by Jon F. Merz
I frowned. I knew Niles would redirect us to try to gain some sort of toehold there, long enough for the team to touch down and hit the house. But that wasn’t going to work. We needed them to touch down long enough for us to roll up, throw ourselves on board and then take off again. We couldn’t possibly endure a sustained firefight with ISIS.
To our immediate east, I spotted a squat building that reminded me of the Bin Laden compound in Abbottabad. Maybe someone had hired the same architect? It didn’t matter. I knew without even checking the map or GPS that it had to be the right target.
Talya had the same instinct and we took another gaze around. I didn’t want to start our approach and have someone open up on us with a machine gun. Things were going to get really hairy from here on out. Each step we took could compromise the entire op. Not to mention kill the hostages.
I eased out of the rubble and moved from pile to pile until there were no more piles to move to. We had three hundred yards to cover in the open.
Talya caught up with me and I pointed out where I would move to before she made the crossing. She nodded and set herself up to cover me in case I took fire.
I took a deep breath, steeled myself and moved out.
The moon was high now and it gave off far more light than I would have liked. My shadow led the way as we crossed the open field. I struggled to keep from running, instead moving with deliberate intent rather than foolish recklessness. But I hated every second of being exposed like that. Syria was rife with snipers who stayed awake all night just looking for someone out in the open like I was.
I heard ambient noises as I drew closer to the compound. Voices flittered out across the night air and reached my ears, forcing me to slow myself down even more. Me being able to hear them meant they could certainly hear me if I made the mistake of moving too quickly.
I reached the overwatch position and turned to scan the area I’d just crossed. I saw nothing and knew Talya would start her crossing at any moment.
A truck engine gunned in the distance. Then I heard shouts.
I wanted to wave Talya off, but it was too late. I could see her creeping across the open field. She must have heard the noise by now, too, but she was too committed to do anything. She had to finish the crossing and reach the safety of my position.
A spotlight switched on from somewhere at the compound and swept wide across the open ground I’d crossed.
My heart jumped into my mouth thinking that Talya would be spotlit at any second.
But as the light prowled the open ground, I couldn’t see her anymore.
Talya was gone.
14
I scanned the open ground, trying to use my night vision to greater effect than the spotlight that snaked along the dirt. But it was no use. As far as I could see, Talya had simply vanished. For a moment, I was seriously worried that there had been someone else lurking out there in the open who had ambushed her. I shrugged it off, however. If there had been someone out there, I would have sensed them. And I had detected nothing amiss as I’d made my move across the open area.
There had to be another explanation.
I decided to scan in the wake of the spotlight. As it illuminated the area, I focused on the ground that it had just left. And that’s when I saw her. A shallow depression that probably offered no more than mere inches of depth had somehow given her cover from the light. And as it swept further on, Talya moved. She was up, moving, and then down again. I swung back, trying to find threats that might shoot at her from the safety of the compound, but I saw nothing.
I could hear the voices from inside, however. And judging by what I heard, there was some degree of alarm. I could hear orders being given to “get them up and ready to move.”
Talya swung into my little spot a few seconds later. She was out of breath and covered in sweat and I wanted to plant a wet one on her gorgeous lips. But professional courtesy held me back. There’d be time for that later.
“How in the world did you manage to disappear like that?”
She sucked wind but broke into a grin. “In Russia, sniper courses are much harsher than in the US. You guys get to do your stalking covered in bushes and crap. In Russia, we had to stalk into an area almost exactly like what I just crossed and still remain undetected.”
I smiled. “Old habits die hard, huh?”
“We don’t die at all, sweetie.” She turned her head toward the compound. “What’s going on in there?”
“From what I’ve heard, things are cooking up. I heard someone barking orders about getting ready to move.”
“The hostages?”
“Gotta be,” I said. “Which means we can’t afford to wait any longer.”
She nodded. “Get on the horn to Niles and tell him we’re going in. He won’t like it, but we’re on the ground and he’s not. We can’t risk losing them and if they know we’re coming, then we’re going to be in a shitstorm here before too long.”
I dialed Niles’ and dispensed with the usual code words and speakaround. We didn’t have any time for it. “We’ve got the target location.”
“Hostages confirmed?”
“Negative, but we don’t have the luxury of confirming it right now. Things are getting ready to go off here and we need to get in there before we lose them.”
Niles paused but thankfully didn’t contradict me. “You’re there, I’m not. I’ll back your decision.”
“What’s Hotel Five’s ETA?”
“About sixty minutes. But I can’t confirm that right now.”
“Tell them to come in hot. If all goes well, we’ll be transitioning to the field as they touch down. We’re going to throw ourselves aboard and then get the hell out of here. This place is a powder keg. And I don’t think we’ll be able to roll out a welcome wagon for them.”
“Roger that. Good hunting.”
I clicked off and nodded to Talya. “We go.”
