“I’ll go back.”
He looked at me like a frightened mouse as I walked past his desk and went into Captain Jacoby’s office. By the time he stood to stop me, I’d closed the door of the CO’s office.
“Sit down,” the grizzled commander growled.
“Is this about my phone call? I know it’s against the rules, but I had to call my father. He’s dying.”
Captain Jacoby leveled his icy stare at me. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s liars.”
“I’m telling the truth.”
“You didn’t call your father.” He glanced down at a paper on his desk. “You called someone named Kimberly Tallis. Who is she? Your contact? Were you speaking in code?”
I crossed my arms over my chest as I stood in front of his desk. “You were listening to my call?”
“I said sit down.”
With a sigh like a miffed teenager, I sat down and crossed one leg over the other.
“You’re in a warzone, Ms. Bennett. I know modern journalist blogger types like you don’t respect the unspoken agreements between the media and the military, but you’re not going to endanger the lives of me and my men while you’re here. Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” I mumbled.
“I can’t hear you, Ms. Bennett.”
“Yes,” I repeated louder.
“That’s better. If I could get you the hell out of here tonight, I would. But it’s not possible. The Taliban is making a move because of the firefight you caused yesterday.”
“That I caused?”
“Shut-up and listen,” he said. “You would be out of here tonight, but I can’t risk bringing a transport copter in to take you to the Kandahar airport. That said, you’re out of here in a few days. A week at most.”
“No!” I moved to the edge of my seat. “That’s not fair! The agreement said two weeks!”
“And you broke the agreement, Ms. Bennett,” he said smugly.
“Fine. I’ll just have to finish earlier. You can’t stop me from doing my story.”
“Your story on the villagers here in the province?” he asked, staring into my eyes.
I used my many years of practice to lie. “Yes. Why else would I be here?”
“Get out of here before I change my mind and fly you out over the enemy for the fuck of it.”
I stood and saluted, just because I knew he would hate it.
Outside, Warren stood a few feet away. “How did it go?”
“He’s making me leave a week early.”
He stared at me like he wanted to say something.
“Spit it out,” I said. “I’m running out of time.”
“There’re things going on here that you don’t know about.”
“Yeah? Tell me more.”