PART III - Chapter 41: THE LAST MAN THAT I KILLED

 

Chapter 41

The Last Man That I Killed
(Ó 2010)

It was just before sunrise on the next morning and Cosette peered out from behind the curtain to find Logan sitting on the front porch of Chalet de Lily. She watched him; he seemed to be pondering something in his mind. She then felt the gentle hand of Miriam touch her shoulder, she turned and looked to her beloved and placed her index finger to her lips to tell her that she must be quiet. Cosette then pointed out the window to tell Miriam to look outside but to remain silent. Miriam then looked out and saw Logan as he was staring off into the distance in the pre dawn light. He was in deep thought.

 

Cosette then stepped to the door, opened it slightly and peered through the small opening she created. Logan did not notice and continued to stare out straight ahead still deep in his thoughts. After a few moments Cosette spoke out softly, “Logan?” He did not respond, he seemed to be totally engrossed in what ever it was that he was contemplating. In a few more seconds she spoke to him again with a little more assertiveness, “Logan!”

 

He then was jolted from his line of thought and turned his head quickly to her. He gasped slightly and answered, “Huh? Yes?”

 

“Are … are you alright Logan?” Cosette asked timidly.

 

“What? Oh yes, yes. I must have become completely engrossed with a memory of mine. Please, come out here and sit with me.” Cosette stepped out into the spring morning, Logan saw Miriam standing right behind her, “Oh, good morning to you too my dear, please come sit with me, the both of you.” Both ladies then came out onto the porch and took their separate seats in the other three empty chairs that were on the porch. It was going to be a beautiful morning, the sun was just about to rise and the air was a comfortable cool. The birds were already in the midst of their morning singing.

 

Miriam asked, “What were you thinking about? You seemed so lost in your thoughts.”

 

He took in a breath and sighed, “Oh, it was just a bad memory of mine; I seem to have a lot of those.”

 

“Tell us about it.” Miriam said.

 

“Oh, this isn’t a story to start the morning off with.” He said quietly.

 

Cosette spoke up, “If you can start your day thinking of it, then we can start by listening to it. You said that this was going to be a weekend of your revealing things to us, you might as well share this.”

 

Logan looked out into the morning and then up to the sky. He then said gently, “I was thinking about … I was thinking about - - - the last man that I killed.” He then turned to see the semi shocked expressions on the faces of his two friends. “I told you, this isn’t the best way to start the day.”

Cosette then said, “Tell us Logan. I saw you through the window, what ever this was still bothers you, tell us. I know it made you feel better when you told it to Lily.”

 

He smiled slightly and looked down to the porch, “Yes, yes it did. She comforted me as I told her.” He took in a deep breath and then began - - -

 

- - - “I don’t know who Cordier LeJune was … I still don’t know to this day. I don’t know who he was and I did not know what it was that he did. It was in 1981 and all I knew of him was that the Republic of France wanted him and that they wanted him so bad that they had ordered me and my men to go and get him. He was trapped somewhere just inside of Somalia and it was my mission to extract him out and bring him into Djibouti where the government of France would then take him off my hands. It was the typical black operation that France uses the Legion for. They would send us into some country, completely without any identification. If we were captured or killed, then there would be nothing that would lead to the French government. To the world, and even to France, we all would be just some crazy foreign mercenaries hired to do some private work. We were Legionnaires … and we were expendable.

 

“I took with me five of my best men and we crossed the border from Djibouti into Somalia late in the evening using the cover of darkness. We marched on foot for about three nights until we came to the area that we were informed of that LeJune was being held. I was in the northern and western region of Somalia, near the three points of where they share their border with Djibouti and Ethiopia. When we finally arrived there we found a makeshift camp where a few Somali soldiers were on guard. The Somalis were no problem to take care of, we neutralized them all within a couple of minutes, in fact as it turned out, the Somalis were going to be the easiest part of this excursion.

