Reprisal in Black

by Dan Fox

  He cautioned his colleague to ensure that his chosen operative was fully trustworthy and competent. For his efforts he would be paid fifty thousand American dollars out of which he would be expected to pay the operative and for the bribes necessary in securing the ship. His colleague was a little shocked by the enormity of the payment but was bright enough to realise that this job was obviously extremely important and therefore probably dangerous. He wondered what it could be. He would find out in due course. For now it didn’t matter, he had work to do.

  Chapter 2

  The Iraq Mission, 2008

  The United States military transport jet had dropped into Cyprus to pick up some unscheduled passengers. It was flying from a US air base in Germany to Baghdad on its normal scheduled overnight run and this slight detour had been sanctioned by someone very high up the food chain. The Captain and his co-pilot alone were aware of the passengers’ destination and the risks involved, but not their identities. Security was paramount. The plane would not need refuelling so it would be a very quick stop. As soon as it had taxied off the main runway, it stopped and opened its main passenger door and the Aircraft steps were driven over to it.

  Four people, three men and a woman, in Special Forces style night camouflage plus parachute climbed aboard and settled in for the two hour flight. They were carrying full attack gear with H&K MP5 assault rifles, grenades and individual pistols, plus the full array of binoculars, night vision goggles and a few field rations. A number of bags secured to another parachute were also loaded by ground crew. Those bags contained additional equipment including a couple of the new lighter RPGs, a lightweight subsonic sniper rifle and several pounds of C4. No-one spoke.

  Whilst they settled into their seats, the plane taxied to the head of the runway, throttled up and gathered speed for take-off. The small team sat on their own with no aircrew visible to them. This was a special mission and the fewer people who knew about it or them the better.

  Steve Black, the leader of this private special ops team, had received the call on his coded satellite phone from Dean Walker, CIA Special Ops Director, less than twelve hours earlier and it had been quite an achievement to reach Cyprus in time to meet the transport plane.

  Dean Walker had simply said ‘Steve, we have a big problem, can you help us?’ Steve had remained silent whilst Dean explained.

  ‘We have just received some intelligence from a Rendition captive that there is a clandestine chemical weapon facility in Iraq. This is nothing to do with the current Iraqi government, but it’s probably a remnant from Saddam Hussein’s days. Anyway, it’s near to a place called Rutba in the far west of the country which is primarily empty desert.

  We understand that they are intending to make a large shipment of chemicals to some very bad people. We are told that the stuff will be shipped in less than forty-eight hours and we daren’t let that happen. If any terrorist organisation gets hold of it we are in real trouble. If you and your team can get in there pronto, blow the facility to smithereens, and bring us the chemist who we think is Smerkel, you will be doing a great service’. Dean paused for a moment, just a touch embarrassed to make his next point.

  ‘I know you’ve been looking for Smerkel for a while now and we haven’t exactly been a great help, but this time we believe the Intel is for real. You can get there much quicker than we can, you know who you’re looking for and candidly you’ll succeed where we might fail. The president has asked me to beg you if necessary. We know it’s not about money.’

  Steve said ‘Why can’t you use one of your Bunker Buster bombs on the place?’

  Dean Walker said with a hint of irritation, ‘One, we don’t do direct military operations from there anymore since the handover to Iraqi Security Forces, and two, we want Smerkel alive if he is there, and we firmly believe that he is.’

  ‘What about your own special forces people?’ asked Steve.

  ‘Let’s cut to the chase shall we, even if I wanted to use them we couldn’t get organised that quickly’ said Dean Walker testily, ‘and I don’t and you know why.’

  Steve said ‘Okay, okay, calm down, give me a few moments’ and quickly thought out a plan while he studied the big Middle East map on his wall. After a minute or so Steve said ‘Do you still have a transport plane flying from Germany to Baghdad overnight?’

  Dean Walker said ‘Yes we do’

  ‘Then divert it via Cyprus and pick us up before midnight their time. We’ll need to be tooled up and supplied with gliding parachutes. Make sure there is a pile of C4 on board and a range of detonators. We could also do with a couple of the newer lighter RPGs and the usual personal weapons. Oh yes, and throw in a good lightweight suppressed sub-sonic sniper rifle. Drop the layout and map reference details onto our secure website ASAP. Okay?’

  Steve smiled to himself, he knew very well why they wanted him to take the job. They needed complete deniability if anything went wrong. This would be a very low-tech mission, no satellite views, no army of operations people watching every move, and no drones or reapers in the sky. It would be Steve and his very special team, alone. It would be just them, their weapons, and of course, their impeccable combined talents. That was the way it had always been and he guessed it always would be.

  He was putting the plan together as he spoke, ‘the plane will need to drop us about two miles from the target about ten thousand feet above ground level. We’ll glide in from there as far as we can. Just make sure the Captain knows what we intend to do and compensates for wind direction and speed. To save time we need to land within a mile of the place. In the meantime I’ll check the terrain and the expected weather conditions for later tonight.’

