by Matthew Dunn
Will nodded. “And no doubt Patrick gave you a secret instruction to stop me from killing him if we capture him?”
Roger shrugged. “He did. But I’m not going to.”
Will said nothing.
“If you let Megiddo live,” Roger said, “you’ll have to spend the rest of your life knowing that you could have avenged your father but chose not to. If you kill him, you may have to spend the rest of your life knowing that your vengeance allowed thousands of people in this country to die. I don’t have to live with the consequences of either decision, but you do.” He looked at Will. “What you do now must be your decision and your decision alone, and I’m not going to get in the way of that.”
Will nodded slowly. “There is a third option. I’ll get his secret and then I’ll kill him.”
Jogging, Laith emerged from the trees but then slowed to a walk. He approached Will and Roger.
“I counted eight of them around the place,” he spoke quickly. “There are almost certainly more of them inside.”
“What guns are they carrying?” Roger asked.
“Three of them have shotguns, and the rest are holding automatic machine guns. Plus they’re all carrying sidearms.”
“What about Lana?” Roger beckoned to Julian and Ben, and the two men walked over to join them.
Laith shook his head. “No sign of her since they took her in there.”
Will and Roger looked at each other. Will looked back at Laith and said, “Tell us about the place.”
Laith crouched down in front of the four men and pulled out a knife. “Lower Saranac Lake looks like this.” He began carving lines in the snow. “It’s got about twenty tiny islands, and most of them are in the middle here. The lodge is on the east side of the lake, on the lake’s edge.”
“Are there other lodges, properties, or sites near the place?” Roger was carefully studying Laith’s growing makeshift map.
“None.” The ex-Delta operative didn’t look up as he continued his task. “Unlike the other Saranac Lakes, this one’s state-owned, and there’s restricted property development around it. Our boys have obviously chosen it because they know they won’t be disturbed there.”
“What’s the layout of the building?” Julian wanted to know.
“It’s rectangular in shape, it’s got a boathouse to the north here, and a pier goes straight out from the porch onto the water here. The lodge is on two floors and by my calculations has twelve rooms in total. Entrances to the building are here, here, here, and here. There’s one road into and out of the place.” Remaining in his crouch, Laith took a couple of steps back. “The area to the south is clear of trees for twenty-five meters, but we’re fortunate because there’s not much open ground around the north and northeast of the building.”
Ben asked, “Where are the men?”
“They’re rotating around the building, but at all times there are men to the north, east, and south.” Laith jabbed his knife into the snow to show the positions. “And they always have two men on the pier to protect the lodge from the lakeside.”
Will looked at Roger. “What do you think?”
Roger stared at the map and said nothing for a moment. He then nodded and said, “I don’t think it’s worth waiting for nightfall, because I doubt they’ll cut back their numbers then. In any case, time is not on our side. I think we go for it now.”
“I agree.” Will looked at the other men, and they all nodded. He looked back at Roger. “You’re in charge of the assault. Where do you want us?”
Roger drew a deep breath and said, “Ben and I will approach the building from the northeast. We’ll take out the men there, and I’ll then enter the building through the north door and Ben will take this entrance on the east. Will and Julian are going to approach the building from the south. You’ll have to get wet to avoid the open ground. Julian can get into the building through the south door. Will, you keep going until you get to the pier.” Roger looked up. “Laith, you’ll be our sniper. I need you on this island, but to get to it you’re going to need to swim six hundred meters with the fifty-caliber rifle on your back. And judging by the weather, you may have to break through ice along the way.” He smiled with a look of mischief. “That’s a job for a SEAL, not a Delta man, but I need to be in the lodge to issue commands. Do you think you can make the swim?”
Laith returned his smile. “Do you think you’ll be able to shoot straight on dry land?”
