Monsters

by Daniel Greenwell

  “Alright, Ma’am. We are thinking our hardest problem will be any enemy armor coming from the South. I am sure they have some sort special weapons they plan on using to get through here.”

  “With the trade lines local here, I think it’s most likely they are going to blow the wall open from the south. With the river being dammed, the approach is open on foot and there’s two bridges they could use to cross to the front part of the shore. From there, it’s academic how they are going to blow the wall…” She said.

  Dianna Carter wasn’t your average politician, she was a former USMC intelligence officer. She’s brilliant when it comes to strategy and this wasn’t the first time when Mal had come into contact with her strategy.

  “Just like Sangin,” Dianna said, “You know all about that Senior Chief, don’t you?”

  The new Commander of BANS regional’s eyes bugged, in shock.

  “ I knew I recognized that name from somewhere, we never met but your name, it came up a lot.” She said as Mal began to ask how he was that memorable but she read his mind, “Oh, I am never going to forget that story, Malcolm. Never.”

  2028

  Sangin, Afghanistan

  SO1 Malcolm Daniels

  SEAL team 7

  “Daniels, I know you have been doing this a while but the Russians aren’t going to care what our plans are,” Lieutenant Steven Strait said from the back of the humvee. Malcolm’s white skin was framed by his black beard and sunglasses.

  “There’s not much we can do about it,” Mal said, “we literally have orders. It doesn’t matter what you or me wants though: Major Carter came up with the plan here and we have to follow it.”

  Strait rolled his eyes. The Battle of Sangin Valley had been raging for weeks. When the Russians decided that they wanted to reunite their empire, they decided they would take Afghanistan also. The two forces had met at the city of Sangin and like in the past, it had become a field of pure death. The US congress hadn’t actually voted to start a war but since Afghanistan holds a US base, it was an act of war from a foreign power.

  “You know this is crazy right? We are literally talking about going behind the line here.” Strait stated

  Tim coughed from the drivers seat.

  “We’re SEALs, that’s what we do,” Tim stated, matter of factly.

  “Still this woman better know what the hell she is doing or the three of us are going to end up as bugs on the windshield of war,” Strait said.

  Mal rolled his eyes at this notion. Strait is a Lieutenant Senior Grade, so he’s technically in charge. Mal didn’t like Strait. The fact that he was partisan at his job was a big time red flag to Mal.

  “Fuckin’ liberals putting us in danger just so a woman feels powerful,” Strait said.

  Mal turned as Tim stopped the humvee and he could feel Tim put a hand on his shoulder. He glanced a look straight at Mal of “Don’t.”

  “Sir, we have a legal order from a superior officer, you may be an officer so technically in charge but I have operational command. I hope I don’t have to remind you that with operational command I can send you back to base and await another officer. Whenever you go back home and run for public office: I will make sure everyone knows.”

  Strait stared back at Mal like he just threatened his life.

  “Watch your mouth SO1, I will be reporting that little threat of yours to command,” Strait said.

  “Feel free, I will inform Carter of your beliefs on her liberal agenda while I am at it,” Mal said with a smirk as he got out of his Humvee with his rifle slung around front of him.

  Strait slammed the door getting out of his Humvee, realizing he had been beaten by Daniels. Mal slouched down and crawled on his hands and knees to the edge of the plateau in front of him and then pulled up his rifle, scoping down the field to the bridge.

  “Why aren’t we just blowing the bridge? It would make way more sense,” Tim asked.

  “If we blow the bridge then it will never be fixed. The Russians will take up positions on the other side of the bridge and we will be fucked. So instead we are going to blow the sewers underneath the roads that lead to it.”

  “And that’s going to do what? They have bridge launchers that could create more roads in a few minutes.”

  “Yeah but those bridges can’t withstand the weight of armor, we don’t have to worry about enemy armor anymore so our air support will pick them apart,” Mal said.

  “Ya know, when you say it like that, it sounds like a good plan,” Strait said.

