by Gary Hickman
Webb furrowed his brow and gave a long glance to Priest, who returned the concerned look. Madison continued, “With the intel we have received, the players in this arena are Pakistan, Palestine, and Iran. There has been some secondary intel that countries like Russia and China are in the mix as supporters, but we have not confirmed that. What makes this highly unusual is that these three countries have agreed to join. The desired outcome for the three is the same, but the intended target is different for each. The targets identified for each country are: Pakistan’s target is India. It’s no secret there has been a feud here for decades. Palestine’s target is easiest to figure out.”
“Israel,” Abarra offered.
“Correct. They have wanted Israel removed off the face of the earth for decades. Finally, we have Iran. Who is their target, you may ask? All of us infidels, plus their Muslim neighbors. They want to target the different sects of Islam who they think are not in the will of Allah. Their primary targets right now are Afghanistan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.”
Webb spoke up, “I assume we are not talking about military power? There is no way these countries have enough troops or firepower to take over these adversarial countries. So, I guess they are looking at other ways?”
“Maybe chemical or biological,” Priest added.
Madison continued, “They are conducting experiments in a “neutral country” hoping to throw us off. We are tracking them and found a working compound in Hakkari, Turkey, next to the Iran/Iraq border.”
“So, I assume we want to destroy the facility and everything associated? Are we to gain any intel there?” Webb said.
“The intel we have alludes to them working on a virus that has various effects on people. We intercepted communications implying they may not want the complete destruction of the people in the areas.”
Priest piped up, “They don’t want to obliterate all the people, so they want to take prisoners?”
Madison continued, “Correct. So, this virus, chemical weapon, medical cocktail, whatever you want to call it, apparently can make people subservient. How it achieves this, we don’t know. We tried to get an asset inside, but they have made this operation tight and exclusive. They aren’t letting many people in the clubhouse on this one. We have heard rumors that they have test subjects, but we have no visual evidence of this. Oh, the other bit of wonderful news. As of 19:38 hours last night, the whole sight went dark. No activity, no lights or communications, period.”
“So, we are to go into the target area with almost no intel, contemporaneous communications, and no layout of the interior of any building?” Webb inquired
“Justo en la boca del infierno?” Abarra sarcastically uttered.
“Pretty much,” Madison replied. All three men sitting at the conference table looked at one another with that “should have seen this coming,” look. Madison caught the glances but said nothing. “All the mission requirements will be briefed on the flight to your objective. As far as the mission criteria, it’s simple, make it to the lab area, assess the situation, infiltrate the facility, secure the formula and any other intel, then exfil. You will encounter enemy combatants all over the compound and should engage appropriately. Questions?”
CHAPTER 2
Hakkari, Turkey:
The night was devoid of light and the cloud cover blocked any limited moonlight that peeked through. The landscape of Hakkari was mountainous terrain with lots of rocks and desolate vegetation. The choice of putting the furtive research facility here was one of deception and pretext. That the perceived outcome of the research was not to benefit any of the governments of the players involved alluded to a volatile situation. To base their research in a “neutral” country separate from any of the target countries was a calculated decision. If any of the home countries of the terrorists involved found out about their plan, they would surely stop them and there is no telling what would happen to them.
The special ops Blackhawk with the stealth rotors silently navigated the hilly terrain end route to the infill point, 3 klicks SW of the Hakkâri facility.
Webb keyed his comms to the team. “Ok, we’re 10 minutes out. Let’s go over it one more time. Neville and Shin, you will take up Overwatch position on the designated high ground, directly east of the facility. Give us some initial surveillance on personnel and validation of the facility layout. The rest of us will infiltrate in a three-prong approach. Three, six, and nine o’clock. Watch your crossfire and check your targets. Doc and I will take three o’clock and provide cover and suppressive fire if needed. Priest and Shaw, you two will enter from nine o’clock and will be the breech team. Abarra and Myles, you guys will be at the six o’clock position and will stay in cover to provide support and any silent elimination of enemies who show up late for the party. Questions?”
The Blackhawk came in silent and smooth. It hovered about 50 feet from the ground, just low enough that it was hidden by a couple of hill peaks. The crew chief dropped the rope outside the left door. Webb and Myles, fast roped out first, touched down on the ground, pivoted to a prone position, and started providing support while the others exited the Blackhawk. Priest and Shaw were out last. Priest laid his comms, “We’re down. All personnel on site.” Upon the notification, the Blackhawk crew took off to await exfil notification.
The facility was like most others in this region. Plain bunker-looking buildings scattered about the compound. The primary research facility was toward the rear of the compound, almost backed up against a hill. Other various buildings were also on the compound to include a barracks to the east of the research facility. This is where Webb and Doc posted in case enemy soldiers came pouring out. So far, it’s been quiet. To the left of the research facility was a maintenance building and facility support storage. “Ok, maintain radio silence until we get a sit rep from Overlord,” Webb whispered.