She checked her M4 and I did the same. We knew we had rounds chambered, but it never hurt to recheck. As it was, I needed to top up my mag. Talya watched the compound as I did so. The spotlight was still prowling the ground around us. Had they been tipped off somehow or was this standard procedure? I didn’t think it was since they seemed to be on heightened alert.
It was an awful way to have to go into action. Ideally, we should have inserted under cover of a new moon and done the op while it was truly dark.
But we couldn’t choose the timing. ISIS had done that for us and we had to go in with what we had, which was me and Talya and a boatload of guts and ammunition.
Talya turned to me. “That spotlight has got to go. They’ll see us coming and mow us down before we can get close.”
“Take it out then.”
Talya shouldered her M4 and squeezed off a single round that blew out the lens. We were up and moving even as the first shouts erupted from the compound. So much for a stealthy approach.
The compound had a main gate that was partially open as we ran toward it. Sporadic gunfire broke out but none of the rounds came close to where we were. That cheered me some. If they didn’t know where we were-
A round splanged off the ground in front of me, throwing up dirt and debris. So much for that.
Talya put some distance between us and reached the wall of the compound first. I drew up next to her and we stacked outside of the gate.
“We could be walking into the jaws of hell here,” I said.
“No choice,” said Talya. “I didn’t bring any charges to breach the back wall and sometimes, the direct approach is the best.”
“You good to go?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Ready.”
“Love you,” said Talya. “On three.”
I nodded.
Talya licked her lips and flicked her selector switch to semi. I did the same and then brought the butt of my M4 to low-ready.
“One.”
I took a breath and tried to settle my pounding heart.
“Two.”
&
nbsp; I took another breath and exhaled it long and slow. Then I took a final breath.
“Three.”
We took the main gate in.
And all hell broke loose.
15
Facing us immediately as we made entry was a Toyota pick-up with a mounted .50 caliber machine gun. The dude manning it opened up as we came through and the heavy rounds turned the cement wall around us into Swiss cheese. Talya dove left and I dove right, hoping to split his attention. I rolled and drew a bead on the gunner and opened up, catching him with five rounds splayed across his midsection. His chest blossomed into a red supernova and he went down, toppling off the backside of the truck.
Talya was picking off targets of opportunity while I tried to fight my way to back her. Two more ISIS fighters ran out of the building in front of us, letting loose with a pair of Kalishnikovs. The telltale sound of AKs being shot was one I never forgot, but I couldn’t think about it just then. While the bullets might not kill me, they could certainly ruin my day and make it hard to back up Talya.
And there was no way I was going to leave all this clean-up to her.
I picked both the ISIS guys off with head shots. It was tougher to kill that way, but a lot of them would be wearing body armor.
I heard shouting now as we each took one side of the courtyard and started moving toward the building. More gunfire echoed around us. I heard screams as men went down under our assault. Blood sprayed the walls, creating a smeared mural of red on the sun-baked cement.
Talya got pinned down by an enemy gunner operating out of a second story window.
“I don’t have a shot,” she shouted to me.
From my vantage point, I could just see the tip of his rifle sticking out of the open window. I settled my sights on it and took a breath even as more rounds impacted all around me. Squeezing the trigger, I felt sure I had him. A moment later, the gunfire from the window stopped and Talya moved up.
We stacked at the entrance to the building and then went in low, each of us cutting off a piece of the pie and clearing it. I took one guy down with a round to his throat while Talya shot two more fighters coming up from the basement.
Someone rolled a grenade in to the kitchen.
I grabbed it and threw it out into the courtyard where it detonated and caught three fighters trying to ambush us from behind. Their bodies flew through the air and crumbled into a heap of blood and guts as they hit the ground.
We moved up.
The next doorway started taking rounds as we approached, causing us to duck down and out of the way. The walls in these homes couldn’t stand up to the volume of bullets being fired and if you thought they offered any cover, you’d quickly find out they didn’t when the bullets punched through the plaster and into your body.
Talya pulled a flashbang and tossed it into the next room. As it detonated, we were right in on top of the explosion of flashes and booms, firing as we went. Three more ISIS fighters died under the assault.
“Changing!”
Talya hunkered down while I dropped my empty and popped a fresh mag in. I nodded and we moved again, clearing what might once have been a study of some sort. The bookshelves were vacant of books, replaced by spray painted ISIS graffiti. The bastards had no appreciation of the value of books. It just made me hate them all the more.
Talya paused next to a door with stairs leading down. We could hear shouting coming up at us from below.
“Ready?”
She pulled another flashbang and tossed it and we raced down the stairs right after it.
The scene unfolded in a hurry as I came down the steps and a round singed my hair before I drew a bead and fired two rounds into the skull of the closest fighter that had shot at me. Talya came down immediately after me, the suppressed barrel of her M4 over my right shoulder, firing as she moved. Another fighter at the back of the basement died.
We paused.
Around us, the room had been converted into a makeshift prison. Bars had been fitted to the walls to make cells. All over the walls themselves was more graffiti. A few black ISIS flags completed the look and a video camera was set up on a tripod, all ready to film something macabre.
