Raid on Afghanistan, page 16
“We need to know where to go, Mr. Dur. Do you know where we are?”
Abraham’s eyes were closed. Talley looked at Eisner. “Dave, can you get him to wake up? We have to know where we’re going.”
Eisner shook him gently and bent down to look at his eyes. He looked back up, shaking his head.
“He’s dead, Boss. He ain’t telling us anything.”
All eyes were on Talley. They were on top of a mountain, in the middle of nowhere, and with no idea of where their target lay.
“I’ll contact base, see if they have any intel that may help us. You men better dig a hole in the snow and bury him, poor bastard.”
Five minutes later, the mission was as good as over. Talley was in despair.
“They can’t do anything for us at all. They’ve overflown this area many times, yet they’ve never been able to get a fix on a single transmission that might triangulate to a possible target. There’s nothing that remotely resembles a camp or facility. Nothing.”
“Infra red?” Nolan asked. “That might show something up.”
Heat sensing technology was commonly used to find targets and was part of the mission profile of the reconnaissance and attack drones. But Talley shook his head.
“I asked, but there’s nothing.”
“I may be able to help.”
They all looked at Agnetha as she stood up from where she’d been slumped down in the snow, exhausted. Talley glanced at her.
“How can you help us? I thought you’d no idea where this place was.”
“That’s true. I’ve never been to their facility, but I’ve heard them talking about it often enough. Maybe I’ve picked up some clues, I don’t know, something that may fix a location. It’s worth a try. Can you contact your intelligence people direct, and I’ll give them every name I picked up, every hint and clue. Perhaps they can pinpoint a location from that. It’s their job, isn’t it? Aren’t they supposed to be intelligence people?”
Talley nodded. “It’s worth a try. I’ll get on to them.”
He keyed the mic and explained he needed the call relayed through to Military Intelligence, ISAF Headquarters, Kabul. It took half a minute to get through, but the sound was crystal clear.
“This is Major Knowles, ISAF Intel, Kabul. How can we help you?”
The voice was strange, a cut-glass English accent. Talley explained that he needed to pinpoint a location from chance names and words overheard in a conversation. The Major was doubtful.
“It sounds like a parlor game, Lieutenant. But fire away, and I’ll see what we can do with our computers. Oh, wait a moment, and I’ll get a line through to GCHQ in England. They’re the experts in this sort of thing. It might work better if your person talks to them direct.”
For twenty minutes, Agnetha thought hard to recall every name she’d ever heard while her captors were talking. All the time they were getting colder from the inactivity, too cold. The men knew they’d have to start moving soon if they were to survive the night on the mountain.
“I’m sorry, that’s about all I’ve heard,” she concluded despairingly. “Oh, there was one word, a name I think, possibly a girlfriend of one of the fighters, Avizeh. But that’s…”
“Did you say Avizeh?” The English operator’s voice was sharp with interest.
“Yes, that was it. One of the men was talking on the phone. I’m sure that’s what he said.”
“It means ‘the necklace’. It’s a girl’s name, but it’s also something that came up on a SIGINT intercept. Hold on, I’ll check it out.”
Signals Intelligence, SIGINT, was intelligence derived from intercepted signals from cell phones, radios, and other electronic communications systems.
The GCHQ operator came back to them. “Yes, here it is. The Necklace, it’s a string of huge rocks that form a circle on a plateau about five miles from your position. We located the place several months back and ran several satellite overflights. But there were no signs of life there, I’m afraid, so it may not be what you’re looking for.”
“Could there be a cave system in that area?” Talley asked him.
“Well, yes, of course. After all, Tora Bora is in the same mountain range, and that’s where Osama bin Laden had his hideout after we came looking for him.”
“Okay, can you let us have the exact coordinates of this place?”
“I’ll get on to it right away.”
“It could be the place,” Nolan murmured to Talley. “But if it isn’t, five miles in these conditions will be as much as we can manage, and we’ll be finished. That’s assuming that Agnetha even makes it that far.”
