Beyond Top Secret: A Zach Taylor Adventure

by Brian Anderson

  Milling around the men watched as the mess hall was transformed once again. This time it was being converted into a gym for the afternoon’s Krav Maga lesson. There were two trainers for this session, and the training started with a review of Krav Maga and why it works. They explained the moves the men would learn were to eliminate sheer strength and size advantages from the equation. There were no spiritual aspects or inner peace as taught in other forms of martial arts. Krav Maga was about doing maximum damage as quickly as possible. The key to disabling or even killing your opponent is focusing on the bodies soft spots; eyes, nose, ears, groin; and throat, were just some of the most vulnerable attack points. It all made sense and the team watched as the two trainers demonstrated moves to subdue, disarm and kill.

  Once the demonstration was complete, it was now the team’s turn. After a brief round of stretching the men began with a few basic moves, starting in slow motion, they fought a nonexistent opponent. As time passed their movements pace increased to the point they felt like there was an actual opponent in front of them. What became clear early on was this involved training repetition. On their first day, they spent the entire time repeating the same set of moves over and over. By the end of the day, they were already making moves without even thinking. With the training done for the day, the team was told to run down the road that led to the airfield. At the one mile point, there would be a marker, and they would turn around and run back.

  Once they returned to the compound, as a group, they headed for the mess hall. Time for our evening bowl of slop was the prevailing thought. About twenty feet from the mess hall they ran into an imaginary glass wall and bounced off each other like bumper cars at the fair. They stopped and just stared at each other; the corner diner, the red and white fast food place, home with the wife, mom’s kitchen, the farmhouse, the sprawling country kitchen, the hole in the wall restaurant, the food truck. For each, it was a different image, but the thoughts filled their heads to the exclusion of all else. Then a frightening reality started to take hold in all of them. Were they all tripping? Had the rejuvenation elixir been a time released hallucinogenic? Were they all part of some twisted scientific experiment? What did they really know about these people?

  Joe stepped from the mess hall and looked into the eyes of a bewildered group. He knew what was happening based on prior trainees. “Gentlemen, you are all just experiencing a sort of sensory overload from the physical and mental exhaustion of today. I’m sure each of you is imagining a familiar place you associate with your sense of smell. Let’s go eat, no jungle stew tonight, I think you all might enjoy; fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans; and a slice of apple pie for dessert.”

  Grateful smiles instantly replaced their looks of bewilderment. Pushing and shoving each other, the men rushed the mess hall in a pointless effort to be first in line. Uncertain if this was a one time deal Zach piled on the food. A tower of three crispy chicken breasts. A mountain of creamy mashed potatoes obscured in an ocean of gravy. Finally, a heaping pile of green beans that had chunks of onion and bacon occupied the rest of the plates available real estate. Hunting for the small plate with the biggest piece of pie Zach decided on a more straightforward solution, he grabbed two pieces. Noticeably absent from the table at breakfast and lunch, Joe and Tom had joined them for dinner. Their presence wasn't even acknowledged as the team had a single point of focus. There was no conversation to be heard. The only noise was the loud crunch as men shoved large chunks of chicken in their mouths, along with the chewing and smacking that accompanied the potatoes and beans.

  When Joe saw the men moving on to their pie, he felt it was finally a time where he could talk. “Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see you all enjoyed dinner. The jungle stew you’ve had for the last several meals was part indoctrination and part learning experience. If you are ever stranded in the jungle, you should now know there’s ample nutrition available to help you survive. From now on you will have a delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. With an occasional serving of jungle stew thrown in to refresh your memory. Since everyone seems about done, I will excuse myself and see you all tomorrow.”

  The men walked out of the mess hall stuffed to the gills and made a labored trip to the tent area. They gathered in a circle that approximated a football team’s huddle to discuss their plans for Joe’s rescue. They bounced around a slew of ideas, when Barry said, “I’m so tired and stuffed from all that food, I need a short nap before I can think again. What do you say we relax in our tents for two hours then reconvene to make plans?”

  There was not a single voice of dissension. Everyone thought Barry had come up with a great suggestion. They all headed to their tents with plans to regroup in two hours. The zero six hundred hours alarm sounded, and the jungle symphony started for the second morning’s performance. Zach woke in a panic, “Oh shit,” were his only words. Two hours had turned into ten.

  He exited the tent eager to hear what the team had planned. Met with seven blank stares, he faced a different story than what he had hoped. There had been no regrouping. There were no plans. Eight grown men sulking, kicking the ground and berating themselves dominated the gathering. Muted words from all directions; “dumb ass,” “idiot,” “jerk,” “stupid,” filled the air. They noticed Tom motioning to the mess hall. Gathering their wits, they all trudged towards the waiting breakfast. “We suck,” Zach shouted, affirmative head nods were the only reaction.

