Project Reaper

by M. W. Fletcher

  The Prime minister sat down and said, “Gentlemen please be seated.”

  The six other members of Everest sat down around a table.

  Strayker operated a switch on his desktop console, a screen came down and the room lights dimmed.

  The image of a man’s face appeared on the screen, Strayker addressed the group, “this is Toledo Verdugo, the man identified by your man Pierce at the Hacienda where he was being held.”

  “I believe you have some Intel on him Pierce?”

  Pierce Evans stood up, “yes; Six have quite a bit on our man Verdugo.”

  He passed around six manila sealed folders marked highly classified, eyes-only.

  Each of the Everest group broke the seal and opened the folders; inside contained a grainy photo of Verdugo and detailed background information about him.

  Pierce spoke, “I would like to give you a summary on this man,” he paused then began.

  “Toledo Verdugo born in nineteen forty-nine he was now thirty-nine years of age. He started off as a thief on the streets and began building his drugs empire in the nineteen seventies.

  His drugs empire controls the drugs entering America, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Peru, and Bolivia also into Asia and is considered the biggest drugs lord in Bolivia. He is the prime suspect behind many killings of government ministers and newspaper reporters

  who have written against him.” Pierce paused for a moment ant then continued.

  “He is five foot three inches, his lifestyle had made him into a portly man, and he is a lifelong sports fan having built many little league baseball stadiums around Bucaramanga. His wife is fifteen years his junior and he has two young sons, make no mistake; this man is very dangerous,” With that Pierce sat down.

  Jonathan troy was next to give his briefing, “Ma’am, gentlemen; following our investigation into the bombing of Pan Am 107A we are now positive the man behind it was Verdugo.”

  The Prime Minister interrupted, “Jonathan are you absolutely one hundred per cent certain on this?”

  “Yes Ma’am, no doubt about it,” he replied.

  The Prime Minister looked over at Strayker, “what news have you on the intended incursion to rescue Professor Hooke?”

  “We will have most of the Intel collated by late this afternoon Ma’am; we will just need a final update from Pierce on the situation at Verdugo’s place.”

  The Prime Minster moved her gaze the Pierce, “how soon will that Intel be available Pierce?”

  “Six are receiving an update from our two agents on site at eleven hundred hours our time this morning, I’ll

  ensure Strayker has the Intel them Ma’am.”

  Strayker spoke, “with that final Intel we should be good to go in forty-eight hours.”

  The Prime Minster stood up and spoke, “now it has been established that this man Verdugo was responsible for the bombing of Pan Am 107A we have to take him out; are there any objections to this course of action?”

  All six men looked around the room at each other and nodded their agreement.

  The Prime Minister addressed the three heads of the armed forces, “gentlemen can you provide your update on the resources the OSC will need to complete their mission in Bucaramanga Colombia?”

  Sir Richard Davis head of the army stood up, “speaking on behalf of my two colleagues here I can report as follows. We have spoken to the President of Venezuela who has agreed to allow HMS Ark Royal to enter Lago de Maracaibo in Venezuela, he has been told that we wish to carry out some training and has been invited aboard as a guest for a slap up meal.

  She should be there in thirty-six hours, and we have also agreed with him access to La Chinita International Airport, this is where the OSC teams will fly into, they

  will be picked up by a Sea King helicopter from the Ark Royal and transported to the ship.” Sir Richard paused

  for a few moments before continuing, “The Ark Royal will provide the platform for this operation, the OSC will have everything they need from helicopter support to additional troops from the on board Royal Marine attachment and Sea Harrier FRs-1’s,” Sir Richard sat back down.

  The Prime minister picked up the nearby phone and spoke softly into it, a few second later the door opened and a man entered with a tray of drinks, which he placed besides the occupants around the table and then left the room.

  “Well gentlemen I believe that concludes our meeting, I would like to wish you all a happy new year, however I have no doubt it will be a busy one for you all,” she raised her glass of whiskey and toasted them, “to a successful mission.”

  The six men responded in accord, “to a successful mission.”

  Shell bay Sri Lanka

  Lat = 8 degrees, 32.2 minutes North

  Long = 81 degrees, 17.9 minutes East

  Sunday 1st January 1989

  Zero-Three eighteen hour’s local time.

  Five hours and thirty minutes ahead of GMT

  Schematics of Ajaz Ahmed’s home

  The skies were covered with intermittent clouds partially covering a half-moon; it was raining with an eleven mile per hour wind blowing from the North-northwest to South-southeast direction, with a temperature of seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit, humidity was sixty-three percent.

  The OSC teams in their two rigid inflatables could just hear the faint sound of the receding Hercules C-190 as they paddled towards Mutur two miles ahead of them.

  The distance took twenty-five minutes to cover, bringing them into the Bay of Bengal and then into one of the tributaries for Mutur town

  Max had been navigating and was now checking his bearings against his map, he pointed to his right and both inflatables paddled into the first tributary from the main one; five minutes later they arrived at the edge

  of the shoreline with a cluster of trees, ten yards inland.