And if it looks like she won’t make it, we have to kill her.
“I know that, Chief. But it’s the only shot we have. If it doesn’t pan out, we’ll need to arrange for exfiltration and see about putting together another mission to find these characters.”
“By which time they could be long gone. If they blow the facility and move into Pakistan and go to ground, we’ll have problems getting to them.”
Talley nodded. “That’s true, but I’ve got a good feeling about this place. These bastards have always gone to ground in these exotic mountaintop hideouts. Didn’t Hitler have some kind of fallback position in the mountains in Southern Germany?”
“I think it was the Obersalzberg, the center of the Alpine Redoubt or something like that. Turned out it was all bullshit anyway.”
“Tora Bora wasn’t bullshit, Chief.”
“Let’s hope this ‘Necklace’ place isn’t either. It’s a long walk home.”
“Copy that. Let’s assume it’s the place and go in accordingly. I’m going to call up for a couple of IR passes from any Predators or Reapers they have in the area. You never know, if they check out the surrounding area, they may strike lucky. That’s assuming that there’s anything to display an IR signature on this godforsaken mountain. We’ll get moving in the meantime. We need to assign someone to escort the woman. It’ll be a long, hard, and dangerous trek for us, let alone her.”
“I’d suggest Vince Merano for that job, Boss.”
Talley looked at him sharply. “Vince? Is it like that?”
“I reckon so, or at least it’s developing that way.”
“Okay, he may as well take care of her. We’re a long way from getting out of here. The weather is bad enough, but if it worsens, we’ll have even more problems.”
They started marching across the snow, leaving behind two bodies buried in the snow, Waverley and Abraham Dur. Talley had carefully marked the coordinates of the bodies so they could be recovered later. They stumbled on in frozen silence, until they reached a point two miles out from Avizeh, The Necklace. They stopped for a brief rest, and a signal came in from Creech Air Force base in Nevada.
“We vectored a couple of UAVs to overfly your twenty, and we got a small IR return on those coordinates, Bravo. It’s a very small return, so it could be something, or could be nothing.”
“What kind of a return?”
“It was quick, just a few seconds. We had a Reaper overflying at extreme range, and they picked up something that could have been a person up there, maybe a sentry. But it could also have been a large animal. Sorry, that’s all we’ve got. Whoever or whatever it was got down under cover.”
“Can you keep those Reapers on station for the next few hours? We don’t know what we’re up against here.”
There was a pause before the reply came back. “We have one UAV available to remain on station. She’s an MQ-9 with sufficient fuel to stay with you. She’s armed with four Hellfire missiles and two 500 lb GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bombs, so we can put those munitions where you want.”
“Understood, Creech. If this is the place, we’ll be making the assault inside of two hours, so stand by.”
“Copy that, Bravo. If you find you need more strike power, there’s an AC-130 about a half hour out from your twenty. I’ll order the pilot to vector onto your position and stand by. Those babies pack a lot of killing power.”
The Lockheed AC-130 gunship was a heavily armed ground-attack aircraft variant of the C-130 Hercules transport airplane. The Spectre was armed with one Bofors 40mm autocannon, and one 105 mm M102 cannon. Powered by four Allison turboprops, they could travel long distances and stay loitering over the battleground for long periods. When they were called in to attack, the cannon and artillery fire was devastating.
“You better hope we’re on the right track,” Will Bryce smiled. He’d come up to join them while they formed the plan for the initial assault. “We’ll have some pretty awesome firepower on our side. We just need someone to shoot at.”
Talley nodded. “We’ll find them. I know we will.”
They had their first piece of luck a mile from the target. The MQ-9 Reaper loitering over the target area had narrowed its focus to the immediate area of The Necklace. Creech Control Center called in another stronger IR return, and the platoon immediately took more precautions against being seen. Chief Nolan took the point and went from cover to cover, minutely checking the ground ahead through his night vision goggles before calling the platoon forward. He’d taken Colonel Waverley’s rifle, an HK 416 that the officer had drawn for the mission. Waverley wouldn’t have any more need for it, he’d reflected at the time. It wasn’t a sniper rifle, but if a long rifle was needed, Vince Merano could be called up from his escort duties at any time. A few minutes later, Nolan called Talley. He’d sighted the enemy!
