Unsung warrior box set, p.36
Unsung Warrior Box Set, page 36
part #1 of Unsung Warrior Series
The autumn temperatures were just fine for hiking, but the men were moving fast. They were breathing heavily by the time they approached the last rise to the hills above the valley. Davies reported a chirp that confirmed cell phone activity, somewhere ahead. It was confirmation of the station’s existence. Several more chirps followed in rapid succession.
The two men were just coming into the more heavily wooded area across the top of the hills when Davies got another reading, and snapped out a command to hide. A few more steps brought them to a cluster of waist-high shrubs, and they squeezed into the middle of it.
"Army quality drone over the valley," said Davies quietly, when Maric looked at him for an explanation. A drone was both good and bad news. The two men couldn't take the risk of moving too much closer, but it confirmed a substantial base, and an enemy that was vigilant.
Drones were the new weapons of war, both for surveillance and for missile strikes, and it was tiring work scouring the skies for them. One of the attachments on Davies’ helmet was a motion sensor, and if any part of the sky recorded by it moved against the rest of the sky, the program alerted Davies.
It looked like they had a new problem, how to knock out the surveillance so they could get inside the station without being noticed. Maric was already thinking of solutions, and he hoped Brightwater’s change of attitude extended to letting them borrow one of his toys. One of the new EA-18G Growler planes would effectively jam all comms and electronics in the area.
It would stop the Count’s guards at the way station getting off a message as they were overrun. Maric no longer wanted to slip in and out unobserved. The main attack force, currently on standby, needed reliable information. He would go through the station with a fine tooth comb for intel, and that took time.
Once the drone had been diverted somewhere else in the valley, following a daily pattern presumably, he and Davies moved to the front of the hill so they could look down into the valley. Davies made a number of comments, and Maric nodded.
There were too many tire tracks on the stream bed below them for a simple farming operation. The evidence was building up, and it all pointed in one direction.
Maric felt he could now justify an attack on the station, if he had to justify his actions later. The information they would gain might be essential during the attack on the Count’s base, when it finally came. Cal would understand his reasoning, but Brightwater was another matter. There was an uneasy alliance between Maric and the Colonel at the moment. It was changing, but both sides were short on trust right now.
Maric and Davies eased their way back off the hills, before descending rapidly down the southern side of the range. Maric radioed ahead, and with a few minor adjustments, the coach arrived with perfect timing. It appeared to make a toilet stop at the side of the road as Maric and Davies appeared out of the scrub and joined them.
Once the coach was moving, Maric dug his sat phone out of his bag. There was the usual ID and encryption wait, and then he was talking to Colonel Brightwater. The Colonel wasn’t prepared to make an immediate authorization for the EA-18G, and Maric tried his best to be understanding. The request would have to be kicked upstairs, and then no doubt it would find its way sideways to Cal. Maric smiled at the thought, though he didn’t let that smile show in his voice. Cal had all sorts of pull with all sorts of people.
If the Colonel could get back to him before nightfall, in anticipation of a strike tomorrow morning? The Colonel assured him he would have an answer well before then, and Maric disconnected the sat phone.
“Find us a place to sleep for tonight,” he said to Davies, who was back driving the coach, “and not too far away.”
Then he motioned to the rest of the reconnaissance team to join him around the table in the middle of the aisle.
“Way station confirmed,” he said briskly, and the level of tension in the coach went up several notches. Horvat looked ready to take on the station right now, and Maric almost smiled. He could remember being that young, and keen, and inexperienced – just.
“We’re going in at first light tomorrow,” he said, “over the hills so we bypass the houses down by the road. Now, this is what we’re going to do . . .”
CHAPTER 7
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One of the Marine fireteams stayed with the coach, which would mysteriously have developed engine trouble if anyone came by during the day. It was still an hour to daybreak, and there was no one on the road yet.
The coach was pulled over where the narrow road widened a little, not far from where Maric and Davies had disappeared into the scrub the day before.
The SAS team led the way up the slope, while Dusty and the remaining fireteam followed behind. It was slower going in the dark, but the SAS team had night vision goggles and the Marines stayed close behind.
They reached the top of the hills to the south of the valley as the first light of dawn spread over the top of Maranai Park. The night goggles disappeared into back packs, and there was a short wait until the EA-18G arrived on patrol above them. The aircraft was too high to be seen, although Maric detected a faint murmuring on the wind.
A last round of instructions was dispensed in hushed tones, and then the reconnaissance team moved quietly through the trees to take up their allotted positions.
The Marines were heading for a spur that forced the meandering stream in the valley to take a loop around it. It was a natural block to line-of-sight from either direction. The Marines would stop anybody trying to escape from the way station, and anybody on more normal business coming up the stream bed from the tiny village below.
Davies confirmed that the drone was not operating yet. It wouldn't have mattered if it had, not with the EA-18G in position, but static from the drone feed might have given away the fact it was being jammed. The absence of the drone meant that everything was a go for the raid.
