The Janitors

The Shabh

"Good afternoon ping, and goodafternoon..."

"Why are we even here" shouted ping, cutting the Sergeant off.

I glanced at ping, "We are just here to tell Sargent Read what happened thats all" I said.

Ping then shouted again "well this is pointless, we should be back out there on the hill side providing over watch, for all the other bloody marines!"

Sergeant read, interrupted " ping, we are just here to gather facts. We just want to know what happened out there. So ping we will start with you because you seem very chatty this afternoon."

Ping spoke, in his thick Australian accent "you want to know what happened?! A good shoot, thats what bloody happened. His man saved the lifes of those 4 men!"

"4 men?" Questioned the Sergeant.

Ping looked at him, "thats what I said didn't I?" He began to be come more relaxed.

"What 4 men are you talking about?" Asked the Sargent. He seemed as thou he had no idea there was anyone else out there with us.

"The 4 special ops dudes, the ones that were so precise, they could have been brain surgeons." Ping said, in a questioning tone. "All im saying is i want them as a boomerang, I could kill thousands of animals with a tool that precise."

The Sergeant started to become uncomfortable with the story. "Tell me more about these men. What were they wearing? How did they act?"

Ping became almost overwhelmed knowing the tables have turned. He spoke confidently, " well they weren't acting. These guys knew exactly what they were doing. And they had no hesitation to neutralize any threat standing in there way. They were dressed in black or dark green clothing. They might have had masks."

"Masks?" Questioned the Sergeant. "What kind of masks?"

Ping continued to speak. " gas masks. The m50 standard issue black. They looked like they had done this before."

The Sergeant moved closer on the desk placing his elbows and forearms on the table he whispered, "you know the locals have seen the same thing. They call them the shabh."

Ping started laughing, "that old ghost story is nothing Compared to what we saw."

Before anything else was said, i spoke up " I think what ping is trying to say is he doesn't believe in any spirits, or supernatural presents."

Sergeant read, still in a whisper said, "I too was like your friend. Stupid. But then I walked through one of the towns where the shabh had been. There was nothing human about what I saw. It looked as though the ground had reached out and grabed everyone of those taliban soldiers and killed them. He leaned back in is chair. You may believe me, you may not. Just remember when i walked through that town there wasnt a single ammo caseing, with over 150 Taliban dead. 120 didn't have a head. So you tell me if thats not supernatural."

Ping just started to luagh, " you really think that a couple of delta force marines are going to belive a story that has to do with ghosts?! I mean come on man we are the best. Everything can be explained."

The facial expression didnt change on sergeant read's face. " I expect you to understand we are not the only things fighting for the top of the food chain. I also expcet you to believe in the impossible because..."

In mid sentence the office door flung open and sergeant Louis was standing in the door way. "Sergeant read I think its time you conclude your investigation." He said.

Sergeant read spoke up, "yes sir." He gathered his clip board papers and flies and left the room not before he gave ping and l a piercing look.

Sergeant Louis walked it to the room with sergeant major davis following him. Davis spoke in his deep, menacing voice, " gentlemen, it is our understanding that there were 4 other men out in the field with you today. Is that correct?"

Ping spoke out, " what do you mean its our understanding?! Sergeant Louis was the man coordinating the op!" He said in a enraged voice. "He's the one..."

Major davis cut him off "look ping, I understand that you might have heard sergeant Louis's voice but I can assure you it was not louis." He said in a serious tone.

"If it wasnt Louis then who in the sam hell was it? If you give me that supernatural spirit bull, im going to lose it!" He said even more enraged.

Davis looked at louis, and Louis nodded his head. Davis then dropped a manila folder on the desk. "If you dont belive me take a look at these." He then proceeded to take pictures out of the folder. "Do you see this?" He said in slightly tense voice. "Do you know what this is?" Ping and I grabbed a picture each and in complete disbelief we answered.

"What happened? Ping and I said in unison.

"What happened was a group of rogue special forces operators know as the shabh. They hacked into our radios and were able to copy Louis's voice, giving you the illusion that it was a op derected by sergeant Louis."

"So we weren't out there to scout the vilage?" I said confused.

"No we sent you two out there to scout out the vilage. The shabh then spoofed the radio and made it sound like it was sergeant Louis." Major davis said reassuringly.

"So what are we supposed to do about this?" Ping asked.

With a sigh major davis said " you'll do nothing. You are not to talk about this. Do you understand?"

Ping and i looked at each other and both nodded our heads, "yes, we understand."

"Good, then we will get you both psychic evaluations and have to back out there protecting our boys in no time but if I get one whiff of you gentlemen mouthing off about how you saw the Shaba even with a couple drinks in you. You'll both be dishonorably discharged and court marshaled and I will make sure you spend the rest of your life in a black site or the psychic ward." Davis said with a emotionless face?

As they left I look to ping and asked " what is the first thing you'd do if you were a rouge operator with 2 marines you used to get through an op?" Pings eyes got wide " I'd tie up any loose ends that would get us caught" his head got low and he started to shake "exactly" I said " so why aren't we dead?" "It's because 1. They aren't rouge and just a secret squad. Or 2 they know they never get caught." Ping lifted his head " so your saying we don't have anything to worry about??"

I looked down to the desk "well I can't promise anything but we should worry about it tell we have to."