Noble Beginnings (4 page)

My mind raced
through the events of the night. Could he be talking about the guy we ran over?
That dumbass put himself in our way while we were escaping an escalating
situation.

Bill looked up
at Nathan and shook his head. “Not yet.” He lowered his gaze and looked at me
again. “Gallo says you told him to get out. He did. Says he watched the house
and that you and your partner didn’t leave.”

“How’d we get
back here then?”

“You know what
I mean, Noble.” Bill’s lips thinned and he crossed his arms over his chest.
“You didn’t leave before he left.”

“Yeah, well,
his team had an interest in hurting us and the family.” I licked my lips and
leaned forward. “If you are looking for the person or people who killed that
family, you should investigate them.”

“We did,” Jim
said. “They said before they left they heard gunshots from inside the house.”

I sat back.
This wasn’t good. Not by a mile. Their word against ours and out here our word
didn’t mean squat. It didn’t matter what I said in here, they wouldn’t believe
my story.

“I want my CO
on the phone. Get me Colonel Abbot.”

Bill shook his
head. “It’s not going to work like that, Jack.” He looked up at Nathan and
nodded. “We’re ready for your confession.”

The big man
slipped past my peripheral vision. The thuds of his feet hitting the ground
continued until he was behind me. If there was any doubt as to where he stood,
it voided the moment he put his large hands on my shoulders. His hands slid
down around my biceps, then threaded between my arms and my body, forming a
knot behind my back. In an instant he jerked me out of the chair to my feet.

Jim moved to
the spot where Nathan had been standing and pushed the table out of the way.

Bill stood in
front of me, eye to eye. “Why’d you do it, Jack? Why’d you kill that family?”

I shook my
head.

“I didn’t kill
anyone. You got this backwards.”

“Then why is a
family dead?” Jim said, pushing Bill to the side. “You go into a house, last
known person inside. And now a man, woman, and two innocent children are dead.”

“They were all
innocent,” Bill added.

My arms pulled
further backward as Nathan’s grip tightened. The strain against my shoulder
shot pain down my arm. They’d obviously rehearsed this several times with other
detainees. I had an idea what would come next.

Jim leaned in
close. His eyes darted side to side as he looked into my eyes. “You have any
idea how much you disgust me?”

“I got an
idea.”

He laughed and
looked down while rubbing his chin with his left hand. He jerked to the side
and his right arm swung up, his fist clenched and aimed at my head. The blow
landed on the side of my face. A flash of white light filled my eye and faded
as pain pulsed through me.

“Tell us what
happened,” Bill said.

“Nothing
happened,” I said. “We—”

He delivered
another blow, this time to my stomach. I prepared for it by tightening my
abdominal muscles. The blow didn’t have the desired effect. Although, I did
catch Jim shaking his hand afterward.

“We told them
to leave,” I continued. “Made them promise to leave.”

“And now
they’re dead,” Bill said.

“Yeah,” I said.
“I’m guessing they didn’t heed our advice.”

No one said
anything.

“Look,” I said.
“You need to get Martinez and his guys in here. Separate them. I’m sure their
stories of what transpired after they left will change.”

“Thanks,” Bill
said. “But we don’t need you to tell us how to do our jobs.” He turned to Jim,
nodded and stepped toward the door, his back to me.

Jim smiled,
then swung twice. Both blows connected, one with my stomach, this time a bit
higher and more damaging, and the other one to my face. He smiled at his
handiwork and then backed up.

The second blow
to my stomach had knocked the wind out of me. The burn in my lungs slowly gave
way to the dull ache on my face where I’d been struck twice. I forced air
through my nose and clenched my jaw while shaking my head violently.

“I can go all
day,” he said. “So keep up the BS.”

“I got nothing
to say,” I said. “We didn’t kill that family.”

I wondered if
Bear was getting the same treatment. There had been five guys in the room when
they separated us. Three stayed with him, two came with me. They deemed him the
greater threat because of his size. Would that translate to harsher
interrogation techniques?

“Logan gave you
up,” Bill said.

I said nothing.
I knew the line was fabrication.

“It’s true. We
worked him before we came in here.” He turned and walked toward me and smiled.
“He caved quickly. Of course, he pinned it all on you.”

“Bullshit,” I
said. “There’s nothing to pin. Bear… Logan wouldn’t give in that quick even if
there was.”

“I’m tired of
this,” Bill said. He looked past my shoulder and nodded.

My arms pulled
back further and I felt my body lift and then crash to the floor. Nathan had me
locked up on the floor. I sat upright. His legs wrapped around me and crossed
over mine. I couldn’t move them.

Bill and Jim
leaned over. Jim grabbed a handful of my hair, forced my head back. I felt
Nathan’s hot breath on my cheek. That wasn’t as bad as the smell of it, though.

