G I Genie Ch 01

I'm just an ordinary man, at least I always thought I was. I was part of a covert operation operating near Iraq. We have crossed over from the bombed-out town of Nisab. Hardly even two clicks from the Saudi/Iraq border.

We were clearing insurgents along the border. Shit, they were like cockroaches, you kill one another, three appear. We had bugged out back to the Saudi side under heavy fire. We were holding our own, 'til they started the artillery, not that light shit, heavy shells and mortars.

The only problem was that the fuckers were actually following us as far as they could. We finally made what was left of the bombed out town. The commander had called an air strike, twenty minutes, yeah right, we'd be dead by then.

I was as far behind as I could get trying to let the squad get under cover. I was leap frogging toward the nearest wall, when I was hit five feet from it. I swear I could hear several of the fuckers cheering when I went down.

I started to crawl as fast as I could, my dirty blonde hair peeking out from my helmet. The searing burn in my leg made moving, and life a lot harder. Once I made the single lone wall I smiled, I had cover, more were going to die before they got me.

I heard several of the insurgents advancing, as I peeked up, taking two in rapid succession. This gave the rest of them pause. I looked down, seeing the tear in my sand fatigues. Damnit! I also had a rather large tear across my leg.

Well, I thought, I might bleed out I was taking as many with me as I could. I peeked out again, killing another, severely wounding another. I moved to the other side of the wall when I hit something metal.

I froze as I looked down expecting to see a mine, thinking I was dead. What met my eyes looked nothing like any mine I had ever seen. It wasn't a damn IUD that I had seen (I had seen all of them).

It wasn't like any type of ordinance I had ever seen. I carefully moved away as it fell into the small depression I had made. What the hell I thought? I could see that it looked a lot like an old, very old type of oil lamp.

I shook my head there, I had nearly shit myself from a piece of junk. That was the moment that the world went to shit. They had started to zero in on my position, then I heard her voice in my damn head!

HEY! I heard; my home is not a piece of junk! You need to apologize!

I shook my head. I was going nuts from loss of blood, I thought.

Oh dear, I heard. Rub the lamp. I did not know that you were injured, hurry rub it now! I heard her urge.

At that moment, a machine gun started to fire on my position. I looked back at the squad, thankfully they were a hell of a lot further away from where I was.

I managed to get a few more shots off hitting the machine gun. Unfortunately, this only delayed them as more took up the gun. Beside me, I felt the cool metal of the lamp again as it rubbed against me.

I became annoyed as I started to push the lamp away from me. I started to kick against it, then there was a poof of smoke. I shook my head as one of the most gorgeous women I had ever seen appeared in front of me.

"Holy shit!" I said. She immediately turned toward me. The most beautiful smile I had ever seen was on her face.

"Might I suggest that we go somewhere less deadly." I swallowed hard as I nodded yes. "I assume that is a yes?" She said.

Finally finding my voice, I said, "Yes, I can bleed to death as well somewhere else."

Another smile replaced the look of expectation on her face. Almost immediately, we were in a gray misty area. OK, I thought, this was starting to get stranger and stranger.

A further look around seemed to confirm to me that yes, I was losing it. It was probably due to a loss of blood. I nodded my head, yeah dying with such a lovely woman with me helped.

The beautiful, barely dressed woman, looked at my leg with a concerned look. She reached down, touching where I had been shot, causing me to flinch. The thing is, there was no pain, plus the blood slowed then stopped.

I looked at the wound a moment, then was shocked when I saw that there was no wound. "There master, your injury is healed, may I offer you something to eat?" She said.

My mouth twitched a moment as I thought, then jokingly said, "yeah a nice thick T-bone steak, mashed potatoes, with thick onions and gravy."

The woman smiled again then snapped her fingers. My mouth dropped open as a table and the asked for food appeared. Less than a moment later, my mouth started to water from the aroma of it all.

I once again shook my head as I could only stare at the table. "What the hell is all this?" I asked.

The woman's face fell, as did she to the, I guess, ground as she lowered her head. "I am sorry master, I didn't mean to upset you." It was at that moment that I noticed that there were tears falling from her eyes.

