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“So, yes. Do you know where their barracks are located?”
“We don’t have any interior details that aren’t on the diagram. And those are based on my memory and the memory of a man who was imprisoned there for a while.”
Rapp decided to omit the fact that the informant in question was brain damaged.
“So, you’ve actually been inside? How hardened is the interior?”
“A lot of concrete and secure doors, but most of it was built as a hospital. Not a military installation.”
“What about the civilians?”
“Don’t care.”
“So, we can just shoot at anything that moves?”
It wasn’t ideal, but it was the reality. Beyond the guards, they were talking about scientists doing experiments on their fellow human beings and a bunch of hopelessly drug-addicted insurgents. Even the women from the refugee camps likely wouldn’t be completely innocent. Not many people in Syria were and he wasn’t going to endanger his men trying to sort the good from the bad.
“If everyone in that building dies except our target, I’m not going to lose sleep over it.”
“Is there anything you lose sleep over?”
“Not much.”
“Okay. Well, I admit that makes things easier. Do we know where our guy is?”
“Skip to the next page.”
The former SEAL did, taking a moment to scan it. “Let me guess. The top floor with all the windows.”
“Yeah.”
“It’ll keep him out of harm’s way, but also make him harder to get to. Doable, though. My main problem isn’t the compound, it’s what’s around it. Nothing. They’ll see us coming twenty miles out. Are there any supply vehicles we could catch a ride on?”
“One in particular,” Rapp responded. “A Russian Ural. The schedule’s a little loose, but we know where it originates. They bring in prisoners from near Damascus.”
“Might work,” Coleman conceded. “A Ural’s big enough to fit all our people and gear if we squeeze.”
He set the laptop aside and ran his fingers through close-cropped blond hair. “Getting hold of the truck is workable. We’ve done this kind of thing before and there are going to be plenty of lonely places on the road that won’t support high speeds. What bothers me is what happens when we get there. Depending on which estimate you rely onwe’re outnumbered by experienced operators with a home field advantage. We also have the problem of them getting out a call for help. We could have Russian choppers on top of us in less than an hour. Finally, we’ve got a target who can’t be harmed and who I assume is someone their security forces are going to be specifically looking out for, right? You didn’t bring us here to grab the janitor.”
“No, not the janitor,” Rapp confirmed.
“And there’s the issue of getting him out of there and out of Syria. What am I not seeing here, Mitch? Even if we manage to pull it off, we’ll be lucky to not lose half our men.”
Rapp pulled up a chair he’d salvaged and sat. “What you’re not seeing is the underground garage.”
“I don’t think parking is our biggest hurdle here.”
He ignored his friend’s jibe. “It’s a big space with serious structural problems. Our target is in the newer, better-built section.”
“I’m not following you.”
“We let our guys out at the gate. Then someone drives the truck into the garage and blows a few hundred pounds of incendiaries and Semtex. Even if we don’t bring the building down, we go a long way toward neutralizing their advantage.”
“It’s an interesting idea, and you said they’re supposed to be bringing in prisoners, right? That means a bunch of shooters are going to be in that garage waiting for them to get there. The problem is that I don’t see any version of your plan where the driver of the truck survives.”
Rapp leaned the chair back on two legs, causing it to creak dangerously. “Let me worry about that. You just worry about the rest.”
CHAPTER 37