 

“I quickly found LeJune and the second he opened his mouth, I knew that there was going to be trouble. He was sitting in a chair as if he were waiting for us. It turned out that he was. I introduced myself to him and all he said was, ‘What took you all so long?’ in an angry tone. LeJune was a short stocky man with a ruddy complexion, thinning and graying red hair, a beard and green eyes. And he was not alone, there came to my surprise that he had with him his own little entourage of three other men. Two of the men, their names I can’t recall, but the third man, he was hard to forget.

 

“His name or rather the name that he was called was Kronk. He was six foot six and was more like an ape than a man. He had a head like a cement block that he kept clean shaven; it looked as though you break a baseball bat over it and nothing would happen to him. It was his face too you could not forget, it so chiseled, like a granite sculpture.

“I told LeJune that I was under the impression that there was only him, but he made it clear that his men were to go with him, under our protection of course, if he were to give the government of France any cooperation with what ever it was they wanted him for. Monsieur LeJune also made it clear that France felt he was important, important enough to send me for him anyway. I told LeJune that we were to leave the compound that very second. I don’t know how often the Somali’s checked up on this place and the more distance between now and whenever that may be the better. 

 

“So we then began to make our way to the Djibouti border. We were three hours into our hike when LeJune demanded that we stop to rest. LeJune was making all sorts of demands on not only me but of my men since the moment we left. He began to believe that he was in charge of this whole mission, but my men’s loyalties were to me and me only. They knew that I was just letting LeJune talk. But I did give into this command and told the men to rest for about twenty minutes. I stepped away from the group and I pulled out my compass from my pocket and began to look over to the direction which we were to be headed in. However, this was just a ploy, when I saw that I was far away enough from the group I called for my corporal to join me. When he came to me I told him to pull out the map that he was carrying. When he did and unfolded it I began to speak very quietly to him. I told him that I did not like or trust LeJune or any of his men and I told him to pass the word to the other Legionnaires of my feelings. That they were to keep their weapons on their person at all times and have them at the ready just in case. My corporal did as I had ordered.

 

“We were making better time on the return trip; we were almost a half a day’s time ahead of what I thought we were going to need to complete the mission. Things basically were going smoothly the whole time, we encountered some of LeJune’s bullshit, as well as from some of his mens, but that was to be expected. I still did not trust him or any of them. Especially Kronk. Kronk was surprisingly well spoken, it turned out he was well read in most of the literary classics, and had a love for classical music. But he was like a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’; he was either acting like an educated gentleman at one moment, then just change into a psycho the next. I saw it a couple of times, but it wasn’t really anything to be concerned with.

 

“That is until we were almost to the border, I mean just in what I thought was going to be the last two hours or less.

 

“We were in the late morning hours and we finishing our last rest break before we were to make our final hike to the border. Since we were early I thought we would cross and then get some sleep on the Djibouti side. We were near some sort of pasture and grassy area. There were signs that there were some locals around and I was trying to avoid anyone spotting us the best we could, but on the other hand we were so close to the border that it really would not have mattered. My corporal, my men and I were away from LeJune and his group going over the map and planning our last route to Djibouti. We figured that we had just about another single hours worth of hiking and we would be crossing the border. I gave the order to the men that we would be leaving in fifteen minutes, and that’s when I first heard the commotion.

 

“I looked over to LeJune and his men, they seemed to be laughing about something but I also heard the sound of what seemed to be a girl crying. I looked closer and I saw what appeared to be Kronk holding onto a local girl. Off in the distance behind them all I saw a small heard of goats and it occurred to me that whoever that girl was she was taking care of them. I ordered my men to be at the ready and I approached LeJune and Kronk. As I did so I observed as Kronk pushed the girl to the ground and he removed his shirt. The other two men pounced on her and held her down. I began to approach them all faster and I yelled out, ‘Hey! What the hell do you think your’e doing?’

 

“LeJune then answered me with ’Stay out of this Sergeant-Chef, my boys here are just having a little fun’.

