Blackout

Chapter 6

Location: Imaia

Code Name: Blackout.

Time: 15:00 hrs International Time

“Report, sir!” yelled Blue at my back, forcing me to look up and dry the sweat from my forehead.

 I’d been working with the other men on widening the opening of the dam for the hurricane season. We had been at work since dawn. Bell and Reptile had suggested building a cement structure to stop the overflow of water, which was coming from two crossing rivers that merged too close to the nearest city from our base. After today’s work was done I would start designing a weir to control the flow of water, in case we were hit by a hurricane. It was the kind of work that wouldn’t stop. Exactly what I needed. 

I jumped down the dam, landing easily over some rocks by the riverside. I frowned when I realized Blue was smiling stupidly at me. Blue was the little pup of our group, still too damn green to take anything seriously.

“What is wrong with the jackass?” I asked Judge before opening my canteen and swallowing a large gulp of water. Judge took his sunglasses off, staring at me with a worried expression. He shrugged after a while but his expression remained in place. That expression always meant some type of s**t had gone down. f**k . I was damn tired and I’d faced way too many nights of insomnia these three last months for me to have the patience to deal with any surprises. f**k surprises. I closed my canteen, motioning for Blue to come closer.

“Report sergeant,” I ordered and Blue gave me a military salutation, standing in attention.

“Yes, sir! Medical Unit fourteen has landed safely, sir! Dr. Spencer would be our contact point with their team during their stay, sir! They have been guided to the medical camp where men would be staying in safe house number one and women would be staying in safe house number two, sir! End of report, sir!” I nodded, narrowing my eyes at Blue when the clown smiled again. He wasn’t the only one. Behind Judge’s back I could see Reptile and Bell smiling too. What the f**k was going on? I frowned, folding my arms over my chest.

“If any of you, motherfuckers, has anything else to say just f*****g say it,” I warned them, my tone deadly, “My patience is whisper thin so if you don’t want to end your day cleaning latrines started talking, f*****g now.”

The three stooges only smiled bigger.

“She is here,” said Judge, managing to halt my entire world with those three words.

There was only one woman that mattered enough to stop my world like that and Judge knew it. The spitfire I’d met in Miami three months ago. The woman who drove me half crazy with her impossible promise to remain virgin until marriage. I hadn’t explained what had transpired between the woman and I, but Judge knew I hadn’t been the same after meeting her. At a first glance I remained unaffected. I’d excelled at all of our missions, guiding our unit as  level headed as always, keeping them safe as I’ve promised. Judge knew differently though. He knew I hadn't bedded any woman in three months. He knew I'd emptied two full bottles of sleeping pills and that I’d been checking the police reports of the robbery, searching for clues that could guide me back to her.

My blood burned while I factored the idea that she was right there, just a couple of kilometers away from me. I bottled it up, keeping a tight leash on all the impulses that were burging to make me run to her and throw her over my shoulder caveman style. I took one step closer to my men and they all were smart enough to take a step back. Judge lowered his gaze, knowing it wouldn't be smart to say anything to me right then. I wasn’t fully in control of myself. Blue stopped smiling, sensing the storm brewing near him.

“Report stats, now!” I ordered and Blue gulped nervously.

“Report, sir! Her name is Max Cruz, sir! She is a surgeon, sir! American, sir! Twenty six years old, sir! Blood Type O positive, sir!” I paused, reviewing all of her information step by step. Max. The name suited the little firecracker. I tried imagining her name a thousand times but never thought it would be something like Max. s**t, I liked her even more now. Silently I put on the wife beater shirt I’d thrown over the rocks and started moving to the military humvee I parked by the road. My men were following me fast, all of them smiling like the clown they were. I stopped, frowning at them.

“Going somewhere?” I asked and they all stood in attention, including Ghost and Tower, who had been working on the dam with me the whole day. They were all standing in a line, barely containing their excitement.They all knew it, goddammit. They all knew how tight Max had me by the balls. I clenched my jaw, feeling a nerve twitch by my chin. s**t, I thought I’d been a f**k ton more unassuming than what they gave me credit for. I was about to tear them all a new one when the sound of a gunshot made us all move as one, tilting our head to the northeast.

The wind was running from the southeast to the north today. That could throw me off a couple of miles to the west which situated the gunshot site about one mile away, to the rear end of the jungle near the river. I opened my right hand and closed it in a fist. All my men stood in attention before I lifted two fingers up indicating the highest ranked men were following me. Then a flat hand and another closed fist. We broke formation after that, with Tower, Blue, Bell and Ghost going to turn on the humvees and Judge following me with Reptile at my back. We had been trained to never speak a word in the middle of a mission. Any sound, any word or whisper could mean death.

We ran fast, pumping our legs faster the moment we entered the jungle and then moving in a close group to the west. The gunshot had sounded sharp and short. A small bullet caliber was the only that could make that sharp sound. Around 0.45 inches in diameter and under half an inch wide. A handgun. A shot in the jungle. Probably guerrilla warfare between criminal bands, the type of s**t I would have to document and file but no real threat. Motion by the east made me halt, raising a fist and then lifting one finger and ordering Judge to go after the man that was trying to flee the scene. Reptile and I jumped into action, jumping down a slope gradient and breaking our fall with a hand on the ground and raising at the same time.

