Flames And Arrows
Page 26
The two Chinese soldiers were standing guard over the unnamed mountain for two hours in to their shift. Their two comrades were asleep inside their cleverly camouflaged bunker. The two sentries were fully alert, backs erect and fingers on triggers as they stood guard. A HN-5 MANPADS, Chinese copy of Russian 9K32M Strela-2 lay in between them. Every ten minutes, one of the sentries would put a small night-vision binocular to his eyes and scan his surroundings. Each time special attention was given to the railway line that passed through the foot-hills of their mountain and vanished in to a tunnel of another bigger one adjacent to theirs. The tunnel marked entrance of railway line in to the lush green valley just behind the massive mountain. Every thirty minutes, either one of them would pick up the small hand held radio placed on the ground and report the situation. Each time he received replies from two other watch positions placed similarly on adjacent mountain tops. This chore done, the soldier would walk back to his position and again start scanning the area below him.
Two dark figures lay as still as rocks behind them, watching and marking their every move. It was not the first time they were doing that. The ten men team divided further in to smaller groups had been collecting intelligence for two weeks now. But tonight was different. They had been lying face down for an hour on the cold hard ground while a cold breeze chilled their backs. One of the figures whispered in to his small mouth piece, “Stalker alpha in position and ready.” He received immediate replies from two other teams. He looked towards his team mate lying beside him and nodded. Then whispered softly, “It's a go.” Both men brought out silenced Tavors and took aim on heads of the two Chinese.
“On my mark, 3,2,1.” There were muffled popping noises as the two guns fired and loud thumps as the two Chinese soldiers dropped unceremoniously to the ground. The two men broke cover and raced towards the bunker trying to be as quite as possible as possible. A small battery powered light illuminated the entrance. Their rifles drawn and eyes to the sights they tip-toed inside to find two Chinese fast asleep inside. Without pausing they put two shots in to each man's head.
This work done both came out and contacted their mates on radio. The two remaining Chinese posts had been neutralized too. All that was left was report from fourth team which came in three minutes later, “Fireworks attached.”
“Acknowledged.”
Most difficult part of their mission complete, the men slightly relaxed and checked their watches. They still had twelve minutes till the delivery of airborne package. The man with Tavor took out one small gadget from his backpack and placed it on top of the bunker. It was just a small radio marker that could be used to identify the correct location. Two of the other teams on other mountain tops did the same. In the meanwhile, his compatriot had placed a laser designator and started adjusting its aim. His target was entrance of the tunnel. Other mouth of tunnel, the one facing the valley was marked similarly. Nine minutes left and they waited.
0347 Hours
2 November 2010
Phalcon AWACS
Skies near Pakistan's southern coast