Chapter 14 — Dan’s Hangover

Lieutenant Dan Slater had to bend over slightly to keep his head from hitting the top of the hut. His Sargent and four privates were there with him. It was raining outside, but they weren’t here to seek shelter. A Vietnamese peasant woman and her daughter were pressed against the wall of the hut, trying to stay as far away from the Americans as they could get.

The woman looked to be about thirty years old. She pointed to her chest and said, a heavily accented “Yes”. Then she pointed to her daughter, who looked to be about twelve, and said, “No”.

When she didn’t get any acknowledgment from the men she tried again, this time louder and more rushed. She pointed to herself and said, “Anything. Anything okay”. Pointing to the daughter she again said, “No, No okay”.

The Sargent started chuckling. “Well, boys. It looks like we’ve got a volunteer. We’re going to have a party.”

“You can’t be serious," Lieutenant Slater said. “She’s obviously scared to death. You can’t gang-bang some woman we just run across on patrol.”

The Sargent spun on him, pulling his pistol and shoving it under the Lieutenant’s chin. “Listen, boy, you’ve been a pain in my butt for months and I’m fed up with your fucking goody-two-shoes attitude. That bar on your collar don’t mean shit out here in the jungle. If you pull this crap just one more time, you’re liable to get hit by friendly fire.”

The Sargent turned from the Lieutenant and put away his gun. “Boys, I just heard the Lieutenant say that she’s a horny bitch who’s asking to party.”

The rest of the team signaled their agreement with nods and grunts.

“If you don’t like it, Slater, then you can just keep your mouth and your pants zipped.”

The woman was now even more panicked from the display of violence. She pulled her shirt up and showed her breasts, she pulled on her nipples, she bent over and smacked her ass, constantly chanting, “Anything. Anything GI. Okay”.

The girl whimpered, so her mother reached back and touched her head in reassurance. Pointing to her crying daughter, the mother reiterated, “No. No GI. No okay”.

Dan started to leave the hut but then heard Kim call to him. He turned back and saw Kim laying on the floor naked, beaten, barely conscious, blood pooling on the floor between her legs. Janice was also naked, a black eye swollen almost shut, her nipples bruised, crying, cradling her mother’s head in her lap.

Lieutenant Slater bent down and put a hand gently on Kim’s cheek. She opened her eyes and stared at him. “Anything. Anything GI. Okay.”

Dan bolted upright. He saw that he was laying on his couch. Looking over he spotted a strange wallet and 9mm gun laying on his coffee table next to an empty fifth of Scotch.

None of this made sense. His head hurt terribly. His stomach was roiling. He must have a migraine because he could smell phantom odors; his apartment smelled like coffee and cinnamon. “Oh, fuck” he mumbled to himself.

Then he heard a voice from the kitchen. A voice he had never heard before. “That must have been a bad one. You were crying out in your sleep.”

Dan blinked his eyes and tried to focus as a woman with crew-cut hair walked out of the kitchen carrying a tray with two cups of coffee and a plate of pastries. He knew the face but couldn’t quite place it.

The woman placed the tray on the coffee table, picked up her cup, and then sat in a chair. “Coffee is usually all I have in the morning, but after the one you tied on last night, I figured you’d need something else in your stomach to go with it.”

Then it clicked for Dan. He had only seen photos of her in uniform. He was afraid that Sam hadn’t died and now he had proof. He lunged for the 9mm gun on the table.

“Don’t bother, Dan. It’s unloaded," Sam said casually, as she took a sip of coffee.

He dropped the gun and struggled to his feet.

“For Christ’s sake, sit down," Sam said, as she put down her coffee. “You couldn’t handle me on your best day. Today you’d just throw up all over me.”

Then Dan remembered why he had drunk himself to sleep. He remembered Kim driving off in that pickup truck, leaving him standing there like a eunuch. Suddenly Sam was secondary. “Kim," he mumbled, patting his pockets, looking for his cell phone. He had to call her.

“Don’t worry. She’s fine. You can call her after you’ve eaten something and had your coffee. You may want to go in the bathroom and stick your finger down your throat first, though. You had an awful lot to drink last night.”

Dan sat back down on the couch, mystified, unable to think of what to say or do next. “So, what’s new with you, Sam?” he finally asked.

Sam wasn’t expecting that. She tried not to choke on her coffee as she stifled a laugh.

Dan scowled at her. “You fucked up big time, you know. You destroyed an innocent person’s life. You should be very proud of yourself. Are you still working for whoever those assholes were that you worked for last year?”

“No," she replied. “I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but it turns out that I was in an under-the-radar black-ops group that was totally unsanctioned.” Sam’s expression turned to cold anger. “The people I trusted most betrayed me. They lied to me for years. I realize now that those fucking bastards treated me like a wind-up robot. They twisted me up with lies, then betrayed my loyalty by pointing me at people they just fucking wanted to get rid of. Believe me, I do not forgive them for what they did to me or the people I hurt.”

