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  STRONG

  NATALIE DEBRABANDERE

  Copyright © 2015 Natalie Debrabandere

  All rights reserved.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the author’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published or without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Disclaimer:

  Please bear in mind that this is a work of fiction, and as such I have allowed myself a certain amount of creative license regarding military rules and regulations. This means that sometimes I may have bent the rules a little, in order to accommodate my story.

  I apologise in advance for any significant mistakes.

  ISBN: 1491220988

  ISBN-13: 978-1491220986

  DEDICATION

  To the lovely people who read my first novel, Unbroken, and took the time to write really wonderful reviews online.

  Also dedicated to the exceptional people who serve in the military, in the United States and the UK, and who inspired me to write the story of Kate and Tyler. Thank you so much guys.

  PART ONE

  Chapter One

  Cobel FOB, Helmand, Afghanistan.

  September 2012.

  Combat Medic Kate Sanderson steadied herself for what she knew would be a typically rough landing in hostile territory. As the black Army Chinook she was on started its descent, it dropped fast and hard in sudden bursts. It was heart in your mouth kind of stuff, pretty good simulation for a textbook crash. Also standard practice in these parts, and nothing to worry about at all. As a general rule, Kate enjoyed flying, and she also had absolute confidence in the talented pilots who flew the Chinooks out there in Afghanistan.

  But she dreaded these tactical landings and knew she always would.

  Of course she understood that the manoeuvre was necessary in order to reduce the amount of time the helicopter would be exposed to enemy fire, if any. Unfortunately knowing the reason behind it did not make it any less unpleasant, and already she could feel her stomach beginning to twist and roll.

  She allowed herself a quick glance out of the tiny window on her left but could see nothing but darkness. She returned her gaze forward very quickly and concentrated on breathing deep and slow, the way she knew worked for her, reminding herself that they would be on the ground soon and trying to keep her stomach from crawling up inside her mouth. In front of her several large plastic crates crammed with equipment, food and ammunition blocked her view of much of the inside of the machine.

  Kate was using a scheduled re-supply drop to the outpost as her entry ticket to Cobel, and the reason they were using a Chinook was that the area around the Forward Operating Base was heavily mined. Flying was safer than driving a truck, even an armoured one, even in the middle of the night.

  “Ten seconds!” the loadmaster shouted in her direction.

  Apart from him and his buddy she was the only one on board in the back, and she gave them both a thumbs up and a quick smile. Leaning forward a little, she shouldered her heavy Bergen, ready to get out as quickly as she could. She had practiced this sort of thing many times before, in training and on operations, and she knew the Chinook would not stay on the ground for very long regardless of how much time it took her to get going. Even so, there was no way she would be able to run out very fast, not with the amount of weight she was carrying on her back.

  With her ammunition, clothes, webbing, weapons, and various bits and pieces of equipment, her bag weighed close to 60 kilograms. Almost her own body weight in gear.

  She did not have time to think about that for very long though. The ramp dropped even before the heavy machine was fully on the ground, and Kate braced herself.

  With her combat goggles safely on, she staggered out into a whirlwind of grit, gravel and sand, wincing a little as she felt its sharp sting on her cheeks and mouth. She made sure that she got off the ramp quickly though, and without losing her balance. Once she was a safe distance away she dropped down on one knee, breathing a little harder. She shrugged her shoulders to readjust her load more comfortably and tightened her grip on her weapon, squinting through all the dust hanging in the air as she tried to make sense of her surroundings.

  Behind her the crates got unloaded in the blink of an eye, and the helicopter was gone less than ten seconds after landing. In the deep silence that followed, Kate glanced to her left and spotted the compound, about fifty meters away.

  It was two in the morning, deep into enemy territory. Kate’s new posting was twelve weeks attached to a company of US Marines at Cobel, and she had been travelling for nearly two days to get to it. From the familiar safety of RAF Brize Norton in the UK, on to Kandahar, then Bastion, and finally Cobel. She felt a little spaced out, almost hung over. It did not help that her eyes had not adjusted to the darkness yet, and she felt very on edge about being out in the open in what she knew to be such a dangerous place.

  Fortunately, just as her heart was beginning to race a little, she spotted movement on her right and one of the marines she had expected to see suddenly stepped forward out of the shadows to meet her.

  He grabbed her hand and shook it, and she relaxed a little. She was glad to see him, glad to see how confident and at ease he appeared to be.

  “Doctor Sanderson?”

  “Sergeant,” she replied with a quick nod.

  “Welcome to Cobel. The boss is out on patrol so I’ll get you settled in. Just walk right behind me. Make sure you stay on the path.”

  Kate gave him a thumbs up. She knew the drill. Even this close to the compound the troops were taking no chances with potential IEDs, and Kate was well aware that hidden bombs would be a constant threat over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, probably also the main cause of injury to the soldiers she was about to join at Cobel.

  “Got it, let’s go,” she said.

