Luke turned to look at the three other soldiers that would be proceeding on the mission with him-a sergeant he barely knew from a different platoon and two specialists that he trusted completely. The sergeant would be carrying the AT4 with him while the two specialists had swapped out their M4s with two other soldiers, so that their M4s would be equipped with M203 grenade launchers underneath the barrel. They had each pocketed three additional grenade rounds in their cargo pants, in case they needed more than the one shot.
“OK, let’s head out. It’s time,” he announced to his little three-man team. They quickly followed him into the alleyway behind the bar. Several other small attack teams also filtered out into the alleyway, heading to their own objectives. So far, no Russian soldiers had patrolled the streets nearby or managed to spot them. Major Graham had placed a couple of sentries near the exits of the alleyways, equipped with silencers for their M4s. Those were few and far between, but if they needed to use them, they would.
“I wish we had extra silencers. I sure could use them on this little mission,” Childers thought to himself as he approached the guards. Luke shrugged and continued to lead his small team to the end of the alleyway, next to the sentry that was keeping watch.
“Spotted anything recently?” he inquired.
“Nothing, Sergeant. Everything looks clear. I’ve been watching this spot for nearly thirty minutes. I haven’t seen anyone moving around, and I haven’t spotted anything suspicious in any of the windows or down either end of the street,” the soldier replied. This was definitely good news.
As they prepared to cross the street to hustle into the next alleyway, a soft mist started to fall. Then, the sky broke open and the air was filled with the percussion of many large raindrops falling.
“I’ve never been so happy to see rain in my life,” thought Sergeant Childers. “This will help to cover any noise we may make while we move into position.”
Luke looked back at his team and signaled for them to follow him across the street. One by one, they quickly made their way to the darkened alley. Once there, they moved slowly and cautiously along the back edge of the buildings, until they were at the other end of the alleyway near the next street. It only took them a few minutes to reach the targeted building.
Childers looked up and saw what he was looking for-the pipe that allowed the water from the roof to drain down to the alleyway below. He grabbed the pipe and gave it a slight wobble, then a harder shake. He smiled, adequately satisfied that the structure was firmly attached to the wall of the building.
He let his rifle hang by its sling, and pushed it behind his body so it wouldn’t brush against the wall of the building. Then he grabbed the metal pipe, and positioned one of his legs against the indent in the wall. Slowly, he began to scale the wall. As he reached the top of the patio that opened into the alleyway, he slowly began to lift his head above it to see if anyone was visible. When he didn’t see anyone, he turned to check the window of the room behind the patio. As Childers confirmed that the coast was clear, he hoisted himself the rest of the way up, slowly crawling over the patio wall until his feet were once again on solid ground.
Luke unhooked the rope he had brought with him, tied it off and let it drop to the others below. They used the rope and the metal pipe to climb up to the patio to join him. As Specialist Cross made it over the patio wall, he quietly told him, “I’m going to go into the building and start to clear the first room. I want you to wait for me to come back and let you know it’s safe to go inside.”
The young soldier just nodded and went back to helping his comrades get onto the patio.
Luke reached down and grabbed his knife with his right hand. He left his M4 slung behind him as he slowly opened the patio door. “Thank God, it’s unlocked,” he thought as the handle turned and he entered the building.
With his night vision goggles still on, he could clearly see that he was in the kitchen. He slowly moved to a hallway and peered into it. He saw there where two rooms down one end of the hallway, along with a bathroom. Down the other end, it looked like the door opened into a living room, which would probably lead him to the front balcony where the gun position was.
Childers turned back to the patio and gestured for the other soldiers to enter the kitchen with him, slowly and quietly. They did as instructed and waited. He signaled for Sergeant Crockett and one of the specialists to head down one direction of the hallway and see if it was clear. If they found any Russian soldiers in the rooms, they were to do their best to kill them silently, with their knives. He and Specialist Duncan would move towards the living room.
Luke slowly moved down the hallway until he reached the entrance to the living room. As soon as he could see inside the door, he stopped dead in his tracks. Nearly two feet away was a recliner chair with a Russian soldier sleeping in it. He signaled for Specialist Duncan to stay put for the moment.
Sergeant Childers slowly and quietly tiptoed towards the slumbering enemy combatant. He moved his left hand to cover the soldier’s mouth while he moved his knife into position. In one swift motion, his hand grabbed the Russian soldier’s mouth as he pushed his blade right through the side of the soldier’s neck, directly into his throat. Blood instantly gushed through Luke’s fingers. The well-muscled man tried to fight briefly, making a gurgling sound when he tried to scream, until Luke twisted the knife in the soldier’s neck, severing his spinal cord and killing him instantly.
Childers withdrew his knife and began to move away from the now lifeless soldier. Just as he was about to stand back up and begin to move deeper into the living room, a Russian soldier walked into the room from where the balcony must have been. As he spotted his friend, covered in blood and an American soldier half-crouched, half standing, with a large knife in his hand, the Russian managed to shout one word before SFC Childers’ knife flew across the room and hit him in the upper chest, just below his throat. The soldier instantly collapsed backwards to the floor from the shock of impact.
Luke sprang to his feet and rushed over to the Russian before he could get up. He jerked his knife out of the man’s chest with one hand while placing his other over the enemy soldier’s mouth before he could say another word. He quickly stabbed the fighter several more times with his knife, until he could feel the life drain from him.
Specialist Duncan became concerned when he heard the second man yell, and rushed into the room just as Childers was finishing off the second soldier. He was momentarily stunned as he realized that Luke had just killed the two Russians in front of him with his knife.
Just as Duncan began to move towards Luke (who was now on his knees), another Russian soldier walked into the room to find out what was going on, and immediately spotted Specialist Duncan. The Russian moved faster than Childers could, and he fired a quick burst from his AK-74, right into Duncan’s chest, who fell backwards and slumped to the floor, dead before he knew what had happened him.
This third Russian soldier had not initially seen Luke, until he lunged at him, plunging his knife deep into the man’s sternum. Luke pushed the man to the wall and stabbed him three more times in quick succession.
Sergeant Crockett and Specialist Cross came running into the room when they heard the gunfire. “Toss me Duncan’s rifle!” Childers yelled to them as he looked into the room that led to the patio. Luke turned back just in time to catch Duncan’s M4 with the grenade launcher, and ran into the next room, yelling at Crockett and Cross to follow and take out the machine gun positions on the opposite sides of the street corner.