Sam took a moment to reestablish control. “I don’t want to do that anymore, Dan. I’m looking for a new team to join. People I can trust. Or maybe I’ll work strictly for myself now; I’m not sure, I’ve never done that before.”

“So," asked Dan, unconvinced, “what are you doing in Milford, Sam?”

“I wanted to see, firsthand, if Kim was innocent and how much damage I did to her.”

“You wanted to make sure you did a good job?” he asked.

Sam shook her head. “No, asshole. If I fucked up, I want to try to find a way to undo at least some of the damage, if I can.”

Dan just stared at her, having a difficult time believing what was transpiring in his apartment. He believed he now understood how Alice felt when she went through the looking glass.

Sam continued, “I figured you were the best source of information for me, so I did research on you. I’ve been following you for the last couple of days to get a handle on your schedule. That was me who almost rear-ended you when you pulled into the strip club last night. By the way, are you sleeping with Kim now?”

Dan tried to look indignant but wasn’t sure he pulled it off. “What? No! Listen, we aren’t lovers. I think of her like a daughter. I’m trying to help her out with some of her PTSD issues. You know how she got those, right?”

Kim nodded, unconcerned that Dan was needling her. She would pass it on to those who deserved it. “Well, it’s a good thing I was tailing you. When I saw what went down in the parking lot last night, I decided I better follow Kim and make sure she was okay. By the way, she wasn’t. Is Kim turning tricks now, Dan?”

He shook his head. “No. She does some backroom work at the club, but that’s all. Last night she got herself into a jackpot with one of the money men financing the club and was trying to fix things. I didn’t want her to go. I was ready to throw that asshole in jail.”

“Well, that guy was bad news. It was already getting rough when I walked up to the pickup, and they had only been parked a couple of minutes. I dragged the guy out, demanded his money, and roughed him up a bit when he tried to act tough. Well, actually I knocked him out cold. And then I kicked him in the nuts. A couple of times. You know, I didn’t want him able to prey on women again anytime soon. Anyway, I took his wallet and gun. Kim ran off, of course. I followed her back to the club to make sure she was safe. I kind of thought she’d call you.”

“Didn’t she recognize you?” Dan asked, incredulously.

“No. As you can see my hair was all cut off when I was in the coma. And I spoke with an Arabic accent. You know I speak Arabic, right? Anyway, it was dark, and it all happened quickly, and she wasn’t interested in hanging around to see who the mugger was. I’m not sure she even knows if I am a guy or a girl. But she did see the Jeep. I doubt she memorized the license plate, but I probably need to ditch it today and get a different car.”

“Fuck me," said Dan, heaving a heavy sigh. “You do know that I’m a cop, right?”

“I know who you are, Dan. I’ve read your Army record and your Police record. I read your report about the kidnapping last year.”

“Wait. That was classified," he interjected.

“Yes, it was. Don’t worry, I’ve forgotten most of it already. But something stuck out in the report, Dan. You did. You are a good man who is tired of seeing the bad men win all the time. Your ethics don’t always mesh well with your job, but you do have a code of ethics and you are true to it. I know my executive functioning may be a little off, but I trust you, Dan. And I don’t trust many people.”

“So, what do you want me to do, Sam? You’ve got this all planned out, right?” he asked, too foggy to try to figure out what ‘executive functioning’ meant.

“Well, I need some sleep, and I think you need to get over your hangover. I am going to hit your bed for a nap and then run some errands. I suggest you just hang out, drink a lot of water, and watch TV today. We’ll see how we feel tomorrow.”

“But the only TV in the apartment is in the bedroom," he said.

“I know. Just keep the volume down and don’t take your half out of the middle of the bed and we should be fine.”

Dan was having trouble wrapping his head around this. “How do you know I won’t call the FBI and turn you in when you’re asleep? I assume there’s got to be at least one warrant out there for your arrest.”

“Because that wouldn’t help Kim. Besides, if you did that, I’d have to kill you, and I don’t think either of us wants that right now.”

Dan did a quick self-evaluation. His eyes felt dry and scratchy, and they weren’t focusing very well. His mouth tasted like he had been chewing on dried cat shit. His head pounded and his hands were shaking. He stank and badly needed a shower. There wasn’t a whole lot he was good for in this condition.

“Ok," he said resignedly as he rubbed his eyes. “Let me call Kim first and see how she’s doing.” He could decide what to do about Sam when he was thinking more clearly.

“By the way," Sam said as she headed to the bedroom, “I hope you don’t mind, but I used you’re your computer while you were passed out. I couldn’t believe how full of viruses it was. You need to be a lot more careful when you go to porn sites. Anyway, I cleaned up the viruses and malware that was on it, plus got rid of some hidden software that was tracking what you browsed. It was a total mess, man, but it’s good to go now.”