“As I got closer I could see the girl, she couldn’t have been more than fourteen and she was putting up a good fight. She was resisting them as best as she could. I answered LeJune sternly with ‘I don’t like their idea of fun Monsieur LeJune, tell them to get off of her now and let her go!’

 

“Then Kronk turned to me and I could see on his face that he was now the Mr. Hyde version of Kronk. He spoke to me surprisingly calm though, ‘Listen Sergeant, I have not seen a decent woman in over two months, so go away for awhile until I’m done.’ He then turned his back to me and began to make his way back to the girl and the others.

 

“I said to him, ‘That’s not a woman, that’s a little girl.’

 

“Kronk turned to me and took some steps towards me then stopped, ‘That’s all the better then, she’s fresh and unused.’ He then began to smile at me and he placed his hands on his hips.

 

“I then looked to LeJune, and said, ‘You can’t let them do this Monsieur LeJune, you don’t understand. That girl belongs to one of these local tribes. They all live by the law of men; women don’t mean shit to them. They are not their wives, they are not their sisters, hell, they are not even their mothers, they are their property. If you let your men do this, her tribesmen will place her at fault and they will kill her. Honor is big thing among these people, if your men do what they want with her, then it will be she who shall dishonor her family and they will kill her, and it won’t be a quick death.’

“LeJune laughed at me and simply said, ‘That’s not my problem’.

“Then Kronk began to speak, ‘That is all fine and dandy Sergeant but fuck you. I’m going back there and I’m going to break that little girl in, and then my two friends are going to take what is left over. If you think you have what it takes to stop me then come over here right now and we shall see.’ He stood there still with his hands on his hips and a sardonic smile on his face. I took two steps back and turned to my right and looked at my corporal and gave him a slight nod, by turning to my right I was able to hide from Kronk and his friends the fact that I had undone the cover flap of my sidearm. I also looked to my men and gave them too a slight nod. I stood with my left side facing Kronk and the others. I must have appeared to Kronk that I was giving in to him because he began to laugh at me and said, ‘Yes, that is it, I thought so.’ and continued to laugh at me. As he laughed, I then quickly turned around, pulled my sidearm, aimed and fired. I hit Kronk directly in his abdomen with a .45 caliber bullet. It doesn’t matter how big you are or how crazy, when you’re shot in the gut, you go down, and Kronk did just that. Before the others could react to anything … my men had their weapons drawn and aimed at them.

 

“Everything stopped, LeJune’s men were frozen in the steps and mine were frozen with their weapons pointing at them. I then quickly stepped over to Kronk, he was in agony squirming on the ground, his hands were on his stomach and his blood was oozing between his fingers. I then began to look around and LeJune began to yell at me angrily, ‘What the fuck do you think you are doing Sergeant!’

 

“I looked back to him, pointed my sidearm at his face and sternly said, ‘Shut the fuck up … now!’ I don’t know if it was the sound of my voice or the expression on my face but he did just that, he shut his mouth. I then began to look around our surroundings. I ordered my men to take any weapons away from LeJune and his men. I then stepped over to the girl. I was right; she was fourteen at the most. Her clothing was torn from LeJune’s men trying to take them off of her. I showed her that I wasn’t going to hurt her. I helped her to cover herself the best she can and I then helped her to her feet. I then motioned for her to go home and she began to run towards the herd of goats.

 

“LeJune began to yell again, ‘You didn’t have to shoot him Sergeant. I shall make sure your superiors make you suffer for this, I shall see that - - -’ He couldn’t finish because I grabbed him by his throat.