Alright, what the hell had I done now, I thought. Then I shook my head again what in the hell was wrong with me? This wasn't real there was no way that this was real!

I heard a gasp from the woman as I turned to stare at her. "I assure you, master, this is real. I am your servant, almost anything that you want can be yours you just need to ask."

I had started to tell her to prove this was real when I caught myself. "Almost anything, what pray tell can not be mine?"

"Master," she started, "I can not kill anyone out of anger, I am only a normal Jinn."

"Jinn? Seems I have heard of that. Care to explain?" I asked her.

"Hmmm," she sat in contemplation a moment as if she was reading something. Then she suddenly sat up, "Ah! A Jinn in your language, I believe, is called a Genie."

"A Genie," I said. "You mean like magic powers and the like?"

When she only nodded, I had to sit back, what in the hell had I gotten myself into? That was assuming, of course, that this was really real. I was still having a very hard time wrapping my head around all this.

"Alright, so you said there are a few things that I can't have or do. The first is that you can't kill out of anger, though I assume you can kill?" I asked her.

She nodded yes, then shuddered, "I prefer not to, it is almost as unpleasant as the second thing."

"The second thing? It is worse than the first?" I asked.

She nodded then continued, "I, like most Jinns, do not try to bring the dead back. It has never turned out good as they tend to turn, then try to kill everything. As I said, it isn't good at all."

"Yeah," I said, "it doesn't sound good at all. Anything else?"

"Yes master, I can not cause anyone to fall in love with anyone else. There is an ancient love magic, though it can not cause love," she said.

"Can't cause love? So, basically you can't force someone to love someone else, what can you do?" I asked.

"Well, master, if there is love there? I can make it stronger so that they notice it more, see?" she said.

I just shook my head, not really getting it. If I meant if this was real, then I could get used to it later.

"Master, you don't believe me? What can I do to convince you?" She asked.

I sighed, this was modern day, there hadn't been anything magical in as long time in this era. I just started to shake my head as I tried to think. A few minutes later, I couldn't think of a single thing.

"Nothing comes to mind; I need to get back. If I am going to die, I can at least keep my squad alive," I told her.

I saw that she had a very determined look on her face. "No master, I won't allow anything to happen to you," she said.

I sighed as I looked at her, wishing that was true. That I could survive against the onslaught of the insurgents I had seen. I sighed as I wished her luck, telling her that she was beautiful, then that I was ready.

As soon as I appeared, I noticed that I was not where I had been when all this started. What the hell? Then I noticed that the woman was standing beside me. Strange thing was no one seemed to see her.

It was then that I noticed that I had a clear shot at almost all the insurgents that I could see. I carefully moved my Mark 12 Mod 0 up, checked my ammo then carefully started to pick off all that I could see.

I smiled as I had put down at least twelve. Now the bastards weren't laughing. Shit I thought they were starting to get pissed, it seemed. I had put another four down when I heard a loud roaring noise.

As it got louder, I smiled, it sounded like our F-18 Hornets. The line beyond the last wall where the strange lamp had been, suddenly lit up. I immediately started to bug out as fast as I could.

I knew the radio control was damn good though, I didn't want to be mistaken as an enemy. Thankfully, the enemy was too busy dying to continue firing on me.

I looked back to see if the woman was still following me, then nodded when I saw nothing. Still, I had a full stomach, so, had it been a dream or an illusion? Hell I had no idea.

I caught up with my squad less than twenty minutes later. Luckily, I could see that none of them had been hit. As I approached their position, I started to worry. I had been hit, had been seen being hit, it wouldn't go over well if I appeared uninjured.

Just before I got in sight of them, I started to limp, as I felt blood start to ooze down my leg. I nodded my head silently saying thank you.

I barely managed to get to where they were, they were starting to load up when a few of them saw me almost fall.

"Lieutenant Richards!" I heard two of my men yell as they ran to help me the rest of the way in. I was loaded up after they managed to staunch the blood flow.