A civilian came to me, screaming while trying to punch me. One lower kick made him whimper while I slammed my fingers on his throat, cutting his air intake. I stopped a kick, taking the leg of my next attacker in a hand and balancing my grip to the tip of my fingers. I pushed down with the force of my wrist, closing the grip over the tibia and cracking it. The man cried so hard that the entire jungle went quiet at once. One look to my right assured me Reptile had neutralized two other civilians. The situation had been controlled. 

The sound of crying made me walk closer to the clear. Sure enough there was a young boy lying over the muddy ground. He had been shot. Only a nick on his shoulder. The fucker was lucky, one millimeter to the right and his neck would have been long gone. Judge appeared by my left then, carrying in custody a large man with tattooed arms who seemed to be the boss of the group. The man looked me in the eyes and lowered his gaze. Not so tough anymore, wasn’t he?

Clenching my jaw again I started giving orders. 

“Reptile, we are taking the injured men to the medical unit. Prioritize the boy with the gunshot. Judge, send the civilian with the tattooed arms to the local commissary and fill a report with no information about our involvement, you know the drill,” the military shouldn’t involve themselves with the local disputes, it could be seen as abuse of power and turn into a bloody headache. Once in a while there were situations like the one at hand on which our implication was inevitable, although there were ways to keep things under wraps. I would be filing a report to my superior but there shouldn’t be any mention about our unit’s interaction on the public records.

Judge nodded and we started moving between the whimpers, the screams and the curses of the injured men. Ten minutes later we were on our way back inside my humvee, while I frowned at the boy bleeding his ass off at the back of the seat. Reptile frowned too, keeping an eye on the boy while I drove.

“You better don’t bleed over that seat,” threatened Reptile and the boy blanched, tring to keep himself as still as he could. Apart from his whimpers of pain the boy didn’t say a word. He was shaking, visibly scared. I lifted an eyebrow at him, trying to read him and the boy turned a little green on his face, closing his eyes and breathing through his mouth. Reptile smirked, staring at me with a smile, “Stop scaring the kid, boss.”

I grunted, keeping my eyes forward and ignoring everyone for the rest of our trip. 

By the time we reached the camp it was already night time. The place smelled like wet dirt, wild plants and heated mud. There was not much to see around. Just a bunch of tents and tiki torches that brightened the space. I’d ordered Tower to cut some orange’s skins and burn them at the campfire, to keep the mosquitoes away from the darkened areas. The citric scent circulating the air was a welcome aroma the moment we passed our tents. Normally I would have driven the humvee to the military site and parked it at the side of my tent, but tonight was different.

We parked our cars by the backyard of the medical base. The medical base was the only place around the perimeters equipped with electricity. The fluorescent lights brightened the yard, giving it a picturesque scenery that I frankly hated. I preferred the open jungle and the clean cut of the wet grass. At least those places were familiar. The manicured grounds...I had no idea what to do with that. The loud noise of the engines dying alerted the new doctors of our presence.

I walked out of the humvee at the same time a blonde doctor with glasses exited the building. I wasn’t particularly a talker and was already in a dark mood so I limited myself to opening the back door of the car and extracting the boy from it. I didn’t even touch him and the kid was already screaming as if I was killing him. I cursed under my breath, grabbing him by his nape and by all means dragging him behind me.

“Please don’t move him too much,” asked the doctor, reaching us and giving me a well rehearsed smile that made me want to punch him in the teeth. I narrowed my eyes at him at the same time a light scent of violets permeated the air. That smell made me pause and look up, to the set of stairs that connected the back of the building with the patio. A pair of hazel eyes connected with mine and for a moment it felt as if the last three months hadn’t passed.

There she was. 

Even more beautiful than what I remembered. Olive skin, hazel eyes and bee-stung lips. The doctor by my side was saying something but I wasn’t registering the words the fucker was saying. I’d been hypnotized by the temptress standing ten steps away from me. f**k waiting to marriage. f**k her promises. f**k not having her. There was something between us. A spark. A wildfire. Call it however you want. Everything that she was had been molded to the fabric of my very soul and I needed her. This woman was mine. She would always be mine. Today. Tomorrow and always.

“Major…?” somebody called me, bringing me back to the moment. I tensed, letting the boy go but never looking away from her. The blonde doctor said something else and then he moved, turning to my woman, “Dr. Cruz! Do you mind checking this patient?”

Max stared at me for another second, her cheeks blushing before she nodded, motioning for the boy to walk to her. I walked with him, never looking away. My eyes on the prize. Always. The moment we reached her Max lifted an eyebrow at me.

“I’m treating my patient now, you can wait by the resting area,” she said, pointing with her thumb to the front of the building. Cute. She was cute when she was mad. Now, why was she mad exactly? I risked one look to the hall, where I could see some nurses giggling and whispering at our back. I frowned, shaking my head once at her.

“I’m not leaving you alone with the boy,” I stated, putting a hand over the thin bag of bones standing by my side. The woy winced but was smart enough to not say s**t, “He hasn’t been frisked yet. You could be in danger.”

“Then I would beat his ass and stitch him back together,” she alerted the boy without a pause, giving me a tight smile and grabbing her new patient by his hand. One second later she was walking away from me, ignoring the space I occupied, as if I was as irrelevant as a fart in a fan factory. 

Her mistake was looking over her shoulder one last time before disappearing by the end of the hall. Those hazel eyes seemed to be begging me for a long, steamy f**k, right before she scoffed at me and slammed the door of a room behind her back.

That slamming door felt like checkered flags cuing a car race.

Game on.