by TD Webb
“Bravo team in position,” JC said over the radio. The transmitter sat on her voice box, held in place by a strap around her neck, and the receiver was in her ear. All the team members had the same system. She was about a block and a half away from Reggie and could see her and Steve but not Jason. She hoped that Tom, or Linley could see the individuals of her team that she couldn’t.
“Charlie team in position,” Chris said.
Linley checked through her scope and spotted Turner, Sloan and Michaels but she couldn’t see Dunphy, she radioed Tom. “Bravo 3, this is Bravo 2, can you see Dunphy?”
“Bravo 2, yes. I can see both Jason and Steve, over.”
“Delta team in position, Bravo1. Can you see what’s in front of me?”
“Delta 1, I see about twelve soldiers in front of you, including the two at the door. Give me a few, I will see what I can see in the building and on the rooftops.”
JC removed her black ball cap and turned it backwards, as she lined up her scope to go over the building and immediate area. “Bravo 2, and 3, take out what you can, without alerting those in the courtyard, over.”
Both came back across the radio, “Affirmative, Alpha 1. Over and out.”
Linley spotted a man walking across the roof on a building about a block away. She took him out before he got too close to the edge. JC concentrated on the building. Three sides had cover from where the sharp shooters were positioned. Reggie spotted a man at the corner of one house over. She fired before he could register that she was even there. She had no problem hitting him between the eyes. No one knew what happened next, but there was an explosion to the right of Chris. He hit the dirt and all hell broke loose. JC fired at anyone close to the windows in the building. Linley fired at anything that moved with a weapon in their hands. On the left side of the building, Tom spotted a rope dangling out of the window, and as one man slid down the rope, he fired, hitting the first guy but missed the second.
“Delta 1, this is Bravo 3. A man fitting the description, 6’0 tall, black hair, clean cut and muscular build, just went around the back of the building, over.”
Reggie moved from her position, firing at what was in front of her. She took a shot to her chest and flew backwards, landing with a thud.
“Bravo 1, Delta 1 here. I need help. I’m down but okay. Give me cover fire.”
“Bravo 1, got you covered, over and out.”
Running across the building, JC kept firing as she neared Reggie. Reggie looked up as a body flew from one building to another. The roof they were on had just exploded. Reggie rolled over on to her knees and started firing again. She knew she was going to be sore.
Every team member, except for Tom and Linley, were taking fire. Both moved closer to the court yard and started firing faster. Linley looked to her right, a shadow caught her attention. She hollered, “Everyone down, grenade in the courtyard.” She couldn’t do anything about the grenade but she pulled one of her Sig Sauer’s and floored the guy. Tom laid down at the edge of the building. He removed both of his handguns and hung over the building, to see what was happening down below. Steve was but down moving, so she gave him cover fire. He pulled himself into a doorway for cover. Meanwhile, no one had seen or heard from Jason. When tom had radioed in about the guy escaping behind the building, he rounded the corner, firing on rapid fire. He saw two guys go down but a door opened behind him and he took a shotgun blast to the back. He went down with a thud and was out cold. Linley had heard the blast and went to the edge of the building. She saw a woman carrying a shotgun, advancing on Jason. She had no choice but to fire. She had a funny feeling that something was wrong, so she lined her rifle up and took out the shot gun. Jumping from the two story roof, she landed in front of the woman who was saying something in Arabic. Linley couldn’t understand her but when she bent down and tried to pull Jason towards her house, Linley understood. She shouldered her rifle and removed her hand gun and helped the woman pull Jason out of the open. Linley figured from the Intel they had received, she wasn’t the one who shot Jason and she was glad she didn’t shoot her. She held the woman’s face in her hands, making her keep eye contact. When the woman realized that Linley was a woman, she smiled and watched her carefully. Linley pointed to the door and knocked three times on the table, she then walked to the door, pointed to herself and made it look like she was knocking three times on the door and pointed to herself again. The woman understood. Linley turned, picking up Jason’s gun and left the building. Once outside, she let the team know she was on the ground and Jason was hit but was fine and was hidden well.
