AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Carefully, Rapp put the plastic cover back on the syringe and placed it in his robe. Then he began searching the room for any documents that might be useful. In the nightstand he found a gun. He removed the clip, emptied the chamber, and tossed the gun into the far corner.
Harris was now at the bedroom window his MP-10 at the ready. Over his radio he said, “Give me a sit rep by the numbers.” Turning to Rapp, he said, “Nice work, Mitch. I’m glad we could be here to watch.”
“We’re not out of here yet, Harry.” Rapp continued searching for anything of value.
Harris kept his eye on the street and listened to his men report in. When they were done, he said, “All right. Jordan and Tony, get your asses up here. Slick, keep me posted on what’s going on outside. We’re heading up to the roof.”
As Harris walked back into the kitchen, he pointed to the ladder on the far wall and said, “Reavers, get up on the roof and test the strobe . . . and make sure you check for wires on that hatch before you open it.”
Reavers climbed the short ladder and looked at the edges of the square hatch that led to the flat roof. After he was sure there were no booby traps, he opened the hatch and climbed onto the roof.
Harris, in the meantime, opened the back door just in time to greet his two men who were climbing the rickety stairs from the alley. Pointing to the front and back stairways Harris said, “Booby-trap both of ’em.” Then he spun and went back toward the bedroom saying, “Bravo Six, this is Whiskey Five. We are ready for pickup. What’s your ETA? Over.”
The reply from the helicopters came back. “We are seven two seconds out. I repeat, seven two seconds out. Over.”
Harris checked his watch. They were within fifteen seconds of their planned extraction time. “Slick, what’s going on outside?”
Down the street, Wicker rubbed the trigger guard of his rifle while he scanned the dark street with his night-vision scope. “Everything is quiet so far.”
Back in the bedroom, Rapp had turned his attention to cuffing and gagging Harut. Harris came through the doorway as he was finishing up.
“Mitch, let’s go. The chopper is on its way in.”
“Roger.” Rapp stuck a sheaf of documents in his waistband and threw Harut over his shoulder. He bounced the old man twice until he had him in the right position. Then he started for the ladder. As Rapp started to climb, he heard the first sign of trouble come over his earpiece.
4
Bandar Abbas, Iran
FROM ATOP HIS perch down the street, Wicker was keeping a careful eye on the street and humming a Bob Marley tune to himself. Peering through his optic-green night-vision scope, he kept his breathing shallow and smooth. Suddenly, the door from the downstairs apartment opened, and a man wearing a pair of underwear appeared with an AK-47 gripped in his hands.
“Harry,” the sniper spoke into his mike, “you’ve got company. The guy from the downstairs apartment just came outside.” Wicker watched through his scope as the man walked over to the slumped guard and shook his shoulder. The dead guard rolled from the chair to the ground, and the man stepped back quickly, bringing his AK-47 up to the firing position.
Wicker didn’t have to think—from the moment the man had stepped outside, his head had never left the crosshairs of the scope. The SEAL squeezed the trigger of his riffle, the suppressor at the end of the barrel hissed with the expulsion of gasses, and the bullet was away.
The heavy round hit the man in the side of the head and propelled him to the ground, his body tensing as it was thrown and his index finger compressing on the trigger of the AK-47. A two-round burst of the loud rifle broke the predawn silence.
“Tango down,” stated a calm Wicker as he began a sweep for other targets.
HARRIS WAS STANDING under Rapp, making sure he got up the ladder, when he heard what he instantly knew to be the distinctive sound of an AK-47 firing. There was a split-second pause, and then everybody kicked it into high gear. Harris stepped away from the ladder and listened as Wicker gave him an update. When he had heard enough, he yelled at Jordan and Tony, “Are you two almost done?”
Without looking up, Tony, the smaller of the two, said, “We’ll be right with you.”
Harris pulled the mike back down. “Reavers, any sign of our bird?”
Reavers had crawled to the edge of the roof to see what was happening on the street. He was looking down at the two dead bodies beneath him when his boss asked about the choppers. He looked up and scanned the horizon. The helicopters were nowhere in sight. “That’s a negative, Harry,” replied Reavers.
“Is the strobe up and running?” asked Harris. The strobe Harris was referring to was an infrared strobe light that was invisible to the naked eye but glaringly visible to anyone wearing night-vision goggles.
From his perch down the block Wicker did a quick check with his night-vision scope and noted the flashing light atop the house. “The strobe is active.”
Harris looked at his watch and turned back to his two men boobytrapping the stairs. “That’s it, everyone on the roof. Let’s go!”
The two men connected one last grenade and then scooted up the ladder. Harris followed them up and rolled onto the dirty flat roof. With his MP-10 in one hand, he closed the hatch. Spinning to check where his men were, the commander grabbed his night-vision binoculars and looked to the northwest, scanning the sky for the choppers. As he searched the horizon, he heard Wicker call, “More Tangos on the move.”
Wicker peered through his scope as two men, and then a third, appeared from the house across the street. All three were armed. Wicker maneuvered the scope and said, “Everyone stay down. I can handle it.” As the first man approached the bodies of the dead men on the street, Wicker centered in on the side of his head and squeezed off a round. He slid the Galil to the left just a touch and framed up the second man, who was now standing in shock while he watched the man in front of him crumple to the ground. Wicker squeezed the trigger again and moved on. The third man was backpedaling for the door, waving his arms and screaming. He never made it.
Harris dropped to his belly and quickly crawled to the edge of the flat roof. With his MP-10 up and ready, he looked over the edge at the bodies in the street. The SEALs were already deployed around the perimeter of the roof. Two covering the alley, and two covering the front. Rapp kneeled over the unconscious body of Harut and searched the sky for the helicopters.
