2-4

4.

Days later I was in Botswana, with Chels. We went to stay with Teej and Mike. Adi was there too.

The first convergence of those four special people in my life. It felt like bringing Chels home tomeet Mum and Dad and big bro. Major step, we all knew.

Luckily, Teej and Mike and Adi loved her. And she saw how special they were too.

One afternoon, as we were all getting ready to go for a walk, Teej started nagging¹ me.

Bring a hat!

Yeah, yeah.

And sunscreen! Lots of sunscreen! Spike², you’re going to fry with that pale skin!

All right, all right.

Spike—

Okaaay, Mom.

It just flew out of my mouth. I heard it, and stopped. Teej heard it and stopped. But I didn’tcorrect myself. Teej looked shocked, but also moved. I was moved as well. Thereafter, I called herMom all the time. It felt good. For both of us. Though I made a point, always, to call her Mom,rather than Mum.

There was only one Mum.

A happy visit, overall. And yet there was a constant subtext of stress. It was evident in howmuch I was drinking.

At one point Chels and I took a boat, drifted up and down the river, and the main thing Iremember is Southern Comfort and Sambuca. (Sambuca Gold by day, Sambuca Black by night.) Iremember waking in the morning with my face stuck to a pillow, my head not feeling like it wasfastened to my neck. I was having fun, sure, but also dealing³ in my own way with unsorted anger,and guilt⁴ about not being at war—not leading my lads. And I wasn’t dealing well. Chels and Adi,Teej and Mike said nothing. Maybe they saw nothing. I was probably doing a pretty good job ofcovering it all up. From the outside my drinking probably looked like partying. And that was whatI told myself it was. But deep down, on some level, I knew.

Something had to change. I knew I couldn’t go on like this.

So the moment I got back to Britain I asked for a meeting with my commanding officer,Colonel Ed Smyth-Osbourne.

I admired Colonel Ed. And I was fascinated by him. He wasn’t put together like other men.

Come to mention it, he wasn’t put together like any other human I’d encountered. The basicingredients were different. Scrap⁵ iron, steel wool, lion’s blood. He looked different too. His facewas long, like a horse’s, but not equine smooth; he had a distinctive⁶ tuft of hair on each cheek. Hiseyes were large, calm, capable of wisdom and stoicism. My eyes, by contrast, were still bloodshotfrom my Okavango debauch⁷, and darting⁸ all around as I delivered my pitch.

Colonel, I need to find a way of getting back onto operations, or else I’m going to have to quitthe Army.

I’m not certain Colonel Ed believed my threat. I’m not certain I did. Still, politically,diplomatically, strategically, he couldn’t afford to discount it. A prince in the ranks was a bigpublic-relations asset, a powerful recruiting tool. He couldn’t ignore the fact that, if I bolted, hissuperiors might blame him, and their superiors too, and up the chain it might go.

On the other hand, much of what I saw from him that day was genuine humanity. The guy gotit. As a soldier, he felt for me. He shuddered⁹ at the thought of being kept from a scrap. He reallydid want to help.

Harry¹⁰, there might be a way…

Iraq was permanently¹¹ off the table, he said. Alas¹². No two ways about that, I’m afraid. Butmaybe, he added, Afghanistan was an option.

I squinted¹³. Afghanistan?

He muttered something about it being “the safer option.”

Riiight…safer…

What on earth was he banging on about? Afghanistan was worlds more dangerous than Iraq.

At that moment Britain had seven thousand soldiers in Afghanistan and each day found themengaged in some of the fiercest combat since the Second World War.

But who was I to argue? If Colonel Ed thought Afghanistan safer, and if he was willing to sendme there, great.

What job would I do in Afghanistan, Colonel?

FAC. Forward air controller.

I blinked.

Highly sought-after job, he explained. FACs were tasked with orchestrating all air power,giving cover to lads on the ground, calling in raids—not to mention rescues, medevacs, the listwent on. It wasn’t a new job, certainly, but it was newly vital in this new sort of warfare¹⁴.

Why’s that, sir?

Because the bloody¹⁵ Taliban is everywhere! And nowhere!

You simply couldn’t find them, he explained. Terrain¹⁶ was too rugged¹⁷, too remote. Mountainsand deserts honeycombed with tunnels and caves—it was like hunting goats. Or ghosts. You hadto get the bird’s-eye view.

Since the Taliban had no air force, not one plane, that was easy. We British, plus the Yanks,owned the air. But FACs helped us press that advantage. Say a squadron out on patrol needed toknow about nearby threats. The FAC checked with drones, checked with fighter pilots, checkedwith helicopters, checked his high-tech¹⁸ laptop, created a 360-degree picture of the battlefield.

Say that same squadron suddenly came under fire. The FAC consulted a menu—Apache,Tornado, Mirage¹⁹, F-15, F-16, A-10—and ordered up the aircraft best suited to the situation, or thebest one available, then guided that aircraft onto the enemy. Using cutting-edge hardware, FACsdidn’t simply rain fire on the enemy’s heads, they placed it there, like a crown.

Then he told me that all FACs get a chance to go up in a Hawk²⁰ and experience being in the air.

By the time Colonel Ed stopped talking I was salivating. FAC it is, sir. When do I leave?

Not so fast.

FAC was a plum job. Everyone wanted it. So that would take some doing. Also, it was acomplex job. All that technology and responsibility required loads of training.

First things first, he said. I’d have to go through a challenging certification process.

Where, sir?

At RAF Leeming.

In…the Yorkshire Dales?

 

1 nagging   

adj.唠叨的，挑剔的；使人不得安宁的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的现在分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责

参考例句：

• Stop nagging—I'll do it as soon as I can. 别唠叨了—我会尽快做的。
• I've got a nagging pain in my lower back. 我后背下方老是疼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

3 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

4 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

5 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

6 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

7 debauch   

v.使堕落，放纵

参考例句：

• He debauched many innocent girls.他诱使许多清白的女子堕落了。
• A scoffer，a debauched person,and,in brief，a man of Belial.一个玩世不恭的人，一个生活放荡的家伙，总而言之，是个恶棍。

8 darting   

v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• Swallows were darting through the clouds. 燕子穿云急飞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Swallows were darting through the air. 燕子在空中掠过。 来自辞典例句

9 shuddered   

v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动

参考例句：

• He slammed on the brakes and the car shuddered to a halt. 他猛踩刹车，车颤抖着停住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I shuddered at the sight of the dead body. 我一看见那尸体就战栗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

11 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

12 alas   

int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等)

参考例句：

• Alas!The window is broken!哎呀！窗子破了！
• Alas,the truth is less romantic.然而，真理很少带有浪漫色彩。

13 squinted   

斜视( squint的过去式和过去分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看

参考例句：

• Pulling his rifle to his shoulder he squinted along the barrel. 他把枪顶肩，眯起眼睛瞄准。
• I squinted through the keyhole. 我从锁眼窥看。

14 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

15 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

16 terrain   

n.地面，地形，地图

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。

17 rugged   

adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的

参考例句：

• Football players must be rugged.足球运动员必须健壮。
• The Rocky Mountains have rugged mountains and roads.落基山脉有崇山峻岭和崎岖不平的道路。

18 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

19 mirage   

n.海市蜃楼，幻景

参考例句：

• Perhaps we are all just chasing a mirage.也许我们都只是在追逐一个幻想。
• Western liberalism was always a mirage.西方自由主义永远是一座海市蜃楼。

20 hawk   

n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员

参考例句：

• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it.鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
• The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away.老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。