Caught in the Crossfire by Lyle Nicholson

Author:Lyle Nicholson [Nicholson, Lyle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780995978126
Published: 2019-07-15T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Large snowflakes started to fall as the convoy thundered out of Kandahar. A patch of blue light pushed its way into the dark morning sky. Bernadette breathed a sigh of relief. No rocket propelled grenades, and no gunfire—perhaps this convoy would be fine.

The ramshackle dwellings started to thin out. The countryside with sparse dwellings, mounds of dirt, and snow dusted mountains became the monotonous backdrop to their journey west.

There was a time when Bernadette had taken a trip with her grandmother from the far north of Canada all the way down to Wyoming. They had left the poplar and tamarack trees of Northern Alberta, ventured straight south down to Calgary, and Bernadette had marveled at the big sky and wide-open plains. This was different. All of western Canada and Montana and Wyoming had seemed peaceful. Sure, her Cree ancestors had fought over the land with the settlers, but that had been two hundred years ago.

This land, though, everything about it had a mixture of blood in it. Bernadette could feel it, just the way her Native Cree Grandmother Moses had told her, “The native people can sense the land, they know when it is in harmony and when it is not.”

None of this land felt in harmony to Bernadette. The small dwellings disappeared. They were in open countryside with little foliage, mostly rocks. The snow increased.

A squadron of fighter jets screamed overhead in formation. They left a stream of white contrails against the sky. Two Blackhawk helicopters came in low keeping pace with the convoy. One pilot gave a salute then both helicopters veered off.

Bernadette watched the Blackhawks float off into the distance and wondered if having them around would have any deterrent on the Taliban. She leaned forward to Jason.

“Don’t these convoys usually have air cover?”

Jason looked over his shoulder. “You’d think it would be something they needed, but this is a small country. They have jets in the air all the time and the heli gunships are usually no more than ten minutes out. The Taliban would have to be pretty agile to strike and get out fast enough. Most of them, that be the non-crazy ones, want to shoot off their weapons and go home at night.”

“You think the bad guys will stay away from the convoy?”

“Hell, yeah. The Taliban don’t like doing anything like a major frontal attack, it gets them killed faster. They like to blow up convoys with IED’s, throw some RPG’s at the remaining vehicles, then run like hell when the they hear the fast-air—that being the jet fighters coming after them.”

“And we’re safe on this road from IED’s?” Bernadette asked as she stared at out the window at the potholed asphalt road.

Jason tilted his head and winked. “NATO has snipers out all night with night vision goggles from several units. That’s what I used to do. We’d stake out different patches of road near culverts. The Taliban would come there almost every night. We’d pick them off and leave their bodies for their buddies to find in the morning.

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