  The rigid inflatables were dragged up the shoreline into the cluster of trees and all equipment was removed, camouflage netting was used to cover the inflatables.

  Max spoke into the Comms piece, “Comms check sound off.”

  Each man spoke into his Comms piece completing the check.

  The OSC had their own unique assault camouflage uniform consisting of three colour’s; the base colour was a dark slate grey inter spaced with a lighter grey known as sea storm and a light blue known as blue chalk creating a disruption pattern.

  Covering their torsos was the Personal Armour System for Ground Troops, PASGT, and Pronounced pass-get.

  This also included a combat helmet, with an integrated communications system.

  Their choice of weapon was the Heckler and Koch MP-5 submachine gun with a detachable aluminum sound suppressor, with a curved capacity magazine, containing thirty; nine millimeter cartridges.

  Their side arms were the nine-millimeter compact Glock-19 with a fifteen round magazine and the advanced combat knife with a seven-inch blade with a half serrated cutting edge finished in black.

  A voice came over the Comms system, “Max this is GAIL how are you reading me?”

  Max replied “Five by Five GAIL.”

  “I have you on Satellite Max; coverage will last for the

  next twenty-nine minutes.”

  At an altitude of twenty-two thousand and two-hundred and eighty two miles above the earth was the geostationary military satellite Skynet 4B, inclined at Fifty-five degrees to the equator and weighing in at three thousand eight hundred pounds with a wing span of eighty two feet.

  Geostationary satellites travel relatively slowly typically travelling at about 6000 mph in a geosynchronous orbit and taking twenty-four hours to orbit the planet once.

  This satellite was owned by the British Government and had been used by the OSC previously.

  GAIL had accessed the satellites on b
oard system and had programmed the satellites signal into a cone shape to

  cover the area of Max’s operation.

  Max replied, “Roger that GAIL, can you guide us into the house?”

  “Move along the shoreline in the north-westerly direction for a quarter of a mile, I’ll redirect you when you arrive there.”

  Max and the two teams moved along the shoreline, the

  surrounding area was very quiet, even after the New Years

  Eve celebrations Max had expected to encounter a few

  souls.

  two minutes later they arrived a quarter of a mile down

  the shoreline.

  GAIL spoke again, “Max you should see a road fifty yards in front of you.”

  “Got it,” replied Max.

  “The building you want is directly in front of you on the other side of the road; it’s the only one there.”

  Max looked at the building through his binoculars, there was a wall adjacent the shoreline and the road approximately five-feet high, on the other side was

  a two-storey building with two other smaller size outer buildings. Max quickly surveyed the area around it; GAIL was right there were no other buildings nearby.

  Max looked at his watch, Zero-three fifty-five hours with twenty-four minutes of satellite coverage left.

  Max spoke into his Comms unit, “GAIL what time is sunrise?”

  “Zero-six twenty-two hours,” replied GAIL.

  Max did the quick maths, “two hours and twenty-seven minutes,” he thought out aloud.

  Max spoke into his Comm’s addressing the two OSC teams,

  “Team one fan out to the left below the wall and

  team two to the right, move it.”

  Max moved to the wall and pulled out a small writing pad

  and pencil from one of his pockets, “GAIL give me a brief schematics of the location.”

  The clouds above had broken up affording him good light to make his sketch.

  “As you can see Max; the main building is to your left, both the outer building are to the right of that. They appeared to be joined, by possibly either a garage or carport, there is a large courtyard and trees surround the whole perimeter. Stretching back from the property for a good fifty yards, the walled driveway directly in front of extends about one-hundred yards from the road to the courtyard with a bend halfway along. This is the only proper way in; although access could be gained from the wooded areas.”

  Max was quickly sketching using GAIL’s Intel and what he could see, to create the composite drawing.

  GAIL interrupted his concentration.

  “Max.”

  “Go ahead GAIL.”

  “I’m picking up movement from the covered area between the two outer buildings.”

  “What have you got GAIL?”

  “Standby; I will adjust and recalibrate the cone signal

  to intensify the image should take no more than thirty

  seconds.”

  “Standing by,” replied Max.

  Max carefully stole a look over the wall through his binoculars; however, the walled drive was obstructing his

  clear view of the covered area joining the two outer buildings.

  GAIL interrupted him, “Max, I can see two men both with shouldered weapons, possibly semi-automatics they are walking towards the driveway to the entrance with the roadway; they should be there in about thirty seconds.”

  Max gave an order, “two men from team one take up positions either side of the walled entrance and take them out quietly.”

  The two man team climbed over the wall hunkered down and ran the short distance, each one then squatted down either side of the entrance, they withdrew their advanced combat knifes from the sheath’s attached to their webbing on their pass-get and waited for their foe to arrive.

  The two men were sauntering down the driveway smoking a cigarette and engaged in a conversation; both had an

  AK-47 hanging loosely from their shoulder.