  It’s almost like this guys only problem was the fact that it was a woman who said it and not that it’s a bad plan. I swear to whatever creator you believe in: people like this asshole should be spartan kicked off a mountain because they don’t seem to ever learn or have interest in learning from others.

  “Sangin’s city sewer system has a maintenance entrance at the bottom of this ravine that we have the access codes to, so we can get this shit done.”

  Thirty minutes later

  “I have set all of the explosives we have,” Tim said.

  Mal was finishing setting up daisy chained explosives so that they could use a single detonator.

  “We should blow them now,” Strait said.

  “That’s not the plan, I don’t know if you noticed but A. We don’t know what’s up there and B. Don’t you think the Russians are going to want to look down here after we blow their ability to get armor to the frontlines,” Mal retorted.

  “C. We are down here and this explosion is going to cause pressure changes enough to collapse lungs. Explosions like this can cause organs to pop like a grape,” Tim reiterated.

  There was enough C4 and plastic explosions right now to bring down a sky scraper and the fact that they are spread all over the city doesn’t help the fact that this could also sink the entire city. Mal had thought about that, the entire city was a pre-fabricated built after the end of the Afghanistan occupation in 2021.

  I don’t know enough about math to figure that out, Mal thought.

  Mal heard a distinct clap. To the normal person a clap would be nothing but to a combat veteran? That clap had one meaning.

  “AK fire,” Mal whispered before he leaned up next to the hallway leading to the door back to the ravine.

  Strait stacked up to the left with Tim next to Mal.

  “You two cut down the hallway, fire on sight,” Strait said as Tim walked out to take point before Mal’s hand stopped him from moving forward.

  “Rules of engagement for this outing are entirely based upon threat of death, we can’t shoot on sight. We need to be careful, I will go fcheck it out. You and SO2 Carpenter should secure our exit. The fire seems to be coming from to the left of the doorway down the hall so I will take a look at the threat. If it’s bad you two don’t want to be there.”

  Mal turned to walk down the hallway as Strait fell into line with Carpenter next to the door.

  That’s right asshole, Mal thought.

  Walking slowly Mal took steps where he rolled through on his steps so those down here with them wouldn’t be able to hear. Voices became clear.

  “Hostiles,” Strait said pointing his rifle down the hallway to the left, pointing it basically at Malcolm as he wasn’t moving down the hallway.

  “There is only one of the three voices speaking Russian, the rest are speaking Pashto. I have this.”

  Mal turned down the hallway and could start to see the shadows of whomever was down here, he could only hear fragments of the conversation and since he didn’t speak Russian, he didn’t know what the male voice was saying.

  “La Tektel aftali!” The woman screamed.

  Don’t kill my children, yeah they really sound like some really life threatening folks that should be shot on sight, Strait.

  Mal slid next to the corner into the maintenance office where he could see the Russian man in question and a cage with woman and child. Four cages in a row but only one was filled, living like animals.

  This guy is not
going to have a good day, Mal thought.

  Mal turned the corner with his weapon raised, knowing any shot fired would be quickly found by the enemy. He took a close look at the man, with a hand around another young woman’s throat and she was bent over a barrel.

  Russian morale, their infamous raping of the women and children, Mal thought.

  Slinging his rifle behind him, Mal pulled his carbon fiber knife from his boot stepping behind the giant man. Stabbing someone is much harder than the TV shows make it out to be, you have to hit the right spots and for Mal: the head was always the best. Mal swung back and drove his knife into the man’s spinal chord.

  No brain, no problem, Mal thought as he crumpled to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

  The woman looked at him in a manner that would usually be associated with fear. She was scared.

  “Ant baaman,” Mal said.

  Ant Baaman means “you’re safe” in Arabic/Pashto, the dialect local to the region. Mal pointed to the door and pulled the keys off of the dead Russian. Tossing them to the woman.

  “American?” She asked quietly and he nodded.