  Apart from the occasional comment from her guide on their team radio, everybody was quiet as they made their way quickly back toward the compound, and after a couple of minutes they slipped inside the secure area, through a narrow hole in the wall well-guarded by a couple of sentries.

  “Here we go doctor, home sweet home,” the tall gunner announced.

  Kate took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

  Safe, she thought. For now.

  “Great,” she smiled. “Call me Kate.”

  “Sure thing, Kate.”

  He stood in front of her and released the straps on his body armour, took his gloves off.

  “So how long have you guys been at Cobel now, Sergeant?” Kate asked him.

  She lowered her rucksack to the ground and stretched her back. She twisted around a little until she heard it pop, and felt instantly better.

  “Just over eight weeks,” he replied.

  He whipped off his helmet and smiled at her.

  “Name’s Ben Collins. Welcome to our little bit of front line. It’s not much, but we like it.”

  Kate took a few seconds to look around, a little taken aback at the state of the compound.

  Everything seemed to be open ground. The walls were only about three meters high on every side, and made of mud. There were no solid buildings anywhere to be seen on the inside, and Kate had definitely not been expecting that. She could see observation posts at each corner of the compound, equipped with heavy machine guns and mortars which she knew would be manned twenty-four hours a day. Still, she would have preferred solid Hesco walls to this. The term “dump” came to mind, although of course since this was a Marines’ camp, a very tidy and organised one…

  The soldiers had set up camp on the Western side of the compound as close as possible to the
thick mud walls. Probably in case anybody came near enough to throw a grenade inside, Kate suspected, even though it was very unlikely that anyone would manage to get close enough to give that a try.

  Tarpaulins and tents, combined with sand bags and remnants of wooden boxes and crates, had all been positioned as creatively and strategically as possible in order to turn this godforsaken place into as much of a home for these marines for the time being. Kate noticed a small stream that snaked its way through the compound, and there was a little pond at the back. She spotted space for a few solar showers nearby as well. A bunch of trees and some bits of wood were clustered around it, giving a slight illusion of privacy.

  Collins led her through, stopping when he reached the last tent at the end.

  “This is where the boss sleeps,” he said, opening up the tent flap for Kate so she could take a quick look inside. “There’s a free bed in there for you. She’s out on a job with a few of the guys but they should be back just before dawn.”

  Kate shivered a little.

  “Okay, thanks. Is it getting really cold around here or is it just me?” she enquired.

  “Gets to be pretty warm during the day still, but yeah, colder at night. Makes a change from all the stupid heat we’ve had all over the summer, you know? ”

  He grinned at her, looking relaxed, and Kate returned his smile. Her last posting, she reflected. It would be fine.

  After ten years in the British Medical Corps and tours of duty in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, she had finally decided that she would leave the army at the end of this campaign. She was thirty-four, five-six, with shiny black hair that just brushed her shoulders when she had it down. A keen rower back at home, she was athletic and muscular looking. She could hold her own with most soldiers when it came to physical fitness.

  “I think I should have packed a few more warmers,” she commented lightly.

  “Hey, don’t worry. Any kit you need and didn’t bring, the boss will share with you.”

  “What’s her name?” Kate asked.

  It was the third time that he had mentioned “the boss“, and there was a lot of respect in his voice when he did. Kate was curious.

  “Oh, the captain,” he said with a quick nod. “Her name’s Tyler.”

  “Right. What is it like working with her?”

  Collins looked her straight in the eye and gave a little shrug.

  “She’s good, I trust her,” he said simply. Then he winked at her and laughed. "Don't tell her I said that, hey doc?"

  Kate chuckled.

  “No worries. How long have you two known each other?”

  “Five years. Tyler’s solid. Just the sort you want watching your back when you’re out there on patrol.”

  Kate watched in silence as he lit a small Hexy stove and put coffee on the go for the both of them. They sat together for a little while longer, and Collins answered some of Kate’s questions about the compound, day to day life, and security at the camp.

  “There are forty-eight of us out here, divided into four platoons. We patrol every day,” he said. “And at night too. It’s important that we make our presence felt.”

  “Does this camp get targeted often?”

  “Used to at first, but not really anymore. We get Taliban observing us from time to time, but there are fewer and fewer of them around.”

  Kate raised a questioning eyebrow.

  “Not many dickers are a match for our snipers,” Collins explained with a wry smile.

  “I see. And are there many Taliban groups left around this particular area you think?”

  “Yeah, we reckon quite a few. Some pose as farmers. Some don’t bother. They tend to come and go. We get shot at when we go out sometimes, but with so many of our guys on the ground, and with the firepower that we bring, they know there isn’t much they can do to hurt us that way.”

  “So they lay on IEDs…”

  “That they certainly do.”

  Collins’ expression darkened. He stared thoughtfully into his coffee and slowly turned the mug in his hands.

