CHAPTER ONE - EXTRACTION
Sergeant First Class Charles Grey checked the pressure dressing on Sergeant Hanson's wound then took his pulse. It was getting weaker and they were down to two IV bags. The team leader, Master Sergeant Jonas Blane emerged through the brush and made his way to Charlie's side. For a man of his intimidating size, Blane moved fluidly and silently. The camouflage paint adding fierceness to his usual stern demeanor.
"Extraction team is en route but it's gonna be over an hour. How's he doing?" Jonas asked eyeing the wounded man, their newest team member and responsibility of getting him home to his young wife weighed heavily upon him.
"He's lost a lot of blood and he's shocky. He needs a real doc and soon. How's our informant?" Charlie's tone reflected his skepticism of the value of their informant based on the misinformation and possible leak that put them in this situation.
"Bleeding is under control. He's gonna make it."
"He give up any more information?" Master Sergeant Mack Gerhardt asked over his shoulder as he kept watch over the surrounding jungle for any of the cartel's hired gunmen.
"He's not talking until we get him out of here and he gets medical attention."
"Figures," Mack grunted.
They had flown in by jet to the small airport near Agrio, Ecuador the previous day to pick up a former member of the Medellin drug cartel. In exchange for what most likely would be a large sum of money and passage out of Colombia, he had agreed to lead the Special Ops team to two large coca processing labs hidden in the jungles near the Ecuadorian border. The team had trucked out north then proceeded through the jungle on foot. The plan had been to destroy the labs but someone in Agrio must have sent word of their arrival and they'd walked into an ambush. They were outnumbered but, in the ensuing fire fight, the untrained gunmen had been no match for the members of the most highly trained, elite military unit in the United States Army. However, they now had two men seriously wounded and there were still cartel gunmen roaming the jungle. Their team member wouldn't survive if they had to carry him back to the truck. The airfield in Agrio wasn't a safe option now anyway.
"What do you think for getting them out?" Mack asked. He had his own thoughts on it but he'd defer to his team leader.
"There are two clearings big enough for the aircraft to set down. It means having to move about half a mile but I think hoisting up the wounded is gonna make the birds vulnerable too long especially without the benefit of darkness."
"If they shoot a bird down, we're all dead." Mack agreed. "It's the better option."
Jonas nodded. As the leader of the team, their safety was his responsibility and he didn't want to lose a man, especially so soon after the death of Hector Williams. He also worried that they'd lose the advantage of the cover of a nighttime evacuation if they waited.
Mack understood Jonas's frustration at not being able to complete the mission. Mack had two daughters at home and he wanted this drug making business shut down. He'd seen crack and cocaine mess up people's lives and he did what he did to protect those he cared about. But he wanted to make it home alive. They could return another day to take out the labs.
As a youth, instead of cartoons, Mack Gerhardt watched war movies. He hunted, pretending the prey where enemy soldiers. Setting a goal of joining the Army's Special Forces kept Mack out of trouble in high school. He had a single focus. While not a great student, he studied Spanish, even joining a church to go on a mission trip to Mexico to practice the language. He ran track and cross country to build his endurance and signed up to join the Army before he graduated high school.
He excelled at basic training and infantry school and quickly went through jump school and earned his airborne qualification then went straight to Ranger school. Regular Army was for the normal guy. Mack wanted more.
Mack was taking a class at the local college when the professor assigned the students to do group projects. That's when he got to know Jamie Campbell. She was beautiful in an innocent and fresh way. Tall, blonde, slender, with sparkling blue eyes, she seemed unaware of her beauty. Mack was surprised to find that instead of fitting the profile of a "dumb blonde," Jamie was extremely intelligent. She was an amazingly talented artist and had a huge heart as well. Mack enjoyed her company even if she was much more conservative than the women he usually found himself attracted to. Even after the group project ended, they continued to spend time together. Things weren't moving as fast as he would have liked romantically but he suspected that Jamie's feelings for him were getting stronger. He found it hard to believe that he had managed to end up in a relationship with probably the only twenty year old virgin within twenty miles of post.
