30

Suz

 

 

The Forest, Refugio Tatí Yupí, Paraguay

 

 

“Walk through the fear,” Jack had said with a chuckle as they heard snuffling along the trail. SEALs feel fear, they just learn to walk through it. She bet they didn’t feel like she did. Their kind of fear surely felt different. They had skills, and she did not. Having a chance at coming out okay must feel different than feeling pretty darned sure that it was grace alone that kept her alive this far.

They were moving back to their prison. Back to tents filled with dead bodies.

She put one foot in front of the other. That was all she tasked herself with. This was not the direction she had planned to head today.

Jack and his teams—all of them—planned, planned, planned, and practiced the plan until it was polished and seamless. In. Out. Boom, done. Except when it didn’t work out that way. Every mission had a little bit of surprise. She bet it surprised the heck out of him to find himself jumping off a building aiming for a car roof. She thought for a moment about how far off the ground three stories really was, how small a car roof would have measured from that distance, and how really lucky he had been to hit it dead-center. Sure he was trained to jump and hit a target. He had a better chance than most anyone else. That’s why he lived. “Expect the unexpected,” he said. Nothing was going the way Suz expected – or could even dream up in her wildest and hairiest dreams.

Jack was chatting with the boys. He had one sitting on each of his broad shoulders. Their hands held on to his backpack straps through their dangling legs. With his left hand, he held each of the kids’ feet hanging in front of his chest – this allowed his right hand to hold his Sig. His head moved back and forth, scanning constantly.

Suz saw him favoring his right leg. But that was all she could see by way of fallout from his recent surgery.

Suz had missed the stream of Jack and the boys’ conversation and tuned in when Ari said, “Maybe we could just make a raft and take it down to the river.” They had just rounded the bend and were walking up to the gate.

“We walked all the way across the river when we go on the plane. It was really wide,” Caleb said.

Ari kept speaking right over Caleb. “And when we get to the river we can paddle to a town.”

Jack set the boys down. His eyes moved over the area, taking everything in. He pushed open the front gate.

“We can’t get near the water here guys,” Suz said as she maneuvered them in to the encampment. “There are dangerous fish in the water called piranha. And there are alligators, too.”

“Captain Jack can fight any old alligator. I’m not afraid of them. You?” Ari asked, searching out his brother’s eyes over the top of Jack’s head.

“Yeah, I’m afraid of them. I guess.”

“You could fight an alligator couldn’t you, Captain Jack?” Ari asked as Suz reached up and took one boy then the other from Jack’s shoulders.

“I never tried. I’ve eaten alligator though. Have you ever done that? They cook them down in Louisiana. There are lots of alligators down there.”

“Ewww.” The boys sang out.

“What do they taste like?” Caleb asked.

Jack smiled, “Chicken.” They walked into the eating tent, and Jack put his bag on the floor.

“Captain Jack has a best friend named Gator, you know how he got that name?” Suz asked.

“’Cause he swims like an alligator?” Ari guessed.

“’Cause he hunts alligators?”

Jack chuckled. “He wrestled an alligator, just one. But it was a big one. Bigger than Gator is for sure.”

“Bigger than you even?” Caleb was wide eyed at the idea.

“The alligator was bigger than me. It was about as big as if you stood on my shoulders and reached for the sky. It was a great big gator. What happened was, Gator was swimming in a swamp.”

“You shouldn’t do that. Swamps aren’t good places to swim. He could swim in our pool with us, though.”

“Shh Ari, I want to hear.” Caleb scolded.

Jack moved to a bench and sat down. The boys had huddled in front of him. “Alligators are stealthy. They don’t make any noise. This massive alligator snuck up behind Gator and grabbed him.” Jack reached out and squeezed Caleb around the waist.

Caleb giggled.

“Gator knew he had to do something to get himself free so he reached around the alligator and hugged him.”

Both boys reached their scrawny arms around Jack and hugged.

“Tight. Tight. Tight. Tighter than that.”

They scrunched their faces up and tried to squeeze Jack harder yet. Then Jack fell over onto the ground and closed his eyes. The boys looked at each other, astonished. Slowly they crawled up giant Jack. Ari reached out and lifted Jack’s eyelid. Jack sat up with a roar and grabbed the boys to tickle them. They were laughing hysterically, and Suz’s heart was warmed. She was so glad to see the boys looking like themselves, feeling happy and safe, even if they were in the middle of a tropical forest.

