A close one lets out a blood-curdling screech and both men know it is directed at them, as well as to tell its kin that fresh prey is close!
“Retreat?” Tyrone asks urgently.
“Definitely,” Jason replies.
Chapter 12
From what I’ve seen on the screens, Military Command’s and Colonel Reed’s Operation Denial isn’t going to plan. It’s going to shit and quickly, Andy thinks to himself. Granted, that was only one Squad in a small area of the city, but they were swamped and overrun before they had travelled even two klicks into the city, the poor buggers.
The Apache ran out of ammo, became a lame duck and had to return to base. It hardly made a dent in the enemy, there were simply too many Rabids and they stayed spread out, not giving the Apache a decent target to get its teeth into. But as soon as the Apache flew off, the Rabids massed, attacking the Warrior, throwing themselves into its tracks and swarming all over it until it stopped moving and was disabled, the whole sorry episode just going desperately downhill from there.
Andy has the monitors turned off, the team needs to prepare now, without distraction, for their mission—and with less than three hours to go, there is a lot that needs to be done.
Lieutenant Winters is proving invaluable in aiding their preparations, his organisational skills astounding. Problems arise and he fixes them. He seems to know who to contact, where to go and how to overcome almost any situation or issue that arises and when they hit a wall, he will traverse that wall or offer an effective alternative.
The safe issue, for example… Sergeant Dixon briefed him, and he immediately contacted the SecLock head office, his phone call coming out of the blue at the company. Within around five minutes, he had talked his way up to be speaking to the Commercial Director of the company and demanded that they provide the information Sergeant Dixon needed for the safe as a matter of national security. Here he hit a wall; the Commercial Director point-blank refused to furnish him with the information. The Lieutenant didn’t lose his temper or make any threats, he simply thanked the gentleman and put the phone down. He then got his mobile phone out, looked through his contacts put the phone to his ear, and he was then, we found out after the call, speaking to the Deputy Director General of MI5, the second-in-command of the Security Service. Within a few minutes of that call ending, the Commercial Director of SecLock had phoned him back, apologised profusely and emailed over all the information the company had for Sir Malcolm’s safe, the information that Sergeant Dixon is now poring over.
We frankly stood watching the Lieutenant in awe as he did his work and when it was done, Lieutenant Winters didn’t grandstand or look for plaudits, he simply moved onto the next task at hand. None of us was left in any doubt why Colonel Reed kept him as his assistant and we’re grateful he has been loaned to us for this mission.
“Okay, Boss, what’s next?” Dan asks.
“What’s the time now?”
“1135 hours,” he tells me.
“Okay, that’s twenty-five minutes until the helicopters are due to land here; how’s the equipment coming?” I ask him.
“All but ready to load. It’ll be done by the time they get here,” Dan tells me as we both look over to Josh and Alice, who are doing the last-minute prep on it.
“Well, I think this mission plan is as good as it’s going to get,” I say, standing up from the table. “The first thing we will do when the helicopters arrive is get the pilots in here so we can brief everybody on the plan before we load up. I am going to talk to Josh and Alice now, and I don’t want any protests or distractions while the briefing is underway.”
“Agreed, I’ll get them into the office. It’s tight but we should all fit in, just about,” Dan says.
“Okay, let me get seated first.”
“Of course, Boss, go and get yourself comfy,” he says, smiling, and I roll my eyes.
Things are moving on, I think to myself as I go to the office, the two Lynx helicopters that Lieutenant Winter has arranged and that we will fly in on will be here in no time, and then the countdown will really start to wind up.
I squeeze around the desk and sit down into the chair, and as soon as I do, I see Dan approach with Josh and Alice.
The two younger members of the Team stand to attention at the not so far end of the room and Dan stands to the side of the desk with his back to me, looking at them, waiting for me to start.
“At ease,” I tell them before I start and they both relax, their hands going behind their backs; their faces do give away their nerves, however. “Dan and I have completed the mission plan and I wanted to talk to you two before the main briefing so you are clear what you will be doing to help the mission to a successful conclusion, okay?”
“Yes Sir,” they both reply.
“Each of you will be assigned to one of the Lynx and your tasks will be to provide air cover while the rest of the team are on the ground, is that clear?” I tell them.
“Yes Sir,” they both say, less enthusiastically.
“We don’t know what we are going find when we get down, so your job is going to be vital to the mission. You are going to have our backs and I know you are both up to the task; any questions?”
“If I may, Sir?” Josh says.
“Carry on, Josh.”
“Wouldn’t we be more useful on the ground with the team? Like you said, we don’t know what we are going to find and surely as many boots on the ground as possible would be an advantage… and I know
