Meant to Be (25 page)

“
Holy shit.” Wynn took a
quick step back and positioned his rifle to his shoulder, pointing
it at the plain white curtain that hung behind the
bureau.

Placing his back against the wall, Rad
waited for Wynn to nod, then tore down the piece of cloth with one
hand, revealing another door.

Rad’s heart twisted a little. The
choppers were probably already on their way back for the pick-up.
This operation had been planned and choreographed down to the
minute. There would be no leniency on time and no second
chance.

As if on cue Rad heard the call,
“Fifteen until exfil.”

“
Third floor not secure.”
Rad spoke calmly into his mic, even though his heart was racing.
They had less than fifteen minutes to find out who or what was
behind this door.

“
I hope it’s not a
freaking tunnel into the mountain.” Wynn voiced exactly what Rad
was thinking. The way the house was built into the hillside, the
third floor in the front was actually ground level in the
back.

Fearing it was booby-trapped, but
pressed for time, Rad pushed the latch, held his breath, and opened
the door. He was greeted by the scent of musty air, the kind that
hits you when you descend into a dirt cellar. He glanced at Wynn
and knew by his expression he smelled it too. Definitely a
tunnel.

Swinging through the door with his gun
at the ready, Rad almost hit his head on the low ceiling. He felt
Wynn give his shoulder a squeeze and continued walking slowly and
quietly. It was so pitch black that even with NVGs, the images
before them were murky.

After taking a few dozen steps, they
both paused and listened, every nerve strained to its limit.
Hearing nothing but their own steady breathing, they continued
forward, guns moving back and forth as they probed the darkness in
front of them.

Just as they started to
round a sharp turn in the tunnel they heard the
pop, pop, pop
from a gun and saw the
flash from its muzzle not thirty yards ahead of them. They both
took an instant step back for cover and waited for the shooting to
stop. When it did, Rad pointed his gun around the corner and
sprayed that direction with gunfire. Even with their ears ringing
from the close quarters, they both heard the body drop, and
the
whoof
sound
that escaped from the man’s lungs when he hit the
ground.

Walking cautiously toward the prostate
form, Rad could see from the size of the puddle of blood he was
dead.

“
Looks like the tunnel’s
not quite finished.” Wynn nodded toward the equipment that lined
the walls. The terrorist had gone as far as he could go and had
been cornered. Although he probably couldn’t see them, he had heard
them start to make the turn.

Rad and Wynn both looked over their
shoulders at the same time, obviously thinking the same thing. If
the shooter had waited until they had completely rounded that
corner before firing, just another split second, there was a good
chance he would have gotten one of them—if not both.

“
Looks like we almost got
an acute case of lead poisoning,” Wynn murmured.

Rad went down on one knee and rolled
the man over, breathing a sigh of relief. He switched on his helmet
light to examine his face and saw the birthmark on his cheek. “It’s
him.”

“
Good job,
dude.”

“
Ten minutes to
ex-fil.”

“
Third floor secure. We
need an extra five.”

“
Ten minutes to ex-fil,”
the voice repeated calmly.

Rad quickly shot photos of the body
while Wynn worked on DNA samples. He dabbed a cotton swab in blood,
and then took another and jammed it in the dead man’s mouth for
saliva. Finally, Wynn stuck a spring-loaded syringe into the
terrorist’s thigh for a blood marrow sample, just to be on the safe
side.

From the transmission he was hearing
on the radio, Rad knew a group of curious villagers had heard the
noise and were gathering at the gate. The interpreter was busy
trying to get them to disperse by telling them there was a security
operation under way.

“
Post assault, five
minutes,” came over the troop net.

As Rad and Wynn made it down the
stairs, other men on the team appeared like a bunch of elves
carrying their mesh bags full of computer disks, hard-drives, and
documents over their shoulders.

The sound of the choppers coming in
greeted Rad’s ears as soon as he made it outside. Grabbing an extra
bag from one of the men he began sprinting toward the waiting
helicopter, stumbling and almost falling like everyone else over
the uneven terrain. When he got to the chopper he flung his bag
onto the deck and climbed aboard, his chest heaving.

Glancing at his watch, he saw they
were six minutes past planned drop-dead time. Law enforcement, and
possibly even Pakistani military, were likely inbound by
now.

Only when they lifted off and banked
hard toward the Afghanistan border did his heart begin to beat at a
regular pace. After about five minutes of flight, Rad began to
relax even more. Leaning his head back and taking a deep breath, he
noticed something out of the corner of his eye and turned for a
better view. The interior of the chopper was pitch black except for
a series of dim lights on the cockpit control board. The one that
caught his eye was the big one in the center, flashing
red.

That doesn’t look
good.

Rad turned away and closed his eyes so
he wouldn’t see it. He wasn’t a pilot. For all he knew blinking red
lights were good things—like at Christmas or something. Damn, he
hated this part of the mission. No longer in control, there was
nothing he could do but trust the pilots to get them safely back to
base.

When the chopper changed speeds,
circled and began to descend, Rad knew they were taking care of
that blinking red light. The delay of a few minutes had cost them
vital fuel, and they wouldn’t make it back into Afghanistan without
replenishing their tanks.

Once the crew chief opened the door,
Rad could make out the faint image of a CH-47 and guys moving
toward them with a hose. It was a necessary stop that would cost
more time. Rad checked his watch, and then closed his eyes, wishing
he hadn’t. With the noise they had made between the landing, the
raid, and the takeoff, Pakistan must have received reports about
something happening and scrambled F-16’s by now. Hopefully they
were heading toward the village where the commotion had emanated
from—not the airspace near the Afghan border. Getting shot out of
the sky over Pakistan was not how he envisioned his otherwise
successful night coming to an end.

