Bad Uncle Too

“When he could’ve sent someone of lesser rank in to do it, he chose to do it himself. His colleagues and superiors tried talking him out of it, but he was resolute. My father said he walked into danger with a cocky grin and promised to buy everyone a drink later that day.”

“There were only a few hours left before the gunmen carried out their threat of killing the children one by one, so time was of the essence.”

“Dad said he watched his friend walk away knowing that he would never see him again.” As I listened to her words, I relived that day in my head.

I never let myself think of it too much. Because while others were hailing a hero, I am always aware that it was the day I’d come to understand how truly evil man can be.

“There was talk back and forth between the terrorists and the military base outside. Lots of threats and demands. Most of the local people were gathered around outside, in danger of being taken up in whatever was about to play out.”

“This man, this hero studied the layout of the building from the blueprints they had there and knowing where the children were being held, chose his point of attack.”

“His simple solution was to put everyone asleep, including the children. Because he didn’t plan on leaving them in the building long, he knew there would be no lingering side affects. And he only needed to disorient the enemy enough to get the rest of his team inside to bring the children out.”

“The trick though, was getting into the building without being noticed and getting close enough for it to work.”

“The building was old, and though the blueprints showed a few places he could use, there was no guarantee they would hold him, or that the terrorists wouldn’t be alerted.”

“He knew that if that happened, they would start killing the kids, so he had only one shot at getting it right.”

“Dad said he didn’t know exactly how he did it, because he never talked about what he did once he was out of sight of the others. But half an hour later people all over the world watched as those children were carried out of that building one by one.”

“How did you do it uncle Cade?” I was too choked up to answer her at first. My mind was all the way back there, thirteen years ago. That dark, fucked up day.

I remembered the faces of the people gathered outside the barriers. Poor families who had nothing but the joy of their children.

Mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, whole families had gathered and I wondered which of them were gonna walk away that day empty handed, without their precious child?

Was it the woman who sat on the ground with dust on her head as she wailed, or the one who stared sightlessly at the building, hope already gone?

There were hundreds of them gathered there, each one of them in stark fear of losing their loved one. I couldn’t see another child taken so senselessly.

That old building was ready to crumble any second, but it was the place where hundreds of kids went to school everyday, because they wanted a chance in the world that was supposed to belong to them.

24

I couldn’t carry any gear with me, only that one canister. The crawlspace was treacherous. It was dark and full of decay.

But the real problem was the traps left there by the enemy. No one knew exactly where they were, but we knew how deadly they were, and that these men had used them before.

I had to get into the building first, so I scaled the farthest end. We didn’t know if there was anyone in the crowd outside working with the men inside, waiting for instructions to attack at the first sight of rescue.

Since I was going to be on top of the building for a time, there was a good chance that I would be seen. I found my way in at the far end of the building and crawled my way through.

There was no light, so I only had the memory of the blueprint to go by. There were times I kept my eyes closed and used my senses to move.

There were times when the space was so close I didn’t think I’d make it through; and I did encounter a few of the traps that had been left.

Taking the time to dismantle some of them, just myself, and what amounted to a penlight, had made me sweat.

Sometimes I still don’t know how I did it that day. How I kept my resolve. Time was running out and I had to stop and defuse bombs, or cut wires that would trigger even more bombs.

There were four of them in all, or that’s how many I encountered before I made it to where I needed to be to release the gas into the vent.