“People die in wars, Miss Benson. If they die, it won’t be in vain.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing this.” Anger coursed through her body. Her heart raced. She didn’t like the three men of Beta Force, but she didn’t necessarily want them to die. Zeke may be wounded in some way, but she didn’t want him or Phoenix to die. This wasn’t right.
“If there’s another team, then I probably know the agents and their handler,” she realized.
“Probably, but you can’t see them. They report to another commanding officer.”
“Can’t see them?”
“They have their own command center, same as you. You’ll be monitoring things from there, watching your team.”
“Watching them what? Die? I can’t believe this.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I truly am. Look, every day I send my troops beyond these walls I know they might not come back. I actually expect that every single time. I don’t want it. But I know it’s a likely scenario because we are in a dangerous place.” He stood up and flattened his shirt. “Who knows, Agent Benson, maybe they’ll get lucky and survive. I wouldn’t count on it, but stranger things have happened. I’d get some sleep if I were you. Morning comes early around here. Big day tomorrow. Just remember, the decoys don’t know they’re decoys. You cannot tell agents Marshall and Underwood they’re not real spies or the entire mission could be jeopardized. Is that clear?”
She nodded absently.
He walked over to the door, opened it and stepped out. “See you at zero five hundred.”
She listened as the click of his boots faded and another door slammed shut. Then she was alone in the silence, her feelings torn like an old sweater.
7
It was still dark outside when Zeke and Phoenix climbed into their deuce and a half.
The truck had been painted blue. Not a bright blue, but not exactly midnight blue either. It was somewhere in between, maybe closer to a navy blue. The thing was covered with random graffiti, some of it in Arabic and some in Farsi. There were strange faces painted on the sides as well, huge swollen ones with bulging eyes. The faces reminded Zeke of cave drawings he’d seen while watching one of his favorite television shows, Ancient Aliens.
“That’s what we’re driving?” he asked Jessica as they marched through the cold morning air. The snow had only sprayed a dusting on the ground, nothing treacherous. During the briefing a few minutes ago, however, they learned that there was snow on the roads up in the mountains and that they would need to be very careful as they made their way through the pass.
“So,” Zeke had said, “on top of all the other fun stuff, we have weather to deal with?”
Jessica didn’t respond to the question. She was still feeling icky about sending these two men to die. Even though she was pretty sure Zeke was a major deadbeat, that didn’t mean she wanted to be responsible for his death.
She’d spent an hour the previous night looking through the files of both men. They weren’t married, had no kids, not many close relatives. Zeke’s mom was still alive, but she hadn’t been the same since the death of his father. Phoenix’s situation was a little more complicated. He’d disappointed his parents by going to work for the government instead of becoming a lawyer like the two of them. They practiced in Atlanta and ran a very successful, very lucrative firm. He’d never wanted any part of that and so had basically been cut out of the family.
None of that excused these two from being here or for Zeke being a jerk. She cursed herself silently for thinking about him again. He was cute, not usually what she went for, but not entirely unattractive. Then again, what she usually went for was no one. She liked being alone, at least that’s what she told herself. There were nights, of course, when she got lonely. She shook off the thoughts and stopped next to their truck.
The engine was already grumbling, spitting out a constant trail of dark smoke from the exhaust. The smell of diesel wafted into the air. The lights of the base muted the stars in the clear sky above, but there were still millions of them to be seen. It was one of the most spectacular views of the sky Zeke and Phoenix had seen in a long time.
A soldier was standing next to the door with an M4 carbine rifle slung over one shoulder.
Jessica turned to Zeke and Phoenix. Zeke tripped over his boot toe and stumbled forward, barely catching himself by sticking his hands out. Unfortunately, he caught himself on Jessica’s breasts and lingered for about a half-second too long.
She shoved him backward.
“I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry. That was an accident.”
She bit her lower lip. She wanted to chew him out, but she knew it was an accident. No one, no matter how idiotic, would do something so brash on purpose. The soldier behind her chuckled to himself.
She looked at the two, covered in winter gear. They had on Kevlar vests under their heavy coats, but none of their other gear looked like military issue. Instead, they were wearing clothes that looked more like what the locals would wear. Their masks stretched up over their ears and covered most of their head, all the way to their foreheads. Their coats, pants, and boots were just like anything an ordinary person would wear on a cold day in Kabul, a mix of various browns.
“The button we discussed in last night’s briefing is under the driver’s seat. It’s portable, so if you run into any trouble and you can manage to escape, you will be able to use it from a distance of at least one thousand meters.”
Zeke snorted.
“What’s so funny, Agent?” Jessica asked, still annoyed at the grab job a moment before.
“Metric,” he said, still giggling. “So dumb.”
She was feeling less and less bad about sending these two to their deaths with every passing second. Good riddance. That’s what she told herself. He was an idiot. Maybe this was just nature’s way of taking out the imbeciles. At least Phoenix had been mostly respectful.
“Good luck,” she said. “I’ll…we’ll be in touch. You can use your radios to reach us. Gary will be monitoring everything.”
She gave a last nod and then walked past them.
