CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The men were surprised when Damon, Calvin, and Vic showed up at breakfast the next morning. They assumed they would sleep in, relishing in their safe cottage and the warmth of their new beds. Instead, they were freshly showered, even wearing shoes.

"Good morning," they said in unison.

"Good morning, y'all," said George. "Let me fix you boys some breakfast plates and fill those bellies."

"You don't have to do that, George. I can fix it," said Damon.

"You can. But you won't. I said I'll do it, now sit. Let a man thank a fellow vet. That's what we do here." They all smiled at the older man, taking their seats.

"How are you feeling?" asked Gaspar, pouring them each a cup of coffee.

"Better now that I have this every morning," smiled Calvin. "We can't thank y'all enough for what you've done. Your man, named Ace, right?"

"Yes, Ace is one of ours," smiled Ghost.

"He checked on our families. Damon has a sister still alive, but we'll give him time to connect with her once this is all settled."

"What about you two?" he nodded to Vic and Calvin.

"I had a wife," said Vic. "She moved on, as she should have. It wouldn't do to let her know I was still alive. It would only make her feel terrible. She's got a good life. Let her live it. She's even got grandkids."

"No one for me," said Calvin. "I'm stuck with these two for now."

"Friends will get you through all the shit, man. Brothers. That's what y'all are," said Miller. "Did you serve under Kaplan?"

"You know his name," nodded Damon. "Yeah, we all served not directly under him but in his battalion."

"Were there others on the island?" asked Nine.

"Dozens, maybe hundreds," said Calvin. "They would move us all now and then, and there was always a man who thought he could escape. I saw more boys drown or get eaten by sharks than I'd like to remember. Wasn't just Americans either. There were Vietnamese, Filipinos, Canadians, a couple of Australians and New Zealanders. He wasn't picky."

"What was he doing?" asked Ghost.

"It wasn't what he was doing, really, but what we all caught him doing. Let me back up a minute. Everyone thought he was shady. Taking money from the locals, bribing officials to look the other way on things, that sort of thing. We thought he was doing it to save his favorite soldiers or something. Did you ever watch someone and just say to yourself, ‘that dude is bad'?"

The entire team raised their brows and nodded. They'd done that on more than one occasion.

"Well, that's what we felt. He was just a bad person. Not a good human. Hell, we were all kids, nobody over twenty-five or thirty, some a lot younger. But we damn sure knew he wasn't a good man. Just something there. Anyway, we were given liberty one weekend. All of us were stationed at Fort Mag, along with some visiting troops who were running drills with us. We got liberty and took a couple of buses into town," said Vic. The others nodded.

"We were young and stupid," said Calvin. "Wanted beer and women, that's all. We didn't want to buy women. Hell, we didn't have the money for that. But I think most of us hoped to at least have a dance and, well, you know." The men smirked, nodding at them. "There's no shortage of that in the Philippines, and the women seemed willing, and the beer was cheap. This guy comes up to us and says we can have a woman all weekend and do whatever we want with her. We got cocky."

"You thought you could save her," said Gaspar.

"Yes, sir. We thought we'd charge in there like the big, badass Americans we were and save them all. We didn't know the other boys were following us. We got there and immediately knew something was wrong the way the setup was. There were no buildings, no bathrooms, nothing. They were exposed to the weather. Women were sitting with barely anything on, staring off into space. That's when we saw him. Kaplan. He was handing some money over to a few guards, laughing with them. The bastard was laughing with them."

"What did you do?" asked Nine.

"We backed up as fast as we could, running right into the others. As we all walked away, we were telling them what we saw. We doomed those boys," said Vic. "We signed their death warrants by telling them all that was going on. I hate myself for that."

"Monday morning, we're all on the parade grounds for training, and Kaplan walks up and picks out a hundred and twenty men for what he said was a special mission. We were stupid enough to believe we got away with it. All our equipment was sitting there waiting for us. They sent us out on these small patrol boats, about a dozen of them. The guys pulled up to the beach, we got off, and as they started to pull away, the boats were blown."

"All of them?" asked Nine, frowning.

"All of them. This other boat pulls up, and Kaplan looks at us and says, ‘who was in town this weekend?' Everyone raised their hands. He knew we were in town. Then he says, ‘you've signed your own death warrant.' That was it. We were left with our MREs, water in our canteens, and what we were wearing," said Damon.

