The Shadow Wolves

Chapter 1

The mountains rose steeply in every direction. The mid-autumn sky was overcast, the grey sky matching the lives of the people under its bleak umbrella. Darker, pregnant clouds hung over the highest peaks, threatening snow in the upper passes. In the valley below, winter was still a month away. The Bosna River, ice-cold and crystal clear, rushed northward, its waters a lifeblood for the farms and villages sheltered within the shadows of the rugged mountain range.

The land stood unchanged, a sentry against the passage of time. Shepherds tended flocks of sheep accompanied by massive mountain dogs, their fierce companions in keeping the wolves at bay. Weathered old peasant women trudged along dirt roads with bundles of twisted sticks strapped across their stooped shoulders. The roads were dirt, the houses stone, and the roofs straw. Soft yellow light peeked out through open shutters as wood smoke curled up from blackened chimneys. The occupants of this place took their cue from their surroundings, content to live their lives as had their ancestors. There was security in living a life that never changed.

*****

The group of soldiers materialized out of the grey mist as they came over the rise in the narrow roadway. They were death walking—dark swarthy men, faces black with stubble. They did not march but swaggered, cigarettes dangling from their mouths as they moved along the roadway. These militiamen entered the tiny village led by a Toyota truck with a large caliber machine gun mounted in the bed of the vehicle. The Toyota was followed by a white Russian-made Lada, driven by a sweaty Serb in filthy green army fatigues.

Known as the Skorpions, they were a Serb paramilitary unit that had been empowered by the Serbian strongman, Slobodan Milosevic, and blessed by the Orthodox priests in Belgrade. They were tasked to wreak havoc on Muslims and Croats whenever and wherever they found them. Prior to the war, these men had been vicious thugs and violent criminals. The war had just given them the power to operate under the color of the government in Belgrade. Their name came from their weapon of choice, the famed Skorpion VZ-61 machine pistol. Invented in the sixties by the Czechoslovakia Arms Industry, it was later manufactured in Serbia. One of the most reliable weapons made for close combat operations, it was capable of firing 850 rounds per minute. A Skorpion pistol hung menacingly from the shoulder of each of the men as they approached the outskirts of the remote hamlet.

The Serbs had turned the war in Bosnia into an ethnic cleansing, creating the worst holocaust Europe had seen since World War II. The Skorpions were, perhaps, the most vicious of the Serb contingents. They had been torturing, raping, and killing innocent civilians for two years and had no intention of stopping until all Muslims and Catholics were gone without a trace. They had no moral boundaries left to cross.

The first two peasants they encountered were an old man and woman walking along the muddy road on the outskirts of the village. The man moved slowly with the help of a knobby hand-carved walking stick. The bent ancient woman led a nanny goat on a frayed rope. The old couple had been hearing stories about the vicious Skorpions for a long time but somehow thought that their little corner of the world was so unimportant that the war would pass them by. As the two vehicles drew near, followed by the large group of armed men, the couple immediately recognized the dreaded Skorpion shoulder patches. The woman let out a barely audible whimper which was lost in the sound of the diesel engines.

The lead vehicle pulled next to the couple and stopped. The elderly pair, frozen like statues in the rutted roadway, were transfixed by the hard, unshaven men with guns held loosely in their arms. The Kommandant stepped from his position in the passenger seat of the truck and walked around to the driver’s side to confront the couple. He barked, How many soldiers in the area? The old man, lips quivering, appeared willing but unable to answer. The old woman reached out to her husband to support him but said nothing. Without taking his eyes off the Kommandant, the man extended his shaking hand sideways to pat his wife’s arm in reassurance. The goat instinctively jerked backward from the soldier, pulling the woman off-balance in the process.

"I’m talking to you, old man!" the Kommandant shouted, obviously enjoying the fear he instilled.

