“We believe so,” Hunter said. He clicked his laptop and a video appeared on the big screen at the front of the room. It was footage from a thermal camera, taken from an aircraft. A pair of SUVs could be seen rolling into a compound. Eight people got out after they stopped.
“This is Adar’s place in the village of Umm Bab. It’s about fifty kilometers southwest of here. This video was taken fourteen hours ago.”
“Wait, what’s that?” Tailor said, pointing at the screen. Hunter replayed the segment of the video. It appeared that one of the people was being dragged into the house, struggling.
“We don’t know,” Hunter said bluntly. “Our boy has an ugly reputation. That individual could likely be his next victim. That’s not our problem.”
“Where did we get this video?” I asked. “Do we have a drone out there?”
“Yes,” Sarah said from the back of the room. “Our, um, support network was able to acquire several UAVs for us.”
“We’ve had UAVs watching Adar’s compound since Gordon came and talked to you boys,” Hunter said. “Nothing’s come up until today. No one has left the compound since this was filmed. You’ll be rolling out shortly. Gordon wanted to move sooner, but I told him I wasn’t going to try this in broad daylight. You’ll have the cover of darkness at least.”
“Wait, how do we know that Adar’s there, then?” I asked. “Did someone on the ground ID him? Are we just going by this footage?”
Hunter and Sarah exchanged a glance. Hunter then came around the table and leaned against it. He looked tired. “Yes,” he said flatly. “Look, boys, I’m not any happier about this than you are. Frankly, I think this whole mission is bullshit. I told Gordon I don’t want my men risking their lives on his pet projects when we’re running with a skeleton crew to begin with. I was overruled on this one.”
“Is there any way we can get more guys, Colonel?” Tailor asked.
“No, Mr. Tailor, there isn’t,” Hunter replied.
“So how are we going to get there?”
“A truck will be waiting for you by the gate,” Hunter said. “First you’ll need to go to supply. Get your gear and draw your weapons before you get on that truck.”
“Wait, we’re going to just drive there?” Tailor asked incredulously.
“Don’t worry about it, Mr. Tailor,” Hunter said dismissively. “Your transportation needs will be taken care of. The organization that has oversight of our little mission has a few assets. Everything else you need to know is in your packets, including aerial photos of the target compound. You’ll need to plan your operation while en route.”
“What? Colonel,” I began.
Hunter cut me off. “This is not a democracy, Mr. Valentine!” he barked. “Now get your ass to supply and get kitted up! Move out!” Tailor and I looked at each other, and stood up. Sarah gave me a worried glance as we left the classroom.
VALENTINE
Confederated Gulf Emirate of Zubara
April 15
2045
“Control, Nightcrawler, radio check,” I said, squeezing the transmit button on my headset.
“Read you loud and clear, Nightcrawler,” Sarah replied, all business.
“Alright, let’s go over this one more time,” Tailor said, concentrating on one of the aerial pictures of Adar’s compound. We were in the back of a large, windowless van driven by Hunter’s man, Conrad. He ignored us as we talked. The interior of the van was lit by a red light. “We’ll use the assault ladder to hop the wall here,” he said, pointing a gloved finger at a spot on the picture.
“Right,” I said. “We’ll come down behind the shed, here, and stash the ladder there.”
“We then move across the compound to the back door, here,” Tailor continued.
“Then we enter and clear. As if it’s going to be that simple.”
“It is that simple. Doing that without getting killed is the hard part.”
I leaned in close to Tailor so that Conrad couldn’t hear me. “This whole thing is screwed up, dude. We’re going to clear a house that we know has eight people in it, with just the two of us. We don’t know the interior layout. We don’t know their security measures. All we know is that one or two guys patrol the yard every half hour or so.”
“What I want to know is how we’re supposed to get close to the place by just driving up to it,” Tailor said. He had a point. The compound was in the middle of the village of Umm Bab. “Too much risk of being seen. Small town like that won’t have much traffic at night.”
“Well, why don’t we ask him, then?” I suggested, nodding my head toward our driver.
“What the hell, why not?” Tailor agreed. “Hey, buddy?” he said, moving to the front of the van and tapping the driver on the shoulder.
“What is it?” Conrad said, seemingly irritated that we were talking to him.
“How the fuck do you intend to get us to that compound without getting our asses shot off?”
“Yeah,” I said, chiming in, “what are we going to do, just drive up to the front gate and hop over it with this gay little ladder they gave us?”
Conrad was visibly annoyed now. “I’m not driving you to the target,” he answered curtly. “I don’t even know where it is. I don’t know what your objective is. I had no idea it was a ‘compound’ until you two idiots told me. I’m just dropping you off at a predetermined location. Someone else is taking it from there.”
“Wait, what?” I asked. “Where are we going from there?”
Conrad sighed. “Again, guys, I don’t know. I don’t need to know. I’m just the driver, okay?” He spoke to us like an elementary school teacher lecturing his class. “Maybe you two should just concentrate on whatever it is you’re doing back there and let me drive.”
“Listen, asshole,” Tailor said, his eyes narrowing. Before he could say anything else I put my hand on his shoulder and shook my head. He plopped back down to his seat, flipping Conrad the bird as he did so. “Pissed me off,” Tailor muttered as he picked up his packet again.
I leaned back against the wall, rubbing my eyes. We’d been driving for over an hour, and I had no idea where we were. They hadn’t issued us much in the way of equipment, either. We were each given a set of fatigues, in the blotchy A-TACS pattern, and body-armor vests. We wore night-vision goggles up on our heads. The goggles themselves were state of the art and were lighter than any kind I’d used before.
Another piece of equipment I’d never used before was the strange weapon in my hands. “What the hell is this thing?” Tailor asked, as if he’d read my mind. We’d each been issued a weird, boxy little .45-caliber submachine gun with a folding stock and a fat suppressor on the end.
“It’s a KRISS Vector,” I said after a moment. “I read about these in a gun rag. They came out a few years ago.” Each of our weapons was painted to match our fatigues and was topped with a holographic sight.
We carried the rest of our gear in pouches on our vests. Tailor had been issued some kind of tactical PDA with a GPS locator built into it. It had the coordinates preprogrammed, as well as a bunch of mission-specific information. I wondered why in the hell they didn’t just give us that in the first place instead of bothering to print out the mission packets. My .44 was on my left thigh. I had a feeling I was going to need some luck tonight.
After a seemingly endless drive, the van rolled to a stop. “We’re here,” Conrad said, looking at us in his rearview mirror. “This is where you two get off. Leave your mission packets in the van.” Tailor opened the back doors and climbed out.
“Where are we?” I asked, stepping out after him, slinging the folded assault ladder over my shoulder. The van had pulled off to the side of a long dirt road that cut through the desert. Far off in the distance, I could see the amber glow of Zubara City. The moon wasn’t out yet, and the stars were bright overhead.