It was obvious they had two more rooms to clear. Frank looked at Sergeant Fisher, “Let’s get the other two rooms clear and end this.”
They could hear another RPG being fired out of one of the two remaining rooms and into the compound below. It was most likely aimed at the other men on their team. This had to stop!
Sgt Fisher yelled over the sounds of battle, “Sir, I can handle one of them alone, if you can handle the second.”
Frank knew it wasn’t the way they were trained to do these kinds of things, but he also didn’t want to lose more men. They had the advantage of coming in behind them so he decided they could afford the risk, “You got it, Sergeant.”
He sprinted down the hall. The sounds of automatic fire could still be heard coming from two different rooms. Frank was behind Sergeant Fisher by a few steps. The Sergeant took the first room and Frank continued down the hall. His target was only two doors down. Once both soldiers were in position they attacked in unison.
Frank burst into the room, and fired at the first of two targets. His shots were well placed and lethal. The second target was in the middle of reloading and had been caught off guard. Frank turned his M-4, pulled the trigger, and nothing happened.
The weapon was jammed.
The tango instantly realized what was going on, and charged.
Frank threw the jammed, useless weapon to the ground. He went for his handgun but the terrorist was moving too damn fast, and had a wicked looking knife in his hand that was at least six inches long.
The terrorist plunged the knife at Frank’s face and he instinctively reached up to grab it. Its razor sharp blade ripped into the flesh of his left hand and cut deep. Frank let out a yell of anger and pain that sounded like it came from something that wasn’t human, but he was sure it came from him.
Frank pushed back on the knife and saw blood pulsating in streams like a water fountain with every beat of his heart. He knew the knife had at least nicked an artery by the way that pulsating fountain kept spraying out onto the floor. If he didn’t end the fight soon he knew he ran the risk of bleeding to death.
He got his legs underneath him and threw the smaller man across the room, where the man hit the wall with a sickening thud. Adrenaline had to be doing most of the work as Frank’s muscles were tired and the blood loss was making its presence known.
As Frank’s world slowly compressed inward, he pulled out his pistol and put ten rounds into the tango’s head ending the confrontation.
Frank sank to the floor and put as much pressure on the wound in his hand as he could. He knew that he had to stop the damn bleeding or he was in deep shit. A few seconds later Sergeant Fisher came in the door. Thank God he was one of the team’s medics, and appeared to be in good health after his own brawl with the terrorist from the room down the hall.
Frank suddenly realized there were no more sounds of a firefight. He looked down and saw that his uniform was soaked with his own blood.
Sergeant Fisher knelt down beside him. “Looks like you have a little boo-boo, Sir” the Sergeant said as he calmly pulled out a medical kit.
“I think he fucked up my hand,” Frank said, indicating the now dead terrorist and knowing that shock would start to set in if he didn’t get the injury dealt with quickly.
“Well, I think I can fix that, just don’t go all crybaby on me,” Sgt Fisher said getting to work.
Five minutes later the bleeding was stopped, the hand was wrapped in bandages, and Frank was holding it close to his chest. Sergeant Fisher retrieved the jammed M-4, cleared and reloaded it for the Captain as they walked out of the building to rejoin what remained of the team.
Once outside they saw that aside from the two dead team members, there were only some minor injuries. At least they hadn’t lost any more soldiers.
The pair went over to where everyone had gathered with what remained of the internal security team.
“Sorry we ran a little late,” Frank said to what appeared to be the local in charge. “To the best of your knowledge do we have any more bad guys running around?” he asked no one in particular.
The tall man of at least six foot four inches answered, “No Sir, we don’t. You have done us a great favor. We were almost out of ammunition. If you guys hadn’t come along when you did more of them would have gotten away.”
“More of them?” Frank asked closing his eyes, wishing he hadn’t just heard that. “You mean some have already left the area?”
“Yes I am afraid they did. Four men with a truck load of nuclear materials.”
“Fuck,” he said thinking fast. “Does the truck have any kind of identifying marks?” Frank asked while trying to maintain his composure. He was even angrier now about the delay inserting than he was mere moments before. These guys were real pros. They left a team behind to cover their escape.
“Unfortunately we don’t know the answer to that. It was a very generic truck. We have ten that look just like it at this facility alone. We lost track of it less than two minutes outside the gate, without getting a really good look at it. They even took out our cameras so we don’t even have it on video,” the man answered.
“So, let me get this straight, we have four or more unknown guys, on the loose, with no way to track them, and they have a truck load of some really nasty stuff. How much of that material could that truck carry?” he asked, afraid of what the answer might be.
“Hundreds of pounds, easily.”
“Wonderful,” was all Frank could say. Doing the after action report was going to make this a very long night.
“Mr. Choi,” Frank called to the Warrant Officer, “Can you call for our helicopter evac. We need to make a report, and this one needs to be in person.”
The Captain sat down. The stab wound was starting to send throbbing sensations higher up into his arm. This was going to be a very long night.
AP NEWS FLASH: More trouble for the President today as polling shows him to be at his lowest popularity rating ever. The majority of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction.
AP ECONOMIC NEWS: The markets ended mostly flat today on light trading. Investors appear to be sitting on the sideline not wanting to jump into the market with uncertain economic policy direction coming from Washington. It is thought that the FED meeting tomorrow will answer some questions, which will allow investors to get back into certain, very specific sectors, such as technology and manufacturing.
Chapter Two
Frank flexed his hand. He was trying to get used to not having the sutures in it anymore. They had been taken out at the hospital about an hour before and it felt strange having his hand back.
He found it nice to see the regular Friday bar. Whenever the team was home at Fort Bragg, instead of deployed somewhere around the globe, they always got together for some drinks to decompress. It was their version of an after action report for the week, only with less brass, no paperwork, more beer and the occasional female distraction for the single guys.
The other advantage of this bar was that they felt comfortable there. In most bars the team guys tended to stand out from the crowd. For instance, Captain Banner stood 6 foot 3 inches, with 5 % body fat, and all muscle. It would be unique in most places, and people wouldn’t leave you alone. Guys all want to poke you until the fight starts, women want you to buy them drinks. Today, the team just wanted to hang out and decompress.