The ancient couple struggled to remain in place in spite of the actions of their goat, their shared terror obvious in their lined faces. The woman’s left ankle had become twisted in the mud. The goat was now bleating loudly, shaking her head and pulling the woman from her husband’s grasp. The walking stick fell from the old man’s grasp as he stumbled toward his wife in an effort to keep her from falling. His frail body was failing him, and he called to her, "Moja Slatki, my sweet one. Don’t be afraid." She looked into the eyes she had known for a lifetime, tears forming on her wrinkled cheeks. Her mind flashed to her family. This war. Both her sons killed and her daughter taken, probably dead. This man is the only thing left that matters in my life.

The old man moved closer to his wife, struggling to regain his grip on her bony hand. The Kommandant, smirking, pulled the Skorpion pistol from his sling and let loose a burst of ten rounds into the trembling pair, dropping them into the mud. Fifty years of love and hardship ending in a pile of black clothes on the side of the road. The goat was left standing, confused, the rope still in the hand of the old woman on the ground. The militiamen stood around the lead truck and lit cigarettes, joking and acting like he had merely squashed a bug on his sleeve rather than murdered two innocent people. The Kommandant finished his smoke, moved silently back to his seat in the lead truck, and led his men into the village. They were wild dogs on the hunt.

There were only forty people living in the village. None of them were soldiers. The able-bodied men had already joined the Federation army to try to hold back the Serbian juggernaut. All that remained were women, the very old and the very young. Upon hearing the gunfire in the road, most had come out of their houses to see what had happened. The sight of the Skorpions caused some to start running for the woods. Most just stood there, resigned to their fate. The toll of this brutal war had driven hope from every one of them.

The grizzled men fanned out as they reached the center of the village. They were fierce and merciless. They walked among the villagers, kicking and punching them. Ignoring their pleas for mercy. The older people were dragged by their necks or hair into their houses, the soldiers demanding money and other valuables. Others were simply gunned down where they stood.

Two teenage girls, who had been told to run into the woods, were found hiding behind a small house. They had been too frightened to run and had stayed as close as they could to their grandparents. When they saw the Serb let loose with a full magazine into the old couple, they had cried out and were discovered. Two of the Skorpions pulled them from hiding by their long black hair, dragging them into the nearest house. When the men were finished with them, they pulled out Soviet-era bayonets and sliced their throats. Walking away, they joked among themselves while wiping the blood from the blades on their sleeves.

The Skorpions moved through the village with ruthless efficiency. Each house was ransacked and searched for weapons, valuables, and men of fighting age. At the end of the main road, a schoolhouse stood alone surrounded by a makeshift vegetable garden and clotheslines heavy with women’s undergarments. The Kommandant tapped his driver’s arm with the back of his hand and pointed at the isolated building. Looking to his right, he saw a middle-aged woman in tattered clothes lying on the ground and struggling in the mud to crawl away. The truck came to a stop in the middle of the road, and he shouted down at the woman through his open window. What is that building? pointing to the schoolhouse.

The woman froze at the sound of his voice but then resumed her crawl to the side of the road in silence.

The Kommandant exited the truck, kicked the woman viciously in her back, and repeated, Did you hear me, bitch? What is that building?

The woman stopped crawling and began to weep silently. The Kommandant fired one round into the back of her head. He then climbed back into his vehicle and motioned for the Lada to follow. As they pulled in front of the building, they saw that it was an old school building that now served as living quarters. Some of the militiamen moved quickly to surround the building while a group of ten entered through the front door, pistols ready.

The Kommandant was the first of the Skorpions to enter the schoolhouse. He heard footsteps skittering frantically across the floor above his head. He raised his hand and motioned for the men to remain silent. It was then that he heard hushed voices and more movement from above. The voices sounded young, but he moved forward and up the stairs with caution. At the top of the stairs, he saw three rooms on each side of the extended hallway. He directed his men methodically through each room, patiently waiting until they reached the last door at the end of the corridor. The door was closed, but he could hear muffled voices coming from the other side, voices he knew well: voices of fear. One of his men stood next to him, looking expectantly for a command. The Kommandant smiled and then nodded. The Skorpion stepped forward and smashed through the door with one blow from his massive boot.

