Not only had the guards outside of the conference room heard the explosion, they were a little better prepared than their brethren, but only a little. Ben and Rossi remained on point and as they rounded the last corner in the hallway to approach the entrance to the conference room the guards saw them approach and began to raise their AK-74’s to fire — too late — as Ben hit the first guard with a three round burst and Rossi hit the second guard with another three round burst. However, the guards had managed to get off several rounds of their own before they fell to the floor: Up until now, all of the gunfire had come from the silenced MP5’s of the commandos. The little noise that these made had been covered in the confusion caused by Ayal’s explosion in the parking lot. However, there is nothing like the sound of a series of 7.62 rounds from an AK-74 in a concrete walled hallway: the automatic fire was deafening — and now everyone was on alert. Jackson, Dani and Captain Sanchez followed Ben and Rossi into the conference room — to the astonishment of all the occupants.
“What is the meaning of this? How did you get in here?” demanded General Suleimani.
“General Suleimani, I presume?” asked Jackson. “Colonel Thomas Jackson, United States Special Forces. You, Dr. Said Jalili, and Colonel Ashkan Rafsanjani need to come with me. Dani, will you see to Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Khameini?”
One of the staff officers immediately jumped in front of Dani and tried to grab her MP5 as she moved towards Khameini. Dani didn’t hesitate; a quick six round burst sent four rounds into the staff officer’s chest and, as the Supreme Leader remained seated, two rounds into his head, killing both instantly.
“Rossi, get the pics of Tecumseh,” Jackson ordered, referring to the lifeless body of the Supreme Leader.
“You’ll never get out of here alive,” yelled Colonel Rafsanjani.
“Frankly, Colonel, I never thought we’d get in here” replied Jackson. “Let’s go,” Jackson continued as Rossi and Dani placed the three of them in flexi cuffs; Ben was busy with something else.
As they headed towards the door to leave, Jackson placed one last radio call.
“Archangel, Chaos Actual. Geronimo, Cochise, and Crazy Horse are in custody,” referring to his three captives. “Beginning extraction now.”
“Roger that, Chaos. What’s the status of Tecumseh?” ‘Archangel’ Admiral Jack Fischer asked.
“Enjoying his seventy-two virgins,” replied Jackson. “Two rounds through the melon; pics forthcoming.”
“Roger that,” Archangel replied. Fischer still thought a SEAL team would have been better for this mission but he had to admit, the ODA team was able to get their first and had already secured their target; now he knew the fun would begin. “Chaos, be advised Greyhound is in en route and will be at the Bat Cave waiting for you. Good luck, son.”
Jackson smiled at that; only the Navy would refer to their Air Force extraction flight as a bus ride. In the meantime, he still had to get there, and it looked — and sounded — as though they’d have to fight their way out. Sanchez and his team had the hallway secured to the entrance of the building but getting to their vehicles would not be easy. The entire operation — from taking out the guards at the entrance to the capture — had taken less than five minutes so far and they all knew that every second’s delay dramatically increased the hazard of this mission.
“Archangel, we’ll be there waiting for that bus ride,” Jackson replied.
Ben made sure he was the last to leave the room as the small party exited. He made sure that the doors were shut and locked so that no one could get out. A few seconds later, a large explosion rocked the building; the large, heavy doors of the conference room completely flew off their hinges, crashing through the walls on the opposite side of the hallway. Clearly, no one could be left alive in the room. Tamir had told him to make sure that none of the present Security Council personnel escaped to either form a new government or to succeed the Supreme Leader within the present government.
“Just a bit of overkill, don’t ya think, Ben?” Jackson asked him.
“Just wanted to make sure the job was done,” he replied.
“I kind of think you succeeded with that,” Dani chimed in.
“Okay, folks, let’s get out of here while we still can. Sanchez, your team ready to mount up?”
“Roger that, sir. Let’s get out of here.”
XXX
Ayal and his two teammates had joined the half of the team that had been left to commandeer the motorcade limousines and form somewhat of a perimeter so that the assault force could make it back to the limos relatively easily. However, things had really heated up after the initial gunfire from the conference room guards; that short AK-74 burst alerted the entire complex. Though less than a minute had elapsed from that time, dozens of IRGC forces descended upon the complex and, while Sanchez’s perimeter team had been able to keep the IRGC at bay without injury, that couldn’t last.
Sergeant Rossi was the first to go down. No sooner had he exited the building than he took a round to the lower abdomen, just below his Kevlar vest. Ferro rushed to him and dragged him the short distance to one of the limo’s and quickly began the triage to treat the wound. The one nice thing about these presidential limousines, Ferro thought, was that they had plenty of space in which to work; he needed that now.
Ben, Dani, and Stonewall had each grabbed one of their captives and ran the gauntlet to the parked motorcade together. All three found the enemy fire relatively light until they reached the motorcade, whereupon as soon as each captive entered their respective sedan, the incoming fire increased exponentially. As soon as Ben threw General Suleimani into his sedan, he took two rounds to his right upper chest, each stopped by his vest, and a third to the right shoulder just where the vest ended. The impact of the three successive rounds to his right spun him around and actually dropped him into the sedan where upon Ayal pulled him clear of the door and slammed it shut behind him.
Dani and Stonewall each headed to the same sedan, with Jackson and Rafsanjani about ten feet behind her and Jalili. As Dani threw Jalili into the car, she took two near simultaneous rounds, one just above her right breast, the other just below her right shoulder blade. Her vest stopped both rounds, though the impact felt like a sledgehammer hitting her from the front and back at the same time. Just before she collapsed under the impact of these two bullets, a third round found her thigh, completely taking her down. Stonewall, following immediately behind her, threw Rafsanjani into the car, picked Dani up and threw her in and then he himself took four rounds to the back, literally propelling him into the car on top of Dani.
“I told you, you’d never get out of here alive,” Rafsanjani hissed.
Stonewall took one look at him and followed that up with a powerful blow to Rafsanjani’s jaw. “You just watch, Colonel. You’ll be on a plane out of here before you know it.”
“Ah…” Dani moaned in pain. “I wish you’d have let me do that!”
“Sorry, wasn’t up for discussion. How’s that leg of yours?” Jackson asked.
“Hurts like hell; think I’ve got a broken rib or two, as well; it really hurts to breathe. How’s it look?” She asked.
Jackson had already ripped open her pants leg and began examining the wound. “There isn’t a lot of blood; looks to be through and through. Looks like the Kevlar stopped the other two. Can you take a deep breath?”
“No, I can’t. It really hurts,” Dani exclaimed, obviously short of breath.