  Her english was good, it was too good.

  “You’re not Afghani,” Mal said as he turned on the mysterious woman.

  She raised her hands and didn’t attempt to raise a weapon against him.

  “I am an ally though,” she said, “Kamilla Jaman, Royal Families personal agent in MI-6. I know you are wondering why they would send me here and that is for them.”

  She pointed to the cage in the corner where a woman in a burkha sat together with a nine-year old boy. Mal bent down and busted the lock off the cage, she disrobed.

  “Your highness,” Mal said as he pulled the two of them out, “what in god’s name are you doing here?”

  “I was here as an envoy when the Russians hit the area with an EMP, my helicopter was shot down while we were leaving so we went into hiding until this agent could get here. She did but as we tried to get past the firing line, we were captured. So since yesterday I have been in this cage with my son.”

  Megan Markle was the wife of the King of England, after the attack on the British Royal family that also destroyed parliament which re-employed the Monarchy, Harry and her were the next in line.

  “Well, our best bet is to get you out of here now,” Mal said, “We are going to collapse the freeway down so they can’t get armor into the area.”

  “Where are we supposed to go?” The agent asked.

  “You are all coming with me,” Mal said before turning to his radio.

  “Overwatch, this is Wolf-1,” Mal said.

  “Send traffic, Wolf-1.”

  “I need exfil for HVT and companions, where can I take these folks to get to the friendly side of the line,” Mal asked.

  “Your mission wasn’t to find any HVTs,” Strait piped in, “Did you waste the people down the hallway or not?”

  Mal chuckled.

  Yeah, let’s waste the future Queen of one of the largest militaries on the planet.

  “No we need exfil for HVT’s, Overwatch.”

  “Remote APC is on it’s way, Wolf-1. Four minutes out.”

  Mal clicked his radio to confirm as the other women and children exited their cages.

  “Ladies, follow me and agent…” Mal said as he pointed to her asking for her last name again.

  “Jaman,” she retorted.

  “Follow me, you guys and Jaman, take the rear with his gun,” Mal turned to head back to the door to the ravine. When they got to the door of the sewers out into the ravine, Mal heard the pop as an M-12 Berretta fired off a round towards the other end. Jaman fired at another man who came down the hallway. Mal kicked open the door and moved out of the way taking a position with his back to the door frame in the direction of the fire. Jaman swung to the other side of the door frame.

  “Click,” Mal swung his body around the corner and squeezed his trigger, the gun was empty as he spun the rifle behind him and drew his pistol. Dropping the first man on the left as a third got back to his feet with an AK-47, Mal squeezed off a second volley as blood splattered against the back of the hallway.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Mal said as he stepped out into the Ravine and saw Tim holding onto Strait who was cradling his eye.

  Mal ran forward and looking around, seeing Megan to the left.

  “What happened here?”

  “Bullet rebounded and hit him in the eye,” Tim said.

  “You will be fine sir,” Mal said putting his hand out, “God planned for this moment and gave you a spare.”

  Mal looked at Tim who was barely keeping it together as he chuckled at the Lieutenants oddly religious outlook, on his job as a killer, was used against Strait.

  “You dumb motherfucker, I CAN’T SEE!!! Because you went back for these mutts!”

  Mal slapped Strait.

  “Get your shit together! You are SEAL,” Mal said as he saw the remote APC roll in from the opposite direction.

  Mal took up a shooting position in the direction away from the armored personnel carrier and saw a Kraken. The four legged tank was operated via an Artificial intelligence and it hobbled down into the ravine, lining up it’s eye with the five of them in unprotected space. There was nowhere for them to go that it couldn’t vaporize. Mal grabbed Strait by the vest and pulled the detonator out as he looked up at the bridge that was pulled up for non-Russian forces. There was a Crane to the left of the bridge.

  I guess there is a chance it drops the whole city, Mal said as he pressed the detonator as the thermite and plastic explosives all around the city ignited.

