Time Skip

by Craig L. Seymour

  Adrenaline pumped though him as he gathered up his gear. He considered hauling the bodies into his car and dumping them into the Blue Nile somewhere. But, this would only make a mess of his car, and the crime scene would still look like a bloody massacre. There was no way to cover this up, bodies or not.

  The men carried AK-47s, so Lovelle took several ammunition clips off of them. Then he took anything else of value he could find, in the hopes that this might look like something other than cold blooded assassination. He didn't think it very likely, but then, he knew very little of how things worked in Khartoum. There might be any number of plausible explanations in this place.

  Lovelle removed his coat and used it to clean the excess blood off of his knives and hands. Then he turned it inside out and wrapped the loot up in it. That way he could get into his car without making too much of a mess of it. He stashed his now unconcealed AK and .22 under the seats. Without his coat he could hardly risk carrying them into the hotel. He then drove back to his room, being careful not to rush and draw any undue attention.

  Back in his room Lovelle was able to slow his breathing and take stock of the situation. He had a bit of a cleanup job ahead of him. He would have to get his coat clean if he hoped to move around in the daytime with his guns. Luckily, it was a stark black leather coat, which came clean quite easily. If there were any sort of staining, it did not show. The car interior was another question altogether. He did not know how bad it was, and he wouldn’t until it was light. He would have to bring along whatever cleaning supplies he could muster and drive somewhere where he could work on it.

  Lovelle settled down enough to get some sleep. All of the action having ended his work early, he was actually in bed earlier than he would have been if he had continued his stakeout. He did not, however, get as much sleep, as he struggled to pass out and got up extra early to take care of his problem.

  He left the hotel again in the pre-dawn hours. He knew of a couple of secluded spots and he drove to one so that he could assess the damage in the daylight. It turned out that he had done a pretty good job of protecting the interior. He was able to wipe down the vinyl in a couple of minutes and there were only two spots on the upholstery. With a wash cloth, an ice bucket full of water, and the complimentary shampoo, he was able to clean them up enough that they would draw no undue attention from passersby.

  He was torn about what to do next. Time was of the essence and he wanted to get back to work. But, he was also keenly aware of the need for information. He would have to be wary of repercussions from the killings. He wanted to hurry and find his enemy, wasting none of his precious time. Yet, he felt it imperative to go back to his room and watch TV. Caution being the better part of valor, he went back to his room to see if there was any coverage of the previous night’s killings. There was.

  The men turned out, to his great relief, not to be police, or otherwise officially associated with the government. This relieved some of the guilt he was feeling. More importantly, it seemed to Lovelle that this would affect the investigation in two ways, both of which were beneficial. First, the investigation would naturally be pursued with less zeal than an investigation into the murder of two Police Officers. And secondly, the possibility that the killings were the product of factional violence had been advanced and would have to be considered seriously. That sort of focus in the investigation would not lead anyone to his door.

  Having nearly reached the end of his initial list of sights, without any sign of Bin Laden, and with only five days left in his leave, the news seemed to him to be the first break in his favor since he had started this little adventure. He just hoped it wasn’t the last. Under the circumstances, he expected to need a lot more luck to pull things off. Although there was finally one thing in his favor, it was a small thing. The heat was still on and he would have to take that into consideration the rest of the way. Even if they weren't looking at foreign visitors in particular, the police would certainly be paying more attention to the movements of people, particularly at night.

  Luck did seem to turn in his favor though. That night he got another break, and this was a big one. Lovelle had gone out late in the afternoon for a little reconnaissance. He was determined not to waste any more time. He had been out for a while and it was after night fall. He was set up in a dark space between a couple of buildings. He had been moving around trying not to seem obvious while it was light and was feeling more than a little paranoid. With the onset of darkness his nerves were settling down. He had been standing there for less than a half hour when Bin Laden arrived. He showed up with a small group of men that included several well armed men he assumed to be guards. Even though Bin Laden was barely on the radar screen of the U.S. at the time, someone had already taken a shot at him while he was in Sudan. The terrorist would certainly be on high alert already. For all Lovelle knew, it was a couple of Bin Laden’s men that he had dispatched the night before.

  Lovelle got the heck out of there as quickly and quietly as he could. He wasn’t in a position to do anything right then, so hanging around served no purpose other than to expose him to risk of discovery. Now that he knew the place, he would need the light of day, and some time, to plan.

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  He was up at the crack of dawn the next day. A mix of adrenaline and apprehension kept him from sleeping most of the night, but, also kept him from being sluggish as he went about assessing the area around Bin Laden’s home. He needed to find himself a perch. The most perfect place from which to snipe at his target the next time he showed his face.

  The first concern was distance. Lovelle needed someplace that corresponded to his skill level as a marksman. It had to be a distance from which his proficiency could reasonably assure him of hitting what he was aiming for. The next consideration was concealment. He would have to remain undetected as he lay in wait, and hoped to be relatively assured of safety from immediate retaliation. In case he failed to put Bin Laden down with one shot, it was essential that he be able to take another, or several. And it was almost as important that he be able to extricate himself safely, as he might still need to follow up on the job. That was the final concern, escape. If he couldn’t finish the job from the perch, he would need a good escape plan. Some way to get out and away so that he could regroup. Now that he knew where his target was, he would not be leaving until one of the two of them was dead, or Bin Laden was on the run.