Zeke considered saying something about a goodbye kiss for luck, but as he’d just inadvertently grabbed her breasts, that would probably send the wrong message. It would definitely get the wrong response.
The two friends loaded their tactical bags onto the truck and then climbed in. They’d already decided that Zeke would drive and Phoenix would navigate. They set their weapons between the two seats.
The truck's interior was surprisingly warm, almost hot. Of course, it didn’t help that they were wearing what felt like an entire bison on their backs. They shut the doors and Zeke put the thing in gear, stepped on the gas, and the truck began rumbling down the packed gravel.
They drove through the security gate, watched over by a few guards who were armed like the guy that had been by the truck. Phoenix nodded to the men as they passed. Zeke waved casually, blowing a kiss or two for good measure.
“You think they know what we’re doing?” Phoenix asked.
“No. No way. This is a classified mission. Only people with high-level clearance know anything about this.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Zeke turned to his friend and slapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, cheer up, buddy. It’s going to be fine. We’ll get these highly dangerous missiles to the drop-off and then we’ll go home. In and out in a jiffy.” He jerked his thumb to the back where several wooden crates were packed tight.
“Thanks for the confidence boost,” Phoenix joked.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay. Trust me.” Zeke paused as he remembered the question that had popped into his mind at their briefing. Why were they selected for this? It was out of the blue and with no training, it should have been someone else with a little more field experience or even some of the special operations groups from the military. Why not send in some berets on this one or a SEAL unit? A couple of those guys would make as much sense as them. Maybe those groups were to
o good for a delivery job like this. It was the equivalent of babysitting weapons.
He forced himself to let go of those doubts. They weren’t helpful. Besides, they were on a special mission, out in the field. They were real agents now. Sure, he’d like to be somewhere warmer, but he would take what he could get. It wasn’t really that much colder than back home in Nashville. The only difference was how dry the air was. There was almost no humidity, something he would have gladly traded for back in Tennessee.
A dim light crept in over the hills to the east. Sunrise was still not upon them and the farther they got into the mountains, the better Zeke would feel about things. Then again, perhaps that was faulty reasoning considering the road conditions they’d been warned about on the mountain passes.
He didn’t have a ton of experience driving in snow. Nashville got it on an almost yearly basis, but not often and not usually such heavy accumulations. This would be a test of his skills, that much was certain. He doubted Phoenix would be much help in that category. He was from Atlanta and the most driving he’d done in the snow was in the Washington area after he’d move there to join GIC. Zeke was in the same boat, having seen far more snow since moving to the capital than he ever had in his life back home.
The truck left the lights of Bagram behind and soon they were in the barren, rocky landscape of the Afghani plains that skirted along the base of the mountains. Very little dust rolled up from the road as they drove. Most of it was mixed with the light snow that had fallen the night before or earlier that morning.
“Don’t you think this is sort of odd?” Phoenix asked abruptly.
“What? The mission?”
“Yeah, the mission. I get they’re trying to keep these missiles safe, but if they’re so valuable, it would make more sense to have a heavily armed escort. Right?”
“I was thinking that exact same thing. I didn’t want to say anything in the meeting, especially since I’m pretty sure the Major hates me.”
“He’s not the only one,” Phoenix flashed his friend a mischievous grin.
“Are you kidding? She loves me.”
“Yeah, okay. But seriously, this whole thing is fishy. They flew two guys across the globe to deliver some missiles to a base near the Tajikistan border? And apparently, this base is top secret and only a handful of people actually know it exists?”
“That part bothered me, too,” Zeke admitted. “But come on, man. We’re agents. We’re the agents of Beta Force. Just say that out loud. Doesn’t that sound cool?”
“Yeah, up to the point we get killed. Then we’ll be the former agents of Beta Force. And another thing,” he said, “why the name? Beta Force? Are there other forces out there? Is there an Alpha Force?”
“I don’t know. It’s all Greek to me.”
Phoenix turned his head slowly to face his friend again, this time with a disappointed look on his face. “Don’t do that.”
Zeke cracked a goofy smile. “You like what I did there?”
“No. No, I did not.”
“Come on. That was a good one.”
“It really wasn’t.”
“Look, buddy. We’re out of the office. We’re in the field. What did you expect? Of course, it’s all cloak and dagger and bad conditions, mediocre food, and big hulking trucks that drive like tanks. What did you think it was going to be, hanging out in a casino with millions of dollars in chips, a martini in your hand and a smoking-hot woman on your lap? You’re probably going to complain you don’t have a British accent next.”
“Fine, fine,” Phoenix relented. “But something is weird about this entire mission.”
“I agree. Let’s just be careful and get out of this in one piece. Once we get back home, I’m sure they’ll appreciate our work and start giving us better assignments.”
“That casino deal sounds pretty good if they still do that sort of thing.”
“Only in the movies, my friend, only in the movies.”
8
They’d been on the dangerous road for around an hour when they reached the base of the mountains and began to climb toward the snow-covered peaks above. The sun shone brightly, casting a brilliant white glare off the slopes. It was a very different place than back home in Tennessee or in Washington. Trees were sparse at best and the entire area looked like some sort of rocky, alien world. It was spectacular, though, having a rare kind of beauty that could only be appreciated on a planet with incredibly diverse climates.
