Chapter 1
Broken Promises
May 2018, Operation Homebound
The sun had been down for hours in the South American jungle. The warm tropical climate was still making the temperature hot enough to be miserable. Gabriel wiped at his brow as the sweat poured from every pore on his body. It was making his gear feel at least thirty pounds heavier. The face paint that he used to camouflage his face and scalp with was just another thing to retain the body heat.
He stopped trudging through the forest and stared up into a wooded canopy that stretched into a heaven he did not believe in. He reached over his shoulder and took a small tube from his camel pack and drank a few small sips. Gabriel set his high-powered, long-range rifle against one of the trees. He listened for a moment, hearing the strangers of the night screaming their wild cries into the darkness. Their echoes engulfed everything around him.
He stared curiously into the dark ahead. At first, he dismissed what he was seeing. It seemed unreal, the images making no sense. But after he saw it steadily for a few minutes, he gave it his undivided attention. Gabriel could just barely make out a light that seemed to glow brighter every second. He realized what he was staring at was the gentle glow of the end of a cigarette. No self-respecting sniper would have a cigarette in the middle of the night if they knew what they were doing and wanted to come back out of the massive jungle.
Gabriel reached for his sniper rifle and melted back into the trees. He became one with the ground before trying to get eyes on the smoker in the distance. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, he saw with fresh eyes exactly what he thought he would and so much more.
Gabriel breathed easy, staring at his perimeter in front of him. He counted four men and could have not been more pleased to see that they were soldiers and not fellow snipers or hitters like himself. He was less than a mile from his assignment, where he’d dig into a sniper nest until his target came out. If he didn’t come out, he would do everything he could to get into the fortress.
As he closed the distance to within fifty yards, his leg started vibrating unexpectedly. He stopped his approach, pulled out a satellite phone, and punched the talk button. He brought it up to his ear, listening. When no voice said anything, Gabriel who was usually able to wait forever said, “I’m sure you called for a reason, didn’t you?”
A much older man on the other end cleared his throat, trying to preserve every second he could before he had to speak to Gabriel. He said, “Son, you’re speaking to a superior commanding officer. I hope you realize that, son.”
“I’m fifty yards from a kill, sir. You are compromising my position, my kill, and my life. So I’m sorry if I come off as impatient. I have pending circumstances that I feel are more important than this call. But blame me because I am the dumbshit that answered the fucking phone call. I should have disobeyed orders and just turned the phone off completely. But we both know how that is.”
“I called with a purpose. Although, having a ‘come to Jesus meeting’ about you and your damn respect for authority needs to be addressed, son. Hell, I think that I’m going to move it to the top of my fucking to-do list. I’ll get to tell the great Gabriel that, no matter how important he is, we need to understand a common respect for one another.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a great conversation… but really, what’s the point of calling? You are just going to get me killed if I don’t move forward.”
“The reason for my call is to tell you to back out of there and get back to your extraction point along the river.”
“How long until I get a ride? What's the reason for the extraction?”
“You have two days, or you are going to have to make it out of South America on your own.”
“Sir, it took me five days to get in, and there wasn’t any fucking around trying to get here. I walked, climbed, and slid. Then I went through shit that textbooks do not understand to get my ass in here.”
“Watch your mouth, soldier!”
“You fucking watch it, sir. You just told me to abandon my mission and told me that I’m a dead man. It would be impossible to make that kind of trip. I could sprint the entire way and still not make it in enough time.”
“Son, it’s out of our hands. Our informant was captured and we think he talked.”
Gabriel sat staring into the distance; the four men did not know that the seconds they had left on earth were precious ones. He looked further into the distance, making sure that four men really were all that was left and that no stragglers had made their way in.
“I’m not leaving that man in there to be tortured because one of your guys probably offered him a year’s pay to give up intel that would easily get him killed. He was just trying to do right by his family and probably didn’t believe the South American drug cartel was the almighty. You do realize that the drug lords here will kill everyone that he’s ever met, right? If they haven’t done so already.”
“That’s a compelling speech, kid, but the man made up his mind. No one forced him to do anything”
“Yeah, amazing that a dirt-poor man would reach out and grab a lotto ticket, even if it was on fire.”
“Regardless of whether he made a good decision or not, Gabriel, you need to leave now. If you do, we might be able to bribe your ride with enough that you'll have the time you need to get to your rendezvous point.”
“You tell them they wait, no matter what. I can get Raul from in there and be on our way in less than an hour. And I can take out the main target while I’m in there.”
“Gabriel, you leave and you do it now! That’s an order! Those men only care about money, but they value their lives over that, son.”
“They leave, and I’ll hunt down every last one of them and slit their throats. Do you understand that? They’ve met me; they know that I can and will.”
“That isn’t how we operate, and you know it, kid.”
“I stopped being a kid a long god damn time ago. If you can’t control your assets, then maybe you ought to be looking into some new ones.”
“So, you’re saying that you’ll risk your life for some damn—”
“No, I’m not risking my life for him or anyone else. I’ve been in the shit for days now and I’m going to finish my mission. But when I’m done—and I will be done, I promise you that—you better not plan on a debriefing. I’m out after this. God knows there are enough job offers out there for someone with a special skill set like mine.”
“I think you need to stop and think about this Jacob.”
“Don’t call me that when I’m working. If someone listened to this radio chatter, they could figure a lot out if you used my last name.”
“I think you should come in, Gabriel. We can give you some time off, some time to get your head back in the game, to get set back up in the righteous path that you are taking.”
