His team had assembled outside. Dressed in fatigues, they’d left their weapons and go-bags inside. First, they would rappel down unencumbered. Once they’d mastered that, they’d rappel down combat-ready.
Hawk had landed the chopper in the nearby field, cut the engine, and was waiting with the team when Rebel arrived. The group included Sin, Dakota, Addison, and Hawk, but no Slash.
“Who’s rappelled before?” Rebel asked.
“I have,” Addison replied.
“And she’s climbedupthe rope,” Hawk added.
“That’s impressive,” Sin said.
Slash strode over. “Sorry I’m late.”
“Have you rappelled out of a helo?” Rebel asked.
“Yup,” Slash replied. “ALPHA retreat.”
“After we watch Addison and Slash from the ground, we’ll watch from the bird, then we’ll rappel,” Rebel explained.
They jogged out to the open field.
Addison and Slash climbed into the craft, Hawk jumped into the cockpit. Within a minute, they were hovering overhead. They slid the rope through the metal hooks attached to the belt, then, one at a time, they rappelled down the rope.
While they made it look easy, it wasn’t.
Hawk brought the bird down, everyone piled in. This time, the women repeated the drill while the team watched from inside the bird. And finally, everyone rappelled down.
Rebel loved the intensity of the activity. He had to stay present, had to keep a close eye on his team, and he couldn’t let his mind wander. One slip, and he—or worse, someone else—was dead.
“What an adrenaline rush,” Sin said.
“I’ve been training hard,” Dakota added. “Made a difference.”
They repeated the drill until everyone felt confident in their ability.
With that completed, they retreated into the building, shouldered into their backpacks—each weighing over forty pounds—jogged in formation back to the Venom, and climbed inside.
Up Hawk flew. Once he was hovering in place, down they rappelled, one by one.
They repeated the drill several more times.
“How’s everyone doing?” Rebel asked.
Their helmets included built-in speakers and mics.
Everyone gave him a thumbs-up.
Rebel wanted to bring variety to their training sessions without pushing them to do too many activities in one day. After breaking for lunch, which they ate in the conference room, they piled into two SUVs, drove to Henninger Security.
Instead of heading to the target lanes, they went out back to the make-believe town. There, they practiced drills and maneuvers before he split the team up. Two played civilians needing a rescue, two took on the role of bad guys, and three were tasked with getting them out.
The first rescue was a total fail.
Sin and Slash were dead before the rescue team made contact with them. Slowly, as the afternoon progressed, they became sharper, more team-focused, and much better at communicating with one other. Rebel loved working with these smart, skilled Ops, but they’d have to put in some serious hours before they were rescue-ready.
Whatever it took, he was all in.
As the sun dropped closer to the horizon, he called it. “Great work, everyone. Seriously, you guys put in the effort today.”
