“It happened on the tenth.”
Glenn’s tone was deceptively flat. Something simmered beneath it—a bitterness that set Max’s teeth on edge. “The tenth? Maybe I’ve got the date—”
“No, you’ve got it right. I’m just surprised they came in person. They usually do that when someone’s dead. At least, that’s how it used to be.”
Max glanced at Glenn, taking in his strong frame and even features. He was a good-looking man, but he was older than Jed, quite a bit older, and he’d clearly seen too much of the world. “Why did they come all the way here if they didn’t have to?”
“Who knows? Maybe they wanted to be sure you heard it from them first.”
Max was lost. Out of habit, he leaned on Saja next to him, absorbing her warmth.
Hector cleared his throat. “I know this is difficult for both of you, but will you tell us what happened that day? We’ve never really known.”
Glenn tossed his second cigarette. His eyes were shrewd as he debated his next move. “I can’t tell you everything, and I can’t tell you how it was through Jed’s eyes, but I can tell you how it happened for me.”
“Friday.” Luke said suddenly. “It was Friday. I remember because we had to stop for Friday prayers.”
A ghost of a smile flickered over Glenn’s face. “Yeah, it was a Friday, Luke. It was midday when the first shot was fired. It was all over thirty minutes later.”
“Shots? You mean like a gunfight?”
“That’s how it started.” Glenn reached for yet another cigarette, but this time he didn’t light it. Instead, he rolled it between his finger and thumb. “We were in a convoy headed east when it was hit by mortar fire. It was an ambush.”
“That was in the north, no?”
Glenn glanced at Hector. “Yeah. We were based near Kirkuk. We dropped in and out of Fallujah and Baghdad from time to time, but most of our work was in the north.”
“What happened next?”
“What always happened. We pointed our guns and kicked ass. The RPGs caught us napping, but we had the edge in firepower. We should’ve contained it.”
“What went wrong?” Max’s voice was hoarse, and he wasn’t even sure he wanted an answer.
“The world blew up,” Luke said when Glenn failed to respond. Oddly, he’d caught Max’s whispered words. “I don’t remember much after that. Just Paul shouting, and the fire.”
“Fire?” Dan echoed.
Glenn closed his eyes. “We got split up when the first truck went up. I pulled back to our second vehicle and lost sight of Jed and some of the others. Paul and I moved out to check on them. At first, it looked fine. They were all shootin’ and where they should be. It took me a minute to realize Jed had rolled over.”
He paused, but no one spoke. The end… the tipping point in this horrible story was near, and though Max couldn’t bear to hear any more, he couldn’t wait a moment longer.
“He was lying on the ground beside the burning truck. The flames were getting too close to him. Paul was screaming at him to move, but….” Glenn faltered a moment before he went on. “Kip was closest. He broke position to get to him, but more planes came and he went down before he’d taken a few steps. We realized what was happening then, and Paul got on the radio to beg them to stop, but it was too late. They lit the whole fucking convoy up.”
“I don’t understand. Who did?”
Glenn fixed Hector with a stare that chilled Max’s blood. “The United States Air Force, sir. It was blue on blue… friendly fire. We were bombed to bits by our own side.”
Max felt his heart begin to splinter. Oh, God,Paul. Paul was dead. Jed said he’d died a while ago, and yet he was right there the day Jed got hurt. “What happened next?”
“Paul went for him. I knew he would, and I should’ve stopped him, but I didn’t, and I wish I never saw what happened next. That shit haunts me.”
“Every day,” Luke concurred. “I don’t remember much after I got hit, but Paul going down was the last thing I saw.”
“Did he make it to Jed?”
Glenn kept his eyes on Max and shook his head. “No, but Jed must’ve come around. I heard him shouting. Now I know what his injuries were, I can’t believe he did it, but next thing I knew, he was up on his feet. He got to Paul and put him over his shoulder. He called for a medic, but it was an hour before I could reach them. Paul was already dead, and Jed wasn’t far from it.”
Hector folded himself onto the ground beside Max and put an arm around him. “But he wasn’t dead, was he?”