Taylor looked puzzled, then thoughtful. “Well, to begin with, there seem to be sonic and pressure sensors in the ground surrounding this base.
So, the only way we can approach it is by using the infrared scope to avoid the sensors. The sensors’ metal cases should make them show up through the scope. But on the other hand, the only time we’re going to be able to use the scope is either at night or just as it’s getting dark. To make things worse, there appears to be a camera right above the guard on the tower that makes a complete turn about once a minute. We must also assume that it has a microphone attached to it. It doesn’t look good.”
“Well, give me a plan.”
“Can’t you see?” Taylor tried to control the frustration in his voice. “There isn’t a solution! If we try to storm the base, they’ll know it the minute we step onto that field, and they’ll seal it up like a bank vault. Our best choice is to leave and try to get a message to the Gulf Central Command.”
“And in the meantime allow these weapons to be used? There has to be another way,” Rob insisted.
“Well, I guess if we sent out a small camouflaged squad with the IR scope and had them get close, say within a hundred yards to the guard tower, they would be in a position to take the guard tower before the people below could seal the hatch. A sniper would have to take out the guard and the camera.”
“Just where would this sniper have to take those shots from?” Wright asked.
“Well, that’s just it,” Taylor shrugged. “He’d have to make those shots from here.”
Wright exploded. “Here? This is a thousand yards away! We don’t even have a scope for any of our rifles! The camera over the guard tower is barely visible from here...”
“You wanted a plan! Well, I’ve given you one! I didn’t invent this situation! I just make plans, remember?”
Rob interceded. “Okay, let’s just all calm down. Let’s just say we can take out the guard and the camera from here. Then what?”
Irritation covered Taylor’s face, and he had started to walk away.
“Captain, you will come back here and explain your plan. Now!”
Taylor stopped and turned slowly, looking Rob directly in the eye. A sober moment passed as he sized up his commander. Then he returned. “It’s all in the timing. It will take a second for the sound of the gunshot to get to the guard and another few seconds for him to react. A good marksman could get two, possibly three, shots off during that time. But it is absolutely imperative that the guard be taken out by one of those shots!”
Rob and Wright looked at each other. Rob looked back at Taylor. “Go on.”
“Well, since it takes a minute for the camera to turn, we can assume that the sniper will have about thirty seconds from the time that the camera is out of the guard’s view until it’s back again. Then, once the camera is destroyed, the squad up near the tower uses the IR scope to avoid the ground sensors and raid the tower. They then go down the tower access hatch and secure the large vault doors located down this trail and open them from the inside. The main body approaches the base from this trail, enters through the front vault doors, and takes the base. End of story.”
Rob and Wright stared blankly at Taylor for a long moment.
Rob’s face turned to stone. “Captain Wright, select four men to accompany you at dusk. Your objective is to use the IR scope to get to within one or two hundred yards of the guard tower. Observe the tower from there. When you see both the guard and the camera destroyed, secure the tower, proceed down the guard hatch, and open the main doors. Our main force will then enter and assist you in securing the nuclear devices.”
Taylor remained quiet, shaking his head in disagreement.
Wright was not so polite. “Who’s going to make those shots?“
”You said yourself that they are impossible shots, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did. So once again I ask you, who is going to make those shots?”
Rob and Wright stood eye to eye.
Then Rock interrupted. “The colonel will.”
Wright rolled his eyes and shook his head, but Rock would not be put off. “Listen to me! I saw him hit two guards in a tower at a hundred and twenty-five yards, then turn a hundred and eighty degrees to shoot two more at a hundred and twenty-five yards during our escape. That was six shots in four seconds. Listen, Captain, it was six shots, and four guards in four seconds! He can do it! I know he can.”
Wright was only mildly reassured. “Let me put it this way. I will be out in the middle of that open field with a lightly armed squad. If you don’t kill that guard within the first few seconds, he’s going to sound an alarm. When that happens, they’ll button that place up, send out their guards, and we’ll be just a bunch of sitting ducks. Then it won’t take long for reinforcements to arrive and eliminate the rest of you.”
Rob swallowed hard and looked down at the ground. “What do you suggest, Captain?”
“I don’t know. We just don’t have the people or the resources to make this work.”
Rob’s eyebrows raised. “There’s no one else, Captain. We’re all there is! Those nukes in there are going to be used on somebody. It may be Israeli or American cities, and it may be on forces south of us, but one thing is certain: hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people are going to die if we do nothing! We owe it to those people to at least die trying to do something. We owe it to ourselves to... To be Marines!”
Silence filled the air.
“You don’t play fair. I’ll take my four men, and... I want Rock.” Wright turned to leave, then stopped and looked at Rob. “Sir, don’t miss!”