“What do you
want?” I said, struggling to break the big man’s hold on me.

“We want the
truth.” Bill reached behind himself and retrieved a handgun. “You either give
it to us, or you die.”

I closed my
eyes and took a deep breath. I had their positions fixed in my head. I just
needed to free one leg, so I pushed back and kicked out with my leg, only it
wouldn’t move. Nathan pushed down with increased force and Jim adjusted his
grip on my head, gathering up even more hair in his grasp.

Bill brought
the gun up and placed the cold barrel against my forehead.

The room went
still with only the sounds of our breathing filling the air. I rolled my eyes
back and looked up at the mold covered ceiling.

What the
hell is above this floor?

“I’ve got a
question,” I said.

Bill smiled.
“Yeah? What is it?”

“You guys spray
in this mold for some tactical reason? Or is it just for show?”

His smile faded
and his lips thinned. He brought the gun down to my mouth.

I clenched my
jaw shut tight as he tried to force the barrel past my teeth.

Jim knelt down
and used his free hand to squeeze my cheeks. Bill did the same. Eventually they
succeeded.

I sat there,
restrained by a man bigger than Bear, with two skinny agents holding my mouth
open like they were feeding some kind of wild animal. Only it wasn’t a bottle
of milk in my mouth.

“I’m going to
give you one more chance, Noble,” Bill said, his voice escalated to a yell.
“Why did you kill that family?”

He removed the
gun from my mouth.

“We didn’t,” I
spit the aftertaste out, “kill anyone.”

Bill nodded at
Nathan and turned.

The grip on my
body loosened and Nathan and Jim pulled me from the floor. Pushed me back to
the wall and spun me around. They leaned in so that my cheek pressed tight
against the cold concrete.

Soft thuds hit
the floor behind me. Bill pressed the barrel of the gun against my head. “Sorry
to do this to you, Jack.”

My eyes met
Jim’s. He smiled, turned away.

I held my
breath and waited for the shot, wondering whether my ears would register the
sound of the gun firing before the bullet penetrated and shut down my brain.

And then every
muscle in my body tightened at the banging that cut through the air.

“Christ,” Bill
exhaled loudly and grabbed the back of his head. “Let him go. Put the table
back.”

Nathan and Jim
let go of me. I turned, pressed my back to the wall and inched toward the far
corner of the room. The two men slid the table to the middle of the room. Bill
stood in front of the door, his head turned.

The three men
nodded at each other.

Bill cracked
the door.

“Yeah?”

The voice
responded low and hushed. I couldn’t make out the words. Bill covered most of
the door with his body. Nathan hung back in the corner nearest me. Jim stood a
few feet from Bill.

Bill took a
step back, looked over his shoulder at me and shook his head. “Nathan, watch
him for a minute.”

“OK,” Nathan
said.

Bill and Jim
stepped out. The door closed behind them. Nathan walked backward to the door.
He kept his eyes on me.

“Bet I could
take you down,” I said.

Nathan laughed.
“They let you Jarheads smoke some good stuff, huh?”

I gave him a
half smile and winked. “Ten seconds, fifteen tops.”

His smile
faded. Eyes narrowed. “Screw you, Noble. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”

I took a step
forward. I held my shoulders back and my arms out to the side and back, ready
to attack.

Nathan banged
on the door.

The door
clanked open and Jim stuck his head in.

“What?”

Nathan nodded
in my direction. “He’s getting flighty.”

Jim
disappeared. The door stayed open. Nathan didn’t move. I had hoped my actions
would get him out of the room so I could have a few minutes to check the table.
No such luck. Jim and Bill returned.

Bill looked at
me. He shook his head. “You must give one hell of a reach around, Noble.” He
pulled out a pair of steel handcuffs. Stepped toward me, slowly, his eyes fixed
on mine. “You’re being sent back to the States.”

The left side
of my mouth lifted into a smile. I held my hands out in front of me. I kept my
eyes fixed on his.

“On whose
orders?”

Bill didn’t
respond. He grabbed my right wrist with his left hand, slapped the one side of
the handcuffs over my arm, lifted and tightened and then did the same to my
left wrist. He took a step back, lifted his head and looked me in the eye
again. “Keller.”

I nodded.
Keller or Abbot, it didn’t matter. The decision came down from both of them. I
was sure of that.

“You’re not out
of this garbage yet, Noble. They’re taking over the investigation, that’s all.”

He turned,
pointed at Nathan with a nod and stepped out of the room. Jim followed.

Nathan walked
toward me. “Think you can take me down in ten seconds now?” He chuckled.

“Faster,” I
said. “I got a weapon now.” I held my arms up and let the chain between the
cuffs sag in a u-shape.

“You’re
something else, Noble,” he said. “Too bad we never got the chance to work
together.”

