Chapter 2
Sergeant Damien “Dobby” Dobson stared out at the blackness of the night, broken only by the glisten of the ocean not far below.
The roar of the helicopter rotors was background noise, the usual accompaniment for the start of a mission.
What wasn’t normal was the way his stomach clenched as the feeling things were about to go FUBAR intensified and they hadn’t even arrived at Pulau Tengah.
They shouldn’t be here.
There hadn’t been nearly enough time to plan for all contingencies.
But the Minister for Defence’s son had been kidnapped and Dobby’s team had to rescue him before the twenty-four-hour deadline passed, or he would be killed.
By all reports, the party boy often took these kinds of holidays where sampling the local ‘wares’ was part of the fun, though his father insisted he’d gone to win back his ex-fiancée, who was teaching English there.
Luckily the ex-fiancée was the daughter of a major-general who had immediately been called for more information. She hadn’t been able to get in touch with her daughter, as internet was sporadic on the island, though she had told them a man named Agus ran the island.
Her daughter, Mila, believed he was some kind of smuggler or pirate. Probably a small fish in the scheme of things, but smart enough to take advantage of an opportunity when he saw it.
The Major-General also mentioned Agus hated her, but Mila had hidden their relationship from the man.
Vance might have changed that. At least the Major-General hadn’t also received a ransom demand.
An inexperienced thug with little fire power wouldn’t be hard to overcome, but he also might have enough fire power to lack sense.
They hadn’t been able to source blueprints of the man’s house and had not much more than some satellite imagery of the island and a rough location of where the ex lived in the main village of Batara.
None of that mattered to the minister and his wife. The high priority mission had been planned and green-lit in less than five hours and because Dobby’s team was in the area taking part in an international war game, they’d been ordered to go.
He considered it lucky they’d at least received photos of Vance and his ex, Mila, although by all accounts, few tourists went to the island.
The Major-General wanted an update on her daughter’s whereabouts if possible, which Dobby considered a reasonable request. He’d make sure the woman was safe, because she might be next on the smuggler’s radar.
Only five minutes to the drop zone.
He checked his team.
Joker sat staring at the floor, mentally preparing himself as he did every mission.
His dark hair was still short from their last mission in the Middle East where he’d gone undercover.
His Middle Eastern heritage and ability to speak Farsi made him the perfect person, but the mission had been difficult.
Next to him was Hawk. Just under six feet tall and stocky, his dark brown hair was shaggy, and he was a tank.
“Two minutes.” Radar’s voice was loud in the headset and Dobby turned to their signal operator.
His black hair was tied back in a bun and his broad shoulders touched the side of the chopper and Axle who was next to him. Calm blue eyes watched Dobby, who gave him a nod of acknowledgement. Radar’s slight smile was hard to discern beneath his bushy beard.
“Yippee ki-yay,” Axle responded, a hint of sarcasm in his tone, his beach- blond hair hidden under his helmet.
Yeah, none of them were thrilled with the way the mission had been planned, but they’d deal with it together.
While Dobby’s gut told him this mission was going to suck, he knew his team would have his back.
Pity they were one man down, with Duke injuring himself yesterday.
The little voice in his head which had questioned whether it was time to get out of the army grew in volume. He blocked it out.
He still loved what he did, the challenges and making a difference in the world, but the restrictions were beginning to strangle him. He wanted complete control.
“One minute out,” the pilot said over the comms.
The team readied themselves. They were flying under the radar because there hadn’t been time to negotiate with the Indonesian government—something else that could put them in hot water on this already rushed mission.
The drop zone was just beyond the horizon from the island. Most of the land was mountainous, so people arrived by boat as there wasn’t an airstrip.
They should have two Zodiacs for built-in redundancy, but because of the distance of the ship from the drop zone, they’d had to keep equipment to a minimum to get a better range for the helicopter. Command thought they’d be in and out and wouldn’t need a lot.
Dobby knew from experience it was better to plan for the worst.
At least they’d identified the house most likely owned by Agus, due to its size and position on the cliff overlooking the ocean.
But that’s all they had.
Dobby sighed.
