CHAPTER ONE
Monday, January 8th
Djibouti
Bryce stepped out of the barracks at Camp Lemonnier and felt the sun beat down on his neck as he took a moment to look around. The US military’s operational hub on the Horn of Africa had the lonely dust-swept feel of a lot of the other combat posts, and he wondered what the team was in for.
Hearing his name, he turned and saw Lt. Jax Collins walking in his direction along with two other teammates. “Mornin’.”
“Back at ya’, young samurai,” Jax replied as he slapped him on the back. “Are you heading to the chow hall?”
“Affirmative.”
Throwing his thumb over his shoulder, he motioned to the two other men. “Ace and Caid have not had the pleasure of being in this part of the world, so fill them in on what you’ve discovered.”
“Not sure how much information I have since I’ve only changed planes in Djibouti and participated in just the one training exercise in Chad.”
“Don’t be shy, ‘cause I know you have a file full of facts stored in that brain of yours.”
Looking down at the ground, he nodded. “I do know the US took over the base soon after the September 11 terror attacks, and we’ve shared it with the French on and off since then. The Chinese are looking to establish a presence along with a handful of other nations, due not only to its proximity to several hot spots, but also the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
Caid clapped him on the back and grinned. “Jax told us you’re like a human Google, seems he didn’t lie.” Looking around, he grinned. “Just left Syria a couple of weeks ago, so this is a nice change of pace.”
Ace strode past them and snorted. “Let’s grab some grub and then you can give us the full download. I can’t absorb any intel when I’m hungry, so I’ve got to refuel.”
“You’re always hungry,” Jax responded.
“True, I’m like a damn bear and operate better when I’ve been fed.” He threw a look over his shoulder and grinned. “I’m 6’1”, one hundred ninety-five pounds of get the hell out of my way it’s breakfast time. Best no one gets in my way.”
Bryce followed the trio and kept his mouth shut. As the youngest member of the platoon, he knew it was his place until he earned the right to do otherwise. This trip to Africa marked his third deployment, and while he was confident that he’d contributed something to each op he’d been on, he knew he was nowhere near the level of the three men walking ahead of him. Each one of them had at least five years’ experience on him, and in SEAL time, that was like fifty.
Which meant he kept his head down and learned as much as he could, as quickly as he could.
Draining his coffee cup, Bryce leaned back and looked around the packed chow hall and hoped his new CO was going to live up to Jax’s positive review. He’d had a ton of luck with his first two commanders and didn’t want the next one to break the streak.
As the men pushed away their empty trays, the man in question joined them. Lt. Cmdr. Jason Warner was, by all accounts, a legendary and fearless SEAL, and Bryce looked forward to learning as much as he could from him.
“All present and accounted for,” Jason barked as he sat down with his cup of coffee. “We’ve got an intel briefing in thirty minutes, and then we’ll have time this afternoon to put our plan together. Looks like TOC wants the kill or capture mission to happen in the next thirty-six hours, so we’re not going to have time to dick around.”
“Not a problem ‘cause we can do this shit in our sleep,” Jax responded confidently. “As long as we don’t have to hand-hold the local UN Peacekeepers on the way in or out, we’re golden.”
Jason studied each man in the group with an uncompromising gaze. “And then you woke up from that dream and pulled your head out of your ass.”
The men erupted in laughter and Bryce joined them. Seemed that under the rock façade the Lt. Cmdr. had in place lay a sense of humor. Which just proved once again, his mama was right when she told him never to assume a thing.
“Our directive here is to help African nations solve African problems, but they don’t have the training and resources that we do, so it’s up to us to grab the HVT from the Islamic Maghreb.” He looked over at Bryce and grinned. “Heard you were the human Google, so I’m looking forward to working with you. Frisco told me you’re one to watch, so I’m pleased to have you on my six.”
“Appreciate that, sir.”
“The only thing I ask is don’t help me like you did with him because I’ve got no immediate plans to get hitched.”
Looking down at the table, he nodded. “Absolutely.”
Ace slapped him on the back and laughed. “Me too, brother. Don’t want anything like that for a long time if ever.”
“Roger that.”
