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We file in a straight line, heading for the back door of the embassy when it opens, and a stun grenade is thrown at us. I spin, reaching for the women, and throw myself over them while bringing my hands to my ears. The rest of my team drops with the remainder of the staff when the grenade explodes. The force of the blast wracks through my body like the hit of a freight train. My breath is knocked out of my lungs, but I don’t let it stop me from grabbing my gun and jumping back up to my feet. Even though my entire body feels like it is rattling and rolling, as if it’s riding a giant rollercoaster, I know more hostiles will be coming through that door any damn second.
Gates, Ortiz, and Hopper are quick to their feet, our guns raised, while the insurgents burst through the door, yelling and screaming their religious fanatical rants.
I drop to one knee when Gates takes off to the side to catch the hostiles trying to run into the other room. Ortiz and Hopper shoot over my head, and I take shots straight at the insurgents’ knees, stopping them as soon as they begin running for us.
Ortiz and Hopper take out any I don’t catch in time before they reach the assets we’ve acquired. Blood is splattered everywhere, all over the embassy walls. I can only imagine the briefing that Gates will have to give ‘the brass’ when we get home.
Gates sprints back, blood covering his tactical gear. I stand and grip his shoulder. “You good, Gates?”
He puffs, like he’s just been in a hand-to-hand, but nods. “We gotta get these people to the extraction point before we’reoverrun.”
“Yes, sir… Ortiz, Hopper, let’s get these assets into the helo, now!”
They nod, gathering the assets, and we form a file, making our way out the door where the insurgents entered. Stepping over their dead bodies, I keep my eyes focused all around me, checking for more hostiles.
Keeping an eye on the assets.
Knowing there are still more we need to get to.
But we can only take so many at a time.
Gates leads the way.
I spin around and press my hand on one woman’s head. “Stay low!” I indicate to all, and then we run out onto the back patio. Instantly, a potted plant smashes next to me. I spin, spotting an insurgent rushing for us, so I signal to Gates to take off. “Go, go,go!” I yell.
They take off, running over the grass for the waiting helo, as I drop low behind a planter box laying in cover fire. I take out the insurgent firing on me and another running with a knife toward Gates and the team.
My palms begin to sweat with the intensity of the moment. The embassy is overwhelmed by hostiles, and we need to get these helos off the ground. I continue to lay cover fire, allowing the assets to be loaded onto one of the two helos. As I spin around, another wave of insurgents scale the fence of the embassy.
I let out a heavy exhale as I glance back at the building. A window above me smashes, a body flying out of the second story and slams on the ground beside me. I duck, drawing my weapon. It’s a US embassy worker covered in blood, so I rush over to check for a pulse.
But there’s nothing.
“Dammit!” I grunt, my eyes shifting back to the fence. Theweight of the insurgents climbing has made the iron collapse, and now they’re rushing the embassy doors. I snap my head to the helos. The first one is taking off with the assets we collected safely inside. My muscles relax slightly, but I know our primary asset, the US ambassador and his family, have not yet been accounted for.
They are our primary target.
They are our mission.
“Breach, breach. Hostiles are seizing the embassy. Evac. Evac. Landry, get the fuck out of there,” Gates calls over the comms, my team waving at me from the squad helo. I turn back to the embassy, breathing fast and frantic while reaching for my comms. “Negative. We havenotacquired the primary asset. I’m going back in. I repeat. I am going back in.”
I turn, heading for the back entrance. “Landry. Abort. This is a direct order. Mission compromised. Too many hostiles for us to safely retrieve the ambassador and his family. I repeat.Mission. Abort.”
Shaking my head, I ignore my company commander and take off to find the ambassador. He’s got two young kids. I saw firsthand what these fucking assholes did to grown women. I can’t even imagine what they will do to innocent children.
There’s no way I am letting them get their hands on them.
I raise my rifle higher, knowing I am heavily outnumbered, and without my team behind me, I’m going this alone.
“Dammit, Landry, you sonofabitch!” Gates yells down the comms. So I pull it out of my ear and make my way inside, an insurgent on me instantly. His fist slams into the side of my head, my eyes blinking a few times with the force of the hit as I spin around, grabbing my knife from my belt while he rams me up against the wall of the building. He screams some shit in my face, but I grit my teeth, bringing my knife up and ram it into the side of his neck. The push and pull of the ligament make itharder to twist the knife. He screams out something in his native tongue, blood spurting from the wound when I pull the blade out of his neck violently and slam it back in again, twisting once more.
The hostile gargles for breath he can’t catch as a bullet flies past my head, lodging into the white wall beside me. I shift my head to the side to dodge the incoming spray and swing the hostile into the line of fire. The bullets pummel him, his body ricocheting with the movements. When clear, I toss him to the side and dart around the corner into the building, panting for breath, covered in his blood.
Taking a second to breathe, I glance at the stairs, calculating where the ambassador and his family might be.
But I was already upstairs.
He wasn’t there.
