Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Butterfly (Kindle Worlds Novella) (SEALed Fate Book 1)

by LeTeisha Newton

  “She is not Yazidi.”

  “She is a human being, worthy to be cherish under Allah. Do not let your fear and hatred be stirred by those men!”

  “I won’t die for her!”

  Small and short in stature didn’t stop him from being quick. His spidery limbs carried him toward her. He crawled over bodies, belting out a war scream, before he fell on her. Together they crashed to the floor. The impact sucked the wind out of her, and she fought to breath. Each breath sent a hot poker through her, but she couldn’t get any oxygen in. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish as she fought to inhale. Her attackers fingers wrapped around her throat, narrow bands of death that tightened, cutting off what little air she had trapped inside of her.

  “Zaid!”

  Bodies shifted. Uncleaned skin rubbed against her, and sand pelted the walls as they fought. She wasn’t sure if they meant to help her or Zaid. Then the door slammed open, rattling the very walls, and a deathly silence descended. In that quiet, Zaid squeezed harder.

  “Idiot. She is worth more than your life.”

  She couldn’t see who spoke. Splinters pierced under her nails as she clawed at the chair, desperate to be free. Her vision darkened and she latched on the last kind face she saw. Heim. His murky eyes were a talisman, calming her. Luring her deeper. She held on, her mouth soundlessly formed his name. When Zaid was wrenched off her, she inhaled hard. Her lungs wheezed and tears filled her eyes. Air. She could breathe. She could breath. The world shifted as her chair was righted and she could see the man she bit before her. At his back, the gunman trained their muzzles on the other captive, and videotape rolled.

  Day four.

  Another man would die. And who was to say that she wouldn’t die before the night was through?

  “Heim,” she whispered. Wrapping herself into the safety of his name, she prayed. She couldn’t fight with any strength. Couldn’t escape when she couldn't be sure her legs would hold her. She never should have left his room that night. A simple, girly thing to do. To call a friend and gush about the man she met. To share that she thought she might have found one worth fighting her father for. She should have stayed in bed, protected against his warm body. Cradled next to his frame.

  “Heim.”

  “What did you say? Lift her head, quick. She’s speaking.”

  “Heim,” she said, louder.

  “Who is this Heim? A contact? A way to get my man back to me? Speak, bitch!”

  Her head whipped to the side from his blow. The tip of her ear and side of her head stung, but she didn’t stop. No, if she was going to die, she was going to hold on to the one thing she chose.

  “Heim.”

  “Tell me who this is! You will receive water and food for your answer.”

  She was so thirsty. The back of her throat aerated at the mention of liquid. A chance to quench her thirst. Yes, she’d tell him. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t real. Didn’t matter if this only prolonged her agony. She was a former Navy SEAL’s daughter. The MCPON of the fucking United States Navy trained her how to shoot when she was just a kid. Fuck him and his zealot mission.

  “I’ll tell you,” she said.

  “Yes, you want food, yes? Water? Tell me what I’d like to know. Information on the American military will get you much.”

  She lifted her head and forced her swollen eyes open. His clean shaven face was young and smooth. While she’d been in hell, he had freedom to bath and dress himself. To feed his hunger. While she wadded in filth and death, he left it behind for the beauty of life. Her sable gaze met his darker shade.

  “Heim is a warrior, and he’ll gut you and every man in here for ever touching me. Whether I’m dead or alive. And my father? He’s going to dance on your corpse,” she said in flawless Arabic.

  The men stumbled back from her as she laughed. Even to her, the sound was erratic and bordered on hysteria. But it felt good. So good to let them feel fear for once. Their eyes shifted back and forth to one another. The tape continued to roll as the leader rushed her. She cried out when he hit her with the butt of his gun, but then darkness claimed her, and she couldn’t feel anything anymore.

