“In a while, crocodile.” It was all so incredibly corny, but both appreciated the moment of levity. After all, in two hours, a maelstrom of hell would be unfurled.
“Right.”
Rogers clicked off Rayna’s call. He yanked out a privately owned, secure satellite phone and recorded three quick text messages. One to his wife and kids, another to his mother, but the longest one was to his father.
He circled a finger over his head at the other five men in the dark. “Mount up.”
***
Two hours later, a C-130 Hercules dropped six Navy SEALs and a Pandur armored vehicle on the outskirts of the medium-sized town straddling the Syria/Iraq border. The recon team and new arrivals swarmed inside the eight-wheeled mini-tank. The diesel engine grumbled to life as they raced to their target. Hundreds of displaced refugees, hoping to find or steal precious moments of shelter, flashed by their viewports.
Evidence of destruction haunted the air. Buildings were in ruins and random gunfire blended with the roar of military aircraft overhead.
They passed little trucks, all crammed with people and their lives’ contents in a few plastic bags exiting to uncertain destinations and futures.
A young pre-pubescent boy tossed a Coke can at them.
“Gun it.” Rogers just stared ahead, ignoring the crowd.
The lumbering vehicle had probably never accelerated so fast before. It shot out of the can’s path in a blur. The soda can continued flight, landing in front of a gnarled, elderly woman wearing a gray, tattered hijab. The homemade explosive device inside exploded. A hundred nails sliced the woman and sent her wailing to the ground. The men in the Pandur were no virgins when it came to danger though—there was no point in trying to stop and help. In this town, she’d just as likely try to kill them instead of thanking the foreigners.
And yet, despite its proximity to Hell, life somehow went on. Streets had a handful of desperate or foolish merchants hawking their colorful wares and foodstuffs. A shop selling used appliances was doing a booming business—probably a front for some clandestine venture. There was even the occasional laborer trying to rebuild a wall or lay replacement cable. There was no lack of business for any brave soul willing to risk his life on the open street.
The Pandur entered the last fateful block before the target. A boom echoed far behind them, proving that the Warlock II electronic warfare pod was still working its magic. Save for a few radio frequencies set aside for friendly communications, the jammer encased the vehicle in a bubble of electro-magnetic interference, rendering most remote-activated IEDs worthless.
Rogers clicked on his radio and called Rayna. “Butterfly, this is Snake element. Target is in sight. We’re thirty seconds out.”
“Roger, Rogers. We’re approaching from behind. Ring the doorbell, please.”
The Pandur picked up the pace and plowed into the three-story building’s stone front. The structure refused to collapse, so the Pandur backed up and repeated its assault. Unknown to the occupants inside the building, the goal wasn’t to demolish the building, but just create enough distraction so that the insurgents inside wouldn’t hear the helicopter approaching.
In the air, the CH‑146 Griffon helicopter carrying the JTF2 team was now directly overhead. Even from a hundred feet above ground, the chopper’s passengers could hear the pounding the stone building was taking. Rayna stood at the chopper door, ready to rappel down, when one of her teammates yanked her back in. Below them, two insurgents squatted on the target building’s roof. One shouldered a rocket launcher and the other sighted in a .50 caliber machine gun.
The machine gunner unleashed a barrage of fire at the Griffon, clipping its rotors and savaging its body.
Rayna and thirty-year-old veteran operator Mike Barrows whipped their weapons up and fired back at the terrorist duo.
Too little, too late. The damaged helicopter fluttered erratically like a wounded dove ambushed in flight. The chopper began sinking toward the roof.
Rayna slipped into the “zone.” Through the chaos around her, she calmly aimed and fired off two money shots. Both insurgent bodies spasmed. They lurched from the rooftop and fell to the ground.
As the wounded chopper struck the rooftop, the team dived out. Without missing a beat, they bashed down the door and entered the third floor.
Needless to say, the mission’s carefully laid plan had been blasted to rat shit. If you’d like to read the rest of RECRUITED, you can get a copy at
Amazon US Amazon UK
Also By Wesley Lowe
Visit www.wesleyrobertlowe.com for sales info or if you are a member of KINDLE UNLIMITED, you may borrow for free.