Four of the militiamen burst through the door with guns drawn. The Kommandant followed, calmly stepping into the darkened building. The scene was exactly what he had expected—three girls in their early teens and small groups of young children clinging to each of them in terror. The oldest of the girls, Anja, stood in the center of the room. Two young girls of about five were wrapped around her legs, wide-eyed with fear. She looked at the armed men and entreated, We are just women and children here. We can do you no harm. Looking around at the men, she tried again. "Please, we have nothing and mean no harm. Please."

One of the men stepped forward and punched Anja in the face. Her nose erupted in blood as she fell backward, striking the back of her head on the wall behind her, slowly sliding downward as she lost consciousness. The blow caused the room to erupt in screams and cries from the children. A young boy, twelve years old and larger than the rest, stepped forward to protect the rest of the children. The leader’s right hand flashed forward, smashing the side of the boy’s head with the butt of his pistol, dropping the boy instantly.

The militiamen moved quickly through the room, knocking children out of the way as they advanced toward the older girls. Those girls who even appeared a day over twelve years old were grabbed and dragged from the room. Some of the younger children were pulled from their feet and slammed against the walls, three of them dying instantly. Two young boys were clubbed to death where they stood by a huge Serb wielding a long-handled, heavy wooden mallet.

*****

The Skorpions continued to move methodically through the village. They showed no mercy. They viciously mutilated their victims, often while they were alive. At times they removed body parts as souvenirs.

The Kommandant returned to the center of the village and looked over the remaining group of villagers. All of them had clearly been abused. Most were bleeding. Several of the women stood in the middle of the street, wearing little or no clothing, all shame lost by now. His driver looked to him and asked, Should we order them to leave?

Why? Call the artillery and tell them to send some shells this way. Fuck these animals.

He took one last look at the few weeping peasants who remained alive and drove away, never looking back. The remainder of his Skorpions fell into line behind the two vehicles as they went in search of the next village.

*****

The American Ranger platoon moved steadily along the dirt road, following a mountain ridge above a valley divided evenly by a swiftly flowing aqua blue river. They were on a reconnaissance mission, searching for a group of Croatian nuns who had gone missing a day earlier. These were busy days for the multinational forces assembled in the heart of Bosnia. The world was watching as fourteen western nations stepped cautiously into the brutal war that now stretched into its third year. After years of inaction, NATO forces were now trying to stop Serbia from the systematic genocide of both the Croatian Catholic and Bosnian Muslim populations in the former Republic of Yugoslavia.

Lieutenant Evans had his two squads deployed, one on each side of the road, guns pointed outward and ready. They had been in-country for months and had witnessed the carnage resulting from the ethnic cleansing being committed by the militias. They were seriously on edge. He worried about coming under attack as they moved through the area, concerned about his rules of engagement. If they did make contact with the men responsible for these atrocities, they were going to have to follow protocols that could only have been dreamed up by a diplomatic bureaucrat sitting safely in a Brussels café.

The lieutenant pushed the rules of engagement from his mind. His concern was for his team and then for the innocents. They would do what they needed to do and somebody else could sort out the rules back at HQ. This mission had not been what he had expected when he left Fort Bragg for Bosnia. The brutality was impossible to understand. How could these people do this to one another? He had to admit that he had heard about this type of cruelty from his grandfather when he talked about World War II but never thought he would see anything like it in his lifetime.

As his team moved along the road, his thoughts went to the map he had memorized over the last two days. There was a village just two klicks ahead. He was sure his scouts had reached the village by now, and he should be getting some intel soon. His three forward scouts were the best the army had to offer. All were Native Americans: a Lakota Sioux, a Seminole, and a Navajo. All could track a man across solid rock and follow a blood trail with their eyes closed. It was said that the Navajo could smell a drop of blood and know if it came from a man or a woman. The Seminole was a man of extraordinary strengths. He could run all day and handle any discomfort the environment had to offer. The Sioux was something altogether different. He was quiet and highly intelligent. His combat skills were unrivaled. He had finished at the top of his class at Ranger school and was faster than lightning in hand-to-hand combat. Eighteen months deployed to Korea, training with ROK Marines, had turned him into a formidable fighter.

