Chapter 5: A Relaxing Game of Bridge

Petya, Adam: it's good to have both of you back. I hope you enjoy the promotion to a Staff Sergeant, Adam. Now you get the pleasure of jumping right from the frying pan, in to the fire.

The CIA has recently detected a lot of transmissions coming through about something the Soviets are calling "ERMINE". Normally the boys in the CIA wouldn't bother us with this information, but the channels that it's being sent on are alarming. They wouldn't give us the details, but the CIA is saying the fact that these people are talking about it means that it has to be important. We were asked to some digging and we've come up with some useful information.

With the help of some CIA operatives, we managed to track some information about "ERMINE", or at least the trail it's leaving. The info goes through so many relay stations that it's not even funny. We've traced one of these to a military train station in southern Russia, near the border of North Korea. They have a facility on the coast-line where they have been routing some information. I'm not going to say this will be easy, because it won't be. That's why we're sending in two different teams for this operation.

The first will be heading in to the military compound. Their job is to infiltrate the facility, find the server the Russians are using for the information, get any files on whatever "ERMINE" is, and extract. Hopefully they can do all of this while remaining unnoticed. If not, then that's where team two comes in to play. The Russians have a rail station and bridge approximately one mile west of the facility in question. The second team will move in to a position at the station. If they receive word of the first team compromised, they'll move in to action.

Team two has been provided with information on structural weak-points of the bridge.

The C4 that the second team will have should be noise enough if it's needed.

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"A Relaxing Game of Bridge"
January 2nd, 1969
Petty Officer First Class Darryl Birdsong
1st Army Research Division, a.k.a "the Trust"
A military train station 3 miles north of the North Korea/Russia border

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Our insertion had gone off without a hitch so far, if you could really say that it was far enough along to fairly judge it. The car we were in was labeled as a shipment of winter clothing bound for North Korea. There were several other cars of the train that we had been told were apparently supplies for the guards in the station. We had been told by Lieutenant Baker that it meant the Soviet guards probably wouldn't bother to look at our cart. I hoped not. If they sounded the alarm on us so soon, it would be only Adam, Jeremy, and I to make a stand against the Soviet army in a wooden train car. We wouldn't last ten minutes.

I understood while they only sent the three of us, though. The data was the priority.

Lieutenant Baker, Staff Sergeant Moscerra (excuse me, Sergeant First Class Moscerra), Petya, and two recently recruited Trustees were being sent to extract the information from the computers. If all things went well, we could just sneak out of the station, and call in for our extraction. Looking at Adam, though: I didn't feel so confident about the operation. Maybe it was because he didn't have Petya with him, or maybe he just had a bad feeling, but the man just looked plain grim as I watched him from across the sliding door of the train car.

Then again, I guess spending close to six or seven years in prison camps can do that to a man. He had even been in the "Hanoi Hilton" for a while. Either way, he looked like the Grim Reaper. His expression was grim, with black striped camouflage paint across his features. He had a black beanie cap pulled down over his close-cut hair and he had thick stubble on his jaw. Besides that, the winter camouflage he was wearing just made him look evil for some reason, as he watched the passing scenery through a space between two planks of wood.

He was clutching an M16 tightly: the same rifle we were all using for this mission. It wasn't like the problem-riddled ones from Vietnam, though. No, ours had been given the modifications and improvements that McNamara hadn't put in them during the war in Vietnam. Besides that, we were good soldiers, and we had been trained to keep them clean on an almost religious level. Besides that he had a silenced pistol, and across his back he was carrying a scoped M14 rifle. Adam looked like he was ready to take on the world...or at least some Russians.

I myself had an M16, but instead of an M14 I was carrying a 12-guage Mossberg 500 shotgun. I glanced behind me to Corporal Jeremy Creed. He was praying, or at least that's what it looked like because he was holding a necklace tightly in one gloved hand. He had the handle of his M16 in his free hand and the stock of his M79 grenade launcher on his back. To be honest, I almost felt like the kid's older brother. Yeah, he had been in the Trust longer than me, but I was older, and it went without mention that I outranked him. The kid was good though: he got in to the Trust when he had still been a Private. Most people were usually at least a Sergeant.

Adam suddenly broke the silence in the car, "Are you ready for this, Darryl?"

