The helicopters moved over the barren land, casting their dark shadows on the emptiness below. Mike sat with his
back against the pilot's seat back, surgeon's fingers wrapped around his gun, absently tapping a silent pattern
against its stock that only made sense to him. Swanson was watching his fellow Delta and pretending not to. Below
sand gave way to sand colored grass and then suddenly, as if a switch had been thrown, green bloomed. Mountains
loomed ahead, a wide chain of them. Hiding, somewhere in their heart, the single secret this entire squad was
searching for. They passed a river, brown and gold in the sun and the animals drinking at it, looked up before going
back to their drinking. Choppers flew here often enough that they'd become nothing more than another strange
animal in the sky. In perfect formation the helicopters peeled off away from a direct line into the mountains and
passed on. A night approach would have been preferred but speed was of the essence and by nightfall they hoped to
be already in the camp they were searching for. Mike reached into his pack and pulled out the well worn map. New
sections were colored in in red indicating heat sources and blue lines moved across it speculating on which were
troops and where they would be by the time the choppers landed and which might be base camps and likely to stay
put for a few days. Without a word, he handed it across to the dark haired Delta that rode with them and then settled
back to his fingers tapping their absent pattern.
"Ten minutes." The pilot called, gesturing as well. The choppers would set down, dump their cargo of men and gear
and then lift off again. Everything now depended on being quick and quiet. And there weren't many hours left in the
day before dusk started to settle in.
Hector looked over the map intensely, as if the map held secrets it wasn't letting go of for the moment, then carefully
folded it back up and handed it back to Mike as he shifted his gear on his back and edged toward the exit to get off
this flying piece of scrap metal and into the camps.
"I hate day drop offs." He said, shaking his head. Swanson nodded, he wasn't overly fond of them either. Especially
since they would be dropped off on a plain, left them open. At least the ones that were already there would be
covering them, and there were ones on the helicopter for the sole purpose of covering them, not part of the troop
drop off.
The helicopter touched down briefly and the men got off with practiced ease, even Mike, proving old habits never
died, they just got tucked away until they'd be useful again.
The men on the ground covered each other and moved fast and low and even before the choppers had cleaned the
area they were in the tree line and moving into deeper cover. Where they were quickly went from flat planes to pure
jungle and the air changed accordingly, going damp and heavy in their lungs as they moved silently. Anything could
hide under the canopy of these trees and often did. William took point and Baker came right behind him as the other
fanned out and moved swiftly. Late last night they'd had their makeshift base dropped near another spot deeper in.
There was a clearing there too but when the chopper came back to land there, they hoped it would be to air lift them
to an enemy base that wouldn't have time to prepare if they were spotted then.
Because by then the target was supposed to already be secured and the enemies advantage clipped.
They moved like shadows. There wasn't supposed to be militia activity in this part. But that had been last night and a
lot changed in a single African day. Being spotted now was the worse possible occurrence though and so everyone
moved as if there were enemy troops in the area, hidden in the trees and watching for them.
The building blocks of the temporary base camp were untouched when they arrived at the spot however, still set back
and hidden in the trees and the two snipers that had dropped with the gear and waited out the night moved forward
from their hidden positions to report that no one but a couple curious small deer had been by during their wait. Jet,
who'd gone recon as soon as the sun rose, was with them.
The team quickly moved into sorting the gear and Baker set up the radio under a tarp, calling in for last minute notes
and directions. William went over a map even more detailed than Mike's with Jet.
Mike moving over to join the men around the map, simply asked:
"So?"
"We'll move as soon as the sun goes down." William said. "We've got it narrowed down to three possible buildings."
Buildings being used roughly though as a term, they were really modified and fortified huts. "We had a guy in the
trees," he nodded at Jet, meaning him, "who saw wounded being brought here and here." He said pointing at the map.
"Three strike teams?" Hector asked, accepting another god awful protein bar and opening it.
"Three strike teams, one for clean up." William said.
"Which one am I on?" Hector asked bluntly.
Baker looked at William. William shrugged. He had promised. "Number two." Which Baker would not be on. "And if you
get the head guy, I'll give you those five minutes alone I also promised you."
Jet, as soon as his report was given, moved over to join Mike to the side while the SAS conferred. Mike popped open
an MRE and handed it to the dark skinned man, who settled down on one of the boxes and dug in. First meal today
and one meal more than the rest of his team, still on location and holed up, were going to get. The medic and the
SEAL conferred in low voices.
"Found the hands." Jet told Mike quietly.
Mike raised an eyebrow but that was the only outward expression that he had even heard Jet. "Good." Mike said.
"We'll let the SAS provide a cover and go around them. Guess we should tell Hector." Keeping Hector out of that
would be asking for trouble, to say the least. "Thanks."
Jet dipped his head briefly and ate his MRE. "More men than we expected, but they don't seem like the militia type."
"We'll have to secure the wounded. Andi won't leave wounded." Mike said thoughtfully.
The most dangerous time for a hostage was those few seconds after Special Forces kicked in the door. That brief
moment when no one had the obvious upper hand and a moment of panic from one of the kidnappers could end it all
before it started. That's why the idea was to secure Andi before SAS and Co. dropped from the sky. Mike would have
felt better if Jet had stayed behind at the camp to do just that. But from the sound of things, the border around the
camp was thick with guards. Thick enough that using the radio had been out of the question. Thick enough that only
Jet had known enough tricks to get out of the area without alerting anyone. Mike ran a hand through his hair.
