The Rescue

Chapter 1

That was it. Victor and I both were honorably discharged from the Navy. All the paperwork was in place. It felt like a lifetime in the Navy as a SEAL. He and I headed to a local bar for dinner and some drinks. After that, Vic would travel back to California to meet his mom while I would head over to my home, in DC. We entered the bar and took seats by the bar counter. Vic and I ordered drinks and I ordered the steak. Me “Aren’t you gonna order anything to eat?” Vic “Nope. I’m not hungry yet. Maybe later.” After a few sips, Vic asked me “So, Tom, what do you plan to do now?” Me “Finish my steak then go home” Vic “No, I mean, what about the future?” Me “I have been asked to join the CIA.” Vic “CIA? I don’t see you as someone who’s gonna be stuck at a desk job. I suppose you’ll be in the Special Activities Division.” Me “Yeah, something like that. The SAD is putting together a team and I’ll be a part of it. They even have a fancy name for it.” Vic inquired with a smile “Treadstone?” I smiled.

Vic “You sure sound excited. Aren’t you ever worried or scared?” Me “To tell you the truth, I never worry or fear, no. Anger, yes. I use the excitement, anger and determination as fuel to get the job done.” Vic “After every mission, after we reached the base, I prayed. That calmed me down. What was your secret? How did you unwind?” Me “Here’s what I did: after reaching base, before debrief or a trip to infirmary, I’d go the quarters, I’d take off my gear, armor and strip off all clothes. I’d then stand under the shower. While standing under the shower, I’d feel all the blood, the grime, the mud, the pain, everything, wash away. I’d also let all my thoughts wash away too. I’d cleanse myself both physically and mentally. I don’t let guilt or stress build up in my head.”

Vic “Hey, I heard you won a Silver Star.” I looked at my glass as mumbled, “Yeah.” Vic “And you lost a teammate.” Me “That’s the bad part of our job… losing brothers.” Vic “Wanna talk about it?” Me “About six months ago, my team, Chris, Viggo, Jerry and I were deployed to northern Iran along with small team of American advisers on a mission to meet with local Kurdish Peshmerga forces combatting enemy fighters. According to intelligence, enemy forces were making moves to capture the village and the advisors, and we were sent in to monitor and assist. Local forces and we were attacked by a large unit of insurgent fighters that had overwhelmed the Kurdish front line by rushing in with bulldozers, trucks and heavy weapons. As tangos sent car bombs towards our position, I led a team to counterattack with sniper and machinegun fire. We vigorously defend our position and repelled the enemy assault till QRF arrived. We must have taken out at least forty tangos and destroyed ten vehicles.”

Chapter 2

Six Months Ago

The Quick Reaction Force choppers did a good job repelling the attack momentarily and we were able to evac the personnel into a Chinook helicopter. Unfortunately, as Chris and I were laying down covering fire, the Chinook had to take off due to enemy fire. Another chopper came around to pick us up. We weren’t even in the air for a few minutes when an RPG hit the chopper, sending us into a spin. As the chopper crashed into the side of ridgeline, I was thrown off. I don’t remember much as I lost consciousness. The chopper must have tumbled farther down. I didn’t know how long I was out for.

I woke up and everything was fuzzy. As soon as I regained my focus, I assessed myself. Nothing broken, but plenty of sprains, cuts and bruises. At least I still had my weapons and gear, and they were still operational. My helmet and armor must have protected me from injuries much worse than what I had sustained. I patched myself up, had some water and energy bars. There were no tangos around. I could see the crashed chopper at the bottom of the ridgeline. I moved towards the crash gingerly and deliberately. I didn’t want to lose my footing and tumble down the side of the ridge.

As I reached the crash site, I did not see the bodies of the pilots of Chris. There were spent shell casings, blood, couple of tango corpses. Chris and the pilots, Natasha and Cole, must have been taken prisoners. There were no weapons or gear around. The tangos must have confiscated them. My radio was damaged and so was the chopper’s radio. The tangos must have taken them to their hideout. At least, they were not searching for me. I had to follow the trail and mount a rescue. It would have been much easier if I had some backup, but, heck, only easy day was yesterday.

