CHAPTER 13

As far as Lolita was concerned, these were the perks. Even if this entire mission amounted to little more than ‘busy work’ for her scout platoon, it was still fun. Lolita could tolerate the time in barracks and she had even taught herself how to function while going through the day to day routine that was really most of army life. That’s not why she did it though. It was being out here, in the middle of nowhere, doing what felt like playing a game only, unlike when she was a child, life and death were at stake. There was no drug that could ever compare to this, even if, Lolita would never admit that to anyone.

It was ironic that when she was in garrison, a place that she hated to be, she had to pretend like it was dreamland. When she was out here, a place that really was dreamland, she had to pretend like there was nothing too it. Why was life always so backwards? Lolita realized she would never answer that question since she was no philosopher and, besides, ultimately, she didn’t really care all that much. What Lolita knew was that she was a soldier, loved it, and knew what her profession entailed. If you were a platoon leader then you had to act like all of this was nothing or everybody else got even more scared. If that happened then a lot of them would get more dead and maybe even you too.

There was another one of those backwards things that Lolita could not figure out and it was waiting for her back at her position. First, she made sure that Perkins and Glassman got their claymores strung, then she headed back. She checked her line along the way and everything looked to be going pretty much as it should. Her platoon ran pretty smoothly right now. Lolita still checked up on the guys but, you didn’t want to do it too closely or some of them might get offended. Right now she was wondering more about her guest. She found him right where she left him.

Mike Greene was eating a Meals Ready to Eat and he actually seemed to like it. Lolita slid down in her hole and took her helmet off, looked at the guy like he was crazy and then asked, “you really like them things, don’t you?”

The professor was licking his fingers and eagerly opening up that chocolate nutmeg cake. The only thing Lolita had to ever say about that particular packet was, what the hell was chocolate nutmeg? The whole thing tasked kind of like a big chocolate chip cookie, that is, until you had a real one to put beside it. Then the nutmeg thing tasted like dehydrated dog shit. There were better dinners in the MRE crates, some that even had brand name candy, coffee packets, and other first rate stuff but, for some reason, Mike always traded for the army contract dinners.

That led Lolita to say the thing that had been running through her mind, “you’re fucking crazy Mike. What you doing out here? We ain’t digging up bones and shit. This ain’t your job.”

That last sentence actually caught his attention, “job? This is fun.” Lolita blinked and not because she thought it sounded crazy. It was more like, because Mike had just punched her button and she did not want him to know it. Then Mike told her, “a job, that’s lecturing to a bunch of snot nosed brats who only listen to you cause they need to get your class over with. It’s having to spend all day in front of a computer posting assignments to a web site. That’s work. This here,” Mike gestured around them, “what this really is, is hunting and I like doing that.”

Lolita took a sip from her camelback and then dug out her own meal as she said, “yeah well, while you’re having fun over there, Indiana Jones, just remember that if something happens to you out here, it’s not just my ass, Katie’s going to be in a world of shit too.”

“She said she could handle it,” Mike replied with disinterest.

Lolita wasn’t buying it, “she always says that shit, Mike. That don’t mean…” Lolita blinked, “when did she tell you that?”

As he finished up his meal he began licking his fingers again and he told her, “here’s the deal. You don’t ask me about that and I won’t ask you about Melanie.”

Again, Lolita blinked. Then she recovered, “Melanie ain’t even here right now, shit for brains. So that don’t matter none and, it ain’t none of your business no how.”

“Just what I mean,” Mike replied.

After that, Lolita tried to eat but, she was now too nervous. She even thought that was weird because she was sitting in a hole in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by potentially deadly situations, and she was worried about this? It was insane! She decided to take matters by the horn, “how did you know? Melanie fucking tell you or something? I’m going to ring that bitches neck when she gets back to base.”

Mike laughed at her, “Melanie and me don’t talk. Least not about shit like that.”

Lolita growled under her breath, “yeah, well then who the fuck told you? I’m serious Mike. If somebody finds out about that shit I can get in serious trouble. They might not ask no more but that don’t mean they won’t tell you goodbye with a dishonorable discharge shoved up your ass.”

Mike just laughed some more and replied, “ok, I’ll tell you who told me. The only other person that knows about it.”

