Page 35 of What Remains (John Worthy #3)

“How much do you know about what went down?” Driver asked.

“Before or after I drowned?”

“Don’t get cute. I meant, after. How much did anyone tell you? Did you get a debrief?”

He shook his head. “Like I said, all your dad and I got back were crickets.”

“Remember I said Flowers and Mac made it to Kabul with ten kids?”

He nodded. “With Meeks driving another and Shahida and Musa, that makes three vehicles, right?”

“Yeah. Shahida and Musa left first. Meeks hung around for a good half hour, forty-five minutes until Mac told him to beat it.”

“You’re saying everyone had a good head start on Flowers and Mac.”

“Yeah. Then you wash out; they do CPR, and you start breathing, right? That puts them, conservatively, an hour to an hour and a quarter behind Meeks who is trailing Shahida by anywhere from a half hour to an hour, depending upon how much Musa’s flooring it.

Even after they finally get going, Mac and Flowers are put even further behind everyone else because they stop to allow the PJs to get you onto a transport. ”

“Okay. But where are you going with this?”

Driver raised a finger. “Hear me out. Flowers and Mac make it back in enough time to get the kids they were carrying onto a transport. Meeks meets up with them, so his kids are accounted for. That means a total of thirty kids, give or take, when you factor in the load you gave Drummond. But that still leaves ten boys unaccounted for, right? Because Shahida came back with a bunch of boys while you were on the road to Drummond.”

“Which means there should’ve been upwards of forty kids.”

“Instead of thirty, right.” Driver nodded. “When Mac figures that out, they go looking for Shahida and Musa.”

“And?”

“And they don’t find them.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“You need me to draw a picture? Worthy, they weren’t there. None of Mac’s contacts reported seeing them or the kids they were bringing in.”

He felt his lower jaw unhinge. “They didn’t make it in time?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Then what are you saying?” But, in the next breath, the light bulb went off. “Oh, my God. They didn’t make it at all ?”

Driver touched off an imaginary round with thumb and forefinger, like a kid playing at war. “Bingo.”

“What happened ?” But his mind was racing now.

This is my fault, this is on me, if Mac hadn’t waited, if he and Flowers had just left, if they hadn’t waited to see if we would make it…

Roni would be just as dead, but so would he.

All those kids would still be alive if not for him. “Did they ever find them?”

“Not long after the PJs left with you, Mac got an SOS from Shahida that they were under attack. Mac was too far behind to help and Meeks too far ahead . The PJs didn’t see anything either, but they might have taken a different route, I don’t know.”

“But, how? How did anyone know to even look for her on the road? Driver, I shot a damned flare at those guys. I killed a couple, and you said Meeks took care of the last two. I’ll grant you that others might have found Roni’s body later, but there were no other Taliban around when Mac left, right?”

“Worthy, did it ever occur to you to wonder how the fighters who targeted the aqueduct got there to begin with or knew where to go? No? Well, take a wild guess. Wait, I’ll help you.

” Driver held up a thumb. “Who routinely disappeared and then reappeared?” An index finger to join the thumb.

“Who kept bringing more and more kids in?” Another finger.

“Who was Mac arguing with when you and Flowers showed up? Who forced Mac to break his own rules about radio silence and risk letting you go halfway with a vehicle full of kids to meet up with Drummond because that was the only way to accommodate yet another load of boys? Don’t misunderstand me.

I was just as anxious to get those kids out of there as anyone else. But who made that doubly difficult?”

“Shahida.”

“Got it on the first try. And who said you aren’t a bright boy?”

That ticked him off. “I understand that being an asshole seems to come naturally but try not to live up to your reputation.”

“An asshole? Worthy, has it ever occurred to you, at all ,” Driver said, his voice low and quiet and more than a little deadly, “that there are days I want to blow my brains out? Because I am just as much at fault, if not more so. If I’d had my shit together, if I hadn’t popped so many uppers, I might have been able to get that kid, Buri, and we’d have been out of there.

We lost time because of me. I’m the reason that you died , man.

I’m the reason Roni died. She could’ve been out and safe, but she waited for us. ”

Hadn’t he gone through the same calculus? If only this, if only that, if only Driver hadn’t popped those pills, if only he hadn’t needed to go back for Driver, if only Roni had kept going…

“I can’t tell you what to think, but you keep that up, you’ll drive yourself crazy,” he said. “Trust me. Been there, done that, drunk the Kool-Aid. Before I checked myself into treatment, I got to admit that there were a lot of days when I wondered what gunmetal might taste like.”

They fell silent for a few moments and then Driver sighed. “And they say time heals all wounds.”

“They don’t heal,” John said. “They just don’t hurt as much so long as you don’t pick at the scabs.”

As they were sipping morning coffee.

“What do people think happened with Shahida?” he asked. “That she was followed when she came back with that last group of boys? It would explain why the bad guys knew where we were.”

“Best guess. Meeks kept an eye out for Shahida and Mac but didn’t think much about not seeing her because there was a lot going on.

Getting those kids situated and out on those last few transports was a logistical nightmare.

Besides, he couldn’t have known she and Mac didn’t leave at the same time. ”

“And Mac didn’t see anything out of the ordinary after the PJs took me?”