*****

The lieutenant looked down from his platoon’s hide above the village. They had reached their location about thirty minutes ago. His scouts had been in position for more than an hour. They told him that the village had been attacked about three hours earlier, leaving only a few survivors. Acting on orders, the scouts had remained outside the village until the Ranger unit could arrive. From their observations so far, all that remained were a few old people, some young children, and lots of dead bodies. They told him it was bad. They had crept close enough to hear the cries of the few remaining souls, smelling the faint remnants of automatic weapon fire still lingering in the damp air. The scouts also told him that there was sign everywhere and that the Serbs had left in a northerly direction.

As a precautionary move, the lieutenant had established the observation post until he was sure there were no militiamen waiting in ambush. Satisfied that there were no hostiles remaining, he signaled his men to move into the village. The scouts were the first in, as always. They moved like ghosts through the streets, almost unnoticed by the remaining old people and children wailing over their loved ones. The Rangers followed, clearly still not used to the indiscriminate and merciless slaughter. The carnage was everywhere and totally senseless. It was beyond terrible.

Crowe, the Lakota, moved from house to house, his right flank covered by his partner, Will Price. Price was the Navajo and his tribal name was Atsa, or Eagle. The scout was born and raised in Arizona on the Navajo Nation. Crowe’s left was covered by the Seminole, Isaac Factor, who looked more African than Seminole. Factor’s ancestors had taken flight from slavery in Georgia and were eventually assimilated into the Seminole tribes of Florida.

As Crowe moved to the doorway of what looked like a schoolhouse, Isaac moved to the opposite side of the door, motioning with his eyes that he was ready to enter. Both men moved in unison, covering both sides of the room simultaneously. As they moved stealthily into the semi-dark structure, Price took their place in the doorway, his eyes scanning the room like a bird of prey.

What the scouts saw stopped them in their tracks. The room was littered with the bodies of women and children. Most of them had been shot multiple times; others were smashed against the wall, skulls crushed and grey matter splattered over the whitewashed walls behind them. The coppery smell of blood and the odor of feces permeated the room, causing Crowe to look questioningly at his Seminole partner. Factor’s eyes flashed back at Crowe’s, and the men gradually lowered their guns as they slowly moved into the hellish scene.

Factor crouched over the body of a woman who appeared to have been about twenty years old, her clothing ripped from her body and her breasts sliced crudely from her chest. It was clear that this had been done while she was still alive. His gaze moved to her face, expecting to see horror in her face, but found that her eyes had been gouged from their sockets. Looking around, this type of mutilation had been repeated on all the victims in one way or another. A cold sheen of sweat covered his jet-black face and arms. He looked back in distress to Will Price in the doorway, but Price was looking outward, covering their backs.

The Seminole rose and continued to walk slowly among the bodies, his eyes coldly watching for movement, interrupted by occasional glances at Crowe as they both silently took in the bloodbath at their feet. A faint sound came from the back of the room, rising from a pile of bodies near the back door. Both men froze and raised their weapons, separating to opposite sides of the room and moving forward at the same time. As they neared the corner, a small boy looked up from underneath the bodies of three dead children. His eyes were wide and unblinking in fear, moving back and forth from one scout to the other.

Ethan slowly placed his rifle on the floor. Dobar dan (hello), Crowe addressing the boy in his own tongue. Ne boj se mali (Don’t be afraid, little one).

The boy tried to shrink deeper under the bodies surrounding him. Factor stopped a few feet away and let Crowe make the approach, watching the Sioux move toward the trembling figure like he would a wild mustang on the Dakota plains. Crowe stooped in front of the child and smiled quietly, letting the boy’s pulse slow. After several minutes, Crowe extended his hand slowly and gently toward the tiny, pale face under a mop of thick, black hair. The boy’s eyes flicked back worriedly at the tall black scout standing silently in the background. He waited for a breath and then pulled his tiny arm from under a bloody girl lying across his body. Slowly he reached for Crowe’s coppery hand, surrendering himself to the strength of the scout.

