Chapter 20

Until they were given a “go,” Rad and his team had to continue to plan and prepare and think about the mission. The men fine-tuned things they didn’t like, but overall, they saw the true tactical genius behind it.

The first thing they examined was the infil. Tactics kept changing as the war had changed, and special operations were constantly being refined. The preference was to find a landing zone nearby and hike quietly to their target, taking the terrorists by surprise. In this particular situation, none of the routes worked. The location of the house and the mountainous terrain would require the team to walk up the streets, right through the center of town. The risk of getting compromised and the chance Ahmed would be alerted to the danger were too great with that avenue of approach. Flying in and roping down was the lesser of two evils. It would be loud, but it would be fast.

In addition to the assault teams clearing the buildings inside the compound, another team would rope in to act as external security. Two assaulters and a combat assault dog would patrol the perimeter to track down squirters—anyone who tried to escape. Two others, along with an interpreter, would deal with onlookers or local police.

Besides its location in a sovereign country and the fact that it was a Tier One target, there was nothing unique or difficult about the operation itself. In fact it probably wouldn’t be nearly as complicated or dangerous as the last mission this team had completed deep in the mountains of Afghanistan…

 

For that one, three assault teams had hiked in after making their chosen point of entry by a landing zone a few clicks away. Following the point man, they’d moved in staggered formation down a narrow, rutted dirt road, following the contour of the mountain. They carried an arsenal of weapons—from pistols to machine guns—because once they hit the ground, there was a chance they’d need every extra bullet and grenade they could carry to get back out.

Their target was three separate houses, located pretty much side-by-side, and owned by brothers who were all arms dealers and violent criminals. The fact the houses were clustered together was helpful, but the fact they were located in the middle of an al-Qaida hotbed was not. Every military age man—or MAM—was considered an enemy combatant in this part of the world.

After hiking over dangerous mountain terrain, they passed into the town and advanced through a maze of narrow alleyways. Threading their way between houses, they needed no verbal communication to complete this well-orchestrated maneuver they had all done hundreds of times. Stepping over trash and avoiding sewer pits were the most difficult parts of the operation as they moved noiselessly in the dark toward their target.

When they neared the houses, everyone moved to their positions and checked in. “Alpha is set,” came over the radio.

“Bravo is set.”

“Charlie is set.”

Rad’s team moved forward wordlessly, creeping through the shadows to get a good vantage point of the building they would assault.

Rad heard Reese’s voice come over the radio. “Two sleepers on the front porch.”

Acknowledging the call, Rad continued moving. When he was about thirty feet away, one of the men on the porch sat up, stared straight at him, and picked up his gun. Rad froze but was not that concerned. As dark as it was, there was no way the target could actually see anything without night vision goggles like Rad was wearing. But when the man’s finger moved to the trigger, Rad tapped him with a suppressed shot no louder than a staple gun.

Although the shot was practically noiseless, the man falling back onto the porch was not. The soldier who had been sleeping beside him sat up and sprayed the area with his AK. He only got off a short burst before he fell onto the porch as well. A third man started out the door and was dropped by Reese before he even made it across the threshold.

“Probably woke up the neighbors,” Rad said into the mic. “Let’s move.”

Ten seconds into the attack and already three were dead. The smell of gunpowder filled the air, and adrenalin pulsed through every warrior. By this time the enemy was starting to wake up and mobilize. Rad heard ineffectual AK fire coming from a smaller building to his right and knew the precariousness of the situation was escalating by the minute.

Making his way past the three dead men on the porch, Rad heard a blast just as the window frame near his head splintered from a shot to his right. Not even flinching, he shouldered his rifle, turned in the direction of the shot, and watched one of his men eliminate the problem.

The amount of incoming fire began building steadily but was not unexpected or cause yet for alarm. If need be, more shooters could be moved to the roof to bolster the snipers and light machine gun already in place. At the moment it was a target-rich environment made up of battle-hardened soldiers who were mortal enemies of the United States. Rad’s only concern was that it probably wasn’t going to take too long for the fanatics to come up with a better strategy that might involve bigger guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Rad’s internal radio link crackled to life in his ear. “Rad, it’s Bipp. You need to come take a look at something.”

Rad poked his head around the door frame and glanced down the street again through his night sight. At the bottom of hill, about a block away, he saw an enemy combatant taking up position to fire an RPG. “Hold on a second, Bipp.”

Rad moved reflexively. With his laser, he painted the man’s chest with a bright red dot and squeezed the trigger. The target crumpled to the ground, and Rad ducked back into the house.

“What’s up Bipp?”

“We think we found something here.”

Before responding, Rad edged his way to a broken window and sighted two men dart between two of the small outbuildings in the compound, about forty yards away. One of them made it. The other one didn’t.

“Can it wait?”

Before Bipp could answer, the thunderous reports of a heavy-caliber machine gun boomed above the din of regular rifle fire, and a large hole appeared in the wall a few feet away from Rad. He hit the floor as chunks of dry mud rained down on him. Crawling back to the door, swearing under his breath, he pushed the switch on his radio for the command net. “Nighthawk Four this is Rattler One, where is my air support?”

“Just sit tight. It’s on the way.”

Sit tight? Seriously? Do you think I’m just lounging around in a freaking rocking chair down here?

It was the smugness of the tone more so than the words that irritated Rad. He looked skyward as if he could see those who were orchestrating the operation from a far-away place of safety. He primed his mic and remained calm. “I’ve got heavy-caliber machine gun firing on my position to the north.”

“I see it, Rattler One. You have support inbound.”

Rad didn’t have time to ask for an ETA. He heard the “whoosh” of aerial rockets passing overhead, swiftly followed by a series of thunderous explosions.

As Rad headed for Bipp’s location, he called for a situation report from his team and waited as one by one each man checked in. Things were proceeding as planned, but these engagements had a way of changing from calm to chaos in the blink of an eye. Especially here.

The people in the village and their ancestors had used the mountains to hide from invaders for thousands of years, making them masters at guerrilla warfare. They could hit the enemy and then disappear into the wild terrain, which made conventional forces useless against them.

Now the radio began to heat up. “Contact left.”

“Contact rear.”

Rad found Bipp in the back of the house on the first floor, stuffing computer discs and folders into a bag with one of the other men in a room that looked like a modern day office.

“Got the motherload here, dude.”

Rad nodded and gave him a thumb’s up. “Get as much as you can.”

Now barely ten minutes into the op, it was apparent from the sounds outside that the whole town had awakened. The quarter moon shining in a clear sky provided relatively clear pictures through night-vision, revealing hostiles moving toward them in pretty much every direction. The numbers weren’t alarming yet, but it was still early. What would probably appear as utter chaos to some, was really just another night of work for Rad and the other men. But there could never be certainty in how events would unfold five minutes from now or what would happen next.

Within moments of Rad’s team taking out their target and securing their building, drive-by shooters began firing small arms onto the roofs and parapets around the sniper positions. Seconds later, an RPG streaked in and exploded against the roof, casting a cloud of dust over them.

The radio crackled as the teams reported the other two houses were secure. Their job here was done. Now all they had to do was get out.

“Let’s move.” The radio crackled. “I don’t want to see what this place looks like in daylight.”

Air support provided cover as they made their way back to the designated landing zone for pick-up, but the situation was still dicey even after everyone had been loaded on the choppers. There was always a chance of getting shot out of the sky by an RPG, or possibly even a surface-to-air missile, until they were well on their way.

 

Rad inhaled deeply as he thought about all the things that had gone right that night. The upcoming mission into Pakistan wasn’t going to be nearly as complicated as that one had been—except for one unknown—Lauren.