  Chapter Ten

  Heim

  Three. Three fucking days later, and they were finally on their way into Qatar. The Combat Rubber Raiding Craft, or the CRRC, sped across the churning dark sea. Water pelted his goggles and left his gear slick as he hung to the side of the inflated raft, with Snake across from him. The rest of his team paired off behind them, pushed to the raft. Wolf’s team had an extra raft available for the men who were trapped with Princess. A night infiltrate was a SEAL’s specialty. What made them so deadly is their enemy never knew if they were coming by air, land, or sea. Today Heim felt the weight of his training on his shoulders. This mission meant more to him than any other. His gaze was trained on the eleven to one o’clock cone in front of him, trusting the rest of his team to man the other areas. After landfall they would move in to extract Katya before placing her on the raft to carry back. They’d use the seaplane they would take the hell out of there.

  Knowing that they were just a short time away from finding her, though, didn’t make him feel any better. Tex needed more than twelve hours. He’d need days. Days when Heim wanted to rip off base and search for Katya himself. Days where she was afraid, alone, and knew death more intimately than some soldiers did. Each video broke his heart into pieces. With each man who fell to the firing squad, she was a bit more withdrawn. She looked so fragile and lost. He couldn’t leave her there any longer.

  It worked that Wolf knew exactly what Heim felt after Wolf had dealt with the kidnap and torture of his own wife before. Wolf and Tex worked tirelessly to bring in some sort of information. Wolf and his team even went in first for recon and verified that they had the right location. As they drew closer to the shore, the tang of salt water gave way to moist sand and earth.

  Heim depressed the mic designed into the black band around his neck. “ETA in T minus 5.”

  “Roger. Target is stationary, but heat signature is low. Will need medical care,” Wolf answered.

  “We will have medevac on standby while en route. Until then, I’m on hand as medic,” Mozart added.

  “Roger. We go in cold until we have clear visual of target. Once Butterfly is packaged, go hot,” Wolf added.

  “Princess,” Snake said.

  “What?” Wolf asked.

  “Target’s name is Princess.”

  “Hooyah!” Heim’s team cheered.

  “So be it,” Wolf acknowledged.

  “Who gives a shit about a brief tag anyway?” Cookie asked.

  No one, as far as Heim was concerned. She was all that mattered. Once they raced up shore, the SEALs disembarked. It took a few minutes to deflate the raft and stow it away. That done, Heim signaled for the team to move inland. A well-oiled machine, they skirted around the dark buildings on the private shore and made no sound on the wet squishy sand.

  Snake motioned with his hands to split the team. Hawk and Cry Baby followed Snake around to the right, while Welsh and Glitz continued behind Heim. Slipping through the darkness, the teams moved ever closer to Wolf’s position.

  “Guards coming on your six for roving check. Hold fast and eliminate,” Wolf commanded.

  Heim singled for his team to halt and seek cover. Wolf’s vantage point allowed him to see the area clearly. Once the two SEALs teams met up, they would go into the cell. For now, they would quietly remove anyone who could raise the alarm. After a few moments, the four-man roving team stalked passed where Heim and his team hid. Heim waited for them to pass before slipping up behind them. Glitz and Welsh did the same, as Snake came from the opposite side to meet them. Each SEAL clamped their palm over a guard’s mouth and nose before they punched their knives into their target’s kidney. In just a couple of seconds, they finished by slicing their throats from ear to ear. It took even less time to hold the bodies firmly against their chests and drag them out of sight.

 
“Four down. Moving forward,” Heim said. He took point, as he used Wolf’s directions to take the team through to the compound.

  “Glad you could join us,” Wolf said as Heim’s team met up with him.

  “Had some toys to put away and all that,” Snake returned.

  “She’s still good, Heim. They haven’t entered her cell. We have time to get in there and out.”

  Heim nodded. “Glitz, do what you do best.”

  “On it.”

  As Glitz hustled around the building, Heim focused on their entrance. “How are we getting inside before Glitz blows it to kingdom come?”

  “You take point on three man Team Alpha with Mozart and I at your six. Snake will cover three o’clock on Team Bravo with Welsh, Cookie, and Dude. Hawk can move Team Charlie with Cry Baby, Benny, Abe on the nine o’clock cover. Their teams will break through first, diverting forces away from our point team, heading straight for Princess. Glitz will be our way out and the final defense,” Wolf said.

