The man was alone, standing on one of the many rooftops in the city. He had been there for ten minutes, watching from a distance, the events unfolding on the pier. As he watched, he had opened the case that had been left with him, and began setting up a tripod with a digital camera fitted to the top. Once the camera was finally set up, he reached back into the case and retrieved a satellite phone.
He dialed the number that had been given to him by the group of men that met him in the city. After several rings, a voice came alive on the other end, "You have something for us?"
"Yes, let me talk to Petrov, he'll want to hear this himself."
He could hear the phone being shuffled around on the other side of the line, several moments later a voice came on, it was Petrov.
"What is it Sipho?"
As Sipho spoke, he raised binoculars to his eyes and surveyed the harbor closer. He could see a large crowd, maybe two hundred men advancing onto the pier. Opposing them, he could see less than a dozen men positioning themselves around the first warehouse on the pier.
"The soldiers came, right as you said. It looks like Zubeyr is sending his men to fight them."
"How many is Zubeyr sending?"
"Looks to be two hundred men, but there are also children and a few women mixed in the crowd."
A cold response, "Good. You know what to do once the time is right. Tell me if things change."
"Yes Petrov, I will," Sipho heard the line go dead.
After placing the phone on a table next to him, Sipho turned the camera on and began filming the crowd as they advanced towards the pier. Taking one last look through the binoculars, he could see one of the soldiers running from the ship towards his comrades at the warehouse.
Sweat was beginning to drip of Declan's forehead as he finally caught up to Parker, Corbin and the six other men of Dagger-Two. His boots clattering against the cement pier alerted Parker to his return.
"Mac in position," Parker inquired as Declan came to his side.
"He's all set up, so are some nasty surprises I left scattered around," Declan said referring to several claymores and C4 satchels he had placed around the pier in specific locations.
"Beautiful."
Declan nodded in return, "Any word on our extract?"
Parker shook his head slightly, "Still at least twenty mikes."
"Damn," Declan muttered, "So what are we going to do until then?"
"Right, everyone listen up, I'm making this quick," Parker shouted to the group, causing the eight men around him to circle around him.
"Jester," Parker began, "take Dunn, Sandler, Arnett, and Wade," each man nodded in acknowledgement, "cover the left side of the pier. Doc, your with us."
Parker quickly explained his plan to the men, Jester and his four men would cover the left side of the pier, while Parker, Declan, Corbin and Doc, would cover the right and also the water from where boats or crafts could be used to traverse the harbor and sneak behind the men. Mac had been left in an elevated position on the ship and would provide sniper support for the others as they slowly would fall back towards the ship. Parker hoped they could delay the advancing crowds long enough for the Osprey to reach them for extraction.
The two teams split up and took cover behind whatever they could find. Declan ducked behind a dumpster that was situated next to the warehouse. Parker, Corbin and Doc all found similar places around Declan, and not a moment to soon. Bullets were heard ricocheting off of the metal building not a moment later.
"Only target the shooters, we don't want any civies killed," Parker reminded the men as the crowd finally came in to view, a scant hundred and fifty meters from the men.
Declan checked his wristwatch, eighteen minutes, he thought as he toggled the safety to the off position. The anticipation was building, everyone knew that this was going to be a fight to the death.
As Declan propped his C8 on top of the dumpster to give him a steady firing position, he glanced to his right after seeing movement in the harbor. A small boat, the size of a dinghy, was bobbing up and down in the harbor as it tried to make its way towards the pier.
"Mac, targets in the water, right side."
Back on the ship, Mac had positioned himself at the bow of the boat. As he lay in his position, he realigned his weapon so his scope was trained on the boat approaching the dock. He quickly adjusted his scope taking into consideration the wind and distance and making the best quick judgement he could.
Mac hugged the stock of the rifle, an M110 SASS, placed the crosshair on the chest of one of the men in the boat, and held his breath. The crosshair was centered on the man's chest as Mac fired. A 7.62mm round exploded out of the barrel and propelled down range. It took less than a second before a large red circle appeared on the man's white shirt. The force of the round striking sent him tumbling backwards off the boat and into the water. Before the others in the boat realized what had happened, another of their ranks fell, followed by a third.
It was an unfair advantage Mac possessed over the men. There was no way for them to hear the shots or find the shooter, and the ten round, semi-automatic rifle, dispatched the six men in the boat in record time. The now unoccupied boat continued to motor forward unguided and crashed into the pier beneath Declan. The sound of wood breaking was hardly audible to Declan over the sounds of gunfire that had now erupted around him.
"One, we're bounding back fifty meters."
