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Hail, Nolan, and Renner all leaned out the openings where the Huey’s doors had been removed while Grayson maneuvered the aircraft over Kara’s coordinates. Each man had selected his weapon of choice from the Hail Nucleus’s armory.
Hail wore his father’s antique matching pearl-handled .38 special revolvers. He carried them in Old Western leather holsters on each hip. He held a bulky XM25, a 25mm weapon. The laser on the weapon computed distance to the target and then calibrated the round to explode above the target’s head. It was basically a can’t miss weapon.
Nolan was hanging an FN SCAR out the side of the Huey. It fired the NATO standard 5.56 rounds, and it was arguably one of the best assault rifles in the world.
Renner opted for the HK416 because it looked cool in the armory. He didn’t know much about guns, but Nolan told him it was a vast improvement on the M4 design. That was good enough for the techie. Each gun was equipped with a night vision scope that turned every living thing into a glowing yellowish-red target.
As the chopper flew a lazy circle high above the property, the men scanned the surrounding countryside with their scopes. Almost everywhere they pointed their scopes lay the prone body of a combatant.
“I can’t believe how many men are down there,” Hail exclaimed. “What the hell did Kara get herself in to?”
Nolan commented, “Why do I keep thinking the word, Alamo?”
Renner responded, “Are all those men lying down there dead?”
Nolan told Renner, “Our scopes track heat. If dead, they would be cold, and we wouldn’t be able to see them.” He took a deep breath and his voice took on an even more serious tone. “These men are alive.”
“Then what the hell are they doing?” Renner asked.
Nolan moved his scope from one prone man to another before responding, “They’re sleeping.”
Hail laughed like he couldn’t believe it.
“Who in the world would decide to take a nap during an attack?”
Still scanning the terrain below, Nolan said, “If they lost a lot of men during the first attack, it might be a tactical move to begin at daybreak.”
“When you say tactical,” Renner questioned, “is that another way of saying, ‘They’ll live longer if they can see what they’re doing and what is ahead of them?’”
“Yeah, just like that,” Nolan said.
Hail also used his night vision scope to scan his surroundings. He suggested, “You know it would be really easy to pick these guys off while they are asleep. One at a time. A few hundred shots, and it would be over.”
Nolan discarded the idea saying, “No, that’s not a good idea. First, we can’t determine where to land this thing in the dark. We don’t know if there are power lines crisscrossing the area. With that in mind, raining lead down on them may cause them to bum rush the house just to end this thing. Besides Kara, we don’t have any assets on the ground to stop them. It’s in our best interests to get an idea of troop size, map out their location, and draw up a plan. My guess is they’ll attack at first light so we need to get moving.”
Although Hail agreed with Nolan’s suggestion, he had difficulty allowing others to assume leadership and make the final decision. This character flaw brought him more success than disappointment. However, one of the reasons he had offered Nolan a position was because of his military experience, so Hail had let Nolan lead. Everything Nolan said rang true to Hail.
“All right,” Hail agreed. He yelled forward to Grayson. “Let’s make a wide loop around the property so we can get a head count.”
“Roger that,” Grayson yelled back, tilting the chopper to the left and initiating a sustained five-degree turn.