  So deep in thought, the men ate a breakfast that didn’t even register. Rather than jungle stew, they should have enjoyed the pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon, but not a single man had paid attention. Once finished, Tom said, “Before you start your morning routine head over to the staff barracks. There’s a room off to your right that has everything you might need for your planned rescue attempt. Remember, no weapon has a lethal charge, so you don’t need to worry about hurting someone. Tent two, you have water duty today. Let’s get going.”

  The men headed over to the staff barracks with no clue on what they needed since no plan existed. When Zach entered the armory, he saw a large sign at the rear of the room. Against a yellow background color found on countless books were the words “Weapons For Dummies.”

  With a disgusted look, Zach shrugged and shook his head. He looked at the staff member, and said, “Give me a handgun and throw in some rope.”

  The agent sensed Zach’s attitude, saw his eyes were on the sign, and responded, “Come on man, don’t you get it, dummy rounds in the weapons, weapons for dummies, I thought it was funny.”

  “I’m sure you do, I think it’s just corny, not at all funny,” Zach said, but thought, as clueless as we are, maybe there’s more truth than fiction in the sign.

  Zach grabbed his gun and rope and headed to the exercise area. Beginning his first set of jumping jacks, in a broken sequence of words Zach said, “One … we … two … need … three … a … four … plan …. five … any … six … ideas … seven …”

  Next to him and in the same manner of speech Phil responded, “Lets … fifteen … all … sixteen … talk … seventeen … between … eighteen … sets … nineteen …”

  By the time Barry and Justin were done with water duty, the plan still left a lot to be desired. The men had simply decided that since they outnumbered the bad guys, they would rush the place and catch them off guard. They headed in for communication’s training with the hope they could find time to flush out the plan a little more. Tom started the training by pointing out additional features of the computer phone. Five minutes into the training Tom received a message he relayed to the team. “The kidnappers are going to execute Joe in exactly two hours. I hope your plan works, now get going.”

  At the far end of the camp, there was a narrow trail. The men followed the path and found themselves at another clearing. In the middle of the clearing stood a small building with an armed man on each side of the door. They assumed the other two were inside guarding Joe. The team synchronized their watches an
d fanned out with plans to rush the building from various angles. At the same instant, all the men sprang from the jungle shooting at the two guards. Firing while running was not a skill any of them possessed and not even a single round had hit its mark. Within thirty seconds the entire team had been greeted with a death dot. A kidnapper with a machine gun had been patrolling the grounds and mowed down the team before they even knew what was happening.

  Joe burst from the building, wearing a death dot in the middle of his forehead, screaming, “What the hell was that? I’m dead; you’re all dead. Which one of you came up with such a brilliant plan?”

  Zach chose to speak for the team, and replied, “It was a joint decision. Once we saw the building we had to make some assumptions; we assumed we could kill the men while we charged in, we assumed the two guards inside would panic at the sound of gunfire and run outside, we assumed that would leave you safe; obviously, we were wrong.”

  “Do you realize how many times you just called yourselves a bunch of asses? And let me say well deserved. In all my years of conducting this training, this ranks as one of the worst first attempts ever. You do understand the more you plan, the less you have to assume.”

  “Yes, we get that. We ran short on time to plan,” Zach replied.

  “Make time. We’re done for the day. Same scenario for tomorrow and the next day, and the next, until you figure out how to rescue me from a simple situation.”

  Chapter 11

  Amazon Rain Forest

  It had been almost a month since the first failed rescue attempt. A month that saw physical strength and endurance improve. A month where self-defense training had begun to instill vital skills. A month where rescue attempts failed day after day, it looked like the first quarter score of a college football team playing a high school team. Kidnappers thirty, rescue team zero. At this rate, the game could easily end with a final score of one hundred twenty to zero.

  As the team prepared for their next rescue attempt, a sense of preordained defeat swirled unabated in most of their heads. Not willing to accept defeat, Zach looked at his notes from all the prior attempts. Hit with an epiphany, Zach stood, and said, “We aren’t going to attempt a rescue tonight, it will fail just like the rest, I have to go talk to Joe.”

  The men all stopped what they were doing and looked at Zach. Their faces all conveyed the same message. They wanted to hear what he had to say.

  Zach continued, “Look, all we’re doing is reactive planning. Yes, we’re learning more and more about the kidnappers’ abilities, but every day, we plan based on how they defeated us before. They know this and adjust their actions to thwart our next attempt before we even make it. We need to get ahead of the game and proactively prepare for something they won’t expect. That means we need time to plan, and that’s why I want to talk to Joe.”

  The men talked for a few minutes, concerns over not doing as instructed the only issue, but in the end, they reached a consensus. They all agreed with Zach’s assessment and encouraged him to talk to Joe. Zach's role had just changed from team member to team leader. The change wasn’t an official announcement from above, there were no written proclamations, but in the minds of his teammates, he was now their team leader. With ample support, Zach began a brisk march to Joe’s quarters, a sense of determination in his stride.