I looked back and saw he was watching me intently with those hazel eyes of his.

I nodded, "You got it, Adam."

It was then that I noticed the train was gradually coming to a stop. I could tell this because of the slowing speed of everything outside, as well as the fact that the train was rattling a lot less than it had before. Peering out from an opening in the car, which was one of many, I watched as the scenery quickly changed from hills, trees, and snow, to a flat concrete platform, and various crates and other things. Off to the left on this large, cluttered concrete platform. It went off to my left and I could tell it was an unloading platform.

"Juliet to Yankee." Lieutenant Baker suddenly came through our ear-pieces.

Adam grabbed the radio secured to his vest, "This is Yankee: go Juliet."

"Are you in position, Yankee?" Lieutenant Baker asked.

"Affirmative: the train just pulled up to the station, over." Adam replied, still looking outside.

"Rodger that, Yankee. Keep us posted." Lieutenant Baker replied, "Juliet, over and out."

Adam looked up to me, quirking a single brow, and giving me a look that asked if I was ready. I gave him a single nod and then watched as he slowly pushed open the door enough for the three of us to hop out one at a time. Once we were all out and taking cover by a large collection of crates to the left of the door, I heard Jeremy slide it shut once again. I watched Adam from behind as he peered around our cover, further down the loading ramp. He held up a single hand, signaling us: one tango. He gave me the signal to take the guy out.

I moved past Adam, shouldering my M16, and took in everything ahead of me. On the left were more train cars; while on the right were more crates, and a row of two train cars that had their wheels taken off. Straight ahead in this "alley" of containers was a single Russian soldier. He had one hand on the front of his AK-47, while warming the other over a fire in a large barrel in front of him. It was obvious that he had no idea we were behind him and he was probably only there so his commander could tell his superiors that they were guarding his area. I drew my knife, letting my M16 hang by its sling in front of me.

I moved forward as a light snow began to come down. I could see as I got closer that his rifle didn't have a sling and so I prayed that the cliché wouldn't happen when I stabbed him that it would go off when he dropped it. Preparing myself, I lunged for the man, and tackled him to the ground. He didn't even have time to cry out in surprise, as I pressed his face against the cement, and stabbed him in the back of the skull. His body went totally limp: his brain scrambled. I looked up to see Jeremy and Adam moving past me to the end of the two train cars, where there was a gap between a cement-walled building, and the train cars.

Jeremy signaled back to us: two tangos, one with a shotgun. With a few quick signals from Adam, he and I moved past Jeremy to take care of the situation. Turning the corner, I saw that the area was more of a square-shaped clearing, surrounded by more crates, and two train cars stacked on top of each other opposite the two of us. To the left, just past a line of seven or eight crates was an archway, over which hung a pair of Russian flags. Two guards stood around one barrel, warming their hands, and talking to each other casually. Adam and I both slowly moved in from the side of the two men: unnoticed.

We both drew our pistols, silenced Colt .45 pistols, and I crouched down to take aim at the man on the left. Adam fired first and the man on the right fell to the ground with a bullet in the side of his head. The other man was about to turn and raise his rifle when I took him down with two shots to the chest. He fell to the ground with a thud. Jeremy emerged from cover and we all moved to stand just inside the tunnel/arch structure. From our position in the shade of the structure, we could see the bridge, and all the way down the length of it to the other side. There was a long drop down to the icy waters below.

The pavement changed in to a metal cat-walk, with a balcony-style area just in front of us that went along a rocky cliff-face. We could see from our position that the platform ahead of us had a flight of stairs, which lead to a steel door, which would take us under the bridge. From there we would plant the C4 we had been given, get off the bridge, and blast it down in to the valley below if Lieutenant Baker's team gave the word. I just prayed that they didn't. I looked to Adam as he once again grabbed his radio.

"Yankee to Juliet." Adam whispered.

There was a brief silence before Lt. Baker whispered, "Go, Yankee."

"We are moving in to position at the bridge and are requesting a SITREP." Adam asked.

"We've just made it inside the perimeter." Lt. Baker replied.

Adam gave an unnecessary nod, "Affirmative, Juliet. Yankee out."