Swearing off Special Forces missions. Again.
He nodded to Moshi. The Israeli intelligence agent. Who'd shown up because he was missing a brother too. Who was
also a doctor that had disappeared about five months ago in this general area of Africa. Or - more to the point, Moshi
had found his brother's body. It was just the hands that belonged with it he was still looking for.
Was Mike going to tell Hector that particular bite of intel? Oh, hell no.
Mike strolled over to where Hector was doing something that at least kept his hands busy. Handed over his own rifle
for cleaning, even though he'd already done it himself. Something to do. This close to the conclusion... this close to
Andi... and having to wait for dark...
"Want the good news?" He asked, settling down on his heels and resting his arms across his knees.
"I would love some good news." Hector said, his hands working automatically. Mike was right, it was busy work. To
keep his hands occupied before he had a little meltdown on someone else who probably didn't deserve it. His jaw was
still tight, his face lined with worry and anxiety, his eyes steely and hard with determination.
"Jet's got a good hit on her." Mike said, watching the Delta in front of him.
Hector nodded. "Good. A few hours till sunset though." He shook his head at that.
"I know." Mike said. "But Jet can lead us right to her, without going through the guards as much as possible."
Mike watched Hector. Watched the hands moving.
"Hey." He commented. "She's there." He said it steady sure and waited until Hector met his eyes. "Witch doctor's got a
black eye" he managed a crooked smile. "They won't touch her on the edge of going to war that they're planning.
She's patching people now and we'll go in tonight and get her. Okay? Stick with Jet. He'll take us right to her."
Hector nodded, and his mind was already moving to when they had Andi back. She wasn't an idiot. She would have a
good idea, if not a front row seat, of what it took to get her back. It was one thing to know your boyfriend was a
professional soldier and all that entailed. It was quite another to see his training up close and personal. A part of him
wondered if he was getting her back only to lose him when she faced with exactly what he was trained to do for a
living.
"Once this starts, Jet's got himself a new shadow then."
Mike nodded.
"Jet thinks he knows what hut they put her in to sleep." Mostly because no one had been in it all day but the witch
doctor had been digging holes and filling them with all kinds of things on its parameter. "He's got the 'clinic' already
marked and Billy knows to shoot anyone that tries to get into it that's not one of us once the choppers come in. We
figure, being Andi, even after dark, she'll still be in there instead. Jet says he can get his pilot to drop us right at the
edge between it and the jungle. Says he thought the mats on that side looked like they'd make a nice back door." He
watched Hector. Seeing the eyes, the way his jaw was. His hands.
"Chances are, there will be guards inside though. Patients that might or might not still have their weapons too."
Bullets flying in an enclosed space was just asking for KIAs. Without vests, some of the bullets could easily rip
through one person and dig right into the next. "Jet also says there are women." What he really wished, would have
given an eye for, was that there was a way to warn Andi it was them and not some enemy militia coming in. He met
Hector's eyes. Knowing how messy things were going to get and how fast. One wrong move... one bad gamble... one
whisper of bad luck... "I'm going to ask even though it's going to insult you but I trust you to know what's right. You up
to this?"
"I promised her parents." He said. "and I promised her." He also knew that didn't answer the question. "I'm up for it."
He thought about it for a minute, the situation, all the possible twists and turns going through his brain in rapid fire
succession. "There's going to be so much chaos." He said shaking his head. Normally a good thing, and normally
what he was sent in to cause. "I think we need to move ahead of the rest, get to her before all the fun starts."
Mike's eyebrows went up. No way SAS would like something like that, much less sanction it. Which really didn't make a
bean's worth of difference to him at the moment. He took his rifle back and ran through an automatic check of it
himself.
"You thinking of something?"
"Always." Hector said. "We slide with the guys, when they stop for final approach check, we keep going. Might give us
thirty seconds, may be twenty head start, it'll have to be enough. We want chaos in our favor, not theirs after all. So in
that thirty seconds, we bust in where she is. Okay, maybe not 'bust' but get in there before everyone else, secure
her, and move her the hell out of the way before the fireworks really start. That's my plan."
Hell. It was a better plan than just going in guns blazing so Mike was all for it. Even if SAS would have a fit about it
afterward. And their heads on platters if anything went wrong. So they'd just have to make sure nothing went wrong...
"We go in quiet, we can probably take out most of the guards in the clinic before they realize we're in there." He
nodded. The sounds from their guns would just serve to tip off the entire camp after all. "Okay. We go on your lead
then. Jet'll take point and led us in once you give the word. Fewer the better but do you want to take Swan?" Four
could get their asses caught and spoil the entire surprise as easy as three. He knew what they were risking. But he
still liked it a hell of a lot better than just expecting Andi to know when to duck without giving her any hint of what was
coming.
Hector shook his head. "We'll need Swanson to cover our asses with the SAS, make sure they don't do something
stupid." He doubted they would, they were as highly trained as him. But the cover the ass part, he'd definitely need.
Especially since he wasn't even on this thing officially, and had had to fight to get where he was now, literally in some
aspects.