Primary Target. Джек Марс
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Название: Primary Target
Автор: Джек Марс
Издательство: Lukeman Literary Management Ltd
Жанр: Политические детективы
Серия: The Forging of Luke Stone
isbn: 9781640294714
isbn:
He looked across the aisle at Luke.
“Stone looks okay. And speaking just for myself, I didn’t get a scratch on me. So sure, I’d say it went fine.”
The officers stared at Murphy.
“Sir,” Luke said. “I think what Specialist Murphy is trying to say, and you’ll see from my testimony that I agree, is the mission was poorly conceived and probably ill advised. Lieutenant Colonel Heath was a brave man, sir, but maybe not a very good strategist or tactician. After the first chopper crashed, I requested that he abort the mission, and he refused. He was also personally responsible for the deaths of a number of civilians, and likely for the death of Corporal Wayne Hendricks.”
Absurdly, saying the name of his friend nearly brought Luke to tears. He choked them back. This wasn’t the time or the place.
The general glanced down at his paperwork again. “And yet you do agree that the mission was a success? The object of the mission was achieved?”
Luke thought about that for a long moment. In the narrowest military sense, they had achieved the mission goal. That was true. They had killed a wanted terrorist, and perhaps somewhere down the line, that was going to save lives. It might even save many more lives than were lost.
That was how these men wanted to define success.
“Sergeant Stone?”
“Yes, sir. I do agree.”
The general nodded. So did the colonel. The man in civilian clothes made no response at all.
The general gathered his papers together and handed them to the colonel.
“Good,” he said. “We’re going to be landing in Germany soon, gentlemen, and then I’ll take my leave of you. Before I do, I want to impress upon you that I believe you’ve done a great thing, and you should be very proud. You’re obviously courageous men, and very skilled at your jobs. Your country owes you a debt of gratitude, one that will never be repaid adequately. It will also never be acknowledged publicly.”
He paused.
“Please recognize that the mission to kill Abu Mustafa Faraj al-Jihadi, while successful, did not take place. It does not exist in any recordkeeping, nor will it ever exist. The men who lost their lives as part of this mission died in a training accident during a sandstorm.”
He looked at them, his eyes hard now.
“Is that understood?”
“Yes sir,” Luke said, without hesitation. The fact that they were disappearing this mission didn’t surprise him in the least. He would disappear it too, if he could.
“Specialist Murphy?”
Murphy raised a hand and shrugged. “It’s your deal, man. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a mission that did exist.”
CHAPTER FOUR
March 23
4:35 p.m.
United States Army Special Operations Command
Fort Bragg
Fayetteville, North Carolina
“Can I bring you a cup of tea?”
Luke nodded. “Thank you.”
Wayne’s wife, Katie, was a pretty blonde, small, quite a bit younger than Wayne. Luke thought she was maybe twenty-four. She was pregnant with their daughter—eight months—and she was huge.
She was living in base housing, half a mile from Luke and Becca. The house was a tiny, three-room bungalow in a neighborhood of exactly identical houses. Wayne was dead. She was there because she had nowhere else to go.
She brought Luke his tea in a small ornate cup, the adult version of the cups little girls use when they have imaginary tea parties. She sat down across from him. The living room was spare. The couch was a futon that could fold out into a double bed for guests.
Luke had met Katie twice before, both times for five minutes or less. He hadn’t seen her since before she was pregnant.
“You were Wayne’s good friend,” she said.
“Yes. I was.”
She stared into her teacup, as if maybe Wayne was floating at the bottom.
“And you were on the mission where he died.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.”
“Did you see it? Did you see him die?”
Already, Luke didn’t like where these questions were headed. How to answer a question like that? Luke had missed the shots that killed Wayne, but he had seen him die, all right. He would give almost anything to unsee it.
“Yes.”
“How did he die?” she said.
“He died like a man. Like a soldier.”
She nodded, but said nothing. Maybe that wasn’t the answer she was looking for. But Luke didn’t want to go any further.
“Was he in pain?” she said.
Luke shook his head. “No.”
She looked into his eyes. Her eyes were red and rimmed with tears. There was a terrible sadness there. “How can you know that?”
“I spoke to him. He told me to tell you that he loved you.”
It was a lie, of course. Wayne hadn’t managed to utter a complete sentence. But it was a white lie. Luke believed that Wayne would have said it, if he could have.
“Is that why you came here, Sergeant Stone?” she said. “To tell me that?”
Luke took a breath.
“Before he died, Wayne asked me to be your daughter’s godfather,” Luke said. “I agreed, and I’m here to honor that commitment. Your daughter will be born soon, and I want to help you through this situation in any way I can.”
There was a long, silent pause between them. It stretched longer and longer.
Finally, Katie shook her head, just a tiny amount. She spoke softly.
“I could never have a man like you be my daughter’s godfather. Wayne is dead because of men like you. My girl will never have a father because of men like you. Do you understand? I’m here because I still have the healthcare, and so my baby will be born here. But after that? I’m going to run as far away from the Army, and from people like you, as I can. Wayne was stupid to be involved in this, and I was stupid to go along with it. You don’t have to worry, Sergeant Stone. You have no responsibility to me. You’re not my baby’s godfather.”
Luke couldn’t think of a single thing to say. He looked in his cup and saw that he had already finished his tea. He put the teacup down on the СКАЧАТЬ