"That first month, we lost nineteen men trying to get off that fucking island," said Calvin, shaking his head. "Sharks, drowning, coral, it was everywhere. Twice, planes flew over, and we tried to signal, but we got nothing. If I had to bet, he told them it was an exercise and to leave us alone. Six months in, we knew we weren't just being punished. He moved us to another island."

"What about the other men?" asked Nine. "I mean, someone had to have reported all of you missing. Didn't someone investigate?" They all shrugged their shoulders, not having any idea.

"All the countries, we just considered ourselves all one unit at that point. We thought we'd use our own weapons to get off and then discovered he'd replaced all the ammo with blanks. We had nothing. Even the grenades were duds. We had our blades, but that doesn't work against a rifle," said Vic.

"Slowly, the men started to get sick. Fever, malaria, dysentery, colds, hell, anything, and everything. We lost thirty-three one year. That was rough. He'd show up and move us again. Him and his brother. Sick part of it is I don't think he could bring himself to outright kill fellow soldiers, but he wasn't about to let us talk about what we saw.

"More than thirty years, we've been gone," said Damon with a tear in his eye. "Thirty years and that asshole pulls up and drops off that sweet little girl all beaten and says she's a gift for us. Made me sick. Hell, we were in no condition, even if we were those kind of men. I'm gonna tell you, when I saw her jump from the cave ledge into the water, I never thought I'd see her again."

"Me neither," said Calvin. "She swam like nothing I've ever seen before. She's so tiny she skimmed over that reef without a scratch."

"You can do amazing things when your life depends on it," said Ghost.

"She knew all of our lives depended on it. She got by that coral, crawled into that boat, and turned to us. We knew she was thinking about how to get back to us, but we waved her on, praying, hoping that she would get away. We were even more relieved when we figured out that bastard's boat went down in the storm. That meant she didn't have him to contend with. Just a big old vicious ocean," said Vic.

"She was incredibly brave," said Nine. "Trak got her out of the hospital and to a safe house we own. From there, we brought her here. Our therapy and counseling team have been working with her, as well as our teachers, Elizabeth and Jessica. They said she's a fast learner, already reading at a first-grade level. It's remarkable."

"Man, that makes me so happy. That kid deserves it," said Calvin.

"So do all of you," she said, coming up behind them. They smiled at her as she took her seat with a cup of something steaming.

"Coffee? Aren't you diving in too quick?" smirked Ghost.

"It's hot chocolate, and it's delicious. In fact, chocolate anything is delicious," she smiled. They looked at her, noticing something different.

"What's different about you? Something is different, what?" asked Vic.

"Oh, my teeth. I saw Dr. Londyn, and she fixed my teeth. They don't hurt anymore, and they're pretty like all of yours."

"Maybe she can fix mine too," smiled Calvin.

"Actually, you all have appointments with Gabi and Londyn," said Cruz, walking up to them. "We want to make sure I didn't miss anything. Whatever it is, we'll be able to handle it."

"A doctor?" frowned Damon. "I haven't seen a doctor in a long time. It kind of scares me. And a lady doctor."

"That's right, big guy," smiled Gabi, walking toward them. "I'm a lady doctor and a damn good one, along with my friend here, Kennedy."

"She's an angel," whispered Calvin. "Look at her eyes and hair. She's an angel."

"Honey, my husband would seriously disagree, but thank you." Zulu walked up, hugging his wife, and then shook each of the men's hands.

"What in the world are you eating that your men are this size?" asked Damon. "I've met some big men in my time, but you're all much bigger than average."

"Mama would say it's her cooking," smirked Gaspar. "I think we're just lucky. You fellas, go with Cruz and let Gabi and the team take good care of you. We'll catch up later."

"Can I get another plate of food first?" asked Damon. They looked at Gabi, and she smiled.

"I'm glad to see you eating well. Yes, you can have another plate of food; just don't gorge yourselves. Cruz? I'll go get everything ready. See you at the clinic, handsome."

"I'm right here, babe," frowned Zulu.

"I know." Calvin, Damon, and Vic laughed, shaking their heads.

"This is the best place in the whole world."