We high tailed it out of there, reaching our base less than a half an hour later. I was put on light duty for a few weeks to be evaluated in a few weeks. I was lying there wondering what the hell I was going to do when she appeared again.

"Master?" She said, nearly scaring the shit out of me. "May I take you out of here? I am sure that there are much nicer places than this sand tent," she said. Then she passed a hand over my leg, healing it half way.

"You are real, well I'll be damned. Get out of here? I'm sure that the base doctors and Co's would notice that I am gone," I told her.

"Not really master," she said. "I can return us to the moment we left. I understand that you are a proud solider, that you cherish your duty. I can help you master, no one can see me unless you allow it. I will make sure that you are protected. Please, master, do not ask me to unheal you again, it hurt me/"

"Hurts you? How could it hurt you?" I asked.

"I had healed you, master, I had to remove that, allowing you to be harmed again. This goes against all that I know is right," she said, an extremely sad and up-set look on her face.

I looked at her. I had always been a sucker for a sad female. This gorgeous female was no exception to the rule.

"I'll attempt to not have that happen again," I said.

A small smile came to her lips as she slightly nodded to me. "So master, is there anywhere that you wish to go? Nowhere we go will remember that we were ever there."

I thought long and hard wasn't really all that any places that I wanted to go. I mean I liked history, Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, the Greeks. There were a lot of places.

I was still thinking when I noticed that the sun was a lot hotter and there was much more sand. I looked out seeing massive stones that were floating being guided by thousands of slaves.

Why in the hell was this familiar? That's when I noticed the first pyramid of Khufu at Giza was being built. Here I thought that the sphinx was as old as Khufu's tomb. Hell, he'd heard that Khufu's son, Khafre, had built it, he thought.

I was about to get up, look for the woman when in walked Khufu. Then the strangest thing happened he spoke and I understood everything he said. I had to struggle to keep the surprise off my face.

"Ah! My chief builder, all seems to be going far faster than I thought. Here I thought it would be years, you have it in just months. We are glad that your people agreed to help as they did the previous earth gods," Khufu said.

I slightly bowed to him as he did to me. "The gods smile on us," I said, "though I do not expect you to use it for a long time."

"Yes, we living gods have a lot to accomplish before that time arrives," he said, a broad smile on his face.

I nodded as he went on detailing what he'd seen, extremely pleased with it. I remained quiet throughout, letting him go on. An hour later, he left with a small army marching across the sand.

It was strange that nothing I had said or been wrong on the contrary, everything had been expected. I walked out looking around watching the pharaoh depart.

OK, I thought, where in the hell are you? A moment later she appeared, her head bowed low.

"Master? Have I displeased you? Is this not what you wanted? " She asked, then went to the ground prostrate before me.

"I wanted something like this though. I want to know when we are going. I want to decide when and where. Do not do this again," I said, shaking a finger at her.

"Yes master," I heard her whispered tone. "I accept any punishment that you wish upon me." This last was also whispered as I saw renewed tears.

"There will be no punishment. I am not like that. Stand," I said. "I wish to go home."

She slightly smiled then snapped her fingers. I sighed as I looked at the big empty house, this was all I had left. The folks had passed ten years ago, no siblings, no one else even close.

I had enlisted out of college I had made it home to celebrate. The next day, I kissed mom bye as she, my sister and dad went to the store. They never made it home. I had gone after the ass that had killed him hard. Let's say if he's out in the next forty years, he'd be lucky.

I finished officer's school, going into active combat immediately. I had risen some in the last six years. I looked around again at the home I hadn't been to in over a decade. It felt a lot better that way.

"Master?" I heard the woman say as she appeared behind me. "What is this strange place?"

"This is where I did much of my growing up. Nothing to keep me here, as my folks are gone," I said. "By the way, what in the hell is your name? Tired of saying hey you or the woman."

She cast her eyes at the floor, then in a whispered voice she said, "I don't have one master, no one ever got to give me one."

My eyes rose as I saw that she was trying to not to cry again. "Well, I think it's about you had one, don't you?" I asked. "Now what would be a good name, Nadine?" The face she made, let me know. I was still a minute as I debated saying the next name. It had been a decade. "I have a name though I haven't spoken it for a long time."

