Black Operations- the Spec-Ops Action Pack

by Eric Meyer

  "Heinrich you still down there?"

  "Ja, I wait here, Boss."

  "Can you hotwire an Iranian army truck?"

  "Of course, but there is no need to hotwire them. They have a simple button start."

  "That's great. Find us a couple of suitable vehicles, get someone to help you, and bring them out to the main gate. And remember, we're out of time."

  "It's not a problem, I'll be quick."

  He turned to Anika. "That should cover it, let's get moving."

  But still she didn't move. She shook her head, "Abe, I know this may sound crazy.”

  He waited.

  “I think we have the wrong man. We've screwed up."

  Chapter Eight

  He felt exasperation and anger.

  “He has to be the right guy. It all points to him. It can't be anyone else. We have to get out of here now!"

  She silently followed him down the staircase and out into the open barracks square, but he could feel her eyes on him. They started hurrying toward the wreckage heaped around the main gate. The only men missing were Buchmann and Reynolds, searching for vehicles. They had Majidi. Despite Anika, he was convinced they’d snagged Arash, and it was almost over.

  "Why don't you ask him?"

  He turned around and looked at Anika. "What?"

  "Ask him if he's Arash."

  He looked at her with incredulity. "Are you serious? Of course he'll deny it. We have the right man."

  "I don't think he'd lie if you put it to him. Arash is hugely important to them, like a religious thing. For Arash to deny his identity, it would be like Jesus lying about who he was."

  He heard the sound of an engine start. The vehicle nosed around the corner and drove slowly toward them. It was old, battered, and had certainly seen plenty of action.

  "Jesus Christ," Valois exclaimed. "That's a British armored car. Where the hell did it come from?"

  "It's a Scorpion," Talley agreed, smiling. "The Brits sold scores of them to the Iranians; back in the good old days before everything went crazy with their nuclear program."

  Buchmann left the big diesel engine running, climbed out into the turret, and leaned down at them. "What do you think? It'll take some stopping."

  "It’ll do. Where's Roy?”

  “He found a couple of Mercedes infantry transports. He’ll bring the one with the most fuel.”

  “I hope to Christ he hurries. He’s not buying a new model from the local Ford dealer.”

  Talley thought about what Anika had said.

  She's wrong. We have the right man, now we have to get him out of here.

  "Boss, we got company."

  He looked up to the front as Valois shouted. The man had been listening for signs of any traffic approaching, and now they all heard it. And then it came into view, an Iranian police car, a white Mercedes with green stripes down the side was nosing toward them, crunching over the debris spilled over the area. Two cops in the front seats were looking at them suspiciously, although so far all they would see was a group of soldiers standing inside a barracks.

  "Vince, Jerry. If they look like they’ve twigged, nail ‘em."

  "Copy that."

  He could see them staring through the wreckage and the fires, trying to make sense of the chaos, and then everything seemed to happen at once. A Mercedes truck came from the rear of the barracks with Reynolds driving. He reached the Scorpion, stopped the truck, and climbed out to speak to Buchmann. But the German ran forward, climbed onto the hull of the Scorpion, and dived through the open hatch. The cops watched intently, still not certain of what they were seeing. They chatted to each other, but then one of them reached down and switched on the blue flashing roof light. The other picked up the radio microphone. Talley didn't need to give the order. Vince and Jerry readied to open fire, but before they could shoot, the driver rammed his foot down hard on the gas pedal and reversed away. The shots went wide. He watched helplessly as the two cops got further and further away. Inside the next few seconds, every car and every soldier in the city would know they were there.

