“We can’t keep wandering around out here like a bunch of pop-up targets on a rifle range.” Ryan looked at him, his dark eyes intent. “If my team does something crazy to get their attention, do you think you can slip your team over the wall and inside the compound? We have to deal with those machine gun nests by the entrance, or we’re never going to get in there.”
Tanner nodded. He’d known it would come down to this at some point. He looked around at his three guys and the handful of Afghan Nationals they were supposed to be assisting. None of them—especially the Afghanis—seemed thrilled about taking the lead on this assault, not when they were so obviously outgunned for this kind of operation.
This mission had been billed as a simple bag-and-grab of a regional Taliban warlord propped up by little more than a handful of poorly equipped rebels. But within minutes of assaulting the man’s compound, it had become apparent that the Afghan intel had been wrong. If Tanner had to guess, he’d say there were easily more than two hundred Taliban fighters in there, armed with AK rifles, light and heavy machine guns, RPGs, and what seemed to be an unlimited amount of ammo. They sure as hell weren’t demoralized or discouraged.
With two very skittish platoons of Afghan Nationals and a single platoon of Rangers short on some key personnel—like their squad leader—they simply didn’t have the numbers for a fight like this. Worse, now that the United States had turned over most of the responsibilities for conducting military ops like this to the Afghanis, the coordination for this mission had been one huge clusterfuck. They had no dedicated air or artillery support, communications with the battalion were spotty at best, and scariest of all, they had limited medevac assets available in the event things went bad.
And they were definitely going bad.
Tanner hadn’t exactly been able to take time for a head count, but he was fairly sure his platoon had already lost more men tonight than they had in their last two deployments. It was going to get worse before it got better. But falling back wasn’t an option. The Taliban fighters would be on them like rabid dogs if they tried that. No, the only thing they could do was press the attack and try to end this quickly.
“We can get in,” Tanner told Ryan. “But you’d better be there to cover our asses ASAP. If you aren’t, my team won’t last five minutes inside those walls on our own.”
“We’ll get through to you, I swear,” Ryan said.
Tanner didn’t doubt that. He and Ryan had grown up in the Seattle area, and even though they’d never met before going through Ranger Assessment together, that hometown connection had led to an immediate bond. When they’d both been assigned to the 2nd Ranger Battalion at Lewis-McChord, it seemed like fate had taken a hand. Through three tours in Iraq and now their second stint in Afghanistan, he and Ryan had watched each other’s backs through more shit than he cared to think about. They’d each taken a bullet meant for the other and seen more death and destruction than any human should ever have to face. They’d helped each other survive impossible odds and kept the other Rangers in their rifle squad alive at the same time.
Tanner couldn’t help feeling all that was about to change. He was tempted to chalk up such dismal thoughts to this insane mission. They were out here in combat when everyone back home thought the fighting was over. But he knew it was more than that. It was tough putting into words the reason he was so sure, but something told him their luck had finally run out.
Judging from the expressions on the faces of his fellow soldiers, they all sensed it, too.
“Watch yourself out there,” he warned them softly. “This could get ugly.”
These men were closer to Tanner than his own family. The thought of any of them getting killed filled him with dread. But Chad, Vas, Danny, and the others simply nodded, resigned to what they were about to do.
Ryan clasped Tanner’s shoulder, his face earnest. “We’ve had a good run, brother. Better than we had any right to. It’s not like we can keep tweaking the devil’s nose forever. Sooner or later, we all have to pay the price.”
Tanner’s mouth edged up. “If it’s a matter of sooner or later, I vote for later.”
Before Ryan could say anything else, Tanner was up and motioning for his men to follow as he led them toward the other side of the compound. One of the Afghanis with them called out their position softly into his radio, trying to let the rest of their forces know what the hell they were up to so they wouldn’t get whacked by friendly fire. But as poorly as their communications system was working lately, Tanner had no idea if anyone out there even heard the man.
They moved fast, only shooting when absolutely necessary so they wouldn’t draw attention to themselves. Ryan and his team had already started laying down heavy fire on the Taliban at the front gate, giving them the distraction they needed. Less than a minute later, Tanner and his team were at the rear of the compound, hiding out in the shadows.
“They’re going to be on us the moment we go over this wall,” he whispered. “We can’t stop, and we can’t slow down, no matter how bad it gets. We have to make it to the gate and take out those two heavy-duty machine guns. If we don’t, the rest of our guys are going to get wiped out when they charge the gate. Understood?”
Everyone nodded. They all knew how bad this was going to be, but they were going to do it anyway. Tanner felt his chest swell at that moment. Damn, these were some good men.
Tanner felt more than heard the uptick
