Lean on Me Read Free Page B

mother and
father who have sacrificed so much for me and…”
    “ This is bad for you!” Alex
said. “What are you doing here?”
    “ This is dangerous
country,” the boy said. “We’re helping the Americans so that they
can learn to get through Paktika safely.”
    “ Alex?” Trece held up the
rifle the boy had been shooting with. It was an M-24, the standard
US Army rifle. Raz held up a box of “green” bullets –
copper-jacketed, lead-free ammunition made exclusively for the US
Military. Jesse, Alex’s best friend, who had died with his head on
her lap and was the best weapons officer she’d ever met,
materialized in front of her.
    “ Those are US Army-issued,”
Jesse said. “He might have gotten the weapon from the Taliban but
not the ammo. I know you’re pissed but Sher is telling the
truth.”
    Alex blinked her understanding to Jesse.
    “ Where did you get this?”
Alex asked.
    “ From the American,” the
boy said.
    “ What American?” Alex
asked. “Which American?”
    “ From Zutterberg,” Jesse
said.
    “ That one,” the boy leaned
over the blind to point at Hank Zutterberg. A bullet whizzed by his
face. Trece pulled the boy back to safety. “He shot at me. He shot
at me. He almost killed me!”
    The boy sank down against the barrier.
    “ We’ve been tricked!” he
said.
    Sher popped to his feet. Using a mirror, he
signaled his friends in the other blinds. The shooting from the
other mountain blinds halted. The shooting from the canyon floor
continued.
    The boy turned away from the canyon, hopped
the stone wall, and ran down the mountain. They heard over the
walkie-talkies that the other boys were following suit. Alex,
Trece, and Raz ran alongside Sher.
    Using one of the passages on Alex’s newly
drawn map, Sher jogged less than one hundred yards before meeting
another familiar boy. Joseph, Leena and Troy caught up with the boy
as soon as they were joined by the boy from the southern ridge and
Margaret, MJ, and White Boy. They waited only a moment before the
fourth boy, trailing Vince, Colin and Joseph, arrived.
    The boys shifted uncomfortably as the twelve
soldiers surrounded them. In rapid Arabic, Sher told the boys that
they had been mislead and betrayed.
    “ Alex!” Zack’s voice came
from the walkie-talkie. “Apaches, two minutes out. They’ve targeted
the…”
    The Apache attack helicopters flew above
them. Without hesitation, the pilots fired. The blinds blew with a
spectacular display of fire. The team and boys ducked as dirt and
rock rained down on them. Hidden from the Apaches in the passage,
they heard the men at the bottom of the canyon cheer. The trucks in
the convoy started and they could hear them move out.
    “ Did anyone grab the
rifles? Ammunition?” Alex asked.
    Raz, Leena, MJ and Colin held up the rifles
and the ammunition.
    “ Good,” Alex said. “Hold
onto those.”
    Too stunned to respond, the boys stared at
the blinds where they had spent the entire day. A look passed
between the boys. Before anyone could say anything, the boys tried
to escape. Alex shook her head. Trece, White Boy, Vince and Joseph
stopped them.
    “ Mohammed Ali Sher!” Joseph
gave the boy in front of him a slight shake. “Does your mother know
what you’ve been up to?”
    “ Let’s go find out,” Alex
said.
    F

CHAPTER TWO
     
    Three days later
Saturday early morning
    October 24 – 2:15 a.m. EDT
    Sheridan Circle Mansion, Washington DC
     
    “ So what did you do?” John
Kelly Drayson, Alex’s husband and vascular surgeon, asked. Alex
stepped into the warm lavender scented bath where he was sitting.
When she made a small grunt, he looked up at her with
concern.
    “ Is your hip off?” John
asked. His London accent seemed to accentuate his worry.
    “ Not that I know of,” Alex
lied. She smiled to reassure him, but turned away so that he
couldn’t see her grimace when she joined him in the
bath.
    “ Good,” John said. He gave
her a glass of red wine and repeated, “What