He shook his head and took a deep breath, briefly looking away as he composed himself. When he looked back up, his eyes were worn, the weariness etched on his face. “I’m not proud of it, but I agreed, although I had no intention of following through. An operation like that could take months to plan and, by that time, I hoped to be long gone with enough information that could help our country should we have to become involved in the conflict.”

“But that didn’t happen, did it?” Mackenzie asked, grabbing her father’s hand, comforting him.

“No, it didn’t. The more I learned about what was going on over there, the harder following my directive to not get involved became. When I learned exactly what was happening in those camps, I knew I couldn’t sit by and do nothing. Based solely on my promise that I would deliver his wife to safety, Viktor had put his own life at risk to help me and my country. And I knew I had to make it right.

“When I approached my team with my plan, I gave them an out. Going in and doing an extraction at the camp would be dangerous. Lives could be lost, but I needed to be true to my word. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t. Surprisingly, my entire unit was with me. Since we didn’t have the backing of the U.S. government, we would need to go in, do the extraction, and get back across the border and into the safe zone without being detected or firing a single shot. It was a smaller camp set up at a hotel, but it was still risky, especially without having the luxury of time to properly plan. We were pretty much going in blind, hoping his wife was still alive.”

“You didn’t even know whether she was alive?” Mackenzie asked.

He slowly shook his head. “No, but I knew I would regret it if we didn’t at least try to go in. The following night, we made our way the few kilometers from our base camp and into Bosnian territory. As we approached the hotel, the screams I heard were chilling. The cries…” He shuddered.

“I wished I couldn’t speak their language. That way, I wouldn’t understand their words, begging for their abuser to stop, saying they’d rather die than have to suffer through any more brutality.”

He buried his head in his hands and tugged at the little hair he had. The room was still as we were on the edge of our proverbial seats to find out how the mission went. Francis slowly raised his head and, with a furrowed brow, met my eyes. “I had seen a lot of things during my time with the Rangers,” he started, his voice strained. “And I have seen a lot of things since. But nothing compares to what I witnessed that evening. It’s stayed with me always, and I have a feeling it will until my dying day.”

He stared into the distance as a lone tear trickled down his cheek. I barely saw any combat during my time in the navy, so I had no idea how I would react to the sights and sounds he was describing, albeit vaguely. I knew enough about the conflict in Bosnia to fill in the blanks, though.

“Viktor went in first and made small talk with the Serbian guard stationed at the front, giving us an opportunity to sneak in. Once inside, we broke into teams of two to search for our target. Harrison and I were pretty lucky, finding her in the first room we swept.”

“Harrison Mills?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Wait a minute,” Mackenzie interjected. “Is that…?” She raised her eyebrows, her father simply nodding in response. “How did I not know that?” She leaned back in her chair as she rubbed her temples.

“Not know what?” I asked, feeling like I was missing something.

“That one of the members of my unit eventually moved in next door to us when he transferred to Counterintelligence.”

“Damian’s father?” I looked at Mackenzie.

“Yes.”

“So, besides you, he’s the only one from your team who’s still alive, although he’s supposedly been missing for years.”

He shook his head. “He’s not missing, but we’ll get to that.”

“Okay,” I agreed, curious as to what the story with Mills was.

“Like I was saying, Harrison and I found Viktor’s wife and did a quick extraction. She was in a room with roughly twenty other women, all of them chained to the wall. They were pleading with us to be set free, to take them with us, but I couldn’t. We weren’t even supposed to be there, and I needed to do everything to minimize the potential backlash of causing what could be viewed as an international incident. I hated what I did, but I simply shook my head without giving them so much as an explanation. Later, when I found out that only about twenty women ever made it out of that camp alive…” He let out a breath. “Well, I don’t have to tell you how much that guilt still eats at me to this day.”

“I can imagine,” I commented.

“We were lucky to have even been able to get in and find our target with no issues. But luck eventually runs out, and I knew ours would, too. As we were approaching the lobby, where Viktor was still distracting the guard, I heard two gunshots come from down the hall, followed by frantic shouting from some guards. I knew I shouldn’t have looked back, that I should have kept going, but I needed to know. I saw two of my guys, Ian McKay and Michael Cranston, lying on the floor, each with a bullet hole in their heads. They were both married with children, but their families never got to bury their loved ones. We never got to hand over a body to them so they could properly say their goodbyes. They never got the closure they needed.”

“You can’t blame yourself, Dad,” Mackenzie said, clutching his hand in hers. “You gave them an opportunity to stay back, but they did what they thought was right, regardless of the consequences.”

“They weren’t the only casualties that night,” he continued, as if he didn’t even hear Mackenzie. He was in a trance, telling the story he had probably wanted to share for decades. “As we approached the border, a small group of Serbian guards gained on us, haphazardly firing their weapons. It was every man for himself, all of us trying to cross the border into the safe zone as quickly as possible.

“It was chaotic as my team members followed me across the border and concealed ourselves in the heavy forest, all of us letting out a collective sigh. I looked at Harrison, thinking he had Viktor’s wife with him, and grew confused when I saw he didn’t. Several more shots were fired and there was a loud scream. I snapped my head in the direction of the commotion, still trying to hide myself, and saw Irena fall to the ground, clutching her leg.

“The Serbs grabbed her and tied her to a tree. Viktor began firing on the guards, who returned fire. It was ten men against one and, just shy of the border, he fell. He looked at me as blood poured from his chest. His eyes are still permanently ingrained in my memory, pleading with me to finally fire my weapon. I remember feeling the metal of my gun in my hand as I raised it, knowing I was at a crossroads. We were easily outnumbered. The mission was a failure. If I engaged, I risked losing more team members. If we walked away, at least I could ensure the rest of my men would make it home to their families. So I lowered my weapon, refusing to fire. There was one final gunshot and Irena’s body went limp as she remained tied to the tree. I remember being transfixed by the sight of blood pouring from the bullet wound in her head.

“Before we returned to camp, standing with Viktor’s and Irena’s dying bodies just feet from us, we swore to each other that we would never speak about that night. According to us, McKay and Cranston died due to a friendly fire accident during a training session. Harrison even went so far as to forge body transport documents so as not to raise a question about why we were unable to produce their bodies. It wasn’t our fault if they were misplaced. We left Viktor’s and Irena’s bodies because we couldn’t bring them with us.”

“Why didn’t you carry them back to camp with you? Maybe you could have saved them?” Mackenzie asked.