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Chapter 14
The Team 5 building was just as dirty and dark as Brady had always remembered it when he was active. That and the fact that someone hadn’t taken out the trash over the weekend, so there was the distinct odor of rotten food, warm beer, and stale pizza wafting through the air. He also could smell the rusting barbells and equipment they often used and never wiped down. For being part of an elite team like SEAL Team 5, Brady was struck with the fact that this was no way to treat important military assets.
The Navy liaison he’d arranged to meet them there and let them inside looked the group over and appeared to be right out of high school. Brady knew he had at least a college degree and perhaps a masters too, but he sure looked young.
“You all on Team 5 together?”
“Nah, we got Carter and Enemario here… Well, we’ve got a cop, ex-cop. We’ve got a Marine sniper. And what else do we got here?” he said as he looked around the circle of friends.
“We got assholes and elbows, not a lot of time, and a plane to catch,” said Riley.
“I got you,” the young liaison told them. “Your transport has arrived and is fueling right now. We’ve had a change of pilots, one of the pilots anyway. You know how those roll, right? No peanuts, no coffee, no special snacks. By the look at some of your bags, I’m guessing you’re bringing your own set of snacks.”
Carter stepped forward and nodded his head. “Yeah, them biscuits is rather heavy, and I like jam on them, lots of jam.”
Everyone laughed.
They reintroduced each other as the liaison left. Brady laid out on their plan table where they were headed and what exactly was going to be the timeline.
“Charlie’s decided that, with all the crap we’re bringing, doing a halo jump is probably not practical. They’ve lined up an abandoned naval training runway, and we’re going to land at night by flares. If for some reason the guys don’t show up to give us some light, then we’re going to toss everything over the edge and go for the jump. But that’s not optimal for obvious reasons.”
Armando scrunched his eyes together. “Oh man, I’m not dropping my baby from the sky like that. She’d never be the same. I think that’s a bad idea. Maybe we wait till morning and land then or land at dawn. We could wait and take off later. But throwing these things out of the plane, no way, man. That’s a no-go for me.”
Brady saw that several others agreed with that assessment.
“Okay, I’m going to give Charlie a call and see if she can make that happen. I’m okay with landing at dawn. But the real problem is there’s supposed to be a whole shit pile of Mexican militia arriving in the morning. We don’t know how early they’ll be, so we have to be there waiting for them, not arriving after they do.”
“I got you,” said Fredo, nodding. “Then we take a chance. I don’t know if you gentlemen have looked outside, but we got a full moon tonight. I say we land even if we got no flares. And last time I flew in one of these things, the pilot’s had the last say. So ask them.”
“Fair enough. Let’s see what they say.”
Brady showed them the path from the runway they were going to attempt to land at, including the road toward the public airport that was under siege. He showed them several buildings housing military troops or government private security, explaining they were to avoid any kind of contact—official or otherwise—with any of the people close to those buildings.
“The idea is we just grab the van that, hopefully, will be waiting for us, load up, and get out of Dodge quickly while the plane takes off. And then we make it over to the airport and try to find some spot where we can set out. I talked to Sergio about a half hour ago on the way here, and he told me there was a maintenance hangar in the back with a private underground tunnel to the baggage handlers’ area. We’re going to have to try to find one of those little electric carts, and if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll find some uniforms. That’s what we’re going to be posing as, baggage handlers. I think that might get us inside the airport.”
The men nodded, and he continued. “You’re instructed to take as many pictures as you can get away with, but don’t caught doing so. We aren’t exactly sure who’s in charge, but we do know there’s a large gathering of customers or relatives arriving for pickup or drop off over here in this maintenance hangar. It’s going to be a zoo in there, and from the pictures on the TV, there’s going to be at least three or four hundred people in that one hangar. I’m not sure we’ll be noticed if we spread out. We’re looking for this priest.” Brady laid out a wrinkled piece of paper. “His name is Father Salvador, and Maggie is my wife.”
