Chapter Eleven
“Let’s move.” Dex’s command was quiet in Donnie’s ear.
About fucking time. Two weeks they’d been roughing it, watching and waiting to get a confirmed sighting of the Aziz brothers.
They had seen and identified known Reborn soldiers, but they had been beginning to think the intel was shit and the brothers weren’t here.
The latest intel had led them to this house at the edge of a small village, and for the past forty-eight hours they had been surveilling it. The house was close to the mountains and rough terrain, where they currently hid.
Finally, Hakim Aziz had made the grave mistake of looking out a window for a few seconds.
Long enough for Donnie to snap a shot and confirm his identity.
Women and children were also in the house, so a ground assault was necessary to avoid innocent casualties.
They’d seen that with other HVTs in this region.
They surround themselves with women and children, so a drone would not drop a bomb on the place.
Donnie followed Steve as they approached the rear of the house.
The structure was concrete. The windows had been blocked by carpets, common in this area at the base of the mountains.
A beat-up truck was parked outside and the remnants of a fire burned near a couple of chairs.
Crouched low, they waited for Dex’s command.
Raven were taking the house while Nyx secured the perimeter, making sure no one else got nosy and came looking. Execute the targets, get confirmation, then disappear quickly and quietly into the night. Easy day.
“Nyx in position. All clear.” Liam’s voice came through coms.
Five seconds later, Dex’s familiar calm tone sprang them into action.
“Execute.”
Donnie entered the house through the rear. Years of training allowed them to move like ghosts. Carefully checking for wires and booby traps, they cleared the first two rooms.
Hearing shouts across the hall, Donnie focused on his own task, confident his teammates were handling their business.
Entering the third room, he and Steve found three people asleep on mattresses on the floor.
One stirred, a woman. She opened her mouth to scream.
Gun raised, Donnie placed a finger to his lips.
Eyes wide, the woman moved to the other mattress and gathered two children to her, watching him with wary eyes. Not a threat. He and Steve moved on.
Gunshots echoed.
“Two tangos down. The house is awake now,” Ryan said on coms.
Steve and Donnie moved on. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Dex and Ryan were to Donnie’s left, Tyler and Mackie to his right.
He led the way upstairs, knowing Steve, Dex, and Ryan were behind him.
Tyler and Mackie would maintain the ground floor.
Movement to his right. The outline of an AK47.
He fired without hesitation. The body slumped to the floor. Steve moved to ID.
“Tango down.” But not their target.
Only a couple more rooms remained left to clear and now, whoever was in them knew they were coming.
Donnie and Steve flanked one door and Dex and Ryan sized up the other.
On Dex’s signal, they swept into the rooms. Donnie took in a man the correct size and build of one of their targets.
His hand gripped the shoulder of a young boy in front of him.
At the same time, Donnie saw the man’s packed vest and the detonator in his hand.
Jesus Christ. Donnie fired. Kill shot between the eyes. The man’s hand dropped and Steve grabbed the detonator before it hit the ground.
Lifting his NVGs, Donnie took his torch and illuminated the dead man’s face. Damn. Not their target.
“Tango down. Vests on target. Repeat. Vests on target.” Donnie alerted the rest of the team, not knowing what was happening in the next room with Dex and Ryan.
No one had mentioned vests in their intel.
No one had mentioned women and children being in the building either.
Steve was disconnecting the vest as the boy looked on, terrified.
The poor kid looked about seven and had probably seen more death in those few years than most people saw in their lives.
Dex’s voice came through coms. “No sign of HVTs. Nyx, do you have eyes?”
Donnie watched as Steve took the boy’s hand and led him downstairs to where the women and children had been placed in the one room. Dex and Ryan joined him as Liam responded.
“Raven 1, no one has left through the doors. Base, any movement on ISR?”
“Nothing.” Kelly confirmed. “But two vehicles have mobilized to your south.”
“We need to move,” Liam said.
Donnie glanced over at Dex. “Tunnels?” Daram was known for them.
“Anyone see any?”
Several nos came through coms.
“Onyx, the vehicles are heading straight for your location. You need to move.” Sam’s voice was firm.
“How long?” Dex asked.
“Less than a minute.”
“Copy. Nyx, we’re coming out.”
Donnie heard the pissed off tone in his team leader’s voice.
He felt the same. They wanted to end this tonight.
