We advanced toward a room in the rear of the building with our weapons at the ready until we reached a closed door. Knowing surveillance indicated only one man in this area of the building, the door was opened and we entered with the expectation of finding Peter.
What we saw was in no way what I—or anyone for that matter—would have expected. A man with what appeared to be an explosive device strapped to his neck—and his body fitted with an explosive vest—was lying flat on a bed.
If I tried to move him, the three of us could be dead instantly. If I waited too long to make a decision, we’d be in a firefight with two angry Bulgarians, and I had no way of predicting the outcome. I ran through the possibilities and quickly realized as soon as the two men in the opposite room regained their senses they may simply detonate the device, which would obliterate the entire corner of the building, Cap and me included.
My thoughts immediately went to Terra. If I somehow lived through the situation I was in, I needed to find a way to right my wrong with her. But the first thing I needed to do was to decide how to get out of the situation alive.
I glanced at Cap.
Positioned beside the door with his weapon pointing toward the corridor, he met my gaze. For an instant, he studied me.
He nodded once.
Prepared for the situation that had been presented to me or not, I made a man a promise that I’d do the best I could to retrieve a man’s only son.
And I intended to keep that promise.
Forgive me, Lord...
“M1 to M3.”
“M3, go M1.”
“Eliminate the two tangos.”
“M1, say again?”
“M3, eliminate the two tangos, over.”
“Roger that, M1.”
I heard the distinctive sound of a suppressed weapon being fired twice. The dull thud of two bodies falling to the floor followed.
“M3 to M1. Two tangos have been eliminated.”
“M1 to M4.”
“M4, go M1.”
“M4, we’ve got a situation. We need the Snowman.”
“M1, say again.”
I stared at the bomb. Since the war, I had seen nothing like it, and never expected to see anything in my civilian life—regardless of my chosen profession—that resembled it. It was one of the most intricate bombs I had ever seen.
“We need the Snowman, over,” I said.
“M3. Can I get a description of the situation?”
“Haditha, 2007,” I said, recalling a battle in Iraq that Trace, Lucky and Cap all fought in with me. A similar device was strapped to a man in the center of the town square. It wasn’t defused in time, and the man exploded in front of our entire platoon. A crater large enough to park a truck in was the only remaining proof of his existence.
“Heaven help us,” Trace said.
“Amen,” I responded.
“Peter,” I said sharply. “You need to stay as still as you can. Blink your eyes if you understand me.”
His eyes blinked.
And I began to pray.
Chapter Twenty-One
Terra
I caught my breath and tried to speak without completely breaking down emotionally. “I can’t even...I can’t begin...to explain,” I said. “He was everything to me.”
“There will always be another,” my mother said.
“No. There won’t.”
I began to hyperventilate as I tried to breathe. I needed comfort that I felt only my mother could provide, so I decided to tell her about Michael, and about our breakup. By the time I got to my parents’ home, my father, like always, was gone.
“Mia figlia,” she said. “Respirare.”
Breathe, my daughter, breathe.
“It...hurts,” I said. “So...much...”
She wrapped her arms around me and held me against her chest. In a few minutes, I felt like I could breathe again, and pulled away from her.
“I just can’t...”
“Tell me what happened,” she said.
I couldn’t tell her the complete truth, and a portion wouldn’t suffice. “There’s nothing to say. It just ended.”
“But. If you feel.” She shook her head. “If you love him. You find a way.”
“There is no way.”
“It’s because he was American.”
“Mother!”
“American men don’t understand.”
“Mother,” I snapped. “You sound just like Father.”
“It’s true,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter, he’s a good man.” After I spoke, I wished I would have said was. A few seconds later, I did. “He was a good man.”
“If he was good...” She shrugged. “You wouldn’t be upset.”
I initially felt some comfort in talking to her about Michael, but I was quickly growing angry about her stubborn nature.