Page 93 of Red Rabbit
The next few months consisted of painful and intense rehab to get back on my feet and in fighting shape. I pushed myself hard. Harder than I should have probably but I hated how weak my body was after being prone for four months. Even now, my shoulder still had a twinge to it and I had a slight limp that wouldn’t go away but overall, I felt better.
Red Rabbit started out as just Cal’s team but slowly grew into a full scale operation of over fifty PMC personnel. Everyone was warned this wasn’t on the books but once they heard about what was going on, they didn’t care. Cal was point on the op and he was ruthless in his organization and planning. No detail was missed and when he wasn’t coordinating the details of the op he was harassing me about coming to work with him after it was all over.
It was tempting. Being back with these men and planning ops felt natural to me but I wasn’t sure about what my legal obligations would be when I got back on the grid so I kept brushing him off.
“Final team is inbound ten minutes.” Cal strode through the tent opening. Finally. I was getting increasingly more impatient as the days went on and then yesterday Cal told me we were delaying another day so we could add a last minute team. If it wasn’t for the fact that this team included one of the best explosive specialists in the industry I would have complained more.
Gabriel Gryffin, known as “Deathwing,” was a bit of a celebrity in the special ops underworld. He flew heavily under the radar but everyone in our world knew who he was and there was a healthy dose of respect and fear around his name.
He didn’t compromise. He wasn’t merciful.
He was whispered as being the angel of death.
The last few years I only heard his name in association with taking down sex trafficking rings so I wasn’t entirely surprised when I heard he would be joining us. I was surprised to hear he somehow managed to be contacted because even Cal wasn’t privy on how to reach him and usually Deathwing came to you, not the other way around.
“Where the hell is Knight?” Cal asked. He was the mutual contact with this team.
“Weapons tent last I saw,” I said.
“Typical,” Cal muttered. “If that fucking Pyro burns down a single tree I’ll string ‘em up.”
Trent Knight was aptly nicknamed “Pyro” for his propensity for playing with fire and I didn’t blame Cal—we couldn’t risk sending up a smoke signal and giving away our position to Cooper. We specifically set up base on the other side of the ridge to avoid detection. Cal turned towards the tent entrance and we both heard the faint sound of rotors thudding through the air.
A team of six men dressed in all black tactical gear with the latest weapons and tech rappelled down from the chopper before it dipped away. The leader was an older man with salt and pepper hair with a short, neat beard to match and at his shoulder was Deathwing.
Knight walked up to him as he approached.
“North, good to see you man. Deathwing—” They shook hands and then Knight turned to Cal and I. North pushed up his aviators and regarded us both with a cool assessing glance.
“This is Cal—ops leader, and Wolfe,” Knight said introducing us. North shook Cal’s hand with a respectful nod and turned to me, doing the same.
“North,” he said, speaking to us both. “My team is at your disposal.”
“Happy to have you—let’s brief so we can get this thing moving,” Cal said. North turned and flicked a hand at his team who dispersed to set up their gear then he and Deathwing followed us all into the comms tent. We surrounded the table with the Warren specs and Cal laid out the general plan.
“We’ll enter from three points,” he said, pointing to the entrances on the map. “My team will focus on clearing out the civilians through this south entrance, taking them to the team in this staging area here. Wolfe, North—you two will lead two teams to clear out the enemy. Minor military and ex-law enforcement roster. Numbers between 150-200 armed personnel. Heavy weapons cache, guards are armed with an AR and 9mm. Deathwing will rig the place to collapse in on itself, blow up—whatever chaos you’d like to create is up to you. I need your plans in—” Deathwing pulled out a roll of paper from his vest and spread it out on the table.
“I’ll rig it to collapse in on itself, placing explosives here, here—” he pointed to several additional points on the map. “First phase is sending a combustible gas through their ventilation system to weaken the underground structures. Should take about fifteen minutes to fill the space. When I get the all clear I’ll light it up—” I saw Knight’s eyes darken with eagerness at the mention of that. I knew he’d be right there at Deathwing’s shoulder. “It’s a quick flash, two minutes—then I’ll blow the explosives and all that should be left is a crater. Radius of the blast zone is half mile east west, nearly a full mile north south. Might want to expand your staging area by a mile. I’ll need half a day to plant the charges and access to your computer tech for ventilation access.” He fell quiet and straightened.
“Done.” A voice said from behind us. “Let me know when you want to move out.” I turned to see Ryan McKinney or“Ghost,” our tech genius. He was sitting in front of a bank of monitors on the other side of the tent. “Someone has already been in their system it looks like. They’ve been really fucking things up. It’s a mess.”
A smirk pulled at my lips. That had Kaelin written all over it.
“Ghost will set you up with comms, Deathwing, and we’ll get you headed out there after the ops brief. He’ll also ensure we aren’t impeded by their command center during the op. He’ll have eyes on everything and is the team’s go-to regarding anything surveillance or access and system related. He’ll be in our ear keeping all teams appraised and will give the final all clear to blow.”
Deathwing nodded curtly at that, seeming satisfied by the ops plan. Cal paused and made a point to look at each of us around the table.
“Cooper is doing some dark things here. He thinks he’s doing it for the greater good—creating tech to ensure soldiers don’t break under duress is an admirable cause but he is experimenting on humans and running a sex trafficking ring to fund his science project. I don’t even need to touch on how vile that part is—we’re all aligned there—and while I’m sure we can all agree breaking under duress is something we all would like to avoid, Cooper doesn’t get to play god in order to achieve that. Every man here has been hand selected for their dedication to their iron strength of will in the face of adversity. Let’s not forget we only break once—everything that comes after just makes us stronger.”
Following our brief was an ops wide meeting where we laid out the plan to everyone. I had to admit, we had a solid crew here. The only person I knew nothing about was North and his unit. Besides Deathwing, I hadn’t heard of any of them but his crew ran tight and anytime I looked over at them theywere coordinated and fluid with precision. Even Deathwing took orders from North and seemed to defer to him with respect and diligence. North and I pulled our teams together to have a word.
“Shoot to kill,” I said bluntly. “All civilians send them along the escape route. The scientists in there—use your discretion. We can always sort out their morals later unless they’re a threat to the op then terminate. Cooper is smart and experienced—some of you know him from the field—we call him Joker for a reason, don’t underestimate him. Once he discovers he’s under attack, he’ll know it’s me so he’ll most likely search me out but if you have the op don’t hesitate to take him out.”
North stood silent next to me the entire time, casually chewing on a toothpick, aviators back in place. He didn’t speak until the end.
“You all know your jobs. Execute with precision.”
After everyone dispersed he turned to me.
