Chapter 4 #2
The screen went dark. The fluorescent hum returned to dominance. The SCIF door unlocked with a heavy metallic click.
As they stepped back into the hallway, the base noise returned faintly. Boots on tile. Distant engines. A helicopter spinning up somewhere beyond concrete walls.
Joker rolled his shoulders. "Well. That's a party."
Ghost was already mentally building a signal map. "I want updated satellite pass before wheels up. Latest thermal."
Bulldog exhaled. "Twelve hours. Christ."
Hawk fell into step beside Steele, his voice low. "Tunnel."
"Yes."
"Civilian complication."
"Always is."
Behind them, Risk walked in silence. Steele didn't look back.
"Gear up," he said. "Full combat load. I want everyone weapons-hot and ready to roll by 1400."
The team bay became a hive of controlled chaos.
Steele found Bulldog in the armory, surrounded by breaching charges and det cord. "How much you pulling?" Steele asked.
Bulldog didn't look up. "Four frame charges for the gate. Two for interior doors. Plus linear for the western office wall if that tunnel's real."
"Split it with Joker. I don't want you gassed before we even hit the compound."
Bulldog's jaw worked. Started dividing the charges into two packs without argument.
Ghost was in the communications room, three monitors glowing. "Talk to me," Steele said.
Ghost pulled up a map. "Cellular towers here, here, and here. Coverage overlaps the compound. I hit all three simultaneously, we get maybe six minutes of dead air."
"Six minutes enough?"
"Has to be."
"Do it."
Hawk was on the range. The crack of rifle fire echoed across the empty space. Steele waited until Hawk paused to check his target. "How's it looking?"
Hawk pulled the target back. Tight group. Dead center. "Elevation adjustment for Erbil is negligible. Wind's the variable."
"Night operation. Thermals shifting."
"Already factored. If I have to take a shot, it'll be clean."
Risk was in the medical bay, inventory spread across two tables. Trauma kits. IV supplies. Hemostatic gauze.
"Thoughts?" Steele asked.
Risk didn't stop organizing supplies. "Standard combat load. Extra restraints if we're taking Nazari alive. Field dressings if guards go down and we need them talking."
"Civilians?"
"Don't plan on treating them unless absolutely necessary. Minimize contact. Get Nazari and get out."
Steele nodded. That was the mission.
Joker was in the motor pool, going over their vehicle. "She'll run?" Steele asked.
Joker patted the hood. "She'll run. If we need to move fast, she'll move."
"How fast we expecting to move?"
"Depends on how loud it gets. Best case, we're in and out clean. Worst case, we've got local militia on our ass and a ten-minute head start."
"Pack for worst case."
"Always do."
By 1400, they were assembled in the team bay. Six men. Full combat load. Rifles cleaned and zeroed. Magazines loaded. Medical kits stocked. Breaching charges distributed. Communications equipment tested. Ready.
Steele looked around the room. Saw the same focused intensity on every face. The shift that happened when training became operational.
"Erbil Air Base," he said. "We stage there for twenty-four hours.
Rest. Final equipment check. Intel update.
Then we're wheels-up for Mosul. Insertion is planned for 0200 local time.
Low visibility. Limited moon. Nazari's security rotates at 2200 so we're hitting them two hours into their shift when they're settled but not yet tired. "
He pulled up the compound layout on his tablet.
They all gathered close. "Breach sequence.
Joker stays with the vehicle here, three hundred meters out.
Engine hot. Ready to move on my call. Ghost jams cellular at H-minus thirty seconds.
Bulldog blows the north gate. Hawk takes overwatch position here, southeast corner, elevated position on this building.
" He indicated a structure outside the compound wall.
"Clear sight lines to the western office and main residence. "
"What's the building?" Hawk asked.
"Residential. Two-story. Thermal shows minimal occupation. You'll clear it fast and get into position."
Hawk nodded.
"Once the gate's down, we move fast. Bulldog and I take point into the main residence.
Ghost, you're on our six, monitoring comms. Risk, you secure the entry point, establish casualty collection if needed.
Primary target is Nazari's office, ground floor, western wing.
Intel suggests that's where he'll be at 0200 if he's working late.
If not, we move to the master bedroom, second floor. "
"And if he runs for the tunnel?" Bulldog asked.
"Hawk's got eyes on the western office. He sees movement toward the heat signature, he calls it. We redirect. Block the tunnel exit, force him back inside. I want him contained in the compound, not disappeared into Mosul's sewer system."
"Guard response?" Ghost asked.
"Eight on duty. Four perimeter, two gate, two inside. Once we breach, they're going to converge on the main residence. That's when things get loud."
