IRBIL, IRAQ: OGA STATION

Outside the winds howled, and sand pelted the side of the tin building, nearly drowning out all other sound. The Sharqi winds had invaded Northern Iraq, bringing a dust storm and wind gusts up to sixty-miles-per-hour. These seasonal winds had been known to last for several days in a row. All air assets had been grounded. The rescue put on hold.

In their base sleeping quarters, Juan and Rossi were locked in a hot game of Grand Theft Auto on Xbox. Tony was playing poker with three SAS operators, while Zach sat quietly by himself, reviewing images of the terrain in and around the cave area.

“Booya!” Rossi yelled and jumped out of his chair. “Sorry, mate. Looks like the Brits just beat the pants off the Yanks.”

“Fuck!” Juan said, throwing his controller down. “I want a rematch. Hold on while I grab another beer and hit the head. This cannot stand. You’re going down,” he said, pointing at Rossi.

Juan made a pit stop, and then retrieved a Heineken out of the fridge. On the way back to his seat, he passed Zach. “It’s all good, buddy,” he said, looking down at images captured by the Predator drone on Zach’s computer. “You’ve got the whole route memorized, so come on. Give it a rest. I know. It’s bad. We lost our eyes on the target because of this storm, but it is what it is, so grab a beer and relax.”

Zach glanced up at Juan. “They could move the hostages, and we’d never know it. We’re totally in the dark.”

“Well, not totally in the dark,” Tony remarked from over at the poker table. He threw down his hand, showing a straight. “Ah, ha!” he said, slapping the table. “Beat that, fellas, if you can.” All the players groaned and folded. Tony picked up his winnings, walked over to where Zach sat, and plopped down on the nearby sofa. “There’s a drone up there with a thermographic camera on board. It can loiter overhead for fourteen hours before returning to base. Thermal imaging is gonna tell us if anyone moves from that location. We’re not totally in the dark, so relax. We got this.”

Zach closed the computer. He looked at Tony and frowned. “The heat signature tells us someone is moving…just not who it is. Could be hostages. Could be bad guys. No way to tell, dumbshit.” Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, Zach regretted his insulting remark. “Ah, hey, sorry, Tony,” he quickly added. “I didn’t mean to snap. I’m feeling a bit edgy lately. Of course, you’re right. We’ll see any movement.”

Tony held up his hand. “No harm. No foul. Forget it.”

Rossi came over, sat down, and handed Zach a beer. “Drink up, old man. I understand why you’re so uptight. Your girl’s up there. Can’t blame you. Bloody frustrating, this storm thing. These drones can read a license plate from two miles away, but now, we can’t see shit. Bugger that for sure. But we’re ready. As soon as the storm blows over, we’re off, so keep the faith, mate.”

He tossed his beer bottle in the trash and got up to leave. “I’m bloody knackered, and need to turn in. That rematch on Xbox is going to have to wait,” he yelled back at Juan as he was leaving the room. “Ziryan. Everyone. Wake me when this storm blows over.”

Zach nodded and watched as the rest of the SAS operators called it a night, too. This left him, Tony, and Juan sitting there by themselves. No one spoke. The kidnapping weighed heavily on everyone’s mind, and being held up by the storm only exacerbated the problem.

Guys never talked about wives or girlfriends back home when they were deployed, but these men had been together so long, they could read each other’s thoughts. Juan missed Lorena, and Tony longed to see his wife, Lisa. This was a given, but Tony and Juan’s loved ones were safe at home unlike Arianna. Zach, ever the consummate soldier, never whined, never cracked. Was resolute in his determination to rescue Arianna. He’d soldiered on, head down, meticulously putting this rescue plan together, and though he tried to keep it inside, it was obvious, he was hurting.

They knew. His best buddies knew.

Tony and Juan said good night and headed to bed. Once out of earshot of Zach, Tony whispered, “I sure hope this storm passes quickly. Zach needs to get moving and get in the game or he’s going to fall apart.”

“Yeah,” Juan replied with a heavy sigh. “Never seen him like this. He’s wound up tight as a drum. This sitting around worrying is killing him. If we don’t commence a rescue attempt soon, he’s definitely going to lose it.”

THE NEXT morning, strong winds and dust were still flying around. Satellite images indicated they were on the backside of the Sharqi wind storm, but it would still be a few hours before everything settled down.

“Cent com says the storm’s diminished, but helicopters still can’t safely fly in this crap,” Tony said, “so the wait continues.”

The group was sitting at lunch, when an officer approached Zach and asked him to come to the command center. Zach dropped his fork and immediately stood to leave.

“What’s up?” Tony asked.

Zach shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and followed the officer. Tony and Juan threw their napkins down and joined him. In the command center, Commander Haji signaled them forward. He handed Zach a headset and invited him to listen.

Zach waved him off. “Can you put it on speaker phone so we can all listen?”

The Commander nodded. “We intercepted a phone call between Amira and some tribal elders. Evidently the elders have a lot of say as to what happens out there. They’re urging the kidnappers to make a ‘declaration of intent’. We assume this means that at least one of the hostages is at risk of being killed.” He paused to let that soak in.

Zach remained stone-faced. “Let’s hear it,” he said.