Suddenly, Jack froze.

“Red light” he whispered. The boys instantly froze.

Something had caught Jack’s attention. His eyes stared down at the ground, but Suz could almost feel the rings of his attention spreading wider and wider like a ripples of water after pitching in a stone. He flicked his wrist up and checked his watch at the same time as he pushed himself up.

“Come on guys we’re going to take a little walk in the woods.” He yanked the straps of his pack over his shoulders.

“But we just got here, I’m zonked. You?” Ari asked.

Caleb sat down on the bench. “I can’t take another step.”

Suz was on her feet pulling the zombie pack in place. She wasn’t sure what was going on but something had come to Jack’s attention that wasn’t right.

“Quick, quick, guys, we’re going to need to run, okay?” He had pulled the boys up in his arms, not waiting for an okay. He was leaping over the single stair and dashing for the fence line just to their left. Now they were jogging along the perimeter. “We’re headed to the far corner,” Jack whisper-called back to Suz.

Suz wondered why they were taking this long route. Why didn’t they just move across the open space. All too soon she had her answer. The sound of ATV engines. As she ran they came closer and closer. “Do you know who they are?”

“Don’t think so – not willing to take the chance.”

Suz had a stitch in her side that was a hot poker of pain, trying to double her over. She knew she was slowing Jack down, even though he had a full pack and both kids, clinging to his sides. “Go Jack, get the kids out of here, I’ll catch up.”

“Suz, I—”

“Just go!”

Jack’s stride widened, and she watched his powerful muscles pumping hard. She did her best to stay up, but she was over a foot shorter than he was, and she didn’t run ten miles a day with a heavy pack the way he did before breakfast. All she could do before breakfast was sit very still and wait for the coffee to take hold.

The ATV pulled up to the front gate. Jack had moved through what looked like an opening in the fencing and had the boys off in the tree line. She was out in plain view. She went down on all fours and started crawling. For the first time in her life, Suz was glad for her petite size. Dressed in jungle camo with a digital backpack, maybe if she was slow enough she could get out the hole before anyone saw her. She tucked her chin. How many times had she heard, “Slow is fast and fast is slow”? She knew from the Strike Force stories that sometimes these guys spent whole days moving into range. Creeping along at a snail’s pace to get where they wanted, undetected.

It was an agonizing crawl. She heard the clang of chain at the gate and the call of confusion in a foreign language. She heard shouts and commands go up and the gate creaking wide. She refused to look at anything except for the open hole in front of her. She crawled forward. Slowly. Slowly. She had started to cry. Her arms shook with fear and fatigue. Suz tried to play a game. She thought of the Animal Kingdom reruns. Prey stalk their dinner slowly so the gazelle never knew it was on the menu. She tried that on for size, I am a panther and that hole is my meal. It felt silly and very unhelpful. Suz’s hands sunk up to the wrists in mud, her knees went deeper. The wetness from the ground had seeped up her clothing, wicking up the cloth of her pants to her t-shirt, up her t-shirt and into her bra. The light padding held the cold wetness against her breasts, sucking her core warmth from her body.

She heard the ATMs moving closer. Suz hoped they were just being brought into the encampment, and they weren’t headed her way. Suz collapsed flat into the mud and held her breath. Now she heard shouts of anger and dismay coming from the tents. Jack said they were full of bodies. How creepy was that? She pulled her leg up and tried to push off, but it merely slipped back into place in the mud. She slowly rocked up to her knee and continued the crawl. She was up to the hole. She heard Jacks low resonant voice.

“Perfect. That was perfect. You’re doing it right. Stay as low as you can and keep moving.”

Suz didn’t lift her head, she was hyper aware that her red curls stood out against the green like a neon sign, but she lifted her gaze and scanned. She didn’t see anyone.

“A little farther. Almost there.”

He was right beside her but Suz couldn’t see him.

She pushed through the fence and a green cloth flipped over her. She and Jack lay under his ghillie bushrag that made him look like a jungle Yeti.

“You okay?”

Suz shook her head.

“Let’s get over to the boys.”

Together they crawled into the tree line. Jack pulled back the camouflaging cloth and looked her over. He gave her a nod. He had taken in her tear stained face, but this wasn’t the time for cuddles. He rounded the massive tree and held his binoculars on the group. “Who are they Jack?” she whispered in his ear.

