On my 17th birthday dad signed the papers that allowed me to join the Marines and here I was watching some drug lord tickle a small boy with a knife. Images of Josh punctuated my mind as I watched them through the scope.

I reported back to base camp my findings. They had no new information for me. Tomorrow was to be much of the same. Sit and watch.

Before shutting down for a few hours of sleep the four of us moved camp as we did every day. We’d done the move so many times the past 12 days that it took us only an hour.

Slick and I went to sleep while the other members of the team kept watch and got ready for their watch.

I awoke as the team who had replaced us was coming back in.

“Anything?” I asked.

“More gesturing. Knife guy is going to kill that kid tomorrow,” David said.

“Call it in and let them know your thoughts,” I told David.

I watched as he called it in and they told him the same thing they told me. Sit still and wait for the D-Boys.

The rage that had built in me when they told me the same thing heated up even more, but I tried to keep my face calm. The men needed me to be thinking, rather than acting.

Despite my feelings, I let team 3 go out. It was futile, but I tried to get some sleep. A couple of hours before team 3 was due back, I woke Slick up and we got ready for the last sit and observe we’d perform.

Team 3 came back with their heads low.

“What?” I asked.

“The boy,” Lance said. “He’s not got much time.”

Right there and then I made the decision. Knife guy wouldn’t make it through the end of the day.

Slick and I crawled into position and setup. It was high noon when Knife guy brought the boy out again and gestured.

“500 yards,” Slick said.

I zeroed in on Knife guys head and flipped the safety off. Slowly I left my breath out and squeezed slightly on the trigger.

“No wind,” Slick said.

Knife guy made a turn towards me and I looked into his evil eyes one last time. The rifle went off before I knew it and the bullet tore through his head.

Instinct had me put another round in the chamber. I centered on the body that was in the street. The little boy crawled away from the dead man and ran into the woods.

Slick and I said nothing as we crawled back to camp.

The other members of the team had heard the shot and knew what had happened.

The next day when the D-boys arrived they found the body and no one else. They did find tons of cocaine, but not the people they wanted.