  “Let’s move then. Based on the history, they should be doing the next execution in about four hours. We should catch them completely unaware,” Heim said.

  “Roger that. Bravo and Charlie proceed to entry points. Sync time for T minus 2. Tier attack and mic when commencing. Alpha will be on a two-minute delay. Let’s do this, SEALs.”

  The teams broke off and melded into the darkness. Wolf tapped Heim’s right shoulder and they moved forward. A pregnant silence descended as they waited for the other teams to move. Two minutes later, on cue, Snake’s voice rung out in the mic.

  “I had a dog, his name was blue. Blue wanna be a seal, too.”

  A door creaked. Fabric shuffled, and a strangled scream pierced the air.

  “So I brought him a swim mask, and four tiny fins. And took him to the ocean, and threw him in,” Hawk continued. The familiar cadence settled Heim as he sighted his riffle. A bullet whizzed in the air, but the muzzle flair was chocked, and a silencer buffeted the noise.

  “Blue came back to my surprise!” Snake’s voice rang loud, signaling the clear of room one and the start of the distraction.

  “With a shark in his mouth and a gleam in his eyes!” Hawk finished.

  Heim inhaled, waited. Pounding feet raced passed Team Alpha’s location, in the direction the firefight started. When Heim exhaled, his finger was steady on the trigger. He went into autopilot mode. Team Alpha entered, each shot targeted a scrambling fighter one after another. Two to the chest, one to the skull. Every bullet was placed to eradicate. They’d taken his woman. Hurt her. Scared her. He would avenge her.

  One fucking terrorist at a time.

  Chapter Eleven

  Katya

  Gunshots. She heard gunshots. Pitiful wails filled the room as her fellow captives huddled around her and pushed close to her legs. There was nowhere to run in there. No way to be free. And she couldn’t move. Still tied the chair, she couldn’t offer any sort of protection.

  “They’ve come to kill us all.”

  “Allah, be merciful!”

  The terrified cries made her heart skip. All the commotion was much different than any day before. The possibility that this may be the last day she breathed... She shook her head. Fear crippled the mind, froze the limbs, and stilled the tongue. She may be afraid, but she refused to be some damsel in distress.

  “Quiet,” she urged. “They wouldn’t be killing their own men like that. Another group coming in for ISIS would join them. Someone is attacking them. It could be an ally.”

  “They would kill us before you. You are important to them, we are not.” Zaid’s gaze bore into her in the low light. His face was grimy with old blood and sand. But she saw his fear. Knew it intimately.

  “Then free me, I will stand in front of you.”

  “You lie.”

  “In this small room we all could die, but I am willing to go first. What do you have to lose? It could give you a chance to fight.”

  Zaid glared at her for a few moments before his gaze softened. “You are fierce.”

  “I am terrified,” she answered.

  “But you will stand for us?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you are more brave than afraid. This is good. Help me, brothers.”

  Pain laced through her as the men pulled at the ropes tying her down to the chair. They were not gentle, either too afraid to try, or they realized that it would take too much time. She bit her lip until she tasted blood as the shots came closer. They didn’t have much time.

  “Hurry,” she cried.

  “We are.”

  She sucked in a breath as the rope at her waist fell loose in her lap. She whimpered as her wrists were freed, her arms, and her ankles at the end. As the blood rushed back into her limbs pins and needles punctured her skin, slicing through the numb areas. She groaned, pressing her palms against the arms of the chair to hoist herself up. She couldn’t get up much more than a few inches before she fell back down. Trying once more, she gnashed her teeth and struggled to stand.

  Her back was stiff and her legs weak, every breath a battle to take. Sand stuck to her lips and she inhaled the tiny grains. They rubbed her throat raw from the inside, but she still pushed to stand. Up. Get up. Once you’re on your feet, you will stay there. Rough hands braced her arms and back before they pushed her to her feet. The world spun on its axis, the colors on the wall morphed and twisted. She blinked hard.

  “Get back, and huddle along the wall, out of the light,” she said to them.

