“We need everyone in the ops room for a brief.” the text read on my phone as I walked into the building, We had been getting more and more of these pop-up missions lately... one minute I would be enjoying my favorite shows and the next I would be sitting in a chair with my men around me at the table, listening to a brief about some crazy Insurgents or some foreign dignitary that needed a security detail.
It's crazy how many missions they can have us do in a single week I thought as I walked into the small corridor where our ops room was, I had just began to take my phone out of my pocket and put it into my plastic holder outside the door as I heard footsteps beside me.
“Hey boss” I heard “Do you know what this is about?” It was Rex, my second in command and a good friend of mine.
“I have no clue, I could’ve asked you the same thing.” I said as he put his phone in his plastic holder and I opened the door.
“It's about time you’re here.” Sammy, our CIA correspondent, said… the table had already been filled except for 2 empty seats at the front of the table.
Figures were late, we really shouldn't have gone to that bar with the guys I thought, We always got into hell when we went to these places but we were always the first ones here…
"Alright guys… We just received intel from the pentagon that a high ranking Al-Qaeda officer,  Al-Shaeber, is in the Hindu Kush valley" Sammy said, this was probably the 15th time we had a mission to go capture Al-Shaeber alive… It never worked, last second he would get spooked and change compounds the night before… He was like a f***ing ghost.
"The ghost of Afghanistan himself… What  should we expect?" I said, hoping to get a smirk or two from the guys to lighten the mood, we were all stressed about this because the pentagon had been pressuring us to capture this guy for months… but we had never caught him.
"Well, Since you asked… We expect a armed contingent to guard the compound just like last time..." Sammy said, and with that… and a few more minutes of briefing… we began to gear up and get to the plane
In Afghanistan… 4 hours later at 1845 EST or 2045 local Afghan time
"Alright, Everyone knows the drill… Get in…. Get Al-Shaeber… Fight our way out of the town if needed… and get the hell back to this plane" I whispered into the comms we used for close relay communications…
"Roger that sir" and "Aye Aye sir" began to fill the comms as everyone checked in to tell me they knew the plan.
"Eyes on the Compound, Appears to be 10 Armed Guards patrolling the area" Our sniper, Reaper, Called in.
"Alright Reaper, Just keep watching… Tell us if anything goes south" I said… Hoping that this wouldn't be like last time… hoping that we would actually get him this time… without casualties.
“Alright, start clearing the DT’s” I said, Referring to the houses around the compound that we had to search for weapons and Al-Qaeda fighters.
“Roger sir, I’ve got eyes on Al-Shaeber” Reaper said through the comms.
“Don’t you dare lose the f***er, keep your sights on him” I said, gritting my teeth… knowing that we were about to bag the man responsible for thousands of American lives lost to IED’s.
“Aye Aye, Sir… If I get a clear shot...” He asked, mostly for permission to kill Al-Shaeber for vengeance in case we couldn’t get him now or in case he ran.
“Don’t you dare” I interrupted him mid-sentence “We have orders to take him alive… Unless he is about to kill you... don’t shoot”
“Yes sir… Over and Out” Reaper said, this was the phase where he joined us to clear the main compound.
We began to stack just outside of the gates to enter the building, 4 on the right side and 8 on the left.
“3… 2…1” I signaled with my hands, when I signaled a one the blinding flash of a C4 explosive and the sound of an explosion erupted in the night, causing dogs nearby to start furiously barking.
We quickly rush into the main yard of the compound, and take down 4 guards silently… well except for the gurgle of blood from their throats… and enter the main building the same way we entered the yard area and quickly rushed the rest of the guards, coming to a small door with whimpering and a scream in Arabic, we quickly opened the door to Al-Shaeber standing with a gun to his head… he saw us, fear burning in his eyes…. Then the Boom of a gunshot rang through the compound… He had killed himself….
“He’s dead” I said to the ops room in the plane “He killed himself… F***ing Coward” I spat out of my mouth... we started to grab any technology or magazines or letters we saw, anything that could be of interest to the CIA and FBI was collected, for evidence against him and to (hopefully) find any IED’s he had planted before tonight.
