Project Reaper
Page 22
Razor 3’s pilot had turned the Sea harrier towards the Huey, disengaged the hover stop and moved the throttle control; the Sea Harrier accelerated rapidly, the pilot
locked onto the Huey with one of his Sidewinder air-to-
air missiles, he spoke into his radio “firing; Fox Two.”
This is the standard brevity code used by all NATO pilots when launching this type of missile.
The sidewinder accelerated quickly to Mach 2.5 followed by the Sea harrier.
Carlito had brought the Huey into a hover two hundred yards from the warehouse; both gunners were firing down at the team one whom were trying to get around to the back of building four for cover; however, they were taking casualties.
A few seconds later the sky was set alight into an
enormous ball of light and fire exactly where the Huey
had been a moment before, a grey object appeared several
seconds later from the north-western side and began to hover.
Juan Manuel Alvarez had just seen the Huey explode into thin air and before he could comprehend what was
going on, he felt the air around him buffeting, he looked up and observed an aircraft with British roundels hovering.
His men were now running into the woods behind him dropping their weapons as they fled the scene.
“Come back you cowards,” he shouted.
Alvarez had never backed down in his life and he was not about to do so now, he raised his AK-47 Kalashnikov and began emptying the magazine at the Sea harrier.
Razor 3’s pilot heard the rounds bouncing off the underside of the aircraft; he operated the nozzle control lever to ninety-eight degrees and the sea harrier began moving backwards.
The team four sniper was looking through his scope, at the lone man firing up at the Sea harrier; he zeroed in on his target, and squeezed the trigger.
The bullet struck Alvarez between his eyes, passing right through his head and out the back taking half his skull with it.
Alvarez the fighter had gone down fighting, the only way
he had ever known.
Max had made his way over to the side of building four and was assessing the casualties, the news was bad; two
men dead and two injured, Corporal Hardwick joined him, “sir; the enemy has gone, dispersed out to the western
side.”
Max was looking down at the two dead team members; no matter how many times it occurred, it always hit him hard to see good men paying the ultimate price for their freedom from tyranny.
Max turned looked and acknowledged the Corporal, “thank you Corporal that will be all.”
Max spoke into his Comms, “team two help the wounded and bag the bodies up and rendezvous at the FRV, team three do a final sweep of the area and make your way over to the FRV.”
Razor 3 was still hovering above, Max looked up and spoke again into his Comms, “Eagle three to Razor 3; good work, stay on station until we are airborne in the helicopter, over.”
“Roger that Eagle three, Razor 3 out.”
Ten minutes later the Sea king Helicopter was lifting off and along with the Sea Harrier, they took an initial heading of 40 degrees North West.
Max spoke into his Comms, “Eagle four your cleared to go out.”
Toledo Verdugo’s Hacienda
Bucaramanga Colombia
Lat = 7 degrees, 8.0 minutes North
Long = 73 degrees, 5.6 minutes West
Thursday 5th January 1989
Zero-one hundred hours and twenty-one minutes
Five hours behind GMT
Roy smith had been listening into the radio Comms from the warehouse, when he received Max’s order.
Razor-4 had remained on standby, also paying attention on the Comms; the pilot looked at his fuel status that was showing half-full.
Roy spoke, Eagle four to Razor-4, what’s your status over?”
“Eagle four still on standby ninety seconds away, fuel down to half over.”
“What’s your remaining air time Razor-4?”
“I have enough fuel for another twenty-seven minutes, before I need to return over.”
“We are going in, in ninety seconds Razor-4; have you the target located, over?”
“Coordinates locked and ready to engage on your command
Eagle four.”
“Standby Razor-4, out.”
One of his team spoke over the Comms, “Eagle four we have movement from the outer building over.”
Roy scoped the outer buildings with his binoculars and observed three-armed men walking towards the main building.
“Looks like relief time for the guards over.”
The team watched as the three-armed men sauntered over to the Hacienda.
Inside the main room, the Professor had been standing at the window and observing the three men approaching the Hacienda he looked at his watch and realised the lateness of the hour.
Toledo Verdugo and Ramón had been enjoying their drinks, and Toledo’s family had retired to bed a couple of hours ago.
Professor Hooke turned and walked over to the two men and spoke, “senior Verdugo it is late and I would welcome my bed, may I be excused.”
Verdugo looked at the Professor; he indeed looked tired, “very well Professor, see one of my staff they will escort you to your room, we will see you in the morning.”
Professor Hooke turned and left the room, he found a member of staff that took him to his room.
When the Professor had left Verdugo spoke to Ramón, “do you think the Professor suspects anything Ramón?”
“He is a smart man senior, I am sure he is wondering why extra men arrived at the warehouse and also the fact he has been brought back here.”
“Can you contact Alvarez for an update Ramón?”
