Within the Dead Space

by Hutchens, Gary

  “I’ve got it. We can go this afternoon. My orders are cut and we will have forty eight hours to complete our mission. Everything has lined up perfectly and no one will be the wiser when we return. How about you, Lopez? Did you get the surveillance info and how accurate is it?”

  “I was with the general yesterday when he was briefed on Eduardo’s status. They feel sure of the accuracy of the info but the upper brass refuses to give the order to go get him. They feel the causalities for an operation into Pakistan would be very high in both men and equipment. Plus,” Lopez explained, “Eduardo’s location is deep in a cave and they figure it would be impossible to save him. At noon today there is an update on the surveillance data. Once we have that everything is ready. So guys, we’ll plan to leave at one. Franco, I’ll have the Black Hawk standing ready at noon on the east side of the base. That’s the nearest point to our barracks. I’ll signal when you can sneak Chaco on board. I’ll go over to the maintenance shop nearby and keep them distracted.”

  Franco nodded.

  “Everybody else have your weapons and supplies ready to go at twelve thirty. Franco and I will pick you up at the barracks.”

  Everything went as planned. Chaco got on board. The surveillance info came in on time and the rest of the guys were at their designated pickup point. They loaded the helicopter and received permission to take off.

  They followed their flight plan for two hundred miles and as soon as they got into rougher terrain diverted along the canyon floor toward Pakistan. They had located an area in the Hindu Kush near the border where they planned to stay for the night. Their surveillance maps showed no hostile activity in the area and the U.S. satellites shouldn’t pick them up. They stayed as low as they dared above the valley floor and reached their destination an hour before dark. They camouflaged the Black Hawk and settled in for the night. They went over their plans twice and then tried to sleep.

  There were only a million things that could go wrong. Even though Jerry was a great pilot, it was going to be one precarious ride flying in the dark narrow canyon with winds swirling every which way as they pushed on to their destination.

  They planned to leave at midnight.

  Chapter 51

  “Wake up, it’s time to go.”

  Chaco was up in an instant. He felt his heart racing. The lives of four men and Eduardo depended on his ability to find some dead space near where Eduardo was being held.

  Jerry started the helicopter and began a check of its many systems. A few minutes later they climbed on board and lifted off. There was a cloud cover with partial light from the moon. They would have to rely on Jerry’s experience. It was a hundred miles to their destination, so they prepared their weapons and equipment rapidly. While Jerry flew the helicopter, Franco explained to Chaco why he had to stay behind them at all times and to stay close. They were going to land five miles from their destination and go overland to their target. Vanderman would stay with the helicopter and protect their retreat. He was also the backup helicopter pilot.

  The helicopter rocketed through the valley continuously climbing higher into the mountains. Lopez had located a defensible landing area from the satellite images and they would be there soon.

  “Hold on guys, I’m taking her in. I don’t see an opening but we should spot it shortly.”

  The helicopter had slowed to almost a stop when they sighted a flat piece of land that was concealed behind a craggy funnel shaped rock protruding from the rock wall. The blades of the helicopter would be swirling just a few feet from the rock wall when they landed. Jerry flicked on the helicopter lights and the landing space glowed in the dark. Inch by inch the helicopter eased onto the landing ledge. A gust of wind and the helicopter could be thrown into the wall.

  A hushed sigh of relief went up from the men when they touched down and Jerry shut the helicopter off. They waited for the blades to come to a stop before getting off just as they had planned. There wasn’t enough room for the men to be moving about with those blades spinning.

  It was Chaco’s turn now. He had to free climb with a rope on his back up the rock face. He had just three hours to climb six hundred feet on a treacherous cliff to the mountain trail that was above them in the partial moonlight. Getting started was the hardest part. Jerry shined a beam of light up the face of the cliff while moving it slowly for Chaco to get an idea of what was up above. The decision was Chaco’s as to where he would climb.

  A few minutes later he started climbing. The rope was fifty feet long and he had to find a space on the cliff that he could lower the rope from, and the four of them could stand, while he went up the next fifty feet. In the dark it turned into a nightmare trying to find a ledge that was suitable. It took over thirty minutes for Chaco to climb the first fifty feet and then lower the rope to the men below. They quickly climbed up and precariously found a sliver of a ledge waiting for them.

  Chaco was off in an instant and the second fifty went much quicker. The three hours were up and they still had a hundred more feet. Everybody was becoming antsy as they squeezed onto a small ledge. Chaco sprinted up the next fifty and the fifty after that like he was walking down a street. He didn’t tell Franco that he almost fell many times.

  While climbing the last fifty he heard the sound of talking above. It was two men off to his right. They appeared to be resting and he could smell the drifting smoke from their cigarettes. Franco had told Chaco multiple times that anyone he would meet in this part of the mountains would either be Taliban or Al Queda. ‘Don’t fool around with these guys. Kill them and move on,’ were his exact words.