“I’m sure we’ll both do just fine.” Roger looked down at the map again, and his face grew serious. “The first kills will have to be synchronized, and Laith will instruct us when that’s to happen. Once we’re in the house, we go through it room by room.” He swept a hand over the snow. “And none of the targets must be allowed to escape the property.” Roger stood up. “When it’s over, we’ll bring our vehicles to the lodge for extraction of any prisoners.”
Ben asked, “Where are we driving to afterward?”
Roger shrugged. “Patrick’s working on that right now.” He looked at each man. “Any other questions?”
They all shook their heads.
It was now midafternoon, and the air was clean and still. Will nodded at the men. “There’s nothing left to be said. Let’s go.”
They all walked back to Ben’s vehicle and began arming themselves. Will donned communications equipment, gathered up a knife and pistol, which he secreted in his jacket pockets, and strapped a Colt M4A1 assault rifle to his chest. He saw Roger, Ben, and Julian choose their own weapons and watched as Laith checked the workings of the powerful sniper rifle. Will placed his cell phone into a waterproof pouch and tucked the parcel into an inner jacket pocket. The vehicles were locked, their keys were hidden under front tires, and they all walked out of the picnic area into the forest that stretched before them.
They were approaching their destination from the south, and though he could not yet see it, Will knew that the lake would be to his left. They walked slowly and in single file with five meters of space between men. Laith led the way, and occasionally he would signal silently for them to stop while he crouched and examined the route ahead of him through his rifle’s telescopic sight. They continued like this for thirty minutes before Laith stopped again, turned to face them all, pointed at his own chest and then at another direction. He left them, and Will knew that the man was heading to the lake to brave the freezing swim across to his sniper position on the island. They stayed still for nearly forty minutes before they heard Laith’s voice in their earpieces.
“I’m in position.”
They moved with Julian now leading the way. The area around them was quite flat but dense with trees. They walked carefully and silently. Within ten minutes Julian stopped and pointed at Ben. Julian walked in a crouch position back toward Will and stayed beside him. The two men watched Ben and Roger move onward and out of their sight. They waited for fifteen minutes before Will heard Roger speak.
“We’re in position.”
Will looked at Julian. The man nodded at him and moved off toward their left. Will followed, staying low. Within minutes they were at the lake’s edge.
Julian moved up close to Will and cupped a hand around Will’s ear. He whispered, “The house should be two hundred meters along the shore.”
They followed the shoreline for approximately eighty meters, and then Julian stopped, turned a little, and walked slowly into the water until he was standing waist-deep in the lake. He unstrapped his Colt assault rifle and lowered himself so that only his head was visible. Will moved into the water as well and immediately felt how cold it was. He focused his mind, controlled his breathing, and followed Julian.
He saw the lodge. He saw one man standing by the southeast corner of the building and two men standing on the pier over the lake. He watched Julian’s head submerge and knew that the man was now going to swim underwater to his position. Will looked ahead and estimated that he would need to swim a hundred meters underwater to get beneath the pier without being seen. He inha
led several times, relaxed his body, and sank down. He swam out to deeper water before turning back to face the direction of the pier. Swimming onward, he ignored the cold and the ever-increasing pain from lack of oxygen. He counted his strokes in order to gauge the distance traveled, and within three minutes he knew that he must be close to the pier. He gradually moved up in the water and saw the dark shape of the jetty before him. He swam until he was underneath it and then slowly allowed himself to rise until his head was out of the water. He sucked in air silently and moved toward one side of the pier, turning to look away from the lodge and out to the lake. Ahead of him and more than half a kilometer away was the largest of the many lake islands. Laith was on that island, and Will waited to hear him speak.
“I see you, Will.” Laith’s voice was very quiet. “Move back and along that side of the pier until I tell you to stop.”
Will moved several meters back.
“Stop.”
He stopped.
Julian spoke. “I’m in position.”
And Roger spoke. “Everything is set. Laith, you control the green light.”
Will waited for nearly thirty seconds before he heard Laith speak again.
