Rock Her(52)

“Deal then.” Dale said. And he stuck out his hand to shake. Kip took it.

“Thanks for trusting me, corporal,” Kip said, and the corporal turned to go. “Hey, Dale,” Kip called after him. Dale turned. “I mean it. Thanks! Listen, you need a job when you get out, give me a call, Okay. I’ll get you a card from our manager, Lydell.”

“No shit?” corporal Dale asked.

“No. No shit at all. I mean it. I help those that help me,” Kip said. Annie nodded behind him.

The corporal smiled and turned to walk away. Then Kip and Annie entered their room.



At precisely nineteen hundred hours, or seven PM as Lydell would call it, Kip stood on the prefab stage staring at Lock and Stabbs. Annie, Sparks and Lydell sat in the front row seats of the empty makeshift concert arena in the middle of the tarmac.

“Where the hell is Jacky?” Kip asked.

Stabbs and Lock looked at each other and then back at Kip.

“He should have been back by now, Kip. Fuck, I am getting worried,” Stabbs said.

“Back from where?” Kip asked the two.

Stabbs and lock looked at one another again, trying to goad each other into telling the truth. Finally Stabbs broke.

“He left base, Kip. Said he was going to find the nearest whorehouse.” Stabbs said.

“Are you shitting me?” Kip yelled. “Fuck me! Do you fuckers know where we are? Did you not hear the debrief when we landed? This is not fucking Lincoln, Nebraska! Jeezuz fucking Christ!”

“Come on Kip, You know Jack. He hasn’t followed a rule since he stopped sucking his mother’s tit.” Lock retorted. “He’ll be along any moment.”

“The fuck he will!” Kip screamed. “Even if he isn’t dead, separated from his head somewhere, he may never get back onto base. He has no credentials. He ain’t got shit!”

Sparks, Annie and Lydell stood and approached the stage.

“What is it, Kip?” Lydell asked.

Kip spread his arms. “Jacky’s gone off fucking base!” Kip said.

Kip saw Corporal Dale traversing the makeshift concert arena and called out to him. He changed direction and approached Kip.

“Corporal, one of the band members has left base,” Kip said to him. “We need to send out a team to find him.”

The look in the corporal’s eyes went instantly to horror. Kip realized instantly that not only was he a newbie, he had never been off base himself.

“Dale, can you check the gates for any word? And please notify the base commander.”

Dale nodded and took off in a sprint.

Kip paced the stage and ran his fingers through his hair. This was not good.



As corporal Dale left the command center Kip was outside the door. “Dale,” he confronted him. Dale stopped, surprised.

“I need cammies, and a weapon,” Kip said firmly. “Body amour if you can spare it.”

The corporal shook his head, wide eyes and unsure of how to handle this situation.

“Come on, Dale. You know I can handle this. I want to find my friend.”

“Sir, I have informed the Camp Commander of the situation,” Dale said. “The gates have been notified. When your friend comes back, we’ll let you know immediately.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Kip asked.

The corporal said nothing.

“So, there will be no search party?” Kip asked.

“Not at this time, sir,” Dale answered nervously. Dale knew this would be an unacceptable answer. He himself would have found it unacceptable had it been one of his buddies.

“Then at what time?” Kip asked, knowing the answer. Dale did not come up with one.

“Corporal, no Jacky, no concert, you know?”

“I know sir. Look, I am just following orders, as always,” Dale said.

Kip looked up at the sky, trying to calm his anger that this conversation was going nowhere.

“Okay, corporal, Let me appeal to your more basic instincts. Jacky is my friend. Although I know he is a pain in the ass and usually out of control, I take his friendship very seriously. If I am not supplied with what I need to go find him, I am going to have to let the camp commander know that you let me keep a woman in my room. Does that motivate you?”

Kip knew that a small infraction like letting Kip keep Annie in his quarters was really no violation at all. But he also knew that the corporal had told several larger lies to cover it up, and when one lie is unraveled, all of them would unravel. True to Kip’s prediction. The corporal became very nervous.

Ten minutes later, Kip was in the corporal’s quarters, wearing desert camouflage fatigues and with a fully loaded rifle upon his back. He wore a utility belt with extra magazines and two hand grenades attached to his harness. The corporal told him the best way to get off base without much fanfare. And thirty minutes after that, Kip was standing outside the gate blending in with the other armed guards that were there. Kip was well trained in evasive tactics. One second he was there, the next he wasn’t.