 

“I looked him right in the eye and said ‘That big sack of shit on the ground just might have gotten us all killed asshole. Don’t you understand these tribes around here? Like I said, women are property to them, property that you can sell. That girl is worth a lot to her father or whoever is the head man of her family. I said this is the law of men, meaning men run the whole fucking show. Now someone probably heard that gunshot so that means that we have to get the hell out of here right now.’ I turned to my men and ordered them to prepare to move. I also told them if any of the other of LeJune’s men gave them trouble to shoot them. Just then I heard my corporal call to me. When I turned to look at him I saw him pointing in the direction of the goat heard. When I turned I saw about ten to fifteen men coming from wherever there village was. The girl had run up to them and I watched as she spoke with them briefly and pointed to our direction. The man slapped her twice and she fell to the ground. He violently picked her up by her hair and then pushed in front of him and the others and they began to make their ways towards us. As they drew closer to us I could see that they were all armed.

 

“I turned and ordered my men to be at the ready and to hold onto LeJune and his men. I stepped over to Kronk and looked down at him, he was in tremendous pain but I kneeled down and grabbed him by his ear so that he could see me and said to him angrily, ‘Now you’re going to see what your little fun is going to cause us you fucking shit.’ I pushed his head down into the dirt and stood up. I went over to LeJune, pointed to a spot by my men and told him sternly, ‘You! You and your men stand over there and keep your mouths shut. Maybe … just maybe … I’ll get us out of here alive you arrogant, pompous sack of shit. But mark my words; if things go bad for us, I’m going to kill you myself.’

 

“I called to my corporal, when he came to me I asked him who he thought out of all of us was the best marksman. He answered that it was a young Legionnaire called Pauly. Pauly was from Germany. I told the corporal to send him over to me. When Pauly came I told him that I did not know what was going to happen. That we may have a skirmish with these men and if that happened the rest of their tribe would get involved. I told him that if this did happen that there was a good chance that we all were going to die that morning, then I gave him what he must have thought was an unusual order. My order to him was that if we did indeed engage in a gun battle with these people, that the first thing he was to do … was to shoot that girl right in the head … and I wanted it to be a clean kill shot. I did this because I knew that after they would kill all of us, that the girls family would kill her because she would have brought dishonor to her family, and they would do it in some terrible way just to make an example out of her, and to restore their honor. I then told him that I would kill LeJune at the same time. I still knew that France wanted him badly, but that the government would probably rather have him dead than have any chance of him to use whatever it was they wanted him, for him to use against Madame Republique.

 

“I then told Pauly to return to the group and then ordered the rest to back away and stand by, that I was going to go out to these tribesmen and to see if I could talk to them and try to get out of this. My corporal was to stay with me, if a firefight were to breakout to fight them with everything that they had and to get to the Djibouti border. I also told them that if it gets hopeless for any of them, to save one of their bullets for themselves. With that all said, my corporal and I turned to greet the tribesmen. I stepped to where Kronk was lying and I stopped there and waited for them to come to us, his breathing was labored because the pain he was in was so intense.

 

“They stopped about twenty feet from my corporal and I. It was just some silent awkward minutes of us looking each other over. The men and the girl looking at us and at Kronk lying on the ground. I decided to make the first move, I slowly raised my hand to show I meant no harm and asked in English if any of them spoke that language. I did this because I did not want them to know that we were any way involved with the French government. They would think that I was just some crazy American mercenary. One of the men stepped forward and told me he did. I asked him if he could translate for us and he said that he would. The head man or chief of the tribe began by asking what happened. So I pointed at Kronk and told them that I was paid to escort his boss to out of Somalia, that I caught the man on the ground trying to violate the girl. I stopped him before he could do anything and I emphasized that the girl had put up a good fight also, I stressed to them that she had not been violated and she fought hard to keep her honor. That before Kronk could do anything that I shot him and stopped him.

 

“The chief then spoke to who I believe was the girls’ father and then told me through the translator that the father wanted proof that the daughter was not violated. I swore to them by all that was holy to me that the girl fought hard, that she was not raped and violated, that I knew what something like that meant to him and the traditions of his people. I emphasized with all that I had that she fought and kept her family’s honor and she should be commended, and that I did do something to stop it. The father and the chief then spoke more in a very agitated manner. The chief then spoke to me and the translator said that the father was not satisfied and wanted more proof.

