CHAPTER 1
He waited in the reeds. An RPG launcher rested on top of his shoulder as he watched for the enemy from his hiding place along the road.
His persistence finally paid off. He heard the US force moving toward him. Training gave him the patience to hold until they were dead ahead.
Dead.
He grinned at that word since, for all intents and purposes, they would soon be dead.
Zeroing in on his target, he stood, sighted and then fired. The rocket-propelled grenade cut through the air with a trail of smoke and its unmistakable sound.
The soldiers heard it coming, but it was too late. That tended to be the problem with RPGs. By the time you heard them coming you were as good as gone.
The concussion of the explosion caused the soldiers on foot to fall where they stood. The vehicles behind the ground pounders stopped, the passengers scurrying out. He watched their panic.
Nothing felt as good as a successful mission. He hadn’t totally destroyed the force, but he’d done quite a bit of damage with just the one RPG. Enough to teach them a lesson and hadn’t that been his goal to begin with? Though right now, it was time to get moving.
He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Allah achbar!”
God is great.
That little bit of shouted Arabic had the soldiers scrambling faster than even the incoming RPG had.
Sorry he couldn’t stick around to watch the aftermath, he took off running as a spray of gunfire peppered the area where he’d been.
Amid the noise, he heard the scattered orders and curses behind him as the soldiers tried to get their fallen men to cover.
He sped to the next previously selected point of attack, then launched another rocket, this time at one of the trucks. The soldiers would think there were more attackers hiding than there actually were because of the multiple assaults in rapid succession from different locations.
That done, he took off for cover farther away. He wouldn’t strike again just yet. Let them think the danger had passed, then he and his team would hit with an improvised explosive device when it was least expected.
A nice IED would shake things up. He was getting bored with the old Russian RPG launcher anyway.
Explosions were much more fun and, when you knew what you were doing, child’s play to set up. His team probably had a few in place already.
After reaching a point a safe distance from the strike zone, he hit the ground behind an outcropping of rock. Enjoying a rare, brief moment of leisure, he pulled a bottle of water out of his pack and took a long swallow. He wiped a dribble from his beard with the back of one hand just as footsteps to his right drew his attention.
“Pigeon Two approaching Songbird from the north.” The voice came through his earpiece just before his teammate Jack Gordon hit the ground next to him, looking as dirty and sweaty as he felt. “Nice explosions.”
“Thanks.” His throat dry, Trey Williams took another swig.
“Bull and I set up the IEDs.” Jack pulled out his own bottle and took a swallow.
It had been a long, hot day of training exercises for everyone involved and it wasn’t over yet.
“How many you set up?” Trey asked.
“A pretty obvious primary in the middle of the road with a secondary one better hidden on the side path just off the main route in case they try to drive around the first one.”
Trey scratched an itch on his chin that his sweat-soaked, overgrown beard caused. “They’ll see the first one right away.”
“Yup.” Jack nodded. “And when they’re trying to avoid it by driving on the path they’ll hit the second one.”
“Or they could move backward and fire upon the primary to disarm it,” Trey pointed out.
“They could, but they’ll back up over the third one we put behind them. Bull’s got it hidden so well I’m not sure I could find it if I hadn’t been with him when he set it up. Once they’ve backed up to decide what to do about the one in front of them, Bull will detonate. Then kaboom.” Jack grinned like a kid on Christmas morning.
Trey shook his head and smiled. “You’re evil.”
“Hey, why not enjoy ourselves?” Jack shook his head. “I’m kind of sorry this exercise is over after today. I love OPFOR training.”
“Hell, who doesn’t love it?”
An explosion sounded in the distance and Jack snorted out a laugh. “Those guys who just got blown up by Bull’s IED, that’s who.”
“Bull sets up a nice explosion, even his fake ones.” Trey admired the skill. He could set up a decent IED himself, but Bull was a master craftsman at it.
Jack chuckled. “I’m gonna laugh my ass off watching their reaction on the video during the after-action review tonight. This is easier than shooting beer cans off a fence post. A helluva lot more fun too.”
“It’s definitely more fun playing the bad guys than the good guys in these exercises.” Trey knew well it may be fun, but opposition-force training was crucial. What the soldiers learned today could save their lives when they deployed to regions where the bad guys were actually out to kill them.
All in all, it had been a good day, except for the damn itchy beard he’d grown out so he’d look more like a terrorist and less like a member of Task Force Zeta.
That Trey could have lived without.