  “We lost one of our guys to an IED, first week we were here. Last week two guys from Taliki also got injured and had to be medivaced out. That‘s only two clicks East,” he added. “Guess it’s not a matter of “if” it’s going to happen, just a matter of when…”

  On that sombre comment, he drained the rest of his mug and prepared to stand up.

  “If that’s all for now ma’am…”

  “Kate.”

  “If that’s all for now Kate,” he corrected himself with a smile, “I think I’d better go get some sleep before I go out on patrol again.”

  “Sure. Thanks for the warm welcome Sergeant.”

  “Ben.”

  Kate nodded, flashed him a bright smile.

  “Ben. See you tomorrow.”

  After Collins had left, leaving her alone in the tent to organise her few belongings, Kate tried not to think too much about his last comment.

  As a professional soldier she knew the risks, they all did. She did her best to stay safe and make sure that those around her were safe as well. If and when they got injured, it was her job to save their lives. And she was extremely good at her job. Besides that there was little benefit to dwelling on the multitude of dangers surrounding them.

  She spent a few moments checking out the inside of the tent, not that there was much to see. There were two collapsible camp beds in it, and Kate dropped her Bergen onto the remaining available one. There might not be any buildings here but at least there were beds. And solar showers, she remembered with satisfaction. She had not always been that lucky, and compared to some of the places she had been this was almost luxurious. She decided she could compromise on the added safety of a few good Hesco walls.

  A regulation military sleeping bag lay neatly on top of the other bed, and Kate took a second to flick through the scuba diving magazine which had been left open by the side of it. Tough if you were into scuba diving in a place like this, she reflected. There was an open box of water bottles on the floor, and notebooks and maps piled high on an overturned crate which acted as a small table in between the two beds. Extra rations and several packets of pancake mix were tucked away in a corner, as well as a tough looking, battered guitar case.

  Kate smiled a little at the sight of it, wondering about the woman who was in command of this platoon, who she would meet shortly. “The Boss”, she mused, remembering the respectful way that Collins had referred to her throughout. She had to be good, Kate reflected, to get a post like this one. Cobel was in an extremely sensitive area of the country, and she had twelve men under her command... This was not the norm.

  Unusually as well, there were no pictures in the tent, of loved ones, pets or any kind of life back at home. Nothing personal apart from the diving mag, guitar case and pancake mix.

  Kate lay on top of her bed and closed her eyes, smiling a little. All in all this was pretty good, she reflected. It was really quite nice, and very unusual, that this Marines captain had managed to make such a good impression on her already, without even being around. A very good start indeed.

  The Boss, as Collins liked to refer to her, was lying on her stomach in a shallow ditch six miles to the East of Cobel. She was feeling a little bit cold, and hungry too, and she had spent the last twenty minutes or so visualising in her mind a mug of black coffee and a blueberry muffin. From time to time the muffin slowly morphed into a piece of vanilla cheesecake. Imagination was a wonderful thing. Tyler was happy going back and forth with that in her head. Doing what she had to do in order to stay awake, stay safe, and do her job.

  Her eyes were trained on what appeared to be a completely deserted compound half a mile away. For hours now she had seen nothing move, heard nothing. It was tedious work. But despite the cold and the tiredness, she was alert, focused, and ready to spend another three hours in that ditch if it was what the mission required.

  “Sitrep?” she murmured into her radio.

  "Stand
by."

  She recognised the voice of her commanding officer as he came on. Major Tim Cox may have been in an Ops tent in Bastion twenty miles away, but the Comms link was so good it felt like he was on the ground right next to her.

  She had to wait a few minutes for him to give her the info she had asked for. While she waited she slowly scanned the area in front of her and to the sides, aware that her men were close by in the darkness, although they were so well concealed that she was unable to see them. They were the best. She felt confident knowing that she had their backup and that she was not alone in the night.

  After what felt like an eternity Cox came back on the radio. He sounded pissed off, and rightly so.

  “Your team is being stood down captain,” he advised. “They’re not coming.”

  Tyler exhaled slowly. All for nothing, she thought. She felt the tiniest bit of frustration, but she quickly got over it. She no longer got annoyed about these things now. It was not the first time they had received promising intelligence which then turned out to be useless, and it was all part of the job. This time, the leaders of a local Taliban group had been expected at the compound for a meeting. According to their initial information they were four hours late. Now Tyler understood why.

  “Where did this new info come from, major?” she asked.

  She trusted him of course, and she wanted to trust their source, whoever they were. But she would not risk moving herself and the men under her command until she was absolutely certain that it was safe to do so.

  Cox reassured her quickly.

  “The Intel guys intercepted a call from their original contact. It's all been verified. You can go home, captain, and watch yourself on the way back.”

  “Roger that,” Tyler replied.

  She stood up slowly, wincing at the pain in her back, and looked to her left. She smiled a little when she spotted the silent figures of her team emerging from the shadows. It was four of them, and they moved quickly and quietly toward her.