Apocalypse unleashed

15

United States 75th Army Rangers Outpost

Harran

Sanliurfa Province, Turkey

Local Time 0647 Hours

“Take cover!” Goose watched the fighter jets return for another sweep. He waved the soldiers following him into defensive positions against the supermarket they’d jogged to.

As the jets neared and opened up with their cannons again, the antiaircraft gunners replied with bursts of fire. Rounds chewed into three of the jets. Goose’s sharp eyes spotted the canopy cracking on the lead jet just before the aircraft dove for the ground. Another jet streamed black, oily smoke from one engine and no longer moved as easily in the air.

The lead jet spiraled into the city and headed for the supermarket where the Rangers had gone to cover. The scream of descent rattled through Goose’s ears.

“Get down! Get down!” Goose put his right hand on top of his helmet and ducked his face into his left shoulder while he held onto the M-4A1. He thought of himself as the smallest target in the world and did the same for the other Rangers. The jet couldn’t hit them. The payload on board wasn’t going to-

The jet slammed into the building across the street. Even though he knew better than to look, Goose peered over his forearm anyway. The aircraft drove down into the three-story building like a great nail driven by a huge hammer. The building shattered and fell apart. Rock and mortar were strewn across the street. Several chunks thumped against the supermarket and shattered the plate glass windows filled with advertisements. Flames wreathed the ripped and broken fighter jet.

A moment later, just as Goose thought everything was going to be all right, the remaining ammunition in the jet cooked off. Several explosions tore through the building’s corpse and threw more debris into the air and across the street. The next few seconds became a whirling nightmare of potential death.

Once the ammunition was expended, Goose peered at the torn body of the fighter jet. Black smoke curled into the sky. The pilot could not have survived the destruction. He just hoped no one had been inside the building.

“Anybody hit?” Goose asked.

The men quickly acknowledged that none of them was wounded.

None of them believed it was possible either. With the storm of flying death that had taken shape around them, everyone was surprised to be alive.

“All right.” Goose stood. “On your feet, Rangers. We got a job to do.” He ran, giving the fallen jet and the gutted building a wide berth in case there were any more surprises. His bad knee ached with the strain but felt solid enough to push it as long as he didn’t try any sudden turns.

United States 75th Army Rangers Temporary Post

Sanliurfa, Turkey

Local Time 0651

Remington left the Hummer in front of the building he’d chosen as his command center. Sandbags reinforced the walls. Machine-gun teams surrounded the building. The soldiers standing guard immediately stood at attention and briskly saluted.

The captain performed a quick return salute and stepped through the doorway into the cooler atmosphere of the nerve center. The window-mounted air conditioners hummed in the background, echoed by the rapid-fire pop of the generators that powered them. The computers needed the cooler environment. Screens lit up bluewhite in the background.

Lieutenant Archer stood in front of the tactical board in the center of the room. The tactical board was acrylic and unpowered. They worked on it with marker pencils in case the power went down.

The lieutenant was a rawboned man with a neat mustache and an impeccable manner. Captain Sanderson of the British army stood nearby. He was aloof and in his forties, and he served as the liaison for the United Nations forces that had been driven back to Sanliurfa as well. Normally a liaison job would fall to a junior officer; Remington suspected the UN command had chosen to assign Sanderson because he was a man with rank equal to Remington’s.

Archer spotted Remington bearing down on them. The lieutenant turned quickly, dropped his clipboard under his left arm, and saluted crisply. “Sir.”

“At ease, Lieutenant.” Remington stopped at the nearest computer and gazed at the screen. “We have satellite recon again?”

“Yes, sir. The satellites just came back online.”

Remington let out a sigh of relief. At least Felix’s word was good.

On the screen, Remington stared at the advancing line of Syrian troops and cavalry. Tanks, armored personnel carriers, and artillery rumbled rapidly over the broken terrain headed into Harran. All of the tanks, APCs, and howitzers were Soviet made. The equipment was decades old but still serviceable and deadly.

“How far out are they?”

“Twenty, twenty-five minutes,” Archer said.

“Have we got our birds in the air?” Remington walked behind the line of techs at their workstations.

“Yes, sir. I scrambled the helos as soon as you ordered them in.”

On one of the screens, a line of fifteen helicopter gunships flew nap-of-theearth across the scrublands toward Harran. Six wide-bodied UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters outfitted for medical transport and rescue trailed behind.

“What about the fuel convoy?” Remington stared at the computer screen a moment longer, then checked the marker board out of habit.

“En route as well.”

“Have you got an ETA on the helos arriving in Harran?”

“Five minutes after the Syrians, sir.”

Remington cursed.

“Pardon me, Captain.” Sanderson stepped forward and imposed himself. “If I may speak.”

“Quickly.” Remington remained deliberately brusque. He and the United Nations troop commanders hadn’t quite worked out their pecking order. The UN officers had a better knowledge of the Turkish army, but the UN forces were appreciably smaller than the Ranger troops.

“Forgive me if I’m out of line, but aren’t you risking a lot by sending in those helos?”