  They walked to the entrance point, paused before turning around, and stood facing the house.

  The two OSC men moved stealthy and with speed.

  Both simultaneously struck each sentry with the butt of the knife to the side of the neck, this completely

  stunned them for a few seconds.

  The OSC men used their body weight to cause the sentry’s to sink in one direction and used their other hand to twist the sentry’s head to the side, deeply cutting the throat across the front in the opposite direction; executing the full length of the blade in a slicing motion, severing the trachea and carotid arteries.

  Each sentry’s sinking body provided most of the force, with very little effort from the two OSC men, each sentry died within ten seconds.

  The remaining four members of the team one quickly moved forward and dragged the bodies of the sentries back across the road and rolled them over the wall onto the shoreline below.

  Max and the two teams regrouped at the entrance to the driveway.

  Max spoke into his Comms unit, “eagle six; split the team two up and find your way around to both sides of the property through the wooded area, cover the sides and rear, tell me when you are in position.”

  Team two quickly split into two groups of three and

  made their way around to the wooded areas.

  Max looked at his watch Zero-four hours and then spoke into his Comms unit, “Gail; confirm satellite time as Nineteen minutes?”

  Gail replied, “Nineteen minutes and twelve seconds Max.”

  Two minutes later Vas Dembo confirmed they were in position.

  Max gave the order to move forward up the driveway, twenty-five seconds later they were in the courtyard.

  “Give me a SITREP GAIL?”

  “I have visual on the both teams and yourself, there is no other movement Max.”

  Max ordered the four men from the team one to check out the two outer buildings.

  The remaining two-followed Max to the main building, they waited for the four members of team one whom had split up to complete the outer building searches, after a few minutes both teams emerged from the two outer buildings.

  One of them spoke into his Comms unit, “all clear.”

  Max responded, “Right you four cover the courtyard and driveway for our retreat, Eagle six we are going in, I will be using hand signals so keep the Comms quite.”

  “Eagle six replied, “Roger that eagle three.”

  The main door opened and Max stepped into the main

  room, followed by Rob Flynn eagle eight and a team member.

  The room was large but was of the open plan style, all the ground floor was visible from the doorway; the staircase was on the left, Max indicated to one team member using hand signals extending his weapon

  horizontally forward and raising his other arm above his

  helmet with the palm Facing down, indicating to cover this area.

  He indicated to the remaining Rob Flynn using his free hand hanging down at his side sweeping it from his rear forward to indicate follow me.

  They both moved forward to the staircase and paused whilst Max listened, it was extremely quiet, not good thought Max; I hope this staircase is sound.

  Max placed his right boot onto the first step and then slowly crept up the staircase, excellent he thought obviously a good carpenter made these.

  Rob Flynn waited at the bottom of the staircase, there was no way the two would have gone together; as this would hinder any action needed possible line of sight for firing as well as both being exposed on the vulnerable staircase.

  As Max reached top of the staircase he looked around, and observed a large open landing with five doors of it.

  Max looked down
and the staircase using his free arm he

  waved it indicating to Rob Flynn to come up.

  Again, the staircase made no sounds as Rob Flynn ascended them.

  Out of the five rooms only one had the door closed, it was the farthest one on the North-East corner, they both

  quickly checked the other four room’s one of them as the bathroom and found them empty.

  Moving to the closed door of the fifth room they suddenly saw a light come on in the room from the gap at the bottom of the door, they quickly split up and each entered one of the empty rooms, Max found himself back in the bathroom.

  He could just hear the sound of footsteps approaching the room his was in.

  A silhouetted figure entered the room, Max moved with lightning speed, using the butt of his rifle he landed a blow to the figures jaw, the figure let out a muted cry and collapsed to the floor.

  Max looked out into the landing area as Rob Flynn emerged from the other room, by using his free hand he directed him towards the fifth room and then moved the arm up to his forehead as if he was saluting, indicating for him to go in and check the room.

  Thirty seconds later Rob Flynn came out and indicated

  using the thumbs up, indicating the room was clear.

  Max spoke into his Comms, “all teams we have the main building secure, Eagle six report in.”

  Vas Dembo replied, “Wooded area all clear Eagle three.”

  The team in the courtyard also reported all clear.

  Max looked down at the unconscious figure at his feet, he reached for the light switch pulling the cord and the bulb illuminated, but it was very weak.

  Max used his boot to roll the figure over onto his back,

  and found himself starring down at Ajaz Ahmed.

  Two minutes later coming out of his unconscious state,

  Ajaz Ahmed was downstairs with his hands bound behind his back.

  Eagle eight Rob Flynn had joined Max in the downstairs room.

  GAIL spoke, “Max satellite coverage has just expired, and a final check shows nothing happening in the surrounding area.”

  “Thank you GAIL, is the submarine on standby for extraction?”

  “Affirmative on that Max, as soon as you are on the water I’ll give the coordinates.”