The recorded conversation between Amira, another kidnapper, and a village elder played. The three argued back and forth. Amira wanted to kill Arianna. She thought a beheading would be nice. She argued that this would cause the Brits to quickly pay their ransom in order to save their own people. The village elder wanted to kill one of the Brits. No one seemed to agree who should die. “Well, if you’re not going to kill the American, then at least sell her to the Taliban,” was Amira’s final suggestion.

Zach winced. He couldn’t stand hearing any more and told them to turn the recording off. “We need to move,” Zach said. “Now, listen. My team is ready to go. How soon can you get us in the air?”

“I’m already working on it,” Haji replied. “I’ve patched this over to your people in the Air Force and told them the situation is mission critical. As soon as the dust storm passes, we launch. In the meantime, our negotiators are trying to stall for more time. And good news. We’ve got our eyeballs back. In the upper elevation, the sky has cleared and our drone is transmitting some pretty clear images again. We’re not seeing any movement away from the caves. We believe the hostages are still in place.”

“That’s a bit of a relief,” Zach said, “but we need to execute this mission as soon as possible. Call whoever you need to call to try to move this along. My team and I will be in our quarters, geared up and ready to deploy as soon as you get the all clear. I just hope it’s not too late.”

WITH THE advent of this new information, Zach’s stress level just went through the roof, but he needed to stay calm and steady and execute the mission. The success of the plan relied on surprise and speed…speed on target, not necessarily speed getting there. That was going to take some time.

First, they faced several more hours before they’d be air-lifted to the drop site as they waited for the storm to leave the area. Due to the need to maintain an element of surprise, the drop site was several miles from the caves. This meant that once on the ground, they would still have a long march to their assault positions. By Zach’s calculation, they’d be in position to launch a rescue at about five a.m., just before dawn, a time it was thought the insurgents would be at their most groggy. But all told, there were still many anxious hours before this mission could even commence.

Late in the evening, word finally came that a chopper was about fifteen minutes out. Both the SAS and Zach’s teams assembled at the loading zone, geared up and ready to move. They would be inserting by a HALO jump to avoid detection…a high altitude, low opening parachute jump. The high altitude required oxygen and the wearing of specialist clothes to keep from freezing. In addition to the special clothing and equipment required for this type of jump, they would be equipped with their usual body armor, plus AK 47’s, pistols, knives and both stun and hand grenades. Each man also had night vision goggles and a helmet-mounted camera.

Back at taskforce headquarters, the operation would be watched on four big screen monitors, each showing a live feed from a different source. The helmet cameras of the SAS team assaulting cave number one, Zach’s team attacking cave two, and the drones flying high above would all be transmitting the minute by minute action.

The helo arrived and transported them a half hour away to a Kurdish Peshmerga airfield near Irbil, where they boarded a high altitude airplane which flew them to the drop site. At this stage, going into battle, different men felt different emotions. Some men slept. Some joked. Some checked and rechecked their equipment. Zach felt relaxed. Being on the move calmed his nerves.

He couldn’t explain it, but far from being stressed about executing the dangerous HALO jump or worried about being killed, he was exhilarated and eager to get in the fight. A sense of peace came over him. This is what he trained for, and once in training mode, every other worry, emotion, or concern he had was pushed completely out of his head. It was a relief to finally be on the attack.

The jump master signaled they were three minutes out from the drop zone. There was so much noise in the cargo bay, no voice could be heard especially once the jump door was opened. Each man fastened his oxygen mask across their face, stood, then moved to the back of the plane.

“Four on deck,” Zach signaled to the jump master.

The jump master gave him a thumbs up and motioned him forward. Zach watched and waited for the light to turn from yellow to green. When the signal came, he stepped off, doing a forward roll, down into a free fall. One at a time, the rest of the men followed. Constantly checking his altimeter watch, he waited until he was at twenty-seven thousand feet, and then he deployed his chute.

Other than the jump itself, this was the riskiest time for a jumper. They had to hope no bad guys were sitting down there, just waiting to pick them off. Drone surveillance had indicated the site was clear, but things could change in an instant.

Zach hit a soft, running landing and quickly came to a halt. One after the other, the rest of the team landed around him. Since the SAS team would be attacking the caves from the opposite direction, the plane circled around and dropped them at a different site.

Protocol called for them to bury their chute and masks so they began digging. Fortunately the soil was sandy and easy to move. Everyone worked quickly. No one spoke. Except for very rare occasions, hand signals would be used until the mission was over. Complete surprise was an imperative, especially in the desert where sound carried far.

It was after midnight by the time the equipment was buried and the group began to move up the west slope of the Cheekha Dar Mountain. The lower level was forested and gave them cover, although moving through the foliage slowed them up. About an hour into the trek, Zach signaled a stop. The men formed a three sixty circle, took a knee, and held up.

“Base, this is Black Beauty. Base this is Black Beauty. Over,” Zach said. There was no answer so he tried again. “Base this is Black Beauty. Radio check. Over.”

“Roger,” finally came the answer. “We copy. We have your pos. Over.”

“All boots on the ground. What’s the traffic look like? Over.”

“Roger, Black Beauty. You have bogies moving your way. Three clicks out. Over.”

“Roger that,” Zach said. He quickly signaled the men to be on the lookout for enemies up ahead.

Shit! This wasn’t good. They’d only begun their ascent up the mountain and encountered resistance already. If they had to fight it out, the element of surprise would be blown, the rescue a bust.