  The compound was across the road from a line of shops, which were in turn situated in front of a complex of warehouses. The house itself was set back some 150 yards from the front of the compound. Including the road and the frontage of the shops in the distance and this placed the closest part of the shop’s property right at the optimum range for Lovelle’ abilities. He had to find someplace on that property where he could set up and remain undetected while he waited for Bin Laden to show his face.

  As it turned out, he had his choice of two locations, neither of which met all of his criteria. The first sight was well within his effective firing range, and posed no particular challenge to escape, as he could sprint between two shops directly back to where he would park at the back of the warehouse lot. But, it featured rather poor concealment, and would be vulnerable to counter attack. He would be stationed between a trash bin and the wall separating the shops from the street. It was a high masonry wall, but the center featured a diamond pattern of holes through which he could watch and shoot. The wall provided excellent cover from the front, but cover from the trash bin was limited to the area directly behind him. He would have no cover on his flanks and no particular obstacle to keep the enemy from getting to this exposed area. He would almost certainly be forced to evacuate quickly once he did take action. That would be fine if he were verifiably successful in one or two shots. But, he was neither confident of such success, nor of his ability to determine whether his shots had hit their targets without observing for what might turn out to be an unsafe measure of time. The bin also did not keep him from the view of a
large section of the shop fronts. He might be able to move it a little to optimize this cover, but there would always be open angles of view. If he were forced to stake out for a number of days, the risk of exposure would be great. Plus, he could not use the spot at all before nightfall.

  The second spot allowed for both escape and cover, but, was at the outer edge of his effective range. The rooftops of the warehouses featured low parapet walls behind which he could crouch. Lovelle was able to shimmy up a drain pipe to access the roof of the closest building to the street. Once up there, he could secure a rope which he could use to repel down for a fast escape. Anyone trying to shoot at him from the ground would need something like Rocket Propelled Grenades to get at him. If they were to try to get up to the roof it would be very slow, and would likely occur in single file formation. This would make Lovelle’ assailants particularly vulnerable to his counter attack, or would give him plenty of time to make his exit. However, if conditions were poor, or nerves got the better of his skill, Lovelle might simply scare Bin Laden into hiding. At the same time, Lovelle could probably spend a good deal of time sniping at the compound without being in too much personal jeopardy. Not that that would do him a lot of good if he gave Bin Laden a chance to hunker down. Lovelle could kill every other man in the entourage and still it would be a failure. And he couldn’t walk away and come back later. After such an attack, Bin Laden would never be so vulnerable again. The fact was, if Lovelle missed from this distance, he would probably be forced to storm the house, with little real chance of success.

  In either case there was a very real likelihood that he would be forced into a firefight that he stood little chance of surviving. Even if he took Bin Laden with the first shot, the guards would not just throw up their hands in defeat. So Lovelle was forced to weigh his chance of success with his chance of survival. This was more of a struggle than he had thought it would be. It was crunch time, and his nerve was suddenly in doubt. For such a long time, he had been sure that he could trade his life for Bin Laden’s if necessary. Now, he was really afraid. He did not want to die, and he worried that this realization was going to upset his plans.

  Lovelle remembered the definition of bravery that he had recited to his friend. He truly believed that bravery was not the absence of fear, but the ability to continue despite it. He decided that he wouldn’t worry about feeling fear. He would continue on, confident that he would do what needed to be done when the time came. He started making his decisions based on cool logic, without consideration for failing courage. However, this still did not leave him with an easy decision.

  Logic or not, he would have to make an educated guess about where to go. The closer location certainly offered him the greatest chance of a successful attack. He would have the upper hand right up until he fired for the first time, and with luck, that would be the only shot he would have to take. Closing the distance decreased the likelihood that he would have to go up against superior numbers in a firefight. At the same time, the closer location might well leave him with no opportunity at all. If he were discovered there with all of his weapons he would never get the first shot off. And he couldn’t afford to restrict himself to only nighttime operations. The days were quite long in October, and his own time was running short. He could be adding days to his surveillance.

  In the end he compromised. He would set up on the rooftop as soon as the warehouse was abandoned for the day. Then, once it was dark and the shops were shut down, he would relocate to the forward position. It would take him less than 5 minutes to make the move, which seemed like a small concession.

  As Lovelle had feared, for two nights no one came or went from the house. Then, on the third, Bin Laden showed his face just as Lovelle was packing up to move to the forward post. Literally a minute earlier, Lovelle’s sights had been trained on the place where Bin Laden now stood. Lovelle saw the cars enter the compound and, cursing the terrible timing, tried to pull his rifle back out of its case. But he was too late to take a shot. When he finally had his weapon in position, there were only a couple of the armed guards left outside of the building.