 

“With that I stepped over to Kronk, looked down at him, pulled out my side arm again, and shot him point blank in his face killing him instantly. I needn’t tell you what a .45 slug could do to you at point blank range. I put my side arm back into its holster and coolly looked up to the chief and the father like what I just did meant nothing to me at all. I then said to them that that should have made things right and equal. The chief and the girls’ father began to talk again, but whatever it was that they were discussing, the debate was heated.

 

“After some moments the chief began speaking to me, through the translator I learned that my killing Kronk was not enough to satisfy the father, or the rest of the village men for that matter. That the father’s family honor was still tarnished and that he was still not completely convinced that his daughter was not violated. The mere fact that some other men had placed their hands on her was still some sort of damage. I began to figure out what he wanted … he wanted more blood. By me shooting Kronk, I took away the fathers right to kill him himself. This father, and the rest of the village men, they too wanted more, they wanted revenge on their terms.

 

“The chief told me that they wanted the men responsible, I told him that the man responsible was now dead. He then told me that the girl told her father that LeJune and his men were the ones who tried to hurt her and he said that if I were to give them to him then he would consider everything equal and that I and the rest of my men were free to go. Of course I told him that I could not do that. That I was being paid a great deal of money to get LeJune into Djibouti and that I was obligated to get him there, that I already took half of what was being paid to me and that the people would not be very happy with me if I returned empty handed. The father then became very agitated and began angrily yelling at the chief, pointing to me and my men, I knew that we were all now in some deep shit, so then I raised my voice in anger and told them all to shut the hell up. It got their attention because they all fell silent.

“I stepped up to the translator and told him to translate everything that I was about to say very slowly to the chief and the father. I told then that I knew that there were more men back in their village and that I would be right in the assumption that they all were very well armed. I let them know that my men were also well armed and that yes there could well be a fire fight breaking out between us and them. I told them that there was a great chance that they would probably win this fight because they probably outnumbered us tremendously. That there was the great possibility that they would in fact kill all of us. But I also stated that there is the fact that before they did finish killing all of us, that we would in turn kill many of them, and what would that accomplish? We would be all dead, however there would be many widows and families without their men back in their village and that would put an undo burden on all of them. I told them that there was no way in hell that I was going to give up LeJune, that if I gave him up I was a dead man anyway. So there better be some way to work this out.

 

“The chief looked at me with what I would say was with respect. He turned to the father and the rest of his entourage and began having a discussion. This went on for a few minutes, and then he stepped up to me with the translator and gave me the terms of what was going to be done. He had this smile on his face as the translator spoke to me. My surprised expression made him smile more. I listened to his terms, thought it over for a minute, and as much as I did not like it, I agreed to them. The chief then sent some of his men back to the village along with the girl. I then turned and went back to my men, and when I did, the chief and the rest of his men followed.

 

“When I joined the others I told them all to fall in. I told my corporal to take LeJune and to place him directly behind the rest of my men. LeJune asked me what was going on so I told everyone to listen up, I told them that I had both good news and bad news. The good news was that we were only thirty minutes from the Djibouti border … if we humped it real hard; the bad news was that we only had thirty five minutes to get there. That the rest of the village men were being called to come back, when they arrived, that they were going to play a little game with us, that they were going to give us a five minute head start to the border. We were to walk as fast as we could, and that they would do the same, only they would be five minutes behind us. Also, we were to give up our weapons to them except for our knives, we could take anything else with us and that included LeJune. LeJune then became agitated and asked, ‘What do you mean that I can go with you?’

 

“I told him that only he was to come with us. I then grabbed his other to men and threw them to the ground in front of the chief and the father where in turn the rest of the village men pounced on them and restrained them. I told my men and LeJune that the only chance that we now had was to play this little game that they had just concocted. LeJune was important to us, so was their honor. We were to get to the border as fast as we could because they were going to be right behind us. We were to only walk as fast as we could because they were going to be exactly five minutes behind us. If they caught up to us before we reached the border, then we were going to suffer the same fate as LeJunes men were going to, if we crossed the border successfully, then we would have won fair and square. Either way, the honor of the village and the girl’s father would not be tarnished.

