car on a timer. And I guess it went off too late. They are

amateurs, the men who are trying to kill me.”

184 GH OS T RE CON

“Who are they?” I asked.

“The same people you are trying to help.”

I looked at Harruck, who rolled his eyes. “Scott, this

is Naimut Gul, the district governor.”

“Sir, I wish we could have met under different cir-

cumstances.”

“My driver was a very good man. Highly trusted.”

He shuddered and rubbed the corners of his eyes.

“Governor, if you’ll just give me a moment to speak

with him?” Harruck asked.

Gul nodded. “And now, Captain, I think you fully

understand what I’m talking about.”

“Yes, sir, I do.”

Harruck motioned me back outside, where we walked

around to the pathway between huts. The officers’ bar-

racks lay to our right, and one of the guys had designed

a little putting green in the middle of the desert, an

oasis of sorts that Harruck pointed to and said, “See

that? Crazy right here in the desert, right? Well, that’s

what I got right now, with that fool inside my office.”

“What’re you talking about?”

“Everybody in the district hates the guy. He’s former

Taliban, and he’s been extorting these people for years.

He’s a crime lord with ties to the opium trade, but he’s

still in tight with the government, and higher now tells

me it’s my job to protect him. He’s moving his office onto

our base. And you know what? Everybody wants this guy

dead: the Taliban, the people here, even some guys in the

government because they know what a scumbag he is.”

“So you’re not having a good day. Join the club.”

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185

“Scott, I might need your help here.”

I almost laughed. “What?”

“If this guy sets up shop here, we’ll be painting an

even bigger target on our backs.”

“But you got orders to protect him—just like I got

orders to capture or kill Zahed. By the way, I ran into

Bronco. His contacts confirm that the Taliban have War-

ris. I’ll be taking that up to higher in a few minutes.”

“That’s what I thought. And now I’m thinking about

a trade—not one that higher ever knows about.”

“What?”

Harruck lowered his voice even more. “The Taliban

would love to get their hands on Gul. What if we trade

him for Warris? We just make it look like the governor

got kidnapped.”

“Are you serious?”

Harruck spun around, cursed, then whirled back. “I

don’t know what I am anymore, Scott. I really don’t.

What the hell am I supposed to do with this guy?”

“Just do your job.”

“No one makes that easy—especially you. I read your

report.”

“Then you know if we can’t get air support, I’ll be

organizing my team to head back into the mountains

and blow up that tunnel complex. We need to destroy

that in order to better protect the school.”

“Are we really on the same page?”

“I don’t even know if our pages are in the same book,

but those tunnels need to go. And if you got a problem

with that, you’d better let me know right now.”

186 GH OS T RE CON

“That man sitting in my office is my bigger problem.

Blow up the tunnels, Scott. Screw it. Blow ’em all up . . .”

I stood outside the communications hut, just watching

Harruck’s guys deal with the burning car and begin

cleaning up the mess. That the captain’s people had not

done a bomb search of the car before it had passed

through the main gate was odd. I walked over to the

gate and questioned the guys, who told me they had

orders from Harruck to waive the search and not delay

the governor’s arrival—a mistake made by the young

captain. That car should’ve been left on our perimeter,

and the governor should’ve been transferred into a

Hummer and transported to Harruck’s office. Oh, but

that was so inconvenient. I’m sure security would

tighten now that Harruck had his 20/20 hindsight.

After leaving the gate, I found it harder to drag myself

back to the comm hut. I couldn’t get the images of

Ramirez killing the kid out of my mind. And I kept

shuddering as the shots rang out and the kid fell back.

I kept seeing that blank stare on Ramirez’s face.

And I kept wondering what I looked like. What

expression had he seen on my face? I couldn’t remember

how I’d reacted.

And then I began playing over his rationale, hearing

him tell me again and again that he’d killed for me and

that he’d saved our careers. The more I thought about

that, the more the paranoia filled my chest cavity like

blood. I knew Ramirez was worried sick about me

CO MB AT O P S

187

taking what he’d done to higher. Yes, I’d lied in my

report. But that still didn’t mean I wouldn’t bring it up,

fall on my own sword with him, and end both of our

careers because it was the morally correct thing to do.

My own sense of guilt would fuel his paranoia.

And because that doubt had to be in his head, I won-

dered if maybe, just maybe, I might be a target. I was

the only witness to what he’d done, and if I “died in

combat” the same way the kid had, then no one would

be the wiser.

After all, he’d told me he had nothing else in his life.

In the middle of the desert, in one-hundred-degree-

plus heat, an intense chill ran up my spine. What if Joey

did find some way to off me? No one would know.

I couldn’t bear that thought.

EIGHTEEN

It took another thirty minutes to finally get Gordon on

the line, and we switched to a video call, which was a

little grainy, with some boxy dropouts, but I still could

note the old colonel’s deep concern.

“You know I’m caught in the middle here, Scott. I

didn’t want to send Warris. Keating’s taking a lot of heat,

and he’s got no choice but to pass the buck. You know how

this works. I’m getting ready to tell them all where to go.”

“Me, too. Well, there’s no media here, so unless

Zahed and his people get on Al Jazeera, we’ll be okay. I

don’t know about his contacts in that department, but

suffice it to say we haven’t got much time.”

“No, we don’t.”

“Obviously, you want me to rescue Warris.”

CO MB AT O P S

189

“Not exactly.”

I sighed deeply. That phrase was becoming a knife in

my back. Then again, maybe they were writing off the

young captain? No way. They couldn’t be. “Sir?”

“We might be able to use Warris’s capture to justify a

big offensive in the area. It’s what that place really needs

anyway. Some big units moving through and sweeping

out the cockroaches. It’s too damned corrupt to send

you guys in there to take out one man. The guy’s laying

low, and if he does move, they’ve got him disguised. We

even thought they might’ve moved him in a body bag