Page 58 of SEAL's Angel
“Contact with HVT confirmed. Headed to final target location with package,” Quinn responded.
If Quinn had the “package,” Hekbar had no idea he would spend the rest of his life as a prisoner of the United States government. Unless he did something stupid, then he’d just be dead.
“Copy that, Falcon 1. See you soon,” Jake acknowledged.
Cam and Halo arrived at the outer perimeter of the compound first. He reported in that there were ten sentries positioned along the edge of the encampment, but all was quiet.
“Eagle 5, Falcon team will approach from the east as planned. The HVT and unknown number of tangos along with them,” Jake said.
“Copy that, Eagle 1. What is ETA?”
“Moving into position now. Everyone report when you’re in place,” Jake ordered.
Within minutes, each member acknowledged their location. Jake held a moment to give Red Falcon team time to get into position since he couldn’t risk using the comms to contact Quinn.
The NVGs gave them a huge advantage when traveling through the darkness, but did nothing when they needed to know how many tangos were hiding out in a building. There were thirty tents setup in the compound, and each could easily hold five men. The tents at the center were larger, most likely their mission tent and one for the terrorist leader.
The drone surveillance was helpful, but hadn’t been able to figure out which tent belonged to Azfaar. But Chrissy’s powers of deduction and good old military strategy determined the most likely location would be one of the larger tents in the center where it would be the most protected.
This province was one of a few in Afghanistan that the Taliban hadn’t controlled through all the years and wars, which was probably the reason Azfaar had chosen Badakhshan after he’d lost most of his Al-Qaeda associates. It made it much more difficult for his Talibanfriendsto locate him.
“Eagle 1, Falcon 1. Do you copy?”
Relieved to hear from Quinn, Jake murmured into his comms, “Good copy, Falcon 1. What is your position?”
“Three klicks from the compound. Are we still executing plan A?”
It was the plan that had the highest likelihood of success based on Chrissy’s analysis. It was also the riskiest. Jake ran the best-case scenario in his head and nodded to himself, hoping that Azfaar or Hekbar didn’t have an alternate plan in play.
“Falcon 1, we are a go for Plan A. Do you copy?”
“Eagle 1, loud and clear. Good luck and see you on the flip side.”
“Eagle team, we are go. Move it, gentlemen,” Jake ordered and, as planned, the SEALs infiltrated the compound, eliminating the sentries one by one as quietly as they had the tangos they’d come across before.
They crept through the tents in teams of two, clearing each one before moving on. All the tents they’d accessed so far had been empty. Was it a trap or just window dressing to make them think Azfaar had a larger following? Either way, it was too easy, and the skin on the back of Jake’s neck tingled.
A moment later, machine gun fire cut through the quiet of the night. Azfaar’s men ran out from several tents in the center of the site. They outnumbered the SEALs by at least five to one.
“Eagle team, sitrep,” Jake yelled into his comms.
Murph tapped Jake on the shoulder since he was his partner while they were clearing the tents. Then relief eased the churning in his gut as Rafe, Ryan, and Cam reported in.
That’s when Jake realized that the men had exited the tents and formed a human shield around the center tent. None of them wore NVGs and randomly fired into the darkness in front of them. As protection, it was mediocre, and wouldn’t hold the SEALs off for long. But how had they known about the SEALs were there?
“Eagle 1 to Command. Do you copy?”
“Copy Eagle 1,” Knox said in his earpiece.
“We’re taking heavy fire. They knew we were here. Falcon team is about two klicks outside of the compound. Will call for extraction as soon as we have the HVT.”
“Choppers are on standby and can be there in fifteen mikes. Azfaar needs to stay alive. Do you copy, Eagle 1?”
“Copy that, Command. HVT will be retrieved and not eliminated. Eagle 1 out.”
“Can’t we just kill him, anyway? We’re in a firefight and they can’t see us for shit. It’s kind of comical,” Murph said from his position on the ground next to Jake.
Each of the other team members were in the same position, stretched out on the ground with their rifles and waiting for Jake to give the order for the next step—apprehending Azfaar.
