“Take out the trash?” she repeated. “I don’t understand your lingo.”
He smiled, “We have to get take care of the boys out there.”
Honor formed her fingers in the shape of an imaginary gun and pointed it at her head, “As in ‘take care of them?’”
Trevor’s smile widened, “That is a possibility.”
“Oh dear,” she said, embracing him. “Please be careful.”
“I will.”
Their lips met in a passionate kiss. Trevor could taste a tear, as it rolled downed Honor’s cheek.
“Now that I’ve found you, I don’t want to lose you,” she said.
“You won’t. I promise. We do need to move, though.”
*****
Five minutes later Wolf and Trevor slipped out of the cellar door to the side of the building, rather than out the back where they most certainly would have been seen. They padlocked the door behind them and slipped into the woods. Wolf had speculated only two to three men were stationed in the back in the event that they tried to escape that way. Trevor and Wolf also hoped that with no cell service and the lack of preparation time, the men in back would be out of communication with Alfassi and his men who were dug in on the front side of the building. If they circled around the men in the rear, they could catch them by surprise.
Within five minutes, Trevor and Wolf were positioned thirty feet behind three men who were carefully watching the back door of the lodge.
“We need to take these men without a shot,” Wolf whispered.
“Agreed,” Trevor replied, also whispering. “A shot would alert Alfassi and his men in the front. They would shift position quickly.”
“Let’s be quick,” Wolf said.
Trevor nodded and was the first to move. The two SEALS slowly made their way toward the three men, their movements as quiet as a church mouse. Wolf struck first, slamming the head of the closest man into the rock he was hiding behind.
Trevor put his left hand over the mouth of a second man muffling a cry. He used his right hand to grab the man’s hair in the back and skillfully twisted his head, snapping his neck. He died instantly. Trevor pulled a knife from a sleeve on his right pants leg.
The third man spun to face Wolf but Trevor had already hurled his knife. It found its mark. The man grabbed his chest where the knife had entered cleanly. He stood and staggered momentarily before falling backward.
“Good job,” Wolf whispered. “That’s phase one.”
“You were right, Wolf,” Trevor said. “These guys had simple hand guns; no body armor; no walkie-talkies; no special equipment of any kind. They didn’t think they’d be in a fight tonight.”
“If this is indicative of how the rest of them are armed, we just may get this done and be in bed before midnight,” Wolf replied.
“Let’s not get too cocky,” Trevor said. “There are at least six of them out front.”
He heard Wolf switching on the walkie-talkie, “Caroline, can you hear me?”
“I hear you,” she replied. “Are you both all right?”
“We’re good,” he said. “Three down, six or seven to go. Have you heard anything at all on your end?”
“Not yet,” she replied, “but you’ll be the first to know, trust me.”
“Keep it quiet,” Wolf said. “Hopefully this will all be over soon.”
“Roger that,” she said.
“Okay, out,” Wolf said.
“Out what?” she asked.
Wolf sighed, “That means I’m done talking. Back to radio silence.”
“Oh, okay, got it.”
Trevor chuckled, “Let’s move.”
“Where to?”
“We’re going to do the same thing with the group positioned northeast of the lodge,” Trevor said. “If we circle around them, we might be able to get the drop on them without alerting he last group.”
“I don’t know, Trevor,” Wolf said. “There will be at least four this time. If it weren’t for that fancy knife play of yours, that third one would have gotten off a shot and we’d be dealing with a whole new level of hurt here.”
“What do you suggest?” Trevor said.
“We split up,” Wolf said. “You circle behind the men on the northeast and I’ll circle around the men on the northwest. When we are both in position, we attack at the same time.”
“We have only one walkie-talkie,” Trevor noted. “How do we communicate?”
“We set our watches for seven minutes from now,” Wolf said. “At zero, we come out guns-a-blazin at the same time.’”
Trevor nodded, “Agreed.”
“No mercy, Trevor,” Wolf said. “Let’s drop these idiots and call it a night.”
Trevor nodded.
The two men split up after synchronizing their watches.
