The six men moved silently in a staggered line across the barren landscape. The mountainous region of Pakistan was void of most forms of life save for some wild animals they had encountered since the helicopter had dropped them off two hours before. The rocky, unpredictable landscape only served to remind Declan why this was considered the badlands by the Americans that patrolled the region.
Declan was on point, twenty meters ahead of the rest of the team. He was aided in traversing the rugged landscape by the night vision device attached to his helmet. The goggles illuminated the darkened landscape, creating a shade of green, a shade Declan was all to familiar with.
The wind swept across the mountain with force, sending chills down Declan's spine as the cold air hit his body, seeping in around his eyes where the balaclava did not cover. Thoughts of home came to the front of his mind, as Declan remembered better days away from the cold and the fighting. Better days reminded Declan of his family, his mind began to wander onto that touchy subject as he continued walking.
Suddenly, the crash of a rock falling alerted Declan to the presence of someone or something ahead of him and the group. He instinctively dropped to one knee, and held his left hand in the air holding a fist. Parker and the others saw him drop and they too followed suit, dropping down and taking cover behind several boulders strewn about the mountainside.
Declan slowed his breathing, trying to stay as still and calm as possible. He had his C8 raised to his shoulder ready, and was now scanning the area looking for the source of the noise. From the green darkness ahead of him, he could hear more rocks knocking against each other, and then, voices were heard. The noises were far enough in the distance, that Declan decided he could whisper and inform his comrades of the situation.
"Voices," he mumbled, "fifteen meters over this hill, options?"
Parker and Jonas were hunkered behind the same boulder. The two looked at each other and with only a nod of a head, agreed on the same thing.
"Check it out," Parker whispered into the mic, "weapons tight."
Declan began to inch forward, careful with his step to avoid any noise that would alert the men below him. As he approached the edge of the hill, he found that he was ten meters above the men, on the top of what was a small berm. Below him, four men were huddled around a fire, with their packs and equipment strewn about behind them. Declan noticed the weapons within arms reach of the men, AK-47 rifles and what looked like RPG-7 tubes.
Declan slowly crept away from the edge and pressed against his throat where the mic button was located. A single chirp was heard by every member of the team.
Parker leaned towards Jonas, "They're armed and in our way."
Jonas looked at Parker, "Your man, your call."
Parker looked at Jonas for a moment before looking away and peering out from behind the boulder towards Declan. Raising his hand, he pressed his throat mic once, and again, a single chirp was heard in the earpieces of the men.
Declan crawled up the hill a second time to the edge. His spot overlooking the men below him was the perfect location. Declan got to one knee, trying to be as silent as possible as he moved. The men below were still talking, loud enough to be heard, but not distinguished.
Because of the fire below him, Declan had to remove his night vision device, the light was affecting his vision and now was the time to be precise. After flipping the NVD off his face, he looked down the sight on his C8, placing the red holographic dot on one of the men lying near the fire. At least they were all lying down, making them easy targets.
Two rounds struck the first man, his body jerked underneath the blankets as the rounds impacted his body. It wasn't until the second was shot that the men knew what was happening. A single shout was heard before the area was again silent besides the crackling of the fire. Declan waited in his position for another minute, waiting for any stragglers that may appear from the surroundings bush.
Once he was satisfied the area was secure, Declan pressed his mic, "we're clear."
The five others got up from their positions and moved to rejoin Declan at the top of the berm. The five men appeared at the top of the hill with Declan, overlooking the small campsite that was below them, the fire still flickered in the night, illuminating the dead men.
"Cool Breeze, Betty Blue," Jonas said from the perch, "check it out."
The two American operators moved to the right and began working their way down the berm. The two Americans checked the bodies before searching the bags and equipment that were lying around the site.
The one named Cool Breeze looked up from the camp to Declan and the others above him, "Well whoever they were, they were packing some pretty heavy hardware: AKs, RPDs, RPG-7s, enough to have a little party."
"Looks like we were the party crashers," Jonas said, "we're coming down, proceeding on mission."
"Roger Snake Doc."
The six men formed up and proceeded forward, continuing with their mission. It would be several more hours until they were at their target, and by that time, the sun would be up and their movements would be severely restricted.
Several hours later, the team was in position overlooking the target. The town was void of life, but as Declan looked closer through his binoculars, he could see that there were several men moving around near the few buildings that were standing. Several trucks had arrived thirty minutes before, but there had been nothing else besides that.
"You sure we have the right town Mac," Declan asked.
Lying next to Declan, staring down the scope on his M110, Mac replied, "This is where the fixer told the Yanks, besides, this looks pretty shady don't ya think?"
Declan agreed, the scene in the town below was pretty shady. The small town was situated at the bottom of a valley, surrounded by mountains on three sides. Besides the several men moving around, never straying far from one particular building, there were no other signs of life, the town was deserted.
The six men had split into two teams, the Americans were several hundred meters to the north of the town, while the Brits were on the western edge of the town. Both teams had eyes on the town constantly.
