Page 2 of What Remains (John Worthy #3)

A half hour later.

The Moon was new and the bowl of the sky milky with stars. Night, velvety and deep, seemed to drape itself like a heavy curtain over the earth. Other than the hum of tires on the packed dirt road as they sped north and the occasional squeal of the vehicle’s chassis, there were no other sounds.

Flowers was on his second Red Bull when John asked, “You going to tell me how you guys ended up ex-Raiders?”

He watched Flowers, his face illuminated by the green glow from the dash, think about that. “Big ask,” the other man finally said.

“You going somewhere I’m not? We’ve got hours yet.”

“That we do.” Tipping his head back, Flowers drained his drink, the knob of his Adam’s Apple sliding up and down. Crushing the can, he lobbed the wad of crumbled aluminum over a shoulder. “Pop me another, Doc, wouldcha? Nothing like an icy-cold Red Bull on a hot night.”

“You forgot to add how much better it tastes when performing a court martial offense,” John said, plucking another can from the packs by his feet. “Like Roni and me being AWOL, however noble the cause.”

“You worry too much. No one’s going to court martial you or Roni. Ain’t like docs grow on trees. Now, if you were regular military, well…yeah, you would find yourself staring at a real unfriendly military judge.”

“Listen, the closest I ever want to come to a military judge is watching Jack Nicholson chew up the scenery.” A Few Good Men centered on Marines, but details. “I prefer a movie over Leavenworth.”

“Naw.” Flowers flapped a hand. “That only happens if you’re regular military. Worse they’ll do is ship you to a duty station at the ass-end of nowhere, say…the Antarctic or something.”

“There’s no army base there.”

“Alaska, then. They do got a couple bases up there. Except you won’t land there either. You don’t need them, man, but they sure as hell need you .” Flowers flicked a look. “You really that worried, Doc?”

“I find worry to be a very healthy emotion. It generally keeps people from taking stupid chances.”

“Drink a Red Bull. You’ll feel better.”

Having once tried a can in med school, John doubted that. The stuff tasted like carbonated cough syrup. “No thanks. I prefer real coffee and real chocolate. I’m also unsure that caffeine is going to make me less jacked.”

“Then take a nap. I need you to be awake and alert just in case I got to catch a couple winks.”

“Are you kidding? The way you’re going through this stuff, you’ll be vibrating by morning.”

“True.” Flowers slipped him a sidelong glance.

“Doc, listen, I know you’re worried, but if there’s any trouble about us slipping Shahida’s kids onto that last transport, we just leak it to the newspeople.

Trust me, the military’s not gonna want that kind of negative publicity.

How would it look if word got out that they denied a bunch of kids passage outta this hellhole? ”

“Okay.” He wasn’t convinced. “But I thought this was a clandestine, spook-driven snatch and grab.”

“Oh, yeah. Well…” Flowers scratched the underside of his jaw. “Okay, so we leak about you and Roni, and maybe then we’ll get a commendation and, you know, our dignity back.”

“You forgot quiet pride in a job well done.”

“Not to mention a shitload of back pay,” Flowers added. “And likely reinstated.”

“Reinstated?” he asked lightly. “So, you were kicked out of the Raiders?” When Flowers didn’t reply, he pressed. “Does the fact that you need to be reinstated have anything to do with why you’ve hooked up with Mac and Shahida?”

“Why, Doc,” Flowers drawled. “Look at you, getting all sneaky. Don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing there.”

“Don’t think I don’t see you trying to change the subject. I know you guys have done this before. I know you’re working with a spook. The question is why ?”

“Young boys ending up as sex slaves to pervs isn’t enough for you?”

“At the risk of sounding cynical, there are all sorts of things that force you to cross a lot of moral boundaries.” He knew what he was talking about, too, seeing as how he had first-hand experience.

When he was fifteen, he crossed just such a boundary.

With no hope of going back either. “So how is it that you guys get booted out of the Raiders only to end up with a spook like Mac? And don’t say it’s kind of a long story. ”

“Well, it is.” Flowers paused then sighed. “Fine, fine, I guess we owe you that much. But I’m serious about the Red Bull. You stop holding it hostage, I’ll tell you.”

“You’ll tell me, regardless.” But he handed over the energy drink. “How long has it been?”

“That we’ve been with Mac?” Flowers took a pull, swallowed, then said, “Couple of years. We met him right after.”

“Right after what?”

“Right after…” Flowers trailed off then said, “Listen, you can’t breathe a word of this to Driver. Just keep this between us, all right?”

“Scout’s honor.”

“This isn’t a joke , man. We’re talking life and death here, we’re talking…” Flowers fumbled. “It’s damn serious is what I’m saying.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, and meant it. “What happened? What got you guys booted out?”

Tossing back a mouthful of Red Bull the way another man might do a shot, Flowers swallowed then said, “I hear you’re a movie guy. You ever seen The Wizard of Oz ?”

“Sure.” He was puzzled. “Why?”

“What does that movie have in common with this place?”

“With Afghanistan?” He thought of that rich technicolor world, every hue so impossibly vivid. Afghanistan was, largely, a study in various shades of brown. “Nothing?”

“Wrong. Try again.”

“Well, it sure as hell isn’t the Yellow Brick Road.”

“Ah, but what grows along the Yellow Brick Road?”

“Grows?” Then he snapped his fingers. “Poppies.”

“Give the man a gold star.”

“You’re saying that the reason you were booted out of the Raiders is because of poppies?”

“In a way. See, about two years ago, we were given this little no-nothing of a mission to this little no-nothing village to burn the hell out of their poppy fields.”

“And something went wrong?”

“And something went wrong.”

“What?”

“Everything, man,” Flowers said. “Everything.”