Necessary Retribution

by Mike McNeff

  SEVEN

  BURKE AND ROCKY CAME UP with the best plan under the circumstances, their Vietnam combat experience once again proving invaluable to the team. Robin called Grassley and told him they accepted the mission. Grassley was relieved, but not surprised. He didn't even argue when Robin set the price at twenty million dollars. Still, Robin's nerves were taut. They had no real team preparation time. It went against every principle of their training… except one…improvise, adapt and overcome.

  An hour and a half later, the men were assembled at the rear of the aircraft with fifteen minutes until the jump. Each man's equipment was inspected by the man next to him and then Burke and Rocky did final checks. Burke finished inspecting Robin, the last man to be checked.

  “Everybody ready to go?”

  “Roger,” Burke replied.

  “All right, gentlemen, listen up. We want to maintain radio silence as long as we can. I don't think they can monitor our Tac frequencies, but since the element of surprise is essential to this mission, we won't chance it. Keep the guide lights on Burke and Rocky in sight the minute the door opens. Their GPS receivers should get us to Ingin River delta drop zone. When the chute opens, activate your firefly and go to your infrared goggles. If you run into any problems during the jump, you can break radio silence to let us know. Make sure you tell us who you are and don't cut yourself off. Key the mic for at least one second before you tell us your emergency. Remember, the closest town is Sindangan, about five miles to the northeast as the crow flies, but a helluva lot longer on foot. The Philippine Army guys are still there.

  This is our first combat HALO and I don't mind telling you my asshole is a little tight, but we have the best training and the best equipment. We should be fine. Any questions or comments?”

  Mark Warren spoke up. “I hope someone brought some extra toilet paper because I'm probably going to need it when we get down.”

  “Shit, Mark, you're so young, you'll probably bounce even if your chute doesn't open,” Doug Ariel joked.

  “Five minutes to jump,” Ernie's voice came over the intercom. Emmett, the designated jumpmaster, signaled for everyone to form up. The men stood abreast to each other in two loosely formed lines facing the compartment cargo door. Each man activated a chemlite attached to the top rear of his partner's helmet. Emmett signaled for the men to go on oxygen. He pushed a button and a wall rose up from the bottom of the compartment and sealed off the chamber. Emmett raised his hand.

  “Starting decompression.”

  The rear cargo door slowly opened and the men stared into the darkness. The stars winked bright in the sky and a half moon softened the harshness of the black void. The frigid air at thirty thousand feet punched their bodies and some men wrapped their arms around themselves hoping to retain some extra body heat. The big jet's nose pointed at an extreme angle of attack with the engines screaming. The pilots slowed the plane down to jump speed.

  “Standby the door!” Every eye fixed on the jump light. After an eternal thirty seconds, it turned green.

  “GO, GO, GO!” Emmett yelled with an urgent voice.

  In an instant, the entire group of men dove into the night. Robin, the last man out, saluted Emmett and followed his men into the darkness, the shepherd of this flock. He momentarily fought for control as he arched his back and spread out his hands and feet as he achieved controlled free fall. He kept his eyes on the blue light on Burke's helmet, while doing a mental head count. The number of chemlites equaled the number of men who jumped and no chemlite appeared to be spinning…a very good sign. Their training and discipline brought the team to a level of operational competence beyond everyone's expectations… except Robin's. Now, if every man's equipment worked as advertised, this could be fun.

  The team rocketed towards the earth, thrilling Robin to his very core. This was as close to flying like a bird a man could get. He checked his altimeter…passing through 20,000 feet. He smiled behind his oxygen mask. His body surged with the pleasure of doing an extraordinary thing well and this inevitably led to thoughts of Karen. He wished she could experience what he felt.

  Karen Marlette's eyes fluttered open. She had been trying to fall asleep when she felt her husband's presence. She sat up in bed. Her heart felt happy even though Robin wasn't home. He was thinking of her…she knew it. She lay back down and closed her eyes. Somehow, sleep finally overtook her.