  Heinrich stopped them. He found the trigger of the Scorpion’s main gun and opened fire. A 76mm shell flew out of the barrel, impacting on the front wall of a building fifty meters beyond where the cop car was still reversing. They reached the end of the rubble-covered street as Buchmann fired the second shot. The shell slammed into the tarmac ten meters behind them, and the car reversed straight into the newly created hole. The trunk went down, the hood went up, and the cruiser stopped dead as if it had hit a brick wall, which effectively it had. This time Buchmann had a stationary target, and despite his lack of experience with the gun, it was almost impossible to miss. He didn't miss. The white and green Mercedes exploded in a cloud of broken metal, and he was able to glimpse a body tumbling through the air over and over as the blast threw it fifty meters along the street. The thing that landed was no longer visibly human, just a shredded mass of tissue and cloth. The other cop was almost vaporized in the vehicle. He'd done well, but the question in Talley's mind was whether or not they had got out a call before Buchmann's third shot slammed home. There was no way of knowing, all they could do was get out as fast as possible and pray that this day the Gods of War would smile on them for a little longer.

  They ran to the vehicles, Talley pushing Ayatollah Majidi ahead of him into the Scorpion, and Anika clambered aboard behind him. He shouted for Reynolds to join him as the rest of the squad clambered aboard the Mercedes truck. Roy took the wheel of the armored car and headed out for a gap in the broken perimeter fence.

  "Which way?" he shouted urgently.

  Talley looked at Anika. "You have to show him the way back to that derelict factory. I'll watch the prisoner. Heinrich, you stay on the gun, that was nice shooting."

  The German nodded grimly as he fought to keep the armored car moving in a straight line. They swung out onto the main street. Before they were two hundred meters from the Pasdaran Barracks, a stream of vehicles turned in from the opposite direction, blue lights flashing. Four cop cars turned into the barracks, and then an Iranian armored car came after them, followed by a half-dozen infantry trucks packed with troops. Talley looked around the dark cabin for their prisoner and found him hanging on grimly to an ammunition locker. Up front, Anika was giving calm directions to Buchmann. He looked out of the rear vision port of the Scorpion and saw the Mercedes truck was still following.

  Are we ready to exfiltrate? Until Anika spoke to Majidi, I assumed we'd achieved the primary target of the mission, Arash. Now, I'm not so sure, and we need to know. Will Majidi tell the truth if he's asked? There's only one way to find out.

  He leaned across and tapped him on the shoulder. The man whirled; perhaps he thought he was about to get a bullet in the back of the head.

  "Mr. Majidi, you know why we came after you?"

  The man stared at him. "It is obvious, American. I know you are trying to interfere with Iran's nuclear weapons program, but it will make no difference. Take me prisoner, kill me, it is all the same. Our program will go ahead. Our warheads will be delivered on time."

  "You think Arash will be able to carry on without you?"

  The man nodded emphatically. "Yes, yes. Removing me from the organization will make little difference. My country will have those weapons, regardless. And in the hands of the Revolutionary Guard, we will end the occupation of Palestine, and you infidels will leave the Middle East forever."

  Is the man bullshitting me, or has Anika hit on the truth?

  "So you're not Arash?"

  He watched the man carefully, but his surprise seemed genuine.

  "Me, Arash? No, I do not have that honor. It is as I said, capturing or killing me will make no difference. He will see that the warheads arrive reach Iran as arranged, and I can assure you, Mr. American, they will be put to good use."

  Anika was looking across at him, and he slid over to her.

  "It looks as if you could be right."

  "I'm sorry, Abe,
but I have been thinking about the odd pieces of intelligence we received, and somehow they didn't seem to fit this man."

  "You know what it means, don't you? The entire mission will be for nothing."

  "I'm sorry, I wish that he had been the one, but somewhere along the line, the wires were crossed. Or more likely, we were deliberately led astray. It makes no difference. Even if we could locate Arash, we could hardly do anything now. Tehran is strictly a no go for us, and quite frankly, I'm amazed we got out as easily as we did."

  He nodded.

  Are we being driven like animals in a hunt, goaded by beaters? Pushed in the direction the hunters want us to go. Or kept away from the place where the hunters wish us to avoid?

  He thought about it all the way out of the city, but the solution to the problem always seemed to elude him. Someone, somewhere, was shoving them in the wrong direction. They were getting faulty intelligence, and that was the key. And finally, he had the answer, as he narrowed the list of names down to one.