They reached the drop zone and the Zodiac hit the water followed by Joker and the rest of the team.
Dobby hit the warm water and surfaced, giving the OK to the men in the helicopter and then checking his pack.
The down draught from the rotors spat water at him, making it difficult to see where the raft and his men were.
He swam forward as the chopper flew away and as soon as it did, it was easier to make out shapes in the dark water.
By the time he reached the boat, the rest of his men were onboard, and he hauled himself up.
Joker had the boat heading for the shore the second Dobby’s feet left the water. Their infiltration point was on the north side of the island, one bay around from the main village.
When they landed, they’d trek a couple of kilometres through jungle to reach Batara.
Dobby grimaced. He hated working in the jungle; the humidity, the dense undergrowth, the mosquitoes, and to top it off he was soaking wet. Give him a dry desert any day.
As they reached a small uninhabited islet near the larger island, Joker cut the engine and they rowed the rest of the way to the shore.
The jungle loomed, dark and impenetrable.
And silent.
Where were the bird calls and the insects chirping?
His gut clenched as he scanned the area with his night vision goggles.
They carried the zod to the back of the beach and tied it to a tree before covering it in leaf litter, removing all sign.
Thankfully it was high tide and they didn’t have to carry it far.
If all went to plan, they’d be back in less than two hours, and it was unlikely any villagers would wander the jungle at this time of night.
Dobby checked his men and adjusted his goggles, taking a step forward only to have the ground tremble beneath him. His heart pounded as he searched for the source.
Nothing but darkness.
“Earthquake,” Joker called.
The rumbling increased, and the trees shook, leaves and branches falling around them.
Dobby struggled to stay upright and swore. “Back to shore.”
He heard faint cries from the village in the distance.
The shaking continued as Dobby reached the shore and spaced his feet to better balance. The roar was disconcertingly loud and trees leaned and bent with the shaking. A couple of loud cracks further in the forest followed by crashes proved not all the trees had been able to withstand the force.
At this rate, it would be lucky if half the houses in the town remained standing.
“Abort?” Joker asked.
Dobby shook his head. His orders were clear. Don’t come back without the hostage.
But an earthquake of this magnitude meant people would be outside, assessing damage, looking for survivors, instead of being tucked up in bed asleep.
They would stand out when they went looking for Mila.
The FUBAR premonition in his stomach intensified.
For all they knew, the hostage could have been crushed by debris, or roads they’d identified to get them in and out of the village could be blocked.
This was going to be a clusterfuck.
The trembling subsided. “Let’s move,” he said. “We’ll reassess when we get to the village.”
He headed into the jungle, prepared for the worst.
***
Mila had given up trying to sleep sometime around midnight. She couldn’t stop worrying about how to get off the island.
After class, Ali had taken her laptop and though Mila had asked around, no one had a phone or computer she could use.
In desperation she’d packed her things and headed for the jetty to catch the evening barge to the neighbouring island which had a small airstrip. She hated leaving without saying goodbye, but her gut was screaming at her that it wasn’t safe to stay.
The apologetic captain had said there was no room, when the deck was clearly empty.
That’s when Ali had wandered towards her and reminded her she couldn’t leave until she’d thought about Vance’s proposal.
In other words, she wasn’t leaving until Agus said so.
Mila had returned to her long house to regroup and spotted one of Agus’s other men lounging across the market square watching her.
Which meant there was no point taking her moped and riding to the other coastal villages in the hope of finding someone who would take her to the neighbouring island.
Agus had loyal men in each village and radios with which to contact them since there weren’t reliable telecommunications on the island.
No one would let her leave.
Mila’s options boiled down to swimming to the nearest habitable island, which was about three kilometres away, and hoping Agus hadn’t told anyone to be on the lookout for her, or stealing a boat in the middle of the night and hoping she’d have enough fuel to get her to mainland Sumatra.
So drown, or get stranded in the middle of the ocean, while also stealing someone’s livelihood.
She’d considered packing the essentials and a lot of food and hiding in the jungle until Agus had forgotten about her, but she doubted he would forget. The moment she reappeared she’d be in exactly the same dilemma as she was now.