  Chaco crept up the face of the cliff like a mountain goat making little noise. The wind blowing up the canyon wall and whistling its eerie songs prevented the two men above from hearing him. Chaco reached his hand above his head for the umpteenth time and felt a protruding ledge that was large enough for a trail. He remembered back to the mountains of Peru and the multiple trails he had followed where death was just one mistake away. He climbed onto the trail and sat for a brief moment to regain his strength. He could see down the trail about thirty feet. The men were around the bend and he could hear them talking. He crept as close as he dared, then listened.

  I’m right, there‘s only two. Then an idea flashed into his mind from when he was a kid. There were squirrels that used to frequent their trails near Machu Pichu and he remembered the noise they used to make. I hope they have squirrels here.

  Chk, chk, chk, chk chk, Chaco garbled from his mouth.

  “Listen.” said one of the men.

  Chaco repeated the sound, Chk, chk, chk, chk chk chk.

  “I’ve never heard that sound before.” said one of the men. “It must be some sort of squirrel. I’ll check it out. I could sure use something to eat.”

  Chaco backed off from the approaching man. In the filtered moonlight he could see that the man was carrying a rifle. Chaco climbed over the edge and waited.

  The man was very quiet as he inched along the trail. Before long he was directly above Chaco. From his crouched position, Chaco straightened his legs and reached for the man’s ankle in the same move. He grabbed his ankle and with all of his strength pulled the man’s foot out from under him. In one quick move Chaco was on the trail and on top of his enemy. In an instant Chaco’s hand was over the man’s mouth and he quickly killed him. Not a peep had been heard. Chaco quickly dragged the man further down the trail.

  He went back to his hiding place below the trail and waited. It wasn’t long before the second man came around the bend looking for his friend. Chaco was ready.

  Down below the others were perched on the cliff waiting. It had been quite a while since they had any sign from Chaco and Franco was becoming concerned.

  The second man walked right on by Chaco and with the swirling and high pitched winds didn’t hear Chaco climb back onto the trail behind him. Whether it was second nature or something else the man swirled around out of instinct and saw Chaco standing there. He was easily a hundred pou
nds heavier.

  The man spouted some guttural growling language at Chaco and came at him. Chaco backed up. He faintly remembered a similar situation in his past and with lightning speed picked a large rock off the wall and threw it at point blank range at the man knocking him off balance. Uhhhhhhh, was the last sound he made before tumbling from the trail. He flew by Franco and the rest of the men below scaring them to death.

  Jerry whispered to Franco, “Was that Chaco?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll give him two minutes and then we’ll have to start climbing.”

  Vanderman who had stayed with the helicopter grabbed his rifle when a body slammed the edge of the cliff off to his right before continuing its downward fall. He had to assume that one of his friends had fallen. They had discussed this probable event and decided that under no circumstances was he to leave the helicopter.

  Thirty seconds later Franco felt the rope touching his arm. He breathed a sigh of relief as he began to climb. When he felt he was a few feet from the top he pulled his knife out and had it ready in case Chaco was dead and this was a trick.

  “Chaco, is that you?” he whispered.

  “It sure ain’t your aunt Martha,” said Chaco quietly. He had seen that on TV a few nights earlier.

  Franco couldn’t help smiling as Chaco helped him onto the trail. They dropped the rope for the last of the men and had them all on the trail in no time. They were now about an hour behind schedule and would have to hurry. The cover of night would be gone soon.

  “Hey, what’s this down here?”

  “Uh, there were two of them. I didn’t know what else to do,” Chaco replied.

  “You did right,” said Franco. “Lopez, push him off the cliff and by the time he’s found, hopefully we’ll be long gone.”

  The men hurried off with Chaco following. Franco was in the lead. They had about two miles on this narrow ledge before the trail broke out into a tapered valley.

  Chapter 52

  The men stepped up their pace along the difficult trail. The immediacy of daylight stared at them from the far horizon with the first glimmer of light. They hurried onward becoming more vigilant with every step. Coming around a sheer turn in the trail they were startled by a stunning valley just ahead. The first rays of light afforded a surreal effect on the valley and provided the men with a moment’s respite from their difficult task.

  The moment was lost in a second when Franco spotted a sentry sitting above the trail about a hundred yards out. He appeared to be dozing and hadn’t spotted them.

  “We were lucky,” whispered Franco. “If we had been any earlier we would have walked right under him in the dark and probably into a trap.”

  Lopez twisted his silencer onto his rifle and took a kneeling position with the rifle stabilized against the rock wall.

  Thmmmp was all they heard as the sentry rolled onto his side.

  Lopez was off in a second. The others followed slowly behind waiting for him to signal. Lopez found the dead sentry and waved to the others. They hurried to catch up with him.

  With the dawn getting brighter every second they had to find an entrance to the caves as quickly as possible. They had memorized this area from the satellite info that Lopez had provided and with the morning light their minds assimilated the photos to real life visuals.