  It may be incredible, but the CIA Head of Tehran Station always seems to be lurking in the background when things are going badly wrong. Miles Preston, time for a chat with the patrician intelligence head!

  They left the main city areas behind them and drove out into the suburbs, past deserted streets littered with rubbish and potholes, and shabby buildings with masonry showing the dilapidation of years of neglect. They reached the derelict industrial estate, a landscape of rusting iron buildings and torn fences. Inside the courtyard of the old brick factory where they'd hidden was a four-wheel-drive SUV. He recognized it immediately. It belonged to Miles Preston. When he first saw the vehicle, it had crossed his mind that somehow Guy had made it back.

  But no such luck, somehow the CIA man has second-guessed usman guy, and if Miles Preston is the enemy, he won't be alone. But where the hell is Guy?

  He keyed his mike. "This is Echo One. Close up behind the armored car. This could be an ambush."

  He heard, "Copy that," from the Mercedes truck following behind.

  "Heinrich, stay on the gun. We could be getting into a situation here."

  "Copy that, Herr Leutnant."

  Reynolds pulled up. Talley was tempted to order them to pull back and make a more careful approach, but he was also curious. If Preston was their enemy, it seemed too obvious to park his vehicle in such a way as to advertise an ambush. He heard Rovere calling from the Mercedes.

  "What do you suggest, Abe? If you think it's a trap, you could cover us with the Scorpion, and I'll lead a squad into the building to flush out any hostiles. Any trouble, you can pepper them with that big gun mounted in the turret."

  "Okay, we’ll do it your way, but don't dismount from the truck until you're inside and out of sight. Drive straight through the doors, and be ready to open fire on anything that doesn't look kosher."

  "Copy that."

  The engine of the Mercedes roared as it lurched forward, smashing straight through the doors and into the empty space of the factory floor. He waited while Rovere's men deployed inside the building. Domenico came back over the commo.

  "You'd better take a look, Abe. It's not what you expected."

  "I'll be right in." He turned to Anika. "Stay inside the Scorpion, and keep your eye on Majidi. There's something strange going on here, and I don't want them to know we have him with us. Not yet, anyway."

  She nodded. He checked his MP7, opened the hatch, and climbed out. He walked cautiously through the broken doors and into the gloom. In the middle of the huge open space, the Mercedes had stopped and the engine was turned off. Echo Six troopers were stationed around the walls, watching carefully. Sitting on an upturned wooden crate in the center was the CIA Head of Tehran Station, Miles Preston. He stood in front of him, covering him with his weapon.

  "What the hell are you doing here?"

  The CIA man grimaced. "I guess the real question is, what are you doing back here? It seems to me that you've brought your NATO thugs into the country and caused chaos. So far, all you've achieved is to totally fuck up everything you've touched. And I'll bet you're no further forward finding this Arash character than you were before you got here."

  "Maybe, maybe not. We may have just caught the guy. We're just not sure just yet. Perhaps you can help us sort it out."

  "Help you? In what way?"

  "You could start by explaining to us why you've fed us the crap you've passed off as intelligence."

  Preston reddened with anger. "Everything I've given you has been on the up and up. What you've done with it is bring the Iranian security forces crashing down on all our heads. Jesus Christ, going into their atomic energy headquarters, you must have been crazy. What did you get for it?"

  He spoke without thinking and cursed himself for letting it slip. "We got Ayatollah Majidi. He's very close to their top man. We thought he was Arash at one time, but we were wrong. However, we have an idea who this guy is."

  "Yeah? Who would that be?"

  "What’s your role in all of this, Preston?"

  His eyes widened. "You think I'm part of this crazy nuclear plan? Jesus, you really think I’m Arash?”

  He laughed out loud. “You must be crazy! Do you know where the intelligence came from that first confirmed Imam Fard’s information? From my office, and without it, this operation never would have happened. You think if I was a part of this thing, I would have arranged for a SpecOps unit to be brought in country?"