“Boss, could you send Vince forward. There’s a sentry up ahead, about three hundred yards. He’s inside what looks like a natural pillbox, and he has vision over the whole area. There’s no easy way to approach, not in a short time.”
“Copy that, Chief. He’s on the way.”
Minutes later, Vince slid down beside him in the shallow recess he’d scooped out of the snow. Merano focused his Leupold Vari-X Mil-dot riflescope on the pile of stone up ahead.
“Yeah, I see him. He doesn’t seem to be using night vision.”
“He’s probably smoking dope to keep warm. If he used night vision, he’d be having green nightmares.”
“Right. I can see his face, but it’s going to be tight. If he moves, I could miss.”
“I’ll be ready. If that happens, I’ll make a direct assault on his position.”
Merano looked at him dubiously. “That’d be risky, Kyle.”
“Not as risky as him calling up his buddies.”
“Yeah. I’ll make sure I don’t miss. Okay to take the shot?”
“Hit it.”
There was almost no sound from the quiet, suppressed barrel of the SWS. Vince fired once, twice, and the distant figure was thrown back. Both men jumped up and ran forward to the observation post, but they needn’t have worried. Both bullets had taken him in the face and killed him outright; his AK-47 assault rifle was lying on the ground, unfired. There was no sign of any communications equipment in the post, no radio, nothing except an ordinary satellite phone.
“So the poor bastard had to drop the dime if he saw something he didn’t like,” Vince noted. He grinned. “It could be a problem if he’d gone to voicemail.”
“It could be a problem anyway. These things don’t work so well in the kind of weather they get in these mountains. Some of the time the conditions are so bad, especially during heavy snowfalls, they don’t work at all. I’ll keep this. Our people will want to analyze this little gadget. There could be a world of information on the memory chip.”
Nolan stashed it inside his pack, then turned to Vince.
“We need to push on before they realize we’ve taken out their sentry. At least this proves we’re in the right place. I’ll call Talley.”
The Lieutenant came on the commo. “Good work, both of you. Chief, see if you can locate the entrance to their base. We’ll stay two hundred yards back. We don’t want to warn them with a crowd. Call us when you have a visual on the entrance. When we know exactly where they are, I intend to use a standard assault team formation. You and Dan Moseley are the designated shooters. I’ll send Will Bryce forward. He’s the breacher, and Dave Eisner is to stand by as the paramedic. Vince, keep them covered with the long rifle. I want someone to watch our backs every moment.”
There was a grumble from Dave at the announcement. “Damn, Boss, I’ve done my stint of nursemaiding. I’m losing my killing edge.”
“Hey, Dave, we thought the nursemaiding was your killing edge,” someone muttered over the commo.
“Quiet, all of you. Zeke, you’re on the commo. Carl, as soon as we get in there, start planning the demolitions. The rest of you, follow me, and remember, the Professor may be inside, as well as Najela, old Abraham’s daughter. Agnetha will go in with the main force. She has an important job to do, so both you shooters make sure she’s covered. Try not to kill any friendlies. We don’t want any blue on blue accidents. That’s it, let’s go.”
* * *
Fifteen thousand feet above where the Navy Seals prepared their assault, the AC-130 gunship flew steadily towards the target area. Captain Jeremiah, The Prophet, Edwards scoured the long mountain range they were flying over, using his array of instruments, radar, and IR packages to ‘see’ through the dark sky ahead and the cloud cover that blanketed the Hindu Kush. Edwards owned the nickname The Prophet, but it wasn’t just because of his Old Testament first name. He was very tall and thin so that when he climbed into the aircraft, he had to contort his body to fit into the confined spaces.
“We’re gonna need to go down and eyeball that place if they call us in. There’s no way we can stand off and shoot, not in this visibility.”
