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“No damn buts about it. You made a bad situation worse. If Logan and I hadn’t arrived at just the right time, I don’t know what would’ve happened.”
“Thanks, Logan,” I said to the driver.
“Not a problem,” he said, calm as ever.
“It’s foolish for you to even be here,” Cooper added.
“It’s not foolishness, “I responded quickly.
People had such a distorted view of the war. It wasn’t foolish to want to shed light on such a dark situation.
“Whatever,” he said coolly, his assault rifle nestled in his arms as he scanned the horizon.
Ugh. He’s so infuriating!
“Thanks for saving me. I appreciate it.”
“Just doing my job,” he said, shaking his helmet covered head.
I sat back, wishing my head would stop hurting so damn much.
“Were they Taliban?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Damn straight they were,” Logan said.
The Humvee bounced and jostled all of us as he sped down a dirt road toward FOB Cobra. I’d only been embedded with the forward operating base for two days. I wondered if they would send me back.
By embedding with the U.S. military, I had cut the costs for my Afghanistan trip down considerably. In exchange, I agreed to let the Army approve anything before I published it online. They could not stop me from reporting the truth though.
The regulations and restrictions had turned out to be harsher than I ever imagined once I’d arrived, which is why I had snuck into Samangan on my own. Several sources had given me information about a huge smuggling operation out of Afghanistan that involved members of the U.S. Army.
I suspected everyone at FOB Cobra, including Cooper and Logan. The two were best buddies from what I’d been able to gather. All the military types were usually close-knit groups, but I thought I could get to the bottom of the story. That meant finding out if my sources were lying or not.
“Why do you have to be so damn secretive, anyway?” Cooper asked.
“I’m a journalist. It’s part of my job.”
Outside, I noticed a tall, metal fence surrounding the small military base, one of the few still in operation a decade after the war in Afghanistan had started.
“The CO will want to see you,” Cooper said.
“I can handle him.”
“We’ll see,” He snorted. “You’ve got balls, though, Ms. Hart.”
“Huge!” Logan added, laughing along with him.
The laughter died down as we approached the entrance of the camp, the entry control point or ECP as they called it. I’d been getting myself up to speed on military lingo and jargon for two weeks prior to arriving, but I still had a long way to go.
As we stopped at the outer gate, a fully armed soldier whose name I didn’t remember walked up and glanced into the back.
“What happened?” he asked.
“The Taliban were about to take her from the city forcibly. We had a firefight and saved her.”
I frowned but said nothing to correct his version of the events.
“Damn,” the soldier said then stepped back and waved us on.