I took point once again as we moved on to the platform. The bridge itself was only thirteen feet above us, with a cat-walk on the side, and it looked like there was a guard patrolling it off in the distance. We didn't pay him any mind as I pulled open the door: keeping my M16 trained ahead of me. We moved in single-file and Jeremy slowly pulled the door shut behind us. We looked around and saw that we were in a cramped sort of maintenance room, with a pair of red bulbs on the roof, along with pipes and wiring on the walls. There was an already open hatch, with a ladder that went down to a catwalk under the bridge. Now we simply played the waiting game: hoping and praying that we wouldn't get the call from Lt. Baker.

Six minutes later, our hopes were dashed.

"Juliet to Yankee: we've been compromised!" Lt. Baker was yelling over gunfire.

"Affirmative Juliet, Yankee is starting operation." Adam still sounded calm yet urgent.

I was first down through the hatch, not even bothering to use the ladder. I landed in a crouch and took aim at a bewildered guard around seven feet away. He had whirled around upon my landing and I hit him with a three round burst to his chest. He jolted back, spraying a burst of bullets wildly in to the wall beside him. Just behind him was an open doorway, out of which a Russian guard sprang moments after his partner hit the ground dead. I heard an M16 fire just above my head as Adam shot the man with a three-round burst to his chest.

That man was thrown to the side by the force of impact, falling over the railing, and falling over the edge without a single sound. I rose up, moving to the doorway, and sweeping the hall as I entered. Directly across from me was another guard, standing on a platform just like the one we had been on. Another quick burst dropped him as I turned to a doorway to my right, between the one I had just come through, and the guard I had just killed. Moving through, I saw the catwalk. Each segment was a pair of wide rectangles, connected to each other with very little space in the middle. There were three sets, with support beams for the rail bridge bracketing the center set.

A quartet of guards was on the two rectangular catwalk platforms that we came out on. I took the right side with Jeremy, while Adam took the right side, and all four men were killed. There were six men on the middle set of rectangular platforms: two on our side and four on Adam's side. I began moving over to Adam's side and in the end of the shooting there we each had two kills. Once we were sure the first few platforms were clear, Adam and Jeremy covered the other approach, and as I pulled out the C4 I could hear them firing at the guards at the other end of the bridge in short but repeated bursts.

I set one charge on a side of the first support, moved across to the other side, and had just planted the second of four charges when I heard a sound coming from over the bridge. I instantly recognized it as a helicopter. That was crap! We had enough trouble with those things in the past and now there had to be one here? Then again, I doubted the Russians wanted to have such a vulnerable bridge totally undefended from sabotage attempts like ours. I looked to Jeremy and was about to shout a warning over all the gunfire when it came down in to a hover on the side of the walkways that he and I were on.

It blew loose snow everywhere and I reflexively raised a hand to shield my face. Jeremy was right on top of the situation, though. I couldn't hear the sound of his grenade launcher firing, but I could certainly hear (and see) the effects. The blast was large enough that the lower windows near the gunner's window shattered completely, and the pilot's windows were all covered in terrible cracks. The helicopter started spinning out of control and I called out in surprise as it spun: its tail slamming in to one of the walkways above that was on the side of the bridge. That tore most of the tail off, the helicopter spun, nosed down, and it's broad slide slammed in to the bridge only two or three yards away from where it's tail hit.

I could feel the bridge shake with the impact. Pulling one of the charges from my pack, I tossed it to Jeremy, who then tossed it to Adam, and we moved for the next supports. Jeremy and Adam were firing at any Russians peeking out from the doorway on the other side of the bridge. Once we were sure they were suppressed or dead, Adam and I stopped to plant the charges. We started moving the moment the charges were planted. The bridge was shaking from the general direction where the helicopter hit. I had a feeling that the shrapnel from the blast must have hit something important: ammunition or fuel, I'd guess. I could hear cement and railing back there falling.

I could also hear the alarm klaxons blaring louder than before.

"Let's move!" Jeremy yelled.