“God! Could you be more full of yourself? I am going to take a vacation, and it’s going to be a long one after I get out of this damn place. But I’m out after this, Tony. I’m sick of this shit. You have a billion dollars’ worth of intel in your budget and I’m trekking through a damn jungle by myself with little more than a rifle and a handgun.”
Tony yelled, “Hey, we can change, kid; we can do something else! Just tell us what you want. Hell, you plan your own ops; maybe you’ll get some management under your belt, take on some kids out of training, and teach them how to do some of those wonderful things that you do.”
“I’m out, Tony. I’m finishing this; that’s it and then I am done.”
“You don’t decide when you quit. You know that we have other people trained right, Gabriel? We can bring you in.”
“You could try and bring me in. I don’t have anything personal against you, Tony. I know you are doing what you think you need to do, but if you send anyone after me, you can cross those men off of your list. I promise you that.”
“Why don’t you take some time to think, son. Let’s talk about this again in a couple weeks once you make it back.”
“Goodbye, Tony.”
Gabriel hit the end button on the satellite phone and slid it back into his pocket. He took a long, deep breath and cracked his neck from side to side. He pulled out his silenced handgun and a knife and closed the distance as quietly and quickly as he could. Time was already something to be worried about, and now he had even less of it than before. He started his approach again and once he made it halfway there, he picked up a rock and threw it into the distance. The men snapped their heads around, and three of them ran in that direction, screaming in Portuguese.
One man stood point, making sure a second gunman did not come through that they did not know about. Gabriel moved through the distance, waiting for the three men to be far enough out of sight that they would not see the fourth man’s ending. Gabriel tossed one last rock twenty yards to the man’s right. When he turned his head, Gabriel stepped out of the shadows, gripped the man’s rifle with his left hand, and quickly stabbed him in the lungs, thigh, and neck with his right hand. The man was already dead before the pain had time to register in his body. It happened so quickly that he was unable to muster a scream.
Gabriel hung him from a tree branch sticking out of the trunk, giving the appearance that he was still very much alive. Gabriel patted the man down, taking his radio and his cigarettes, lighting one, and letting it hang from his lips. He placed it out of the side of the man’s mouth so the blood coming from it would not put it out. He backed up, waiting in the shadows and letting the men circle around. When they found nothing, they came back and yelled to the man who was hung up in the tree. Gabriel had learned enough Portuguese to get him by. The leader of the group yelled, “Carlos, what are you doing standing there? You should be walking around making sure that government piece of shit is not lurking in the shadows.”
They watched as the man lifted his rifle and pointed it directly at them. The three started screaming at him to put it down—to lower the weapon. They started firing when their man would not listen. Gabriel unleashed the machine gun on the three of them. The shots echoed throughout the jungle as the bodies fell, one after another. Gabriel made his way to the edge of the woods after quickly covering the men with brush. He was set to make his way to the compound, when he thought about his escape from the jungle and how a ride would be useful.
Gabriel pulled out his satellite phone and dialed a private number. It rang five times and as he was about to put it down, cursing his handler, Tony Baker, a voice came over the phone. “You must be one special bastard if you got this number; not many do. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with on this beautiful, tropical, alcohol-induced day?”
“It’s Gabriel. I need a ride, Forsyth, and I need it now. It’s important.”
The man got serious. “Well, what’s so important about it?”
“It means my life and the life of one of my assets that was captured. I need you to get that Widow Maker in the air and get on your way here, and I need you to do it now. Are you available for pickup and transport?”
Back in Panama, Forsyth looked at the pool in front of him and spun the umbrella in his drink around slowly while staring at one of the locals and what she thought passed for a bikini. He waved a giant mitt of a hand at her. She smiled back, trying to take the man seriously, in his cargo shorts and red Hawaiian shirt. She waved, and he raised his eyebrows at her. “I’m having a pretty good time right now. I think if I play my cards right, and I’m willing to spend a hundred bucks, I may have the most memorable half hour of my life with a beauty that is half my age.”
“No shit, you are in Panama? I’m just a few jumps down to Manaus, Brazil. Do you think you can get down here in two days?”
“I’d have to leave in the next couple hours, but I have bad news for you on that.”
“Tick-tock, Forsyth.”
“It’s gonna cost you about ten thousand to get you out of there. I have a pretty big week planned down here. I’d have to cancel a few jobs.”
“You go to Panama to fuck, not work; you and I both know that.”
“Well, that may or may not be true, but I do have some stuff lined up and…”
“Cut the shit. I’ll wire you five grand when you come get me. You can also mark down that I will owe you a solid favor at some point in the future. This, of course, is the kind of help that you and I both know is worth much more than the five grand you are passing up on.”
Forsyth sat staring at the young woman, thinking that even if he accepted, he had plenty of time to get to know her a little better. He figured as long as he called ahead and asked to have the Widow Maker fueled and prepped in advance, there was plenty of time. He wrote down the city, slammed his drink, and said, “Yeah, you got it, Gabriel, but you’re going to owe me a big fucking favor.”
Gabriel was already regretting starting his solo career in the debt of another but reluctantly said, “Yeah, I’m aware of what I’m going to have to do. You just make sure you get as close as you can. We should be there early, so don’t fuck around.”
“Would I do that?”
“Yes, yes you would. So, make sure you get wheels in the air in the next few hours. I’m out, and thanks.” Gabriel hit the end button, always believing in hanging up the phone when he had gotten the answer that he wanted. He put the phone back in his pants pocket, knowing it might mean life or death if he lost it.