“You mean, did he notice blood spatter, bullet-riddled bodies, and a smoking, overturned vehicle? No. Best guess is whoever took Shahida’s boys forced Musa off the road. By the time Mac realized she hadn’t made it, it was too late.”

“Because the trip took six hours one-way.”

“Yes. Although he did go out again, obviously, to come get me. By then, he’d asked for a drone flyover, too.”

“And?”

“And the drone spotted tracks heading northeast.”

“And?”

“And nothing.”

He was dumbstruck. “ Nothing ? That doesn’t make sense. If they were hijacked or attacked, they’d have put up a fight. You’d find some trace.”

“You’re assuming they did put up a fight. Would you? Do you really think that, knowing they were outgunned and outmanned, Shahida would risk getting those boys killed?”

“No.” Anything Shahida had done was born out of desperation to help her boys escape.

“Then what? Let’s say they were hijacked.

Let’s say the hijackers had some sense that a search would be mounted that very night.

A vehicle driven off-road leaves tracks.

Even stopped, an engine emits enough residual thermal energy for at least a couple hours.

That should’ve been picked up on infrared. ”

“Actually, no, and you were doing so well, too.”

He bristled. “Don’t get cute.”

“I’m not. I’m pointing out assumptions. A drone is not magic.

A drone is not from Krypton, so as they say, ixnay on the x-ray .

A drone can pick up only what is either above-ground or so close to an entrance…

say, to a cave or the windows of an abandoned building…

that residual thermal radiation can be picked up. ”

“So, they just flat-out vanished?”

“No. Mac thinks they were just very well-hidden that first night. He pressed for another search two or three days later. That’s when the drone found what was left of the Humvee along the last passable road in the Badakhshan Province.”

“Wow. That far north?” Then the proverbial penny dropped. “Wait a minute, the Wakhan is?—”

“Technically in Badakhshan Province. Correct. I wondered when you’d figure it out. When a team of our people got to the vehicle, all they found was some blood on the driver’s side.”

“Meaning Musa was hit?”

Driver nodded. “But only if he was driving by then. We know she wasn’t driving because DNA says the blood came from a male.”

“But no bodies?”

“Nope, nada, zip. Gone. We figure that if Musa was hit or already dead, they took him along, just in case he was worth anything.”

“That’s pretty cold.”

“I don’t make up the facts.”

“How would they know where to attack?” And then John thought: Radio. He said, very carefully, “Mac called for a medevac team.”

“Yes, he did.”

“For me.” When Driver nodded, he said, “Which means he had to explain why.”

“Yup.” Driver made a keep rolling motion with a forefinger. “You’re doing really well.”

“Mac probably relayed details about what happened.” Details that might very well have included the fact that Shahida and Musa and Meeks and all those boys were enroute to Kabul.

“Yes.” As if reading John’s mind, Driver said, “Don’t blame yourself, man. This isn’t your fault.”

“No?”

“No. Mac did what he did. He had to be specific about what the problem was and what was needed. Even with encoded communications, that’s a lot of chatter and all that chatter means?—”

“Means anyone listening could triangulate on a position. Which was then used to target the others.”

“That’s right. We’re not the only ones with eyes in the sky.

Best guess is Mac said too much, but he’s only human and some bad shit was going down.

We figure they didn’t bother with Mac and Flowers because an armed chopper was on the way.

To be honest, I’m surprised whoever was listening in didn’t try to take the chopper down.

But I don’t think killing more Americans was on the agenda.

Might explain why they didn’t bother Meeks or his kids.

” Driver paused. “They were gunning for Shahida, Worthy. She was the one with a target on her back.”

My God. All those poor boys… “How would they know to listen?”

“To our comms?” Driver aimed a forefinger. “You, when your meet with Drummond was arranged.” He paused. “Before you start beating yourself up about this, remember: the entire caravan was three shooters short. I wasn’t there and neither were you or Roni.”

“I’m not sure that makes me feel a whole lot better. All those kids died.”

“Ah.” Driver cocked his head. “Did it ever occur to you they might not have?”

“What?” A jolt of surprise. “No, I just assumed.”

“Which makes an ass out of you and me. But think about it. Those kids were property, which Shahida stole.” He paused. “Mac is the only guy who thinks they were all taken prisoner and are still alive. He just can’t convince the higher-ups.”

“Prisoners for what? To fight?”

“Doubt it. No one’s fighting the Taliban.”

“Then, what? Let the kids go back to their old lives?”

“Passed around for pervs? It’s not impossible, but I wouldn’t put my money on that, not with what Mac has figured out over time.

What happened has stuck in Mac’s craw. The way he’s pored over maps, worked out travel times and coordinated with the intel on the ground that he’s gotten, he’s convinced he’ll find them all. The boys, Shahida. Even Musa.”

He opened his mouth, closed it again, then asked, very carefully, “Why are you using the present tense? When you’re talking about Mac and…” He pulled in a quick breath. “Oh, my God. Your mission . Are you here to?—”

But he never did finish that thought.

Because, from somewhere outside, came the sharp, crisp snap of weapons fire.

And then, a half later, just as they’d finished hastily packing up, Driver’s satellite beacon began to shrill.