  Steve Black looked again at the big map of the Middle East on the wall and traced a few lines with his fingers. His mind was racing to develop a workable plan but he was too experienced to overlook important details.

  ‘We’ll need a small silenced chopper for the exit to take us to, say, within thirty miles of the Jordanian border. If we try to get over the border in the chopper we risk being shot down and even if we aren’t everyone will know what’s been happening and in what direction we’re travelling. We ain’t going keep this party from becoming public for very long so I think from there it would be best if we had a truck from where the chopper drops us as it won’t be so obvious. We’ll dump the truck when we get very close and trek across the border on foot, say, south of the official crossing by a few miles under cover of darkness. Timing is going to be very tight. I’ll need to check on hours of darkness in Iraq because we’ll need to conclude the whole thing and be out of there while it’s still dark.

  When we get over the border we’ll need to get to Amman, the capital of Jordan, and we’ll need normal plane tickets and passports from there to Tel Aviv.’

  Steve studied the wall map again for a few seconds and said, ‘It looks like it’s about two hundred miles to Amman from the Jordanian border with Iraq. That will take far too long by road, can you see if you can get us another chopper for that part of the journey?

  We can get to Madrid or Lisbon by helicopter from here in no more than three or four hours from now. You’ll need to get us to Cyprus from either place to link up with the transport plane. Okay?’

  Dean Walker was amazed at the speed Steve Black had put a workable plan together. Sure there would be some logistical issues but it sounded doable. ‘Steve, give me a half hour or so to work some details out but I think we can do this. I’ll call you shortly, please brief your new special ops team in the meantime.’ Dean Walker sounded relieved.

  Steve didn’t need to brief his new team they’d heard every word of the conversation through their earpieces. They were all in agreement and looking forward to some serious action. Steve called another number. When it was answered Steve simply said, ‘Madrid or Lisbon on a fast chopper to leave here in no more than an hour, okay? Four people, minimal gear.’

  The team started packing their personal bits and pieces and then sat and waited for the ne
xt round of info to come through. Steve logged into their secure website and opened up the details Dean Walker had just sent.

  Walker called again about forty minutes later. ‘You’re all go from Madrid. We’ve commandeered a company Gulfstream that was due to bring a Senator back over here. He won’t be too happy about it but he can complain to the president if he likes. It should only take about three hours to Cyprus from Madrid. Weather permitting you should make it with an hour or so to spare. All your gear will be loaded onto the transport plane when it lands in Cyprus to pick you up. All the other links are being sorted as we speak. I think we can do everything you need us to do, just keep your fingers crossed. You know the drill at Madrid don’t you?’

  ‘Yes’ said Steve and terminated the call. The helicopter that would take them to Madrid from their hidden operations base in the wilds of Spain could be heard approaching and dropped into a fenced off paddock area at the rear of the premises. They were all on board and strapped in within a few seconds with the chopper pilot anxious to be up and away.

  They made good time to Madrid and landed in the secure area at the northern end of the airport. They wouldn’t have to worry about Customs officials on this trip. It had only taken an hour and a half to get to Madrid and they were soon on the Gulfstream and strapped into their luxurious leather reclining seats with official waitress service. They all declined the offer of food and drink preferring water and to get some rest ahead of what could be an interesting overnight party.

  The Captain flew the Gulfstream high and fast and they arrived at Larnaca Airport with about eighty minutes to spare before the United States Military Transport jet from Germany was due to make its unscheduled stop. They were met by a couple of Special Agent Smith types who guided them to a small canteen where they were given coffee. Steve studied a number of bags and four parachutes loaded onto pallets as they entered the building. He thought carefully for a few moments but said nothing, everything was as he’d requested.

  Just over an hour later they heard the plane was on its final approach and made their way outside and selected their own chutes and weapons. The remaining gear was left on the pallet. The big plane landed with a bounce and a squeal of tyres, slowing down rapidly. It then turned towards them and taxied to within fifty feet. The Aircraft steps were driven over to the plane and the main doorway opened. A couple of ‘special’ airport workers loaded the rest of the gear on board and when they’d finished the team climbed aboard. They locked the door from the inside and the steps were driven away. The plane was taxiing back to the head of the runway before they had taken their seats and belted in.

  ‘Okay guys, settle in and sleep or rest, eat what you can and drink water, we may have an exhausting few hours ahead of us and I want you at your outrageous best’ said Steve with a smile, ‘this is the first big mission we’ve done with all of us together and it needs to go well. You all know what’s at stake’. Steve tilted his seat back and closed his eyes trying to visualise the plan from start to finish. ‘Remember to check and double check your weapons.’

  The flight from Cyprus to Iraq would only take a couple of hours all told, arriving at their destination when it was very dark. There would be next to no moon and the cloud ceiling would be around eight thousand feet. The plan was that the plane would descend to ten thousand feet above ground level, slowing to just above stall speed, then drop the small team out and quickly regain altitude to continue on its proper journey to Baghdad. If necessary the Captain could justify his manoeuvres to Iraqi Air Traffic Control because of a sandstorm, or a technical problem, or some other similar excuse.

