Juliette #2
“And I’d expect there to be active surveillance on all approach points and maybe even some booby-traps,” Tessman added. “By now our boy has to know his group is being rounded up.”
Burke chuckled. “Not quite the Christmas gift he was hoping for, I’m sure.”
Tessman stepped toward the door. “Come on, let’s go find a steak joint.”
***
It was several hours later when the team turned off the narrow, paved road onto the gravel path that was labeled a road in the maps program.
It was only wide enough for one car at a time, not that that would be an issue as they hadn’t seen another car in over a half hour.
They’d seen nothing but trees all around them for the last hour.
No homes, no stores, nothing since they’d exited the interstate.
And thankfully, it was pitch-black out. A heavy cloud cover blocked all celestial light and darkened the entire area.
The four men had eaten a big meal at a steakhouse as planned and were ready to spend several hours checking out this new location. Burke didn’t vocalize it, but he had a gut feeling this was where they’d find Mark Ellison. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking.
A mile in, Wilson, who’d been navigating, said, “Pull over here. The cabin’s about a quarter mile due east.”
Burke, who’d been driving, pulled over enough that if another car came, it could get around them. “Wasn’t there a little access road into the general vicinity of the cabin?”
“Yeah, we can call it a driveway. It’s up ahead. I’d rather launch the drone from here.”
The men exited the vehicle and launched the drone.
They all huddled around the screen of the monitor as Wilson piloted it over the trees.
On the first pass, they picked up half a dozen human-sized heat signatures near the cabin, which also showed an inside temperature higher than the surrounding area.
“Paydirt!” Wilson exclaimed quietly.
“Someone’s here,” Tessman said. “Not necessarily, Ellison.”
“Members of the militia,” Burke added. “If Ellison isn’t here, one of them may know where he’s at.”
“If one talks, unlike those two guys near the Dells,” Rogers said with disgust.
“They’re both hardcore members,” Wilson said. “I’m not surprised they gave nothing up.”
“If we didn’t have to turn them over to the feds, we could have gotten them to talk,” Tessman said.
His three teammates knew what he was suggesting.
“If we can pull it off,” Wilson said.
Burke pointed to several of the heat signatures fanned out in the trees. “They’re patrols. We need to take them out. Looks like three more people are in the cabin. That gives us a total of nine Tangos to deal with.”
“They’re far enough apart from each other that we can take them out one by one,” Tessman said. “It’s these two up near the cabin that will be the problem. We can’t sneak up behind them, and they’ll see us coming if we approach straight on.”
“We lure them into the trees,” Burke said. “And if we can’t, we take them on at the same time. I’m thinking from the corner of the cabin. We should be able to get close enough to taser them before they can alert anyone inside the cabin to our presence.”
“Taser?” Wilson asked.
“Well, we’re not sure they are militia,” Burke said.
“They’re at a militia location patrolling the area with what looks like AR-15s.
They’re militia,” Wilson said. He handed the drone controller to Rogers.
“I’m going in. Keep her above our theater and advise us of all movements by our Tangos.
But first,” he said, pulling his phone from his pocket. “I’m calling Ops in to monitor.”
“Ops, go,” Dupont answered.
“We found what we believe to be militia members at a cabin location we’re checking out. We’re getting ready to go in to see if our target is there. We want you online.”
“Affirmative. I’ll monitor. Good hunting, Charlie Team,” Dupont said.
The three men inserted their comms. They donned their bulletproof vests with no agency markings exposed and retrieved extra ammo for their handguns as well as three tasers from the back of the vehicle.
Wilson also grabbed his sniper rifle. “I’ll set up in a tree with a view of the front of the cabin to cover you. ”
“We’ll enter the woods here and take out the patrols from east to west,” Burke said. He slid on his NVGs and then unholstered his weapon.
The three men jogged across the gravel road and quickly disappeared into the trees.
Their training took over as they soundlessly made their way through the gnarled underbrush.
Through comms, Rogers gave them real-time updates on the movements of the four men patrolling around the cabin.
As the three men neared the first man, who was on the way to where Wilson would break off from the two of them to find the best location to have a direct line of sight to the front of the cabin, they froze when headlights came at them.
A car coming up the driveway was the source of the headlights.
