“All Stations, this is TOC, we have temporarily lost overwatch, you are going in blind.”Max’s voice called them over coms.
“Fuck, we have five clicks more to go to that mountain valley.” Noble grumbled. “And I’m not one hundred percent sure of the location.”
“I know this area,” Rick said. “We did a blind Op here a couple of years ago, which is why I didn’t recognize the location when it came up in the mission briefing.”
“Shit.” Saxon shifted the M-16, trying to stop it from digging into his side as Noble took a sharp turn to avoid a piece of disturbed earth on the side of the road. In this part of the world, disturbed earth usually only meant one thing. An IED, and an IED was the last thing they needed right now.
“As you know, that valley is deep within the tribals.” Rick searched his memory for any information he had which might help them when it came time to execute the mission. “It’s surrounded by mountains, so assume coms are going to work just about as well as radar does.”
“You hear that TOC?”
“I heard, Ambra One, TOC Copies.”
“You’ve been in this valley before, Rick?” Noble asked for confirmation.
“Yeah, it’s been a couple of years.” He dug into his pack and pulled out a paper map. “It’s surrounded on four sides.” He pointed a place on the map out to Zenko. “I recommend you set up an overwatch position here.”
“Agreed.” Zenko nodded. “Shaun and I’ll take overwatch.”
“Just let me know when to drop you.” Noble trusted Zenko’s assessment of the situation, if he agreed with Rick, then that was good enough for him.
“Drop us in two klicks, then wait for my signal.”
“Roger that.”
Zenko called the other truck and passed on orders for Shaun to join him on overwatch.
“Your team works well together,” Rick whispered to Saxon. “I miss working with my team, but you guys come a close second.”
“We keep it professional.” Saxon deadpanned.
“My ass.” Drax poked Saxon in the back. “Professional and us…” He shook his head as if in disbelief. “We get the job done.”
Noble stopped the truck in the middle of the dirt road. No freaking way was he going off to the side. These valleys here had some of the heaviest fighting in all of Afghanistan and yes, sometimes even across the border into Pakistan. Even if no one wanted to admit it much. Fuck knows what kinda IED may be lying buried just waiting for someone to drive over it.
Zenko bailed out of the truck, with Shaun doing the same from the truck in front. They disappeared into the scrubland over the brow of the hill.
“Eagle, Ambra One, in position.”
“Copy,” Noble confirmed. “Move out.” He put his foot on the gas and followed the other truck up the winding tracks to the valley.
Within minutes, they were pulling to a stop before the designated target zone. Noble climbed out of the truck, weapon in his hand, and pressed his coms unit. “Ambra One, Eagle, tell me what ya got.”
“Nothing we can see, Boss.”
“What do you think?” Noble scanned the ridges he could see around them. They were close enough that they could hit the drop location within about five minutes. But the topography and landscape concealed their presence.
“I think they are concentrating on if the truck is coming with the drones,”Zenko said,“But we can’t rule out that they are here watching.”
“I agree.” Noble made hand signals to his team, and they spread out, checking through scopes and binos, looking for any scrap of rising dust or anything that might tell them that damn truck was coming.
“Eagle, Ambra One, you have one truck approaching from the south, and two from the west.”
“We’re sure they aren’t coming this far?”
“TOC told us, it’s around that bend at the overhang.”Zenko reminded him.“I confirm the truck is stopping at location.”
“West vehicles, I count ten males, all armed,”Shaun passed on the intel.
