A volunteer armed force tends to fight more fiercely than a conscripted one. Slaves never make good soldiers, nor do drafted soldiers. They fight with less enthusiasm, less motivation. Wars are won by men who want to fight, and as the modern ‘war on terror’ became commonplace, the need for Special Operators increased.
And these six members of The Unit were the best. They knew quite well how to exploit an enemy’s weaknesses.
They’d done it many times against the Taliban.
“Before we get into the details, I’ll say this,” Elizabeth continued. “You have a free pass to do what you want. Your only job is to kill. This is not a hostage rescue situation. I want that clear.”
“We can do that,” Dale said with a nod.
“You’ll be highly outnumbered. Maybe five to one. Maybe more,” she said.
“That’s the way we like it,” Dale added.
“All right, the mission…” Elizabeth began.
56
“The SOG guys did it in Vietnam,” Elizabeth said. “The CIA invented the concept once they realized their methods weren’t working. They’d send in three man teams, give ’em a license to do what the hell they wanted.”
Colonel Reynolds nodding, adding, “My father was SOG. He said few returned, most never heard from again. You are all under the direct authority of the CIA right now. Special Activities Division, like Elizabeth said. Unlike Delta, you abide by no rules, follow no laws. What you do on this mission is highly classified, and anything and everything is allowed.”
“So we can blow shit up,” Thompson said.
“That’s what we do,” Marcus added.
“You can and will kill with no mercy,” Reynolds replied. His face was stoic, yet his body tense. “This is the most covert operation you’ll ever be involved in. Make no mistake, the CIA will have plausible deniability. Once you go in, you’re alone. Elizabeth and I will monitor the mission from here, we’ll update the INTEL, do what we can to help. But if you get captured, injured, even lost, you’re on your own. You die, you weren’t here. Your family will get a story about dying in a training mission. You know the drill. If you get into trouble, if you’re getting overwhelmed, there’s no cavalry. None. Nobody will come looking for you.”
“Understood, Colonel,” Dale said, recognizing how serious the situation was.
The Colonel needed to get that out of the way, he needed them to know this was no ordinary mission, that no evacs would be possible. They were used to such, but not to such extremes. They always had a way out, something this mission didn’t provide.
Elizabeth took over once more. “You’ll meet the last two members of your team soon, but let’s get to it. I’m sure you’ve already heard, but I’ll repeat it. Loose lips sink ships, and I’m sure word has spread by now. So, as you all know, three weeks ago we lost a dozen members of 1st SFOD-D. They were under McClain’s command, had another two dozen at the ready. They went on a recon mission, engaged some Taliban, and entered a valley.” Elizabeth turned to Michael, motioning, then turned back.
A map appeared on the giant screen. Michael clicked a few buttons, the map zooming in on the Khost province, then deeper in, showing a landscape of nothingness.
“This is the valley they entered. They came from the west, climbed this ridge,” she said, pointing.
“What’s our reference point?” Dale asked.
“This valley is un-named,” she replied. “You do have GPS coordinates in your files, though.”
“It’s not named? These rags name all their places,” Thompson said.
“Not this valley,” Elizabeth said. “If you’ll notice, this area is shaded red. It’s a no-fly zone. Been that way for over twenty years, and I don’t expect it to change. Since we’ve been in Afghanistan, this valley has remained untouched.”
“Why’s that?” Dale asked.
“We’ll get to that. This Delta team, they climbed the ridge, and went down, despite orders to the contrary. They alleged there’s a village here,” she pointed to the center of the valley.”
“Don’t see one,” Clements remarked.
“It’s there. We estimate a few hundred. Maybe a thousand.”
“That where they got wasted?” Clements asked, knowing the bitter truth that the Delta team were long dead.
“Actually, no. Our last reports were that they found nothing in the village. No Taliban, no resistance,” she replied. “Then, we lost contact.”
“How’d that happen?” Dale asked, curious.
“Our redundant systems all failed,” Elizabeth said. “We had no visual, no voice contact. We heard some garbled bits and pieces, but even running it through our computers, we can’t tell what was said. Our last communication was that the village was clear.”
“Voice and video went out? How?” Dale asked.
“We don’t exactly know, though we have a few guesses. Even worse, we had no aerial surveillance. No coverage. As I said, it’s a no fly zone, so we couldn’t allow pilots in. We did, however, fly two drones over, and repositioned a satellite once we realized there was a problem.”
“You must have something,” Dale stated, not understanding.
“Everything was inoperable once they entered that village,” Elizabeth replied.
“How do you know they weren’t attacked by Taliban hiding out? Shit, if the village is that big…” Dale began.
“Remember Colombia, Sergeant Comstock?” she asked.
The other five Delta members turned to him, a curious look on their faces.
“Yeah. So?”
“Same thing… they weren’t killed by the villagers. They weren’t killed by Taliban,” Elizabeth stated.
“Then who the fuck killed them?” Clements asked in a loud voice.
Elizabeth ignored him for the moment, continuing, “There’s a cave. It’s on the far eastern side of the valley. This valley is right next to the border of Pakistan, and that western ridge is big, separates the two countries. It’s all mountains, a large range. The western side of the valley is highest, sits about six thousand feet high. The cave is hidden fairly well, approximately a hundred meters up.”
“So, you think they decided to check the cave?” Dale asked. “How’d they see it if it was hidden?”
“I know they did, Sergeant. The team went in. One of the villagers pointed it out. They proceeded up, found a path and climbed. Cave entrance is about twenty meters tall, thirty wide. By this point, we weren’t sure if they were receiving communications or not, but they’d been told to pull back. Went in anyway,” she said.
“That’s Delta,” Thompson smiled.
“They went in looking for any signs of resistance. After their firefight, having killed about thirty, they figured the cave might hold some more. Or they could get some INTEL. The team went in, and all hell broke loose.”
“How many were they up against?” Dale asked.
“We don’t know. We assume dozens, maybe more. It was certainly a trap. Your fellow members of The Unit, they did well. Got lots of kills. Died like heroes,” she said.
“Thought COMMS were out. How do you know this?” Dale asked.
“I was told this information by a reliable source.”
“How if they’re all dead?” Dale asked.
“Because, Sergeant, one lived. One survived,” Elizabeth said.
Surprised looks crossed their faces.
“Say again?”