“It is a lovely night,” he said, looking up at the sky.
The absence of light pollution meant that the whole of the night sky was visible. There were too many stars to count, and the galactic disk of the Milky Way shone brightly. It was the type of view that could only be seen in the most remote of locations.
“It’s beautiful.” Ana scooched over and leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her and they sat silently for several minutes looking up at the heavens.
“I’m sorry about what happened on the boat,” he said after a long time. Ana put a single finger to his lips.
“You don’t have to be sorry.” She tilted her head up and kissed him firmly. “I was wrong. It was a shock and I reacted poorly. I’m sorry. And for the record, I know exactly the kind of man you are.”
“Yeah? And what kind of man am I?”
“Well,” she said, intertwining her fingers in his, “you’re a soldier and a scholar. And you’re passionate about both. Archaeology you do for yourself, but the warrior in you does it to help other people. I know that now, and I admire it.” She paused. “And I know I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for you.”
Nate said nothing for a long while.
“You know,” he began, “I’ve spent most of my adult life either at war or training for war. Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen…” He stared up at the stars.
“I know,” she said, sensing there was more he wanted to say and attempting to coax it out of him.
“Do you know what Green Berets do?”
She nodded. “You free the oppressed.”
Nate stared down at her in amazement, and she smiled. “I told you, I’ve been learning a lot about you.”
He smiled back. “Well, you’re right. That’s the mission. To help people, and to teach them to defend themselves. And I had a lot of opportunities to do just that. In Afghanistan we helped people fight off the Taliban. In Syria, we built militias to defend communities against ISIS. In Iraq we rescued the Yazidis from ISIS on Sinjar Mountain. I was helping people, and I enjoyed it.”
“But not in Yemen?”
“Yemen was different,” he said, and stared back up at the sky. “Tim, Shane, and Wally were there too. We were sent to help the Arab coalition work with the locals to fight Al Qaeda in the region. Except the politicians barely let us help. Every request for support, more troops, increased security… it was denied. We had to watch, with our hands tied, and as a result we lost most of our team. Killed… for nothing.”
“I’m sorry,” Ana said quietly. “I misjudged you before.” The simple statement warmed Nate’s heart.
“You seem to have formed a different opinion of me in a few short days,” he said, puzzled.
“Let’s just say you have loyal friends.” Ana smiled.
They sat together in silence a while longer. He wasn’t sure whom she had talked to, but he found himself glad she had. He wasn’t alwaysgreat at expressing himself, and the guys he had spent years with and gone to war alongside knew him better than anyone. Apparently, Ana was beginning to trust them as much as he did. And trust him too. The thought caused Nate to have a slight internal panic. He didn’t want to let her down.
“Look, Ana,” he started, “about your dad. I don’t know what we’re going to find, if anything at all.”
“I know,” she said, staring up at the sky with him. “It’s a long shot. In some ways, I think I’ve already started to come to terms with the fact that he may be dead.”
“There’s always hope,” Nate said, though he didn’t really believe it. People who had touched the hydrology report had a habit of dying. They were still alive, but that wasn’t for a lack of trying. But for her sake, he hoped they would find her father alive.
“No, I know there is. But… I can’t explain it. I feel it. He’s gone.” She began tearing up. “And I can accept that. I just need to know.”
Nate didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing and simply held her tight. She was right, of course. Her father was probably dead, and someone was still gunning for the two of them. The only way she would have her closure is if they met the person trying to kill them again, and he wasn’t sure he wanted that to happen. It was a catch-22, between putting their lives at risk and getting Ana the closure she needed. Of course, this time he had three very lethal friends with him, and he was no wilting flower himself. If whoever was hunting them did manage to find them out here, Nate felt confident their hunters would get more than they bargained for.
“It’s getting chilly,” Ana said, shuddering slightly.
The temperature had dropped significantly. Deserts could become cold at night, and this one was no exception. While comparatively still warm, a temperature drop of thirty or forty degrees was substantial andhad a chilling effect on the body. Nate reached into his bag in the back of the truck and dug out a sleeping bag. He unzipped it all the way and pulled it around them like a blanket as they leaned back against the baggage.
“Thank you,” she said finally.
“For what?”
“Well, a lot of things, I guess,” she said with a laugh. “But thank you for letting me come.” This time he kissed her.
