Rising From The Flames

Chapter 18 - Down to 12

Leaning against the car, Calvin kept her arms crossed and eyes locked on her feet. Jensen sat in the passenger seat, feet planted on the ground waiting for the teams arrival as well. 

It was an awkward silence, most of the night and most of the morning when they decided that neither were really going to go back to sleep. After what happened last night, there was no way of going on without an explanation. A rocket scientist wasn't needed to solve it though. She had PTSD, the guys had it to. But nothing like this, the Spec Op saw more than any of them combined. 

"We need to talk about last night Cal..." He sighed looking away from his hands. 

Immediately her voice was cold. "Not now." 

"Then when?" 

Shaking her head, the woman locked eyes on the oncoming truck. "Later-" for a second, her voice softened for him. "-just not now Jake." 

The first man to step out was tall, pale skin, blonde hair, and a five O'clock shadow. He seemed uncoordinated, stern, and clearly- the leader. 

Behind him were three other man. An Chinese man, his short stature and com hooked to his ear representing himself to be some sort of communication worm. 

The third was another American man, brown hair and a cold look. There wasn't much to him, other than the fact that he seemed to be the quiet one. 

Averting her eyes to the last one, a Hispanic decent vibe radiated off of him- immediately the memory of Sanchez made her cringe. 

"You must be Harris." the leader slammed the car door closed.

Nodding, Calvin now stood straight and looked him in the eye. "And you are?" 

"Old friends of the Sanchez family." he nodded. "My name is Duke, this is Lee-" he motioned towards the Chinese man. "-this is Archie," the other American was introduced, "and that's --"

"Christianson." Calvin finished. "I know, I've heard of you."

"Known Chris since we were kids."

"You boys have training?" Jake questioned them. 

Watching a grin spread across Duke's face, Calvin just awaited their response. It was a reasonable question, they were childhood friends- but other than that Calvin didn't really know anything about them. 

"Enough for what you need." 

This time Lee spoke up. "We have connections all around the city. you need weapons, tunnels, escape routes, underground maps, you got it. We can help with surveillance, security, and diversions. But the actual breaking and entering part? That's something out of our range of expertise." 

Looking over every inch of the men before her, Calvin was faced with a choice. Going out on a limb was something she normally had to do, and that's just what the case was here. 

The warm air and soft breeze seemed to slow time down for her. Within this parking garage, every sound echoed. But nothing stood out to her more than the look Jake was giving to her from within the car. 

With a sigh, she looked to him for a second then back to the others. "You got a way for me to contact you?" 

Lee reached into his pocket and tossed her a small debugged cell phone. "Speed dial one- we'll be there." 

Moving around the hood of the car to the drivers seat, she nodded. "Keep it on, you might be contacted sooner than you think." 

As Calvin started the engine, Jake sent the boys a two fingered salute and a smile before they were out of his sight. 

"You really trust them?" he asked as they joined the city traffic. 

Shrugging, Calvin merged inwards and began their way towards the inner city. "I think they will pull through for what we need them to, but when we get back I need you to run full background checks on them. I gotta know everything, what they ate for fucking dinner on their 13th birthday."

"Yes ma'am." he nodded before reaching into the back seat for his lap top. "So are you ready to talk about it yet?" 

Looking further down the road, Cal gripped the wheel tighter and sighed. "All you need to know is that we made mistakes Jake. The guys and I, we always tried to do what was right, but that doesn't mean that we didn't make mistakes." her voice got a little hoarse. "On one of our earlier missions, we were sent in to an artillery camp to place coordinates for a drop site. It was supposed to be one of the biggest exports of terrorist weapons in the region. We set the coordinates, moved to our evac site, and waited for the drop. But something didn't feel right." He could see the way she was reliving it. "I used Sanchez's rifle, and saw a soccer ball. Some kid chasing after it on the outskirts of what was supposed to be an artillery manufacture sight. But it wasn't..." her whisper shook. "It was a survivor camp taken over by rebels." his heart sank. "we had no idea, and we called an air strike on them. They wouldn't call it off, wouldn't accept our transmission." 

"So you tried to evacuate them..." he knew where she was going. 

"I tried. The others had no idea." Calvin shook her head. "Most of them listened, started fleeing their homes and evacuating the camp. But the Jets never came, an air strike never came." At this, Jake was confused. "It was worse..." 

Gripping the wheel tighter, Calvin closed her eyes at the red light and took a breath. "The fuckers sent in white phosphorous. Shit isn't even legal in war."

Jake knew what it was, what it did. He didn't need to be reminded. The chemicals melted the skin, surfaced the organs and turned it into a molted carcass. It was declared inhumane, all war technically should be. 

"They knew it wasn't a fucking artillery export. They were witnesses to the war, and the sorry bastard couldn't afford any witnesses."

Watching them roll forward again, Jake sat back in his seat and looked out the window. "How did you get out?"

"One of the military leaders pulled me under a Humvee. Burned the eyes like a mother, but nothing compared to the rest. I'll never forget their screams, the smell, everything we saw that day. We killed those innocent people. We called the air strike, and I couldn't stop it." 

"Calvin you-"

"Don't feed me that bullshit Jake. 800 people. Men, women, and children, all just trying to survive. And we slaughtered that number down to 12. And don't think that was the only one. We were soldiers, we were supposed to fight for what was good, what was right. But we were never given the full details, we always just followed orders. That came with a cost, and one that we could never pay back."