“Gentlemen, take a look outside,” Sanchez said pointing to the cave opening. “The weather has gone red. Ain’t nobody flying a bird up here in this white-out to save our sorry asses. The blowing snow will cover us, but if momma nature warms up, we could be looking at rain. The mission is right on track, 20 clicks in 53 hours. Two more clicks and, as Manson said, we only need two-and-half dials, but we will use six full dials if we need them. Once we find Banks, get a beacon on him immediately. The drone boys are watching our 17 beacons, and they’re expecting an eighteenth. It’s the only way ‘eyes in the skies’ can distinguish us from Haji. Questions?”
Camp pulled some ice out of his three-week beard as everyone pulled their snow camo masks over their faces for the rapid descent into Datta Khel Village.
In less than 10 minutes Alpha Team had descended the steep footpaths that merged with the riverbed. The trail was completely covered with blowing and blinding snow. The two squads were spread out, but the two scouts with the M4A1s were moving too slow for the clock ticking in Manson’s head. Manson gave a hand signal to Brick, and the CW2 stopped his unit. Manson walked over to Omid who was 30 meters ahead of Camp.
“I need you on point with the scouts, Omid. You know the route. We can’t see shit.”
Omid nodded and ran to the front. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Omid took point, and the pace doubled. No one in Alpha Team could be sure that Omid was actually keeping them on mission, but the blinding snow gave them few options.
The medic in Brick’s squad yelled up to Dex who was carrying the SAT phone package.
“You trust that Iranian?” Lynch asked.
“I don’t even trust your fat duff.”
Emerging from what seemed to be a thousand switchbacks along the riverbed, Alpha Team reached Bannu Road. One set of fresh tire tracks in the snow was heading in the direction of Datta Khel Village. A truck going into the village could mean a truck leaving sooner or later.
The smell of burning wood fire pits wafted in and out of the wind. The smoke hovered low from the heavy snow and couldn’t blow out and over the Hindu Kush.
The first house was visible on Bannu Road. A brown wall made of rocks and mud surrounded the house where a tribesman could make sure his livestock remained close.
Omid stopped. The two squads of Alpha Team stopped behind him. There was nothing to see. No one could hear anything other than the howling wind. Suddenly Omid gave the down sign, and he dove to the side of the road. Sixteen other Alpha Teamers were down and still before Omid’s body even settled.
Camp peered up through his snow camo mask. Nothing.
Out of the blowing snow, Camp started to see an image emerge. A donkey started to break through the wall of snow seemingly coming from infinity. As the donkey walked closer, Camp’s eye caught a glimpse of a tribal elder, bundled up with blankets and scarves across his face and eyes. A Pashtun Pakul was tucked on top of his head. He was sitting on a perch behind the donkey which pulled him and the rusted steel bed of an old Toyota pick-up truck slowly down Bannu Road. The donkey, driver and Toyota bed passed within feet of Omid, Camp, Billy Finn and 14 other members of Operation Detachment Alpha Team.
When the donkey caravan had disappeared from sight, Ham got on the unit communications.
“Clear,” came the whisper from Ham which was heard over every headset in the unit. The team rose as one.
Omid led them past the first house then gave a quick hand signal that was repeated down line. Omid didn’t like the conditions for the main mission plan, the one he had crafted, and decided to utilize the fall-back option, an option he had created as well. With so much snow, local tribesmen would be more inclined to use Bannu Road if they were even outside in these conditions. The six-hour contingency plan allowed them some flexibility.
One hundred fifty meters past the first house and beyond the first street in Datta Khel Village, Omid took a hard right to the southwest and away from their southeast plan. The team cut through a field as a large grove of trees started to emerge in the distance where the walls of more houses came into view.
Once inside the grove, code-named Sherwood Forest, Geek pulled out his binoculars to assess the four houses that lined the near side of the second street. The team needed to cross the second street. The second house on the second street was their target-rich environment.
Smoke was pouring from three of the four houses on the first street. Omid watched for Geek’s sign. The second house seemed to be vacant or at worst, no one was up cooking or warming themselves by a fire yet.
Omid climbed the backyard wall of the second house followed by 16 more men. No animals greeted him in the backyard, so that was a good sign. Sheep at the first and third houses started bleating. A goat rose up over the wall as Alpha Team hustled past.
As the two squads of Alpha Team passed over the outer wall of the second house, Chip pulled out his thermal imagery scope and pointed it at the house.
There was nothing “living” in the house. No heat.
Omid approached the front wall of the second house. He scanned up and down the street. There was no activity.
The target house was now clearly visible across the street. There was a large house on the corner of Bannu Road and the smaller street. On the other side of the target house, another property seemed to sit with a vacant area between them.
The target house looked different than the seven houses on the street. Datta Khel Village had less than 200 tribesmen and families. The target house looked half sheet metal and half rock. It had more of a commercial feel to it, if anything in North Waziristan could be called commercial.
Geek’s binoculars were fixed on the smoke that rose out of the stack on the target house. He gave the signal. Chip moved up to Omid’s spot, checked both ways, then crossed over the short front wall, over the street, over the target house wall, and up next to the house. He pulled out his thermal imagery scope.
Four people. Chip gave three long clicks and a short click over his comms. Each member of Alpha Team knew the code that they would soon face three adults and a child. Camp had already lobbied for the preservation and rescue of Miriam’s son. He was denied. But Ferguson did provide an acceptable condition. If the boy could be saved, Alpha Team could bind and gag him, put him in a different location, and hope that the child’s discovery was made long after the team’s egress back through the Hindu Kush.
Three adults and a child meant the team had to go in with silence and surprise. Manson and Colt were the weapons specialists. Master Sergeant “Manson” would not be using his M203 grenade launcher mounted on the 9-inch barrel of his M4 for this part of the mission.
Manson and Colt moved over the wall past Omid, crossed the street, and over the wall and next to the building where Chip was crouched. Chip showed them the imagery. Manson used hand signals to send Colt to the rear southwest corner of the house.
Manson put three short clicks in burst over the comms as the explosives guys crossed and joined Manson and Chip. They looked at the imagery, and Manson sent another soldier to the back of the house with Colt.
On signal, Manson and his soldier would enter from the front as Colt and his soldier entered from the rear. Chip would hold back and watch the imagery unfold. The comms guys stayed back across the street in case things got out of hand and a drone was needed. CW2 “Brick” along with three of the Alpha soldiers stayed at ready distance across the street. If things went bad, Brick and his team would have to deliver some quick justice.