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TEXT CHAT

Lodestar: Yo, how goes it with Temper?

Eagle Eyes: Same old, same old.

Lodestar: Any change in her routine?

Eagle Eyes: Nope. Not since she became the deputy director, at any rate.

Eagle Eyes: You getting sick of paying me to watch this boring bitch?

Lodestar: Nah. I figure I’m building your kid’s college fund.

Eagle Eyes: My kid? How the fuck did you know Ama is pregnant?

Lodestar: :P You shouldn’t ask stupid questions.

Eagle Eyes: Touché. No one else knows. We’re keeping it close to our chests. Keys and Saint haven’t told anyone either.

Lodestar: Must be real awkward with so much family. They never talk about that shit in the poly books.

Eagle Eyes: It is what it is. Since when do you read books on polyamory?

Lodestar: Since my sisters-in-law introed me to the world of smut. It’s an eye-opener, lemme tell you.

Eagle Eyes: I know. Ama’s just as bad. Or do I mean good? :P

Lodestar: You mean good, hah.

Lodestar: I won’t say dick about the sprog, anyway, lol.

Eagle Eyes: Just FYI, I ain’t a charity case, Star. I’m perfectly capable of making deposits into my kid’s college fund. If they even want to go to goddamn university.

Lodestar: Whoa, calm down, bro.

Eagle Eyes: I’m calm, I’m calm. What’s up?

Lodestar: You heard of someone called Dost Mohamed Khan?

Eagle Eyes: DMK, sure. Blew his brains out on a top-secret mission.

Lodestar: That’s impossible.

Eagle Eyes: Nah. Watched his skull shatter through my scope… No surviving that.

Lodestar: I killed a Dost Mohamed Khan in London. A few years back. We can’t both have killed the same fucking man!

Eagle Eyes: Sure we can.

Lodestar: What?! O.O

Eagle Eyes: DMK was a patrilineal name.

Lodestar: Meaning there are a fuck ton of men called that?

Eagle Eyes: Yup. But they’re specific to a certain family in the Kembesh region in Afghanistan.

Lodestar: This is going to give me a headache.

Eagle Eyes: Look at it this way, they were all Taliban. Whoever you killed, he deserved to die.

Lodestar: Nothing is ever that simple.

Lodestar: Why would a soldier, dying on the field, tell his boyfriend to ask you about him?

Eagle Eyes: Huh. I don’t know. Which ‘field’ did he die on?

Eagle Eyes: I mean, the DMKs (that’s what we called ‘em) were asswipes. They were the dicks who got some mustard gas from their ancient armory and sprayed it over the battlefields of Kamor.

Lodestar: Dude, that was THEM?

Eagle Eyes: Yeah. One fam. I’m telling ya. All. Fuckin’. Douches. This is strictly on the DL, btw, Lodestar.

Lodestar: Figured that out myself. What was your mission? Take out the leader?

Eagle Eyes: Great-Grandpa DMK, yup. Alleged ties to Bin Laden himself and, they say, friends with a bunch of oligarchs in Russia. They were the ones who fed guns through Pakistan into Afghanistan.

Lodestar: Russian oligarchs?

Eagle Eyes: Yup. You know they had their mitts all over Afghanistan.

Lodestar: You remember the names of those Russians?

Eagle Eyes: Jesus, we’re talking intel from years back, Star. If I remember, I’ll let you know, K?

Lodestar: For sure. Appreciate that.

Eagle Eyes: As for the soldier telling his partner to ask me about DMK, I can only think it’s because Kembesh was the gateway for Russian arms. Who was the brother?

Lodestar: Dominic Ellis.

Eagle Eyes: Ah, shit. Good man. Fucking brilliant soldier. I loved being attached to his squadron. You said Nic told his partner? Maverick, right? They tried to cover it up, but Nic’s PTSD was fucking horrific by the time Kembesh hit. TBH, I loved the man but it’d have been either enemy fire or his own bullet. That’s how fucked he was.

Lodestar: It’s criminal that the higher-ups didn’t let him retire.

Eagle Eyes: Too good at what he did. Plus, what he didn’t know about the local topography wasn’t worth knowing. Honestly, he was like a mountain goat.

Eagle Eyes: Back then, we were losing ground, not gaining it. Nic was key to some of the terrain we won back. Then, he died and the clusterfuck that was Kembesh got covered up.

Eagle Eyes: Swear to fuck, whoever served and fought there each has a different story to tell.

Lodestar: I’ve noticed that. Not totally unusual. The only thing anyone can agree on is that backup was non-existent.

Eagle Eyes: I wouldn’t tell anyone else this, because they’d think I was crazy, but I always said the whole thing was a setup anyway.

Lodestar: You’re talking to someone who’s the right kind of crazy to listen.

Eagle Eyes: Figured as much.

Eagle Eyes: I always thought it was to burn the DMKs.

Lodestar: What made you think that?

Eagle Eyes: I got my mission. On the day of the battle.

Lodestar: No way!

Eagle Eyes: Yup. Didn’t know it’d be so fucking whacked but I managed.

Lodestar: Good job. Why would the battle have been to cover up your mission?

Eagle Eyes: Here’s where you’ll think I’m crazy. Don’t blame you because this is all conjecture and shit I’ve picked up over the years, but I think they were the only ones who knew about the Russian connection.

Eagle Eyes: The names of the oligarchs, I mean.

Lodestar: What makes you think the US would go to that extent to shield some Russians?

Eagle Eyes: You can still ask that after everything that’s come out with the Sparrows?

Lodestar: Fuck.

Lodestar: Double fuck.

Eagle Eyes: Yeah, that sums it up. Anyway, if I think of the names, I’ll let you know. You sure you still want me to hang out with Temper?

Lodestar: Definitely. Stick close.

Eagle Eyes: Will do.

Lodestar: Do me a solid and get in touch with Maverick? I’ll forward you his details in a sec. He’s been trying to get in touch with you about this.

Eagle Eyes: Sure thing. Nothing to tell him, mind.

Lodestar: Tell him what you told me. It’ll stop him from thinking he’s going nuts.

Eagle Eyes: Got it.