That caused Lolita to think and then she said, “nobody does. Katie don’t even know, well, not really anyway.”

He was still chuckling, and not with her. Mike pointed to her and said, “you know.”

Now Lolita got it. She snarled at him, slapped him with her MRE, and then she wondered how she fell for that shit, “fuck you Mike.”

“Hey,” Mike told her as he tried to be a little more serious, “don’t sweat that shit girl. Nobody gives a rats ass about that anymore. You getting your panties in wad all over nothing.”

“You don’t know the army like I do,” was all Lolita had to say about that. “Speaking of which, if you like all this shit so much, and you seem pretty good at it, why the fuck don’t you join up?”

Mike was busy looking over the lip of the hole as he reached up and pointed to the back of his head, “they’d make me cut my hair.” When he slid back down he said, “talking about knowing what I’m doing, ain’t we making a little too much noise out here? Should we even be talking like this?”

“Well you don’t know everything,” Lolita replied, “we’re trying to make noise. We want the snot blowers looking this way. We’re just the decoy.”

That was not something Mike really liked the sound of, along with the sounds of excavation tools hitting the dirt, the chatter of conversation, and occasional stray sound. He expressed his reservations, “yeah well, that’s one thing but, marking every hole we got is another.”

“They not going to hit us Mike,” Lolita said with confidence. “We got pretty good four one one on this area. They’re going to watch us, that’s for sure but, that’s what we want. Echo company has the real mission and they’re nowhere near here. All of it’s bullshit anyway. All this, everything going on right now, it’s all cause we found Snow White staked out back at that dig site of Melanie’s. That’s why you’re not digging, right now, by the way.”

“I understand all that,” Mike said, still concerned, “hell that’s why I’m here. I hate sitting around in that tree all the damn time. I wanted to be doing something. Only hanging out as dried bait wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

“Welcome to the army,” Lolita said as she winced at the dried pork patty in her meal. It tasted like crap and even after a liberal dose of hot sauce.

“You know I been thinking about all that,” Mike told her. “That stuff with Sayers. Everybody’s twisting their heads off, trying to figure it out, and it looks pretty fucking obvious to me.” Vega shrugged, waiting for an answer so Mike told her, “she’s some kind of Trojan Horse.”

“Huh?” Lolita shook her head, “now you finally sound like a school teacher and not some Hell’s Angel. What the fuck is a Trojan Horse? A condom?”

Mike rolled his eyes, “they ain’t trying to have safe sex with us Lolita. They trying to win a war so, I got to figure, whatever reason they gave that girl back, can’t be good for us.”

“Oh god,” Lolita slapped her forehead, “Mike, the Orc’s didn’t have her. They don’t take prisoners. I know, I’ve seen it. If they ain’t trying to separate your upper from your lower with that twenty five millimeter shell of theirs, they’re trying to separate your right from your left with that big ass axe blade. Sides that, they’re fucking animals. They don’t come up with plans and shit. Not like we do.”

“Really?” Mike was not impressed, “they were smart enough to drop a tree on that firebase you was at. You talk about that shit every time you get lit. They smart enough to make armor and helmets and all that stuff.”

Lolita had never thought about it like that and, more important, she really didn’t want too. What she did wonder about was Mike. It was not just what he was saying now. He had said a lot of stuff since he showed up. That got Lolita to wondering about other things too. She could never imagine Katie being so reckless as to let this guy tag along on a combat operation and this was Mike’s third one. Why would she do that unless…. Lolita just asked, “you know Mike, for a guy who digs up fossils with the back tire of his Harley Davidson, you sure know a lot about the snot blowers. What the fuck is up with that anyway?”

Mike laughed, “it’s called reading. You should try it sometime.”

“Now you sound like my ex fucking boyfriend,” Lolita replied. When she saw the strange look that it earned her she replied, “don’t ask ether. That was a long time ago.” Vega quickly decided to change the subject, “don’t matter no how. I’m telling you that Sayers was the work of the goddamn werewolf, and that’s all there is too that.”

“You keep talking about that,” Mike noted. “You still ain’t told me what it is.”

