“Lieutenant Gibson turned around and grabbed me by the front of my shirt, and pulled me down so that he was looking me dead in the eye. ‘Sergeant Foster,’ he said, ‘you will stand down. What happened here today was something these men have needed for a while, and something that will stay between us all. Not one word will be said when we get back to the rear, do you understand me? Not one single word.’
“I looked down at the girl he had just murdered, and then at the bodies of the others who had been with her. I doubted any of them was over sixteen, and probably were out there doing whatever their fathers had told them to do. Now, they were all dead, raped and murdered by a bunch of guys I thought I knew, guys I had fought beside, people I trusted. And the one who should have kept them all under control was the one who told them they could get away with it, and even he participated in rape and murder. Hell, even while I stood there protesting what he was doing, Lieutenant Gibson murdered that last girl right in front of me.”
“And that’s when you took action?”
“Yes. I did what, to me, was the only logical thing to do. I drew my side arm and shot him the exact same way. Corporal Mathis objected—he said, ‘Jesus, Sarge! What the hell,’ or something like that, and I started yelling, ‘Just stop it! I want all of you to just stop, right now. What you’re doing is wrong, and could be construed as an act of war against Iraq itself. These are civilians, the people we’re supposed to be here to protect.’ I kept my service pistol in my hand, as I looked at Mathis and the others. ‘I have to make a report on this, and I want to know who was actively involved before I got down here.’
“Mathis stood there for a moment, with Gould and Lindemann beside him. He said, ‘Foster, come on, man, Jesus, Sarge, you can’t report this! Okay, things got a little out of hand, but God, you just killed the lieutenant!’
“I said, ‘Corporal, what I’m seeing here is the rape and murder of civilian girls, some of them barely even old enough to be classified as teenagers. I think that’s a little more than just things getting out of hand. When we get back to the rear, I’m going to have no choice but to place you all under arrest and file a complete report.’
“That was as far as I got. Mathis raised his rifle and pointed it at me. He said, ‘We can’t let you do that, Sarge.’ I saw that his eyes were wide, and he seemed frantic. I watched Gould and Lindemann out of the corners of my eyes, and saw that each of them was nervously clutching his rifle, watching me.
“I looked back at Mathis, and realized that he was on the verge of killing me in his panic over being punished for what he and the others had done. I thought I would try to defuse the situation, so I lowered my pistol and shrugged. I said, ‘Maybe we can put this off on the LT, we can say he wigged out, killed all these girls himself. No need to put any other names on it.’
“Mathis stood there for a moment, and I could see the wheels turning in his head. He was trying to decide whether to trust me or not, whether to believe that I’d really let it go at that. If I reported that it was only the lieutenant who was actually involved in the murders, and the others made sure their stories agreed with mine, there would be no investigations, no charges. Of course, the trouble was I had just made the statement that I would be placing them all under arrest when we got back to the rear. He knew me well enough to know that I wouldn’t have said that unless it was exactly what I meant to do.
“He grinned, and then he said, ‘Sorry, Sarge, you’re like a bulldog; you don’t let go of something once you got it in your teeth.’ He raised the barrel of his rifle so that it was aimed at my head, rather than my chest, and I figured I had about a split second to live.
“The pistol was in my right hand, and its added weight would slow that arm, no matter how insignificantly, so I swung my left in an arc that brought it around and into contact with the barrel of his weapon. I slapped it to the left, at the same time leaning my head to the right, just as he squeezed the trigger. The bullet that was meant to take my life flew past my ear, but the flecks of burning powder didn’t miss it. I could feel them, like tiny grains of flame that peppered my ear and cheek.”
Mathers suddenly stood, and leaned across the table with her palms flat on it. “Show me,” she said.
Noah leaned forward and tilted his head to one side so that she could look at his left ear. There were tiny black marks inside the cup of the ear, and on the earlobe.
Mathers nodded, and took out her iPhone to snap several pictures. “Those look like powder burns to me, alright,” she said. “Go ahead.”
“Well, while he was trying to shoot me again, I brought up my pistol and fired twice, taking Mathis in the gut with the first round, and through the heart with the second. While all that was going on, Lindemann reacted by leveling his own M-16 at me, so I continued to swing my right hand around until it was in line with his body, and then squeezed the trigger once more. Lindemann fell back, but his rifle was set to three round bursts, and he squeezed the trigger in reflex as he went down. His bullets missed me, but they hit Private Mason, who was standing behind me, in the face.”