Chapter Nineteen
Rose and Florida looked at them as they came up. Both teams shrugged their shoulders at each other to acknowledge that none of them had a clue. Sure enough, Sgt. Givens bellowed out, “Sanders and Rodriguez come here. Sgt. Andrews what do you have to report?”
Sgt. Andrews handed him a piece of paper with the team’s info on it. Givens looked at it and roared at Ramon, “Sergeant, did you give Sanders the go ahead to fire three shots?”
“Yes, sir,” Ramon replied, “There were…”
“Just who gave you the command to shoot three times?”
Ramon answered, “The enemy sir, I saw three targets, two of which were fake….”
“Nobody told you to take three shots at any time at any place, Rodriguez. You went too far….”
That was more than enough for Taylor, she grabbed Sgt. Givens by the arm and spun him around to face her and began her tirade, “You’re nothing but a big, fat, blowhard liar, Givens. There was NO order as to how many shots to fire or not to fire. You do not have one credible witness…”
The two red faces were squared off at each other. As Sgt. Givens began his explosion, he accentuated it with three jabs of his right index finger to Taylor’s left shoulder on every other sentence just like clockwork. “Just who do you think are, grabbing me and spinning me around like…..
“You’re the biggest blowhard God ever let live….”
“Young lady I’ve a good mind to have your carcass….”
“If you had a good mind you’d recognize a good sniper…..
“Women will never make good snipers while I’m….”
“I’ll haul you mangy hide before a court martial hearing for ….”
“You won’t get the chance Miss Civilian….”
“Miss Civilian, you ain’t got the facts or the guts…”
It wasn’t going to calm down any time soon so Ramon stepped behind the sergeant where he could be seen by Taylor, took one hand, grabbed his other wrist and lifted it above his head as if he were stretching.
Taylor saw it and was more than ready for the hint. She waited for his timely jabs to her left shoulder. Right on time for the third jab, she rolled her shoulder. His jab struck her left breast. She shouted, “How dare you.”
With her left hand she grabbed his right wrist and lifted it straight up. She immediately jammed the palm of her right hand just below his arm pit and knocked the wind out of him. In a well-practiced move she swung her right leg behind his and laid him flat on the ground. Her right knee went to his stomach and her right hand grabbed for his throat. Everybody took a step forward but nobody made a move to intervene. They had no idea what was on Taylor’s mind.
Sgt. Bennett watched the whole scene unfold. Givens had told him that he had every intention of breaking her today but he had no idea how he was going to do it. As the scene began to heat up, Sgt. Bennett slowly began to position himself so he could see all that was going on. He was sure that he would have to be a witness for one of them, but who and for what?
Sgt. Lem asked rather tentatively, “Don’t you think you should break this thing up?”
“Let it play out, first. We’ve got to let it play out,” he answered as he took a couple of steps forward.
When he saw Taylor take him down and get into the kill position he didn’t know if Taylor was too mad to restrain herself or not. Maybe Givens had broken her the wrong way. “Stop, stop. Somebody break them up,” he cried out as ran toward the fight.
Everybody heard the shouts and turned to see who was coming. Duke and Mowzzer went over to pull Taylor off of him. As Ramon looked to see Sgt. Bennett approaching, he noticed that Sgt. Lem had stayed behind and was reaching for something in his shirt pocket. Ramon wasn’t sure but it looked like a cell phone. Sgt. Lem held it in front of him and began to push on its face and…. Dear God, it looked like he was scrolling through a list of numbers. He had to turn sideways to get the face of the cell phone in the shadow so he could see the numbers clearly. Ramon watched as he punched one of the buttons and then began to retreat to the back of the jeep.
“He’s running for cover,” Ramon said under his breath. It all came together. The reason that Sgt. Givens and Sgt. Bennett were never together was to keep down the possibility of both of them being killed at the same time. Without knowing it Ramon and Taylor had been an accessory to an assassination attempt. Sgt. Bennett’s gun must have been rigged to explode by a call from a cell phone.
He yelled as he ran toward the sergeant, “Sgt. Bennett, your gun’s a bomb. Lem rigged it. Everybody get down.” He tackled the sergeant and ripped the gun from its holster. He stood and threw it as hard as he could in the direction of Sgt. Lem who was running down the graveled path back to the camp.
