Zimbabwe

 

Lat = 19 degrees, 48.2 minutes South

Long = 32 degrees, 22.3 minutes East.

 

The pilot’s had begun their descent twenty minutes earlier, Max’s Hercules was now coming in below five hundred feet and the LZ was five minutes away.

Max and his team were ready to disembark and make the five-mile yomp to the target, Max had estimated this to easily take fifty minutes, this would give him and the team fifteen minutes to get into position and reconnoiter the camp before the strike.

As the rear doors opened Max and his teams fanned out in a standard hold and protect deployment formation.

In the darkness the only sound was that of zillions of mosquitoes and crickets, the area was secure.

Each man in the team was linked via a radio system built into their helmets.

Max gave the command, “Team one take point.” Fifteen Second’s later team Two followed with Max.

Teams three and four followed with fifteen seconds intervals between them.

The terrain was on the whole barren with scrub bushes and Acacia trees scattered around, it was a full moon affording good visibility for Max and his team, the silence was often broken by the cry of a wild animal.

Khanda had taken off in his Cessna Skyhawk and had made the trip down to Shakira’s base, with a full moon and a powerful landing light located under the fuselage he made the landing on a makeshift runway half a mile north of the campsite, he looked at his watch; two am there was no point walking over to the camp now he’d probably be shot by one of the guards.

He stretched out in the back of the plane set the alarm on his watch for five forty five and fell asleep.

Max and his team arrived on the outskirts of Shakira’s camp in good time, Max instructed the team to wait and for team four to prepare their gas vaporizers. “Roy come with me.”

They both crept closer to the camp; the outline of the camp was now visible some three hundred yards away.

Both Max and Roy used their field glasses to scope the camp. “I make it three sentries Max.”

Max lowered his field glasses, “I agree,” he replied. “Let’s double check, Roy.” Again both men scoped the camp. Max had his hand drawing of the camp and was looking down at it and cross-referencing it with the real thing, he made a mark on the diagram.

Roy lowered his glasses, “Still only three sentries.”

Max made one final sweep, “okay let’s get back to the team.” When they returned Max spoke, “I have confirmation of the sleeping quarters; it is between gun emplacement number one and the Laboratory, there appears to be only three guards, one by gun emplacement number one, and two on the North and West sides covering the three buildings.”

Each man had meticulously studied the layout of Shakira’s camp; they now mentally updated their image. The group stealthily moved towards the camp.