Moments later, “Overlord to team, do you copy?”
“Copy, Overlord,” Webb replied.
“Things look quiet; unnervingly so. I see no personnel, no activity, no utilities in operation. Nothing,” Neville advised.
Priest keyed, “Are we sure our intel is fresh?”
“I confirmed before our last operational briefing that we had the latest intel.” Webb answered.
“Well, we will not be confirming squat unless we get moving. Breech team is heading in. Watch our ass, Overlord.” Priest continued.
“We’re on it. Proceed.”
Priest and Shaw made their way to the research facility front. Peering through the dark glass, Priest saw nothing. He dropped his NVG’s to the front of his helmet. As the green light activated, he tried to make out the inside layout of the facility. The front was a typical lobby with a front desk, either reception or security. There were two armchairs with a sofa in between them, all surrounding a large coffee table. There was a bank of elevators on the far wall to the right of the front desk.
Priest keyed his comms, “The front lobby is dark; no personnel. The power appears to be out. I don’t see any standby lights on, nothing on the computers at the front desk, or the call buttons on the elevators. I don’t even see any emergency lights on. Overlord, do you see any signs of life or power at all?”
“Negative. No ground lights, street lights, nothing. The entire facility looks dead.”
“Copy that,” Webb added. “Priest, proceed cautiously. Could be an ambush, but no power is calling too much attention to the scene if they want to spring something.”
“Copy that.” Priest tried the front door, and it was open. Shaw and Priest exchanged quizzical looks and proceeded on.
Inside, the lobby was eerily quiet. Even as experts of stealth, it still seemed like their footfalls sounded like they were stomping through like a full-size marching band. Se
veral long moments passed when Priest’s voice came over the comms. “First floor is clear. No personnel so far, and it looks like most of the equipment was left.”
“Copy that,” Webb acknowledged.
Abarra silently whispered to Myles, “This isn’t right. Something is off. A full functioning lab, and now there is nothing?”
“Heading down to the next level,” came Priest’s voice.
After a monotonous process of clearing rooms and levels, Priest and Shaw ended up at the main research facility lab. They came to two enormous steel doors with 12”X12” windows in each, about five feet high.
Shaw looked through the left window into the lab. “The lab space looks empty, still no power visible feeding any of the equipment.”
“Let’s take a look,” Priest replied.
Shaw entered first and took up cover to the left, and Priest covered to the right. The lab was a large room with various working counters laid out in a row in the middle of the room. Along each wall were glass-door cabinets containing various beakers, bottles, and other research materials. The left and right sides of the room were desks situated with computers and servers, which all were powered off.
Shaw and Priest separated from each other to inspect the computers and servers on opposite sides of the lab. Priest updated the Team, “We are in the main lab facility and all the hard drives from the computers and servers are missing. We have also cleared the drawers and filing cabinets. There is absolutely nothing here. They have cleaned everything out. This place is completely sanitized. The intel is shit.”
Webb shouted, “Ok, get the hell out of there, I don’t like it. This mission is fucked!”
“Copy that!” Priest and Shaw made it to the second-floor landing, and as they were silently making their way to exit the building, they stopped in their tracks.
“Wait…you hear that?” Shaw called. “It sounds like shuffling.”
“Shit, it does. Stand by; we may have someone in the facility. Maintain silence until further notice,” Priest said.
Shaw and Priest made their way out of the stairwell into the second-level hallway. The dark hallway was long with multiple doors on each side. They inched their way down the hall. Priest shouldered his M4 at the ready with Shaw checking his M48. They strained to hear the sound they heard in the stairwell. At first, nothing. Then they heard the shuffling again. Then they heard a noise… an unfamiliar noise.
“What the hell is that?” whispered Shaw.
“I don’t know. I can’t place it. It almost sounds like a clicking.”
“Yeah, it’s creepy.”
Priest and Shaw were on their way down the hallway towards the sound. “Click, click… click, click” Shaw motioned toward the fourth door on the left. They set up on each side of the door. “Click, click… click, click”? The sound was louder now, and the cadence that reminded them of the Tick-Tock sound of a clock.
Priest give the signal to breech quietly. Shaw tried the door, and it is unlocked. “Click, click… click, click. “He slowly opened the door to a medium-size conference room. The NVG’s washed the room in an eerie green tint as they search for the source of the sound.
They spotted a figure sitting in a chair with its back to them at the end of the conference table. Priest noticed that the figure’s head was tilting from side to side in unison with the click-click sound…...click-click.
Shaw moved silently up to the figure, slowly swung the chair around, and backed away. In the chair sat a man. His blood-covered face wearing an oversized smile. He tilted his head to one side, then the other side while continuing to make the clicking sound. He was missing his left eye, which is just a bloody socket.
He met eyes with Shaw and then lunged out of his chair with an ear-piercing scream. The movement startled Shaw at first, but Shaw, being trained in hand-to-hand combat, threw a palm strike to the man’s face. The strike caused the man to stumble back.