As Wright walked away with Rock to prepare his men, he didn’t hear Rob answer quietly, “I won’t.”
Logan studied the area from a small hill as he listened to Rob and the other Marines talk. Why had he never heard of this place? Was it possible that Israeli intelligence could have missed something as important as this? Their operatives in Iraq had received no information at all concerning nuclear weapons, and if these men failed, how could he get this information to Israeli authorities? The chances of this mission being successful was... well, there was none.
He looked back toward the trucks and saw Marie playing with her children. He shook his head and closed his eyes momentarily. He had no choice. He must kidnap Marie. He would head north and join up with a local tribe. Once there, he could get help to get back to Israel. Israel’s air force could destroy this bunker, and the codes in Marie’s head would be useful in penetrating the Iraqi network.
Samarra Underground Missile Staging Compound
Ten miles southeast of Samarra, Iraq
Wright, Rock, and four other soldiers left early in the afternoon. Covered in a homemade camouflage of leaves and weeds, they crawled slowly on their stomachs toward the tower. Wright used the IR scope to locate and avoid the sensors while the others followed directly behind him. Silence was paramount since even a sneeze could alerted the guards though the sonic sensors. To further complicate matters, the IR scope was not designed to operate in the daytime. But with the skill of a master, Wright continued his insertion toward the guard tower.
Shortly before dusk, he was in position about one hundred and twenty-five yards away from the tower. From his position, he could make out every detail of the tower, guard, and camera with his binoculars. The tower was fully camouflaged and had a platform about fifteen feet off the ground. Taylor was right about several things. The camera was equipped with a microphone, making it impossible for them to take the shots from his position without a silencer on the rifle. However, he doubted that the microphone was sensitive enough pick up a shot made a thousand yards away.
He considered trying to raid the tower, but the last hundred yards to the tower were open, and they could be quickly stopped. If they waited until dark, it would make no difference since it appeared that every few feet of the remaining distance was covered with the pressure sensors. Clearly the best solution was to take out the guard first at ex
treme range when the camera was out of view and unlikely to pick up the sound of the shot. Then, just as Taylor suggested, they would take out the camera.
Wright studied the tower. There was a hatch below it that led to some underground compartment, and the hatch was open. Now, all he had to do was watch and wait.
Rob looked at Taylor. “Do you think they’re in position yet?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t been able to see them for over two hours now. It’s getting close to dusk. I don’t think we should wait any longer.”
Rob had been lying on the ground with binoculars studying the tower and the terrain around it for over an hour. “I agree.”
Taylor took the binoculars and sat on the ground next to where Rob laid preparing his rifle. The AK-47, with its larger caliber of cartridge had the best chance of killing someone at a thousand yards, so that is what he chose to use. “One more time, how much drop is there to a bullet at a thousand yards?”
“The book says eight feet. I’m guessing that the tower is about twenty feet tall overall, so you can use that as a frame of reference.”
“I can hardly see the tower,” Rob muttered.
“What’s that?”
Rob just shook his head, giving all of his concentration to what may be the most important shots in history. If he missed and their attack was compromised, millions of people could be killed by those nuclear weapons.
Sweat ran down Rob’s face on an otherwise cool evening. An eerie silence fell as everyone watched and waited. Rob knew that, hundreds of yards ahead, six soldiers lay belly down, watching the tower in nerve-racking anticipation. Then, suddenly, a shot sounded, and Rob’s rifle recoiled in his arms.
“Ten feet low and six feet to the left!” Taylor shouted.
Rob adjusted his position slightly. The guard on the tower turned around to look down at the impact he heard below him when the sound of the gunshot reached his ears. He instantly lifted his binoculars and looked in the direction of the sound.
Taylor found himself looking into the binoculars of the guard looking back at him. “He sees us! Take the shot! Take the shot!”
On the ground in front of the tower, the soldiers nervously watched the events unfolding in front of them. Wright didn’t hear the shot, but he saw the impact of the bullet at the base of the tower from where he lay. He saw the guard turn...
He heard Rock behind him whispering, “Take the shot, Captain. We can get to the hatch before it closes!”
“No! We stick to the plan.” Wright clutched his gun tightly and prepared to defend himself. This idea was doomed from the start, he thought. He saw the guard look through his binoculars, then turn around and reach for something. He lifted his rifle and took aim, but before he could pull the trigger, a small red spot appeared on the guard’s back, and he fell backward onto the guard rail. A second later, he heard the shot!
“Got ‘em!” Taylor screamed. Then, just as suddenly, the Captain lost his smile.
The camera was turning back around.
Rob fired again.
