CHAPTER 14
The new moon was no more than a pale orb in the dark, star-strewn night sky as two teams of commandos landed a mile outside of the city. That afforded them the advantage of surprise.
Surprise, if even for a few seconds, was the key for a successful close quarters assault. Anyone in the home they were about to raid, located in a city they weren’t supposed to be in, would never see or hear the twelve men about to infiltrate what Hamza had thought was a secure hiding place for his shit.
Maybe Hamza would be there himself.
The intel specified that he’d left the area long ago, but those tracking him had also admitted they had no idea where he was currently so . . .
Usually more of a pessimist, Thom decided to try optimism for once and hope they got to nab both the man and his hard drives. After having lost the chance to recover the kidnapped American in Afghanistan last month, the team was due a win.
Late June in Iran could suck, with temperatures reaching into the high nineties, but at least the mile run in full gear was at night. That made for less heat for their run and less stench once they reached the city streets.
They moved like ghosts—if ghosts wore body armor. It was amazing how quietly a group of well-trained men could move even when fully kitted out, loaded down with all the gear they might possibly need for the raid.
They proceeded in formation along a predetermined route that offered the most cover and concealment, while not communicating verbally with each other unless absolutely necessary.
The state of the art comm unit in Thom’s ear beneath his helmet protected him from the one hundred and six decibels of the Black Hawk that had brought them in. It also incorporated radio communications.
More importantly, the device was smart enough to distinguish between sounds. It muffled loud noises such as explosives and large artillery, and amplified quieter sounds such as footsteps and voices.
The high-tech and pricey ear cuffs allowed Thom to hear the dog barking from within a courtyard they’d just passed. Dogs could screw up an op, alerting everyone nearby to their presence. But the squad was past the courtyard so fast they’d be long gone by the time the occupants looked outside to check. The dog could have just as easily been barking at a cat for all the homeowners inside would know.
As they neared the target, Bravo team, commanded by Mike Groenning, split off to the north to go around the back of the walled residence. Thom’s team, commanded by Grant, moved to the south to the main entrance.
Stacking up on one side of the gate that opened into the small courtyard of the house, with Brody on the other side, Thom waited.
Rocky moved into place behind him and Dawson mirrored them by moving in behind Brody. Mack and Grant, hidden in the shadows of the wall, kept watch up and down the block.
“Bravo team in position.” Will’s voice came through Thom’s ear cuffs.
“Alpha team in position,” reported Brody, acting as point for Alpha team.
“Alpha, move in,” Grant issued the command over the comm unit.
Slowly, Brody reached out one hand for the handle on the gate. When he pushed it, it didn’t move. Sometimes they lucked out and their targets left their doors unlocked, saving them a whole lot of trouble. Other times, like tonight, they faced a locked door.
“South entrance is locked.” Brody reported.
With the aid of the night vision goggles, Thom could see it was a heavy, decorative cast iron lock built right into the gate. With that configuration, even using the team’s sledgehammer Rocky had in his pack for just this sort of situation wouldn’t break the lock.
Ideally, forced entry would be the last resort. They’d rather not use a breaching charge on either the lock or the hinges if it could be avoided. That would alert everyone in the area to their presence. A Black Hawk was in the air waiting for their exfiltration. But getting into a firefight before they retrieved any intel was the last thing they needed or wanted.
“North gate is chained and padlocked. Cutting it.” A few seconds later, Will said, “Bravo entering north gate.”
Thank goodness for the bolt cutters one member of the team always carried. The tool routinely got them into more places than weapons and explosives, and with a lot less noise.
But now Alpha team would have to run around back and enter the way Bravo team had.
Brody moved first and the rest filed after him. They moved quickly but carefully past the neighbor’s house and around to the rear entrance.
“Alpha approaching north gate.” Brody announced for the benefit of the two operators from Bravo team who stood watch at the back.
With four men from Bravo team already inside the courtyard, Thom listened for any indication that they’d been discovered by the occupants of the home. None came as he moved to flank the back entrance with Brody, Dawson and Rocky.
The gate had been left standing open for them by Bravo team. The metal gate at the back entrance was less decorative than the one at the front entrance and was obviously also less secure. Thank God for that.
“Entering north gate,” Brody reported their position for the benefit of Bravo team as well as the commander. Brody moved through the open gate first. “Inside the perimeter. Approaching building A.”
One by one they followed Brody. The closer they got to the house, the more alert Thom became. If this were the location where Osama Bin Laden’s son Hamza had stashed his most important possessions—and both the CIA and Will Weber thought it was—there could be a guard. But so far, they hadn’t seen anyone at all.
Hoping this whole mission hadn’t been a wild goose chase, Thom reached the house and pressed flat against the wall, melting into the shadows and becoming invisible in the dark.