“That’s cause I don’t know, shit for brains,” Lolita quickly replied. “Katie told me not to even mention it no more. She knows something though. A lot of people do.” That did not answer the question and Mike said as much. Lolita seemed frustrated when she answered, “a lot weird shit has been going on. Like what happened to Melanie’s play pen. Op’s keep getting sabotaged, in the field, in such a way that they look like accidents. Nobody ever gets hurt so nobody ever investigates.”

That stood to reason and Katie had told Mike, pretty much, the same thing. The difference was that Mike knew something that Lolita did not. That being, Katie was skeptical of the claims. She had told Mike as much and without reservation. If there was a conspiracy of silence then Katie Mack sure as hell had nothing to do with it. That didn’t mean that Mike discounted Lolita’s hunch. Mike was smart enough to understand that Lolita was the one on the spot, out here, and Katie was just getting second hand info. Second hand stuff quite often lacked the impressions that one got from being there. Sometimes that was a good thing, sometimes, not so much. Which one was this?

“Why do you call all this stuff, the werewolf?” That was a question that seemed relevant.

Lolita just shrugged, “I don’t know. I didn’t make the name up. I guess, cause, somebody thinks it’s like a wolf in sheep’s clothing or something? That’s what I figured anyway.” Lolita quickly jumped tracks when the speaker in her ear sounded off with a voice calling her on the radio. Lolita replied, “be right there,” and then she told Mike with frustration, “fucking Glassman can’t take a piss without somebody holding his hand. He better not have screwed up those claymores or I’m going to turn all those fuckers on him.”

As she got out of the hole, Mike joined her and when Lolita gave him a nasty look he replied, “I just want to see the ground, ok?” Mike nodded to the shotgun in his hand and the standard US body armor over his torso, “I might have to shoot something too, you know?”

Lolita only grunted and nodded for him to follow. When they reached Glassman he quickly showed her the problem. They walked along the line where the claymore mines were strung and, as they went, he pointed to each one. Lolita was more than a little concerned, “every last fucking one of them?” She grabbed Glassman by the vest, “you were supposed to be watching these ass hole! How did somebody manage to steal every fucking blasting cap right out of them?”

Mike was busy studying the curved shape mines, with the message stamped clearly on the outer rounded side that said, FRONT TOWARDS ENEMY. The little plastic twist on caps that sat on the top of them were screwed down loosely, and wires were still running in and out of them. Mike had never really seen these things before, at least not outside of the internet but, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how it all worked. The wires were strung from one mine to the next, so that when somebody slapped the detonator, it would send out an entire field of lead balls, kind of like blasting an entire area with an arsenal of shotguns.

As Mike saw it, the problem that Lolita now had was that the little silver cylinders, that were the blasting caps, which detonated the mines, had been cut from the wires and then wires screwed right back down. If somebody banged on that detonator now, nothing would happen. That set Mike to looking around in the bushes and checking the dirt.

All the while, Lolita was still snarling at her private. She really had no choice but to do it because she was down another platoon sergeant, yet again. This should have been a job for that position but, Lolita was stuck with it and she also got the usual flack back at Jungle Jim. That included Katie and most of the staff officers who laughed at her. Lolita didn’t think it was funny. She remembered watching her first platoon sergeant die, right in front of her while she cried over him. She had actually liked Ben Taylor. Then she took over the entire company when all the other officers were killed and had the First Sergeant cut in half, right next to her. This was followed by a string of dead and wounded sergeants, over the last year.

Lolita had developed a certain attitude about the humor surrounding her cursed sergeants and it was, “fuck all them.” It was just bad luck and, besides, her last guy didn’t die. He wasn’t even on a mission. The guy got appendicitis and had to be medivac’ed to Seau-Neaut airfield for surgery. Lolita didn’t know if he was coming back or not, although, she was pretty sure he didn’t want too. He was superstitious like all the rest and, she was pretty sure, he was even more so after he woke up from his surgery.

Right now, none of that was her problem. Glassman was and he was defending himself by saying, “I was watching eLtee! I never took my eyes off ‘em! The only person that’s even been out here is Perkins. I saw him walk the line twice already. Then it was my turn and that’s when I found them like this! Nobody’s been near them!”

“Oh yeah shit for brains,” Lolita snapped back, “then where the fuck did all my blasting caps go?”

