From AFTERSHOCK: “Toute erreur est fatale.” Yes, every mistake was a fatal mistake. That wasn’t some slogan to memorize, it was as if the trainers slipped it into your food during the training. *** One man, all I knew was his name: “Mathieu.” I never knew whether he was stupid or just hated doing what he was told. We were working our way up a hill when the point man screamed, “À terre!” Mathieu just stood there, like he was frozen. Just after I heard the sharp crraack! of the sniper’s weapon, he kind of floated to the ground. The shooter had to be one of the trainers. Or maybe someone who was being trained. Either way, Mathieu was just as dead. The round he took injected the lesson. None of us moved until we heard, “On laisse rien à l’ennemi!” from the man on point. Yes, “leave nothing for the enemy.” I was right behind the dead man. The man just in front of him tossed down his own harness. I hooked it to Mathieu’s belt. Then I hooked up my own harness, secured Mathieu’s unfired rifle, crawled around the dead man and handed the other man his own harness back. Together we dragged Mathieu all the way up the hill. We didn’t speak, but I knew the other man’s thoughts, just as he did mine. Tu n’abandonnes jamais ni tes morts, ni tes blessés, ni tes armes. We had been five; now we were four. One man ahead, carrying the dead recruit’s weapon, two of us hauling his body up the hill, and one man behind, covering us. That was our kind of training — we all knew the sniper was still out there. vachss/av_novels/aftershocktpb.html
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 10:23:55 +0000
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