Crowe pulled the boy gently into his arms and held him fast, rubbing his back slowly. The boy began to weep quietly…then uncontrollably, his frail little body wracked with sobs as his grief began to flow. Crowe whispered in the boy’s ear in Lakota, forgetting where he was, Hoksi, hecheto aloe (It is over, child). Crowe looked silently over the boy’s shoulder at Factor, both wondering again what was wrong with these white people who waged war on women and children. Price stood silently watching his brothers, his M4 rifle held across his chest. The flat planes of his Navajo visage were devoid of emotion. His eyes calmly scanned the doors and windows, his job always to watch their backs.

Chapter 2

One week later, Central Bosnia

The Ranger platoon had settled into a shelled-out village fifty kilometers northeast of Sarajevo, its former occupants long since displaced or dead. They had arrived at the abandoned little hamlet after finishing a week back at their base to resupply and wait for orders. Most suspected, however, that the delay was more about the generals and politicians deciding what to do in the face of the ongoing ethnic cleansing that was going on all around them. The current mandate of passive peacekeeping was doing nothing to stop the bloodshed. The atmosphere at the base had become oppressive. The mandate of non-intervention was playing havoc with morale, and the NATO commanders on the ground were aware that something had to change very soon.

The three scouts were resting on the front porch of an abandoned stone house at the edge of the village. It was quiet out here. The only sound to be heard was that of a cuckoo calling to her mate, unaware of the human tragedy that surrounded her. The men had all refrained from going inside the house out of respect for the former occupants. Isaac Factor sat on a rough-hewn bench to the left of the front door. He worked methodically on his rifle, running a cloth back and forth over the length of the barrel and talking at the same time. What do you think the LT will do if we run into these Serbs again this time out?

Crowe looked up from his spot in the doorway, where he sat leaning against the threshold, sharpening his buffalo hunter knife. Who knows? I guess HQ will decide that. How do you suppose the boss described that last village to the folks back there?

Factor just shook his head and continued to work on his weapon. He then called over to Price, who was leaning against a post on the far end of the porch, eyes looking outward. Hey, Will, I think you can take a rest. We’re safe here. These assholes would never attack a town with real live soldiers. They prefer women and children, right?

Price paused a second for one last scan of their perimeter and then turned to his friends, speaking directly to Crowe, Ethan, you’ve spent more time with the whites than we have. What makes these people do this stuff to one another?

Crowe thought about an answer, but Price continued, I keep hearing this is about religion. Is this all part of the Jesus Road that they talk about at the mission schools? How can that road lead to this?

Crowe listened and just shook his head silently. This was a lot of talk from Will. The Navajo rarely spoke and almost never shared his inner thoughts.

Will’s face took on a stony cast. You know, my father was taken by the whites back in fifty-four. He was eight years old. They just snatched him while he was tending sheep on the rez. His folks were dead already. His father had been killed on Iwo Jima, and he was being raised by his aunt and uncle. He told me that, one day, he was walking down a dirt road on the rez when a government truck pulled up and told him to get in. They took him straight to a mission school and never once asked for his uncle’s permission. It was eight months before the family finally tracked my father down. By then he had been forced to take a white name.

Will was quite animated now, enough to get the full attention of Crowe and Factor.

Price continued, His uncle went to the authorities, but they told him it was all legal. They were ‘mainstreaming Indian children’ per federal guidelines. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the churches felt the only way for us to survive was to make us white. They used to say, ‘Kill the Indian but save the man.’ My father stayed at the school for four years. He hated it. They told him our people were savages and that they needed to learn the ways of the Europeans. Hell, they used to beat him if he spoke our language.

Crowe interrupted, What? You can’t be serious. Hell, the Navajo code talkers helped win the war in the Pacific. Nine years later, they wanted to wipe out the language? Your grandfather died a code talker.

Will just nodded yes, clearly remembering his father’s words and angered at the irony and stupidity of it all.

The three men remained silent for a time, Factor finally speaking up, Well? The Seminole spoke with half a grin on his face, Jesus, Will, you gonna tell us what happened?

Price looked back at his friend. Yeah, my dad stayed at the school, became white, and eventually ran for governor of Arizona! What do you think happened?

Factor and Crowe both broke into quiet laughter. Crowe then added, And I guess you were offered a spot with the diplomatic corps due to your chatty nature. Seriously, what happened?

