Lone Survivor_ The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 ( PDFDrive )

presence of Gulab made it a complete standoff, and Sharmak was not about to
call in his guys to shoot the oldest son of Sabray’s village elder. Equally, I did
not feel especially inclined to commit suicide. Everyone held their fire.
Sharmak just sat there, and then Gulab nodded to the Taliban boss, who I
noticed made an infinitesimal incline of his head, like a pitcher acknowledging a
catcher’s signal. And then Gulab walked slowly across to talk to him, and
Sharmak stood up, and they turned their backs on me and moved farther up the
mountainside, out of my sight.
There was only one subject they could possibly be discussing. Would the
people of Sabray now agree to give me up? And I could not know how far Gulab
and his father would still go to defend me.
I just slumped back under the blackberry bush, uncertain of my fate,
uncertain what these two mountain tribesmen would decide. Because each of
them, in his way, had so far proved to be unbending in his principles. The
relentless killer, a man who saw himself as the warrior-savior of Afghanistan,
now in conference with the village cop, a man who seemed prepared to risk
everything just to defend me.