by Mark Donovan
“And what of Dave Henson? If he is alive he must still be on his way here.”
“Yes, I have information that he is indeed on his way to pay me a visit.”
“Well I am ready to correct my mistake,” said Ahmad. “I failed to kill him on my first attempt, but it won’t happen a second time.”
“Doctor Henson is not your concern,” said Aref soothingly. “I have another mission for you. Allah asks more of you. My guards will dispense quickly of Doctor Henson and his friends upon their arrival to my home.”
“And what about Dana?” asked Ahmad.
“Upon the completion of her assignment, her services will no longer be required. She will be executed. But again, you need not concern yourself with that matter. I need you to lead another attack.”
Ahmad sat forward in the Victorian chair. “Where this time?” asked Ahmad with anticipation in his voice.
“Next, we strike at the heart of the Great Satan of the West. You will bring Waterkill to the doorsteps of the Americans, to the faucets of their homes, and to the mouths that drink from them. Tonight you fly west to Mexico. From there you will cross the Mexico/U.S. border and will execute our attack on the city that is called the home of America’s Team.”
Ahmad smiled. “When do I leave?”
“Within the hour,” said Aref. “You will be driven to Khomeini Airport and take one of my private jets that will ultimately deliver you to Mexico City. From there, you are on your own. You will need to find your own transportation to the Mexico/U.S. border.”
“Will anyone else be accompanying me on the mission?”
“Yes, one of my closest friends from my college days in Massachusetts, and a longtime supporter of our cause, will contact you within the next twenty-four hours. He will meet you in the target city. His name is Barak and he lives in Boston. You can fully trust him.”
“Okay, I need to pack then,” said Ahmad as he stood up.
“I will have a couple of my men bring the canisters to you.” Aref stood up, walked around the desk and shook Ahmad’s hand while giving him a warm embrace with the other.
“I will pray for your success,” said Aref, as he led Ahmad out of the den.
“Inshallah,” said Ahmad. “I will contact you as soon as I have completed the mission.”
Ahmad left Aref standing in the hallway outside of his den. Aref pulled out of his pants pocket his cell phone and scrolled through his contacts until he saw Barak’s name. He needed to get Barak on another flight from Boston right away. After initiating the call to Barak and waiting for him to pick up, he slid his right hand under the collar of his shirt and felt for the heavy twenty-four carat gold chain necklace riding low and unseen on his neck and chest. It was there he smiled to himself, relishing in the fact that he was breaking a major law of his country’s “Islamic Moral Security plan”.
Chapter 38 (April 18, Monday 1:45am Tehran, Iran)
It was fifteen minutes before two o’clock in the morning and they were only a block away from Zarin’s residence parked in a large private garage. Dave and his Special Ops team had met up with the other team fifteen minutes earlier and had already received a full intelligence briefing. All was quiet at Zarin’s residence. There had been little activity at the compound throughout the evening. Only a single car had left the property around ten o’clock with two men in it. They had also reported that their sensors indicated Dana was locked up in one of the home’s second story bedrooms.
“So what’s the plan?” asked Dave urgently at the mention of Dana.
The second Ops team leader, a guy who went by the name of Frank Stewart placed on top of the hood of their Escalade a tablet computer. All of the team members gathered around him. With a couple of brush strokes of his right index finger they were looking at the top floor plan of Zarin’s residence. Dave and the others leaned in over the vehicle’s hood to take a closer look.
“Two of my men will enter into the home from these two roof balconies,” said Stewart as he tapped the display screen and then gave a quick glance up at Gomez and Cook who acknowledged their assignment. “Gomez will enter through the larger balcony, which is off of Zarin’s den, and Cook will enter through this smaller one which is connected to a guest bedroom. Our sensors are reporting that both rooms are presently empty. We also anticipate the den to be rich in evidence that we will need to collect.”
Stewart brushed and tapped his index finger over the tablet screen a couple of more times and a floor plan of the first floor was displayed.
“There are four entrances into the residence on the ground level.” Stewart pointed at each one while describing them. “Besides the main entrance on the street side of the home, there is a series of sliding glass doors off the back patio, and two servant entrances on either side of the residence. We will enter through the patio sliding glass doors and the two servant entrances, as the main entrance is heavily guarded and has nearly every surveillance sensor known to man monitoring it. The other three entrances are not as heavily guarded and only have video cameras monitoring them.”
“And how do you plan to prevent the video cameras from not announcing our arrival?” questioned Dave with a doubtful expression on his face.
Stewart looked from Dave to Jones as a grin widened on his face.
“Infrared LEDs,” responded Jones. “With an array stick of high energy IR LEDs we can effectively blind the security cameras long enough for us to pass by them without being detected. Any guard monitoring the cameras will simply see a bright white light for a couple of seconds on the video monitors while we enter the residence.”
“And in the event one of the guards monitoring the video feeds is smart enough to eventually figure out that there may be something amiss, we will have already neutralized him,” said Stewart.
“As soon as we enter the residence we move fast,” said Jones in a deadly serious tone.
“And what about Dana?” asked Davis.