“I don’t know yet. But this might be a problem. They certainly aren’t our friends who expected to give us a ride home. And they aren’t Middle Eastern, not looking like Paraguayans either. They’re too fair skinned, and they’re in civilian clothes. They’ve got AKs and side arms.”

“What are we going to do?” Suz scooted over a bit as Jack put his back to the tree.

“I’m going to move you and the boys to a safer distance, and then I’m going back to pick up what I can. We know that they made a video of the boys, but the commander couldn’t get it out over the satellite, these guys might have come in to pick it up. Surprise. You and the kids are gone. The commander and recording are gone. The cell that was being funded by someone is dead. They’re going to be pissed.”

“The unit is coming back for us. If they’re surprised…”

“Exactly.”

“You have to warn them.”

“I do.” He nodded.

“How did you know that wasn’t them to begin with?”

“We were using electric ATVs. Those ATVs we’re hearing are gas run and make more noise which was a to our favor. Also, it’s too soon to get back to the base get cleaned up, fed, get some shut-eye and rally.”

The boys were sitting on roots wide eyed and pale.

“You know guys how Captain Jack tells you all those great adventure stories?” Suz raised her brow and let them drop to show that she thought this was fun. “We are on one of the greatest adventures of your lives. You will tell this story to your grandchildren. We’re going to take a walk to find a safe place to wait. I’m going to get some clean clothes on. And then Captain Jack is going to go and make sure our friends are safe and sound. Good?”

The boys’ coloring turned a healthy shade of excitement. They were on an adventure. They were making stories to tell just like Captain Jack!

They moved silently through the forest. Jack tried to take Suz’s pack, but it had become a safety blanket to her. Life-saving stuff was in that pack, and she wasn’t about to part with any of it. So she shoo-ed his hand away. Besides, Suz could see his limp was getting worse. He was going to destroy his knee then he’d be non-operational. Did she want that? Never. Nope never. She wanted Jack’s decisions to be made by Jack not made for him by injury or anything else.

They came to a small outcropping of rocks. A spring bubbled up at the top, trickled over the stone and down into a shallow pool, then onward down the hill. On a large flat rock that was as tall as Jack’s shoulder, he lifted the boys up. “Sit tight guys, Miss Molloy and I are going to walk over there and see if this is the best place to set up our day camp.”

The boys nodded.

Jack took off his pack and slung it up with the boys, and then did the same with hers. They walked toward the edge of the high area, a stretch of forested land was about twenty feet below. She stepped to the right, and Jack reached out his arm to stop her. “Careful, the rains have been heavy you don’t want to get too close to any ledges.”

Just as she was about to agree, Jack slid down in front of her. It was the craziest thing. She was looking at his chest then his neck then his face, then the top of his hair. The ground around his feet seemed to disintegrate. And like an idiot, Suz leaned forward to visually follow his descent. The ground beneath her feet fell away. Gravity swept her downward. Without control, she was sucked down and spit out like one of those water slides at the amusement park, except with dirt and no splash down. Jack was on a knee, his other foot braced below him as she slid past. He reached out and halted her descent.

She lay on her back blinking. Earth rained down around and over her. Disoriented. Not understanding. She swiped at her eyes. Green filled her vision everywhere she looked. And then there was Jack’s worried face over hers. “Suz, fuck, are you okay?”

“I think so.” She said breathlessly.

“Lie still.” His hands started at her head as he swiped and looked at his hands, swiped and looked at his hands as he moved all over her body.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for blood. Don’t move.”

Next, his hands started at her head and squeezed and palpated their way over her body. His eyes never left her face. “Does it hurt here? How about here?”

“How are you? Is your leg okay?” Suz asked in return.

Jack did a quick survey and found a tiny cut on his head, swiping at the trickle of blood. He flopped on his back his whole body shaking as he laughed silently.

Suz crawled over the top of him, her knee planted on either side of his hips, so she could look into his eyes, was this a symptom of head trauma?

He hugged her to him and kissed her.

“Why are you laughing?” she asked into his neck.

“Jack and Gillian went up a hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown. And Gillian came tumbling after.”

“Cute.” She pushed off of his chest and stood up. Her eyes focused at the top of the ridge. “How the heck are we going to get back up there to the boys?”