"Copy that," Parker replied through the tac-net before shouting to Declan, Corbin and Doc, "Pack it up, we're moving back with them."
The two groups of operators quickly retreated another fifty meters to the second warehouse. Declan looked down his sights and fired several rounds at targets just as they over took their previous location. By this time in the battle, the women and children that had been apart of the crowd as curious individuals had quickly fled the pier after the shooting began; all that remained in front of Declan were enemies.
Ducking behind the cover of the warehouse, Declan reached into his breast pocket and retrieved a small detonator. He flicked the safety cover off before shouting, "Fire in the hole."
He squeezed the trigger, sending an electronic pulse out to the three satchels of C4 and five claymores that had been spread out at the first warehouse. In the kill zone of the blasts, dozens of bodies, wearing no armor besides cotton t-shirts, were torn apart by hundreds of fragments of lead.
"Good shit mate," Corbin said as he stopped firing for a moment in awe of the fireball that appeared in front of them.
Parker took the momentary rest in firing to toggle his mic, "Bravo-Six-Two what's your ETA, over."
"Dagger-One we are ETA ten minutes, over."
"Very well, hurry your arse up. We're running out of pier to fight on."
It felt like the entire city was coming down around Declan. He remembered the stories of when the Americans were surrounded here. Now two decades later he was in very much the same situation. He wondered for a split second if they were going to make it out of this one. Khyber Pass, Fallujah, Singapore; the places he had fought, bled, and killed in, flashed through Declan's head. So many times the odds had been on their side though, not now.
Go down fighting, that's what his father had told him growing up in one of the rougher areas of London. It was that fighting spirit that made Declan join the British Army all those years ago. Now he was thousands of miles away from home once more, unsure about what would happen in the next few minutes that would decide his fate. Declan knew that his father was looking down on him right now, and remembered what he had always said, go down fighting.
Declan snapped out of his daze as he reloaded his C8 carbine once more, noting that he had four more magazines left. Popping out of the cover of the warehouse, Declan picked out several targets in the crowd and sent several well placed rounds their way, sending the targets to the ground, hard.
It looked as though the crowd was avoiding the narrower side of the pier that Declan was at and instead swinging left and advancing up the other side. As the gunfire continued to ring out around them, their earpieces came alive, it was Dunn.
"Wade's been hit, Wade's been hit," he screamed.
Parker ducked behind the cover of several steel drums, "What's his status?"
There was a moment of silence before the panicked reply, "He's dead, Christ he's got a fucking hole through his head, sir."
Declan saw Parker swear to himself as he lowered his head in anguish.
Declan did not know Wade personally. The two had gone through selection at different times and never worked together during their time in the 22nd. However in the few hours they had talked, Declan realized that Wade was liked by everyone. Always quick witted and not afraid to dish out the trash talk, the sergeant was well liked by all in the task force.
Declan still stared at Parker who was behind the cover. Declan thought the captain had froze up, but was quickly proven wrong as he started to shout out commands.
"Mac," Parker started, "meet us on the pier. Jester, fall back towards the El-Zed, take Wade with you."
Jester acknowledged the order and the four surviving members on the left side of the warehouse began to displace. Parker ordered Declan and the team to intensify their fire to make up the difference.
Declan had just fired three rounds into a target running towards them when he saw a man appear from a doorway carrying a large tube on his shoulder. The man knelt to one knee and pointed the tube towards the team. Declan and the man fired at the same time. The RPG streaked from the launcher towards them. Declan followed the smoke trail as the rocket tore into the cover that Corbin was ducking behind.
The blast of the explosion sent shrapnel in every direction. Declan was knocked to the ground by the blast as well as Parker and Doc, who were away from the point of impact. Corbin wasn't as lucky.
The rocket tore through the thin cover that Corbin had been behind, detonating a mere meter from the sergeant. Several of Corbin's limbs were ripped apart by the blast as debris was sent everywhere. The force of the explosion that had knocked everyone to the ground, had also sent what remained of Corbin's body flying backwards off of the pier and into the harbor below.
Declan was knocked out cold momentarily by the blast. As he came to, Parker was next to his side helping him up. Clothing on his arms had been ripped by the shrapnel but he was otherwise uninjured. As Declan stood up, the world seemed to move in slow-motion for several seconds. Parker was shouting but Declan couldn't make out what he was saying, his words distorted by the blast still.
Declan's arm was draped over Parker's shoulder as he was helped down the pier. The two passed Doc who was crouched, firing less than a meter from Parker. After a few more steps, Declan shrugged off Parker and motioned that he was fine. Parker dropped his hold on his friend and focused on the enemy behind him. The three operators double timed their retreat as they put as much distance between them and the crowd as they possibly could.