"Rules of engagement on guards?" Risk asked.
"Hostile action or intent. They're armed. They're trained. They're getting paid to protect Nazari. If they engage, we put them down. If they drop weapons and surrender, we secure and move past them. Mission is Nazari. Guards are obstacles, not objectives."
Bulldog leaned forward, studying the layout. "What about the residential wing? Wife and kid?"
"Pattern-of-life suggests they stay in the east side of the residence. We're entering west side, moving to Nazari's office. If we clear properly, we don't cross paths. If we do, Risk handles it. Secure them in place, keep moving."
"Secure how?" Risk asked.
"Zip ties. Put them in a room, close the door, keep going. They're not combatants. They're not our problem unless they become our problem."
Risk nodded.
Steele continued. "Extraction plan. Once we have Nazari, we move back to the entry point. Joker brings the vehicle to the gate. Load up. We've got eighty kilometers to Erbil. Route takes us through Kurdish-controlled territory. Local militia won't follow us across that line."
"Time on target?" Ghost asked.
"I want to be wheels-up and moving within fifteen minutes of breach. Any longer than that, we're gambling on militia response time."
"And if Nazari's not in the office or the bedroom?" Hawk asked.
"Then we clear the compound until we find him. Intel's been solid. He's a creature of habit. He'll be where they said."
"And if intel's wrong?" Bulldog pressed.
Steele met his eyes. "Then we adapt. But we don't leave without him. This is the first clean shot in six months."
The room went quiet.
"Communications," Ghost said. "I'm running encrypted push-to-talk. If cellular jamming works, Nazari can't call for help. But his guards have radios. I'll monitor but I can't stop it."
"How long before guards realize something's wrong?" Steele asked.
"Suppressed weapons, clean breach, maybe two to three minutes. Unsuppressed, it's immediate."
"We breach suppressed," Steele said. "But once we're inside and engaging guards, noise discipline goes out the window. Speed and violence of action. Get to Nazari before they organize a coordinated response."
Joker spoke up. "What if they block our exit? Gate's our only way out with a vehicle."
"Bulldog carries backup charges. If they try to block us, we make a new exit. But the gate should stay clear. Guards will be focused on defending Nazari, not blocking our escape route."
"Unless they're smarter than we think," Bulldog said.
"Then we shoot our way out."
Simple. Brutal. Effective.
Hawk pulled up something on his own tablet. "I've been looking at the satellite imagery. That residential building I'm using for overwatch. If I set up here instead of here, I get better angle on the tunnel exit."
Steele looked. Hawk was right. "Good catch. Adjust your position. Make sure you can see both the office and the tunnel. If Nazari runs, I want you calling it before he's gone."
"Copy."
Risk organized his medical supplies. "If we take casualties, where's our fallback?"
"Primary rally point is the vehicle. If that's compromised, secondary is here." Steele indicated a location five hundred meters south of the compound. "Abandoned industrial site. Cover and concealment. We regroup, reassess, and either push back in or call for CTS support."
"And if CTS doesn't come?"
"Then we handle it ourselves." The way they always did.
Steele looked at each of them. "This is high-risk.
Political complications. Civilian presence.
Limited support. Tight timeline. But Nazari's killed Americans.
He's supplying weapons to militias that are targeting our people.
He's got blood on his hands and he thinks he's untouchable.
" He paused. "We prove him wrong. We get in.
We get him. We get out. Clean and professional. Any questions?"
Ghost raised a hand. "What's our cover story if Iraqi authorities stop us on the drive to Erbil?"
"CTS credentials. We're operating under their authority. Ghost, you'll have the paperwork. It won't hold up under deep scrutiny but it'll get us through a checkpoint."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Then we don't stop."
Bulldog grinned. Not a happy expression. Just the particular look he got when he knew things were about to get interesting.
"Anything else?" Steele asked.
Silence. They'd covered it. Breach plan. Assault plan. Extraction plan. Contingencies for when things went wrong.
"Load up. We've got a plane to catch."
They filed out in silence. Down the stairs. Across the compound. Into the waiting truck that would take them to Pope Army Airfield where a C-130 sat fueled and ready.
Steele climbed in last. Looked at his team one more time. Five men who would follow him into hell because he'd asked them to.
The truck rolled out of Fort Liberty. Behind them, the base continued its normal operations. Ahead of them, Iraq. A compound in Mosul. An arms dealer who thought walls and money made him safe.
Steele leaned back against the truck's metal wall. Closed his eyes. Didn't sleep. Just waited. The way he always did. For the moment when waiting ended and the real work began.