Lieutenant Pete Towns, the co-pilot, leaned across and nodded an acknowledgment. Unlike his captain, he was short and rather inclined to be slightly overweight, probably due to his appetite for the hot dogs he burned through whilst pursuing his mania for NLF during every off duty moment. But it didn’t affect his flying skills, which were on a par with his skipper’s. Almost.
“We’re flying over a pretty awesome mountain range, Cap. The boys back in the fuselage would prefer we don’t fly straight into some peak. Like you say, the visibility is crap.”
“Did I ever tell you the time I flew a Piper Seneca along the Grand Canyon in a rainstorm?” Edwards grinned.
Pete groaned. They’d heard it, a score of times. Usually, when their captain wanted to make some point.
“I don’t remember. What about it, Skipper?”
“Visibility was crap, and I managed to fly out of there, it was like flying along the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel, with the lights off. We have to get sight of what we’re shooting at, Pete. We’ll have to use the night vision gear.”
Towns nodded and pulled on the goggles. They flew on, and when they dropped down low, he’d be ready to take the controls, his vision ready adapted while the captain pulled on his own low light gear. Edwards clicked on the internal comm system.
“This is the Captain. We have a possible fire mission. We’ll be operating at more than ten thousand, so make sure your oxygen is on stream. There’ll be a mix of friendlies and hostiles, so when you shoot, make sure you know what you’re hitting. We’ll be using the Bofors, so keep the heavy stuff in reserve. On your toes, everyone, the word from the top is this one’s real important. And I mean REAL important. Someone mentioned the possibility of a Broken Arrow scenario if we mess up.”
Pete Towns stared at him. “Holy shit!”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. If we’re assigned a target, I want it pasted, and I mean pasted. You got that, you guys on the Bofors?”
“Copy that, Skipper.”
He grunted contentedly. They were as ready as anyone could be who was about to start pouring it onto an unknown enemy amongst the peaks of a five hundred mile long mountain range. Edwards had a bad feeling in his guts. He was at the controls of one of the most lethal aircraft in the world, yet the mountains below were infinitely more dangerous than anything made by man.
Dammit, Broken Arrow! Now that’s something.
Chapter Eight
Nolan and Dan Moseley waited either side of Will Bryce, who’d found a hefty chunk of rock to use as a ram. They’d crept quietly up to the circle of rocks and discovered that on the south side there was a narrow track, barely wide enough for donkeys. At the head of the track, between two particularly large boulders, the path ended at what seemed like a dead end, but a third boulder concealed the entrance. It was perfect camouflage, and a first class hiding place for the insurgents and their bomb factory. From there, they straddled the isolated border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and could resupply the operation from the south, ready to launch operations in the north, and into Afghanistan. There was space in front of the cave entrance for the three of them to assault the door side by side. The door itself was solid, made of hardwood and looked like oak. Will inspected it minutely, pressed against it, and then found his boulder.
“This’ll do the trick. Just be ready when it gives.”
They both nodded. They had their HK416s ready, and both men had a full complement of grenades tucked into their packs. The Afghan clothing was not ideal for the kind of operation they were going into. They needed the multiple pockets, straps, and webbing of conventional American military uniform. But it was all they had, and besides, it could give them a split second advantage when it came to close quarters fighting. Bryce took a step back, took a firmer grip on the boulder, swung it back then leapt forward, swinging the heavy rock to collide with the door using maximum force. The heavy oak didn’t splinter, but the force sprung the iron catch, and it swung open. Nolan and Moseley charged through, safeties off, searching for targets. Right in front a man was dressed in warm clothing, carrying an AK-47, and walking towards them. His mouth was open wide with astonishment; probably the change of sentry for the man they’d shot. Nolan double tapped him, and the guy fell back, blood streaming from two wounds to the chest and head. They ignored the body and ran past into a wide tunnel that went deeper into the cave system. Will Bryce was close behind. He’d swapped the boulder for his HK416, and they could hear the main group under Lieutenant Talley entering the cave system behind them.
