At 0730 hours they all piled into the Land Rover WMIK. Standard military issue. Packs in the back; ready to go. It was still dark, as it was the middle of autumn still.
Fox had been thinking, he had come across SCORPIA before and knew how ruthless they were. He had been thinking about the found M.I.A agent, of whom it could be and there was only one answer. Alex. He wouldn't, couldn't tell the others or the operation would go haywire being an emotional target, last time that had happened it has been a disaster, four of the eight man SAS team were killed and they had been unable to complete the mission.
They trundled along and when they were several hundred metres away from their target, located in the middle of pretty much nowhere, Wolf pulled out their NV goggles, which they would use later. They would trek from here.
Fox cut the engine and all of a sudden it was a deathly silence, one that they were used to. They hid the Land Rover in some nearby trees, where it couldn't be seen. It wasn't too far to where they would be waiting till nightfall. They patrolled through the dense forest with their C8 Carbine rifles at the ready. One they had reached their RV point, they got out standard military ration packs. They all grabbed out their Hexi burners and Hexamethylenetetramine or Hexi for short (and so soldiers would be able to say it).
Fox poured some water out of his water bottle, into a mess tin and started boiling it after lighting the Hexi. He placed his silver foil pocket of lamb and vegetable stew into the water and let it cook for five minutes. The others did the same. After munching on the tasty, warm food they set about making a brew for themselves. Wolf having a cup of coffee, Eagle the Lucozade powder, Snake the mint hot chocolate and Fox had the tea, which, even though it was the vilest cup of tea he had ever tasted, he drank anyway.
Later, after eating Wolf and Eagle did a reconnaissance around where they were staying for the next few hours in case anyone had followed them or someone was already there. The area was clear and they set up a single basher, tying it between two trees with khaki bungees, for shelter from the elements. Twilight began to creep in and soon it was dark. They packed away and moved off in the direction of the grid reference they had been given.
It wasn't too long before the GPS showed they were at the right location. Wolf, Eagle, Fox and Snake looked around them, but saw nothing. Wolf, being the leader, checked the GPS again, but they were definitely in the right place. Still looking out into their arcs of fire, Fox shuffled over to Wolf.
"Maybe it's underground?" He said quietly, scanning the immediate ground for any signs.
"Over here!" Snake called, semi-quietly. He could see two lanes of skid marks on the wet mud. Signs of struggle, likely from Alex. Wolf came over to look and the markings, and then walked off in the direction they were going. The other three men looked at each other then followed.
Wolf noticed that he tracks had stopped. He stopped himself and looked around. To the slight left of him he could see that the ground was uneven, unlike the rest of it. Stepping towards it he crouched down. The other three men had gathered round; weapons cocked and ready to fire. He carefully took hold of the clump of grass and pulled it upwards. All four of them tensed but nothing happened. Next to it was another clump of grass. He pulled that one after and the ground opened up and there was a metre square hole in front of them. No alarms had gone off however, which was highly surprising. Instead there was a flurry of bullets aimed at them and K Unit gladly fired back with their semi-automatic C8 Carbines. They could see the muzzle flashes of about three weapons. Soon there were two then one and then silence. Someone may still be down there, just not firing and keeping in the dark. There was a high risk of being shot. It was a risk they would have to take, anyway, there was no point taking the selection of joining the SAS if you were scared of being shot.
"I'll go first, then, Snake, Eagle and then Fox at the rear. Ok?" Wolf said quietly, knowing whispering at night was actually louder then quiet talking.
All three nodded their heads.
Wolf jumped down the gap first and landed neatly on his feet, bending his knees and then steadied himself with his left hand while still holding his weapon safely in his right hand. He moved out of the way and then signalled for the others to come down. They came down much the same as Wolf had done.
"NV goggles boys." He told them, the underground system of what seemed to be tunnels was dark and there was now no light from the moon and torches would give them away in seconds. They all slipped on their goggles. The area around them was now a green haze, but at least they could see their surroundings. They found their way around the tunnels, weapons pressed into their muscular shoulders. There were several rooms off the single tunnel way, most of them empty. The ones that weren't had a few guards in, off duty and they were soot shot dead with a skilled bullet between their eyes.