  Since every team involved inserted separately to attach their explosives to the grid, they would all ignite at the same time. The explosion threw the door off of the Sewer maintenance entrance and the town slid, yes it slid into the ground. The crane slipped out of it’s rig and fell straight down, into the Kraken, splitting it into.

  “Just like we planned it?” Tim asked as he took the women into the back of the APC and Mal grabbed Strait by the back of his vest. Pulling him behind him like luggage at an airport before throwing him into the APC.

  “All stations, Jackpot. I say again, All stations, Jackpot,” Mal said into his comms unit.

  “You got me shot and I will ruin your entire existence and career, For what? A bunch of local savages?”

  “That will be enough,” said the The Queen of England.

  “Your highness, I a-,” Strait said as Tim’s face was of pure, unadulterated shock.

  Megan raised her hand to have Strait stop.

  “That’s enough, Sailor. I know I am a bit of a mutt, I am sorry that a ricochet bullet caught you but, this man saved all of our lives and if you have a problem with him: I have a problem with you and I promise you, I have more power.”

  The blood dropped down from Strait’s eye, it would be the end of his active career in this combat zone. Mal didn’t really care if it was.

  He’s a poor operator and a coward. We would be better literally without him.

  Present day

  Mal turned and looked at city plans and then examined the sewer.

  “Oh, Quinn, you dumb motherfucker. You accidentally evened the playing field.”

  Twenty minutes later

  “Funnel every wheeled vehicle or walker into these three streets and our friends will take care of it from there,” Mal said as a young operator popped his head into the door.

  “Sir, are you sure you want to use all of it?”

  “All of it…” Mal said.

  Mal grabbed his XM-24 rifle and slipped his vest over his shirt then turned to find Commander Givens.

  “You know, I found out what the force is,” Givens said, “very funny. Besides that I think I have actionable intelligence if you would like to tag along.”

  She was chuckling as she walked away from Tim’s old office and the tight bun with her blond hair inside of it seemed to have somehow gotten tighter.

  “You find the oth
er mole?”

  “I did, he’s,” She started to say before Mal raised his hand.

  “He’s Johns.”

  She looked at him quizzically.

  “I just found this out myself, if you already knew: why didn’t you tell me?”

  This was a good question.

  One person in that room questioned the lack of equipment, then they seemingly knew morse code as I was communicating with Wallis back here at command. I wish I could say that it was some sort of scientific reasoning but part of it was a gut feeling.

  “I had a feeling,” Mal said as he grabbed his mug, “He’s downstairs I am guessing?”

  “He is, I was hoping you would do whatever you did to that guy I heard about from someone that was here.”

  Mal stopped in his tracks mid stairs and stared over at her.

  “Do you know how I got that information?”

  “No, if I knew do you think I would have dragged his fat-ass 15 miles for him to be interrogated?”

  Mal put his arm around Givens.

  “Follow me real quick here into the court room,” Mal said, “is it okay if I put my arm around you?”

  Givens knew something wasn’t quite right here. The two of them walked in to see about fifty people inside.

  “Everyone is to get the hell out of here for at least five minutes,” Mal announced, the civilians and BANS officers looked awkwardly at Mal, he was the substitute teacher of this place after all.

  Like the entire population was waiting for one person to move, when they did it was like someone hit an evacuation button, every single person got up and exited the room.

  “What are you doing?” Givens asked.

  Mal raised a finger as he watched the last person leave the room.

  “I don’t think your higher-ups would like it if what I did to that man was on the record,” Mal said.

  “What did you do to him?” Givens asked.

  “I used…enhanced interrogation techniques?”

  She had a very blank faced stare back at him, for those outside of the US military that saying didn’t have any meaning.

  “I tortured him and intimidated him,” Mal said.

  Givens sat there. Quietly and without a change in tone of voice, the only thing that changed was how she looked at Mal. Instead of pride, it was disappointment.