JC followed Reggie, as she moved across the courtyard. Whoever she missed, JC didn’t. When she approached to the door, she paused and looked up to the rooftops. She waited for one of Chris’s team members to join her before she entered the building.
Chris stepped around the corner. “Listen up, this is Delta 1, Charlie 1 and I will to be entering the building. Keep the radio clear and make sure no one else enters this building.
Ten miles away, Teena, Sean and Alex listened to the radio chatter. They knew there would be injuries, so Sean got up and checked the guns. She unhooked the blades as Teena climbed up and removed the sand covers.
Gunfire surrounded them. A bullet rebounded off the helicopter just below where Teena stood. She jumped down, as Sean fired in the direction where the shots had come from. Teena jumped into the pilot’s seat and started the engines. “Alpha 2, and 3, keep me covered.” As the blades rotated faster, she went to the back of the helicopter and hooked both straps to the two big guns. When she returned to her seat, she radioed to the other two. “Alpha 2, and 3, come to the helicopter. Keep your heads down and enter one from the right and one from the left. Your straps are all hooked up and ready now move out.”
Alex and Sean ran down the sides of the helicopter, firing behind them. The helicopter lifted as they both jumped in. They threw their rifles to the front and strapped themselves to the guns, as Teena lifted the helicopter higher. She spun the helicopter around and Sean fired the 50 Cal. into the rocks. She and Alex both continued to fire, as Teena headed away from their position and headed further away from Sin Jar. “Delta 1, this is Alpha 1, over.”
“Alpha 1, this is Delta 1, go ahead, over.”
Delta 1, we’ve taken fire, I’m in the air and moving away from Sin Jar.”
“Alpha 1, is your fuel level okay?”
“Yes, Delta 1. I have more than enough fuel for the return trip.”
“Alpha 1, I want you to do a slow circle around Sin Jar, at about 5 kilometers from the center of the city, over.”
“Roger, Delta 1, Alpha 1, out.”
Alex and Sean had both heard the transmission, so the both made sure they had spare ammunition close by. Teena opened her window and removed her Glock. She laid it in a small hole just below the window on her left. The only problem with that, was she was right handed and needed her right hand to fly. The closer they got to Sin Jar, the louder the gunfire. Teena spotted the courtyard that was on the map. She circled the city a lot closer than Reggie had intended. Sean and Alex sat on the floor beside their guns, drinking water, when they heard bullets hit the helicopter.
“Alpha 2, and 3, man the guns, Delta 1, we are under fire, take cover, we‘re coming in hot. I repeat, we are coming straight through the courtyard, all team members take cover from the big guns.”
Teena hoped the civilians took cover when they heard the guns going off louder than just a plain old rifle fire. Both Alex and Sean were sweeping the court yard, as Teena spotted two military Jeeps between the buildings. One had a rocket launcher pointed directly at her. JC watched from the roof, when she heard the distant sound of the rocket launcher and saw Teena swing the helicopter out of its path, accelerating faster, as she swung around and gave chase to the two Jeeps. Sean took out the first Jeep when it exploded. Teena raised high, to avoid debris from the Jeep. Alex fired at the second one, as it crashed into a building and Teena watched a guy get out and run down an
alley. She lifted the Glock with her left hand and stuck it out of her window and fired, as she hovered at the entrance of the alley.
When the Glock stopped firing, Sean talked to her. “Teena, pull your hand in, the gun’s empty and I truly think you got him.”
She swung the 50 Cal. around and fired three bullets into the outside of the first building, marking where the body was, so they could go back later. Teena lifted higher, until she cleared the buildings and circled around again.
For the next hour shots were heard then all went quite.
“Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, report to the courtyard. Alpha, you can land in the court yard.”
They all answered one after the other.
Teena landed the helicopter. As she exited the aircraft, she watched Linley help Jason, along with an Arabic woman on the other side. She waved to them to bring Jason to her. Reggie, JC, and Chris walked over to the helicopter, as Sean and Alex exited. Sean carried the medic bag. So far, Jason was the only one who had been injured. Rick, Mike, and Steve came in next. Steve held his arm and Rick limped. Mike was fine. No one had heard, or seen Tom, or Jim yet. Reggie tried to raise them on the radio but received no answer. Tom came in a minute later. He was fine. He had his rifle slung over his shoulder and it had knocked out his ear piece. Jim still hadn’t come in ten minutes later. They couldn’t reach him by radio as Reggie kept trying.