  At six thousand five hundred feet, Robin's chute opened. The ram-air parachute allowed Robin to fly it like a hang glider. He had set his chute to open five hundred feet higher than the other men so he could spot anyone in trouble. He activated his firefly, unhooked his infrared goggles and flipped them down. A few seconds later, other fireflies began flashing. Robin soon counted eight floating in the night. All were moving through the air smoothly in a predetermined landing pattern.

  When he reached fifteen hundred feet, Robin prepared for landing, picking an area where no fireflies were flashing. He released his equipment bag so it hung from him on a line twenty feet below and flipped up his goggles. The Ingin River glistened in the moonlight and he headed for the edge of it. Robin made one full turn and pulled on the control handles to flare out slowing almost to a hover. His bag thumped on the ground and he landed standing, pulled the handles and collapsed the chute. Popping his harness open, he shucked it onto the ground and moved quickly to his bag. Robin retrieved his pack and looked around as he shouldered it. He hit the bottom of the magazine in his silenced Colt Commando assault carbine and pulled and released the bolt handle to load a round in the chamber, hitting the bolt assist for good measure. The team gathered around him as he circled the chemlite from his helmet above his head. Everyone was accounted for. Rick complained of a sore ankle, but said he'd be all right. Mark was soaked from a water landing, but confirmed his weapons ready. The team hid their chutes, jump gear and equipment bags in the brush under a thick stand of trees.

  “Okay, were movin’ out. Rocky, you're point. Set a quick pace.”

  “Roger, boss.”

  The team started up the river staying close to the embankment using the concealment of the foliage growing there. Robin walked in the middle of the team and he appreciated it was night because the air was warm and humid. He knew daybreak would bring soaring temperatures.

  The river was one hundred yards wide flowing with a good current and the sound of the water along with the sandy bank masked the sound of the team's movements. After going for about a mile, Rocky turned left and the men started climbing through mountain jungle consisting of canopy and long needled pine. They moved along primitive paths for two hours, everyone acutely alert. Rocky stopped and the men all dropped to one knee forming a defensive perimeter.

  “We are about a half mile away now, Rob.”

  “Take Marv and do a recon. You got forty-five minutes. We'll get off the trail and move in the jungle on the left side.

  “We're gone.” Rocky moved out tapping Marv on the arm. Marv fell in behind Rocky and the men melted into the jungle. Burke saluted them as they went by. Robin motioned to Burke.

  “We can slow down now. Start moving us forward off the trail to the left.” Burke saluted and went forward to the point position, knelt and silently listened for a full minute. He then waved the men to follow. The team moved toward their objective one careful step after the other. They stopped often and listened carefully. After about forty minutes, Burke signaled to stop and after a few tense seconds, Rocky and Marv appeared out of the night.

  “We got good info and a plan, boss,” Rocky reported.

  Robin indicated for the men to gather. In quiet whispers, Rocky and Marv explained what they saw and how they planned to do the rescue. Three hostages were around one of the several campfires in the area. They could hear a woman moaning in an old shack who was probably the fourth hostage and she sounded in bad shape. Time to move.

  EIGHT

  THE TEAM WALKED IN SINGLE FILE until Rocky indicated they were at the camp. Immediately Rocky led six men to th
e right. Robin and Burke moved to the left. Mike Collins started setting up claymore mines along the trail.

  Robin and Burke crept silently, merging with the shadows in the jungle until they were at the back of the shack Rocky had described…putting it between them and most of the terrorists. Still, there were three men at the back. Loud snoring confirmed two were asleep, but one stood awake and fully on guard. He turned towards the shack when the woman cried out or moaned in between her sobbing.

  Robin signaled Burke to take the alert man and he would take care of the sleepers. Both drew their knives.

  The woman cried out again and a laugh followed a man speaking broken English and describing sexual acts too brutal for Robin to contemplate.

  The guard let his weapon hang on its sling and rubbed his crotch…his last sexual act. Burke dropped the man's lifeless body as Robin efficiently inserted his knife into the medulla of both his targets, twisting the blade to put them in permanent sleep.