Twenty minutes later, and the sun was blazing down on the men. The clear blue sky offered little in the way of cloud cover, bad for two reasons; they wouldn't be protected from the sun, but more importantly, the metal frame of an MQ-9 Predator would reflect the sun in all directions, possibly alerting anyone who may happen to glance up. For this reason, Parker had the Predator moved back towards the border, three minutes of flight time away.
Declan had taken his eyes off the building for a moment when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed dust being kicked up in the distance. He raised the binoculars to his face and looked at the approaching dust cloud.
"We got somethin here," he said as he focused the lenses, "three vehicles, high speed moving towards the town."
Parker repeated the report over the radio, alerting Jonas and the American team. The six men focused their attention on the vehicles as they approached the town. As the occupants exited, they were greeted by the men already around the building. Two of the occupants were approached and patted down by the guards.
As this occurred, Parker remarked as he lowered his binoculars, "Bloody hell, is that Makarov?"
After looking again through his binoculars, Parker keyed his mic, "Snake Doctor, be advised, we have an High Priority Target on site."
"Who is it?"
"Makarov," Parker said, "Petrov's number one lieutenant, nasty bastard he is."
Declan watched as Makarov entered the building with his associate. The seven men that arrived with them stayed outside with the others that were already there.
"Definitely a meeting, looks like our intel was right on," Parker observed.
As the British team continued to observe the building, Jonas got on the radio with the command element at Bagram, "Variable, Snake Doc, eyes on target, proceed with mission?"
"Snake Doc, Variable, you have a green-light to proceed."
With permission granted, the Predator drone was brought online by a portable system the team had. One of the American operators took control of the drone and set the flight path towards the town. The drone would be in position to launch in three minutes.
Declan continued watching the building, the men were still standing outside guarding the premise. The two factions of men, each man armed with some sort of weaponry, kept their distance from the other group. Suddenly, the heads of all the men turned and gazed towards the building for a moment, before returning towards their counterparts. Rifles were quickly raised and muzzle flashes could be seen from the British position. The two factions were firing on each other. The combatants ducked behind the cover of trucks and buildings. From the perch, Declan could see five bodies already on the ground.
Parker shouted into the radio, "Snake Doctor is the Predator ready to fire?"
"Almost, is the target lazed?"
Parker looked towards Mac who flashed a thumbs up as he held a small device directed towards the building.
"We've got a good lock, send it when you can."
As the events unfolded around Declan, he continued to watch the ensuing battle below him. The battle had not lowered any but rather rose in the intensity, neither side backing down from the fight. Suddenly, from behind the building, a single white truck burst out of cover and sped off away from the firefight.
"We got a bogey leaving in a hurry," Declan shouted.
"Was it Makarov," a worried Parker asked.
"I can't tell, at least two people in the truck though."
Parker let out a vulgar curse, as Jonas' voice filled the radio, "Ordinance away."
Twenty thousand feet above the action, the Predator drone released two Paveway laser guided bombs. The two bombs automatically adjusted fins to correct their flight path as they sought out the infrared dot appearing at the bas of the doorway to the building. One five hundred pound bomb exploded in the doorway, followed less than a second later by another.
The men around the building were killed instantly by the explosion. The building and whatever was in it was also destroyed by the blast. The small town was completely leveled by the strike. The only thing surviving that made it out of the area, was the white pickup which was far enough down the road to avoid the explosion.
"Snake Doctor can the Predator follow that truck," Parker inquired as the column of dust continued to rise from the town below.
"It can follow the truck, but it was only armed with the two bombs, no other weapons on board."
"That's fine, just follow that truck and see where it goes," Parker looked at Declan and Mac who had sat up from their prone position and were surveying the damage, "pack it up, we're leaving."
The three men quickly packed their equipment and met the Americans at the rally point. The team radioed Bagram to inform Variable they were moving to the exfill point. After hearing the extraction bird had been launched, the men began their trek away from the destroyed town and towards the rendezvous point.
"Talk to me colonel," Vance said as he put a headset on and adjusted the mic so it was in front of his mouth.
Looking at the monitor, Vance could see the image of a U.S. Army colonel appear as the connection was made. Passing through several encrypted satellites and ground installations, this link was one of the most secure in the world, one of the benefits of the C.I.A.
"The ground team just called in," the colonel began.
"How'd it go?"
"They observed a meeting take place between Makarov and unknown associates."
Vance cut the colonel off before he could continue, "Well that's great, so we took him out?"
"Not exactly, a firefight erupted before we could drop ordinance, a single truck escaped."
Vance smacked the table in front of him, "Damn it."
"We did follow the truck to the outskirts of Peshawar, but we had to leave the airspace, and we lost it."
"Very well colonel, pat the boys on the back once they get home," Vance signaled to kill the feed.
The video link was cut as the monitor lost the image of the colonel and turned black. The mission hadn't been a failure, Nikoli's intel had been right, and sighting Makarov meant that whatever was happening, was going to be big.