 

“LeJune began to protest saying “You can’t do this Sergeant! You have no idea what those people will do to my men.’

 

“I just looked at him and said, ‘That’s where you’re wrong Monsieur LeJune, I know exactly what they’re going to do to them - - - and they’re going to do the same to us if we don’t get to the border.’

 

“LeJune then threatened me with, ‘If you let this happen then I will not cooperate with the French government.’

 

“Then I said to him, ‘That’s not my problem.’ He looked dumbfounded, that I continued, ‘My problem is to get your fat ass across that border and deliver you. You don’t think that those villagers know that you’re going to be the reason that we will be slowed down at all you pompous ass? You’re going to move your big ass as fast as you can to get to that border because yes, your life depends on it now.’

 

“I then looked out to the distance where the other men and the girl had gone and I saw the rest of the village men coming. The chief and his men then began to tie up LeJunes men. They began to scream in terror and as they did so the village men began to laugh at them. A couple other men then went over to Kronk’s body; they each grabbed him by one of his feet and then began to drag him back towards their village. I guess that even though he was dead, they were not through with him yet.

 

“The village men then joined the rest of them, there must have been sixty or more of them altogether, so they let me know that I was quite outnumbered. I ordered my men to turn over their weapons and prepare to move out. We had Russian AK-47’s; they were part of the compensation package I guess. LeJune’s men were then taken away back to the village. I had LeJune watch as they were led away, ‘You caused this asshole,’ I told him, ‘you and them, your arrogance has cost you dearly.’

 

“The chief them signaled that the game was about to begin. My men and I would have made it easy by ourselves but we had the burden of LeJune on us. The chief pointed to the direction of the border with Djibouti, he then produced on old pocket watch and showed that it had a second hand. He then held out his hand with his fingers all spread to indicate that we had five minutes. I turned to my men and told them how this game was going to be played. When the chief gave his signal, we were to begin walking as fast as we could towards the border with Djibouti. I told them as long as we kept a good fast pace we had a great chance of getting out of this alive. I told them that under normal circumstances we would likely to have made it to the border easy in about twenty minutes, however we had the baggage of LeJune, and that LeJune was our mission. I told them to keep a good steady hard pace, but under no circumstances were they to break out into a run. If we ran, then the villagers would start to run, and we would have no chance at all. So it was vital that they remain calm and keep a good steady hard paced walk. If I felt that we had to run, then I would give them the order to do so. I also told them that if we were overtaken that the two quickest ways for them to die were to stand and fight with their knives, or to slit their own jugular veins.

 

“I then called my corporal over to me; I told him that during this game that I was to be on one side of LeJune and him on the other and to keep his big ass moving. I also told him that if I felt that we would not make it that I would have to cut LeJune’s throat. If I was overtaken then it would be the duty of my corporal to do so. I then looked to my men and asked if they were all ready, they all acknowledged yes. I turned to the chief and told him that we were all ready. He then raised his hand and looked at his pocket watch, and in a few seconds, he dropped his hand down hard, signaling us to go.

 

“We were off, every thirty seconds or so I had my fastest Legionnaire turn and walk backwards to see if they were moving yet. We were only a couple of minutes into it when LeJune began to complain that he was tired. I told him that he did not have time to be tired, that if he did not keep his big ass moving that I was going to stop, let my men continue on, let the villagers overtake us and that I would tell the chief that I would not care what he did to me as long as I could see them do it to him first. For what it was worth it seemed to work because LeJune began to pick up his pace, far awhile anyway.

