“A car?” Oliver asked, he’d crawled his way to Abe’s side, careful to stay below the windowsills. “You seen many cars here so far?”
“Two, maybe,” JD replied. Although he was supposed to be sleeping, he was too keyed up to get any shuteye.
“It’s stopping,” Aberlour announced, as the vehicle came to a halt next to the rat’s nest. Two men exited. One from the passenger side, the other from the backseat on the driver’s side.The second one came around the back, joined the first, and positioned themselves in a way that would have blocked Abe’s view of what happened next if he’d been at street level. The two men pulled a blindfolded man with his arms tied behind his back out of the back seat. He staggered weakly when they dragged him out.
“That’s gotta be the special delivery. Male—mid-to-late 20s, hobbled and blindfolded,” Aberlour reported.
JD called headquarters to report the delivery while Aberlour continued to monitor activities across the street. The two men dragged the blindfolded guy towards the door of the rat’s nest and knocked. Someone came to the door to let them in, then all three men went inside.
“Copy,” JD said. “Rangers are 15 minutes out. Orders are to lay low, keep watch, wait for the Rangers to open fire, and move out.”
“Copy that,” Aberlour said. “Marcus, keep an eye on the house—Ghost, keep watch on the north front. I’m packing up to make a quick exit. Everybody else, pack up, and be ready to roll out.”
Aberlour heard someone say, “Thank God!” and a few others muttered, “Aye!” in stark relief at hearing their sojourn here was almost over so they could head home for real food and to get some rest.
As Aberlour began packing up his gear, Oliver tapped his foot three times. Reluctantly, he turned to look at him, one eyebrow hitched in question.
“We can’t just leave them—” Oli said, glancing at the two kids.
“That’s exactly what we have to do,” Aberlour stated reasonably. He’d been prepared for this conversation.
“What if they run out and get shot?”
“Oliver—if headquarters finds out we’ve been babysitting two kids while on this op, we’re gonna get our asses handed to us. Besides—what’s the plan? We bring them along? To do what? They’re not US citizens. We can’t just—steal kids,” he replied tersely, continuing to break down his sniper rifle.
“We can’t have them compromise the mission either,” Oliver insisted.
Abe bit back his immediate response that they obviously already had.
“We move out as soon as the Rangers begin firing on the enemy. We’ll bring them with us. You carry one, I’ll carry the other. When we reach the edge of the village, we leave them there. Pack them a bag with whatever food supplies we have left to spare. That’s all that we can do for them.”
“But—” Oliver objected.
Aberlour shut him down.
“That’s an order, Staff Sergeant,” Aberlour said tersely as he finished placing the rifle barrel in its case and snapped it shut.
Oliver swallowed his anger down, jaw clenched, as he nodded curtly and turned away to finish his own packing.
Marcus gave Aberlour a low whistle.
“Shut up,” Abe bit back without any heat.
The children didn’t show any resistance to what they were told to do. Aberlour didn’t knowwhatthey’d understood from Oliver’s explanation, but the eldest was clutching her sister close and nodding in approval.
“Take them downstairs. We need to get out of here before chaos comes raining down. I don’t want us caught in the crossfire,” Aberlour told Oliver as he stood next to Marcus, watching the rat’s nest for further developments.
“Something is happening,” Ghost said, eyebrows creased in concentration.
“Front door of the house just opened, they seem to be moving out,” Marcus agreed. “There’s a pickup truck pulling up.”
“A pickup?” Aberlour asked skeptically.
“Is that—”
“A heavy machine gun,” Ghost finished for Marcus, eyebrows knitted in concentration.
“The hell?” Aberlour asked, easing up to one of the old broken windows, to try to get a better look. Ghost had called that one correctly. The Toyota Helix, called a “technical,” that had parked in front of the rat’s nest had a Russian gun, called a Dushka, mounted in the back.