Mac, Jester and the remaining operators were gathered behind two technicals and a handful of dumpsters that they had quickly put together before the engagement began. Declan was the last to enter the safe haven and the moment he had cleared the line of fire, seven men opened up with everything they had to suppress the advancing enemy crowd.
"This is it gents," Parker shouted as he fired at the advancing mob.
Bullets pinged off of the pier, dumpsters, and technicals, as well as flying inches over the men of the task force. The operators were beginning to run dangerously low on ammunition. Each member knew however, to save one bullet, incase it was ever needed.
The mob was now less than one hundred meters from the operators position. In a few minutes, they would be on top of them.
"Last mag," Declan shouted as he slid the magazine into the rifle and stood to engage the targets once more.
"Same here," Mac echoed.
As their future looked to be sealed, a voice filled their earpieces, "Dagger-One, this is Six-Two, we are sixty seconds out, over."
"Six-Two, this is Dagger-One, about bloody time," Parker started as he stopped firing and ducked behind one of the dumpsters, "Danger close, recommend pick up at the north tip of the pier."
The reply came as a silhouette appeared over the water, "Copy Dagger-One, we're inbound."
Parker shouted over the gunfire for all the team to hear, "Mac, Jester, pop smoke now."
The two operators pulled a grenade from their vests and tossed them towards the crowd. After a moment of rolling across the cement, grey smoke began spilling out of them, obscuring the pier in seconds.
"Let's move," Parker shouted as he pushed himself up from the dumpster and began sprinting north along the pier towards the spot the Osprey would land.
The others quickly followed his lead. Every few meters, a member would crouch down and cover the six as the others raced by him, then he would get up and keep sprinting north. As the Osprey approached the pier, it quickly became a bullet magnet as rounds began striking the metal frame. The pilots ignored this nuisance as they focused on landing the aircraft on a thin strip of pier.
Declan was the first to reach the Osprey. Dust and debris were blown around by the two powerful nacelles powering the aircraft, hindering his sight ever so slightly. Instead of boarding the aircraft as instinct would normally dictate, Declan turned and covered his teammates as they made their way to the aircraft. Sandler was the first in, carrying Wade's body over his shoulders, followed quickly by Mac, Parker, then the rest of Dagger-Two.
The last operator left was Jester, who was still a dozen meters from the Osprey. As Declan fired his C8, the noise that every operator feared was heard, an empty clicking. He instinctively shoved the carbine behind his back as the strap held it against his body and pulled out his USP 45.
Declan just fired, not aiming at any particular target, but just firing for the sake of hopefully, somehow, that his pistol rounds would make some sort of difference against an AK-47.
Jester had reached Declan and shouted at him as he approached, "Let's get the hell out of here mate."
No sooner had he shouted those words, Jester's right leg crumpled as he fell to the cement. The veteran operator had been struck just above the knee only meters from his extraction.
Declan shouted a warning to the rest of the team, "Jester's down."
Without thinking, Declan rushed to Jester's side and reached down to help the man up. Mac had seen what happened and appeared at the ramp of the Osprey firing his last rounds at the mob as Declan helped Jester hobble into the aircraft.
The moment they were in the Osprey, the pilot powered the nacelles to full as the aircraft lifted into the sky. Declan stumbled at the immediate acceleration but steadied himself before he fell to the floor of the aircraft.
The Osprey rapidly gained altitude as it circled once around the harbor, taking into full account the damage that was done, before heading off to sea towards the New York.
Sipho continued watching the aircraft fly until he no longer could see it as it disappeared into the sun. Once it was gone, he moved on with his next task. Zooming the camera in on the ship, he could make out dozens of militiamen on the ship plus many more on the pier. Sipho waited several more minutes, waiting until a larger crowd had moved to the ship. This crowd included curious women and children wanting to see what had caused the terrible noise of battle.
Sipho reached into the case that had contained the video camera and satellite phone, and retrieved a detonator from the bottom. Extending the antenna on the device, he flicked a switch.
On board the ship, several tons of explosives had been placed in the lower holds in several metal cargo containers. The device sent a radio signal to the trigger mounted on one of the explosives. The ensuing fireball blew the ship in two pieces, split at the center. The ensuing fireball killed hundreds of the militiamen and civilians that had gathered at the pier. The explosion created a fireball so large, that the camera could not capture the entire blast in its view frame. The shock wave from the explosion pushed Sipho back into a wall and caused the building to shake around him.
The carnage was recorded on the camera, just as Petrov had intended it to be.