The Devil's Playground

by Michael Reagan

for orders from the Fireteam Leader or Squad Leader, however, if your element leader is killed, and you are next in command, take over and evaluate the situation as the new fireteam leader. This is exactly what the men did under the hail of bullets. Led by Mikhail and protecting Hayashi, the team scanned the area around them in order to determine how to engage and communicate the location of known, suspected, and likely enemy positions.

  Something to a man they all did by using their comms piece to help Igor coordinate the escape route in turn.

  "RPG dvenadtsat," one of the young Zaslon commandos shouted, telling the team that they had to deal with rocket propelled grenades directly in front of them now being pointed by a bandit towards their vehicle.

  Igor instantly turned his head just in time to spot Rob shoot the assassin in his head with a round from his pistol, causing him to fire the RPG into the residential building behind them and away from the vehicles. More dust and cement showered them as it exploded. With Igor purely focused on escape, it had not registered that it was Rob who had just saved the principal. With ten seconds having passed Igor felt he had a better idea as to what was happening and where the enemy was.

  He started to communicate his orders and information to his team and squad members. He then scanned all around again to make sure that just because the enemy was firing from one particular area it did not mean that they aren't already flanking or positioning from other, dramatically different locations as well.

  "Falling prey to tunnel vision causes deaths," his training had once taught him; now it was second nature.

  Ignoring the screams of the by-standers and the wounded men of PSIA, Igor showed his years of training and experience.

  A fireteam in a counter ambush are at the cutting edge of the battle-if they see an opportunity or a danger, they have to take the initiative to do something or say something about it. This includes seeing or hearing evidence of enemy vehicles coming if out in the open, for instance.

  As Igor was at this moment, a fireteam leader he needed to announce this to his team and thus get them moving towards better cover instead of staying in place or being caught in an even worse position.

  Igor looked around, ignoring the bullets whizzing around him, shot an advancing bandit, and then ordered Aytrom to deploy smoke. He then quickly ordered the team protecting Hayashi to form up in a circle to move him away from the vehicle towards the alleyway behind them.

  More machine-gun fire ripped into the car and by now the screams of the Japanese bystanders who had been caught in the crossfire was echoing around the busy street. This made Igor's task more difficult to pull out the enemy. He didn't have time to curse, though, one of the young members of his team reacted for him. Without waiting to be told, he aimed the M203 grenade launcher at the advancing assassins who were now walking towards the vehicles using the confusion as cover. The hot wind of explosive device hit their faces along with the splatter of bone and blood as Igor's training kicked in again.

  "Stay alert avoid getting tunnel vision," he mentally repeated to himself.

  Seeing that three more assassins were coming up the side of the street on his right, he directed mass fire in that direction.

  More bullets from the Zaslon team tore into the advancing assassins. In the small busy streets of Tokyo it was total carnage, the situation made worse because there was limited lighting due to the energy savings.

  Sensing that he could gain a tactical advantage over the enemy, Igor ordered his men to pour more fire on the central position, shattering glass and strafing the buildings with bullets where three assassins had been lying in wait. The screams bounced off the walls of the street. It was then he caught sight of Rob again, by the side of his one of young commandos, taking out two assassins expertly with just a Glock pistol in quick succession.

  The sheer volume of return fire you direct at the enemy is the deciding factor of any firefight. From a psychological standpoint, sensing that he was on the verge getting on top of things, Igor ensured that his fireteams reacted appropriately by ordering them around their vehicles to achieve a more effective posture or maximize firing, if required in one direction.

  Training tells you if one team is particularly exposed, direct other teams to increase fire while the exposed team moves to a better position. Igor did just that as he ordered Aytrom who was left with Mikhail and Thomas to act as body cover for Hayashi who they had pushed down the alley behind them and were standing in front of and behind him to protect him against any attacks.

  "Otchet," the Russian word for 'report,' he ordered so he could assess the situation.

  The radio crackle of his team reported in, using their call signs and a number to tell how many men were down. With everybody present and accounted for, a relived Igor decided it was time to "Break Contact."