CHAPTER 9
Trevor Saunders looked at his watch. It was just under three minutes until show time and he was getting worried. It was very dark but his eyes had become accustomed to the lack of light. He had not yet seen the bad guys and was worried that they had changed their position since he’d first spotted them. And if that were the case, had the men Wolf was stalking also changed their position as well, he wondered?
With just 45 seconds to go he finally spotted four men watching the front of the lodge. They were all holding rifles without night lenses – they had certainly come unprepared. Trevor was positioned about thirty feet from them; their backs were to him. He pulled his weapon and checked his watch: 33 seconds.
He inched closer in stealth mode, making almost no sound in the powdery snow. He moved four feet to his right, a positon that gave him clear line of sight to all four men. He dug in no more than 10 feet away. The men he stalked showed no signed they knew someone was behind them.
10 seconds, 9... 8... 7...
He cocked his weapon. When the watch went to zero he opened fire: pop, pop, pop, pop. All four men crumbled fell dead instantly. He waited to hear the sound Wolf’s gun as well, but he heard nothing. He looked in the area where he expected Wolf to be – no sight of him, no sound, nothing.
Something was wrong. He wanted to call Caroline and Honor but Wolf held the walkie-talkie. He needed to reach Wolf quickly, but when he turned to move he was staring down the barrel of a high-powered rifle.
“Drop your gun, Mr. Navy SEAL,” the man holding the rifle said in a thick Middle Eastern accent. Trevor dropped his weapon and held his hands in the air, palms out. The man was Adnan Alfassi.
“It’s over, Alfassi,” Trevor said.
Alfassi’s eyes widened in a look of surprise, “How do you know my name?”
“I don’t just know your name,” Trevor said. “I know what you’re up to. That’s why I can assure you it’s over. Honor’s father is already in CIA protective custody. An entire SEAL team is only minutes away. Even if you were to capture Honor, your mission has already failed. You’ll never get propulsion secrets from Blue Horizon.”
“Lies!” screamed Alfassi. “If it were true that your SEAL team were minutes away you would not be out here. You would be inside protecting the women waiting for them to arrive.”
“Why would I do that?” Trevor retorted. “Your men are so amateurish that a child could find them. You brought nine men with you tonight thinking you were going to kidnap one sweet, innocent girl. You weren’t prepared to fight anyone who knew how to fight back, and it shows.”
Alfassi’s facial expression twisted into a look of furious rage, “At least I’ll kill you, Mr. Navy SEAL.”
“I don’t think so,” a familiar voice said. Trevor turned to see Wolf standing twelve feet to the left of Alfassi, with his weapon trained on the Middle Eastern man’s head. “Drop your weapon Mr. Aflassi, or I will drop you like a sack of flour.”
Alfassi didn’t move. He continued to keep his rifle trained on Trevor’s head, “No, you will drop your weapon or your friend dies.”
“If that happens, you will be dead, too,” Wolf replied.
“I am pre
pared to die tonight,” he said. “Is your friend as ready?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Wolf said, “but I do think he’s ready to drop and roll.”
“What?” Alfassi replied.
Trevor fell to his left as Wolf squeezed off a shot. The bullet from Wolf’s gun went through Alfassi’s right trigger hand cleanly and his weapon fell but not before firing off a round of his own. Because Trevor timed his fall with Wolf’s shot, the bullet from Alfassi’s rifle whistled well over Trevor’s head.
With the quickness of a mountain lion, Wolf closed the distance between himself and Alfassi and kicked the side of the man’s knee, causing him to howl in pain and fall to the ground.
Trevor grabbed Alfassi’s rifle. He looked at Wolf, “Where have you been?”
“The men I was stalking changed position, including this one,” he said pointing to Alfassi. “That’s why I didn’t kill the bastard just now. He needs to tell us where they are.”
“How many are unaccounted for?” Trevor asked.
“I don’t know,” Wolf said, “but there is bad news.”
“Caroline and Honor?” Trevor said.
“I called them 2 minutes ago,” he said. “No answer.”
“Shit!” Trevor exclaimed. “They’ve been captured. We’ve got to get back. I swore to Honor we’d protect her. She could be dead already.”