In the cells themselves, were four men dressed in desert camouflage. I drew close to one of the cells.
“Malut Khalem.”
“Inshijava.”
I smiled. “Glad to finally find you guys.”
The man in the cell nodded. “I’m Denison.”
“Lawson,” I said. “That’s Talya.”
Denison looked incredulous. “You guys are the rescue team?”
“We’ve got back-up inbound, but we couldn’t wait any longer to spring you. It looked like things were about to get pretty bad.”
Denison nodded. “They brought a video camera down here. I guess they thought they’d get some publicity by killing us.”
Talya was at the foot of the steps leading back up to the main floor. “Lawson, we can’t stay here. Get them out and moving.”
Denison nodded at her. “Who is she? I didn’t know we had any women in STA-F.”
I shrugged. “Best not to ask any questions. Just be glad she’s here.”
“Damn right,” said Denison.
They stood back while I shot the locks off the cell doors and then they piled out. Denison and his men grabbed the weapons of the men Talya and I had killed upon entering the room. We checked mags and then I nodded at Talya.
“You’re on point.”
She frowned. “Stay on my six. Something tells me this is only going to get worse from here on out.”
We stacked and then Talya led the way back upstairs. If I’d been figuring the time right, we had a little over fifteen minutes to get clear of the compound and make for the airport across the way.
None of us wanted to be left behind.
16
Denison and his three men looked pretty ragged, but as they moved upstairs with the guns they’d recovered from fallen ISIS soldiers, they seemed to switch on. I had no doubts they’d be fine in the coming firefight.
Talya led us back to the top and she fired her M4 as we came abreast of the doorway, nailing one of the ISIS fighters as they prepared to throw a grenade down on us. Talya turned away and shouted, “Grenade!”
We ducked as she did and the blast came from beyond where she was. Fortunately, the door frame took the brunt of the damage and we were safe to continue on. At the top of the stairs, Denison pressed past me and nodded at Talya. “How about you let us take it from here? We’re a bit late to the party, and we’re anxious to get some payback.”
Talya eyed me and I shrugged. She moved aside. “Be my guest.”
Denison smiled and then looked back at his men. “Travis on point with Vickers. Siskin, you’re with me.” He looked at us. “Try to keep up. Airfield, right?”
I nodded. “If we time it right, Hotel Five should be arriving soon.”
Denison thumbed at his men. “Let’s move.”
Travis and Vickers eased out of the basement and oozed across the first room, cutting a lethal rug as they danced together amid the gunfire coming from the ISIS fighters still in the compound. I saw them carefully pick their targets and mow them down. As we moved, Denison and Siskin shouted moving calls over the din of combat. Talya and I owned the rear and as we entered the courtyard, I saw more ISIS fighters coming out of the woodwork. The compound must have had another gate in the back that we hadn’t seen and reinforcements were streaming in from there.
Rounds ricocheted off the plaster walls of the compound, scarring the cement and flicking off fragments that stung us as we moved. The gunfire was a constant cacophony of sound without rhythm or time. Bullets flew at us from everywhere, but we had the advantage of not being able to be stopped by human rounds. I was concerned about Talya, however, but she seemed to slide through the chaos without anyone even coming close to hitting her.
We drew close to the main gate now and I saw Travis swap out mags while the rest of us cov
ered him. He was up and firing again in seconds. These guys might have been hostages, but it certainly hadn’t dulled any of their combat instincts. I was proud of the fact that Talya and I had been able to spring them free. Now all we had to do was get home alive.
Another Toyota flatbed truck came racing through the main gate, spraying an awful lot of lead in our direction. I dropped behind a makeshift bunker of rubble and took aim at the windshield and the driver, squeezing off a series of rounds that first spidered the glass and then took the driver out. The Toyota truck swerved as the driver died, and the momentum caused it to flip over and tumble towards one of the outer buildings, finally crashing into the side and exploding in a fireball.
“Nice shot,” said Talya as she raced past me. I ran to catch up while Vickers checked another truck that sat untouched by the gunfire. He hopped into the front seat and managed to get the engine cranked up.
Denison waved us toward the truck. “Get on, we’re leaving!”
We didn’t need any further encouragement. Talya and I dashed for the truck while Vickers wheeled it about to bring it facing the main gate. Siskin hopped into the back and started manning the machine gun that had been mounted there.
“No ammo!” he shouted.
Denison frowned. “Stay in back and cover us!”
He nodded and turned his AK to fend off a surge of ISIS fighters still coming from the rear of the compound. Talya hopped into the back of the truck and joined him in defending our six. I swung into the back while Denison and Travis hopped into the cab with Vickers. They kicked out the windshield and then we gunned it for the gate.
I saw the plume of a rocket erupt from the rear of the compound and streak toward us. “RPG!”
Vickers jerked us sideways and we very nearly spilled out of the back of the truck. The RPG streaked by and exploded into the wall closest to us.
