Chapter 44

Flashback – Major M – Command and Control

Where the hell have my damn Sgts. gone - they should have been at the site by now! I hope to hell they approached this target with some finesse unlike how they have been behaving lately. They have been flying in, blowing the hell out of everything and then taking off.

When we first discovered the target, there were no troops. But that changed and now there were troops everywhere and they were digging up what we were sure was a SS-25 warhead. The more they uncovered the more certain we became.

I watched the satellite feed and questioned, "What the hell was that? Give me the last three minutes on a separate screen!" I couldn't fucking believe it!

The Sgt's. jeep flew into the screen, stopped, fired at the troops then took off. I switched back to the real time screen and observed most of the troops chasing after the jeep. My tech asked, "Sir do we continue to monitor the site or do we follow the jeep."

A limit of one target and lack of resolution were real issues with the equipment available. With just one bird, we could only monitor one target. I knew my primary concern had to be the warhead and reluctantly ordered, "Stay with the site." I hoped the Sgts. escaped this one because they had a hell of a lot of troops after them. At least work had now slowed on the excavation. If they unearthed this and moved it we might not ever find it again. As it was, weapons were being hauled into a neighboring country at an alarming rate.

So we waited and watched for another hour. I blinked, looked again at the feed and asked, "Does it seem to anyone else that all excavation work has ceased?"

My techs answered, "Yes Sir! It appears the workers are taking a break."

Now that was strange. I continued to watch and cursed that we didn't have better resolution. Then a lone truck drove away from the site, which also didn't make any sense.

Flashback – Mira and Ira – Undisclosed location

The radio crackled and Ira responded to its summons. She presented me with an aggrieved look and ordered, "Come Mira, the Israelis have determined a target of eminent interest which we must thoroughly investigate."

I smiled greatly and commented, "Ira, anything is superior to sitting on our derrieres and maintaining a watch for the harlequins."

We sped to our motorcycles and departed post haste.

Flashback – Jack – Undisclosed location

I still couldn't believe Banzai liked my plan! We unloaded a crapload of gear and hauled it close to the top of our observation dune.

I looked at Banzai and asked for confirmation, "You're sure about this?"

He answered, "Jack your plan is the only option if we want to take out this target." Then he followed with one stern order, "Jack don't fuck up my GAZ!"

Yes I was shocked when Banzai let me drive his jeep - he was in love with this pile of junk and as I drove it I wondered why. I sure couldn't determine anything special about it. In fact I sort of felt like it drove like shit. I missed a shift and cursed, "Come on you worthless piece of crap!" Yeah this jeep wasn't anything special, at least to me.

I looped around and finally got this piece of crap moving. I flew into the site, jumped up and fired a short burst from the machine gun. It certainly had the desired effect since the fuckers started chasing me. I floored this fat, wallowing, piece of shit and yelled, "Come on move it!"

Flashback – Ben – Undisclosed location

So far Jack's plan has worked perfectly. As pissed off as the RG was at us, when he drove close to the site and fired, they were after him like a fat kid goes after a dozen donuts. I watched and cursed, "Jack get my GAZ the hell out of there."

I wasn't sure what was wrong, but he sure didn't look like he was trying very hard to get away. Once Jack's excitement was over at the site, it was my turn to do the voodoo I do so well. I loaded up all the gear I needed and slipped towards the site in my ghillie suit. Damn all this shit was heavy as hell! Either that or I was getting fat and lazy like Jack, maybe from too much cruising around in my girl.

That reminded me, Jack had better take good care of her or I will kick his ass!

The perimeter guard was sleeping since I guess he thought it was safe with everyone else chasing "us." That was his last mistake.

I scanned the site and saw the idiots only left ten other guards to stand watch with about ten more workers uncovering the SS-25 warhead. The guard's SA was so low it was practically non-existent so I dropped behind a truck, opened the door and found the key was in it. Then I slipped out of my ghillie suit, left it and most of the gear under the truck and boldly walked towards the first guard. He saw me and instantly snapped out of his daydreams. I motioned for him to follow me (the fool did) until we were behind a dune. I stopped, he walked up to me, my blade flashed and he was dead. I liberated his rifle, did a function check on it, and proceeded toward the next guard...

Flashback – Jack – Undisclosed location

I'm not sure what sort of magic Banzai pulled out of his ass to make this damn piece of crap move, but I sure wish I knew because I can't get this pile of bolts to move worth a damn. I can barely keep ahead of the fuckers chasing me.

I watched them in the rear view mirror, then this piece of shit finally took off like Banzai was driving it. I looked down, scanned the instruments and smiled, because I finally figured out what Banzai did. I would have given him hell if I had known earlier. I started to pull away from them, turned on the radio and played the theme to Peter Gunn on Banzai's music player...

Flashback – Ben – Undisclosed location

I got down to the last two guards before they figured out the others were gone and then the fuckers fired at me. However they both forgot one of the first rules of any gun battle: Don't stand still and move to cover - and that was the last and most fatal of their mistakes. Now all I had were the workers to deal with. I looked around and was surprised because all the workers had booked it.

I headed over to the truck, grabbed my gear, switched on the Geiger counter and walked toward the warhead. Like Jack I hoped to have kids someday and I also didn't want them born with three arms. The Geiger counter registered high, but safe, levels of radiation so I approached the warhead. I took a hell of a lot of pictures of it, set my charges, set a perimeter of anti-personnel mines and ran toward the truck.

I tossed the rest of my gear in the truck, jumped in cranked the truck but the fucker wouldn't start. I cursed, "Come on you worthless piece of crap." I cranked it again but this time it sputtered to life. I slammed it into gear and floored it. I used the trick from my GAZ and this truck lumbered away. I headed toward the rendezvous I had set up with Jack...

Flashback – Jack – Undisclosed location

What the fuck was that! I thought I had outrun the bastards and now someone just peppered the back of the jeep with automatic fire! I checked my rear view mirror and saw a motorcycle chasing me. Shit! Outrunning trucks and jeeps in this piece of shit was one thing, but a good dirt bike was a totally different story.

I downshifted and used Banzai's trick - I ignored the hell out of the tachometer until the engine sounded like it was going to explode, then snapped an upshift and pulled away from the dirt bike.