  "Pereryv!" meaning 'Break!' he ordered in Russian.

  On the offensive now, he observed Rob professionally reload his clip and join his men to potentially lay down to sustain accurate fire on the enemy if needed.

  As Igor began to move to the position of Hayashi, one of the young commandos laid down smoke to conceal movement of the two units supporting each other so to enable them to deliver sustained accurate fire on the enemy by walking towards them and to establishing a new position. It was then he realized that they were in control of the environment for the assassins were not returning fire.

  Igor breathed a sigh of relief. Less than five minutes after the ambush had begun, it was over with him now standing over the last wounded assassin while his men took up threat positions at the front and the back and at the side of Hayashi in the alley. The sounds of multiple sirens could now be heard advancing on their position just as Rob joined Igor at his side.

  Igor looked at Rob. It only then his brain began to process the events of the last few minutes, including Rob's hidden abilities.

  "Where did you learn all that?" he asked in English with a look of respect towards Rob as he kicked the weapon away from the wounded assassin on the floor.

  Rob, usually a smiling person, ignored Igor for a moment. Instead he shot the assassin twice in the head with two rounds from his Glock without a second thought, again displaying the hallmarks of a professional in a kill zone.

  "Hunting in Afghanistan with the Sheikhs," Rob said without his customary smile as he put the Glock pistol back into the holster under his suit jacket. Before turning and walking towards Mikhail, who was lecturing Thomas like an old wife in angry Hebrew over the fact that he had put himself in harm's way again to protect a friend.

  Igor looked around him. The sounds of whimpering of innocent bystanders began to pierce his brain. It was then he realized how lucky they all were. The small street in Tokyo looked like a street in Damascus after a firefight. He quickly ordered his medic to try and help the wounded civilians and PSIA officers until the police arrived then followed the Englishman to check on Hayashi. As he did so he mused on Rob's response.

  "Okhota!" meaning 'hunting' in Russian, he muttered while shaking his head.

  49

  Beijing

  He hadn't admitted it to anybody but Steve Krivets had thoroughly enjoyed the flight to Beijing on one of the two Boeing VC-25s that usually carried the call sign "Air Force One" when the POTUS was onboard the aircraft. So much so he was already dreaming of the day when he could sit in the aircraft in his own blue flight jacket with the crest of the office of the Commander in Chief on it. For the moment, that thought needed to be put aside.

  Collecting his thoughts he stepped off the steps of the huge aircraft with Mike Dunross behind him to meet Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of China, and the world's assembled media live feeds who were on the tarmac along with the watching world, praying that a deal could be reached between People's Republic of China and the United States of America that would allow a ceasefire to be put into place.

  Lavrov was the first to speak.

  "Governor Krivets, it is a great honor to meet you," he said in flawless English.


  "Likewise, Sergey Viktorovich," answered Steve in Russian using his father's tongue and hiding his emotions while his mind processed the irony of the fact that the son of boy who had fled his homeland was shaking the hand as the representative of the very state that had persecuted his father and family in Belorussia in the 1940s before they escaped for a new life in the United States of America.

  Thomas, Rob, and Mikhail watched Hayashi take the official office of Prime Minister by bowing in front of the Emperor on television in the hotel suite.

  It had been a whirlwind forty-eight hours. Starting with the bloody attempt on their lives by Okazaki, a man the Japanese public and media were now calling a traitor and who, along with his most of his subordinates with the exception of Tsunoda, had been arrested by the PSIA, conveniently ignoring the fact that the man they were calling the "Little Monkey" openly now had been removed in a coup in the same manner as Morsi had been in Egypt, to the violent objections of his right wing supporters who were continuing to protest and clash all over Japan with the National Defense Force and riot police.

  It was Rob who broke the silence as they watched yet another water canyon spray high- pressure water in it attempts to disperse the protestors.

  "So where does O want the peace talks to take place?" he asked, referring to the tri-party talks that would take