Chapter 9: Cloak and Dagger
With as many times as Richard had been through Ben Gurion Airport over the past year he still couldn't help but admire the beauty of the place. The interior of Terminal 3 looked more like a mall in a rich suburb than a Middle Eastern Airport, but then again Richard had found himself to be woefully ignorant of how the Middle East is, many stereotypes simply are not true.
After nearly an hour of driving, Richard and two other SEALs returning from leave arrived at their destination, with Roy there to greet them. "I have to thank you" Richard said to Roy as he got out of the car.
"For what?" Roy asked.
"For getting me to take a mental health day... It helped" Richard informed.
Roy smiled, "I thought it might... I hope you're ready to jump right back in though, we have a mission already."
"Wilson?" Richard said, hopeful.
Roy shrugged, "Don't know, but briefing starts in a few minutes, you have time to drop your stuff off and get in there."
The Roth family was involved in a three-way hug between Rachael, her mother and father. "It was great to see you guys again, I'll be home again soon" Rachael said as she moved to board her flight.
"Don't make it too soon" Travis said.
Rachael turned and smiled, gave a last wave and walked down the jetbridge onto her plane.
The flight was long, but once it was over and Rachael had disembarked, she found Karen. "I hate flying" she quipped.
"I can tell, that's why you're a pilot and all" Karen teased.
"Yup... I'm a walking contradiction" Rachael said with a smile.
"So what do you think is next?"
"Proficiency test" Rachael said with a smirk.
Karen glared at her, "I meant after that smartass."
"More raining down hell from above."
"For those you just coming back from home I'd like to welcome you back to paradise, sun, sand and gunpowder..." Victor said as he prepared the slideshow. "Our target is this man..." A picture of a very old man appeared on screen. "We only know him by his ISIS handle, General Immortus... We don't know his real name, his age or even his country of origin, but none of that really matters... The point is this man is responsible for most of the trouble we've been having in the war effort, he is an expert tactician and was believed to have been KIA'd more than once, which is probably where he gets his nickname..."
"Great..." Richard mumbled, "first kids now senior citizens..."
"Our hope is that once we eliminate Immortus their fighting will be less organized and easier to break through, we've been losing more people lately and a lot of that has to do with his strategies. As much as I hate to admit it he is a military genius, we can't have that on the opposing side, questions?"
"Where is he?" One SEAL asked.
"Here" Victor replied as a picture of a high-rise building appeared on screen, it was obvious this building was in the middle of a large, first-world city.
The SEALs were confused, "okay, that's obviously not Ramadi or any other city we've been fighting in..." One of them said.
"It's in London" the Master Chief informed.
Everybody gave pause, a mixture of shock and disbelief overtook them. Richard was the first to speak, "London as in... England?"
"That's correct" Victor said with a nod.
The room was left speechless for a moment, one SEAL found his voice, "we're supposed to go on a hit mission in London England?"
"That's correct" Victor repeated, "This mission is going to be a significant departure from our normal operation, you'll be flying into Heathrow Airport under the guise of businessmen and staying in a hotel adjacent to the target structure, you'll perform recon to get an exact fix on Immortus and breach under the cover of darkness... We'll have some computer guys backing you up to take care of any lights and cameras."
"What are we, James Bond now?" Roy asked.
"If you have a better idea let's hear it..." Victor said, "that's a very large structure in the middle of a huge city with a ton of civilians all over the place."
"Why aren't the Brits taking care of this?" Richard asked.
"They're not cooperating, their PM isn't interested in helping us fight ISIS." Victor said, causing Richard to facepalm.
"This is going to be fun..." One SEAL quipped sarcastically.
...
Richard felt completely out of place as he waited in line to get his passport stamped, the business suit he was wearing was uncomfortable, feeling too tight on the shoulders but the sleeves were too long. Once outside, he and Roy, also dressed in a business suit, hailed a cab.
Once they arrived at their destination they checked in as if they were on a business trip and were given a room on the top floor. Over time other SEALs arrived and were given rooms all in the same general vicinity, each with a perfect vantage point to the target structure. Over the next few hours the men conversed and strategized about the mission, coordinating with their tech-savy allies. There was a knock at the door.
"Mr. Jacob Riley?" The bellhop asked.
"That would be me" Richard replied.
"Your other two bags arrived, so sorry for the inconvenience" the man said as he handed the suitcases off.
"Oh it's no problem, not your fault, you have a good one" Richard said with a smile.
He put the two suitcases on the bed and opened one, inside was his sidearm, knife and his disassembled rifle, complete with sound suppressors for the firearms as well as a full complement of ammo. He assembled the rifle and loaded a magazine into it, leaving the chamber empty and slid it between the mattress and box spring, he did the same with his sidearm but concealed his knife in his pants. In the other suitcase was his combat vest with armor plates as well as his BDU's, only these ones were black instead of the normal camo pattern. Also in the suitcase was a parachute as the planned exfiltration was a BASE jump off the building.
