Person of Interest

While we were clearing the blood, bullet, and shrapnel ridden bodies of the mindless drones who tried to fight us, with Flash biting and dragging dead bodies to the woods by the arm, and O’Hara tampering with his radio pack, we hear the flooding sound of old, beat-up troop transport trucks, getting louder and louder, which meant that they were getting closer.

“Hurry up and move out, we can’t stay here.” O’Hara ordered.

“Flash, hurry” I command. Flash responds with a bark and starts running around.

By the time we got the last body hidden from view, we booked it out of there, and onto the path of the enemy base. Flash follows quietly behind as we eventually get to a hill, and hit the deck as we reached the top. I pulled my magnifying scope to the EOtech sight on my rifle. There it was, the poorly made, tall and wide stone structure, with a makeshift, well-supported drawbridge, and wooden posts for security placed all round the base. Insurgents running around all over the place like ants on an anthill, with AK47s and RPGs...all in a uniform i’ve never seen before, a mixture of Woodland Prestige with some red...and, gray, with a little black. Thier boots, Vietnam-era, black jungle boots. I dont want to think of them as US property...but I have to assume that they are.

“Azimuth, Azimuth, this is Linebacker 1. Arrived at IP Alpha and ready to relay recon upon your word.” O’Hara said into the radio.

Five seconds went by until they got back to us.

“Linebacker 1, Azimuth, solid copy. Be ready to receive ordnance for supplies on tack, we have new orders regarding a priority Nexus POW mission element, standby for mission directive, copy.”

“Solid copy” O’Hara finished.

“What is this s**t? we’re supposed to do recon and now we’re going on a POW rescue? leave that to team Two for christs sake.” I interjected.

“Maybe Two hasn’t landed yet. Either which way, Azimuth is calling the shots, and we’re the guinea pigs.” O’Hara replied.

Flash whimpered a little bit, in need for some attention. I happily replied to his request with a belly rub. He seemed to be in heaven, with a big smile coursing his face, and his tongue fully extended outward.

“Linebacker 1, Azimuth, New mission directive has been received, standby.” Azimuth called.

we waited for about another minute, a very long, very boring minute.

“Linebacker 1, your mission directive is to extract a High Value Individual currently being held prisoner inside the cell block, the only cell block, on the bottom floor of the structure. Challenge is Phoenix, Countersign is Spirit, copy?”

What the f**k?

“Solid copy, Azimuth. Requesting additional information.” O’Hara asked.

“Granted, One. Your targets name is Father Samuel Kingston, an extremely valuable individual who holds religious sessions for personnel on the ship to partake in. He was taken from his hotel room in Germany, and was supposed to fly to us on a separate plane the day he was taken. Extract him from the building and mark the Extraction Zone with IR smoke. Hueys on site in 5 minutes from smoke pop.” Azimuth added.

“Roger that, Azimuth, Linebacker One is Oscar Mike.” O’Hara finished.

“Linebacker One, are you in need of additional ground support?” Azimuth advised.

“Negative, Azimuth. Too many men on the ground will draw attention.” O’Hara answered.

“Roger that, Linebacker One. Your mission remains unchanged. Gather any evidence you can and call in for Exfil when you are ready, Ospreys on site 7 minutes from signal, Copy?”

“Solid copy, Azimuth. Out.” O’Hara finished.

“Father Sam? what would they want to do with him?” I question, scanning my rifle left and right of the base. Troop trucks were coming in, full of boxes that said ‘AID’ on the sides. US property, im sure.

“I think they know thats hes important to us. Either which way, we have to get him back. We need to devise a plan of entry before we can move.” O’Hara said.

“You know, if you pull this off, you may be promoted to Lieutenant.” I advise.

“Im sure...lets just get on with this.” O’Hara finishes.

I stow my rifle to the side, safety locked, and I break out my X-22 binoculars, a newer addition to the US Military, with a HUD screen that indicated distance, red squares over hostile signatures, compass, and battery life, which never died. I see, like, a million of small red squares in the front of the base, but none in the back.

“Security is tight in the front. nobody getting in or out without being noticed.” O’Hara noted.

“10 foot stone walls encircling the perimeter, looks well-supported.” I advise.

“Snipers on the roof.”

“Attack dogs.”

“RPG’s in the towers.”

“Theres a small crack in the side of the building, we can blow it open with small explosives.” I advise

“right, but how are we gonna do that without them hearing it?” O’Hara questioned.

I looked back to see where Flash was, who was nearby a tree, taking a leak. When you gotta go, you gotta go.

we looked at the structure for almost 10 minutes, when we finally come up with a plan.

“Okay, here’s how we’ll play this out.” I announce.

“Okay, im listening.” O’Hara replies, sounding interested.

I look over and point toward an area of parked transport trucks, getting O’Hara to look at them as well.

