“Would you two shut up?” Blue said and pointed off into the distance.
We heard something rustling out in the jungle.
I’d heard all kinds of noises coming from the jungle when I’d been out here before. I’d been told, if you hear it, it’s probably not a hunting predator.
The noises in the jungle didn’t stop, but they did keep Brown quiet. Black and Red returned a couple hours later and Green and Blue took their place. They got a little more sleep than the rest of us because we let them sleep until right before sunrise.
After everyone was up and moving around Blue pulled out his map.
“We’ve only got a couple miles to cover but it’s thick out there. The grounds are surrounded by a wall that are guarded by only two men. We are approaching from the south and the airstrip is on the north end of the compound so we’ll have to skirt around. The airfield should be the easiest target to secure because it doesn’t have walls. The drone only picked up five heat signatures on the airstrip and they stayed confined to the hangar. Once we’ve secured the hangar, we can put Grey here,” He pointed to the top of the hangar. It was a Quonset type building with the rounded walls. We’d packed climbing spikes and other climbing gear I’d use to make my ascent and descent.
“I’ve equipped your rifle with a suppressor and thermal scope,” he told me. “You should be able to see any heat signatures inside the walls so you can alert us to any threats we might not see. We’re still not sure how many men Ruiz keeps on the premises. We didn't have enough time to figure out the pattern. Our last check there were ten additional bodies outside the airstrip. That doesn’t mean there will still be that same number when we arrive.”
He went over the wall breaching plan to make sure we were all aware of what should happen.
I pulled my machete out of my pack and took a place in the middle of the men. I’d let them fight through the spider webs for me.
Within half an hour I was drenched with sweat and it wasn’t all from the humidity. My shoulder was killing me. I remembered the pain in my shoulder the first time I’d marched to the cabin with Black. I actually thought I might be in Hell during that march, but if that was Hell I had no idea what kind of horrible place this was. Army Boy’s punch had done a number on my shoulder, but a bullet wound and the strain from being dislocated was so much worse.
I started to let myself drift away with my thoughts and just followed the footfalls ahead of me until I found a spider web with my face. I guess they were saving some for me after all.
By the time we reached the outskirts of Ruiz’s place, I didn’t know if my shoulder could take much more and I still had a climb ahead of me.
We made our way through the trees to the northern side of the compound and found the airstrip. Green took a moment to scan the area with his own handheld thermal scope.
“Still only five in the hangar. They’re gathered near the back door,” he whispered.
We made our way across the open area to the back of the hangar as quickly and quietly as we could.
Brown and Black took up positions on either side of the door and Red moved in to open it. He waited until everyone was in position and opened the door as quickly as he could and rushed in with his weapon drawn. Brown and Black followed right behind him with their weapons drawn then Green went in and finally Blue and then me. It moved very fast and all the targets were on the ground with their hands on the backs of their heads before I entered. Each of my partners chose a man and bound their hands behind them with plastic zip ties.
I noticed the hangar was empty of aircraft.
“That's not a good sign,” I pointed out the emptiness of the building.
“Nope,” Black said.
“Get them situated,” Blue pointed at the men still lying on the floor. “I’ll make sure Grey gets up top,” he said and led me back outside.
“Get your gear on,” he said.
I was already rummaging through my pack. It took me less than a minute to get the spikes lashed to my legs, pull out my rope, and start my climb. I made sure my rifle was slung over my body instead of just one shoulder. I knew I wouldn’t be able to fight with it on the way up.
The spikes sunk into the metal of the building easily. It worried me. I was afraid the metal might not be thick enough to hold my weight so I moved as fast as I could.
Once I was at the top I attached the rope and let it fall back to the ground. Blue gave it a hard tug and when it didn’t come lose he gave me a thumbs up and went back inside the hangar. I pulled the rope back up and went prone with my rifle. I started scanning the buildings behind the walls about 1000 yards away.
“Report,” I heard Blue’s voice in my ear.
“Only three heat signatures. All inside the main building. No one on the wall. One body on the second floor and two on the first floor.”
All was quiet for about five minutes. I kept scanning the area and finally saw my team enter my view. Even with all the gear and watching through the thermal I was able to tell who was who by the way they moved and their individual body shapes.
I watched Green scan the area with his own thermal and wondered why I was even here. They’d just given me a job to keep me quiet. Some things never change.
The men moved like a small swarm. It was like watching a choreographed dance. Two men always took opposite sides of the door while another breached then they all moved in. Within a minute, they had the two men on the first floor secured.
“Looks like the man on the second floor has taken up arms,” I said as I saw the figure rummage around in the room and come up holding something in both hands.
“He’s moving your direction,” I said. “Closest to Brown.”
The men had spread out and I watched as Brown came upon the armed man first. I imagined him yelling at him to drop his weapon as he held his own weapon up. My heart beat faster and I willed the armed man not to pull the trigger. Then I watched Brown move faster than I’d ever seen him move. He disarmed the man and had him down before any of the other men joined him.