That was rather unnecessary. It wasn't like I needed encouragement to get the hell off the bridge. We moved through a doorway like the one we had been through before, moving for the doorway on our left. Jeremy was first up the ladder, in to a room identical to the one we had been in on the opposite side, and Adam climbed up after him. I slammed on the detonator and I could hear the charges. Then the metal started groaning under my feet. I was too focused to notice it. I was only focused on getting off the bridge. Then, as I was climbing the ladder it happened. The platform at the bottom buckled, and broke away. The left bar of the ladder broke as well and I nearly fell. Then Adam was there, leaning through the hatch with a hand out to me. I lunged up for his hand.

I grabbed it and shifted my right hand up just in time for the two thirds of a ladder below the break to fall off. Placing my left hand back on the ladder, Adam started pulling up on the back of my vest while I strained to pull myself up the ladder. Adam heaved my up in to the hatch once I had my footing again and I tumbled over him, landing behind Jeremy, and looked up to see that he was diligently covering the stairs. So far he hadn't fired a shot. That meant it was possible the Russians thought we had been killed when the bridge had started collapsing. That or they were too caught off-guard to react with detailed search parties just yet.

Adam shut the hatch on the floor and I moved to crouch behind Jeremy.

"Yankee to Juliet." Adam was panting, trying to catch his breath.

There was still gunfire on Lt. Baker's end, "What is it, Yankee?"

"Charges have been blown: currently attempting to confirm if the bridge is out."

"Rodger Yankee: we've managed to get to the mainframe!" Lt. Baker replied.

"Understood Juliet: do you need us to pull out?" Adam asked, leaning on the wall.

"Affirmative Yankee: get the hell out of there! We're bugging out, too!"

"Rodger that, Juliet. Yankee out." Adam breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

He looked up at me, his winded and tired expression being replaced by the same one he had been wearing when we had been waiting in the train car. He was back to being the same mean old man he had always been since the prison camps.

"We're going to steel a ride." He said matter-of-factly.

I nodded in agreement and tapped Jeremy on the shoulder to move. Jeremy was out the doorway first, ascending the metal steps to solid ground, I was right behind him, and Michael was taking up the rear. We could hear the sounds of people running around and yelling, even over the alarms going off, and we all mentally prepared ourselves for the next firefight in the time it took to get up to the top of the stairs.

Most of this area was a valley, with steep, rocky sides on either side of the tracks, but we had studied overhead photography carefully in order to plan out our extraction. Since we were the distraction team, our secondary extraction wasn't one focused on being stealthy. A Huey helicopter would come down on to the beach, pick us up, and we'd head out to the open ocean where a US Navy warship was sitting in wait for us if necessary on a "standard patrol" that just happened to be coming in to range of our operation to provide evac.

It was a total coincidence, of course.

First, we needed a way to get to the LZ.

On our side of the tracks was a long cement platform, a brick two-story building (the first story of which was like a storage garage), a one story administration building, and another three story building just like the first. Just past the cement platform was a number of stacked train cars. Meanwhile, across the tracks it was much larger. The alarm tower was on that side, with a red light flashing as speakers blared. Coming on to the platform on our side, Jeremy shot down the first three guards we saw, and we took cover in the "garage" of the two-story building for protection from fire coming across the train tracks.

"We need a ride, Adam!" Jeremy yelled.

Adam fired a burst from his M16, "I'm know! I'm thinking!"

"Well don't think too long or we'll be dead!" Jeremy replied.

Moments later, we could hear an engine starting over the gunfire.

Looking from my cover of three large weapons crates, I saw a jeep emerging from a garage across the tracks. It was painted in winter camouflage, with a red star on the door, and a machinegun mounted on the back. Its gunner turned in our general direction and we all pressed to the floor as he opened fire. Bricks, wood, and other things all splintered under the guns heavy fire as we covered our heads. I could feel tiny pieces of brick and crate showering down on me while the gun echoed off in the distance. In case it wasn't obvious before, it was clear now that they were obviously quite mad about our collapsing their bridge.

"That's our ride!" Adam bellowed.

"What?" Jeremy sounded incredulous.

"You heard the man, Jeremy!" I interjected.

"When he reloads, I'll try popping the gunner's head off!" Adam explained.

I watched he moved his M16 behind him, bringing his M14 around, and staying as close to the ground as possible the entire time. The fire from the jeep's gunner was still steadily pounding away at our position. It was starting to make my ears ring a little.

"On my mark, suppress the guys on the platform!" Adam ordered.