“Not a wise move senior, he and his men will be waiting in silence for the British.”
“Of course;” replied Verdugo.
“Let us refill our glasses Ramón and have another drink.”
“Certainly senior, first I will check on the guards they should just be about to be relieved,” replied Ramón.
Roy Smith had watched as the three-armed men from the outer building arrived at the hacienda, the two perimeter
guards were now both coming to the front of the house, he spoke into his Comms, “team one move; take out the guards.”
The team moved swiftly across the open lawn from the outer buildings on the eastern side, they were within fifteen yards before they were noticed; there silenced Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns fired with deadly accuracy.
The six guards had no time to react they fell to the ground where they stood, at this precise moment the front door opened and a silhouetted figure was visible, the
figure quickly closed the door and a second later the entire hacienda was lit up like a football field and over at the western outer buildings an alarm was sounding within the buildings.
Ramón had opened the door expecting to have a few words with the guards, what he was not expecting was to see a group of darkly clad armed figures running across the lawn and seeing his men collapsing to the ground.
He swiftly shut the door and activated the nearby alarm system; this initiated all outer doors locking down and the high intensity floodlights illuminating coupled with
the audible alarm in the guards building being triggered.
Ramón quickly ran back to the main room, as he hastily entered Toledo Verdugo looked at him and noticed the concern on his face, “what’s going on Ramón?”
“We have unauthorised visitors senior the house guards have been killed, do not worry the house is secure and the guards from the outer building will be responding now as we speak.”
Toledo Verdu
go looked alarmed as he responded, “who are they Ramón?”
“They must be a British raiding party senior; I only counted about a half-dozen.”
“My god my family Ramón, they are upstairs alone.”
“Don’t worry senior Verdugo; the house has gone to lock
down, the family rooms upstairs are now secure, however we cannot get in to them, and it looks like we will have to deal with any intruders who get in senior.”
Ramón walked over to a nearby table and pressed a button that opened a hidden door, he walked in and came back out with two Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns, he rammed a magazine into each and handed one to Verdugo.
“Come senior we will engage them if they manage to breach the front door.”
Verdugo smiled and replied, “let’s be having them Ramón.”
Both men walked into the hallway and crouched down facing the front door.
GAIL had continued monitoring the Hacienda and had seen movement from the interior of the outer buildings on the western side, “Eagle four you have about two-dozen potential hostiles moving from the western outer building, they are moving towards the exits over.”
“Copy that GAIL, Razor-4 you’re on, take out both the western outer buildings over.”
Before Razor-4 could reply, a hail of bullets struck the ground around the Roy’s team; the team were down in the prone position and returned fire.
“Razor-4 to Eagle four ensure your team are well clear of the targets over.”
Roy shouted over the gunfire “take the targets out now
Razor-4 we are pinned down.”
“Roger that eagle four, firing; Fox Two and three.”
Two Sea Eagle air to surface missiles left the under wing sections of the Sea harrier, rapidly reaching their max speed of Mach-1, each one carried a 500lbs, impact delay-fused penetrating blast/fragmentation warhead.
Razor-4’s pilot disengaged the hover stop and moved the throttle control; the Sea Harrier accelerated rapidly
towards the Hacienda.
Four seconds from launch, both sea eagle missiles found their targets, the blasts immediately took out both buildings levelling them to the ground and a fireball erupted into the air showering the Roy’s team with debris.
Several seconds later Roy looked over at the blast site, there was no movement on the ground, he felt the air around him buffeting and immediately looked up at the Sea harrier, “good shooting Razor-4.”
The pilot replied, “Roger that eagle four, I need to return to the ship my fuel is now close to point of no return over.”
“Copy that Razor-4, we will take it from here, out.”
Razor-4’s pilot, turned the Sea Harrier one hundred and eighty degrees and disengaged the hover stop, operating the throttle the aircraft moved briskly away into the
night sky.
Inside the Hacienda both Toledo Verdugo and Ramón had heard and felt the explosion from outside, “what the hell was that?” Exclaimed Verdugo.
“It sounded like it came from the area of the western outer buildings senior.”
Before either of them could continue, the front door exploded inwards showering both men with shrapnel.
Ramón took a piece of wood to his left side and grimaced at the pain; he raised his weapon up and fired a burst at the open smoke filled entrance.
Toledo Verdugo had faired a lot worse, he was lying dead on the ground with a piece of wood shrapnel sticking out of his forehead.
Ramón quickly looked down at the body of Verdugo, as he looked back up he observed two dark clad armed figures entering the doorway, as he raised his weapon he felt enormous pain for a spilt second from numerous parts of his body.
His body was thrown backwards, his right hand loosed the grip on the weapon, and it fell to the floor.
He felt his body crumple to the floor but never felt the floor as he hit it.