She looked at me waiting patiently, seeing the pain on my face. "Really master anything else that you want."

I took a deep breath as I started, then stopped several times. "It was..." again I stopped as she waited patiently. "It was the name of my little sister. If I call you, it might help me to heal more."

I watched as she stood up straighter, "I will do all I can to bring honor to her name and to you."

"I know you will," here I took another deep breath. "Her name was Catherine."

"Catherine," she repeated. "It is indeed a beautiful name. I thank you master, I will wear it with pride."

I nodded, unable to say a thing, I sat with a thud, trying to keep my emotions in. As tough as I was, the amount of fire fights I had been in. Hell, the amount I had killed, I thought I was a hell of a lot tougher. Nope, I broke down like a baby, tears raining down as I saw the aftermath of the accident.

It was dark when I suddenly awoke. Looking around, I saw that Catherine was sitting in a chair across the room. I rubbed my eyes, seeing that I had been out for several hours.

"I think that we need to get the hell out of here," I told Catherine.

She nodded to me as she whispered, "Yes, master, it appears that there are too many sad memories here. With a snap of her fingers, we vanished.

Less than ten minutes later, an old truck rolled up to the house. A woman got out, coming to the door and unlocking it. Stepping in, she stopped short, someone had been there. Searching she couldn't find anything out of place.

Going to the simple couch, she sat as her eyes scanned everything in the room. That's when she noticed the rugged masculine smell. Why the hell was that smell familiar? A moment later, she grabbed her head as a massive headache hit her, tossing her to the couch.

A half hour, the pain was starting to fade she moved her dirty blonde hair from her face. A single word escaped her lips as a haunted look filled her eyes, "John."

The thing is, she did not really had any memory at all, even her parents' funeral brought nothing. The smell was so familiar she could almost see the tall dirty blonde man that resembled her.

This was the first memory she'd had in over ten years, it wasn't much; a smell, a face, a name. It was a thousand times more than she'd had. Now at least she had a place to start.

Catherine and I appeared back on the base, as she had said, we appeared not long after we had left. I laid back down trying to let the sad memories go. Shit here, I thought I had let all the bad thoughts go. Damn it! I really needed to get the hell out of here and kill the damn enemy.

I was thinking of how bored I was when I got my idea. I just wondered if it would work. I just needed to ask Catherine.

I waited for her to appear, at the time, I didn't know that she had actually been waiting for me to call her. Hey, as I said, I didn't know what the hell I was actually doing.

So, I waited, growing more and more bored, so bored I actually started to get irritated. Cathrine appeared not long after, a worried expression on her face.

"Master?" She said, a look of concern on her face. "Are you alright? I felt that something was wrong. I have waited for you to call me."

"Call you? I thought that I would be disturbing you, I thought you might be sleeping," I told her.

"Master", she started, almost as if she were explaining to a child. "I am your servant; I live to serve you. I wait on you, not the other way around. I am also a Jinn; we really don't sleep. Whenever for almost anything, I am here to serve you."

I could only stare at her, damn this was going to take a hell of a lot to get used to.

"I am sorry Catherine; I was raised to be more polite than most people. I have a question that I was wondering if you had an answer to," I said.

"I am here to help and answer any question you ask, master," she replied.

"I know that you can alter memories, what people have seen. Is it possible to do this to the doctors? The base co and my team? I need you to change all the paperwork that was written on my being wounded," I said.

"Oh yes master, though I am not happy about you going back out again. I will have to be there with you to make sure that you are not injured again.

I sighed this was most definitely going to take a bit to get used to. It actually took far less time than I thought it would.

My squad was moving out, so I was almost late. We were going out further north from another bombed town called Afar. Everything was going well then we were ambushed, they were obviously waiting for us. I shot everyone. I saw bodies piling up in front of me.

I had two men that were hit behind me as I kept firing, pissed off, I didn't notice. A half hour later, there were forty or fifty dead around me.