He placed a
large hand in the middle of my back and pushed me toward the door.

I didn’t
resist. What about Bear, though? I didn’t want to turn their attention to him,
but I had to know if he was getting out or if he was stuck here. It seemed like
they had it out for me. Bear was just unlucky enough to be my partner, which
was usually the case. I stepped through the doorway into the dimly lit hallway and
saw Bear standing in the middle, surrounded by three CIA agents. He nodded with
a wink. It looked like we were going home together.

*
* *

We piled into a
sand-colored Humvee. Bear and I had the row behind the driver to ourselves.
They removed the cuffs from our wrists before slamming the doors shut. The rest
of the talk inside the interrogation room was just that, talk. We were free.
Abbot and Keller weren’t going to investigate this anymore than I would. Worst
case, we’d be reassigned to Afghanistan. At least there we could do some good.
Maybe they would keep us in the States and assign us to a new team.

I leaned over
and looked between the front seats. Two men I didn’t recognize occupied the
front of the Humvee.

“Where are we
going?”

Neither man
responded.

I lifted my
eyes and stared at the driver in the rear-view mirror. His eyes, set behind
puffy cheeks, didn’t move to meet mine. I sighed, turned to Bear. “Where you
think they’re taking us?”

“They said
home,” he said.

“You believe
that?”

He shrugged and
let out a loud exhale. “Think they’re just going to take us out to the desert
and leave us?”

“Thought’s
crossed my mind.” I wiped sweat from my brow. “Although, I don’t see them
leaving us there alive,” I added.

Bear laughed.
“These guys can’t take us.”

The driver
looked up and met my stare in the rear-view mirror. I smiled and winked as I
watched to see what kind of reaction Bear had gotten with his remarks.

The driver
shook his head. “We’re not leaving you in the middle of the desert. Just sit
back and relax. You’ll be on a plane soon enough.”

“Back to the
States?” I asked.

The driver
shook his head. “No clue, man. I’m just driving you.”

I looked at
Bear and shrugged.

“They tell you
about the family?”

“Yeah.” Bear
paused while rubbing his beard. “You think it was Martinez?”

“Makes sense. I
showed him up. He had itchy fingers to begin with.”

“Pretty brazen
of him, if he did.”

“Yeah. Maybe he
figured he could pin it on us and get away with it.” I stared at the tattered
canvas ceiling. “You know you’re going to have to shave that beard when we get
back on base.”

“You too, Jack.
You too.”

I nodded and
scratched at the growth of hair on my face. Leaned back in my seat and closed
my eyes. The only thing I could think of was getting the hell out of Iraq. Back
home. It didn’t matter where. Any place in the U.S. would be fine with me. My
thoughts slowed and I drifted off to sleep.

The car jerked
to a stop. I woke up, opened my eyes. The side of my face ached from the cheap
shots in the interrogation room. I saw Bear sit up straight and yawn. He’d
fallen asleep too. He cocked his head, side to side. His neck popped and he
grunted.

I turned my
head to look out the window. We were parked next to what looked like a single
landing strip tucked between hills of sand on all four sides. At one end sat a
small commuter jet.

“We’re here,”
the driver said.

“No shit,
Sherlock,” I said.

“Get out of my
ride,” he said.

“Gladly.”

I opened the
door and slid out.

Bear appeared
from behind the Humvee and took position next to me.

The Humvee
roared into gear and drove away. We stood alone in the empty parking lot with
nowhere to run to if things got out of hand. And lately, if there was one thing
you could count on, it was things getting out of hand.

Four men waited
next to the plane, all dressed in khaki cargo pants, plain t-shirts, and tan
windbreakers. They had holsters strapped to their thighs. Two of them held
assault rifles.

One stepped
forward and motioned for us to come over.

I looked at
Bear. He shrugged. We didn’t have any other options. If they were going to kill
us, it would be now. And if that was the case, I’d just as soon get it over
with. We crossed the narrow strip of gravel to the area next to the plane.

The man
continued forward and met us halfway and introduced himself as Colwell. He had
short brown hair and brown eyes.

“We’ll be
taking you to Germany, Frankfurt International,” Colwell said. “Pulled some
strings. You’ll bypass the terminal and customs. You’ll be escorted onto a
flight that will take you back to the U.S.”

“Where to?” I
asked.

Colwell
shrugged and held out his arms. “My job is to get you to Germany.” He turned
and extended one arm out toward the plane. “Let’s get on board and get out of
here.”

I passed the
other men without making eye contact. I had no interest in getting to know
them, and I was sure they felt the same way about me. I climbed the stairs into
the small jet and made my way to the back. Found a seat and collapsed into it.
I closed my eyes for a second and massaged the area around my cheek. When I
opened my eyes Colwell stood in front of me.

“Up front.”