The way station, when they could see it more clearly, turned out to be hidden inside a cave. The entrance to the cave was a good-sized opening, masked by overhanging vegetation, and a number of buildings had been constructed inside it over the centuries.
Some had been reduced to ruins by time, and some were of a simple stone construction with roofs that had fallen in. A larger, squat building near the back had been prefabricated and constructed on site. There were no signs of sentries, or electronic alarms.
The SAS team dumped everything they didn't need on the edge of the trees. Since they didn't have body armor, they needed to be light on their feet. Surprise, and speed, were going to be their best friends today.
The SAS team had their Glock G17s, plus a few surprises, while Horvat had the Croatian forces Produkt HS2000, which was Croatian made. Anderson assembled a lightweight sniper rifle from what looked at first glance to be no more than a two foot length of metal tubing.
There was more cover on the right hand side of the cave opening, and they moved up along that side in carefully controlled bursts of activity, overlapping each position as they did so. Horvat had been teamed up with Mosha. The new man had been told to keep his head down, and do whatever Mosha told him.
Some of the buildings they passed were ancient, no more than ruins, and Maric remembered Cal saying that Prekal had harbored brigands long ago. This must have been one of their hideouts.
The sun’s rays hadn't made it as far as the valley floor yet, and wouldn't do so for another hour, but there was enough light to see well at the entrance. The inside of the cave was a little murkier, and Maric made sure his team took time for their eyes to adjust.
A short while later they were up against the large prefab building. Maric eyed the stone building directly opposite the prefab with suspicion. It was the only one with glass in the windows, apart from the prefab, and his instincts told him it was being used as part of the way station. The cave was narrowing by this point, and there was less than ten meters between the two buildings.
One of the ruins deeper in the cave was being used as a toilet by the looks of it. Maric figured it was a compostable unit with a handful of lime thrown into it every so often. When it was full they would build another tank and sit the existing throne on top of it.
There was a breeze through the cave, caused by natural chimneys in the rock no doubt, and it took the smell of the toilet away into the interior. A stovepipe above the stone building was probably for heating. The prefab would be better insulated. The cooking was likely to be reheats done on gas canisters.
Maric sent Mosha and Horvat past the prefab and deeper into the cave. Anderson found a broken-down ruin near the cave entrance with a wide field of fire, and Davies stayed with his boss.
There was no sense in attacking either of the inhabited locations while they contained men and weapons. The two buildings were in essence forts, and would be easy to defend. Maric would wait until he could get some of the hired muscle outside the buildings.
He wasn't averse to waiting. It had been his best course of action many times in the past, and it proved so again today. After a while the door opened and two men appeared, doubtless heading for the toilets at the back of the cave. Mosha and Horvat worked their way across, using the available cover, to intercept them.
The recon team needed to draw more of the inhabitants out of the buildings, and Mosha got to work on that. Horvat elbowed his man hard in front of one ear, knocking him unconscious. Mosha pulled his target’s arm back and slipped a hand around it and up so he had the man by the throat. It was an extremely painful hold.
Whispering, “you’re gonna die, fucker,” in Albanian didn’t help. The man yipped and squealed like he’d been stuck by a bayonet. After a carefully counted three seconds, Mosha laid him out with the edge of his hand under the back of the man’s head.
Maric wanted some of the Count’s men to interrogate, and that was two, so far. Mosha bound wrists and feet together with plastic ties, and pulled those ties together with a third. They had a little time. The hired muscle in the buildings were pulling on jackets and checking their weapon’s magazines.
Then Mosha and Horvat were gone, retreating further into the recesses of the cave. They split apart, and began to circle back, staying out of sight in the shadows.
A man burst out of the prefab, and called out something, probably the names of the two men. The door on the stone building opposite opened, and a head poked out. The man outside the prefab must have been the leader of the group, and he barked orders at the stone building.
Hurriedly dressed and armed, three men soon emerged. They began circling warily toward the toilets. Mosha and Horvat could see them against the dawn light filtering in from the cave entrance, and worked their way toward either side of the cave.
They would try to get a cross-fire organized. Team members didn’t fire on each other, and the rest of the team were somewhere near the cave entrance. Team members didn’t take risks either, and while Mosha and Horvat could almost certainly have taken the three men in unarmed combat, the third man could have been a problem. An armed problem.
That’s when they heard a whispered, “hold.”
The three men began to group together as they covered the last few meters to the toilets. That was their first mistake. Then their focus broke as they saw two of their comrades unconscious and hogtied between two low rock outcrops on the cave floor.
That was when they committed their second, and last, mistake. Two of them rushed in to untie the men, while the third stood guard, his handgun nervously targeting shadows one by one. A tall shape rose from a horizontal position behind one of the outcrops, and landed in the midst of them before they knew what was happening.
The man on guard didn’t feel the blade that slid under the base of his skull and severed his spinal cord. He was still upright when Maric placed his hand over the guard’s gun hand, and double-tapped the nearest of the two men on their knees freeing their comrades. The third looked up just as Maric used his head as a soccer ball. He went down and stayed down. He would be interrogated later.