Mike came walking back out of the bushes and said, “somebody’s got ‘em in their pocket. They sure as hell ain’t out here.” Mike looked at the two soldiers standing in from of him. They both had on their tannish/green uniforms that was covered from head to toe with bulky ass looking equipment. They both had on helmets that were covered in strips of cloth, probably cut from discarded uniforms. They both had their faces painted and darkened from grease pencils made specifically for that job. All of that made Mike ask them, “where’s this Perkins guy?”

Glassman pointed towards the other observation post and Mike tugged on Lolita’s sleeve as he walked in that direction. She followed him and they found Perkins right where he was supposed to be and, for Mike, it was pretty damn simple because the guy was snoring. Lolita was not happy about that and she swung her boot down in the hole and kicked the specialist hard, right in the helmet. He instantly woke up and, after recovering, did not seem particularly alarmed, “what is it eLtee?”

“Mother fucker,” Lolita snarled, “you’re on fucking watch! What are you doing sleeping?”

“I’m not on watch,” Perkins replied defensively, “it’s Glassman’s turn.”

“Dumb ass,” Lolita snapped, “you’re both supposed to be awake. This ain’t a line job shit for brains. This is OP!”

“Calm down,” Mike told her. Lolita was not happy about it but, Mike went on anyway when he asked Perkins, “did you walk the line?”

“Yeah,” it was obvious that Perkins was still convinced he had done nothing wrong, “just like I’m supposed too. Both of us do it every watch.”

Mike clarified, “you mean like once per watch, right?”

“Yeah,” Perkins told him before looking at his boss and snarling, “just like I’m supposed too.”

Lolita was about to fire back but, Mike grabbed her by the sleeve and drug her back towards the main firing line. When she finally pulled her arm free she then snapped angrily at Mike, “don’t you ever undermine my authority like that. You’re just…”

Mike put his hand over her mouth and said, “we got somebody in the perimeter that ain’t supposed to be here.”

When Mike’s hand came down Lolita’s jaw dropped. Then she realized, “how the fuck do you know that?”

Mike told her straight, “he just told us he walked the mines once. The other guy said he saw it done twice.” When it looked like Lolita didn’t get, it the college professor spelled it out plain, “I found tracks leading up to the mines, coming from outside. Whoever it was, had to be dressed like you guys and that’s who that Glassman kid saw the second time. That’s who ran off with your blasting caps.”

Lolita felt her spine tingle, “son of a bitch! The goddamn werewolf!” She was about to call her entire platoon and put the perimeter on alert. Mike reached out and stopped her hand before she keyed the microphone on her headset. “What the fuck Mike? We got hostiles, local!”

“They’re local all right,” Mike told her. “Whoever did this is still here.”

“What the fu…” Lolita lowered her voice and said, “how do you know that? Whoever did it is probably out there lining up for an assault, right now!”

“I doubt it,” Mike said in an equally quiet tone, “if they wanted to start killing us they’d have already done it. Sides, I didn’t find any tracks leading away. If they’re dressed like you are then they’re heading in and not out.”

“Yeah,” Lolita replied, “that Trojan condom thing, they’re about to try and stick a dick in us. I’m ordering stand to.”

“You do that,” Mike warned, “and you let whoever did this, know you know. Right now they probably think they still got time to do whatever it is they really came here to do. I say lets find out.”

Lolita bowed to the inevitable but, she was not happy about it, “god damn it Mike, you get my ass killed out here and, I swear to god, your ass is coming along for the ride.”

“Just chill out bitch,” Mike told her as he started walking back towards the firing line. Once there, they moved from position to position. They had people on watch, sure, but most everybody was busy digging, gathering vegetation for concealment, and a half dozen other chores that went into the never ending job that was preparing a defense. Lolita was not sure how long they were going to be here but, from experience, she knew that battalion did not always know that answer themselves.

That was one of the reasons why Lolita had her platoon do everything as if you were planning on staying. The other reason was because the idea was to make the Orc’s think they were here to stay. They were even going to the trouble of stringing wire for field phones in case their radios crapped out at the wrong moment. The problem with the wireless coms was not as bad as when Lolita first came here but, the radio’s were still twitchy as hell. Some government sub contractor had claimed to have fixed the static problem with a filter but, he was safely back in the states and not having to depend on it.