  They had their binoculars out surveying the valley walls when Sam found the main entrance to the caves. There were several men sitting near the opening talking. Sam continued to search for additional cave entrances and found another about a hundred yards from the first. It appeared that they could access it without being seen. There was an area of about thirty yards they would have to cross that would put them in direct view of the men at the cave. They stopped when they reached that point and waited. A diversion of some sort was necessary. As they discussed what to do, the men at the cave entrance all got up and went into the cave.

  Without a second thought Franco and his group made a run across the open area. When fate gives an advantage Franco had learned don’t question it, just act. The decision was right. The men at the entrance to the cave were only gone five minutes before they returned, but it was long enough.

  “They’re all eating,” said Sam.

  It was a steep trail to the cave above. It was only a few hundred yards, but they were all breathing hard when they got to the entrance. They were gambling that this cave connected with the target cave. All of the info that they had available implied that most of these caves intertwined with each other. The Afghans had used these caves for a thousand years to outwit their attackers.

  Franco had brought the most sophisticated portable sound detection equipment available and they planned to find their way throughout the caves by following the sounds coming from the enemy talking. The equipment could pick up sound waves through solid rock. If they could find the sound, they could weave through the caves to find where Eduardo might be. Franco and his four ranger buddies were experts in close combat situations and had multiple real life experiences from their last tour in Afghanistan. They approached the cave entrance with trepidation. All hell could break loose in a second if additional guards were posted at this entrance as well. They froze in their position and watched the cave entrance for fifteen minutes before cautiously moving forward. The entrance was unguarded.

  “They must feel pretty confident that no one can sneak up on them from these caves up here,” whispered Franco.

  They stashed their unnecessary equipment inside the cave. As Sam prepared the sound equipment, the others clipped on their night vision goggles.

  “It’s all ready to go,” whispered Sam.

  “It is up to you now Chaco to find us some dead space,” Franco whispered. “Maybe we won’t need it but it would sure be nice to have somewhere to hide where they couldn’t find us.”

  Chapter 53

  Sam immediately located the direction to go. The five of them followed Franco in single file. Chaco came fourth with Jerry coming up the rear. The lighting was limited so they adjusted their night vision goggles and followed the largest cave available. Soon they had diverted north into a smaller tunnel following Sam’s instructions. Very quickly they were bent over and it looked as if they would be crawling soon.

  “Stay here,” directed Franco, “I’ll go in another hundred feet and see if we can get through.”

  Chaco didn’t want anything to do with it. He was relieved that they wouldn’t have to go any further for now.

  Fifteen minutes later Franco returned. “We can’t get through. It winds down to nothing. I’ve been thinking, let’s split up and search multiple caves.”

  “We may have to break through one of the cave walls to get into another chamber,” said Sam. “I can hear sounds coming from voices,” pointing to the north, “and they don’t seem too far away.

  Franco hastily returned to the cave opening and determined the position of their target. He hurried back to the men and said, “We need to go north and down.”

  The men separated again to search for a cave angling downward. A few minutes later Jerry found what they were looking for. The men hurried to his location and examined the area carefully. The cave wall had collapsed sometime in the past, but Sam was able to confirm that he could hear voices down below.

  “There isn’t enough time to dig it out,” Franco stated. “We either blow it away or we have to change our approach and go to the other entrance and fight our way in.”

  A heated discussion followed.

  “I know this area has experienced many earthquakes over the years. Fact is the collapse in the cave wall was probably caused by an earthquake. A well placed piece of restricted dynamite might give us a small tunnel to get through and not draw too much attention. I’m sure they will investigate,” Jerry said.

  Franco thought about it for a minute. He knew that Lopez was their munitions specialist and he had relied on him many times. “Lopez, is there any way that you can deaden the explosion?”

  “If we bury the dy
namite deep enough they will hardly hear anything. The ground around them will shake and hopefully they will think it’s an earthquake.”

  “Do it then,” said Franco.

  They all shook their heads in agreement.

  It took over an hour to dig a deep enough hole for the dynamite. The exact amount to use was the key. They buried it, checked their weapons and waited for Lopez to detonate it.

  A gigantic thuudddd was all they heard followed by an ensuing shake of the ground and then it was over. When the dust cleared they could see a flicker of light coming from the other side and an opening large enough for them to crawl through into the main cave.

  “Quick, cover the opening with that dark piece of plastic so they won’t see us.”

  Lopez could hear talking directly below them. They all froze and waited. A few minutes later the voices faded.

  It looked like their plan had worked. What they didn’t know was that over a hundred additional enemy soldiers would be arriving that evening. Their delays were drastically complicating the mission.

  They had to find Eduardo soon.

  Chapter 54

  They waited twenty minutes before Franco carefully lifted the piece of plastic and looked down below. It was dark. A flicker of light could be seen originating from quite a distance away. Franco looked through his night vision goggles to see exactly what Lopez’s controlled explosion had created. He didn’t like what he was seeing.

  He turned toward the rest of the guys and said, “We can get through this way but it means crawling down a small shaft that feeds into the larger cave below. The real problem is getting from the top of the cave to the floor below. It has to be a thirty foot drop. Chaco, get the rope.”