McCready set the last of the Taliban prisoners down on the inside end of the bench in the CH-47 Chinook’s hold.  They had gotten what they came for.  It was not unusual to get more.  For McCready, this was becoming wholly routine.

“Found lot’s more Taliban bodies deep, bloody mess.  Caves run deeper even. Russian stuff in the cave too if you go deep enough,” Jaeger told McCready.  Jaeger held up an old rusted Russian helmet. Jaeger looked to where Umberger was seated inside the chopper, facing the floor where the one casualty lay, bagged and tagged at his feet.  Umberger sat holding Mathis’ dog tags. The blood was still fresh on their metal surface.  

“Did you get the last of those Taliban remains bagged and ready for ID?” McCready asked Jaeger.

“Yes sir. What’s left of them” Jaeger said with disgust tempered by experience. “All high-profile targets will be identified. Just ready to load them into the Chinook.”

“Tell Humphries we’re good. Load them and the last of our big boys up. Then call it a day.”  McCready said.  Jaeger left with a quick affirmation. McCready walked into the chopper, seating himself across from the young Ranger.

“You know you lose people.  You never know how but you know you will.  You guess. Bullet, grenade, something hand to hand. Some lucky insurgent, a simple mistake.  You’d never guess this,” Umberger said, not even looking up from the tags as he spoke.

“No. No you don’t,” McCready acknowledged.

“I mean, Giants?  Freaking giants?” Umberger expelled the words, rife with exasperation mixed with tears. “You knew though, that inner circle crap…  You knew why they’ve been telling us head and higher in the caves.  Used to be two in the chest, one in the head.  Used to be, before Afghanistan.” 

“Now you are in the hard place of being one of the few who know why things changed, I know the cost” McCready said, meeting Umberger’s gaze.  The tone of an older man’s understanding filled his words.  “I’ve lost men to these guys.  Lucky me, that made me an asset.  When the CIA heard Baghdadi moved into the caves at the time when they were chasing him around Kandahar… they knew the giants had been found in the area. We knew, and our friendly locals knew what may be waiting for him in those caves. There was a chance they would be in the same place, but we didn’t know for sure.  So they called my boys so you wouldn’t go in completely blind.  Looks like they were right, and we were the least of Baghdadi’s problems.”

“How many have you fought before?” Umberger asked.

“Been part of killing two before today, two different missions” McCready said.  

“You didn’t tell us a thing about them going in,” shaded anger rocked Umberger’s words.

“I tried to prepare you the best I could.  Would you have believed me if I told you exactly what we might be getting into?” McCready asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t know,” he said in tired honesty. “Would they let you tell me either?”
“No,” McCready said, fiddling with his M4.  “No they won’t. All I could say was what is on the books, same as your CO. Aim high, eyes open, careful in the caves, change the formation accordingly. After all, nothing like a good cover up.” McCready said with a sigh “I have to walk the line and keep secrets.  I do what they’ll make someone else do if I don’t step up for it.  Prepare people as best I can with my hands tied. Now they’ll take those bodies like they did the others, disect them, write a secret report, make us write a safe public one, whistle dixie, salute the flag and go on to another day.” Umberger looked away.  The rest of the team was walking into the Chinook after hours of working the site. He stared out the back of the chopper, watching the last of the accompanying chopper’s crew strap up the final giant’s corpse in the cargo netting. Shock and amazement spun in his head, oblivious as the rest of the squad filed in, taking their seats for the flight home.

“What do we do about those things? We could stay and keep killing them, but what would that accomplish? We can’t stay forever,” Umberger said resignedly.  The men around him dropped their heads in sullen agreement, the occasional grunt of resignation or annoyance filled the air.  Humphries and McNair walked up the ramp and they took their own place next to Umberger.

“Only so much.  I don’t see us staying here forever.  In the end, the answer is the same as it’s always been. They’ll need to slay their own giants someday,” Jaeger said.  The remaining squad watched through the open bay door as the chopper lifted off.  The silence communicated exhaustion from leaving not just the cave, but the world they’d known, a world now long gone, and agreement to the wisdom imparted.  As their chopper began to lift off the bay door began to close, shutting the cave from their view, but never from their memories.  Umberger held the tag, sliding the chain through his fingers.  Humphries and McNair each lay a hand on him as the last of the sunlight faded from Mathis’ dogtag, leaving his name in the chopper’s dim light.