Then one evening when he was at the Campbell's studying with Jamie, he met her younger sister, Tiffy. As far as two sisters went, about the only thing they had in common was their blonde hair and parents. Tiffy was outspoken and had a wild streak. She dressed provocatively and flirted outrageously, soaking up any attention she could get. Mack picked up on Tiffy's resentment of Jamie but Jamie never seemed to let it faze her—even when an alleged miscommunication led to Mack and Tiffy going to a concert together when Jamie thought he'd cancelled a date.
Somehow Tiffy convinced Mack that Jamie was interested in him only as a friend and Jamie's actions didn't alert him otherwise. When he ran into Tiffy at a bar with friends, they spent the evening together. It didn't take much to realize that while Jamie was saving herself for marriage, Tiffy had other plans. While a few years younger, she already knew what a man liked and seemed determined to prove it to him.
Maybe it was the amount of alcohol he'd consumed that had his resistance down though more likely it was the physical needs that had been going unsatisfied, that kept him from stopping Tiffy when she unbuckled his belt and then reached to unzip his pants.
Mack felt incredibly guilty the next day. He cared about Jamie but there was something about Tiffy that offered excitement and a sense of danger that he found irresistibly appealing. He told himself that Jamie deserved better than someone like him. He still saw Jamie in class but didn't ask her out or make study dates anymore. And while she was still friendly he sensed that she was hurt about his change in his interest in her but he felt it for the best. He knew staying away from her little sister was the honorable thing to do. And he tried. But it turned out the more honorable thing to do was to marry Tiffy when she told him six weeks later that she was pregnant.
Jamie transferred to an art school out of state the next month. Mack and Tiffy settled into married life and Lissy was born seven months later. Life was good for Mack and Tiffy. He enjoyed serving with the Ranger regiment and Jenny was born a little over three years later. When he got invited to selection for the elite Delta unit, life seemed perfect for Mack Gerhardt. But then he and Tiffy started having problems. He was gone on missions that he couldn't talk about and she felt left out. They began to argue more and she resented being left alone to worry whether he'd come back. They had grown apart. She'd sought comfort elsewhere. Now with their divorce pending, that illusion of perfection had shattered.
Jonas assisted the wounded informant as Mack, Charlie and Bob carried the stretcher through the heavy growth of the jungle to on the edge of the clearing. Hanlon groaned softly, barely conscious, as they set him down. Mack eyed the canopy of trees. It was gonna be tight getting the aircraft in. At least there was no wind to figure into the equation.
Bob picked up the sound of the Black Hawks engines first and signaled to Jonas who stepped into the clearing and signaled the incoming aircraft with the beacon on his night vision goggles. He knew the second they picked him out as the aircraft split, one flying a perimeter while the other circled once getting into position before descending into the open area.
Before it even touched down, Jonas lifted the wounded informant while the remaining men picked up the stretcher and emerged from the jungle at a run. One of the crew chiefs jumped out of the aircraft to help load the wounded men.
Movement in the front of the aircraft caught Charlie's eye and he immediately focused his attention there. It only took a second for him to evaluate the situation – one posing imminent danger to the oncoming men and the flight crew. The crew chief had already detected the movement as well and even over the roar of the engines, he could hear him swearing profusely
Mack also saw the men emerge from the jungle to his right. Holding the stretcher with his left hand, his right gripped his customized sniper rifle. Ignoring the flash and the sound of gunfire, he managed to raise his weapon while continuing his run toward the aircraft. He was the only one of the three in a position to defend them without setting down the wounded man. He was also the easiest target for the enemy. Hardly the first time he wondered if he'd make it home from a mission, he felt the adrenaline surge and everything seemed to move in slow motion around him.
Before he could fire, Mack heard the familiar sound of a .50 cal machine gun being fired and saw the fire flash coming from the side of the Blackhawk. In his peripheral vision, he could make out the crew chief spraying the area in front of the aircraft with suppressing fire as he aimed his weapon in their direction. He felt satisfaction at seeing the undeniable jerk of two of the drug maker's hired guns as they were hit and fell to the ground. Shoving the stretcher into the aircraft, the men dove in on to the floor.
The pilot had the aircraft rising in seconds and the crew chief laid down more fire as the aircraft quickly rose, skimming over the treetops.
Charlie accepted a bag of medical supplies from the crew chief and quickly set up a fresh IV bag. Checking Hanson's vitals, he prayed they made good time to the nearest surgical facility.