  As they moved to the rear door, Robin found it hard to control the seething anger burning inside him. The woman yelped and a man laughed at her pain causing Robin to want to smash the man's face into the rough logs of the shack. He pushed these thoughts back and breathed deeply, focusing on the mission as he and Burke drew Glock 9mm pistols loaded with subsonic ammunition and attached silencers.

  Burke had the same cold, resolved look Robin now felt.

  He pressed his mic button to send a static hash and signal the team to move in. He and Burke entered the shack through the partially opened door.

  In candlelight, Robin's sights found a head directly in front. He squeezed the trigger in a double tap, then swung to the left and sighted on the head of a man standing with his pants down. Robin fired another double tap. Then scanning the room he saw Burke shoot a man naked from the waist down with an erection. A fourth man lay on the dirt floor, his pants around his ankles.

  A nude woman was tied down over a rough-hewn wooden bench, badly beaten and bleeding from the mouth, vagina and anus. The horror of what these men had been doing turned Robin's stomach. He bent down and gently put his hand on the woman's forehead. Her eyes fluttered and she whispered something in Russian.

  “We're getting you out of here.” Robin whispered in his text book Russian.

  “Americans?”

  Robin held his finger to his lips.

  The woman nodded with a sob of relief.

  Burke handed Robin a blanket.

  Robin lifted the woman's body as gently as he could to the sitting position and wrapped her. He picked her up and she shuddered, but put her arms around his neck.

  Two men came around the corner of the shack as Robin and Burke were leaving through the door they came in. Chunks of both men's heads went flying as Burke took both of them out with successive shots. The two men moved through the jungle as quickly as they could without causing the woman too much pain.

  A shot rang out, then another. Automatic weapons began to chatter and bullets started flying everywhere. Men shouted and a woman screamed. Ahead, Robin saw Mike Collins waving them toward the trail. Robin knew the claymores were within the next fifty feet.

  “Burke, stay and help with the holding action!”

  “Roger!”

  Rocky had led Doug and Mark, his hostage rescue team, around the edge of the camp. He told Marv to set up the cover team. Rocky scanned the immediate area from overgrowth about twenty yards from where the hostages were located.

  By the light of two campfires, Rocky saw two hostages were asleep on the ground and one sat on a log with her head in her hands. There were at least four terrorists in the immediate area of the hostages. Two were awake and talking to each other and the other two slept on the ground nearby. Rocky tapped Mark's shoulder and pointed to the hostages.

  Mark nodded.

  Rocky tapped Doug's arm, pointed to the sleeping men and ran his finger across his throat.

  Doug nodded.

  Rocky pointed to himself and then pointed to the two terrorists who were awake. Doug and Mark acknowledged and the men then focused their attention to the camp. A few seconds later, Robin's static hash broke in their ear pieces. They moved forward…dark, dangerous shadows gliding through the night.

  Rocky held his silenced Glock at eye level, the tritium night sights lined up on the awake terrorist farthest from him. At fifteen yards, Rocky fired two rounds and the man fell over. He swung his pistol to the right, his shots made the other man's head snap back as he dropped to the ground.

  Doug took care of the sleeping men and Rocky motioned for him to help Mark with the hostages while he covered them. Rocky holstered the Glock and unslung his Commando assault carbine.

  Jessica Lanthrop had no emotional reserves left. She believed she was going to die all because she wanted to prove she wasn't a mindless, spoiled rich girl. She looked up at the stars. Well, at least she did prove that before she died. Jessica almost screamed when she saw three shadowy figures moving toward her from the dark jungle, but the closest man to her put his finger to his lips. She realized they were there for her and her friends. She jumped when one of the men shot two of her captors who were talking to each other and then again when the third man shot two who were sleeping.

  “Americans,” the closest man whispered. “We're getting you out of here. Wake your friends.”

  She bent down and shook Alana. Betsy raised her head and started getting up. A man yelled and a shot rang out. Then more shots. Fear churned through Jessica's gut and she screamed as her rescuer grabbed her and pulled her to the trees.