"We spotted flashlight yet?" Richard asked, referring to the target by his code name.
"Negitive, but assuming every middle eastern guy in that structure on the top five floors is a hostile, this is going to be hairier than we thought."
"A lot of them?"
"I've seen at least twenty different guys... And that's just who've come to the window" Roy informed.
"Wonderful" Richard said as his and Roy's phones beeped, they checked the message and found it to be a layout of the target structure. "Well this will help..." There was another knock at the door.
"Mark, Ryuku, come on in" Richard said to his two teammates.
"You just got the layout too?" Mark asked.
"Yep... Might want to get everybody together and plan this out, I'm sure I'm not the only one whose seen how many potential hostiles we're going to be up against" Roy said.
"I counted thirty two" Ryuku informed.
Richard looked at Ryuku, then glared at Roy, "Twenty huh?"
"I did say 'at least'" Roy said, causing Richard to sigh, there was another knock at the door.
Eventually, all sixteen men had converged into the one room and began discussing strategy. None had spotted the target yet so Ryuku sat by the window, looking for him.
"How are we going to clear all that before local cops show up?" One man asked.
"We're not... There is no way we're going to be able to clear all those rooms" Richard said.
"We don't even know what floor he's on" another man said.
"He'd want to be on the upper floors, away from any cameras" Roy said.
"Let's assume the top five floors, just bear with me for a minute" Richard began, "we'd want to start on the floor fifth from the top and assault up, that way he can't run to the street."
"Okay that makes sense but it still doesn't solve our problem of having a million rooms to clear" one SEAL said.
"No it doesn't but it's a start, we'll have to break up into teams-" Richard was interrupted.
"Target spotted" Ryuku announced.
Richard immediately got up and rushed over to his team sniper. "Where?" He asked.
"Fourth floor from the top, left side, third window in."
Richard looked out the window with his own pair of binoculars. "Confirmed... That's him."
"Time to call the Master Chief" Roy said as he dialed Victor and set the phone to speaker.
"Report" said Victor's voice over the phone.
"We have a confirmed sighting of flashlight, we're developing a strategy to assault the building" Richard said.
"Well hang on a second, why don't we just have the snipers setup on the roof and wait for him to come into view?" One man asked.
Richard shook his head. "Every hour that passes we lose more people, Immortus might not come to the window again anytime soon."
"Not to mention there are too many windows to cover at too close range" Mark added.
Ryuku nodded in agreement. "If the structure were five hundred yards or more away that might be feasible, because we'd have a wide enough view, but the structure is just across the street, we're talking about ranges from less than one hundred yards to barely two hundred yards."
"We're facing the target structure at an angle, is that going to be a problem for you two?" Richard asked.
The snipers shook their heads. "First shot should spider web the glass and any shots after that won't be affected much" Mark said.
"You can get follow-up shots off fast enough?" One man asked.
"We left the MRAD's at home and brought the AR-10s for a reason" Ryuku quipped.
"Good call Grayson, I told you you guys would be able to pull everything together, don't forget to call your drivers before you breach" Victor said, you could hear the smile on his face.
"Will do sir" Richard informed just before Victor hung up. "We break up into three teams of four each, two breach the fifth floor from the top and the other breaches the next floor up, Roy, you, me, Simmons and O'Malley will be the red team, Smith, Burke, Jones and Gonzalez you're the blue team, the rest of you are the green team, Ryuku, you're Sniper One, Mark you're Sniper Two-" he was interrupted.
"Who made you Chief?" One of the men on the green team asked, seemingly offended.
"If you haven't noticed there are no Chief's here, someone has to come up with a plan, if you have a better one let's hear it" Richard spat. The man sat back silently. "Okay then... This is going to be a run and gun op, we don't have the time or ammo to clear every single room so kick in the doors and put down anything immediately visible then move on, watch your six, we're inevitably going to miss a few and we don't need them sneaking up behind us. We'll have the tech guys cut the power to the building so night vision on at all times, that'll also knock out the elevators so it'll give us more time to find Immortus and take him out before the cops show up. Questions?"
"What happens if we get surrounded?" A man asked.
"Flashbangs are your friend, smoke grenades if you need to get away fast."
Roy stood up and stepped toward Richard, "this is bold Rich, maybe a little too bold."
"There's no other way to do it" Richard said. "Oh-one-five-five we have the tech guys cut the camera feeds in the hallways to this building, ten second window to get ourselves to the roof where we setup, oh-two hundred we breach... Be ready... See you gentlemen then."