  Talley felt uneasy. What Preston said made sense. "I'll check out what you say. If it's true, I'll apologize. It isn't,” he stared at him, “I'll blow your head off. Maybe it wasn't you, Preston," he conceded, "but it has to do be someone in the intelligence world who's involved. We've been led by the nose since we arrived in the country, and it's only been sheer luck that we've avoided the traps the Iranians have set for us.”

  "I'm not the only intelligence operative in Tehran, Talley. Maybe before you jump to conclusions, you should consider other people that have been close to this operation. Like her, for instance."

  He looked in the direction of Anika, who was entered the building, pulling Ayatollah Majidi along with her.

  "Forget it! Doctor Frost has been with us at every stage of the operation, and she's shared the risks. It isn't her."

  Preston shrugged. "Maybe not, but it isn't me, buddy. So I suggest you look elsewhere, at least if you're going to be around for much longer. I guess you know you've become a fucking liability in this town. You can bet you'll be pulled out any time."

  "And that would be your doing, would it?"

  "Not me, my friend, but it makes sense. You blundered into this operation and made fuck-ups at every step. We're running out of time, and our bosses are likely to send in a new team that can do the job properly."

  If it's true and we're being pulled out, it'll be a disaster almost beyond belief. Don't they realize that intelligence is leaking like a sieve from somewhere in their command and control structure? Pulling Echo Six out and putting in a new team will be throwing away whatever chance is left of pulling off the mission. And I have to find out what happened to Guy and his people after they detonated the explosives. Have the Iranians taken them? Or are they hiding out somewhere, desperate for help. Perhaps one or more of them is wounded. There's no way I'm going to surrender the mission when we've come this far.

  "Preston, if we don't, it doesn't matter if they send in a division of Special Forces, there's no way anyone will find him. Is this a cover your ass deal for you, move up the career ladder inside the Agency? I mean, how far would you go to stop these bastards from threatening America and the NATO allies with a nuclear strike? Which is it, your career, or your country?"

  Talley could see him hesitate as he thought over the question. For a career intelligence officer, the options were straightforward. If he sided with Echo Six and the operation went down the pan, he'd wind up counting wetbacks on the Arizona border. But equally, if he pressed for a replacement team to come in, and the operation failed beca
use they were out of time, an inquiry could find fault with the way he'd handled it. Indeed, they could put the entire blame for the failure on his shoulders, and his career in CIA would surely hit the buffers.

  "You're asking me to take the gamble of my career and support you to see this mission through to the end,” Preston replied, his voice low.

  Talley waited while he fought to make a decision. "Miles, have you kids, family?"

  He nodded. "Yeah, back home in Virginia, close to Langley. Three kids, a boy and two girls."

  Talley thought about his family back home.

  Joshua and James, and Kay doing her best to rip them from me while I'm away trying to defend their freedom and security.

  He put the thought aside and put more pressure on Preston.

  "You know that if they get their hands on a nuclear weapon, Washington is likely to be high on the target list."

  "Yeah, I'm not stupid. It's just…"

  He heard the faint sound in his earpiece and held up his hand for Preston to be silent. It came again.

  "This is Echo One, come in."

  This time, there was no mistake. It was very faint, but he could make out the message.

  Guy Welland! Thank God!

  "We’re holed up about two kilometers from the Pasdaran Barracks. After the explosion, they flooded the place with troops and police, and we had no chance of getting away. What's your situation?"

  Talley explained they were at the abandoned brickworks. "Do you have transportation, Guy, any way of getting to us?"

  "That's a negative, Boss, the second we put our heads outside here, they'll spot us for sure. We have to sit this one out until the heat dies away."

  "We can't do that, Guy. We don't have the time. We'll come and get you. We managed to lift a Scorpion from the Pasdaran Barracks, so we should be able to reach you without attracting any undue attention. I need to get a fix on your exact location. I'll use the GPS, but are there any landmarks we can use to help us?"

  "We're inside an old Christian church, so if you read the coordinates from my signal, it should be pretty obvious when you get here. There's just one problem, Boss."