At the moment, Zeke wasn’t thinking much about any of that. He was just doing his best to keep the truck on the road. He wasn’t sure what he would do if they encountered another vehicle. The snow on the road had been packed down by the few brave travelers who had dared to come through the pass, but it was effectively one lane, maybe one and a half. If they met another vehicle coming down the mountain, it would be tricky to pass without one of them slipping over the edge. Were that to happen, Zeke had already made up his mind he would be the one hugging the inner side of the mountain. The ditch on the right-hand side wasn’t deep, though that could have been an illusion—it was hard to tell with the snow covering it. Still, getting stuck was better than tumbling to their deaths.
It could have been worse, he thought. The mountainside on this section of the road wasn’t like some of the sheer cliffs he’d seen in other places. The Going to the Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park was a real test of any American’s fear of heights while driving. He’d been on that stretch of highway once before. In was a white-knuckle experience that he only wanted to do once. He wasn’t even really afraid of heights, but that road put his nerves on full alert.
This was different. There were no sudden drop-offs, but there also wasn’t much in the way of retaining walls. And the road at Glacier hadn’t been covered in snow like this.
Right on cue, Zeke felt the wheels slip a little and he corrected, easing off on the gas only slightly.
Phoenix picked up the radio to call Gary. “Killer whale, this is polar bear, do you copy? Over.”
“Roger that, polar bear. Read you loud and clear. Over.”
“We’re in the mountains now, making our way up. Should be about an hour away from Zulu. A lot of snow up here so the going is slow, but we should be okay. No signs of ice on the road. Over.”
That was a good thing. Snow, Zeke could drive on. Ice, he didn’t know anyone who could do that safely. It was too unpredictable. Breaks wouldn’t work and the steering would be almost useless. He pushed away visions of spinning down the road and toppling over the edge as Phoenix finished his check-in.
“Roger that, polar bear. We have you on surveillance. We don’t have any signs of trouble for you on our monitors, but we’ll keep a close lookout. Over”
“Appreciate that, Ga…I mean, killer whale. Over.” Phoenix almost slipped and used Gary’s name. It was an innocent mistake, but one he was sure he’d get reamed for if he’d made it. He pictured Jessica, standing behind Gary, watching his every move, listening with her judging ears. He saw her face burn red with anger as Phoenix nearly gave away a real name over the radio. That would have been a big no-no. He was glad he caught himself.
“We’ll talk to you again shortly when you’re over the top. Over and out.”
Phoenix turned down the volume on his radio and went back to watching the road ahead and scanning the slopes above for any signs of trouble.
It was boring work and the monotony nearly put him to sleep several times. Getting up that early hadn’t been a thing for him in a long time. He could be a morning person, in fact, he felt like he was more productive early in the morning. Just not this early.
Around the first turn, Zeke realized that his plan regarding sticking close to the inside of the road quickly went out the window. He guided the big truck around the bend with careful precision and when it was through the curve, the drop off was now on their right.
Still, there was no sign of anyone coming and that made him feel a little better. Only a little.
The
slopes were still dangerous, even if they weren’t sheer cliffs, and with every passing minute, they went higher and higher up the mountain.
The road wound back and forth, turning into the slopes and then away, until the truck was near the top. Zeke and Phoenix were both relieved when they saw the precipices disappear and were greeted with a flatter surface near the top. It stretched wider and gave them a little wiggle room, not that they needed it. No one would be stupid enough to drive this road under these conditions—no one except them.
“Another mile and we’ll be at the top,” Zeke said.
Phoenix was busy looking at a map. “Yeah, from what this map says, we should be past the halfway point. And despite the weather and the road conditions, we’re making pretty good time.”
Zeke nodded, though in his head he wished his friend hadn’t said anything. He didn’t want to jinx it.
It only took fifteen seconds for the curse to strike.
As they neared an outcropping of rocks, Zeke tapped on the brakes. The big truck lumbered to a stop, skidding a few feet on the packed snow just before halting.
Zeke shifted into neutral, applied the brakes, and stared straight ahead through the windshield.
“What in the world?” he asked.
“Sheep,” Phoenix said.
“Big horned sheep. Rams.”
“Commonly known as the Marco Polo sheep,” Phoenix added.
Zeke’s head turned slowly toward his friend. He cast him a look of disbelief blended with confusion, wondering why he knew that random fact.
“What?”
“Marco Polo. You know, the traveler, explorer, and trader. He journeyed all over Central Asia. These sheep do the same thing. They’re nomadic animals, wandering across the mountains as their food supply and weather conditions dictate.”
Zeke’s eyes were wide now, still not sure how any of this applied to their situation. “Yeah, okay…so, these sheep are in our way.”
“So, we just move them.”
Zeke was thinking the same thing. There were eight of the huge animals, all loitering in the middle of the road. They weren’t even doing any sheep-like things, like eating or mating or bucking each other with their humungous horns. They were just…standing around.
Operation Zulu Page 6