  “Are you ok—” one asked.

  “Do as I say! We don’t have time.”

  Unclean bodies, stiff from little movement, popped and scraped as the men did as she commanded. She stood alone in the faint light, listed to one side. The door seemed a mile away as she shuffled toward it. Whoever would come through that door, she hoped, would look to her first. If they were hostile, maybe the men behind her could find a means to escape. No more deserved to die for her. No more.

  The door creaked before it swung open and the hinge screamed. Had she ever noticed that before? The toll of death. From the darkness, three bodies coalesced, rifles pointed to the front. They were covered in black garb, boots, and a vest. Magazine cartridges, guns, and things she didn’t recognized protruded from pockets in the vests and on the side of their pants. Their faces were painted black.

  “I’m the one they were hiding here. Take me. I am a US citizen of a prominent military figure,” she said in Arabic.

  Take me. Ignore the men behind me. Let them live.

  “Butterfly has been sighted,” she heard. Clear voice. No accent. American. But they could still be ISIS. The rifleman to the front lowered his weapon before they stepped toward her. She trembled but stood tall.

  “Come on, Princess, jump from your tower.”

  Her knees gave out. But he caught her before she hit the ground. She sucked in her first clean breath, filled with the sea and the outside world. His shoulders turned into anchors as she curled her fingers against him. Real. Solid. She knew this body. His voice. The safety in his arms. An odd ache throbbed in her throat and she couldn’t speak. Just hold on as tears poured from her eyes.

  “I’m here, baby.”

  “The men behind me. Free them,” she said in English. The words sounded odd, foreign. When his arms wrapped around her, she wailed. Released her fear and pain in body quaking sobs that left her shaken, He helped her stand, holding her tight against him.

  “We know. They’re coming, too.”

  Warmth seeped into her from his palm against her cheek. She leaned into it and closed her eyes.

  “Stay with me. We’re not out of here yet. Glitz, do your thing.”

  “We’re taking you home. Face the wall and brace for impact,” the man who’d spoken first said in Arabic. The other captives didn’t move.

  Katya looked over her shoulder at them. “They don’t lie. You will be freed.”

  Zaid scooted forward and extended his hand. Katya felt Heim tense under her an
d she rubbed his shoulder with one hand before she reached out with the other. Their palms met, clammy and cracked, two broken people, one afraid and the other sure. Slowly his fingers curled around hers as his eyes darted back and forth between her face and Heim’s.

  “Your woman is brave. She stood in front of us to die. She may not tell you, but I will. We hid behind her, like children. Let our fear make us less than men. Where she goes, we will follow,” Zaid promised.

  “Thank you,” Heim said. “Let’s get you out of here. Follow behind Wolf, and stay close.”

  Wolf raised his hand and Zaid led the captives in a line behind him. Heim stood, holding Katya in his arms.

  “I can walk,” she told him.

  “Barely. But I think I’d like to hold you a little longer.”

  She didn’t argue. She wasn’t sure if she was ever going to let go of him.

  Chapter Twelve

  Heim

  “Blow it, Glitz.”

  Hunkered against the adjoining room inside the compound, they watched the explosion. The wall separating the back of the room where Katya and the others had been held cracked and crumbled after a loud boom. Dust and sand swirled in the air, gritty against Heim’s blackened face.

  “Fuck yeah. That was just a bit of the show, fellas. Wait until the finale,” Glitz yelled.

  “Only man I know in the world that gets his rocks off blowing things up,” Wolf said.

  “You haven’t seen anything yet, Wolf. Wait until he takes this place down. Confirm kills?” Heim asked.

  “All gunman down. Guards as well. One body missing, and nowhere in the fray,” Dude answered.

  “Who’s missing?” Heim asked. He raced through the open hole left behind from Glitz’s explosion.

  “Hakeem bin Mohammed Tahib, the speaker.”

  “Fuck. His ass should have been ground zero. Wolf, you catch anyone leaving while you were on scope?” Heim asked.

  “No. Would have told you. If he left, it had to be before we went on move.”