Always Faithful

Chapter 19: If You're Reading This

 Bragnae stared at four computer screens in front of her as she pulled up imagery from the weekend. Her instructions were to perform a Battle Damage Assessment after a bomb had been dropped over a compound somewhere in Afghanistan.

Of course, her mind flashed images of Drake. She wondered how close this was to his location. The Battle Damage Assessment she worked on would provide the customer requesting the product a chance to see the total damage done to the target in question, to include if there was any collateral damage in the surrounding area.

From what Bragnae could tell, the building had been completely destroyed. There seemed to be some downed trees nearby, and a few people spread out, presumably dead. She was grateful the images were in black and white to avoid having to see anything too graphic.

"How's that BDA coming along?" Kiara asked, sidling up to Bragnae's desk.

"Pretty well so far. I'm calling this 'Completely Destroyed'. Would you agree?" She asked her supervisor.

Kiara knelt down to get a closer look at the screens. "It's no longer functional, right? There's no way they'd be able to use this building again?"

"I don't believe so. The bomb did its job."

"Sounds good. Save it, and email it to me. We've got to get this out to the customer," Kiara told her before stepping away.

"And who is the customer?" Bragnae swung around in her chair to ask.

"The Marine Corps. They wanted to see this immediately, so we need to get this out to them ASAP."

"Right away," Bragnae said, returning to her computer. After a few more minutes of building her imagery product, she saved and emailed it to Kiara.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was nearing the end of the workday as Liam sat at his desk going over performance reviews for his unit. There would be quarterly awards coming up soon, and it was his job to determine who the best candidate to push forward was. As he looked over countless emails and stacks of papers, a young male Marine knocked on his door.

"Captain Reese, sir?"

"Come in," Liam responded without looking up.

The Marine slowly approached his desk. "Sir, I have some news about the 5th Marines that are down range."

Liam looked up. "What is it? Are they coming home?"

The Marine gripped the paper in his hands, and cleared his throat. "Sir, the sniper team was... killed in action."

Liam's mouth suddenly went dry. His stomach dropped as fear spread throughout his body. "What did you say?"

The Marine swallowed. "Sir, Sergeants Walker and Mulligan were killed in action."

Both in shock and anger, Liam stood quickly kicking his chair back against the wall behind him. "Where's the fucking proof? How do you know?"

"The report just came in, sir. From Afghanistan." He handed Liam the paper.

Liam ripped it out of his hands, and studied the paper hoping there was an error or misunderstanding. His eyes frantically searched the document until he saw the words he dreaded.

Sergeant Drake Walker and Sergeant Chuck Mulligan of the United States Marine Corps were killed in action by enemy fire on the morning of February 23, 2019 in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan.

Liam felt his legs start to shake as his hands dropped to his desk to support his weight. He kept reading that line over and over willing the words to change.