That next morning, Trautman screamed at the top of his lungs for almost twenty minutes straight.
He roared about the truce, the balance he had built after years of effort and negotiations between the army, the police, the mob, the weapons smugglers and drug traffickers. Everything in Dak To was hanging by a thread, and the two of them had just risked everything to save what, exactly? A drop in the ocean when there were others that ended up far worse than that poor girl did, and on a daily basis?
It didn't make any sense.
Those two idiots – because at that point, Trautman had completely lost it – those two fucking morons had no fucking idea what the big picture was or how many lives they’d put at risk with their fucking nonsense! No fucking idea!
Krakauer was shaken and embittered by those words, but it was true and he knew it. A step out of line with the wrong people could have made the civil war regress twenty years overnight.
Once his rage had worn off, Trautman didn’t say another word for quite some time, and only then did he finally calm down.
He didn’t comment further but contemplated quietly for such a long time that Berry and Krakauer almost felt embarrassed.
Eventually, he broke the silence.
.
“What we need now is to find her a family. I'll see what I can do,” the Colonel concluded.
“Now get the hell out of my sight!”
***
Some days later, as promised, the Colonel had found a family, trustworthy enough for the task.
A good family, the kind that had values, and one which had lost one of their own daughters recently to this damn war.
Krakauer would have paid, hence providing for the little girl on a monthly basis, but at least Trautman was sure that no one would risk selling her again.
In the end, although Krakauer was upset by the potential problems he’d caused, he at least felt at peace with himself about what he’d done that night. It was true that SOG may never have put things right in that war, especially after the TET offensive. No one believed they could still win the war. Krakauer may have even died before the end of his first tour, or on a mission, which was highly likely if the following missions were as over the top as that damned 'Point Of No Return' had just been.
At least Krakauer felt like he had succeeded in actually changing something, despite it being only for a single life.
It was a wonderful feeling.