Page 24 of The Fourth Option
The team would be able to cover the ten klicks to the target quickly with overhead ISR. Two Zero Unit recon team members had stayed on target to ensure that Abrar was still inside. They would provide a quick update when the ground force arrived. Then Team One would assault the house while Team Two held security, with Nate and his snipers moving onto predetermined rooftops and Dave managing the overall blocking and containment. Walker and Staub would enter the building with the assault team. If things went sideways, a Marine combat outpost thirty klicks to the southwest was on standby as a QRF.
Walker felt at home in the Afghan mountains at night. The stars were the brightest he had ever seen. He found himself thinking of the armies that had marched through Afghanistan over the centuries under these same stars, from Genghis Khan to Alexander the Great to the Brits, the Soviets, and now the Americans. Afghanistan had the ill fortune of being geographically vital to moving goods through Central Asia. That curse had resulted in a culture in which war was a constant.
Ideally, they would make a surreptitious entry, grab Abrar out of his bed, patrol to a nearby field, and call in the helos for extract. The problem with the plan, as with every plan, was that the enemy got a vote.
Walker was also worried that Naji would be burned with this mission coming so close on the heels of his association with Abrar and his courier. That could not be helped now. When they got back, Walker would make the pitch to get Naji and his family out of Afghanistan. The flip side of being useful was that the Agency would want you to keep being useful.
Intel indicating that Abrar served as the liaison between compromised elements of the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, and Taliban military commanders was overwhelming. The intent of the operation was to snatch Abrar and interrogate him in the Salt Pit. Zero Unit interrogators were not under the same constraints as were officers and contractors of the CIA. Abrar could provide valuable insights into how high the ISI was compromised and into the active militant cells in this geographic division of the Haqqani network. He was a big catch.
Even in the darkness, the force covered ground quickly. Without the recon element guiding them and the overhead ISR asset to clear their path, they would have been lucky to make it before sunup. With those advantages, they patrolled quickly. Even with M4s and decked out with the latest and greatest technical hardware available, and with Rhodesian vests loaded with grenades, smokes, extra magazines, body armor, NODs, trauma kits, and water, they were not quite as light as the enemy they fought, but they were lighter and faster than any other allied force on the battlefield. The exceptions were Nate’s snipers, who carried the heavier 7.62 autoloading rifles.
At the edge of the village, the point and command element dropped behind a rusting Soviet-era bus, the steel frame giving off the oily scent of decades-old diesel.
Ali entered and conferred with two members of the recon team using it as a hide site. He exited moments later.
“Abrar is still in the compound. No movement for the past couple hours.”
“All right, let’s do this,” Walker said, checking once again with the air asset above, confirming all was quiet on the objective.
Nate and his snipers moved out to two nearby rooftops, giving them a commanding view of the compound and surrounding area.
“This is Psycho. Both overwatch elements in position.”
“Roger, Psycho,” Walker replied.
“Three, in position,”came Dave’s whisper in their headsets. Containment was set.
Walker double-clicked his mic, then looked to Staub, who was conferring with Ali and the Zero Unit squadron commander.
“How’s that door looking?” Walker asked.
“We’ll soon find out. Going to try to avoid going kinetic and waking up the neighborhood.”
Walker nodded.Nice and quiet.
Staub moved past Walker and peered around the bus, eyes tracing the contours of the compound’s entrance.
“Ready?” Walker asked Ali.
The interpreter and the Afghan commander conferred briefly in hushed tones.
“Ready,” the interpreter confirmed.
The breaching element moved across the street through the darkness, the point man passing the entrance and holding security down the street while the next man went to the gate, a set of lockpicks already in hand. The explosive breacher was prepared with a charge just behind him. Assaulters were stacked and ready to flow into the structure.
Including the Americans and the surveillance element, they had thirty-eight operators on the ground, ISR above, two helos ready for extraction, and a QRF on standby. They had stacked the odds in their favor, choosing the time and place of the engagement. Now, if they could just stay dark and quiet.
“Moving,” Walker said.
The two Americans ran across the street, the hard-packed dirt absorbing the sound of their footsteps. At the wall they joined the assault stack in the shadows. A lone dog barked in the distance, then fell silent.
I wish we had dogs on these ops, Walker thought. That was one of the negative cultural nuances of working with the Zero Units: no dogs.
Walker heard the creak of the gate as it swung open. Would that wake anyone inside? An unseen guard or security element?
He felt the assault train begin to move and knew that the man who had picked the lock and the explosive breacher had moved to the side, allowing the stack to push into the courtyard. Walker and Staub followed and covered the ten yards to another door on the inside of the compound in seconds. The assaulter with the lockpicks moved back to the front of the train and put his skills to use. With Staub on rear security, Walker stepped out to watch the breacher work.
The door cracked open, but it was not the result of a surreptitious entry. Someone inside had opened it. A man in a white robe. He was carrying an AKM rifle.