“Screw you. I’m
not moving.”

He pulled his
pistol from the thigh holster. The gun dangled at his side. “Jack, move.”

I sighed and
stood up. “I’m unarmed,” I said, holding my arms up as I passed him. His dark
eyes met mine and his lips thinned. His head followed me. I could tell he
didn’t like being that close to me in a confined space.

“Don’t care,”
he said. “I know all about you, Noble.” He nodded toward Bear. “Him too.”

“Yeah, well,” I
said, “I don’t know jack about you.”

“And we’re
going to keep it that way,” Colwell said. “Don’t want you showing up at my door
one night.”

“No,” I looked
back over my shoulder, “you don’t.”

Colwell said
nothing.

I took my seat.
Bear sat down across the aisle. He smiled and shook his head.

Ten minutes of
silence passed before they taxied the plane in a tight circle. Then the small
plane barreled down the runway, cut through the air and turned to the
northwest, toward Germany.

*
* *

I slept through
most of the flight and woke up as the plane descended through the dark sky
toward the city of Frankfurt. Lights from cars and buildings lit up the black
ground like pins poked in dark construction paper and held over a lamp. I pried
my eyes from the window and looked at Bear. He clutched his seat belt tight.
Only thing I found that set the big man on edge was flying. Not so much the
flying part, though. He hated landing.

He glanced over
at me. Sweat covered his forehead. Beads rolled down his cheek and settled into
his whiskers.

“Take it easy,”
I said.

He nodded and
took a deep breath. His shoulders heaved up and down, forward and back. I’d
seen him do this ritual several times. He clenched and loosened his muscles
while taking deep breaths. The series of exercises helped him overcome and tame
the panic that flooded his mind. It’s how we were trained to handle any
situation where our mind got the better of us. No shame in feeling afraid or
panicked.
Improvise, adapt and overcome.
The unofficial mantra of the
Marine Corps. It always stuck with us, even if we spent the majority of our
time with the CIA.

Bear exhaled,
and the tension left his body. He smiled, let go of his belt and leaned back in
his seat. I didn’t think it appropriate to mention he’d have to go through this
one more time before our ordeal ended.

The plane
lurched and tires squealed as they touched down on the runway furthest from the
terminal. I bounced in my seat a few times while the plane set down. The pilot
brought the jet to a near stop, and then guided us along the outside track,
toward a row of terminals. The plane stopped.

Colwell stood,
passed by me and went in the cabin. A few minutes later he came back out and
motioned for us to stand.

We did.

He opened the
door and dropped the narrow set of stairs attached to the plane.

I stepped
through first. A cold breeze stung my face and exposed arms. We weren’t
prepared for this weather. I hurried down the stairs. An idling truck waited
for us near the front of the plane.

Bear came down
the stairs with Colwell right behind him.

Colwell pointed
toward the truck. “That’s your escort to the international flight back to the
States.”

I nodded and
waited for Colwell to join us. He didn’t.

The passenger
door opened. A man stepped out. He looked to be mid-thirties and wore a dark
suit, red tie. He walked around the back of the truck, pulled down the gate and
then turned to us. “Get in.” He pointed to the bed of the truck.

I looked at
Bear and rolled my eyes. He climbed up on the gate and took a seat on the wheel
well, and I followed.

The man in the
suit nodded at Colwell, returned to the front of the truck and sat down in the
cab.

Colwell gave me
a mock salute.

I gave him a
middle finger salute.

He smiled.

“Friggin’
cold,” Bear said loudly over the rush of the wind and the truck’s engine.

I didn’t have
to agree. My hot breath hit the chilled air and turned into a cloud of mist
that rose above my head.

The truck
rolled slowly on the asphalt, close to the cluster of white and gray buildings.
Floodlights spaced every thirty feet lit the ground in an evenly spaced
bright-dark-bright pattern. Planes were parked to the left, on the other side
of a wide median filled with dead, brown grass. The truck slowed and turned
toward the planes where a strip of road cut through the landscaping. We slipped
out of range of the floodlights, and the sky turned dark again. I looked up,
waiting for my eyes to adjust. The truck stopped before they did.

The suit
stepped out of the cab.

“Get out,” he
said.

We did.

“Follow me,” he
said.

We followed him
past two planes and stopped in front of a third. He held up his hand. “Wait
here.” He continued on a few more feet, pulled out a cell phone and made a
call. After a few moments, a door on the side of the plane just behind the
cockpit cracked open. Light flooded to the ground from the opening. A man
dropped a rope ladder.

Our escort
walked to the ladder, stopped and turned to us. “Come on, we need to hurry.”

I jogged to the
side of the plane and climbed up the ladder, ready to get out of the cold. The
man at the top grabbed me under my elbow and pulled me up. Bear followed and
our escort came up last.