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And that I wasn’t 100% sure of what I’d seen.
“Sir, I only got a brief glimpse – ”
“An RKG could kill a dozen men. It’s not worth the risk. Do it.”
He was right about the grenade’s potential for destruction.
But I wasn’t even sure it was an RKG.
And even if it was, there wasn’t any immediate intent on her part to throw it. She was still frozen in the street like a deer in headlights.
“It might have been something else,” I said.
“You just said – ”
“I can’t be sure, sir. I could be wrong.”
“I’ll take responsibility. Fire when – ”
“Sir – ”
“DO IT! That’s a direct order!”
FUCK –
I lowered my sights and pulled the trigger.
CRACK!
The ground right in front of the woman erupted in a cloud of dust and rocks.
The explosion at her feet broke her out of her paralysis. She turned and fled, her black robes fluttering behind her.
If she had a grenade, she never threw it.
…if she had a grenade.
I breathed a sigh of relief as she darted down an alleyway and ran far away from the soldiers.
“Overwatch One,” said the NATO officer’s voice, cold as the Arctic, “you are relieved of duty. Officer Benton, get the fuck up there, NOW.”
10
Back at the base, I got ripped a new asshole by my squad’s commanding officer.
“You FUCKING IDIOT!” he roared in Swedish as I stood at attention in his office. “Do you know how many men could’ve died today because of what you did?!”
“Sir – ”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP, HENRIKSSON! Your actions today made our entire outfit look bad in front of the Americans and NATO! You’ve embarrassed me, your squad-mates, and your country!”
I knew for a fact that most of my squad didn’t blame me at all.
Tough call, man, several of them had told me later. Lucky nothing happened.
They were right.
I’d been very lucky that nothing had happened.