  About to knock on the door Zach paused, Joe and Tom were in the middle of a conversation. He decided it was harmless to eavesdrop for a few minutes and listened to what they had to say.

  “Right now I don’t know what to think. I expected more progress from this group.” Joe was heard saying.

  “Joe, I think you’re blaming yourself for the Zebra incident. They didn’t become our best team overnight. You need to remember that, and stop being so impatient.”

  “You may be right, but this group seems to be running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. I don’t remember Zebra being this disorganized after a month.”

  “I would give them some more time. This team is doing reasonably well with communications and Krav Maga training.

  “True, but I’m only going to give them another month if I don’t see a significant improvement I’m going to pull the plug and cut our loses.”

  “That seems …”

  A knock on the door interrupted Tom’s words. Zach would file away the Zebra reference for a later conversation but for now he had heard enough. In fact, he had heard enough about his team that he wanted to put a stop to the discussion.

  “Come in,” Joe said.

  Zach entered the room, and said, “Gentlemen I’m here on behalf of the team.”

  Tom and Joe exchanged a sideways glance, encouraged by Zach’s initiative.

  Joe said, “Go on.”

  “The rescue assignment is currently unrealistic. There’s no way a team would be sent to rescue someone with only a few hours of planning. Especially when going up against armed kidnappers,” Zach said.

  Purposely exaggerating, Joe said, “In the real world there aren’t always months available to plan, you go with what you have.”

  “I get that. We just want enough time to get a clear picture of how we can execute a successful mission. With the other training we still have to do, how about seven days.”

  “You can have seven days with one caveat. Up to now, you could get anything you wanted from the armory. As of now the only items available is what you can get shipped here. That adds to the realism, so you can also prove your logistics skills. I’ll also assign staff to take on the kidnapper roles twenty-four seven so you don’t have daily time constraints. Hows that sound?”

  “Great, thank you. I promise you won’t be disappointed.”

  “I hope not.” Glad to see Zach’s confidence and leadership, Joe added, “Zach, what took you so long?”

  Without answering Zach left and headed back to the tents. The men gathered around anxious to hear the outcome. When they heard of the new parameters, Zach was elated to see a team that had suffered countless defeats and become demoralized rejuvenated and eager to plan a solution. Without the same time crunch, the men shared ideas, some far-fetched and some with merit. They all recognized a schedule was their priority since supplies would be limited to what they could get delivered. However, to know what they needed to order required a plan, and for that, they needed more information. Working backward they came up with the following schedule; two days before the rescue all supplies would need to be ordered, the two days prior would be for final planning and practice drills; that left three days for information gathering.

  Reconnaissance missions would be how they collected information. Twenty-four seven missions were to be put in place. Team members would take four-hour shifts and miss other training when necessary. They were going to log everything they saw at the target site. Zach threw together a recon schedule that would start immediately and posted it on a pole outside his tent. An additional training benefit was this would also up the test of their stealth abilities. Zach assigned himself to the first shift, he changed into dark clothes and painted his face black.

  Silently walking down the trail, Zach stopped when he reached the clearing and moved off to the side hidden by the jungle. The computer phone was a great device, Zach recorded every nuance and movement of the kidnappers. He thought Joe wasn’t playing fair when he listened to two of the guards. It was the same gibberish Tom, and Joe used at their first encounter in Virginia. Apparently, the staff representing kidnappers had been told they were under surveillance. Then he realized maybe it wasn’t unfair, who knew if kidnappers might talk in code out of paranoia. After three and a half hours Zach sent Ray, his recon replacement, a message telling him where he was. They weren’t going to leave even a minute unchecked. An observer wouldn’t abandon his post until their replacement was in place. When Ray arrived, Zach suggested he find a new location, to ensure they watched the site from all angles.

  For three days they followed the recon schedule to the letter. After three days they all f
elt confident they had enough information to make a legitimate plan. They now had a real count on the number of kidnappers and knew every minute of their schedule. This gave the team something that had been missing. What they now knew was; there were seven kidnappers always on site, and that number would swell when personnel changes were taking place. There were two in the building, two on guard at the door, one patrolled the grounds, and two in raised lookout posts at the edge of the jungle.

  As they formulated their plan every supply down to the minutest detail was recorded. The team understood that to screw this up by missing something was unacceptable. Satisfied with the strategy the men contacted approved suppliers to acquire all the items needed. Zach realized the plan was more elaborate than necessary, but he was trying to project a real-life situation to the men.

  Several goals dictated the extra effort involved to accomplish their objectives. First, and most obvious was to rescue Joe unharmed. The second was to avoid casualties to the team. The third was to make as little noise as possible and finally to reduce or minimize enemy casualties. The last goal received some initial pushback, but Zach explained that on a real mission those captured might have valuable information about other operations. That made enough sense for the men and everyone agreed to execute the game plan.