Stewart swiped and tapped the tablet screen again with his finger and another floor plan image was displayed.
“This is the second floor layout of the residence. Both Dana and Aref Zarin are on this level at the moment. She is locked in a guest bedroom, and he is in his master suite.” Stewart pointed out each bedroom, first Dana’s and then Zarin’s.
“This floor is heavily guarded, and thus why we need to approach it from top and bottom simultaneously.”
“And we need to do so fast and silently,” reiterated Jones.
“We have one unknown variable though” interrupted Stewart
“And what’s that?” Davis asked
“There is a basement level to this residence with no entry into it other than through the first level of the home. We also don’t have any Intel on its layout. We can only presume that it contains a safe bunker for Zarin, and is where his command and communications center is located. Consequently we can expect that it is heavily guarded.”
“And also leaves us vulnerable to a rear attack,” commented Jones.
“Agreed,” said Stewart as he looked up at Jones and gave him a penetrating stare. “So I, along with one of my guys, will enter in through the back patio sliding glass doors and make our way to the basement level. We will cover your rear, while you and your team enter from the side entrances and make your way to the second level.”
Stewart stood up from being hunched over the hood of the Escalade and looked at all the men huddled around him. “So the success of this mission depends on speed and stealth. The longer we can go undetected the exponentially greater our chances of terminating Zarin and recovering Ms. Cogswell alive.” Stewart hesitated as he gave a look over to Dave.
“Henson, having you participate in this mission goes against every rule in the book. You are not trained for it and you are emotionally involved. But this said, someone in Washington authorized your presence here and to participate in the operation.” Stewart made an exaggerated look around at all of the men before returning his gaze back to Dave.
&
nbsp; “You will be teamed with Jones and Davis and you will stick to them like glue, and you will do everything they tell you to do. Do you understand Henson?”
Dave nodded his head slowly in agreement, a quiet anger brewing in him, as he initially looked at Stewart and then shifted his gaze over to Jones. He wasn’t use to taking orders. He had always been in command of every aspect of his life, and this situation wasn’t going to be any different. His wife’s life was at stake.
“Very good,” said Stewart as he kept is eyes locked on Dave’s and slowly swung his open faced-up palm around the circle of men that surrounded him. “Because all of these men’s lives are dependent upon it. You do what you’re told, and with any luck we get the bad guy, save the girl, none of us get hurt and we all go home happy.” A smile grew across Stewart’s face with his final warning message to Dave.
Jones broke the pregnant silence from the circle of men. “Great, let’s suit up and get this show on the road.” Jones glanced down at his watch and noticed it was five minutes before two o’clock, as he led Dave and the others on his team to the back of the Escalade. He opened up the rear hatch door on the vehicle. Stewart mirrored the process in the other Escalade.
“Safety first,” said Jones. He twisted the metal locking clasps on one of the large shipping crates that sat in the back of the Escalade and flipped open its cover. “Kevlar flak jackets for everyone.” Jones handed one to Dave who fumbled with it trying to put it on. After slipping his on, Davis reached over and gave him a hand with it.
“Helmets next,” said Jones as he pulled them from the same crate, along with full face black cloth head coverings and opened finger gloves. Dave noticed the helmets were different from what he had typically seen military personnel wear in the field. These particular helmets were much more compact, yet extended down below the ear and had integrated head lamps mounted on the front of them. They resembled old fashion football helmets, thought Dave.
“Okay, now here comes the fun stuff,” said Jones as he opened up a large case and began pulling out M4 Carbines with integrated grenade launchers and suppressors on the rifle barrels. He handed one to both Ames and Davis before putting another aside for himself.
“You’re not going to need one of these babies,” said Jones as he placed his hand over the one he had set aside for himself. “You’re not trained in its use and you could end up killing yourself with it.”
“What about Graves?” Dave asked angrily.
“He’s driving the getaway car,” responded Jones, “So he does not need one.”
Dave looked at Jones incredibly.
“But don’t worry. While Graves sits tight and has this vehicle’s engine running for a fast exit, he’ll be fighting right alongside of us. I’ll show you how shortly.”
Dave glanced over at the man with the python arms. He was wearing a broad grin on his face as he looked back at Dave.
“But I’m not going to let you enter that building without some self-protection,” said Jones as he handed Dave a 9mm pistol. The other men already had their 9mm side arms holstered and strapped to the side of their legs. Dave also noticed that each of them was wearing a weapons belt around their waists that contained spare magazine clips, a knife, and a small assortment of other items.
Jones next opened a crate that contained personal communicator devices and handed them out to all of the men. Again, Davis helped Dave strap on the communicator and adjust the earpiece and throat mic. Dave was beginning to appreciate Davis a little bit more with all of the personal assistance he was providing him. First impressions are not always correct he thought to himself.
“Last, but not least, here are the night vision goggles,” said Jones as he passed them out to the team. “Hang the strap over your neck so that you can have them ready when needed,” said Jones to Dave.
Dave took the pair of goggles from Jones’s hand, activated them, and raised them to his eyes to have a look through them. “Impressive,” he said to no one in particular, as he lowered them from his eyes and switched them off.