“There’s a lot at stake, Captain.” Remington fixed the other man with a scathing glance. “In case you didn’t know it, I have a lot of Rangers in Harran. The United States Army isn’t in the habit of discarding men.”

“No, sir. I understand that. But it seems to me you’re risking a lot more by deploying those helos. We’re not exactly in our fighting prime here. Those machines could be hard to replace.”

“Maybe you’d feel differently if you were in Harran right now.”

“Those men knew the risks when they went there.”

Remington glared at the British captain. “ I knew the risks when I sent them there. They’re there because I put them there. And I’m going to do my best to get them out of there.”

“Yes, sir, I understand that. But we’re not at liberty to squander hardware resources-”

“Enough.” Remington turned from the man. “If you want to go talk to your people about squandering resources, go ahead. I’m not going to squander Rangers that are the finest fighting men alive in this miserable corner of the world. If you can’t contribute something that will help me get those men out of there, keep your mouth shut-”

“Sir-”

“-or I’ll have you escorted out.”

Sanderson’s ruddy complexion deepened as he frowned in displeasure.

“Are we clear?”

“Positively crystal.”

“Outstanding.” Remington turned to Archer. “Keep this board updated.”

“Yes, sir.” Archer drew his marker and set to work.

Remington addressed the communications officer. “Get Swindoll for me.”

On the screen, the Syrian army relentlessly moved forward.

United States 75th Army Rangers Outpost

Harran

Sanliurfa Province, Turkey

Local Time 0708 Hours

“What are you doing out here?” Lieutenant Swindoll demanded.

Goose was suddenly conscious of the attention he drew from the soldiers around the lieutenant. All of them were familiar faces, but only some of them appeared friendly.

“I came to help, sir.” Goose met the young lieutenant’s gaze.

“You were supposed to remain under house arrest.”

“That didn’t seem to be something that would help in the current situation.”

“Sergeant.” Swindoll drew himself up and turned on Goose. The lieutenant dropped his hand on the pistol at his hip. “You were given orders to remain under house arrest. Men were assigned to keep you there.”

“They tried.”

“Begging the lieutenant’s pardon, but Sergeant Gander didn’t get here on his own.” Theissen stepped forward. “He had help.”

“You did this?”

“Sir, I-several of us-believe Sergeant Gander needs to be out here. With men that are prepared to fight and die in the next few minutes.”

“I hadn’t expected this from you, Sergeant Theissen.”

Theissen grinned but little of the effort was humorous. “Truth to tell, I didn’t expect it from me either. But I gotta admit, I’m a little proud of myself.”

For a moment the tension held. Lieutenant Swindoll was loyal to Remington. That much was immediately obvious. Several other men were as well. All of them were afraid, and most of them were young and inexperienced and still believed that an officer was the only one who could get them out of a bad situation.

“You got the Syrian army headed this way, sir.” Goose worked to sound respectful. “You’re going to need every man you can muster. This

… this is where I belong.”

That simple truth hung on the hot, dry air.

“Goose.” The voice coming through Goose’s headset belonged to Remington. Goose knew the captain had been monitoring his com channel; hearing from him now was no surprise.

“Yes, sir.”

“Go to our private frequency.”

Goose did. As he flicked the headset, he watched surprise widen Swindoll’s bloodshot eyes.

“I’m here, sir.”

“Don’t talk. Just listen. You know the kind of jam we’re in. We can’t hold Harran. We’d never planned on it. Of course, we’d never planned on getting caught with our pants down either.”

Goose took his binoculars from his BDUs and slung the assault rifle. He stepped up onto the nearest Hummer and stood on the rear deck. Training the binoculars due south, he saw the line of dust in the distance that marked the advance of the Syrian army.

“I’ve got helos en route.” Remington’s voice remained calm. “The problem is that they’re going to arrive there probably three to five minutes after the Syrian army does.”

Perspiration trickled down Goose’s stubbled face as he realized what Remington was about to ask the Rangers to do. Three to five minutes wasn’t much of a commute, but it could be a lifetime on a battlefield when forces were engaged.

“You know what I’m going to order you to do, don’t you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“There’s not another way around it.”

Goose knew that a lot of the men with him were probably going to die. Maybe he’d die too. “I know that.”

“If you try to retreat, they’ll roll over you.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What I need you to do, Goose, is to hold that position. For three to five minutes.”

A lifetime.

“Long enough for the helos to arrive.” Remington spoke calmly, as if he were ordering a drink in a bar. “They’re equipped with M139s. When the helos drop their payloads, that should buy you some time to retreat.”

“Yes, sir. But after three to five minutes, there may not be a clear division between us and them.”

“Understood. It’s the best I have to offer. I don’t want to lose those men.”

“Neither do I.” The dust line in the distance grew taller and nearer.

“Then let’s do the best we can to bring them home.”

“Yes, sir. You’ll have to clear this with Lieutenant Swindoll.” Goose was acutely conscious of the lieutenant’s grim stare.

“I will. You just work your magic, Goose. Buy those helos time.”

“Yes, sir.”