Once they were back on their way, Rad
took off his helmet for the first time and ran his hand through his
matted, wet hair, his thoughts turning to Lauren. Did she know the
raid had been successful? He wished he could see her face when she
found out all her hard work and sacrifice had paid off. Even though
she would never receive any credit for a dangerous terrorist’s
elimination, he knew the end result would be enough to satisfy her.
It would mean she could leave this dirthole she’d resided in for
the past five years.

Exhausted as he was, his heart picked
up its pace at the thought. She’d said she didn’t have a home in
the United States. He intended to change that.

The radio squawked in his ear,
interrupting his thoughts. “Welcome back to Afghanistan,
gentlemen.”

Wynn tapped him on the shoulder to get
his attention. “Never thought I’d be glad to hear those words. How
about you?”

Rad smiled and gave him a thumbs up
sign, then laid his head back and closed his eyes.

When the helicopter touched down, the
men loaded their gear into trucks and headed to a large hanger
where CIA specialists waited to go through their bags. There were
tables with food and coffee in the hangar, but the men were still
all business as they dumped their contents on the appropriate
tables and wrote down where they had found whatever they were
unloading.

As Rad started to pull off his kit, he
felt a stabbing pain in his shoulder.

“
You caught some major
frag, man.” Wynn touched the wound. “Hurt?”

“
Feels more like an axe
blade than frag.”

“
Yeah, well you better get
that arm looked at too, dude. You definitely got winged
there.”

Rad glanced down at his bloody shirt
sleeve from when he’d gotten hit in the house. He’d forgotten all
about it. “I’ll get Crock. Just needs to be cleaned and
wrapped.”

“
Radcliff, what the hell’d
you do?” McDunna examined the bloody shirt sleeve. “Get your ass
down to the infirmary.”

“
Not done here yet, sir.”
Rad continued to unload his gear.

“
That
was
an order.”

Rad’s head jerked up to see if he was
joking. He’d been taught to take care of team gear, then department
gear, and then personal gear—always and in that order. It went
without saying he considered his arm as personal gear. Just as he
was getting ready to explain that, Wynn interrupted.

“
I got this, Rad. Go get
cleaned up.”

“
Good grief, dude.” He
shook his head. “It’s just a scratch.”

“
Which one? The ding in
your arm or the frag in your shoulder?” Wynn took him and turned
him toward the door. “Tell them Mommy was worried and sent you.
Go.”

The sun was starting to come up by the
time Rad had his arm cleaned up and a couple of pieces of glass
removed from his shoulder. Just as he thought, the bullet had only
nicked his arm, causing more blood than pain or damage—but the
nurse in charge didn’t see it that way. She’d insisted on IV fluids
to get him rehydrated and wrapped his arm as if it had been
detached and needed to be taped back on.

As it turned out, the timing was
perfect. It had taken the guys more than an hour to unload and
categorize all their intel, so they were just starting to gather
around the fire pit and unwind. After a normal mission they
probably would have hit the rack, but they were too keyed up for
that.

“
Here comes da man!” Bipp
handed Rad a celebratory cigar. “Dude, you were the
heat.”

“
Ah, my favorite. Romeo y Julieta No.
3.”
Rad took the cigar and inhaled
deeply as he held it under his nose. “You guys rock.”

“
Glad to see they were
able to save your arm, man.” Wynn laughed at the size of the
bandage.

“
Yeah, got there just in
time or I would have lost it for sure.” Rad lowered himself onto
the picnic table and pulled a soda out of a tub of ice. “Thanks,
Mommy.”

“
Did you need
mouth-to-mouth from Nurse Nancy?” Wink sat down beside
him.

“
She the blonde? With the
big—”

“
Umm hmm.” Wink nodded.
“Hands off.”

“
Sorry to
break it to you, son, but you’re probably a little young for her
taste.” Rad looked at him with a serious expression. “She
was
all over
me.”

That sent the entire group into peals
of laughter.

“
Seriously, dude, you
kicked some ass back there.” Bipp sat down on a lawn chair and lit
his cigar. “But what the hell were you thinking going into that
tunnel?”

“
I was thinking we were
running out of time to get that guy.” Rad took Bipp’s burning
stogie and held it to his. After a few tokes it finally glowed red.
“But frankly, if any of you guys would have done that on my watch,
I would have kicked your ass.”

“
It was fucking crazy is
what it was.” Crockett opened a bag of chips and held them up. “Eat
up, boys. Breakfast of champions.”

“
Any pushback from
Pakistan yet?” Rad walked over to a chair and sat down, stretching
his legs out in front of him as he enjoyed his cigar.

“
I’m sure the shit is
hitting the fan in Washington,” Pops said. “The Pakis got wind of
something going on and scrambled two F-16 Fighters—”

“
With 30mm cannons and
air-to-air missiles,” Wink interrupted.

Rad’s head jerked up. “No shit?” He
gazed around the group and read the look in each man’s eyes. Not
one of them would hesitate to give his life for his country, but
all were glad to have their feet on the ground. Getting blown out
of the sky was not the way they wanted or expected to
go.

“
It’s apparently all over
the news back home.” Pops took the bag of chips and grabbed a
handful. “Annie asked me what was going on. Said the media’s going
wild.”

Rad’s brow tightened and he tilted his
head. “The White House isn’t releasing details I hope.”

“
Not yet,” Wynn said.
“We’re taking bets on how long it will take the president—or vice
president—to leak it.”

It was common knowledge military
troops were just tools in the president’s publicity box. When
things went well, he’d promote the success and greatly inflate his
own role. Whether or not he would do it at the expense of the
safety of others was yet to be seen.