  Now Lovelle had to make another decision. He had missed the opportunity to take the man out while there was still some light. But he knew where his target was. The terrorist might come out again during the night, and Lovelle would need to be at the forward position if this happened. But, more likely, Bin Laden would not come out again until the morning. The past two mornings Lovelle had abandoned the stakeout before daybreak because he needed to be away from the wall before the shop keepers showed up for the day. He also could not be caught on the warehouse roof when those workers returned. On the previous nights, Bin Laden had not come to the compound, and so Lovelle knew that he would not be coming out. This time Lovelle knew the man would have to exit. Hanging around until that happened would risk exposure. But, once the man left, it might be days before he saw the target again. He might have to go AWOL from the army, which could ruin any opportunity he would have to try again if he failed here and now. He also had to remember that there was some sort of hunt going on for the killer of those two he had dispatched earlier. Staying around Khartoum was not a great option.

  Lovelle decided to move to his forward post for a little while. He could maintain watch for the unlikely event that Bin Laden would go out in evening. Once Lovelle was sure that no such excursion was to occur, he would move back to the more secure locale. He would hang out there until his target appeared, or until he himself was detected.

  As he expected, no one stirred outside the compound residence. Lovelle moved back to the roof at around 3:00 am. This way he wouldn’t have to worry about ducking anyone arriving early to work in the warehouse. He settled in and actually got some shut eye during the early morning hours so he could be fresh for Bin Laden’s emergence. His wrist watch alarm woke him after a short cat nap. It took him a moment to register exactly where he was as he shook off sleep. He still had some time to wait for daybreak and he couldn't help reflecting on exactly how he had found himself in this odd position. He wondered if succeeding here would truly stop Al-Qaeda from launching a massive attack on America. And if it did, would that stop him from skipping back in time yet again.

  Shortly after the break of day several men emerged from the house. Lovelle watched them through the scope of the rifle. The first men were the armed guards he had seen before. They were followed by another man and his presence added to Lovelle’s excitement. He recognized the man as Ayman al-Zawahiri, reportedly the brains behind Al Qaeda.

  Zawahiri was almost as important a target as Bin Laden. While Bin Laden was the bank roll and the inspiration of Al Qaeda, Zawahiri was integral to the operations. Without him, whatever Al Qaeda's U.S. Operations became, they almost certainly wouldn't be the same. The September 11 attacks would almost certainly not happen. But Bin Laden would just as certainly find another planner to help him spend his money and use his cult of personality. Without Bin Laden, none of the other terrorists might find themselves in a position to ramp up to the level of the attacks on America. They also might never even bother moving their terrorism outside of their own area of the world. That was Bin Laden’s primary motivation, but, not that of most terrorists, including Zawahiri.

  Lovelle never imagined he might have a chance to take them both, so he had chosen the obvious target, not only for the aforementioned reasons, but, also because Lovelle knew very little of Zawahiri’s movements. He had simply not received the coverage that Bin Laden had, and Lovelle had not known in the waning years of his second life that such information would ever be important to him.

  Surprisingly, Lovelle’s hands were rock steady, and he was able to identify Bin Laden quickly enough to prepare for the shot. He held his breath and fired. Bin Laden went down, but, Lovelle couldn’t tell where he had hit him, if at all. Bin Laden's guards surrounded him immediately like secret service agents around the President. They might well have taken him down themselves to get him out of the line of fire. Lovelle didn’t
have the time to assess the situation. He turned his attention immediately to Zawahiri, who seemed to be watching in shock instead of diving for cover. Here is where the choice of the semi-automatic Browning paid dividends. Lovelle quickly got off four more shots. He felled Zawahiri with a clean shot to the side of the head, and then he managed to at least wound two of the guards as they rushed their leader into the house. Several others took cover as they tried to determine the direction of his fire.

  Lovelle took a long calming breath, and considered his options. He had failed to do what he needed. That is, to definitively take his target out. He might have hit him. He might even have wounded him fatally. But, there was no way to determine that right now, short of storming the house. The alternative was retreating and going into hiding until some confirmation came his way. While he decided, he reloaded. He wanted to keep the guards pinned down, or even to take them out. If he could do so quickly, he might be able to better his odds in a full assault, or in a retreat, whichever he decided upon. If things became drawn out, he suspected he would shortly be facing reinforcements, as well as the arrival of the warehouse workers and the shop keepers. So he would have to decide quickly which course he would follow.

  The men had clearly not determined where the attack had originated. One of them was terribly exposed in his position. Lovelle steeled his nerve and put a bullet through the side of his neck. That one would pose no more problems. But now, Lovelle’s position, or at least his direction, had been fairly well revealed to the other men. He believed there to be three of them, and none of them presented him with a decent target. Now that they knew the general direction of their assailant, they would not make the same mistake as the other man had. However, they started peeking to see if they could locate him. Lovelle fired off the rest of his rounds, failing to hit anyone, but, pinning the opposition down quite effectively. He was not going to get them at this rate, but, he had bought himself some time to relocate. The sun was fully above the horizon now, so he couldn’t move to his other position without exposing himself. He could, however, safely move to the far end of the long wall, where he could shift his angle pretty quickly and possibly take another one of the concealed men out.