“Those that are injured go see Alex and Sean at the helicopter, the rest come with me, we need to find Jim,” Reggie ordered.
Teena and JC went one way and fanned out, the others paired up and moved out. All were still armed. JC and Teena went around the back of their target building. Teena tripped. When she regained her balance, she looked down to see what she had tripped over. “JC come here I found him.”
JC ran over to her and bent down. It looked like he had taken six shots to the front of his vest and one had grazed his arm. JC removed her canteen and poured water over his face—he came to. His ear piece had been knocked out of his ear when he went down. JC radioed that they had found him and that he was okay. They escorted him back to the helicopter.
Sean and Alex were patching up the injured, as the rest of the team, except for Mike and Linley, went to clear out the building. Reggie had seen all kinds of paperwork when she and Chris went through it. Bringing all the paperwork back, Teena loaded it into three bags and stored it on the helicopter. Now the hard part, they needed pictures of all the terrorists. There were twenty eight in total but not one was the man they were sent to get in the first place. Then Teena remembered the two Jeeps that the helicopter had taken out. She took Reggie to where the spot was located. The two guys from the first Jeep were a mess but Reggie took their picture anyway. When they got to the second Jeep, the driver was sitting there, dead with a bullet wound to his chest. Teena then led Reggie down the alley that Sean had marked with the 50 Cal. She stopped about half way down and pointed to the guy lying face down on the ground. He was full of bullet holes. When Reggie rolled him over, she smiled at Teena after she took the picture. They had taken out 3thirty-two terrorists, so it had turned out to be a good day and not one of her team was going home in a body bag.
“Teena, you got him. He was the leader of the cell we came here for. It was because of him you were kidnapped and the plane crashed. You’ve done a really good job, Teena. I’m proud of you and you should be proud of yourself.”
They walked back to the rest of the team in the courtyard.
“Reggie, did we get him?” Chris asked.
“Nope, Chris, we didn’t get him. Our civilian pilot got him. 12 out of 115 shots hit the target and from the looks of it, the helicopter crew got all four higher ups in the cell. Great job, guys.”
Alex felt good. He thought it was bullshit at first, when he was assigned to protect the helicopter and civilians, now he knows sometime the easiest jobs can turn out to be the most rewarding. He had changed his tune when they were first fired upon in the dessert. Teena took control and did everything by the book. This was one report he was going to enjoy writing.
After making sure the team were fine, Teena asked if they could see if any of the locals needed help. Reggie agreed and they went through the entire city, helping anyone who needed it. It was after dark when they finally finished up and everyone was dead tired, so Reggie made a command decision. The folks in the town were grateful for them getting rid of the terrorist cell, so they had food, blankets and firewood delivered to the helicopter. They were spending the night and would leave at sunrise. They built a fire and paired off in two-man teams. They each pulled guard duty for two hours.
At sunrise, Teena was already in the helicopter doing her pre-flight checks. She then removed the sand covers and freed the rotor blades. As the members of the team loaded the last of their gear, some of the folks left fresh fruit for breakfast. They stored some nice handmade quilts, that each member of the team where given. They loaded up, put on their ear protection, as Teena started the engines and then lifted off.
Six hours later, Teena requested permission to land in the secure area. “Tower, this is Voyageur One requesting permission to land, over.”
“Voyageur one, you are cleared to land in secured area, welcome back, over.”
“Tower, Voyageur One, over and out.” She landed the helicopter.
Once the blades stopped, Doug and Bill greeted the team. They shook their hands, then told them to head to the showers then their barracks. After Reggie turned over the camera and the papers they recovered, they would be debriefed in the morning at 1000 hours. As the team headed to their tent, Doug and Bill went into the command tent. Doug got on the radio and called one of his security team, who could read and write Arabic. Twenty minutes later, Trevor Mackinnon entered the tent and went straight to work on the papers that were recovered in the terrorist cell. Doug went to the computer and downloaded the photos and put them through facial recognition software.