“Okay, there’s movement behind some of the windows on my side of the lodge, so we’re going to have to time this right. Will, you’re two meters below one of the men on the pier. I’ll take the other man, but everyone wait for my command.”
Will pulled out his combat knife and carefully placed his free hand on one of the pier struts and one of his feet on a lower strut. He stayed in that position for nearly two minutes. A light snowfall began to descend over him.
“On my command. .” Laith paused. “Go!”
Will pulled and thrust upward until he was fully out of the water and jumping vertically through the air. Within a split second, he saw a man standing with his back to him and had grabbed that man’s head, placed his knife against his throat, and cut deep into him as they both fell toward the lake. Before hitting the water and submerging, Will heard the crack of Laith’s rifle, and he knew that the other guard on the pier was dead. Will held his captive firmly in his grip and ignored the man’s thrashing legs as they both sank down toward the lake bed and as Will continued to saw through his throat.
Will let the dead man drift away from him and hauled himself back onto the pier. He sprinted toward the lodge, unstrapping his assault rifle. He spotted a man emerging from the lake-facing lodge door and saw that he was carrying a shotgun. One of Laith’s fifty-caliber bullets removed the man’s head from his body. Gunfire could now be heard in every direction, and as he reached the house, he heard Roger speak in a loud but controlled tone.
“We’re in.”
Will paused to one side of the door, glanced in, and entered the lodge. The noise within the place was deafening, and his ears instantly began to ring. He saw a woman run into the corridor he was in, turn, and then point a handgun at him. Will shot her across her chest and face. A man looked out of a room on the right-hand side of the corridor and, after seeing Will, just as quickly disappeared back into the room. He pointed a gun from inside the room and fired it blindly toward Will’s position. Will saw the man’s body fall into the corridor. Julian emerged from the room, glanced at Will, and kept walking.
Will moved along the corridor, ignoring the sounds of rapid machine-gun fire from the rooms around him. He saw stairs and climbed them slowly. A man appeared at the top of the stairwell and threw something before jumping backward. Will sprinted up the stairs shouting, “Grenade!”
As he reached the grenade thrower, he kicked the man in the stomach and pumped a burst of bullets into him, sending him falling backward. Will glanced over his shoulder, saw Julian at the bottom of the stairs, saw him quickly look first at Will and then at the grenade, and then saw him hurl his body over the explosive. His body blew apart into tiny pieces of flesh. Will knew that the man had sacrificed himself to protect him. He raised his M4A1 high and walked forward, scanning doorways to his left and right. He heard gunfire from one of the rooms and saw a man emerge from it in a crouch. Will swung his weapon toward the man but then realized that the man was Ben. He took a deep breath and moved on.
Laith spoke. “I can see two men in top-floor room three east.”
Will and Ben moved together until they reached the door to that room. They stood on either side of the door, and then Ben turned, kicked it in, and stepped inside. Will followed him, heard the sound of Ben’s gun, and then saw a man to his right. Will shot the man, spun around, and walked out of the room.
Ben came alongside him and pointed at the last room along the corridor. “Every room up here’s been checked apart from that one.”
Will heard Laith’s sniper rifle crack before the CIA man said, “No more hostiles in my vision.”
He heard Roger shout over thunderous noise, “There are plenty of damned hostiles where I am!”
He looked at Ben.
Ben nodded, smiled, and kicked in the final door.
It happened in a fraction of a second. The door swung two or three inches before Will saw the wire. Before he shouted, “Trap!” Before he and Ben were lifted off their feet by the force of the explosion. Before Will landed on his back several meters away from the entrance. Before pieces of Ben’s destroyed torso fell around and over him. Before his vision and hearing ceased working.
Will lay breathing heavily. He pressed his fingers into the wooden floor around him. He tried to feel things. He tried to move his legs. He tried to think. But he had no sense of time, no sense of location, and little sense of self.
He lay there and tried to muster any thoughts. Only one came to him: If you keep lying here, you will fail and die.