  Chapter 3

  Iraq - continued

  The red light illuminated in the cabin which told Steve Black, and his special ops team of two other men and a woman, that they were within five minutes of the drop. The team had already felt the plane slowing down and descending, and gathered all of their gear and stood ready at the door. They shook hands and mouthed ‘Good Luck’ to each other. As soon as the green light came on, they opened the door and Steve attached a line and pushed out the extra equipment attached to its self-opening chute. At least that way wherever Steve went the equipment would go too. The rest of the team jumped very quickly after one another disappearing into the dark black sky.

  A few moments later a crew member came into the jump area and closed the door. The team dropped at speed for the first few hundred feet and opened their own parachutes as the equipment parachute self-opened. The wind was from the west and once they had dropped through the cloud ceiling Steve Black guided his way towards a distant rocky outcrop with the rest of the team in close company following the descent of their extra equipment. They landed within a few yards and a few seconds of each other and then waited and listened intently for any undue noise. Because of the cloud cover and the lack of much moonlight they would have been very difficult to spot from the ground even if someone had thought about staring up into the sky.

  When they had regrouped and buried their parachutes the four of them took cover behind the outcrop and took stock of their situation. They needed to be sure of the area so they moved stealthily away from their grouping point for a couple of hundred yards using compass points for direction. The land around them was largely featureless. The occasional sedimentary rock formation rose a few feet above its sandy cradle but there was very little obvious cover available. Vegetation was distinctly absent and trees would have been a far distant memory from the days when this area would have been a fertile plain of millennia ago.

  From their respective vantage points they would survey their surrounding areas for the next ten minutes or so looking for anything suspicious and particularly for anything that moved. When they were satisfied that there was no-one else in the vicinity they regrouped. There were no lights visible anywhere and nothing moved. Steve then pinpointed their position by GPS and told the team that they were much less than a mile due west of the potential location.

  The desert air was very cold and their breath hung like small clouds. That was a tell-tale sign they didn’t need and had pulled scarves up over their mouths. It could be very cold in Iraq at night and particularly so in the western desert on a plateau about two thousand feet above sea level.

  Steve then huddled the group together and said ‘A little less than three quarters of a mile east of here is the sunken valley we were told about. In the middle of it is the hidden bunker which should look a bit like an aircraft hangar but smaller and lower in height and mainly hidden with sand and other camouflage. There are probably another two buildings that we should look out for, but our priority is this main one. As the intelligence has told us there is likely to be a chemical processing facility within it and they are building up stocks to ship out very soon. It may be part of the elusive WMD program that everyone was banging on about years ago but nobody could find. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack if you ask me.

  Anyway the job is to get in there and survey it and confirm the suspicions. If we’re in luck there could be that German scientist in residence who is believed to have masterminded Iraq’s chemical weapons campaign under Saddam Hussein. If he is there we have to get him out at any cost. Anybody else in or around there is expendable including civilians. We take no prisoners. Do I make myself clear?’ The team nodded in unison.

  ‘We need to blow the place as you heard Dean Walker tell me. That may extend to the other two buildings as well but we won’t know until we’ve had a look. We don’t have the coordinates for any other buildings so we’ll have to devise a plan for that when we get there.

  Now we need to spread out with two hundred yards between us and move forward at a crouch. We need to be in position in half an hour. I don’t need to tell you that time is of the essence. If we’re not away from here in less than two hours it will seriously compromise our chances of crossing the border into Jordan while it’s still dark. Marcel, take my far left, Jean, take my near left and Jackson, take my right. Good luck.’

  That wou
ld give them a spread of six hundred yards and a good perspective on the land ahead. Even when they didn’t know you were coming, the bad guys could still be waiting and successful counter surveillance gave you the opportunity to embark upon another mission. Get it wrong and there would be no more missions.

  It didn’t take long before they were climbing up a small sand ridge which was immediately before the valley in which the suspect premises were said to be.

  When they arrived near the top of the sand hill they lay down on the rock strewn surface and got out their binoculars. They were trained to look for different things. After a couple of minutes Steve asked for any comments.

  ‘There’s a foot patrol of three moving away from us and a single guard in front of the Blast Doors at the big bunker’ said Jackson Leonard, the special ops team’s Quartermaster.

  ‘There are no vehicles visible which is surprising and there’s a second building about half a mile to the north’ said Jean McKenzie, the team’s silent and very deadly female assassin.

  Marcel Jeveaux, their communications and explosives expert said ‘It looks like there’s a very small building about six hundred yards east of the main one. It’s so well camouflaged it’s difficult to make it out.’

  Steve thought for a few moments considering their options and worrying a little about the lack of vehicles. If there were vehicles about people could leave, but if there weren’t any they were more likely to arrive and that could be at any moment. They’d need to keep their eyes peeled.