“See those parked trucks over there? We can set up explosives on them to cover the other set blowing off some of the wall. we would have to split up though, for a minute or two. We can use the grappling hooks to get over the wall and make our way inside once we regroup. we set off the truck explosives first, immediately following that we set off the wall charges, get Father Sam, and get him on the helicopter back to Azimuth. The security rotations are every 5 minutes, which means we have 5 minutes to get to the trucks and set the charges on the trucks, and get out without being seen. I’ll get over the wall with Flash, you make your way around and plant the charges on the trucks. Ill get to an elevated position and watch over you to tell you when to move, pause and move in increments on my go.”

O’Hara nods in agreement, with a smile. “Okay, when am I going?” he asks.

“Wait ‘till i get elevated, then ill tell ya when to move.” I reply.

“Okay, ill hang here then.”

I lift myself up from prone and to a kneel, looking for Flash, who was no longer taking a leak. “Great. Flash, come!” I order.

I hear Flash bark in reply, as he’s skipping and prancing his way to me as we make way to a nearby hill, higher than where we previously were, which was rather high. I look at Flash while i’m practically jumping my way up the hill, he seemed very, very happy...like he was this whole time.

“What’d you do, find a mate?”

he barks twice. not sure if thats a yes or a no...i hope to god it was a no, we don’t need a baby Flash...yet. Past a few trees and over a few boulders, we finally make it to the top of the hill, where looking down upon the enemy base made the enemy personnel look like ants.

“Lay down”

Flash bounced and flipped to his side and wiggled around in the grass like a fish out of water. eventually he sat still, i’m seriously wondering if he got to my energy drink. I also come to a prone position and whip out my binoculars.

“Alright, Lieutenant, you’re good to go” I confirm.

“Don’t use your binos, load up a sniper rifle, in case we need to kill someone.” O’Hara whispers into his radio as he’s running to take cover behind a rock.

“Roger that, stand by.” I confirm as i stow my binoculars.

I set my rifle to the side and load up my trusty sniper rifle, an M40A3, acquired from the depths of my recon pack, which is big enough to hold two machine guns and a months worth of MREs and ammo. In other words, f****n huge. I deploy the bipod, adjust the buttstock and cheekrest, tighten the suppressor, and activate the hybrid scope, giving off a soft glow before looking into it, and gripped the trigger handle, and placed my finger on the safety.

“Rifle is loaded, Lieutenant. You’re covered.” I advise.

“Roger, moving.” O’Hara confirms.

Looking through the hybrid scope on my M40, the enemy personnel are bathed in a yellow and red hue, with O’Hara blinking from an IR strobe, to indicate he was friendly. O’Hara moves from the boulder to a nearby tree, and stops.

“Contact front, enemy personnel dead ahead. can you take him?” O’Hara warns.

I look around for a little bit, O’Haras target was extremely overexposed, we needed a distraction.

“Negative, no shot. target is overexposed. Im going to shoot out a window on one of the trucks back there, standby.” I confirm.

O’Haras target was getting closer to him, but really doesn’t know he’s there. I place my electronic crosshairs a little above a truck window, to compensate for bullet drop. no wind to account for. I take off the safety and softly place my finger on the trigger, slowly squeezing it to fire.

“Hurry up, man. This guy is literally right in front of the tree.” O’Hara warns.

Out of the instinct to hurry, I pull the trigger, and a bullet went clean through the suppressor with a “pss” sound as it traveled to its target. I heard the glass break a second of two after it landed, which got the attention of literally everyone. O’Hara saw his target was distracted, and disposed of him by covering his mouth, inserting a knife into his neck, and dragging him to a hidden place. I unlock and pull the bolt to load a new round into the chamber into the M40.

“Patrols are rotating in 5 seconds” I advise.

“Copy.” O’Hara confirms.

for the next 5 seconds we sat there and observed the patrols in their rotation schedule, guards walking out of the building in numbers ranging from 10 to 13 and switching places with the guards that were there.

“...mark.” I announce.

at that moment, the guards that were there first began to peel off, with the second group taking their place immediately after.

“5 minutes, on the clock, Lieutenant.” I advise.

“Roger, moving.” O’Hara confirms.

I scanned the area around O’Hara to see a few guys moving towards the guard post. Right when O’Hara jumps to plant the charges, I see the guys talking to the guards about something going on at the truck lot, as they pointed and looked in that direction. The guard got out of his post with the other guys, all with AKs in their hands, and walking over toward the truck lot. about 3 minutes into O’Hara rigging the charges, the guard had assembled a squad of lke, 7 guys to walk over toward the trucks and check to see what was going on. 5 regular gunmen, and 2 machine gunners. A sniper and a guy with an RPG, both positioned on the roof of the base, was looking in that direction as well.

O’Hara better do something, quick.

Author's Note

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