A Sniper's Sin

“What do you mean, ''where do we ship it to?'' We ship it back to the United States. The planes land at a number of Air Force bases and are unloaded. The CIA oversees the whole operation. Now do you understand what you’ve done here?” Benson asked. “You guys are dead men!”

“I don’t think that the Pentagon will be too upset over our killing these drug dealers and breaking up your operation,” Chopper said with a grin on his face.

“You guys really don’t know do you?” Benson asked. “Hell, the President and top ranking officials are the ones that are behind the operation! Hell, right now we have American oil companies drilling wells right here in Vietnam! The word is that Vietnam is an oil-rich country. Why do you idiots think that we’re here? To protect the South Vietnamese? Why do you think that they killed Kennedy? Hell, he wouldn’t agree to any of this so they hit him in Dallas. Before Johnson lowered his hand from taking the oath of office as the President of the United States, he had already committed two hundred and fifty thousand troops to Vietnam. Don’t you fucking people know anything? The Vietnamese government is in on it for Christ’s sake,” Benson continued. “As soon as your people get here, watch and see how fast they take me away when they find out who I am.”

“What about General Greskoff? Was that his wife and what does he have to do with you?"

“Yes... she was his wife. She was a diplomat from Cambodia and he has diplomatic immunity from Russia. We ship Heroin to Russia through them. They sell the drugs and use the profit to build their military forces.”

“You’re telling us that you’re selling Heroin to Russians so that they can rebuild and strengthen their military forces? The Russians are a threat to the U.S. already, and now you''re saying that the CIA is helping them and at the same time your supplying Heroin to the U.S. at the cost of thousands of innocent American soldiers lives? IS THAT WHAT YOU''RE FUCKIN'' TELLING ME?” My anger was building like a time bomb. “There''s a young American kid tied to a tree about two clicks back there in the woods. He was tortured and disemboweled- and its over drugs? Is that what your telling us?”

“Yes, that’s what I’m telling you,” Benson calmly answered.

… pounded in my chest as the force of adrenaline and anger raced through me. Taking a moment to look beyond a fallen tree I saw the tiny bare foot of a child.

“Over here,” I said softly as I waved at Butch to get his attention. Running toward the long fallen tree my emotions exploded inside of me as I jumped over the tree and set my drop pack and rifle down on the ground floor.

There lying on the ground in front of me was the tiny body of the child from the tribe. Her long black hair was filled with leaves. Her naked body was trembling as blood ran from her torn vagina. Her big brown eyes stared at the treetops as I quickly sat down beside her. They had raped her and left her alone in the jungle to die. Reaching over to try to help her she tried to scream but her voice was hoarse.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” I said softly as I pulled her broken bleeding body up onto my lap. “It’s all right, you''re safe now,” I whispered to her as I reached down between the child’s legs and cupped my hand over her vagina and applied pressure hoping to stop the bleeding. I was a young American and did not realize that the hemorrhaging was coming from deep within the child’s body, something that I could not stop.

Smiling at the child I said “Shhh, don’t be afraid, I won’t let anyone hurt you I promise.”

The child must have sensed that I was trying to help her. She slowly began to calm down and turned her head slightly toward me and reached up with her little hand and gently pulled on my big handlebar mustache. She must have never seen a mustache that big before. She pulled a second time and then smiled at me and in a whisper said something in Vietnamese.

Looking up at Chopper, who was now standing across from me with Nick and Butch, I said, “I can’t stop the bleeding.”

“She said that she though your mustache was a big caterpillar,” Chopper said as a tear fell from his eye and ran down his cheek.

Feeling the child’s body quiver in my arms I looked down at her and kissed her on the forehead and smiled. Looking back up at me the little girl smiled again, took a deep breath of air and let it out slowly. Her tiny body became limp in my arms as her big brown eyes stared into mine.