The gun fell about twenty feet in front of him. He tried to stop but his feet scooted out from underneath him in. The gun exploded almost upon impact and sprayed Sgt. Lem with rocks and hot metal. His legs took the brunt of the impact. He tried in vain to get up but one look at his kneecap told him it was no use. He lay down and waited for the inevitable.
Ramon barked out orders, “He detonated it with a small black cell phone. See if we can find it between us and him. Sandusky and Peterson, get all of the weapons in a safe place. They might have already been implanted with detonation devices.”
Rose and Danielle checked out Lem while Florida and Benita began looking for the cell phone on the path. Rose called out to Sgt. Bennett, “It looks like his knee cap has been knocked out of place. He can’t move on his own. He also has a wound to his abdomen as well as several to his legs.”
Sgt. Bennett came over to inspect his wounds. One glance was all that it took. “You’re right, Rose,” he concurred. He looked for his men and called out, “Duke, Mowzzer, get that stretcher out of the observation shed and let’s get him immobilized. The ride down the path is going to be bad enough. Bring all the medical supplies you can find.”
He threw his mobile phone to Sgt. Andrews and said, “Call down to the Den, tell them what happened and have them get the ‘copter ready. We have a wounded man who needs to get to Kirtland a.s.a.p.”
When Duke and Mowzzer arrived with the stretcher, Duke had the medical kit in his free hand. Before he could hand it to Sgt. Bennett, another non-com took it from him and said to him, “I’m a trained EMT, Bennett, let me get him ready for transport, if you don’t mind.”
“Gladly,” he replied as he stepped out of the way. As the non-com began to clean the wound and immobilize the leg for transport, Sgt. Bennett took a moment to address Sgt. Lem. He placed his hand very gently on his shoulder and said calmly, “Everything is going to be OK. We’re going to take care of you. But, it’s going to be at least an hour’s ride to Kirtland. I’ll have the EMT give you something for pain.”
Sgt. Lem looked into the Bennett’s eyes and saw no condescending scowl in them. Sgt. Bennett consoled him, “I understand that a subject of Allah is required to be a subject of Allah above all other loyalties. The United States of America allows Muslims to practice their religion. But, the United States of America arrests and punishes ALL who are guilty of attempted murder no matter what religion they serve.”
As a final command to those around Sgt. Lem, he said, “See if you can pack something under him so he won’t be bouncing on the bed of that truck, will you? And drive as slowly as you can.”
“Yes, sir,” came the reply.
Sandusky and Peterson had gathered all the weapons and had placed them neatly on the picnic tables in front of the observation shed. Florida and Benita had found the cell phone and brought it to Sgt. Bennett. Together with several non-coms they all went to check out their weapons.
Ramon looked around for Taylor. He saw her kneeling behind Sgt. Givens and examining a bloody wound. As he approached she quipped, “I really wanted to kill him but all I could do was barely break his skin. I must be losing my touch.” She reached for the medical bag the EMT gave her and broke out some gauze and some hyd
rogen peroxide to clean the wound with.
“I told her the next time she wanted to kill me, to use the gun. It won’t hurt half as much,” he shot back with a smile.
Ramon’s heart was doing flip-flops to hear Taylor actually getting along with a crusty old master sergeant. He would have never thought that possible. God is still in the miracle business.
She caught his look and smile on his face and asserted, “His approach to ‘breaking’ me was not what we thought at all.”
Givens continued for her, “That’s right. I had to bring her to the point of breaking that non-action barrier that holds most snipers back. I told her that when she gets out on the battlefield, she’s going to have to be ready to pull the trigger and don’t hesitate. She had to see the difference in action and non-action. After all, I don’t know of any of our enemies that are shy about pulling the trigger.”
“And, I understand perfectly, now,” she added as she put the gauze and peroxide away and went around in front of Sgt. Givens to help him up.
As he took the offer from Taylor, he smiled and said, “Thank you, sergeant.”
“You’re welcome, sir.”
Givens put his arms around Taylor and Ramon, cleared his throat and called out, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you will all gather around, I have a few comments to make about this morning’s activities.”
Sgt. Bennett led them over and they formed a semi-circle around the three of them. Sgt. Givens started off by clearing up a point, “As you all remember, I gave no limit as to the amount of shots that could be taken. I don’t remember anyone but Sgts. Sanders and Rodriguez taking more than one shot. We purposely created a couple of the sniper scenarios where there COULD BE more than one target. I wanted to see who was thinking on their own. I probably already know the answer to this question, but Sgt. Rodriguez, what made you THINK that there was more than one target in that farthest scenario?”
