Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

He’d been afraid of this.

To Shahida: “You trained them?”

“Yes, and so ?” Shahida’s glare was both stony and defiant. “They have nowhere go. They have only each other. So, if boy can pick up rifle, can shoot…then, yes, I show him for how to defend himself, defend his friends. For how to fight . No go looking for to fight, but for to save his life…why for not?”

He didn’t have a good answer for that one. In fact, he knew, from personal experience, how a child in that situation might feel and what he might do. “Where are the kids now?”

“Are you with us?” Driver asked.

“You going to kill me if I say no? I asked a very simple question.”

“They safe,” Shahida said.

“Yeah, I got that. I asked where .”

Shahida opened her mouth, but Roni—also quiet during Driver’s explanation—said, “Why does that matter?”

“What is this? I got to take a vow of silence? You think I’m going to run out and tell Command what’s going on?” Now he was hot. “You and your new buddies here are asking me to risk my ass shepherding a bunch of wanted kids—and don’t. ” He held up a hand when Roni opened her mouth. “Don’t try to dress this up as being any better than what it is. These boys have been abused; I get that. But they are not misplaced, they’re not lost, they may not even be orphans. Whatever their pasts, they have also been fighters, and now they are on the run and probably from someone who wouldn’t mind shooting me to retrieve their property. If I were placing bets, my money would be on Shahida being the one with a target on her back. For all any of you know, she might be your weakest link here. Eyes in the sky work both ways, you know.”

“He ain’t wrong about that,” Flowers put in and then, at Roni’s glare, spread his hands. “Hey, call it the way I see it. Man has a right to know what he’s signing up for.”

“Thank you.” John turned back to Shahida. “So, where are they? How far away?”

She regarded him with a flinty expression. “You know karez ?”

He shook his head. “What is that, a village?”

“No. For to bring water. Big tunnel.”

“What? They’re below-ground?”

“Yes, but no far down. Karez must be below…” Turning to Driver, she let out an exasperated snort. “You for to tell.”

“All you need to know—and because it’s all I really know—is that a karez is an aqueduct, only really long and below ground and on a slope,” Davila said. “Some of these channels have been around for centuries. The one Shahida’s talking about is north of here.”

“She squirreled kids away in an aqueduct?”

Driver shook his head. “In an access well and chamber alongside a defunct aqueduct. A cave, for all intents and purposes. The karez there got destroyed…well, diverted. Missile strike, and back in the Soviet era, judging from some of the stuff we found in the village.”

“Diverted,” John repeated. “Meaning what, exactly? Where did the water go?”

Driver gave a dismissive shrug. “Flowing alongside. If you’re really quiet, you can just barely make it out. No leaks or seepage, as far as we can tell. Place where the kids are is dry.”

“You mentioned a village. People still around?”

“Not that we’ve seen. The place is deserted, at this point. All the structures except one are rubble. It’s a ghost town.”

“Then why the cave if there’s no one around?”

“You never heard of eyes in the sky? You tell me where you can hide twenty-seven kids and have no one notice. ”

It was a fair point. “How far away?” He watched them all toss looks and said, “Oh, for God’s sake, just tell me. How far?”

“Six hours,” Driver said.

“Give or take,” Flowers said. “Depending on whether the lights are with you.”

He felt his mouth form an astonished O . “A twelve-hour round trip? How are you planning to move that many kids? What, you got the Magic School Bus in your back pocket?”

“That was such a great show,” Flowers said.

Driver rolled his eyes. “We got four Humvees. Better armor, and trucks are too slow anyway.”

“Still going to be tight. These had better be some small kids,” he said.

“Mostly thin. Figure in a driver and shooter, it’ll just be doable.”

“Of course,” Flowers added, “half the time we’ll be driving in the dark.”

“The dark? ” This just kept getting better and better. “And you don’t think a drone operator’s not going to decide vehicles speeding for the airport aren’t just a little bit suspicious and call in a missile strike?” John asked.

“Which is where Mac comes in,” Driver said. “All the relevant parties will know.”

“While he sits in a cushy armchair and watches this go down via live feed?”

“Not Mac,” Flowers said. “He’ll be with Driver. Adds a little incentive to get it right, know what I’m saying?”

“Meaning you can count on the left hand knowing what the right is doing?”

“Meaning we’re in the clear from our side,” Driver said.

“And from the other? Say, the Taliban?” He spared a glance for Shahida. “Or anyone else you’ve managed to piss off?”

“Hey, man,” Flowers said, “risk is our business.”

“Say, that’s pretty catchy,” Meeks said. “That Tom Cruise?”

“ Mission: Impossible? Naw.” Flowers flapped a hand. “Cribbed it from Captain Kirk.”

“I think we can count on our side not gunning for us,” Driver said. “With you in the mix, Worthy, we got just enough manpower to pull this off. Otherwise, we leave some kids behind?—”

“Which we no do,” Shahida cut in. A hectic flush stained the underside of her jaw. “You no leave these boys, Driver, not after we do for you?—”

“We won’t,” Driver said, cutting her off at the same moment that John asked, “Not after you did what for him?”

Roni spread her hands. “Does it matter, John? I’m doing this. We’re asking you to help.”

That little we’re really rubbed him the wrong way. Childish, he knew, but he felt a little bit like the kid whose best friend deserts him in the lunchroom to go whisper with new, way-more-popular friends. “ And I will remind you that while you’re letting Jiminy Cricket be your guide, we’re both supposed to be on duty in…” He flicked a look at his watch, saw that it was coming on four a.m. “Three and a half hours. Our shift won’t end until seventeen hundred, but if we’re out by twenty-one hundred, I’ll be amazed. If they really are cutting off transports at zero-hundred, they’ll stay open longer to make it look like they’re trying to make up for lost time today. It’s the processing and security checks that take so long. My bet is they won’t cut off refugees until, maybe, three hours before wheels up, say that they’re calling it a night, and simply never open up again. We’ve had such erratic hours to begin with; the refugees won’t be any wiser until we turn off the lights.”

“He’s right about that,” Flowers said. “Kinda not playing fair but does keep panic to a minimum. By the time word gets around there won’t be any more flights, they’ll have closed up this base so tight, a fart couldn’t squeeze out.”

“Which is why we want to get going now, before sunup,” Driver said. “Build in time for problems but leave plenty of time for us to get back before that last plane.”

“Easy for you to say, but we are supposed to go on-duty in three hours and change,” John said. “So how do Roni and I get around that?”

“Aw, man, that’s a gimme,” Flowers said. “Go AWOL.”