Bravo team was already there waiting when he arrived. In the green glow of the night vision Thom saw Will signal for Alpha team to move in. They were too close to the house and its occupants now to risk speaking.
Brody nodded and, staying pressed against the wall to one side of the door, reached for the knob.
When it didn’t budge, he shook his head. Given the amount of equipment all of them were suited up in—helmet, NVGs, ear cuffs—there wasn’t much of their faces showing, but Thom saw clearly as Brody silently mouthed a curse.
From what Thom could see, the door was dead bolted from the inside so there wasn’t even a lock to pick.
Will gave the signal and two men from his team trotted silently around the building to check the other door while the rest of the unit waited in silence in the dark.
When Tompkins and Fitz returned it was not with good news. With his lips pressed into an unhappy line, Tompkins shook his head.
A string of curses Thom couldn’t say aloud ran through his head. Likely his thoughts were echoed by every man there.
Rocky pulled the breaching charges from his kit and moved to press them along the edge of the door.
They came prepared and could blow this thing right off its hinges but it wasn’t going to be pretty or quiet and it was most definitely going to alert anyone in the house plus the neighbors.
Instead of sneaking in and out quietly, they were going to have to go in hot and fight their way back out. Things had just gotten a lot more complicated.
Blowing out a breath, Thom leaned his helmet-clad head back against the wall. For the first time he noticed what was above him. He reached out and grabbed Rocky’s arm to stop him from putting in the fuse, shaking his head and indicating they should all look up before blowing the door.
There was a piece of textile—a towel or carpet or something—hanging over the sill of an open window not far above them. It was high enough there were no bars on the window but low enough they should be able to reach it without too much effort.
Grinning, Will gave Thom a thumbs up.
Dawson had the team’s small, extendable ladder on his back. He set it up and had no problem reaching the edge of the window and pulling himself up and over.
Thom held his breath, braced for the sound of Dawson in trouble.
It never came. What they all did hear was the sliding of the bolt before the door opened to reveal Dawson smiling at them from inside.
They filed in two by two, on alert and prepared for a confrontation with the occupants. Though at this hour, chances were good the entire household was asleep.
Inside, operators peeled off in two-man teams, clearing room by room. They signaled as each room on the first floor was checked and found empty of occupants.
Leaving Tompkins and Fitz downstairs to stand watch, the rest filed silently up the stairs. The two-man teams peeled off to check the rooms on the second floor.
When the Alpha and Bravo team members met back by the stairs, each one signaling they’d found no one, it was obvious they were there alone.
“First and second floor rooms are all clear,” Brody reported to those still outside.
“The building’s empty?” Grant’s surprised question came through the comm.
“Yup,” Brody answered.
“It explains why the gates were locked up so tight. They secured the house and left. Probably for vacation somewhere,” Rocky suggested.
Finding the place seemingly deserted made Thom more uncomfortable than finding it guarded by armed men. He shook his head. “I don’t like this.”
Will huffed out a breath. “Well, I for one am not going to question it. I saw a safe in the office in the north-west corner. Let’s blow it, take whatever’s in there and get the hell out of here.”
“If there’s anything in there,” Thom said. “Why would they leave anything here when they left?”
“Why wouldn’t they? They had no idea we were coming or that anybody even knows Hamza was ever here,” Will pointed out.
“I guess.” Thom figured they’d soon find out either way.
“Let’s do this. I don’t like this any more than Thom. Fucking hairs are standing up on the back of my neck.” Brody headed toward the office. Thom followed, happy somebody else was as disturbed by the empty house as he was.
Thom and the others stayed outside the room against the wall as Will went inside to put a charge and wire on the safe door.
Running to take cover before the ten-second fuse blew, Will ducked through the doorway and pressed against the hallway wall.
A low rumbling blast, a puff of smoke, and then it was over. Given the thick walls of the home, Thom doubted the neighbors even heard, or could have identified the sound even if they had.
Will didn’t wait for the dust to clear before he was through the door and headed for the safe. Thom followed Brody inside while Rocky and Dawson remained in the hallway on watch.
Rubbing his hands together, Will said, “Come on, baby. Daddy needs a hard drive.” He swung the door wider and squatted to peer inside. “Bingo!”
“Got something?” Thom asked.
Grinning, Will glanced over his shoulder. “Oh, hell yeah. We got lots of somethings.”
“Let’s start packing everything up.” Pulling a sack out of a pocket in his vest, Brody moved forward toward the desk.
“We taking everything?” Dawson asked, coming in to help carry their finds.
Will nodded. “Everything that looks at all useful. Hell, even if it doesn’t, take it anyway. They’ll decide if it’s important or not later.”
They pulled open drawers. Took the file folders inside. Even pulled the drawers all the way out and checked beneath them for anything that could be taped to the bottom. Documents. Memory chips. Thumb drives. Even an old floppy disk and an old school camera that used film. It all went into their bags.