“Glad you approve,” said Jones as he closed the rear hatch on the Escalade, the M4 rifle slung over his shoulder and a small ruggedized case in his hand. Dave glanced over at the other counter terrorist team and saw that they were also fully prep’d.
“What about Graves?” Dave asked.
“Graves is going to man what’s in this box,” responded Jones as he passed the box to Graves.
“What is it?” asked Dave.
“It’s one of your prodigy children but with its own unique custom feature integrated into it, courtesy of the CIA,” commented Graves.
Dave looked at the two of them curiously before Jones continued with his explanation.
“It’s a micro-drone, about the size of a horsefly” said Jones smiling at Dave. “But instead of just providing reconnaissance data it also packs its own punch.”
“What do you mean packs a punch?” asked Dave inquisitively.
“It has integrated into its belly a C4 pellet that we can remotely detonate,” said Graves. “I land the little fly in this box on someone’s neck or temple, tap a special radial button on a tablet computer, and lights out.”
“The C4 pellet is large enough to break the vertebrae in a human’s neck or puncture a temple, and cause either instant paralysis or brain death to the individual,” commented Jones in a clinical description.
Dave shook his head in disbelief. Not so much for the new weapon the two men just described to him, but instead, on how fast the United States government had expanded on NSurv’s nano-fly surveillance sensor technology. He had only licensed the technology to the U.S. military two years earlier.
“Alright, let’s huddle up one last time,” said Stewart as he and his team walked over to Jones and the others.
“We will load up in the Escalades and approach Zarin’s residence from opposite directions on the road in front of it. The Escalades will stop fifty meters from the property. At that point we will exit the vehicles and make our way on foot to our respective entries into the residence. Again, the success of this mission is all about speed and silence. The longer we can hold off firing our weapons, and the quicker we can get to our targets, the higher probability of our success and getting the hell out of there safely. Do we all understand?”
Every man nodded his head in agreement.
“Alright, let’s mount up and head out,” said Stewart.
Chapter 39 (April 18, Monday 2:00am, Tehran, Iran)
Graves drove the Escalade, its headlights turned off, slowly down the street in a westerly direction, towards Zarin’s residence.
When they got to within seventy five meters of the front entrance to the compound Graves gently applied the brakes and brought the vehicle to a stop at the prescribed fifty meter distance. Though it was dark out, there was enough ambient light for Graves and Jones to see the other Escalade coming to rest one hundred meters from them. Jones glanced down at his watch. “Alright guys we’re on.”
Jones, Ames, Davis and Dave stepped out of the Escalade simultaneously. “Dave, you and I will enter the east side entrance,” whispered Jones. “Ames and Davis, you have the west entrance.”
Hunched over to maintain a low profile the four men ran silently in the direction of Zarin’s compound. Dave, following Jones’s lead, peeled off from the other two men and ran towards the east side of the compound. As they neared the property Dave noticed a two meter high stone wall that surrounded the compound. Jones, without breaking stride jumped up and grabbed onto the top of the wall. He quickly pulled himself on top of it and laid his body flat along its top surface.
Though Dave was normally in excellent physical shape, his left shoulder was still aching from the car accident the previous day. Like Jones he ran up to the wall and jumped up to reach the top of it. He was able to hold on, his feet hanging a foot off the ground, but his injured shoulder was preventing him from pulling himself up and over the wall.
Jones saw Dave struggling and shi
fted his body and grabbed onto both of Dave’s hands to help pull him up on top of the stone wall. Dave used the toes of his feet to gain purchase on the wall to help push himself up on top of it.
“Thanks,” whispered Dave to Jones as he finally came to rest on top of the wall, feeling slightly embarrassed. Jones had no comment as he was already focused on Zarin’s residence.
“There, that’s where the video camera is located,” said Jones quietly as he pointed to a date palm tree. Dave could make out the dark silhouette of a black box attached to the tree about five meters above the ground.
“We will still be out of its field of view for the first five meters from the stone wall. So as soon as we drop down off the wall I’ll contact Stewart and Ames to see if they are in position to blind the cameras.” Jones took another glance at his watch before jumping down off the stone wall. Again, Dave followed right behind him.
“East-end in position,” said Jones as he tapped his throat mic. Stewart and Ames’s voices immediately came in over Jones and Dave’s headsets indicating that they were also in position.
Jones hit the on switch to the IR LED array post he was holding and raised it to head height. “Alright let’s move,” commanded Jones over his throat mic.
The two raced in the direction of the east door, Jones holding the array post out in front of them as they moved.
Dave could see the side door entrance as they approached the residence. He could feel his heart rate increasing with the anticipation of the imminent attack. He also was getting a sick feeling deep in his stomach that this was all going too smoothly.
They made it to the entrance and pressed their backs flat up against the side of the residence. Dave noticed that the exterior surface of the building was made out of painted cement cinder block.
Jones reached into one of his belt pockets and pulled something out of it that Dave couldn’t see. Jones immediately worked his hands over the locked door handle. It had to be some type of explosive clay material thought Dave. When Jones was done working with the material Dave saw Jones place a metal probe into it.