“Now that we’ve got that cleared up, let’s head over to the Task Force Compound on the other side of the base. Naval Intelligence has a nice set-up from what I’ve heard since joint SOF missions are being run out of here on a regular basis. I’ve been assured we’ll have everything we need, so let’s hope that’s true.”
“Let’s get some,” Jax said as he stood.
Bryce stood along with the other men and then got rid of his tray, joining the team as they walked out of the chow hall. Counting himself lucky once again for having the chance to do what he loved, he strode out into the mid-day sun and grinned.
***
Daphne sat in the back of the briefing room of the Task Force Compound and waited for the team of SEALs to arrive. The intel they’d just received reconfirmed the location of the High-Value Target, and the snatch and grab had to happen in the next thirty-two hours.
Which would be a terrific way to end her time in Djibouti. Her twenty-four-month assignment was coming to an end next week, and she was ready to return to the States. Her work with the Joint Intelligence Center had been fulfilling, but it was time to take the next step, and she hoped the NSW Support Activity One group in Coronado would prove to be just that.
The door swung open, and she felt an immediate change in the room’s atmosphere and knew the SEALs had arrived. Glancing up, she saw five men enter and felt a wave of testosterone wash into the room as they took their seats.
Which meant this was just another day in paradise.
Thankfully, she was no longer fazed by SOF operators and took their behavior in stride. It had taken longer than she liked to admit, but she was well on the other side of letting any of the men get under her skin.
All it had taken was one particularly aggressive lieutenant questioning her ability to do her job to get a backbone, and now that she had it, she wasn’t ever going back.
Rear Admiral Keller stood at the front of the room and, once the men were seated, he gave her a nod, indicating she was about to be up. Collecting her laptop and tablet, she stood and waited for him to go through his introductory speech.
“Good morning,” Keller barked. “We’ve got a short window, so I won’t waste time with a welcome speech. You men are here to grab the HVT and we’ve got the intel to make that happen. Chief Intelligence Officer Ross will brief you, and then we’ll open it up for questions.”
Jason stood and shook hands with Keller and then Daphne. “Sounds good, let me introduce my team and then we can get started. “As you know, I’m Lt. Cmdr. Jason Warren and starting to my left, we’ve got: Lt. Jax Collins, CPO; Ace Henderson, SCO; Caid Adams, and finally Lt. Bryce Andrews.”
Daphne followed Keller and shook each man’s hand and noticed the youngest man, Lt. Andrews was drop-dead handsome, even by SEAL standards. Moving to the front of the room, she set her things on the table and firmly ignored his engaging smile. “Welcome to Djibouti.” She turned the laptop on, opened the file, and grabbed the remote control. “I’ll give you a short summary of the group we’re dealing with and then give you the particulars of the location where the HVT is staying.”
“Before you start, has anything changed on the timeframe?” Jason asked.
“Right now, we’re still looking at a thirty-two, maybe thirty-four-hour window.”
“Roger that.”
Bringing up an image, she pointed to the map and cleared her throat. “Following a directive from the DIA, we’ve been tracking the ongoing changes in the Islamic Maghreb or AQIM. As you know, they are the Islamist militant faction that’s currently operating in the Sahel Region. Their main source of income is kidnapping for ransom and, to date, we estimate they’ve raised more than fifty million dollars.”
“Where does their membership come from?” Ace asked as he leaned forward.
Moving through her slides, she brought up a picture of the group. “Membership is mostly drawn from the Algerian and local Saharan communities as well as the Berabiche tribal clans of Mali.” She clicked on another one and pointed to the screen. “Meet your HVT, Yahya Abu el Hammam. He’s the senior leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and has a five-million-dollar bounty on his head. He’s played a key role in perpetuating AQIM’s terrorist activities in West Africa and Mali as well as Mauritania.”
“Is he the top dog?” Jax asked.
“No, but we believe he’s the mastermind behind the 2015 Bamako hotel attack, as well as the one at the hotel in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou. The leader of the group is veteran Malian jihadist, Iyad Ag Ghaly and every time we’ve gotten close to discovering his whereabouts, he slips away.”
Daphne noticed Bryce raising his hand and was momentarily taken aback by the good manners it displayed. Most of the time, men just shouted out their questions or talked over her, and she couldn’t believe the handsome lieutenant was showing her so much respect. “Lieutenant, what’s your question?”