It took them eleven minutes to get in, clear the house, gather intel and be ready to get out. Thom knew because he’d counted.
“That’s it. We’re heading out.” Looking a lot like Santa Claus loaded down with a full sack, Brody led the way to the staircase. Unlike Santa, they weren’t carrying a bag full of toys, but hopefully what they had acquired would be a worthy gift for the CIA analysts.
They descended a lot less stealthily than they’d ascended as six pairs of boots pounded on the stairs. They were going home without a shot being fired and with bags full of stuff that should make the CIA very happy.
Knowing how to handle having luck this good wasn’t in Thom’s wheelhouse. He didn’t know how to deal with it and he sure as hell didn’t trust it.
“Alpha and Bravo teams exiting building A by the north door.” Through his communicator Brody updated those standing guard outside.
“We have movement on the north block,” Groenning reported. “Two military age males heading north-west.”
That stopped them all in their tracks inside the doorway.
“Alpha. Bravo. Hold.” Grant’s order came through the comm unit in Thom’s ear.
Shit. He knew it. No way they’d get out of this so easily.
There was no sound except for the breathing of the men surrounding him, but even that seemed to echo loudly off the walls.
Seconds ticked by, then minutes.
Finally, Groenning gave the all clear for the north-east quadrant, echoed by Clyde for the north-west quadrant.
“South-east quadrant clear,” Mack reported.
“South-west also clear. Alpha, Bravo, move out,” Grant ordered.
By the time they reached the street, keeping close to the wall of the property, Groenning and Clyde had joined Grant and Mack.
Grant led them back the way they’d come.
They were out of the house but not in the clear yet. They had to get to the landing zone outside of town and meet the Black Hawk for their exfiltration.
Any number of things could go wrong on their way out of the residential area of the city to the more deserted location they’d chosen for their pick-up.
Thom forced himself to not review each and every thing that could go wrong and instead focused on his surroundings. Shadows in the street. The sounds of the night. The risk that could be waiting around every corner.
It wasn’t until they were outside of the city limits that he started to believe their luck might actually be as good as it seemed.
A mile outside of town, they reached the landing zone. Grant painted the area with an IR laser, invisible to the naked eye but clearly marking their location for the Black Hawk crew.
But even while they stood waiting for the helo on the way to get them out, Thom couldn’t seem to stand still.
“What’s your problem?” Brody asked. “Your leave’s approved to start for when we get back. You get to go home to your girl and get married.”
That was exactly the problem. There were no problems. Things were going too smoothly.
He’d be home in plenty of time for the wedding. With time to spare even. Yet there was a feeling in his gut he couldn’t ignore. An instinct that told him not to let his guard down. Some ancient internal failsafe, warning him of impending danger. It wasn’t logical but he couldn’t ignore it.
“I know. It’s just nerves, I guess.” Thom dismissed the feeling to Brody, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to shake it easily.
“Hey, what weekend is this wedding?” Rocky asked.
“Two weeks, right?” Brody answered for him.
Thom nodded. “Yeah.”
“If we can get a couple of weekend liberties approved, you wanna go?” Rocky asked Brody.
“Sure.” He cut his gaze to Thom. “That a’ight?”
“Of course. I want you guys there. Ginny sent out the invites. They’ll be waiting for everyone when we get back.”
“Hey, you know what?” Rocky said. “If we can get a couple of extra days leave approved, we could go to my family’s cabin in Pennsylvania for your bachelor party. It’s nothing fancy. Generator. Outhouse. But it’s beautiful up there. A creek for fishing. Woods for hunting.”
Thom considered that. “Ginny might actually approve of a bachelor party like that. Yeah. If you guys can swing getting away, that would be cool. Thanks.”
“No problem.” Rocky grinned.
“And if we can’t get leave, we’ll just take you to the strip club for a night out before you head up north.” Brody smiled.
“Yeah, that Ginny would definitely not approve of.” Thom laughed, feeling lighter as the ominous warning bells in his head were drowned out by the sound of the Black Hawk coming to get them the hell out of there.
Next stop, the support base at Ashgabat in Turkmenistan. From there they’d slowly work their way home. But even with as slow as the military worked at times, it shouldn’t take them two weeks to hit Virginia. No where near it. Not at this time of year.
He ducked beneath the rotor wash and boarded their ride out of town.
With any luck he’d be in Connecticut with plenty of time to spare . . . and just thinking that had Thom fearing he’d jinxed him and Ginny both. In fact, he wasn’t going to let himself relax and stop worrying until his feet were in her apartment in Stamford.
He looked around for some wood to knock to reverse the jinx and, of course, didn’t find any. That didn’t make him feel any more confident.
Crap.