We waited for at least a whole minute before the fire finally stopped. At that moment, Adam rolled out from behind cover, and began aiming his rifle. Jeremy emerged from cover, firing a grenade at the opposite platform, and I rose up from cover to start suppressing them with my M16. Meanwhile, I could tell Adam was steadying his aim. A few moments later, he fired a shot. It was quickly followed by a second; then a third. He rose up in to a crouch and waved for us to follow as he headed in the direction of the jeep. We were all firing from the hip at the guards on the platform as we moved for our newly acquired ride.

Coming up to the driver-side door, I opened it, and pulled the body of the dead driver to the ground. Climbing in to the now empty seat, I looked back long enough to see Jeremy climb up to mount the machinegun, and had just shut my door as Adam climbed in to the passenger seat. The jeep was already started so I wasted no time flooring it, turning the jeep so that we were running along the tracks. I could hear the sounds of Jeremy firing the machinegun at anybody who happened to be behind us. It wasn't likely that they would possibly be able to take up pursuit before we were well out of the area.

Still: it was a mentality of "Better Safe than Sorry".

"Hotel 1, this is Yankee Actual!" Adam still had to yell in to his radio.

"Go, Yankee Actual." Came the voice of the Huey pilot.

"We need immediate evac at LZ Whiskey!" Adam was nervously scanning ahead of us.

"Affirmative Yankee Actual: we are five minutes out." The pilot replied.

"Get us to the LZ now, Darryl!" Adam barked.

I only spared a, "On it, Adam!"

While I drove, I kept an eye out for the path that lead to the beach where "Landing Zone Whiskey" had been designated. By now Jeremy had stopped firing and the only sounds were those that were made by the jeep as it hit all of the bumps we encountered running along beside the train tracks. None of us even said a word and the radio was silent as we drove. Stealing a glance over to him, I could see Adam was readying a smoke grenade. I knew he would use it to mark the landing zone for the pilot once we got there.

It wasn't very long at all before we saw the turn-off.

Turning sharply, I started us down for the beach. There was still nobody pursuing us and I could see the beach-front as we got closer. We hit the sand at high speed, with the jeep rattling across the uneven terrain. I slammed on the brake and nearly head-butted in the steering wheel in the process. Hopping out of the jeep, I looked off to the horizon and I could see the outline of an incoming helicopter. Looking back, I saw Adam throw the smoke grenade a short distance away. A cloud of green smoke began to form up while the sound of the incoming Huey got louder and louder with each passing moment until it was like a thunder.

The pilot flared his nose as he came in, while I had to shield my eyes from the sand kicked up by the rotor-wash. Jeremy and I were the first on the helicopter, with Adam right behind, and I was the one who tapped the pilot on the shoulder: giving him the thumbs-up that we were good to go. When we all finally sat down to relax, the helicopter's flight chief watched us all silently. I could tell by the look on his face that he was trying to decide what to think of us. Were we Navy SEALs? CIA? Or were we something else entirely? Regardless, it didn't matter what he thought we were to me. I was just glad as hell to be on my way home now.

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"So the operation was a success, then?" The Director asked, feet propped up on his desk.

"The distraction team had to go in to action, but yes." The Doctor replied.

There was a brief silence as each man silently smoked away on their tobacco product of choice. It wasn't a grim silence like the ones that had been filling the office before. It was more like a...happy or at least contented silence at the thought of a successful mission.

"How are the decryptions coming?" The Director suddenly asked.

Though they had successfully retrieved the files, they still had the problem of their coding. The Russians had buried the files in a lot of codes and security. They had been given to the best cryptographers in the CIA and the Trust to decode it.

"They're making progress." The Doctor said simply.

The Director quirked a brow, "Progress?"

"It may not be advanced security, but there's a lot of it." The Doctor replied.

The Director nodded slowly, "I see: I'll check in on them later."

"Very well." The Doctor replied, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to."

With that the Doctor stood up, and left the office.

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Author's Notes: Well, once again I was suffering from episodes of writer's block while I wrote this. We're getting close to the end folks! Can you feel it? I sure can! There are some exciting things that are going to happen, but I can't really say anything without spoiling it for you all. Reviews of any kind are appreciated, but no flaming please. Thank you!