Both brothers. Now they needed to go back and regroup.
If the brothers had escaped via a tunnel they could be anywhere.
The team headed out the house and together with Nyx, they slunk back into the darkness as quietly as they came.
“Onyx, we have a solo figure, on foot, north of your location.” Kelly said. “Sending co-ordinates now.”
“Copy that.” Dex signaled and the teams gathered together, setting up a perimeter, keeping watch.
“Base, how’s our six?” Dex asked.
“Armed soldiers have arrived at the house. Won’t be long before they come looking for you,” Sam said.
Dex turned to Liam. “The squirter could be one of them. We track him we might find them both.”
Liam nodded. “Yeah, we need to check it out. You guys go, we’ll hang back and warn off any tangos coming this way. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you to be vigilant. Fucking vests.”
Dex relayed the plan to base, and then they were on the move.
As they closed in on the location, the team spread out, ready to surround their target.
Moving as one, guns raised, they hunted their prey.
No voices, no sounds. That was the beauty of working together as a team for so long.
They knew each other’s movements, thoughts, actions.
Donnie stopped, something catching his eye.
Raising his gun, he scanned the area, unease bubbling.
Something was wrong. He went to whisper into his coms just as a tiny light flickered.
Fuck. No time to get off a shot before the explosion ripped through the air, forcing him off his feet. Then there was nothing.
***
CHARLIE STARED AT THE unread text message. It had been two weeks, and she’d heard nothing from Donnie and was worried.
Back in Albany following her assignment, Simon had called her several times, begging for forgiveness and wanting to meet.
She hadn't agreed, but she did have to get her things from the apartment.
She was thinking about going there and getting it over and done with, despite Donnie asking her to wait for him.
Knowing Donnie was a SEAL had her googling everything about SEALs and some of what she read, she wished she hadn’t.
She’d thought about calling someone but didn't know who.
It wasn't like she knew any of his teammates or friends.
Maybe his folks would know. Then again, calling them might make them worry.
When her phone rang, she jumped. Maddie.
“Hey girlfriend. You home?”
Charlie smiled. “If you mean at my parent’s place, yes.”
“You know you can stay with me.”
“Thanks, but you have enough going on with two kids. I’m fine. I’ll work something out, don't worry.”
“I'm not worried. This is the start of a whole new chapter for you.”
“I know.” She walked into her childhood bedroom and closed the door.
“What’s happened? You sound worried.”
“I haven’t heard from Donnie. I mean, he said he was going out of the country, but that was two weeks ago. Do you think that’s normal?”
“I don’t know. I take it you’ve tried reaching him?”
“He said they can't use their phones where they are.” She had told Maddie he was a SEAL. “Maybe I could call his folks.”
“Not sure that’s a good idea.”
“I know. You’re right. I guess I just have to wait.”
“I’m sure he’s fine. I'm not sure how the whole deployment thing works, but I think they can be gone weeks at a time.”
Donnie had told her that, too. She’d lived without talking to Donnie for ten years, and now she was going crazy because she hadn’t spoken to him in two weeks. It wasn’t like she was his family or a girlfriend. Her heart squeezed, but she ignored it. Donnie was a friend. That’s it.
But he wants more than friends. He wants you in his life.
And she wanted him, but she was scared. Really scared of getting hurt again. And then there was his job. The reality of that was hitting her.
“Have you heard any more from Simon?”
“Yeah, he keeps calling and texting. Begging me to take him back. I’m half expecting him to show up here.”
“He better not. I’ll kick his ass. Shit. Rosy is crying. Gotta go.”
“Give those kids a kiss from Auntie Charlie.”
She ended the call and tried to put the worry about Donnie to the back of her mind.
***
DONNIE OPENED HIS EYES, praying for a miracle. His chest tightened and his breath hitched as the never-ending darkness suffocated him. Four days he’d been in this fucking hospital. Four days of being blind.
“Hey, man. How are you feeling?” Dex’s voice came from his right.
“No change,” he said tightly. He clenched his fists, fighting to stop the emotion that wanted to choke him. He had never been so fucking terrified in his life.
The blast from the S-vest had knocked the whole team off their feet, but Donnie had been closest. The martyr had clicked it off a little too early, saving the team an almost certain death.
Donnie, though, had been thrown a good ten feet and cracked his head against a rock, knocked out. Or so he’d been told.