The Jeep parked beside the two other vehicles in front of the cabin, and two men pulled themselves out of it. Burke reached up and turned the magnification on his NVGs to four times normal. One of the men was an African American. The other was Mark Ellison. They both went into the cabin.
“Positive ID on target,” Burke whispered. He switched the magnification back to normal mode.
With renewed determination, the three men continued.
Wilson split off and continued towards the front of the cabin as Burke and Tessman reacquired the first of the men on patrol.
They crept up on him from behind. While Tessman kept his aim on the man’s back, Burke slid his NVGs up onto his forehead and holstered his weapon.
Then, he pounced on the unsuspecting man and performed a Ranger Choke on him, grabbing him around the front of his neck with his right hand while simultaneously grabbing him around the back of his neck with his left.
He squeezed as hard as he could, choking off the man’s air and blood supply.
It didn’t take long for him to stop struggling as he succumbed to the lack of oxygen and blood to his brain.
Burke twisted to his left and brought the man to the ground.
He hadn’t gotten more than a gurgle from his throat.
Burke secured his hands and feet in zip ties and pressed a piece of duct tape to the man’s mouth.
He was merely incapacitated and should recover. One down, three to go.
“One Tango neutralized. Next location, Powder,” Tessman whispered.
Rogers gave them the location of the next closest man.
Moving silently through the woods, the two men quickly approached his location.
The man stood at least six-seven, and his body looked sturdy.
He faced sideways to their approach, stood with his phone pressed to his ear, and his rifle slung over his shoulder.
They waited for him to finish his call, not wanting to take him down if he was on with someone inside the cabin.
“Target acquired. On the phone,” Burke whispered.
After nearly five minutes, besides wandering around the general area, nothing had changed.
“Today, gentlemen,” Wilson’s hushed voice said.
Tessman slid his NVGs up and onto the top of his head. “You take him down. I’ll take the phone and end the call.”
When his back was again turned to them, the two men rushed him. Burke again initiated a Ranger Choke as Tessman grabbed his phone, hitting the call-end button. Then he silenced it so that if the caller redialed, the phone wouldn’t give their location away.
The man landed a few solid blows on Burke.
Burke twisted left and brought the struggling man to the ground.
Once there, he kept a tight, choking hold around the man’s neck with both hands and thrust his knee into the man’s abdomen.
It took a full minute for the man to succumb.
Burke knew the chances that he’d caused irreparable damage were high.
Damn-it! Tessman secured the man’s hands and feet while Burke placed a strip of duct tape over his mouth.
“Tango neutralized,” Tessman transmitted, his voice barely audible.
“Number three moved farther west by northwest,” Rogers reported.
“Number two may need medical attention, Powder,” Burke whispered.
“After the scene is secure,” Rogers replied. He gave the location of the third man, who was near the front of the driveway. He was the furthest from the house. “Try to get some answers from Tango number three.”
Pressing their bodies behind thick trunks, Tessman and Burke waited as he walked back towards them.
He wasn’t very quiet on his approach. They knew exactly when to strike.
It took little effort to overtake him and bring him to the ground.
Burke’s hand over his mouth choked off any sounds he’d make.
Tessman had his hands and feet secured in zip ties within seconds.
“Federal agents,” Burke whispered in his ear. “We’re not after you, and you can go free if you cooperate. We’re here for Ellison.”
Burke kept his hand over his mouth as they rolled him onto his back.
“It looks like there are five in the cabin. Are they all armed?” Burke asked.
The man nodded his head yes, the best he could with the firm pressure of Burke’s hand over his mouth.
“Up closer to the house, are there any cameras or tripwires?” Burke asked.
He shook his head.
“I’m going to put tape over your mouth as I remove my hand. Don’t make a sound and I won’t hurt you,” Burke warned.
The man nodded and remained quiet as Burke did just that.
“Now just lie here quietly, and we’ll come get you after we secure the cabin,” Tessman said.
They stepped away from him and followed Rogers’s directions to intercept the fourth and final man on patrol.
He was nearest to the house and in the direct line of sight of the two men who stood beside the door into the cabin.
Burke had to wonder why two men guarded the exterior in addition to the roaming patrols. Something wasn’t adding up.