“She’s not dead,” Wolf said. “The whole reason they came after her with so many men in the first place was to accomplish their mission, and that was to take Honor alive. She’s no good to them dead. We need to persuade Mr. Alfassi to tell us what he knows.”
“I will tell nothing,” Alfassi grunted, holding his hand.
“Is that right?” Wolf replied. Wolf reached into his back pocket and pulled a camouflage bandanna from it. He tossed it to Alfassi. “The bullet went clean through. Wrap the bandanna around it tightly and we’ll talk.”
“No need for talk,” Alfassi replied.
“Well, you see, we might disagree on that point,” Wolf said. “I read your file earlier this evening, and I don’t think you are a typical Middle Eastern terrorist. I don’t think you have a death wish like so many of your buddies. I think you’d probably like to live through this evening.”
Alfassi glared at Wolf but said nothing.
“What are you talking about?” Trevor said.
“Mr. Alfassi has been living in Seattle for more than 20 years,” Wolf said. “He’s held a middle level tech job for a programming company for nine years. He’s been called an exemplary employee.”
He smiled at Alfassi, who continued to silently glare.
“Mr. Alfassi here has a real American life,” Wolf continued. “He got engaged four months ago to a beautiful blonde lady, whose father happens to be the Chairman of the Board at the company he works for. He is not even a practicing Muslim. His only known connection to terror is a non-blood relative, a brother-in-law named Ahmet Orfali, who is a former member of ISIS and who now heads up security for the Syrian Space Agency. Alfassi is not our run-of-the-mill Islamic radical.”
Alfassi broke eye contact and looked away.
Wolf looked at his prisoner, “My guess is that this operation was half-baked from the beginning. Ahmet Orfali was undoubtedly coerced from the Syrian government to throw together this plan to kidnap a Blue Horizon propulsion engineer and leverage the only known contact he has in the area.”
Trevor looked at Alfassi, then at Wolf, “This dipshit here?”
“Yep,” Wolf said. “That would explain the lack of preparation and poor weaponry.”
“And yet we have your women,” Alfassi said.
“And that’s because your brother-in-law did do one smart thing. He brought in Qasam Farid,” Wolf said.
Alfassi looked away again.
“Who is Qasam Farid?” Trevor asked.
“Qasam is the one boy on this jaunt that actually knows what he’s doing,” Wolf said. “It took me a while to figure it out, but Qasam was involved in a bombing in London in 2007. He wore a pendant around his neck, a gold scorpion. He’s the only one in this band of misfits that has military background. I’ll bet he’s the one holding Honor and Caroline.”
Trevor walked over to Alfassi and grabbed him by the head of his hair, forcing him to his feet, “Is that true?”
Alfassi yelled out in pain but said nothing. He continued to hold the bandanna against his bleeding hand wound.
Trevor pulled a knife from its sheath on the side of his right leg. He pressed it against Alfassi’s neck. “Tell me or I’ll bleed you like a pig,” he said.
“Go to hell, Navy Seal man,” he said.
“There’s a way for you to live through this, you know,” Wolf said. “You help us get our ladies back, and I’ll personally testify that you helped us. Think about it. You have no criminal record. Your sentence would be light. You can still marry your little blonde trophy. Life would go on.”
Wolf could see that the anger was fading from Alfassi’s eyes. He was considering it.
“Think about it,” Wolf continued. “No one on our end has been hurt yet. The only casualties have been several Middle Eastern aggressors. You owe Qasam nothing! You haven’t even seen your brother-n-law for eight years. Why ruin your own life for people like that?”
Trevor eased the blade from the man’s neck.
“Hell, if you help us in a material fashion, they may even give you immunity,” Wolf said.
“Immunity?” Alfassi repeated. “Really?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Wolf replied. “That’s above my pay grade, but I do know that the recommendations from two decorated Navy SEALS will go a long way in this country.”
“Alternatively, I could cut off your testicles,” Trevor said. “The cold will kill you, but not before 30 minutes while you roll around in the snow, bleeding in searing agony. It would be a very unpleasant way to go.”