  Marv's team was set to cover the extraction. He saw Rocky take out the guards. Marv repeatedly scanned the area in front of him and could see there were a lot more than thirty terrorists.

  A head popped up.

  Marv put his night sights on it and fired one round. The head disappeared. Other men rose only to be cut down by Marv's team. The number of awakening terrorists grew rapidly and soon there were more shooting terrorists than the covering team could handle. Fortunately, the terrorists were undisciplined and fired wildly in the night.

  Rocky's voice came over Marv's headset. “We're moving out, Marv.”

  “Just in time. We're right behind ya.”

  Robin barely noticed it started raining as he moved as quickly as he could down the trail carrying an extra one hundred and ten pounds. He wanted to create distance so he could give the woman first aid until Willy Young could get to them with his paramedic kit. Heavy gunfire reverberated in the jungle until he heard an explosion and then three more. Robin smiled. Mike's handiwork.

  He went for another half mile before he began to feel an all too familiar pain in the middle of his back. He stopped and gently propped the woman against a tree. He suddenly gasped and arched as an invisible fist twisted the muscles in the middle of his back. The spasm passed and he bent over to help release the tension. When he straightened, the woman looked at him with questioning eyes.

  “Just an old wound.”

  She nodded in understanding.

  Robin pulled off his pack, retrieved his trauma kit and started cleaning the wounds on her face.

  “Please do not move.” A deep male voice with a Russian accent spoke from the jungle. “We would rather not kill you.” Robin slowly raised his hands.

  Men in Russian Spetsnaz jungle fatigues armed with AK-47s moved in around them. Two of them lifted the woman onto a stretcher.

  “She's badly injured and needs immediate medical attention,” Robin said quietly.

  A man in civilian hiking clothes stepped forward. “She will get it.” He looked closely at Robin. “You took Ivanov!”

  Robin just looked at the man.

  He laughed heartily. “Good riddance, although if you ever meet my KGB comrade, be prepared for a boxing match!” The man laughed again, but then his face turned to stone. “What happened to the men who did this?”

  “We sent them to hell.”

  The Russian's face brightened. “I hope you will let me buy
you a drink someday.”

  “I'd be delighted,” Robin said with a smile.

  The woman said something to the men holding the stretcher. They brought her closer to Robin. She raised her hand and put it on his cheek. “Thank you, my angel. I will never forget.”

  “You're welcome. Take care.” She gave a weak smile as the sound of a helicopter in the distance had the Russians hustling down the trial.

  Robin heard people coming down the trail, so he stepped into the jungle until he saw Rocky, then the rest of the team and the other three hostages.

  Rocky looked at Robin and then around the ground.

  Burke walked up.

  “What the hell is going on, Rob?”

  “The Russians have come and gone.”

  “What?!”

  “The woman in the shack was Russian and I suspect one of their agents. Probably a very important agent. Spetsnaz and the GRU came and got her.”

  “Holy shit! I'm glad we didn't have a fight over her!” The sound of the helicopter faded in the distance.

  “Me, too. Everyone okay?”

  “Yeah, just some minor injuries, but we gotta get these ladies out of here.”

  “Okay, Rocky move us out.”

  The rain kept on coming as the team worked their way back to the river. The men made a raft out of logs and bamboo so they could float the women and save them the walk. Robin contacted Ernie by satellite radio.

  “SpearTip, you have to watch out!” Robin could hear the excitement in Ernie's voice. “There are hostiles in the area!”

  “Yeah, we know, Fatboy. We just had tea.”

  “What?!”

  “It's okay, they just wanted one of theirs.”

  “It's not that simple.”

  “Roger, we'll sort it out later. Just get the Filipinos to the delta ASAP.

  “Roger, I'll get them rolling.”

  The team finished the raft and taught the three women how to control it with long bamboo poles. The group moved down the river and the men had to hustle to keep up with the raft in the rain swollen river. After thirty minutes the night gave way to light grey overcast with the coming dawn and the sound of helicopter blades blended with the rush of the river.