At 2300 hours, Trevor had finished with the papers and smiled at the Colonel when he filled him in on the information that was recovered. The facial recognition had matched 30 out of 32 faces from the pictures. The two who couldn’t be identified were the two who were blown up in the Jeep. The Colonel took all the paperwork that Trevor had worked on and all the translations he had done and put them in new secure boxes. Then the three of them took the boxes to the plane and locked them in the safe in the cargo hold. Doug placed a guard on the inside of the hold and three outside of the plane, with the orders that no one was to enter the plane who wasn’t a member of the team. Both the Colonel and the Major expected trouble from the Americans, either the CIA or the DEA.
At 0312 hours, Reggie and JC were woken up by the sound of gunfire inside the secured area. Linley, Sean and Teena and Reggie armed themselves. Reggie, Teena and Sean crawled to the flap at the front of the tent. Linley and JC had retrieved their sniper rifles from under their cots attached their night scopes, plus threw three radio sets to Reggie. She gave Sean and Teena one and once they were in place, did a radio check. Linley and JC went out to the back flap by the toilets and crawled through the sand, which was rough on their bare arms and legs. They shouldered their weapons and looked through their scopes towards the command center and the men’s tent.
“Reggie, the men are pinned down. Whoever it is, is dressed all in black. I can see three men down at the plane, so far I count six intruders,” JC said over the radio.
“Got it, JC, did you by chance fix your silencer to your rifle?”
“Wait, JC, I saw five intruders on this side. It looks like they think we’re all in the same tent and I got my silencer on,” Linley said.
“Reggie, I have mine on too,” JC said.
“Ladies, the field is yours. Take them down, we’ll help if we can.”
Linley and JC stayed where they were—one on each side of their tent. Reggie, Teena and Sean belly crawled all the way out, as JC took the first guy down. Linley took another by the men’s tent. As she watched Sean and Teena go t
o the back of the men’s tent she heard gunfire and a woman screamed but she kept her eyes on the targets. More gunfire broke from behind the men’s tent. Ten minutes later it was silent. The radio cracked in their ears.
“All clear, JC, you and Linley check out the plane. I sent one of Doug’s security guys to give the all clear and get a couple of ambulances over here. JC and Linley crawled to the plane. Still in the sand, as they got closer, they could see movement inside through the door. JC stood up, rifle to the shoulder in the ready to fire position.
“Linley, cover me. If a head comes out that door without identifying themselves, take it off.”
“You got it, JC,” Linley said, as they heard snickering over the radio.
“Whoever is in the plane, throw your weapons out of the door, then come out with your hands above your head,” JC holler towards the plane.
“Who am I talking to?” a voice was heard from inside the plane.
“Sergeant Mackenzie from Special Operations Unit with the Canadian Armed Forces, at your service. Now come on out.”
“JC, is that you? It’s me, David Smith. I’m with Major Mackenzie’s security force.”
“Get your ass out here, Dave. I promise I won’t shoot you.”
Dave stepped out of the plane and down the steps. He pulled JC into a hug. “It’s so good to see you again, it’s been a while.”
“Yeah, I know, Dave. I’ve been really busy lately. I would like you to meet Master Warrant Officer Linley Stone.”
They said hi to one another, as they walked over to the men’s tent.
Teena spoke over the radio. “Linley, you and JC get over here now, Sean got hit and the Major and Colonel are down.”
Both women took off at a run to the back of the tent. Medic’s were there working on the Colonel and the Major. Sean wouldn’t let them touch her, till the two men were taken care of.
Reggie stood up after she got JC to calm down. “Now hear this. I want this area secured. I also want everyone who is not injured, in the command tent now, except for Sergeant Mackenzie, Master Warrant Officer Stone and Master Corporal Jefferies. You three will stay with the patients and you will be armed if someone enters the hospital asking for any of them. You will detain them and radio me. Teena, give your radio to Tom please.”