 

“In what I estimated to be five minutes I had the fast Legionnaire turn to see if they had in fact began to start there part if the game. ‘They’re about six hundred yards behind us Sergeant-chef’, he reported to me. That little flash of news seemed to make LeJune kick it up a notch also; however I had to keep forcing him to keep from going into a running pace.

 

“Every few minutes afterwards the fast Legionnaire would turn and keep me posted on the position of the villagers, and every time he did he would let me know how much closer that they were ganging up on us. That made me have to persuade LeJune even more to not panic, that they were still behind us and that if he kept his head he was going to make it.

 

“When we were about twenty minutes into the game the fast Legionnaire reported to me that the villagers were now about two hundred yards and still closing in. LeJune started holding his chest telling me that he believed that he was not going to make it. I then sternly told him to keep his feet moving and to concentrate on getting to that border; it was getting closer with every step. Once we were in Djibouti it would not matter if they were only three feet behind us, he had to put his mind into it. I told him that it was all just a case of mind over matter. I then said, ‘I don’t mind because you don’t matter’. I then showed my anger with him and grabbed him by the back of his neck and screamed at him, ‘Listen you fat bastard, you’re going to cross that fucking border if I have to carry you over it myself, you understand?’ For the first time I saw LeJune as he really was, just an arrogant bully filled with fear.

 

“I don’t know but that last five minutes seemed to go on forever. I had no idea exactly where the border was, all I saw was the landscape in front of me. The fast Legionnaire turned and reported that the villagers were now less then a hundred yards and they were still gaining. A few minutes later they were at less than fifty yards, then forty, and then thirty, I could hear their footsteps closing in on us and the talking amongst themselves. I ordered my men to keep their eyes forward, that I would give the order to turn and fight. I saw LeJune’s face, he was turning white, he probably hadn’t had this much exercise in years.

 

“We just kept moving the best were could. Then another five minutes past and I felt like something was different. I ordered the fast Legionnaire to turn for a status report. He turned to look and then he just stopped. When I saw him do this I turned myself, and to my surprise I saw the village men now almost a hundred yards behind us. They were stopped and standing should to shoulder. I ordered my men to stop, and as they did they too turned around to see the sight now behind us. It then hit me; we were all now inside Djibouti. The chief and his tribe showed me that they were indeed men of honor, in their way anyway. They saw us all turn around and they all began to laugh because of the expressions of surprise on our faces. The chief then raised his hand up, with his brand new AK-47, pumping it into the air. All the others who had the weapons that we turned over to them did the same.

 

The game was over. We made it to the border, the village men had our weapons, they had the men who almost violated their property, they were going to have their way with them for the rest of the night, so in the villagers mind, everything was now equal. The chief then placed his hand on his chest, smiled and bowed slightly to us. He then turned and began to make his way back to their village; all his tribesmen turn and followed him, leaving us alone there. I stood and watched as they became smaller then disappeared into the horizon. LeJune then stepped up to me and watched them also. He then said to me, ‘Well, I guess that is that.’

 

“I looked at him with disgust, and then punched him across his face knocking him to the ground - - -”

 

- - - “I didn’t let him rest long; I made him march for the next three hours until we reached the rendezvous point that the French government established. We arrived there and had to wait until the next morning when they did arrive. Sometime during the night LeJune’s arrogance had returned. When the French officials showed up, LeJune told them of what I had done with his men, and that he would not cooperate with them. The French official said that our mission was for him, LeJune, not anyone else that he was involved with.” Logan said, looking out across the front yard. He then laughed a little and continued, “I told the French official that if LeJune did not give them whatever it was that they wanted, that my men and I would be more than happy to persuade him to do so. I stepped up to LeJune and said that whatever I would do to him would make what his men we left with the villagers were going through look like a day at the park.”

 

Logan sat motionless for some moments as he stared off into the distance. Cosette placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. He looked at her, “Kronk, his name as far as I knew was Kronk, and he was the last man that I ever killed. There’s a reason for that. But that can wait until later, come on, let’s all get dressed and go visit Lily."