AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Scratching his head, Alex wrote down the slang in a notebook he had in front of him. “You have very, very strange sayings,” was all he muttered, refusing to look at Lauren, embarrassed by his own visualization of the words. “Mission compromise. Backup plan. Rally point. Yes?”
“Correct. We call it a rally point,” Cal said. He took a deep breath. Inwardly, he thanked the medic for being here. It broke up the deadly tension in the room. Everyone here wanted Sky rescued, assuming she was still there, or alive. Cal knew they would give their lives to make it happen. He’d give his own. It was serious business, but black humor often rose at such times, a natural bleeding off of stress. Laughter was the best medicine. Even in cases like this, and these operators were no stranger to it.
“Do we know where these soldiers sleep?” Lauren asked.
“There’s a two-story barracks fifty feet away on the southwest side of the villa. I’m betting the ex-Spetsnaz bunk in there. When they’re not on duty, they’re at that building.”
“There can be guards IN the villa at night, too,” Cal warned them. “We have already seen there are sentries twenty-four hours a day outside the villa. Thanks to the satellite flyovers, we know their schedule. We’ll time entering the villa so we aren’t going to be compromised.”
“Which would mean,” Lauren said, talking more to herself than anyone else, “that Alexandrov doesn’t have motion sensors right around the villa. It’s an open space. We can slip from river to inside the villa without being seen.”
“Correct,” Cal said. “And if this is true, that’s a big plus for our side.” He looked over at Alex. “Would Alexandrov have guards inside the villa at night?”
“Doubtful,” Alex said, gesturing toward the blueprint on the screen. “Because he has three sentries outside. Why would he also have them inside? I think Alexandrov, like his dead son, wants his home free of everything. It’s a place where he owns the territory.”
“My thoughts are the same,” Jack interjected.
“What about servants?” Lauren demanded. “Dr. Zapata said she saw a number of servants running around performing various tasks.”
“There’s another building here,” Cal said, using the laser pointer. “It is due west of the villa, about half the size of the soldier’s barracks. I’m guessing that the servants live there when they’re not on duty over at the villa.”
“The real question,” Alex said, “is how many people are up and awake and walking around at 0300 in the morning within the villa?”
“That’s the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question,” Cal agreed.
Lauren saw Alex write down the slang. “It means,” she told the operator, “that is the most important question.”
“Thank you,” Alex murmured, flashing her a grateful look.
Lauren nodded, feeling her heart tug. The man was a simple farmer at heart. She tried to resurrect her walls against Alex. Being around him was wearing her down. Ordinarily, she could keep anyone at arm’s length. Since Jack and Alex had arrived, they’d all worked closely together, assembling the intel, moving like a well-oiled team. The more she was around him, the harder it was becoming to not let the big teddy bear get to her. She nodded, holding back the scowl she usually gave to warn him off.
Jack sat up, scribbling some info in his notebook. “If necessary, we will flex cuff servants if we find them within the villa, duct tape their mouths, wrists, and ankles so they can’t raise the alarm or run off. If it’s a guard, we’ll use our pistols, which will have a silencer on them to muffle any sounds. We shoot to kill, not wound.”
Everyone agreed.
Jack looked at Alex. “You’re the lynch pin in all of this. Your mission is to get to the security room, kill the guards, and disable the villa’s power. Everything in that room is probably written in Russian, and you’re the only one who reads and speaks the language. Are you clear on your objective?”
Alex nodded. “Absolutely. After I get in, I disable guards and quickly read the set up, then I am to hit the kill switches on all the generators. That leaves them without electricity. We will all be wearing night vision goggles and we will be able to see through the darkness.” He held up his large hand, spreading his fingers. “By denying the surrounding area of electricity, it means their sensors and cameras will not work, either. It will disable any device in or outside of the villa. I then radio you and Cal. Both of you will go down the hall and try to locate Sky. Once you have her in hand, you will call Lauren, who will start driving toward the villa. I will then leave the control room and meet you. I will provide back up. And we will exfil to the parking area.”