Standing, he tipped his head before he spoke. “Ma’am, I was wondering why this particular splinter terrorist group is so important that they had us hightail it out of Coronado in the dead of night.” Holding up his hands, he let out a chuckle. “Not that they’re all not real important and worth taking out.”
Handsome as sin, polite, smart, and a southern drawl. Didn’t get much better than the man standing in front of her, which isn’t what she should be thinking about. “That’s a good question because I believe knowing all the facts about your opponent ensures you won’t have too many nasty surprises when you come face to face.”
“That was my thought,” he replied as he sat down.
Jax let out a laugh and slapped Bryce on the back. “Lt. Andrews likes to have as many facts as possible.”
“I feel the same way,” she replied as she looked down at her khaki uniform pants.
Realizing she hadn’t answered his question, she cleared her throat. When she looked up, she was immediately hit with a smile that almost knocked her off her feet. Giving him one of her own, she then responded. “To answer your question: radicalization and human trafficking are major threats in the impoverished Sahel region, and one U.N. agency estimates there are over forty-one million young people who face hopelessness. Which means they’re at risk of joining extremist groups either voluntarily or through force. With al-Qaeda’s continued presence as well as ISIS in the area, we’d like to make their recruiting efforts as difficult as possible. In order to have a chance at changing the narrative, we need to eliminate as many leaders as we can. Your team is being charged with that responsibility, and we have every reason to believe capturing Abu el Hammam will disrupt the group’s activities long enough to make our goal possible.”
“Which is exactly what we’ll be doing,” Lt. Cmdr. Warner replied.
“The last thing the world needs is millions of more jihadists and taking out the brains of the operation is the best way to do that.”
“Agreed,” Jason replied. “Anything else we need to know or is it time to get into the particulars?”
Checking her notes, she scanned them and then looked at the group. “That covers the background, so let’s move on to where he’s located and the resources we have available.”
“Great,” Jason responded as he looked at his men. “Now the fun begins.”
Tapping into the satellite feed, she brought up an image of Timbuktu in Mali. “If you’ve ever heard a joke about going all the way to Timbuktu, then you’ll appreciate the op you’re about to embark on.”
“They said I’d get to go to exotic places when I joined the Teams and I can’t say they were lying,” Jax called out as he leaned forward and studied the map.
“Timbuktu was under the control of AQIM about a year and a half ago, and the once bustling city is still a refuge for many jihadists. Back when it was still a democratic country, we poured a billion dollars into it and sent Green Berets to help improve the Malian army’s ability to police its desert wilderness. Fast forward to a bloody military coup and two-thirds of its territory is controlled by al-Qaeda aligned Islamists.”
“Too much territory, too few soldiers to make a real difference,” Jason commented.
She pulled up another image. “A succession of forces has tried to wrest back control of Mali’s vast northern plains and the latest is the G5 Sahel. It’s composed of soldiers from the five countries affected by the crisis – Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, and Chad. We’ve contributed 60 million to the effort, the EU has promised 59 million, and the UAE just announced they will contribute 150 million.
“That’s a lot of money flowing into the effort, no wonder we got called in,” Bryce remarked as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Daphne flashed him a quick smile and the one he gave her in return almost knocked her over…again. Stunned for a second, she ran her hand over her tablet and decided to focus on the Lt. Cmdr. for the rest of the briefing. “Even with all the money flowing in, Timbuktu is not immune to violence. Just last week in a region outside the city, attacks continued against the UN and civilians.”
“Let’s plan two insertion options,” Jason said as he stood and moved toward the screen that showed the map of the city. “My first instinct is to be fast and furious, but I’d like to have a backup plan.” Turning toward Jax, he nodded. “You’re the ground force commander on this one, so work with Bryce and give us two choices, then we’ll run through both later.”
“Roger that,” Jax responded.
Daphne pulled up several different images from the satellites. “Let’s get into it then, so you guys can come up with a plan on how to make that happen.”
The men shouted a loud hooyah and got up from their seats and walked up to the screens. Seeing their determination and excitement made all the long months she spent developing and refining the intel completely worth it.
This was her dream job, and when she got to be involved with ops like this, she knew she was lucky to be chasing her goals.