12 Minutes (#2 in Military series)

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

9.30am Afghanistan time.

Everyone in the car was silent as Twitch drove towards the city, the old rattle of the engine filling the gaps in the air.

Marc and Carlos sat in the back, their eyes gazing out at the country that rolled past the windows. Fields of dirt and dry grass bordered the road that they drove on with the occasional half-demolished brick building breaking the scenery every few hundred yards.

Jules was picking at a stray thread on her trousers just below where the rifle was resting on her lap trying to distract herself from what had occurred less than an hour ago.

The same fingers that now pulled at the thin piece of thread had driven a knife into someone's body. Those fingers had killed a person, a man.

She found herself wondering if he was a father, a husband or a brother – perhaps he had been all of those things, but no longer.

Shifting in the seat, uncomfortable with her thoughts, Jules turned and looked out the window, after all why should she care about that man?

He had a gun and was most probably a member of the Taliban. If he had found them he would have shot them without a moment's hesitation, Julia knew that. She knew that if she hadn't done what she did they would all be dead.

It was self-defence. So why did it bother her so much and why could she still feel his blood on her hands? She looked down at them now just to remind herself that it wasn't there, it was just in her head.

It was all in her head. She had washed the blood off her hands before his body had turned cold in the dirt.

They had just passed a goat wandering alone along the road, Jules staring after it with slight confusion, when a loud gruff noise erupted from the seat behind her.

Julia knew that sound well and it distracted her enough to roll her eyes and let out a small sigh.

"When are we going to get there?" Carlos asked, tapping his fingers against the window ledge where he rested his arm.

"When we get there," Twitch told him from the front seat calmly, like a father would tell his child when they began to grow irritating.

Carlos narrowed his eyes at Twitch, "Who even is this person we're supposed to be meeting? Can we trust them?"

"Commander Strong trusts them, or else he wouldn't send us there."

Everyone remained quiet.

"Would he?" Twitch frowned, his voice rising a little in worry.

"No," Julia told him, "No, he wouldn't."

Carlos leaned forward and placed his hands on either side of her head rest, "Well, just in case you're wrong-"

Julia looked at him from the corner of her eye.

"What?" Carlos arched an eyebrow, "I was just going to say that if you're wrong, I don't want to be stuck in a bloody gun fight with a full bladder, so we can pull over soon please so I can take a piss?"

Twitch raised a hand from the steering wheel, looking at Marc in the rear view mirror, "Yeah actually, that sounds like a good idea."

"Okay, pull over. But 5 minutes only," Marc told them.

"Right-o," Twitch turned the wheel and drove on to a dirt field beside the road, a dust cloud instantly seeming to engulf the vehicle on all sides.