Well, my father finally ran away when he was thirteen. His uncle had arranged to pick him up on the highway leading to the school, and they drove straight back to the rez. Believe it or not, nobody even looked for him again. But he rarely spoke English after that. When he did, it was only in the army. After he got back from the army, he only spoke Navajo.

The scouts turned in unison to the sound of a lone soldier running up to the porch. Struggling to catch his breath, the messenger finally spoke, The lieutenant wants to see you guys ASAP. He’s been trying to reach you on the radio. He’s down at the church or whatever they call those things over here. The boy, an E-2, looked at the scouts expectantly, apparently thinking that they would jump to their feet and follow him at full speed.

Crowe nodded to the soldier, Thanks, Private. We’ll be along presently.

The private hesitated.

"I said we will be along in a minute." Crowe waved him away with his left hand.

All three of the men quietly and efficiently gathered their gear and readied themselves to go back into action, leaving the stone house as one, as always.

Chapter 3

The sky was thick with foul-smelling pollution from the power plants and factories that still burned unrefined coal twenty-four hours a day. The sulfuric mist hung above the valley to mingle with wood smoke and the damp air, enveloping every part of the countryside. One had to wonder how the Bosnians lived past the age of fifty. The combination of the dirty air and their incessant smoking should have put them all in their graves by thirty. Sadly, after three years of ethnic cleansing, the local population was numb. Dirty air was the least of their problems.

Crowe stepped across the threshold of the small stone building. The roof was almost gone, broken tiles and loose boards dangling above the heads of the men and women working in the makeshift command post. The lieutenant was standing over a small wooden table surrounded by two sergeants and some clerks. He was pointing out the location of the next probable target of the Serb militiamen. He looked up at the three scouts as they approached.

Good to see you, men. Are you provisioned and ready to move out?

Crowe nodded in the affirmative, Good to go, sir. Factor and Price remained silent.

About three hours ago, a British spotter plane reported Serb militia moving along a road just four klicks northeast of us. They think it’s a group of Skorpions, maybe the same assholes who slaughtered the village last week. We’re not sure which direction they were heading because the road splits just a bit north of where they were spotted. Lieutenant Evans returned his gaze to the tabletop and resumed his briefing. According to this map, there are only two villages in the direction that they were headed. One is about twenty klicks to the left along this road, the other about fifteen klicks along the right fork, but it goes through some elevation and would be a tougher slog for them. Of course, we won’t know for sure until you men pick up their trail. The lieutenant nodding to the scouts.

The young officer paused a moment, looking at Crowe for confirmation. Crowe nodded politely. Sir, we’re set to go. I guess we’ll know pretty quick which way they went. But if you want my opinion, I’d say they’ll take the easier road. The only thing these guys seem to want to spend energy on is killing people.

The lieutenant let out a breath and looked at his team. They want us to find these assholes and bring them in peaceably. That’s a tall order. I don’t know what to say really… We need to watch ourselves on this. You scouts are to follow, but you are not to engage unless you come under fire. If you locate them, just keep me posted and wait. We won’t be far behind. Understood?

Yes, sir. Crowe looked at the lieutenant’s three young sergeants who were also probably thinking about how this would play out. Price and Factor were already moving toward the doorway when Crowe asked the lieutenant, That it?

The lieutenant nodded, Watch yourselves, all of you, his voice raised so the other two scouts could hear as well.

*****

Lieutenant Evans stood in front of his platoon. He had assembled them soon after the scouts had begun to track the Skorpions. Headquarters had confirmed their orders to track down these militiamen and to force them to surrender to NATO forces. Fucking unbelievable. Did they really think he could peacefully convince a group of homicidal maniacs to come peacefully back to a prison camp? He sighed to himself, knowing he had his orders and his rules of engagement. For their part, the men looked pissed. They were itching for a fight. These were Rangers, the best soldiers in the world. They were not policemen. He would have to keep a tight leash on them.

"Listen up, men. HQ wants us to get on these combatants and run them to ground. They have about a six-hour lead on us, but I