The Russian Billionaire’s Secret(162)

After rotating home, he entered into the Special Forces Qualification School, and then joined the 3rd Special Forces Group at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina. This led to his multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to various special operations missions all over the world. The combined horrors of the various nightmarish hell-holes that he has fought in have all combined to cause his mental break.

But now, he sits in the eerie silence in Dr. Trevor Williams’s offices in his hometown of Green Bay, thinking over all the evil he has witnessed, when a pretty assistant opens the door and calls in to the waiting room, “Sergeant Steele? Dr. Williams will see you now.”

Getting to his feet, SFC Robert Steele, former Green Beret and Medal of Honor recipient walks through the door to speak with his psychiatrist. He certainly has fallen far since his time overseas.

Chapter 2

A Conversation With The Psychiatrist

“So, Mr. Steele,” Dr. Williams says as Robert stretches out on the leather chaise-lounge in Dr. Williams’s main office. “Before we begin, I want to thank you.”

“Thank me?” Robert asks, confused. “For what?”

“For your service. I know that there are many who appreciate what you have done for our country.”

“What I have done?” Robert says, seemingly still confused.

“Yes, for serving our country in the wars overseas.”

“Dr. Williams, with all due respect, sir, but I am not proud of the things I have done or seen in those hell-holes.”

“Okay,” the doctor answers.

“Do you have any idea—any idea—what I have seen and been through?”

“No. Why don’t you tell me about it, so we can get started with your session.”

“Well,” Robert begins. “When I was in Baghdad, for example, I saw several kids with bombs strapped to their chests run into some buildings to blow them up. One kid couldn’t have been much older than about seven, and those bastards put five pounds of c4 on his chest, and sent him running toward our lines, and we had to shoot him.”

“And knowing that your team had to kill him affects you how?”

“Dreams, usually. I dream about seeing the boy run toward us, and I feel the weight of the rifle in my hands as I put it to my shoulder. I squeeze the trigger, and feel the series of recoils as the gun drives itself into my shoulder, and I watch him fall.”

“So, you are the one who had to kill him?”

“Yes.”

“And you dream about it often?”

“Almost every night.”

“Does this happen any other times?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you reminded often of what happened, or do you remember the boy at random moments during the day?”

“Yeah, I guess so…”

“Okay, what reminds you of him?”

“Almost any kid anywhere.”

“Okay, anything else?”

“If a car backfires or I hear any loud bangs or noises, I’m back in Baghdad all over again.”

“Okay. What other things happened that are hard for you to remember? A particularly bad fire-fight? An explosion, perhaps?”

Robert thinks on this question for a moment, and finally begins to answer Dr. Williams, telling him of a particularly bad day in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan. He and a squad of Special Forces operators were trekking through the mountains when they came upon a small village. Bearing the obvious signs of being in the U.S. military, they tried to go around the village without drawing attention to themselves, but they failed horribly.

Immediately drawing sniper fire from the crest of one of the peaks of one of the hills around the village, Robert and his team had to fight their way through the village, drawing several local mujahidin out from hiding to harass them. One of the Islamic fighters threw a grenade, and one of the privates on the team threw it back, the shrapnel cutting through a small boy, killing him instantly.

“I was in the park the other day, taking a walk,” Robert tells the shrink, “and a baseball rolled to my feet…I froze, and it was just like I was back in Kandahar.”

“Did you have a flashback?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Sgt. Steele, I think that it would be safe to diagnose you with post-traumatic stress disorder.”

“English, please, Doc,” Robert replies.

“PTSD is a disorder of the mind that is brought on by extreme stress. It is often characterized by bouts of extreme depression, flashbacks, and unwittingly focusing on the event that has caused the trauma. In your case, your experiences in war have triggered the episodes. There are treatments—”

“So what you are saying then, Doc, is that I am weak,” Robert interjects.

“No, not at all,” the doctor immediately answers. “It is quite common among men and women who have spent any amount of time in a combat zone. In a case such as yours, where you have spent extended amounts of time overseas fighting in combat, I would be surprised if you hadn’t exhibited at least some symptoms.”

“So, how do I treat it?” Robert asks.

“Well, there are medicines that you can take, but I think that some other treatment options will be beneficial, even without taking medicines.”

“Okay,” Robert asks, sitting up on the edge of the lounge. What do I do?