The Summer House Quotes
"A helicopter drones, heading to nearby Hunter Army Airfield. The woods remind him some of forests he operated in back in Kunar province in the ’stan, right up against the border to Pakistan."
"Built in the small plantation-plain style and named The Summer House, the place was once the getaway destination of a rich Savannah family fleeing city smells and sounds generations before the invention of air-conditioning."
"He likes the smell of trees at night. It reminds him of home, reminds him of previous missions that have gone well."
"Lillian says, "Gina, c’mon, can we get going?" Her sister shakes her head. "No, not yet," she says. "Polly’s laughing. I love it when Polly laughs. Don’t you?""
"Lillian wonders if the ghosts of the old Savannah family are horrified to see how decayed and worn their perfect summer escape home has become."
"He catches the attention of his squad mates, and they move into position, with him leading the way to the open wooden porch before the solitary door."
"A man in military-style clothing ducks in with a pistol in his hand, and Lillian stands, putting her arms up in the air, thinking, Oh, damn it, it’s a police raid."
"The man has military-type viewing equipment on his forehead, he’s wearing military fatigues with some sort of harness and belts, and over one pocket where there should be a name tag is a strip of Velcro."
"When they got to the top of the stairs, Gina slammed open the door to the left with her free hand, saying, "Stuart, Stuart, oh, God, Stuart…""
"He leans out the window, lowering his night-vision goggles to take in the view. More trees, more scrub, and a collapsed small wooden building that looks like it was once an outhouse."
"Because we are this nation’s firefighters, ready to go anywhere when the president tells us to go."
"You have time for one more question, Major. Make it a good one."
"A bit after 8:00 p.m., right after Jeopardy! was over."
"Those killings…horrible, simply horrible. My God."
"My word…You think I’d trust the word of a pogue?"
"Sometimes the guilt just gets so hot and raw you need to talk to someone."
"We fight for one another or our platoon or our battalion. That is it."
"I’m with the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. We usually wear civilian clothes because it helps us blend in while we’re doing our job."
"There's an intensity and pure raw thrill of being under fire, returning fire, trying to kill someone who's trying to kill you. It’s a kind of... a high."
"Assaults, drunk driving, breaking and entering private quarters while drunk, vandalism, petty theft."
"A number of years back a previous battalion commander here had his career ruined because another Ranger squad raised hell like Staff Sergeant Jefferson’s Ninjas."
"We’re CID. You’re going to answer my questions completely and truthfully or we’ll leave and come back."
"A house full of civilians… And the Rangers slaughtered them all."
"The squad was in a village called Pendahar, in Khost province."
"What connection there might be between here and Hunter. There’s got to be something."
"You go out and do the job, and respond to emerging threats and situations, but there’s no second-guessing, not in the Rangers."
"I need to get to Afghanistan because a team of Army Rangers is being railroaded, and I need to find evidence they’re innocent before they get executed."
"This is Major Fredericka West, Special Troops Battalion, Seventy-Fifth Ranger Regiment, out of Fort Benning. We need to talk."
"I plead guilty to the murders, take my sentence like a man, and my two guys get freed, and nothing happens to them down the road. Not a damn thing."
"You’ll get a guilty plea from me, Mr. District Attorney, and in exchange, you’ll let my two guys go free. Completely and one hundred percent off the hook. Got that?"
"The truth. A pretty rare jewel in this county."
"Sheriff Williams wants the Army out of here. Period. The end. Put enough pressure on them, she figures they’ll leave."
"I’m an Army Ranger. Fuck you and your sacred canoe."
"I’m in Bagram, heading off to Pendahar tomorrow. Look, remember Major Frank Moore, the XO of Fourth Battalion? Got word from a Ranger officer here that he was murdered after visiting Staff Sergeant Jefferson."
"I want you to write something legal for me. About immunity. About me telling you what happened that night at The Summer House and who did the shooting, and why."
"For God’s wrath, well, he hadn’t sent a lightning bolt yet to scorch her butt, so either he’s ignoring her or he doesn’t exist."
"You think you can get Kurtz to answer your questions? You know he’s Agency, right? Won’t talk to anyone…unless you have a fistful of Hershey bars."
"She stands up from the wall. 'Then Bo will have a chance to make it right.'"
"She won’t let it go. 'Well, just to make it clear, you slimy little toad, I want that woman gone.'"
"You hold your ass right in place till I check you out."
"He starts up the Ford’s engine, puts the car into drive, and slams the accelerator with his foot."
"No, it’s more than that," Huang says, desperately trying to keep his voice low. "Remember our stay at the jail last night, when the jail attendant told us that she heard the DA had pissed off the sheriff by getting that guilty plea? That humiliated her. She’s not a woman to be humiliated."
"Because I said so," she says. "Get a move on, Corny, before the judge comes back."
"Are you telling me, son, that some judge over there in that Third World country is tryin’ to tell me how to run my courtroom?"
"Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in thirty seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."
"How the hell do you expect me to sleep with all you guys yapping? Shut up, will you?"