Ramon replied, “The best that I can say is, that way back when I was a kid and hanging around with some of the gangs in Mexico City, I used to get premonitions. When the police were going to come down on us or some gang was hiding and waiting to waylay us, I always knew something was up. But, that’s just my gift. Everybody has some sort of special gift inside of them that they got when they were born. Mine, I just realize that it was given to me by the Lord for some reason and I just ask Him to teach me how to use it.”
“So, how did you know something was up at that target area?”
“On the run down there, I got this funny feeling like I needed to be on guard for something. I told Taylor…uh, Sgt. Sanders when we got there. As she was getting set up, I scanned the area for the least likely thing that could be a fake. Then, to me, it was obvious. It was the rocks. They were not quite the same color as the others and shaped a bit differently than the ones that surrounded them. The more I looked around, the more something inside told me that we needed to take the three of them out at the same time. If it was the enemy and we took out the obvious without looking for the possible, we would have been caught in a crossfire that would have been impossible to escape from. If I was wrong, we just wasted two rounds, that’s all. I used a set of hand signals that we used back in our football days to show Taylor where I suspected them to be. We had developed a pattern of hand signals that we could use that would let us communicate something to each other even if we were talking about something else.”
“And that’s what the most successful teams do,” Sgt. Givens added. “They learn how to communicate without the enemy knowing it. And for that reason, and a host of others, I am going to suggest whole-heartedly, that Sgts. Sanders and Rodriguez be sent on that special assignment to ….hmm almost gave it away, an engineering battalion in Afghanistan. That is if you will sign the orders stating so……Major Bennett.”
Ramon cried out, “I knew it. I told you Taylor.”
Taylor walked away from the two men a couple of steps, put her hands on her hips, turned around to face them and said to Ramon, “Ye-e-es, you did and I know you’re not going to let me live that...... what did you say? The special assignment?”
It finally hit the other ladies, too. They all squealed and gathered around her for a group hug. You would have thought she had been voted cheer leader of the year or something.
The guys were a tad more dignified. After a big ‘OORAH,’ they backed out of the way and let a very grateful Major Bennett be the first to shake their hands. He started off by saying, “First of all, from here until you get back to the states, no more saluting to any officer. Just like in Nam, it’s a sure-fire giveaway to the enemy. And, from a thousand yards away, you would have just given a sniper a clear choice for a target. That being said, Ramon, thanks for possibly saving several lives or….a bunch of carnage….whatever might have happened. I believe that I can speak for Gary as well as myself, the word had been put out that the terrorists were trying to take us both out at the same time. They were looking for a trophy, or bragging rights, somewhat like 9/11. It’s a smarter enemy out there and in some ways they have us buffaloed at the moment.
“We need a brave couple with savvy and……..all the inward intuition that you’ve got to help us re-gain our advantage. This little trick with Sgt. Lem was totally unexpected, it shows how far they have advanced, not only in their thinking but, also, in their technology. Hopefully his computers can shed some light on their plans and we can cut them off.”
Sgt. Givens added, “And then, we stay on the lookout for the next sneak attack.”
“Correct.”
Sgt. Givens looked towards the sound of the approaching vehicle and announced, “OK, I’m buying the first two rounds of coffee for everybody. And, while you’re drinking my free coffee, find your weapon and take it completely apart. I want every weapon checked thoroughly.”
A loud chorus of ‘boos’ echoed from the group as they all saw the coffee truck coming up for their scheduled ten o’clock break. To everybody’s surprise and especially her own, Taylor slipped her arm around Sgt. Givens waist and said, “It seems they don’t understand a good offer when they hear one. You can buy me as many as you want, soldier.”
As they started walking toward the shed she got a little dig in at him as she winked at the ladies, “Then you can start by telling me how lonely it is at the top.”
Yes, sir, the hoots went up on that one. Sandusky made a try at a comment, “You never made ME and offer like that.”
She answered in her finest, sultry Scarlet O'Hara impersonation, “I make that offer to all the REAL MEN I see.”
Score one more for Taylor as she and Sgt. Givens walked on arm in arm. Sandusky wasn’t going to live that one down for a long time. As the others started talking and ambling towards the observation shed, Ramon stepped up beside Maj. Bennett and said in a low voice, “Now that’s a picture I thought I would never see.”
Maj. Bennett smiled and said, “Me neither. That just proves that there is a God.”