It meant that the old hard wired telephones, of a century ago, were still critical out here. Just the thought of that made Lolita cringe. Her home had not even had a hard wired telephone when she was growing up. Weren’t they extinct now? There was no getting around it here though. From what she had been told, that big gas giant planet, that was an ever constant sight in the sky, was responsible for the radio crippling static. It was not always total and, by rule of thumb, the bigger it was the worse the interference got. It did not have to be total to be a pain in the ass. You never knew when the radio’s were going to stop working, so, even under ideal conditions the wireless was still a luxury in the Forest of Hurt.

As Mike stopped to talk at one position, that had gathered a few extra grunts, Lolita backed off and looked up and down the line. She was still thinking about her communications and wondering if that was a target. What else was there to hit? She eyed the com lines and noted that they could do a little better at hiding them. That’s why she looked for whoever was walking along with the spool. Lolita finally eyed the soldier who was casually strolling along and dragging the thing behind her, letting wire feed out. Lolita realized it was a her because a little hair was falling out from under her helmet. That was something no guy would ever have and it was one of the only ways to spot gender in the field. The bulky clothing and gear made it otherwise really hard to tell. Even so, Lolita now came to realize the girl had a cute little ass on her.

That was when Lolita realized something. She got on the radio and said, “Trina, where are you at?”

“On the sixty eLtee,” the girl called back, “need something?”

“Na,” Lolita replied on the radio, “I was just wondering where you were and…” The soldier, who had been walking along with the spool, suddenly dropped it and took off at a dead sprint. Lolita had no time do much of anything but break out in pursuit of whoever this was. Trina was the only other female in the platoon and, whoever this intruder was, seemed to be aware of that fact. What was even worse about it was, also, equally obvious now. This intruder also had their damn radio frequencies! How else would the little bitch have known to run!

The intruder was pretty fast. Lolita realized that she was not going to catch their mystery party crasher. It did not seem like the girl was gaining ground but Lolita could not close the gap ether! That’s when Lolita wondered what the hell she was doing here. She had an entire damn platoon at her disposal! She began yelling out ahead of her, “stop her! Stop her now!”

That seemed to only cause confusion in the guys ahead. Most of them saw what was happening but, none of them were reacting. That was not the case with the intruder who seemed to know exactly what to do. She quickly darted in another direction and headed for the outside of the perimeter. Lolita tried to shave some distance off by cutting across her obvious path. As she jumped over one of her holes she yelled to the guys manning it, “hold your fucking fire! Don’t shoot! Friendly’s in the wire!”

Lolita hoped her guys would understand that. She didn’t have time to explain anything in detail. She barely had the breath to yell out that much. She also, finally, caught a break. The intruder tried to duck into some cover and, as it turned out, it put the little bitch right up against a steep rise. Lolita could close the distance as the intruder tried to run up loose dirt. Lolita jumped the little stream, ran into the same bush, and only then did she realize the mistake. Her prey had obviously reached the exact same conclusion and decided to make a stand.

Lolita almost ran right into the barrel of an AK-47 that was pointed right at her head. It was strange, Lolita realized that this did not even concern her when all was said and done. Lolita looked past the front sight, down the barrel, around the flip up rear sight, and right at the face of the girl who was pointing the weapon at her. Lolita’s jaw dropped as she locked eyes with her would be killer. She was stunned and all she could do was mumble, “fuck me.”

Someone called out Lolita’s name and it sounded like Mike. She shut her eyes tight and began reciting the lords prayer in Spanish. She made the sign of the cross, and then she opened her eyes again, only to find nothing there. Then Mike and several of her guys caught up with her. Mike was breathing heavy and said, “you ok? What happened?”

“It’s not a werewolf Mike,” Lolita said, still stunned.

“What you talking about girl,” Mike replied, still keyed up.
Her jaw was still waggling as she looked at him. Her skin was pale and sweating. “The… the…”

Mike snorted, “I think it starts with the.”

“NO!” Lolita slapped him on the chest, “our werewolf. It’s not a werewolf. It’s a goddamn ghost!”