Jessie would be the first of her team of six to jump. At twenty-five thousand feet into the air, she got into position. Her heart raced with exhilaration. Finally, it was time…one…two...three. Then suddenly, she was free-falling into the darkness. Every time she jumped it never ceased to amaze her how much it felt like floating or flying despite the high speed of 120 miles per hour. She felt invincible as she sliced through the darkness and maneuvered her body for optimal speed. At thirty seconds to impact, she begrudgingly pulled her shoot and glided to the top of the mountain. It had only taken two minutes for her to land onto the mountain after making the jump. The thrill of the jump was over way too soon. Seconds later, the other members of the team also landed.
In haste, Jessie and her team anchored their ropes, attached their rappelling devices, and threw their ropes over the side of the mountain. With clocklike precision they began the long descent down.
As soon as they were mere feet from the entrance, Jessie looked at Téa, her technology genius, and gave her the sign. Téa reached into her backpack, pulled out something that looked like a small remote control, and pushed the button. It created an electrical disturbance that would paralyze the militants from being able to use any technology during the time needed to get inside and take out the first set of guards.
They crashed through the cave’s entrance at the same time the electronic disturbance button was pushed. Although it was dark inside, their night vision devices made it seem as if they were in the presence of daylight. There were four men standing guard as the team entered, but the men were caught by surprise when Jessie threw two ninja stars, lodging the first into the throat of one guard and the second into the temple of another. Max followed suit, using precision-throwing knives to take out the other two. The guards immediately dropped to the ground. With guns drawn, Jessie and Max led Téa and Gray to the next area of interest while Jake and Tony verified the guards were dead. Once they had confirmation they caught up with the rest of the team.
Now that the entrance had been neutralized, the team progressed on to the more difficult part of their mission. They made their way down the corridor of the compound, continuing to move in silence. As they approached a fork in the corridor, they noticed that there were three guards standing on one side of a corridor and three guards standing on the other side of another. They had no idea as to which corridor would lead them to the leaders. Téa and Gray needed to strategically place explosives throughout the cave’s entrance and corridors. So, that left only Jessie and Jake to investigate one corridor and Max and Tony for the other. They would try to work in stealth, but it was highly likely someone would return fire, which would bring more guards as well as tip off the leaders and possibly prompt them to destroy any information regarding Amuruhana.
Once they turned the corner, Jessie used her Tec 9 to put a bullet into the skull of the first guard and then the second. And just as expected, the guards were initially unsuspecting but quickly recovered and returned fire. Max, Jake, and Tony then took out the four that remained. An alarm sounded as more guards descended upon them. Jessie and Jake headed down the corridor to the right while Max and Tony went down the corridor to the left. The exchange of gunfire was intense, but they each managed to take out the guards successfully. There were several rooms down each corridor and they investigated every single one. Finally, Jessie and Jake came to the last door on their side. There were no other options; the leaders had to be in there or on the other side. Jake kicked in the door and Jessie took the low position with Jake taking the top. Jackpot! All seven leaders were crouching down behind a long, wooden table. Jessie and Jake slowly entered the room. All of a sudden, one of the leaders pulled out a gun but wasn’t fast enough to fire off one shot. Jessie had put a bullet clean through his hand.
One of the men spoke in Arabic, “What do you want?”
Jessie responded in Arabic, “We want everything. First, tell me, has the Amuruhana been reconstituted?”
A security guard that had been left for dead was still very alive. He snuck up behind Jessie and put a gun to back of her head. He was simply too quick for Jake to stop.
In a thick accent he spoke to Jessie, “Drop the gun.”
Jessie dropped the gun and raised her arms to the height of her shoulders in a show of surrender.
“Now everyone stop what you’re doing and move to the center of the room or I’ll kill her.”
Jessie waited for the right moment. She knew he had to be wounded. When he started to speak again she moved her head out of the way of the gun and then elbowed him in the ribs. This allowed her the moment she needed to put space between the two of them and Jake the opportunity to shoot him between the eyes.
In the other corridor, Max and Tony terminated everyone on sight. Since they didn’t find the leaders of the militant group they must have been on the other side with Jessie and Jake.
They hustled back to the other side just as Jessie fired the final shot into the guard. Shortly thereafter, Téa and Gray arrived. Téa stepped over the guard and went directly inside the room where there were laptops and other electronic devices sitting on tables. She then attached her equipment to extract all available information from them as Max and Tony went to search the dead