He shook his head and pressed his fingertips even harder into the floor. He focused on his hands and his arms. He focused only on the need for them to push him up from the floor.
A distant sound came to his ears. At first it seemed like gentle whistling, but the noise grew louder until it became the roar of the continuing battle in the house. He shook his head again, yelled out, and thrust with his hands and arms. He sat upright. Thought, sight, and hearing all came back to him with an immediacy that made him reel. He looked around and saw pieces of flesh everywhere.
He looked at the blown-apart doorway. He hauled himself to his feet, felt that he was going to collapse, but staggered forward a few paces until he seemed steady. He picked up his assault rifle, checked to see that it was undamaged, and walked close to the room. He crouched by the side of the door, gripping his gun. He decided that if there was anyone in the room, he would kill that person without any consideration for the consequences.
He moved quickly into the room with his weapon held high. The place had chairs, a bed, a television, and an open window. But no person, living or dead.
Laith’s strained voice broke into his thoughts. “Eleven-no, twelve hostiles coming to the house through the woods from the north.” There was silence for a few seconds before he added, “I can take some of them.”
The distinct sound of Laith’s Barrett M82A1 fifty-caliber weapon could be heard all around the place.
Roger shouted, “Ground floor clear! It’s a fucking mess!”
Laith said in a more controlled and quiet voice, “One down. Two down. Now three down.” He shouted, “I see snipers! Two of them!”
Roger entered the room. He was covered in sweat and black soot. He walked quickly up to Will and grabbed him by the arm. “What happened?”
Will sucked in air. “Ben and Julian are dead. Both of them stood in the way of explosive blasts that were meant for me.” He looked at the open window and then at Roger. “Megiddo must have escaped through there.”
Roger nodded quickly and spoke into his communication microphone. “Laith, just two of us left in here. We’re going after our man, but you need to take out those snipers.”
Two high-velocity rifle shots could be heard almost simultaneously. They did not sound like Laith’s weapon.
Roger turned sharply in their direction. He shouted, “Laith? Laith?” He kicked at a nearby chair, sending it crashing to the other side of the room.
“They must have killed him. It’s just us now, Roger.” Will looked at the window again. “I’m going after Megiddo. But there must be at least nine hostiles still coming our way. Do you think you can keep some of them off my back?”
Roger nodded and ran out of the room.
Will sprinted and jumped through the open window. He fell eight meters before hitting the ground and rolling over snow. He crouched, looking left and right through his rifle’s sight.
He heard Roger’s voice. “I’m out of the house and one hundred meters to the north. I count seven men coming toward me, but I can’t see the two snipers.”
“Can you see anything else? Lana? Vehicles? Movement on the lake?”
“There’s nothing else.”
Shit. Will looked away from Roger’s hidden position to the north of the lodge and turned to face the south. He looked out at the lake to his right and at the island where Laith now lay silent. He looked ahead again. Everywhere before him was forest, and its trees were laden with snow. Six kilometers in the distance, one of the Adirondack mountains looked down at him and everything around him.
“There’s no way to be sure,” he said to Roger, “but I’ve got to assume he’s heading south, away from the firefight.”
“Maybe he was never here.”
Will thought about the room’s booby trap. He pictured Ben’s body being torn apart by its violent force. “No. That room was important. He was here.”
“Then look for high ground. That’s where he’ll go. He’ll wait there until his men have killed us all.”
Will narrowed his eyes and focused on the mountain in the distance. He heard Roger’s MP5-N submachine gun suddenly emit short, controlled bursts. He knew that Roger was now occupied and that he was on his own. He tightened his grip on his assault rifle and ran.
He dodged between and around trees, the entire time alternating his gaze between what lay ahead and to his sides and on the ground, desperately scanning for footprints in the snow or freshly broken foliage-any signs of Megiddo’s route. He sprinted until the lake was no longer by his side. He sprinted until he was at least one kilometer from the lodge.