A dead end! Wolf thought. They got to the end and stopped. It wasn't a dead end but in fact a door.
"This has to be it." Eagle muttered to Snake, who nodded. Fox took a couple of steps backwards and then kicked the door in. It swung open on its now broken hinges.
All they could see were several tanks, which eagle recognised as the type of take liquid nitrogen was kept in and four shallow boxes. Three men were in the room, weapons drawn and pointed directly at K unit. It would definitely be dangerous to have a fire fight in here, being an enclosed space with several tanks of liquid nitrogen in, that if were burst the SAS soldiers would likely die from asphyxia (the mass of nitrogen would take out all the oxygen leaving them with nothing to breathe.).
The four of them backed out of the door and the three men followed. Wolf had the first shot and the man on the left keeled over with both hand clasping the would on his chest, before going limp and lying dead on the floor with a pool of blood forming around him. The two men who were left started to shoot at them aimlessly with their 9mm pistols. One of the bullets hit Eagle in the right shoulder, he dropped his weapon but it didn't go far as his sling, which was attached to his weapon, caught it. He sat himself slowly against a wall for support, and then with his left hand he held up his C8 Carbine and shot the guy in the chest several times and watched him sink to the ground with pleasure. He smirked slightly but it soon dropped as another wave of pain shot through his body. The last man remaining was quickly shot and then Snake went over to Eagle and tried to tend to his shoulder, but Eagle kept wavering him away.
"Go find Alex, then sort me out, I'll live." Snake stood up; it was typical of Eagle to think of others before himself. He turned to face the rest of the group who had gone back to the room at the end of the underground tunnels. Snake glanced back at the soldier, before assessing the situation inside the brightly lit room. He soon saw the box Alex was in and tried to smash the lock apart with the butt of his rifle. Realising it wasn't going to work he looked around him for the keys. A drain in the middle of the room with something shining in the light caught his eye and stepped towards it. Sure enough there was the key and three others. He tried two of them in the lock before the third one fitted in and the lock could be removed. He tossed the the three key over to Fox who was standing in front of one of the freezers.
"It's him! He's not dead!" He stood back fumbling with the keys in his hand.
"Who?" Asked Wolf.
"Rider! John Rider! Alex's dad. What do the other ones say?"
"Thomas Harris and Ian Rider. Why?" Wolf stated slightly confused.
"Ian Rider is Alex's uncle, who had supposedly died after being shot on the way back from a mission in Cornwall and Tom, well, that's Alex's oppo." He smiled to himself and took the key and tried to open the padlock with them, it was a lucky guess that the first one worked. Stuffing the lock into his combat trouser pocket he lifted the lid of John's 'Freezer'. A sight he never wanted to see. The look of a shock on the man's face was unnerving. Knowing he was probably fragile he asked Snake to come and help him lift John out.
They did it with great care and put him gently on the floor. They did the same with Tom and Ian and last of all Alex. Fox was almost frightened of the faces he saw of the four people before him.
"What were they intending to do I wonder?" Snake asked.
"I have no idea and I don't tend to want to find out." Wolf replied.
"Who are these other people?" Eagle asked, coming into the room with his right arm pressed against his body, weapon dangling on its sling.
"You're not dead?" Wolf said sarcastically, but instead of an answer he got three glares which said it all. It had been a harsh statement, he hadn't thought about what he had just said before he said it.
"Sorry." Wolf said carefully, directing it at everyone.
Eagle nodded. Snake had got out a foil blanket and was now wrapping it around the frozen boy. He didn't have enough for the other three, so it looked like body warmth was the only option.
"Eagle, how long will it take to defrost them?" Fox asked.
"About a day I reckon, maybe a bit longer for Ian and John, seeing as they're bigger. Only worry is that they didn't asphyxiate before they were frozen."
"Asphyxiate?"
"When your body is deprived of oxygen for a period of time and you, uh, die." Snake cut in.