The Noah Reid Action Thriller Series
Evil Rises In this prequel novella, rogue monk CHIN arises to redefine Shaolin Kung Fu as a battle plan for his lust for criminal power. Yet in of the darkness glows a glimmer of light… a little boy who might be a savior.
Terror Unleashed - New attorney Noah Reid is catapulted into a brutal Shaolin underworld when his boss is discovered to have bilked billions from Chin, the firm’s biggest client, a psychopathic Kung Fu Master.
Heaven Burning When Noah accompanies his mentor on a journey of death and adventure back to China, Chin’s son King, master of all things connected to snakes, leads a savage charge to recover the family’s illicit fortune with clandestine military precision.
Theft of Innocence Under pressure from New York’s Russian mob to repay a loan, Queenie, Chin’s beguiling daughter, brings her arsenal of winged destruction to pressure Noah to return her family’s fortune, using a group of school kids as leverage.
Slavery Unbound Prince, Chin’s steroid-fueled son, shares a depravity with a Russian mob partner: a lust for children. Noah has taken “their girls” and they want them back. Can Noah shut down this unholy alliance before they drown the Big Apple in depravity?
Ritual Sacrifice Prez, Chin’s eldest daughter, is a cult leader with a purpose. With cash and influence from her followers, crooked politicians and her father, Prez can build a casino empire on the backs of an unsuspecting Native American Tribe. That is unless family nemesis – Noah Reid stops her first.
Find out more at www.wesleyrobertlowe.com
The Rayna Tan Thriller Series
Recruited is the story of why twenty-six-year-old Rayna Tan chose to leave the secretive world of the elite Canadian Forces Special Operations counter-terrorism unit (JTF2) to join an even more shadowy operation, Fidelitas. She’s a fascinating character: stunningly gorgeous, IQ off the charts, a sniper in the league of Chris Kyle… Yes, Rayna has her flaws but overall, she’s one very dangerous and very human lethal weapon.
American Terrorist A video of desecration and beheading in a small Syrian village appears briefly on the deep web. When the sword-wielding executioner proclaims Jihad on America, no one knows whether to take him and his ragtag marauders seriously. Can they deliver? Or is this a cover for a more devious conspiracy? Rayna Tan, ex-Canadian Special Forces and newly minted covert operative, heads the mission to disarm the potential attack and discovers rats among the radicalists—not every terrorist is a true believer.
Find out more at www.wesleyrobertlowe.com
About The Author
Wesley Robert Lowe began his career in media as a composer for film and television. Music includes film & television scores, as well as four seasons as a composer for Sesame St.
Wanting to see more media projects that feature diversity, he began writing and producing films. Broadcast on regional and network television, as well as exhibitions in international festivals, his work tells authentic stories of the joys, failures and successes of Russian and Chinese diaspora, as well as the First Nations communities.
In the last few years, he has focused on writing fiction. Contemporary worlds infused with mysticism. Breathless, brain-twisting plots. High-stakes suspense that churns the psyche. Relentless, warp-speed action. Intertwining cultures. Colliding and colluding worlds.
Wesley Robert Lowe’s pa
ssion is to immerse his cross-cultural tales with all of these, to grab readers with stories that hang on deep into the night, long after they’ve turned the last page.
Thrillers that grip the soul.
Wesley Robert Lowe has a Master’s of Music degree from the University of Toronto, a Graduate Diploma in Christian Studies from Regent College and an Ontario College Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing from Humber College. When he’s not writing, you can find him playing his 1908 Steinway Grand Piano or roasting his own coffee beans.
He is the Padre for Pacific Unit 280, Chinese Canadian Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans of Canada and a founding member of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum.
www.wesleyrobertlowe.com
You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook here:
Twitter: @wezelrox
https://www.facebook.com/wesleyloweauthor
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to many who have contributed and helped with this book.
Special mention should be made to Shaolin Kung Fu Grandmaster Stephen Chang for insights and demonstrations into Hung Gar; Jason Whited and Janet R. Musick for thoughtful and patient editing; and to Jun Ares for designing the striking covers for the Noah Reid series.
RITUAL SACRIFICE: The Ultimate Alpha Female & Political Corruption on the West Coast (Noah Reid Action Suspense Thriller Series Book 5) Page 18