“Would you stop doing that!” said Mosha in a hiss, materializing out of the shadows. “We had it covered!”
Mosha had a point. Maric was always talking about not taking unnecessary risks; but on the the other hand, the tall man liked to keep his skills fresh.
Horvat looked impressed, and Maric knew the young special forces man would want to run through those moves with him later.
Then the door to the prefab opened again, and the three members of the reconnaissance team melted away among the rocks and ruins of the cave. Maric explained in sign language what he wanted the other two to do, and they began to work their way around the outside of the cave toward the back of the stone building.
The man Maric could just recognize in the gloom as the station leader called out to the trio he had sent to investigate the noises at the toilets. There was no reply, and he hastily slammed the door of the prefab shut.
Maric grimaced. The easy pickings were over. The Count’s men would be arming up now, and may even be climbing into body armor. The operation to clear the way station was about to get a lot more difficult.
It took Maric a while to get back to the front of the cave, and to tell Davies and Anderson what he wanted now. A minute later the window in the stone building that faced the front of the cave disintegrated under a sustained attack.
The single shots of handguns replied, and then the mechanical rattle of AK-47s. Maric heard the soft purr of an Uzi, and stopped shooting for a moment. Where the hell had they got that? It sounded like one of the older, full-sized versions. It was only accurate at close-quarters, but a 32 shot magazine made it something to be avoided.
The door to the prefab opened, and more shooters joined in, one high and one low. Maric, Davies and Anderson were well hidden, and spread across the cave entrance, but it was getting decidedly hot out there. None of them had automatic weapons.
The sudden crash of a side window on the stone building got everyone’s attention. There was a moment’s silence, and then the methodical double taps of Mosha’s Glock and Horvat’s HS 2000. Maric counted three targets disposed of before silence descended again.
“All clear,” came a whisper over his mike, and he knew the stone building no longer contained active hostiles. That meant the Uzi was out of action, which improved his mood. Well, that particular Uzi was, anyway. The door to the prefab slammed shut once again.
Maric started weighing up the pros and cons of different plans in his head. How could the recon team deal with the Count’s forces in the prefab?
The walls weren’t bulletproof, but handguns alone would take a while to pepper the place, and might leave some of the opposition still alive to set up an ambush.
Maric searched his mind for a suitable strategy, digging through his many years of combat experience.
CHAPTER 8
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Maric was still trying to figure out a risk-free way of dealing with the prefab when he heard shots fired further down the valley.
Dammit, Dusty was supposed to be gently persuading any locals approaching his position to turn back, not starting a military action. Maric didn't have time to deal with that right now, so he pushed the sound of the shots out of his mind.
Then he sent Davies to work his way across the cave to Mosha and Horvat. It took a few minutes for Davies to make contact, and then the three of them started laying down suppressing fire from the sides of the stone building.
There was only one window on that side of the prefab. The three men shot it out, and then kept the heads down inside. Return fire was largely from weapons held overhead in a crouched position, and invariably went wide.
Maric retreated to the back pack he had dumped just short of the cave entrance. He wished now he’d brought some of the flash-bang grenades that had been so useful at the mine in northern Croatia, but the flare he carried would do a similar job.
He dug the compact cylinder out of his pack and returned to the prefab. Then he worked his way toward the only other window in the building, facing towards the cave entrance, and prepared the signal flare.
It was used if they had to be airlifted out in an emergency, and he always had it with him. When it was ignited it produced a long plume of colored smoke, and he was sure the inhabitants of the prefab would find the smoke decidedly unfriendly to their lungs.
Maric reached up and tore his shirt sleeve away at the left shoulder, and wrapped the material around his right hand. Then he grasped the flare firmly and worked his way to the corner of the prefab. It was a moment's work to ignite the flare and come around the corner, smash the window, and drop the flare inside.
As he ducked back behind the prefab an AK-47 poked out of the window and sprayed bullets over an area not far from where he’d just been. There was a distinctive report from Anderson’s lightweight sniper rifle, and the AK-47 dropped to the ground as its owner tumbled to the floor of the prefab. Moments later orange smoke boiled across the ceiling, and began to seep out of the two broken windows.
Now it was a waiting game. Would the mercenaries inside the prefab realize the situation was getting worse by the second, and surrender, or would they come out fighting? Nine of their number had already been taken out of the equation, and some of them with deadly force. Maric sincerely hoped he didn't have to go in there and drag the rest out.
It didn't take long for the men to reach a decision. Cries of “mos gjuaj,” and “ne dorëzohemi,” echoed through the cave as the door was thrown open.
"They’re surrendering!” called Mosha, and stepped out to confront the men with his Glock raised. Davies and Horvat kept their handguns trained on the group from their hiding places. Maric moved to the front corner of the prefab. Anderson had his sniper rifle trained on the window above him, ready to respond if someone tried to shoot his boss from inside.