A week later… A Family Reunion
1200
“I’m sorry” I said to my wife, we were standing in the kitchen… away from the Family Reunion that had been going on in our backyard… I had been talking to the other men of the family about war… It had been too “graphic for the kids” in my wifes words
“Sorry doesn’t cut it… You talked about literally decapitating an Insurgent!” She complained
Ding… Ding… Ding…
My phone lit up, she looked at my phone… We both knew that meant I had a mission… but I knew this would definitely tear us apart even more…
“Mission” It read “Urgent… Need you right now! Russian defector at risk!”
“I’ve got to go… like right now…” I plead…
“We’ll finish this later” She said
“I'm so sorry… Seriously” I said, Grabbing my coat and hugging my kids as I walked out the door.
30 minutes later… At Ops Room
1830
“Alright… We’ve got a Russian Defector that went missing About an hour ago when the plane they had been in flew through a Lightning Storm” Sammy said “He was with 2 CIA Operatives, He crashed right about here” She explained, pointing to a area on the map where Russia, Afghanistan, and China share a border in the northwest provinces of China “There is movement at the crash site as of yesterday, it appears to be the Scientist and his wife” she said
“Do they have any survival training?” I asked, knowing that the lives of the Defector and his wife would depend on it.
“The Scientist and Wife are avid hikers of that area on the russian side, The CIA operatives were trained through SERE, if they haven’t been caught yet they will surely be on the move from the crash site” She explained as everyone in the room let out a sigh of relief knowing we would be close to Afghanistan, and closer to familiar ground and troop support if s*** hit the fan.
“Awright” Rex said “how we gettin’ in” he said, knowing everyone else was going to want to parachute in… Rex always hated parachuting, mainly because he always jumped with our canine, Called Raptor, strapped to his stomach… and boy did Raptor hate jumping, he squirms all the way down… he’s not bit anyone… Yet.
“You’re jumping in onto the top of the valley where we expect the Crash to be just a few hundred feet away” Sammy explained.
“Well that's a helluva good time” Rex said, getting a few chuckles from the bored men.
“Well” I said, clapping, “Lets get to it… start getting your gear and double and triple checking parachutes… remember to check a neighbour over” I explained… This was going to get interesting, surely the chinese knew that a plane had crashed on the border… or close to it.
We go forward… to the plane over chinese territory… the men are about to jump
2035 pm
“Alright, let’s get ready to jump” I said, as the jump light turned from a dark red to a green…
“Go… Go… Go” I said as we began to do crazy flips and dives out of the plane into the night sky.
10 minutes later… our team is on the ground
2045 pm
We began to walk forward towards a ledge near the crash site, It was a calm night… except for the sound of planes and helicopters above us.
“Sir…” Reaper said into the comms, breaking the silence “we have a problem”
“What is it?” I asked
“Well the Russians are here… looks to be about 12 men… a small patrol like ours, they look like KGB” Reaper explained “they’re snooping around the crash site” He said…
Go forward 2 hours of walking… Our team has been in a game of leap frog with the russians to get to the scientist…
“Hello! We have a medic if you’re injured… we can help!” I yelled into the small cave where we tracked the scientist and his wife to.
“We are fine, we just need to get out of here!” the scientist explained “My wife has a sprained ankle though” he said
“Ok, we are going to get you to the border… safe…. I promise” I said
“Ok just… Just help my wife… I should’ve never got her into this mess” he cried at us.
Flash forward… The team is close to the afghan border
2245 pm
“We have enemy laser’s” I said, seeing the green-ish lasers through my night vision goggles.
“It's them damned russians, no doubt” Rex said as we began to get cover and get ready for a firefight.
Ratat….. Ratat…… Ratat Ratat Ratat…
“Alright, they aren’t friendly… Start firing” I said as we began to return volleys of gunfire.
“I’m hit” Reaper said “The bastards got me right in the chest” he explained, wincing with pain
“Someone go help him!” I said just as an explosion interrupted the silence of the night
“Reaper’s dead” I heard Rex say “that thermite grenade just hit him” he explained
1 week later… The team made it out, but not without casualties… Reapers casket lay closed in the center of the room
“Your father” I said to the small kids in front of me “Your father… He was a… He was a hero” I explained to them through tears streaking down my face
“He… He saved us… I'm alive because of your father… you should be proud” I said, trying not to break down at the loss of one of my close friends.
Reaper’s casket lay closed… Even facial reconstruction wasn’t enough to undo the scars and burns covering his body