ll have him before you fly out the next day.”
Straightening wearily Commander Wallis offered his hand to Jethro and Sam. “It’s a sad day for the regiment but, I thank God that you two returned safe. Well done men. Now you two need to rest and keep under cover for the next few hours, we mustn’t lose the advantage of surprise. ”
The next morning Jethro wasn’t the least bit surprised when the Commanders plan worked perfectly. He slowly walked down the ranks studying each face carefully, finally, coming to two Afghan soldiers, he stood stony faced and unmoving in front of them watching the sweat run freely down their terrified faces. It only took seconds for them to cut and run for the gate. They stood no chance. However, gratifyingly, it was their own men who brought them down. It then took the might of half a dozen SASR soldiers to drag them away from their compatriots, to the comparative safety of a prison cell.
Jethro felt satisfaction settle in his soul, he’d got some kind of justice for his men now. Nothing would bring them back, however at least their deaths had uncovered the traitors in camp and probably saved the loss of many more lives.