Roy Smith had been the first through the door in a crouched position after they had blown it, followed by
one of the team who broke to the left, he had
quickly spotted Ramón and a body lying prone on the floor besides him.
Ramón was raising his weapon; Roy squeezed the trigger on his HK MP-5 and a volley of bullets found Ramón’s body.
The second team member picked up movement from the top of the nearby staircase and immediately raised his weapon towards it, Roy also detected the same movement weapon raised he quickly locked onto the figure.
Professor Hooke had only been in his room for five minutes contemplating what Verdugo was up to, when he heard gunfire followed by an explosion that lit up his room on the Westside.
He had immediately taken cover under the bed, until everything had gone quiet.
Professor Hooke had then unlocked his door and crept out onto the landing and towards the staircase when another explosion occurred from downstairs with a volley of gunfire following it.
He was now at the top of the staircase looking down at Toledo Verdugo’s dead body and watched as Ramón body was flung backwards and down to the floor.
He moved to the top of the staircase and noticed two dark clad armed figures by the remains of the door levelling their weapons at him.
Professor Hooke quickly raised his arms and shouted
“don’t shot.”
Roy had quickly identified the figure as Professor Hooke and spoke, “come down the stairs with your arms up Professor.”
Professor Hooke immediately detected the English accent and that the figure below recognised him, “I’m coming,” he replied.
Roy and the team member watched as the Professor descended the staircase, when he reached the bottom Roy walked over to him.
“Professor we are British military your safe now.”
“No you don’t understand they have my family,” replied the professor.
“You’re family are safe Professor, now let’s get you out of here pronto.”
“Team one we have the Professor and we are coming out.”
Roy emerged with the Professor who quickly observed another five-armed men facing outwards towards the grounds.
Roy spoke into his Comms, “GAIL; are we clear to move to the RVP, over.”
“All clear Eagle six.”
“Okay men let’s move.”
With that the team moved quickly across the open grounds and ten minutes later were boarding the Sea king
helicopter.
The helicopter pilot had been listening in on the black team’s frequency and had already fired the engine up before the OSC team arrived.
Once the team had boarded he operated the collective control stick increasing the collective pitch, the rotor blades began to bite into the air, each to the same degree, lifting the helicopter vertically.
‘ICIS’ Saltbox Hill Biggin Hill Kent
Lat = 51 degrees, 19.7 minutes North
Long = 0 degrees, 1.2 minutes East
Thursday 5th January 1989
Zero-six hundred hours and forty-nine minutes GMT.
Major Strayker and Vince Edwards had monitored the two operations closely; they were now both drinking a hot coffee.
Strayker spoke, “the last few weeks have been one hell of a roller coaster ride Vince.”
“That it has, but once again Max and the teams have come through for everyone,” replied Vince.
“We have lost two good men and two more injured Vince; it’s a big price to pay to deal with the likes of Verdugo. We were fortunate to have the assistance of the two Sea Harriers; otherwise it could have been worse.”
“True; I just hope we can have some calm after the storm,” replied Vince.”
“That would be nice Vince, however terrorists always have their own agenda’s and time table, I had bet
ter put a call through to the PM.”
London 10 Downing Street
Lat = 51 degrees, 30.2 minutes North
Long = 0 degrees, 7.7 minutes West
Thursday 5th January 1989
Zero-seven hundred hours GMT.
The Prime minister had been up for an hour, she had always been an early riser, and she was wading through some paper work when her phone rang.
She picked it up and said “yes.”
“Ma’am; thought I would give you an update.”
The Prime minister had recognised Major Strayker’s voice immediately, “I hope it is good news Major, god knows we need some.”
“Indeed it is Ma’am, all objectives accomplished.”
“Excellent news Major, any casualties at our end?”
“Unfortunately yes Ma’am, we suffered two dead and two injured.”
“I am sorry to hear that Major, were they married?”
“Neither was married Ma’am, I will personally inform their respective immediate families this morning.”
The Prime Minister paused before she spoke, “is there
likely to be any fallout for us here?”
Strayker replied, “highly unlikely Ma’am, President Lucena the Venezuelan President should be able to put it down to a drugs cartel feud as previously discussed.”
“Yes that is what we discussed,” replied the Prime Minister.
“Madam Prime Minister, I must make you aware that the teams operating at the warehouses were compromised, they knew we were coming.”
“Are you suggesting someone talked Major?”
“Yes Ma’am, someone did talk, and I would bet my pension it was President Lucena.”
“That’s one hell of an accusation Major, how can you be certain the operation was compromised?”
“Well Ma’am they had a helicopter gunship waiting, that’s what caused our causalities.”
The Prime Minister did not like what she was hearing, however Major Strayker was not the kind of man to bandy accusations around without just cause, “okay Major, leave President Lucena to me for the time being, have Ruth Nelson liaise with me this morning at eleven o’clock.”