Cal nodded. Everything hinged on Alex. They’d be up a creek if he didn’t read and speak Russian. None of them knew that language. “We need to do a weapon’s check after this mission briefing. All pistols and rifles will have silencers on them.” He knew Alex would use Russian weapons because he was comfortable with the operation of them. And on an op, knowing one’s weapon, if it jammed, could mean the difference between living and dying. Alex was training on U.S. weapons out at the firing range, but his muscle memory was in the use of the weapons he’d used for nearly a decade as a Spetsnaz operator.
“Any other questions?” Cal demanded. He saw his team shake their heads almost in unison. “Okay,” he growled, “let’s get to the armory.”
July 14
Cal wished tohell he had a mental telepathy link with Sky. To tell her they were coming. His gut instinct told him she was alive and, in that villa—somewhere. He sat on the edge of his bed, dressed in his black wetsuit, his balaclava nearby. They’d be donning Kevlar helmets with a rail system on top for their NVG’s, night vision goggles. His mind moved over all the details. People got killed or wounded if they didn’t pay attention to the details. An operator’s existence hinged on them. He’d cleaned his SIG Sauer pistol, screwed the silencer on it. His M4 was cleaned and ready to go. It was a compact rifle, easy to carry, a multi-use weapon and hell on accuracy. And Cal knew how to unjam it and stay in the fight if it occurred.
His watch read 2300, eleven p.m. In fifteen minutes, they would be driven to the main airport, to a hangar that was out of the way. There, two Night Stalker pilots would be flying them by Army Black Hawk up to the area in the cloud forest. They would fast rope down because it was all jungle and no place to land.
He was restless, pacing, his mind focused on the mission. Occasionally, Cal would feel his chest heave, as if a ton of emotions wanted to escape from it and be given voice. His heart ached. He tried not to think about Sky, but it was impossible. Was she alright? Injured? Sick? Dead? No one knew. He hated not knowing. They were going into a hornet’s nest where so much could go wrong in the blink of an eye.So much…
Would he ever see Sky again? Would he ever hold her in his arms? Kiss her? Feel her snuggle up against him at night in bed? Hear her laughter? Watch her incredible blue eyes go luminous with love for him alone? And she was carrying his baby. Their child. Rubbing his face wearily, Cal felt like he was literally carrying the weight of the world around on his shoulders. This op couldn’t get started fast enough for him. And it was the most important op of his life.
July 15
The Black Hawkhovered at one hundred and twenty feet, just above the triple canopy, as the team fast roped down into the shadowy jungle. The wheels on the Black Hawk were brushing the tops of the tallest trees. Wind slapped and hit Cal as he quickly slithered down the rope, his boots hitting the ground. Around him, his team silently dropped nearby. After giving the radio signal to the pilot above them, the ropes were released from the deck of the bird by the air crew chief, dropping around them on the ground. The helicopter rose swiftly, heading north, away from them and the villa. Quickly, they hid the ropes and got ready to trot two miles. The river was only a feet away, and Cal had his NVG’s down across his eyes as he studied the slow moving, black surfaced river. The good news was that there was plenty of bank vegetation, high enough for them to hide behind once they entered the water. Luck was always a big part of any mission. So far, it was on their side, as they all gathered and tightened the straps of their rucks. Jack led the way, followed by Cal and Alex. Lauren had left hours earlier and driven the SUV three hours up into the Monte Verde cloud forest. She was parked one mile up the road from the villa, lights off, hidden. Waiting and in constant radio contact with them.
They moved out at a swift, silent clip. If Cal had any doubts about Alex being in top shape, they were now put to rest. He wasn’t a SEAL like the rest of them, but he easily kept the pace. A mile from the villa, they halted, hiding behind nearby brush, and pulled off their combat boots and stuffed them into their rucks. They replaced them with the rubber booties that completed their wet suit.