I searched around a bit and found a bloody handprint and a glove. One of the pilots must have dropped it. At least, now I knew which direction they were heading. It was a narrow trail. After walking for a few hundred yards, I came at a fork on the trail, the left leading downwards towards the valley and the right went up the side of the ridge. Again, after looking around a bit, I could see a pool of blood, like someone had spit some out. Good, breadcrumb pointing me towards the tangos’ camp. By the time I reached their camp, it was getting dark. I decided to wait till it go darker while I reconned the area. About couple of hours later, I had figured there were about twelve to fifteen tangos. There were two roving patrols of two tangos each. The rest of them were holed up somewhere in the three structures I saw. While I had night-vision, I did not have thermal optics.

I made quick work of the two roving patrols silently. I even borrowed a couple of pieces of garment from one of them, they’d not be needing it. Now, I had to sneak into the camp and identify which building held the prisoners. I reached the first structure and examined it. This was the tangos’ living quarters. Few asleep, few were chatting. No need to let them know I was there. I sneaked to the second, smaller structure. The third one was farther out. The third structure had satellite dishes on the roof. That must be their comms center. Could be useful to call for backup. I moved closer to the second building. This one had a strong metal door. As I leaned against it, I could hear several voices coming from inside. Couple of them were aggressively speaking the local language. There were other voices, two male and one female, cursing in English. The pilots and Chris were still alive.

I wrapped my head with the garments I had taken earlier. In the darkness it was difficult to identify if I was a friend or foe. I’d hope my ruse would work, otherwise I couldn’t see a way to get inside the building. I banged on the door and said something along the lines of “Come out here, you need to see this” in the local language. I hoped my accent was not terrible. One of the tangos came outside and as soon as he turned the corner, I used my knife to take him out before he could make any noise. I dragged his body to the rear of the building and hoped the corpse would not be discovered before morning, by which time, I hoped we’d be far away. The door was not locked and was slightly ajar, so I sneaked a peek inside. There was another tango, busy intimidating the prisoners. I walked in behind the tango and employed my knife again. The prisoners were bound to chairs. Chris looked the worst while the pilots looked relatively unscathed. I uncovered my face and cutoff their restraints.

Chris was not doing too well. I looked into the eyes of the pilots, trying to determine if they were going to hold it together, they weren’t Tier One, after all. I decided one of them looked a little shocked, so I offered my side arm to Natasha and told her, “Take this and come with me. I need you to cover me while I sneak into their comms room. We can call for evac from there. Don’t fire unless absolutely necessary.” I gave my primary weapon to Chris and told him the same thing, if any tangos come marching in, take them out quietly, fire only as a last resort. As we neared the comms room, we noticed that it was dark and was locked from the outside. We wouldn’t have to engage any tangos here. I picked the lock and stepped inside. It was only after Natasha had also entered and I closed the door behind me, was when I turned my flashlight on. I did not want any potential threats seeing the light.

We searched around and found the comms setup and Chris’s and the pilots’ gear. I turned on a small lamp near the comms table and began to work, with the pilot providing a lookout. Soon, I was able to connect to base and informed them of our predicament. After a few more minutes of discussion, they communicated where the RV would be. I took out my map, looked at it and marked the RV. It was going to be quite a hike. Still, if all went fine, we should be able to make it to the RV in the cover of darkness. We picked up the weapons and gear and went back to the second building. I could see Chris would struggle, so I gave his rifle to Natasha and told her to lead the way, as I’d have to assist Chris.

We were almost at the RV, couple of hundred yards to go, but it was an incline. Chris was lagging behind. I believed Chris needs assistance. He told me he’s just needed a minute. As I walked towards him, a bullet hit him in the leg and another hit me on my chest plate. I fired towards the direction where I had seen the muzzle flashes. Soon, more bullets started whizzing towards us. I dragged Chris behind a rock for cover while the pilots provided covering fire. We were pinned down. Our evac chopper would have arrived by now. I instructed the pilots to carry Chris to the chopper while I used a couple of smoke grenades to cover our movement. I also kept firing in short bursts continuously to keep the tangos at bay.

As we reached the LZ, we saw the chopper had landed and couple of soldiers were covering our approach. We boarded as fast as we could. Chris was bleeding badly. By the time we took off, rounds ricocheting off the chopper’s body. The medic onboard worked on Chris, but we could see he was losing the battle. Chris also must have realized what was coming. He held my hand and closed his eyes, never to open them again. That’s the price we pay for war, I guess.