to the crest line. Jafari was prone, binoculars glued to his face. Even in the dim light, Molavi could see the private straining to pull detail out of the dark landscape. If anything was there.
The corporal eased in next to the private, trying to keep as low as possible. He reached over, and Jafari handed him the glasses without being asked. Molavi used them to scan the area, a stretch of ground turned by the moonlight into pale gray and dark gray shadows.
Patiently, he studied the construction road that paralleled the highway closely here. He looked for lines, shapes that seemed out of place. Nothing moved.
“Where?”
Jafari pointed to a patch of rocks to the left, some distance away. “I saw motion over there, near the dirt road. It looked like someone holding a rifle.”
There was nothing there now, and most likely there’d never been anything. But dismissing the private’s report would make him less likely to report the next time.
He handed the binoculars back to Jafari. “Keep watching. I’ll send Jebeli up to you. Call if you see more movement, or anything at all.” Backing away from the crest, Molavi kept low until he was well clear, then double- timed to the bottom, motioning to the other two privates.
They hurried over, and Molavi pulled them into a huddle. “Jafari’s seen movement on the other side of this rise. We’re going to investigate.” He pulled out three magazines from the pouches on his vest. He handed them to the privates, their eyes wide as saucers.
He handed one to Salani, and two to Jebeli. “Here’s one for Jafari as well as you. Go ahead and load, and for the sake of the Prophet, keep your selectors on ‘Safe! ‘“
Molavi’s weapon was already loaded. He watched them insert the magazines, then said carefully, “Salani and I will go around this rise on the left while Jafari and Jebeli cover us from above. Remember trigger discipline. Nobody shoots unless they see a person with a gun. Even if I shoot, you don’t shoot unless you have a clear target, and anybody who shoots me had better kill me, or they’ll wish they were dead. Clear?”
Both privates nodded nervously, and Molavi sent Jebeli up to join Jafari on the crest. “And for pity’s sake, stay low near the crest!”
The corporal blessed the good fortune of having not sent Salani up the hill. He was the only one of the three that had anything on the ball. “You and I will circle around this rise. We take turns moving in rushes while the other one watches from cover. Just like that weekend practice. All right?”
Jerry listened to Phillips’s report of movement on the crest, suddenly feeling exposed. There was little cover, and he’d known better than to look for some when Ramey had told them to freeze.
Jerry knew which misshapen shadow was Phillips. Like Jerry, he was also on one knee, but probably was looking through his night-vision scope. Jerry had frozen in place with his rifle lowered, and dared not move now to raise it. Phillips had also managed to stop near a scrubby-looking bush. Combined with his camouflage, he was nearly invisible from Jerry’s position ten yards away. The ridge was much farther ahead, sixty or more yards.
“More movement, the same location.” Jerry studied the crest line carefully. There might be something near the top of the crest, but he couldn’t see it. He divided his time between watching the suspicious location and making sure Yousef and Shirin didn’t move.
Phillips was in front, with Lapointe nearest the highway, and Fazel on the left. Ramey was in the rear, and probably itching to move up. Fazel and Lapointe reported their sectors as clear, and Ramey told them to all hold in position. “XO, keep our friends very still.”
Jerry told Shirin about the sighting, and Ramey’s instructions. He could hear her relaying them to Yousef, who replied softly. Jerry could see Yousef’s right hand resting on his pistol.
How long would the SEALs stay like this? Motionless. Exposed. What were they waiting for?
“More movement. A second man just joined the first.” Jerry thought he saw them now, or imagined that he saw their location. And he understood. Ramey was waiting for whoever else was on the far side of the rise.
“I see a rifle barrel, now two.” Not civilians, then. Jerry’s urge to find cover was almost uncontrollable. Whoever was up there had clear shots at all of them. Did they have night-vision gear?
Phillips’s latest report seemed to make up Ramey’s mind. “Harry, shift to Philly’s targets. Philly, cover to the left. Pointy, cover the right.”
As the sniper, Fazel’s scope was more powerful, and his SCAR Heavy rifle had a longer barrel and a bigger round for better accuracy and greater range. The ground also rose on the left side of the construction road, which gave him more height. His reply came in seconds. “I have them. Two men prone, one with binoculars. Confirm rifles. It’s not a great angle, but I have a shot on both.”
“Understood. Wait.”
Jerry wished Ramey had given him a target. It wasn’t that he felt left out, but with nothing to concentrate on, his mind raced. Without moving, he tried to look for cover. There was precious little, just shallow depressions that didn’t offer protection from above. If the men on the crest started shooting, where would he go? What about Yousef and Shirin? He was sure that Yousef would shield his wife and unborn child with his body.
“Movement on the right.” Lapointe’s report was so quick, Jerry almost missed it, but this time he could see what Lapointe was warning them about. A shape appeared on the right of the crest’s slope, near the ground. Ramey’s instruction came immediately. “Wait. Hold. XO, do not fire. Tell our friends to stay still.”
As Shirin translated the lieutenant’s order, a second shape that could only be a man running came into the open and dove down behind a fold in the ground. After a moment the first shape left its hiding place and sprinted, falling behind a piece of low brush.
“I see them,” Ramey said, almost casually. “Wait.”
Yousef weighed their chances. They and the Americans were exposed, and if the others had indeed put two men on the hill, then Shirin, he, and the Americans were in a lethal crossfire. He didn’t think much of their chances.
It was five against four, but the Americans’ senior officer was inexperienced. The others had cover, and were on guard. They were still, what? Forty, fifty meters away? When the SEALs opened fire, the others would reply. There would be a gun battle. He and Shirin were not directly in the line of fire, but he knew how far and how wide stray rounds could go.
They would need his weapon after one or two of the Americans went down. He resolved to draw it the instant Shirin was flat on the ground. He would hold his fire until the others advanced. They would not see him until he fired, as they came into range of his pistol.
Jerry listened to his headset. Were there more coming? He was sure now that they didn’t have night-vision gear, or they’d already be shooting. Jerry wondered how close they’d have to get before they’d see him.
“Philly, keep watching your side. Harry, are you good?” asked Ramey.
“Yes for both.”
“XO, on my mark, drop flat and freeze.”
“Understood.” Jerry softly passed Ramey’s order to Shirin, who relayed it to her husband.
“XO, drop. Open fire!” Ramey commanded.
Yousef heard the American’s call. As he helped Shirin to lay flat, a flurry of single shots erupted from the Americans’ weapons. Each SEAL popped off two rounds at their respective targets, then stopped just as suddenly as they began. He saw the two men on the right fall. One fired a burst, the muzzle flash almost blindingly bright, but the shots were wild, into the air. As Yousef protected Shirin with his body, he waited for the soldiers on the crest to return fire. Instead, he heard the Americans calling to one another.
The SEALs then charged forward. In moments, they were at the fallen Iranian soldiers’s positions in the ravine and on the dune crest. In the next moment, two of the SEALs were around the rise, gone from view. The other two at the top of the rise fell prone, facing south.
Yousef waited, but there were no shots. Was that it? He’d never been in combat, and was relieved the shooting was over, but shocked at the ease with which the Americans had prevailed. No gun battle, not much return fire from the others at all, just a single random burst from one man, dying as he fell. Yousef still thought they were undisciplined, and he didn’t know if the Americans could get them out of the country, but by Allah they were good shots.
Telling Shirin to stay down, he rose to his knees and then stood, ignoring Jerry’s calls behind him. Walking quickly to the two soldiers he’d seen fall, he bent down and checked. Both were dead.