“Colonel! The bullet hit six foot low and two feet to the right of the camera. You have about ten seconds until the dead guard’s in view of the camera. Take your shot!”
Rob moved his rifle slightly and fired again.
“Miss. Camera will see the guard in ten seconds.”
Rob fired again.
Taylor sounded more desperate. “Miss. Two feet low and six inches to the left. You’ve got five seconds.”
Far ahead and just below the guard tower, Wright and his men were moving ahead. They were now less than a hundred yards from the tower, and they could barely hear the noise of the missed shots. Wright pulled his eye away from the IR scope’s eyepiece long enough to glance toward the hatch. It was still open! Perhaps the microphone on the camera had not picked up the sound of the faint gunfire.
Logan walked over to the hummer. Marie was sitting in the passenger seat with the children sleeping in the back. Her head leaned back on the seat, and she appeared to be dozing. She never even noticed him in the driver’s seat until he started the hummer. Behind her, she heard the sound of a single shot.
“What are you doing?” Marie was startled as the hummer began to leave.
He said nothing.
“Stop this jeep right now!”
He turned toward her. “It’s not a jeep, Marie. It’s a hummer.”
“I don’t care what you call it! Stop now!”
“Marie, I need your help.”
“Well, this is sure a funny way of asking for it! Now stop!”
“Just listen to me, Marie. What Rob was trying to do back there is impossible. He was doing the best he could, but he doesn’t have a prayer in succeeding.”
“I’ve heard that over and over again about my husband during the past few weeks, and so have you.”
He motioned to her with his hand. “Please. Just hear me out. By now there are soldiers swarming all over back there, and everyone is either dead or captured.”
“I don’t believe you.” She looked back over her shoulder. “Take me back now!”
“I can’t, Marie. I need you too much. I need those codes in your head.”
“Well, stop, and I’ll write them all down for you. You don’t have to do this.”
“Please understand. I can’t take the chance. Millions of lives are at stake here. Dozens of Israeli cities can be destroyed if I’m not successful. I can’t take the chance of you giving me fictitious information. There’s just too much at stake.”
“Well, what makes you think I won’t do that anyway?”
“I have your kids.”
“You’re such a jerk, Logan. I can’t believe I ever liked you.”
“I’m just doing my job, Marie. I don’t mean you any harm.”
“But you’ll hurt my children if I don’t cooperate, right?”
“Your children are just insurance, that’s all.”
“Well, you’re wrong. They’re just as important as the millions of people you care about. But you’re not interested in people as individuals, are you? Just as numbers. I should never have kept your secret. I should have told Rob everything.”
He shook his head. “I don’t like this any more than you...”
“You filthy liar! You don’t care about anything but your job! I’ve seen how you watch my husband and the other soldiers struggle for the answers when you know the answers and won’t speak up! You think you’re a patriot, but you don’t know the first thing about honor! Why don’t you take some lessons from Rob? He could teach you what real courage is all about. You make me sick, you lousy coward.”
He slammed on the brakes. “You think I like my job? I don’t have the luxury of being a Rob Anderson, of being a hero and getting all the glory! Yes, I may be a low-life to you, but that’s what my country requires, and that’s what I’ll give them. To my country, I’m every bit as much a hero as Rob!”
“How dare you dishonor my husband by comparing yourself to him! My husband would never sacrifice one life for another unless it was his own. But you? The only life you’re willing to sacrifice is someone else’s. You always stand in the background and let Rob do all the sacrificing, and you have the audacity to compare yourself to him! The only thing you’re ever willing to save is your own lousy hide! You don’t know what being a hero is!”
“And you do?”
“Well, of course I do! My husband is one! Why don’t you take a good look at a real hero? He’s got heart! Not the cold, methodical machinery you have. He’s got soul, life, and kindness. His heart is true, something that you couldn’t begin to understand. He’s a good man, and a good man would never put one life over another even if it were a million lives. A good man understands the value in every single life. But that’s not something that I expect you to ever understand.”
“Stop it, Marie.”
“You stop it! You’ve threatened to hurt my children if I don’t cooperate, and that’s something I can never forgive! You know,
it was a communist who wrote ‘the end justifies the means.’ Is this really what they taught you in your military? I just can’t believe that you are a representative of the nation of Israel.”
“You don’t understand.” He sounded less than confident.
She laughed sarcastically. “I understand that your idea of heroism is kidnapping a woman and her children. I can’t wait to find out what you think bravery is. I only hope I’m alive to see what Rob does to you when he catches you.” Tears filled her eyes. “I can’t believe I ever tried to help you.”
“I don’t have any choice, Marie.”
“There’s always a choice.” She paused. She had an idea. “Can we make a deal?”
Ron Schwartz - The Griffins Heart.txt Page 20