He showed a picture from his wallet of Maggie’s smiling face standing at the beach.
“Will the priest be in his regular garb or will he be in street clothes?” Fredo asked.
“I have no idea. But you three that are fluent in Spanish, I want you to mingle in the crowd and try to pick up any information about what they’re doing with the Americans there. Also, if there’s any indication or discussion about the priest. Our intel on this is a little sketchy, so anything you can learn could be important.”
Brady continued. “If you see Maggie or the priest, you want to make sure you don’t cause them to overreact. Just be very calm and explain who you are and probably also explain that we have a whole team here. And our job is going to be to get them and the Americans out. I think we only spend half an hour there, and if we don’t find them in that length of time, then we get out. We can pretend to pick up garbage, straighten chairs, straighten suitcases, whatever looks official. Grab a broom, whatever. But if we look like we are supposed to be there, then we shouldn’t fall under scrutiny. When the big guns arrive, and I’m told that’s going to be sometime in the morning, that’s when the shit’s really going to hit the fan. It would be ideal if we could get Maggie and the priest and any other Americans we can identify off to the side where we could extract them easily.”
He watched the team begin to comprehend, nod their heads, and become one cohesive unit. It was a thing of beauty, Brady thought.
“We aren’t going to have any overhead support. The cavalry’s not going to come in and save our butts if we get into trouble, so gents, we got to be smart about this. But I’ve given all of you Charlie’s personal phone number, and if anything goes sideways or I get detained or somehow injured, I want you to call her first and let her know what the status is. Any questions?”
Brady answered a few questions about logistics, where they’d be staying, and where they would go next if Maggie and the priest were not found at the terminal.
“Well, that’s the thing. We’re here to rescue Americans and not to draw attention to that. So we’re supposed to find out who’s there, write it down, make sure you put it someplace so that if you get captured they’re not going to see that you’ve got a list of Americans on you. Get creative guys. Maybe take a picture with your cell phones and eat the list, I don’t know, but you’re here to try to find Americans and the priest. So even if we have to leave without Maggie, we get the Americans out. And they’re not to bring a whole entourage of helpers and staff and people of that nature. There are going to be some businessmen who are trying to leave due to the situation down there. But we’re only bringing Americans out right now. We’ll try to help others later on a case-by-case basis. That’s not my call.”
Brady excused himself so he could check in with Charlie.
“We’re about to take off. The consensus is they want to land, not do a halo jump. I think there’s wisdom in that. Riley’s got some explosives; so does Fredo. Armando’s got some really expensive long guns. I don’t think anybody wants their stuff ruined or exploding when it hits the ground.”
“It’s up to the pilots, but do whatever’s the safest. If they tell you to jump, then I’m afraid you’re going to have to make a decision. And if you want to save your equipment, well, then you leave it on the plane. This is not negotiable. Those guys in the cockpit are the ones making the decision, because they’re the ones responsible for getting you safely there and back. Anybody have any unusual questions or things you couldn’t answer?”
“No, ma’am. Other than where do we sleep.”
“Well, Brady, you know the answer to that one. Any fucking where you can. You take turns, you sleep in shifts, and you make sure there are at least two to four sets of eyes on everything even while some people are sleeping. I know you know that, but if you’re not sure about something, take a picture and send it to me or text me.”
“I’ve given everybody your number in case something happens to me there.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to you, Brady. That’s why we picked you in the first place. But I’m here to tell you very senior members of this administration are paying close attention to your little op. If you guys fail, you’re going to make it harder for the other teams to go in and do the job. Because the bad guys keep changing things up, moving the pieces around. They’ll refortify and probably split everybody up. Let’s get it done the first time, okay?”
“Absolutely, ma’am. I’m kind of excited. It sure beats waiting. I don’t do—”
She stopped him cold. “I know, you don’t do ‘wait’ very well. Well, here’s a little factoid for you. Neither do I.”