"Oh." K Unit resumed their silence and by then they were crouching over the bodies, in attempt to defrost them. Tom was defrosting easily and water was slowly dripping off of him. Ben smiled. He took of his combat jacket and put it over the boy.
"We need to move out of here before someone realises that this place has been ransacked by us and then we all get killed. Eagle are you alright to move?"
"Boss." He said cheekily
"Lets get out of here then, everyone pick someone up, Eagle I'll help if you need it." Wolf said and as he passed the young soldiers he muttered: "and don't call me Boss again, or I'll shoot you again, but this time you won't live!"
"Ok," He said and picked up the now slightly flexible body of Ian Rider and put him over his left shoulder – the one that hadn't been shot. Everyone else did the same, Ben took Tom, Wolf took John and Snake took Alex. They let their weapon hang below them, ready if needed but out of the way to carry their load.
They went back the same way they came in.
"There was a ladder?" Snake said. "So we had to risk life and limb jumping down here when there was a ladder?" He sounded pissed and Wolf ignored him, climbing the rungs of the grey metal ladder first, followed by Snake, then Ben and then the three soldiers helped up their injured team-mate, Eagle.
Snake walked with Eagle, one arm holing him up.
"I can walk you know,"
"Alright then," Snake responded and walked off ahead of him.
They were about halfway back to the Land Rover when they heard Eagle yell in pain as his wounded shoulder got the better of him. Snake was there instantly and took Ian off of him, laying him on the ground, before realising Eagle has collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Snake was sure he would come round soon enough and picked him up in his arms carrying him across his chest. Wolf had picked Alex up and Ben took Ian. They walked nearly a mile back to the truck and when they got there they put Eagle across two seats in the back and Snake started to tend to his injury carefully while Wolf and Ben buckled Tom, Ian, John and Alex into the Land Rover. It was a tight squeeze but the body heat would warm them up soon enough.
In the back, Eagle was coming round slowly, dazed and confused.
"Where am I?" He said slowly.
"In the back of the Land Rover, you passed out."
"How did I get here?"
"A great big elephant came and swooped you up and took you here." Snake said sarcastically.
"Really?" Ok so maybe that wasn't the best thing to say to a person who had just passed out after being shot.
"No, I carried you."
"What ab-" He started. Snake cut him off, knowing what he was going to say.
"There're all here, don't worry, we off back to base now and we'll get you to Kez when we get back, I'm sure he'll patch you up better than what I've done."
"Thank you."
They arrived back at base and the four frozen bodies were off-loaded. Snake called one of the military medics over and asked for a stretcher for Eagle and it came soon enough.
"I can walk you know,"
"That's what you said last time." Eagle rolled his eyes as he was stretchered away; Snake chuckled to himself and headed for the Sergeants office.
There he joined Wolf and Fox again for their debrief, they were sure he would debrief Eagle later on in the week.
"At ease." The sergeant's voice was stern and intimidating. The three men relax a little and listened in to what the sergeant was saying. They spoke in turn to what had happened, what they found and everything else he would want to know.
Once the debrief was finished they headed back to their billet to sleep before scoff at 1830. They could have at least two and a bit hours to nap.
"I'll be back in a bit, just going to check on Mr. Sarcastic." Snake told them. Fox and Wolf nodded, then, Fox realised he wanted to go and see Alex.
"Hold on." He shouted out after Snake and dashed out the door after him.
The infirmary wasn't too far from their billet and they were there within minutes. Snake went up to the small reception. Asking for William Jenkins he was pointed in the general direction of the ward he was in. Fox did the same and he too was pointed in a general direction of where Alex was.
The room he had been told to go and Fox found himself in a small room, there were four tanks inside. Recompression chambers, he recalled and walked over to the nearest one. John Rider was lying inside, semi-conscious; Fox smiled at him and saw he smiled back. He moved on to find Alex. He was in chamber three. The timer on the outside said they only had about an hour left, John was pretty much conscious as well as Ian. Tom, by the looks of it, was just coming round and Fox was sure Alex would start coming round any time soon within the hour left in the tanks.