“Area secure,” Blue’s voice came through my earpiece. “Stay on station and report any new developments.”
I didn’t move but watched as my partners marched the three men toward the hangar.
I continued my watch for half an hour before I called in my all clear report. Blue’s voice answered a curt acknowledgement and I focused on keeping watch for the next half an hour.
Just as I was about to call in my next report, I heard the main hangar door being opened.
A man ran from the front of the building and I followed with my rifle, waiting for instruction. His hands were no longer bound and he was running as fast as he could with his arms pumping the air. When no orders came through my headpiece I took the shot. The man didn’t even stumble after I hit him, he simply dropped.
I was getting used to firing a weapon with a suppressor and not hearing the loud pop, but the kick was still there. Even though my injured shoulder was free of the weapon, the jolt sent sharp pains radiating through my entire left side. Had my right shoulder been injured I might not have recovered from the shot.
“Report?” I said into my microphone trying to mask my pain. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears and it wasn’t only from the sharp pains I was fighting, but my adrenaline was peaking. If men were running from the hangar had my partners lost control of the situation?
“Stand firm,” Blue’s voice came back to me.
Not more than fifteen minutes passed before I got another runner. This time the man didn’t run straight toward the trees. Instead, he ran from the hanger in a zigzag pattern, looking around in a panic. I let him get a little farther than the first man before I exhaled and finished it.
“Report,” I said with a little apprehension in my voice. What was going on down there? How were men getting away from them?
Again he told me to stand firm.
Eventually, another man came out of the hangar. This time there was no running. Instead, he
was down on all fours being kicked out of the hangar by Black’s boot with Red following close behind yelling at him in Spanish to leave. Run.
The man pleaded as he was forced to crawl away from the hangar. Black and Red escorted him several yards away and turned back toward me. Red gave me a slight nod and I pulled my trigger. The man didn’t have far to go since he was already on his knees.
“Next!” Red said and I saw another man being pushed out of the hangar. He was pleading for his life.
“I’ll tell you where you can find him,” he said as he tried to duck back into the hangar.
“Come here,” Red gestured to the ground in front of him.
The man walked toward my partners with hesitation.
“Talk,” Red said when the prisoner finally closed the distance.
“He’s at the refinery,” he said.
“Refinery?” Red asked.
The man nodded vigorously.
They were keeping Will at the refinery? He was probably in one of the neighboring cells of the one they kept me in. I could have had him out before White had been killed.
“I have the location,” I said excitedly into my microphone.
Black manhandled the prisoner into turning around and zip tied his hands again, then marched him back into the hangar.
I heard the hangar door slide down and resumed my watch.
Less than two minutes later I saw Blue exit the hangar.
“Rope,” he called up.
I let the rope slide down and he climbed up.
“So far this mission is a bust unless you have some intel. Ruiz wasn’t at the main house. You said you know where this refinery is?” He asked after taking a prone position next to me.
“Yeah. It’s a drug refinery posing as an oil refinery. My map’s in my pack.” I started to reach for it.
“You go down and I’ll stay here. They’re expecting you,” he said.
I secured my weapon and slid down the rope.
Once inside I saw the men still had everything under control. The prisoners were spaced evenly against one wall and Black was standing guard not far away.
Red, Green, and Brown were standing around a table further down the same wall.
Green hiked his head indicating I should join them.
When I reached the table, I saw they had a map laid out.
“You said you know where this refinery is,” Green said and waited for me to point it out on the map.
“Tell us what you know,” he said as soon as I pointed it out.
“It’s a drug refinery that’s disguised as an oil refinery. I was on the security team for three months,” I said.
“You think you could get us in?” Green asked.
“Are you sure this is where they’re holding Will?” I asked.
“We’re going after Ruiz. Why would they have Will at a refinery?”
“This is where they held me for a couple days. They have holding cells,” I said. “I might have been in a cell right next to Will.”
“Maybe he is here,” Brown said. “It wouldn’t be the first time Ruiz and Posner helped each other out.”
“How many men at the refinery?” Green asked me.
“There’s probably over a hundred workers and, at least, thirty security. We worked in shifts.”
Green pulled out a mid-sized tablet and called up some satellite pictures of the area.
“I’ll go over this with Grey. You call and get four teams here as soon as you can,” he told Red.
“We have until our men show up to plan this, but that’s more time than we took with this fiasco,” he said. “Is this the refinery?”
“Yes. But I know of a way in that allows for plenty of cover.”
I pointed out the small airstrip that was connected to the refinery with an underground tunnel and explained the layout to Green.
“Handy.” He smiled.
Chapter Twenty-Three
WITH THE USE OF GREEN’S tablet and my memory, we created a plan within a couple hours. Hopefully, by this time tomorrow, we’d have Will back.