Alfassi glared at Trevor then looked toward Wolf. He looked away.
“Suit yourself,” Trevor said, pulling his knife.
“Okay, I’ll help you,” he screamed, “but you must both give me your word that you will help me get immunity.”
“You have my word,” Wolf said. “Trevor?”
Trevor said nothing.
“Trevor!” Wolf repeated in a raised voice.
“Yeah, okay,” he said.
“Qasam and two other men have your women,” Alfassi said. “They have moved them to the kitchen.”
That was smart, Wolf thought. The kitchen provided good viewing angles to the northeast and east. It also provided the best escape route.
“What was your play?”
“If we were unable to kill you, Qasam was to use the women’s walkie-talkie to contact you and use their lives as leverage to negotiate their escape. There is an SUV about 40 yards due east of the kitchen door.”
Again, Wolf thought, a smart move. They had already disabled Trevor’s truck by blowing out the tires. If they could get away, it would take Trevor and I a full day to hike back to the nearest phone in this weather. That would give them the head start they need.
“How were they supposed to know if you killed us?” Trevor asked.
“I am to contact them with our 2-way radio no later than the top of the hour,” Alfassi said. He pointed to the radio near where his men were originally positioned.
“And if you don’t call?”
“They assume I’m dead and will contact you via walkie-talkie.”
Wolf looked at his watch. The top of the hour was three minutes away.
“I know how we can get the element of surprise,” Wolf said. He turned to Alfassi, “In what language do you communicate? Arabic?”
Alfassi nodded.
“Good. You are going to make the call now. You must be convincing. You are going to tell them that you have killed me and are currently in pursuit of the second SEAL and that your currently positon is a half mile northwest. Do you have that?”
Alfassi nodded.
<
br /> “No funny stuff,” Wolf said. “My man Trevor speaks fluent Arabic. I understand some Arabic as well as Farsi, Pashto and Dari. If you try to tip them off and fuck us, all bets are off and we’ll kill you.”
“Not only that,” Trevor said, “but I will hunt down your little blonde fiancée and gut her, but not before I have a little fun with her… if you know what I mean.”
Trevor chuckled, mustering an evil laugh. Wolf shook his head, knowing that Trevor was lying his ass off and hoping Alfassi wouldn’t realize it. The ruse worked. Alfassi’s eyes grew as wide as saucers.
“I’ll be convincing,” he said.
“Good,” Wolf said, picking up the 2-way radio. “Tell them to get the women in the vehicle and to meet you by the road due east. Tell them to meet you in fifteen minutes. Understand?”
Alfassi nodded. Wolf handed him the radio, “Remember, no funny stuff. One wrong move and Trevor will bleed you and let you die in the cold.”
Alfassi nodded, “You will get me immunity?”
“You get us through this, and yes, I will do my very best, I promise.”
Alfassi called; Qasam answered. After two minutes of conversation in Arabic, he handed the radio back to Wolf.
“It is done,” he said. “They will be moving the women to the SUV within ten minutes.”
Wolf looked at Trevor. Trevor nodded. He was already immobilizing Alfassi, securing his hands and feet.
He handed Trevor one of the rifles Alfassi’s men were carrying.
“Do you know this weapon?” he asked.
“It’s an AK-104, Russian made,” Trevor said, inspecting the weapon. “Many of the Syrian army units have been suing these since 2015. It’s a piece of shit, but the good news is, it has a telescopic sight.”
“Can you pick off Qasam and the other two with it?” Wolf said.
“I don’t know the weapon well and it’s pitch black outside,” Trevor said. “I assume that two of them will emerge first and do a little recon of the surrounding area before the third man, probably Qasam himself, pops out with the two ladies.”
“That’s how I see it, too,” Wolf agreed.
“I’m sure I can pick off the two who come out first,” Trevor said, “but I don’t know the rifle well enough to take a shot at Qasam in the darkness if he is using the ladies as a shield. If it were light outside and I had my M12, it would be a different story.”
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Honor (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Trevor Saunders Series Book 1) Page 6