Shaw then raised his M48 and fired a three-round burst right in the man’s face. The rounds exploded out the back of the man’s head, taking off the right side of his skull. Brain matter slid out of his skull and splattered on the ground. The rest of the man’s body hit the floor a split second later. “Holy shit,” Shaw barked. “Never seen nothing like that.”
“Who has?” Priest searched the body for identification and found a door access key with the man’s picture… Dr. Ahmadi. “He is one of the missing biologists from Pakistan.”
“What the hell is he doing all the way over here in Turkey?” Shaw asked
“Spider, we have a situation. This op is FUBAR! We need to beat feet,” Priest barked into his squad comms.
“Copy that, Father. Make your way out and we’ll cover your six. Bacardi, get us an Uber, ASAP. Time to blow this popsicle stand. Everyone on me.”
Priest and Shaw exited the facility after a few moments and posted up on Webb.
He looked at both men, “Sit rep.”
Priest chimed in first, “The facility is clean… sanitized. No documentation, no hard drives, no USB’s, nothing.”
Abarra spoke next, “Exfil in 20. We will just need to pop smoke.”
“Got it. What is the deal with the doctor in the…”? Webb trailed off. He heard faint clicking noises. Not just one, but many. By the look on the faces of the rest of the team, they heard it too.
Just then, the comms activated, “Spider, this is Overlord.”
“Go ahead.”
“It looks like there are a dozen civilians coming your way.”
“Which direction?”
“Rock Around the Clock Spider, every direction. They don’t seem to move with a purpose. Instead, they seem to be listening. Almost seems like they aren’t all there. Like they are on something.”
Priest gave Webb a serious look, “If these civilians are anything like the doctor we encountered, this is going to hit like a shit storm.”
“I’m not one to shoot civilians without cause.” Abarra exclaimed.
Priest looked at Abarra with concern, “Yeah, me neither, but the thing we encountered was not a mild-mannered doctor. That thing was a raging beast without thought, remorse, or a trace of humanity. Overlord, zoom in on one civilian and give me a behavior read.”
“Copy. Ok, female civilian approaching to your 11 o’clock. 200 yards. She is covered in blood, head to toe. Eyes seem unfocused at the moment. She is moving her head from side to side. She seems to make some sound with her tongue, but obviously I am too far away to hear.”
“That is the fucking clicking noise we heard the doctor making. Along with the abnormal head movements,” Priest whispered.
Webb keyed, “Does it look like she is in shock?”
“Negative. I’ve seen shock and battle rattle. Doesn’t look the same here.”
Webb looked at Priest under furrowed brows, “What caused the doctor to snap and go ape shit?”
“When he saw Shaw. Before that his back was to us, and we were operating in stealth.”
“Ok, I guess we will test a theory. Team, circle the wagons.”
The team set up in a circle with their backs to the center. “Watch your fire lanes. We have 360-degree contact, and I will bait the fox to the henhouse. Apparently, these people have some serious problems, so take a second to assess. But if you need to push the off button, then so be it.”
As Webb finished, the clicking was getting increasingly louder. “Overlord, we are getting ready to poke the bear here. Assess and provide support.”
“Copy.”
Webb looked to his left and fist bumped with Doc to acknowledge he was ready. This continued around the entire team in the circle
until it reached back to Webb, who received a fist bump from Shaw to his right. Webb then let out a loud whooping yell and waited. He didn’t need to wait long. Blood-curdling screams answered the yell from all directions.
“Ah, Spider, that did the trick. There is recognition in the girl’s face. She is going nuts and coming your way at a high rate of speed. Engage?”
“No, hold off until you hear one of us fire. We’re still trying to assess.”
“Copy that.”
Abarra was the first to acknowledge, “Contact 11 o’clock.” The girl who was under Overlord’s surveillance was the first to come into view of the team. The rest of the team, highly disciplined, kept their focus on their firing lanes.
Webb, who was on the opposite side of the circle from Abarra, “Sit rep!”
“She is definitely not in her right mind. We have guns trained on her, and she is still coming, screaming like a banshee.”
“Ok, engage first. If no compliance, then take her down.”
Abarra yelled, “Ma’am, stop where you are and put your hands up!” She didn’t comply and was closing the gap.
150 yards? Ma’am, stop where you are and put your hands up.” Nothing.
100 yards? “I will be forced to shoot if you do not comply.” No recognition.
50 yards? It is when all other civilians came into view running and screaming toward the team. The screams made your blood run cold.
It was nothing like Corporal Myles had ever heard before. He was from Detroit, had seen people die, had heard people die. He witnessed drug deals go bad, people betrayed, people seek revenge for several things. Nothing he had seen was even close to this. Myles jumped as Abarra let loose with a three-round burst toward the approaching girl. All three landed center mass, and she went down.