Since the second they’d told me Will was alive, I’d been careful with the level of hope I allowed to surface. It wasn’t that I had all that much faith in Posner’s ability to keep him hidden but because everything had been going wrong for a long time. It didn’t seem possible I might see him again. I caught myself wishing it was White we were going to retrieve. I stopped myself from regretting it was Will and not White and made myself be happy I’d get at least one of the brothers back.
“I’m going to go relieve Blue so you can fill him in,” I said and walked outside.
“Trade me places?” I called up to Blue.
He let the rope slide down and I climbed up with my rifle.
“Green can fill you in on the plan,” I said.
Blue nodded and left me alone on top of the hangar to keep watch.
My thoughts centered around the plan for the next two hours. I went over it inside my head repeatedly adding in problems and missteps so I’d be sure I was prepared for any outcome.
Green had made it clear we needed to secure Ruiz immediately and then we’d check the holding cells. He didn’t expect much resistance from the workers I’d described, but I wasn’t convinced we could just waltz in and not expect any resistance from them.
I knew we’d be in a position to take control of the holding cells before headquarters, where we suspected Ruiz would be at that time of night, so I rallied to do that first. Green had to remind me we had absolutely no intel indicating Will was being held at the refinery. My level of certainty played no part in this. Our only hope was to get our hands on Ruiz. Even he was a long shot in locating Will. In reality, he was nothing but a stepping stone after we’d lost all other leads.
He used the word lost, but I reminded him that I’d taken them away. If I was truthful with myself I should be thankful they were allowing me back into the fold, even in the smallest way. I’d been the reason nothing had been working out for them and their retrieval.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself and start proving you can fix this.
I was determined to get Will back.
Blue exited the hangar shortly after I had this last thought. He climbed up and said he’d relieve me of my duty again so I could get some sleep. Our backup would be arriving in a few hours and I should take advantage of it.
I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep, but I agreed. Once inside I saw Brown and Black napping in the middle of the hangar using their packs for pillows.
“Good,” Green said. “We can get some sleep now.”
He walked over to the two sleeping men and woke them with nudges to the bottoms of their boots then laid down on his own pack. Red followed his lead as soon as Black and Brown had joined me near the prisoners.
“We’ll wake you when it’s time,” Brown said.
I found the most comfortable piece of concrete I could and laid down with my head on my pack and my rifle across my chest.
A SLIGHT NUDGE TO THE BOTTOM of my boot woke me out of a sound sleep. I woke up surprised I'd actually been sleeping. I was up and moving around before either Green or Red and rolled my arm around in a couple circles. My shoulder was stiff and the movements were painful, but I had to do it.
Blue came up and helped me stretch it farther than I could without help.
“Did you bring some painkillers?” he asked.
“Yeah. Ibuprofen.” I said.
“Take them.”
He reached into his pack and pulled out a bottle of water and tossed it to me.
“Don’t hog my water,” he said as he watched me dig for the bottle of pills in my pack.
I downed the ibuprofen with a small swig of his water and then brought it back to him.
“Thanks,” I said. “Why aren’t you up top?”
“Our guys should be landing in less than two minutes,” he said. “We’re going to set up a team here while they refuel and then we’re out of here.”
Just a
s predicted, less than two minutes later I heard a plane landing. I picked up my pack and rifle and followed my partners outside.
We got outside in time to see the plane taxiing back toward the hangar. When it came to a complete stop, I watched as more than twenty men filed out and stood facing us in a straight line just outside the plane.
“Commander Grey,” Sam and the rest of the men stood at attention as he addressed me.
“Sam?”
One of the last times I'd seen Sam had been on Carmen’s Retreat, the yacht White had brought me on to do the Jamaican job where I captured Alan on film. Not only did Sam's presence catch me off guard, so did his attitude.
I looked at my partners who also stood at attention facing the line of men.
Brown said, under his breath, “At ease, say at ease.”
“At ease,” I repeated and all the men dropped the stance and got to work. Some of them ran for the tanker parked near the hangar to refuel the plane. Others stood near the plane while Red and Green went over to brief them. Sam came up to me and grabbed me tight.
I winced and let out a groan as he squeezed. The pain in my shoulder was almost over the top after all the abuse it had taken lately.
“Hey dude,” Brown said. “Careful. Our girl’s got a hole in her shoulder from a bullet.”
“Oh shit. Sorry,” Sam said as he let go of me.
“Nice to see you, Sam,” I said when I caught my breath. “What was that all about?”
“Oh. Sorry again. I know you don't like that kind of show but you haven’t addressed your teams for months and we thought we’d give you a proper welcome back,” he said.
“You guys called in my teams?”
“Of course,” Black said.
“We are the best of White and Associates,” Sam said.
Each of my partners had their own specialties and teams to match. For example, Brown was in charge of our pilots because he was our main pilot. I'd been asked to assemble our elite teams. The best of our men were mine and I’d just been reminded of that in the best way possible. I wore my pride openly as I took them all in.
I smiled up at Sam and then reached up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Thanks,” I said. “Can I board?”
Edge of Grey Page 20