Raiders

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

The Egyptian Army helicopter had flown through the night, low and fast over the silent sands of the Eastern Desert, lit blue by the powerful full moon hanging like a lantern on the horizon. On board, Caleb turned from the window and scanned the faces of his sub-unit — Zara, his 2IC, Virgil, Ben Speers and Don French. Sitting behind them was Major Shafik, Sergeant Sharaf and some hand-picked men from Unit 777. Between them, he had zero doubt that he could take out Linus Finn and the other Spiders.

A few months ago, when his ex-wife dropped the kids over to stay in his place in Arizona, Caleb Jackson had taken them out to the Hoover Dam. That had been a great day, and the dam was an impressive sight, but what he was looking at right now was another kind of monster altogether.

At ten times longer than the Hoover Dam, the Aswan Dam seemed to go on forever, and seeing it in the moonlight only increased the sense of awe he felt. It stretched over three kilometers toward the horizon, and as the Sea King Commando swooped down to land it felt like he was about to be swallowed up by the thing.

Now, they finished their attack plans and prepped for the worst. Dam security had contacted Shafik’s superior officer and told them the terrorists had broken into two teams, with one heading to the powerhouse to plant the bomb while the others were defending their escape chopper on the dam’s crest.

Recalling the briefing, Caleb shook his head. “I still don’t understand why Linus is locating the bomb in the powerhouse. If he wants to blow a hole in the retaining wall and flood the valley, then he’s on the wrong side of the dam. Either we’re not getting something or he’s a total idiot.”

Zara shrugged. “Judge not, lest ye be judged yourself, Cal.”

Without warning, the pilot pulled back on the collective and the chopper violently jerked upwards, almost throwing everyone out of their seats. They all heard him cursing in the cockpit as he increased power to the engine and turned sharply to the right.

“Incoming!”

They braced for impact, and then Caleb felt a substantial explosion somewhere off the port side of the chopper.

Zara spoke first, her voice loud in everyone’s headsets. “What have we got?”

Caleb looked out the window and scanned the area below them. To the north, on the dam’s crest not far from the spillway, was a heavy-set man in combat fatigues. He was crouching on the concrete and reloading a weapon.

“Shoulder-launched missile,” he said. “Looks like Kyle Cage down there, having some fun with us. He’s firing again!”

The pilot took more evasive action, this time thundering to the left and pushing down on the collective. The chopper descended fast, and everyone clung to anything they could find to stay in their seats. The second RPG screeched past them with only meters to spare before detonating, this time even closer than before.

The pilot fought hard to keep the chopper in level flight as the shockwave blasted them through the air. When he had regained control, Caleb and Shafik shared a knowing glance and the decision was made to get the chopper out of here as fast as possible — and that meant getting the unit on the dam right now.

Caleb fixed his eyes on the team. “Everyone, get ready for a go.”

They were already wearing most of their kit, and helmets, but now they slid their visors down and put on double-leather palm rappelling gloves. Zara took the extra precaution of sliding a snub nose revolver in an ankle holster.

“You leave nothing to chance,” Caleb said.

“I worked plain clothes vice in LA, Cal,” she said.

“Enough said,” he replied with a smile.

The pilot had taken the chopper out of range of the RPGs as the team finalized their preparations for exiting the aircraft, but now he was turning the machine back into the line of fire to allow them to rappel into the battleground.

The helicopter swooped low and raced toward the dam. The colossal retaining wall approached them fast, looming out of the moonlight.

Kyle Cage shouldered the RPG launcher and pointed it at them, preparing to fire once again. Iveta Jansons and Molly Cruise ran to his side and watched the event like it was a reality TV show.

The pilot barked orders at his 2IC who then opened his window and started furiously firing on the Spiders with a submachine gun. Cage slipped the launcher off his shoulder and both he, Iveta and Molly made a break for the cover of the crane which regulated the dam’s mighty intake gates.

With the enemy temporarily subdued, the team checked their hookups and rappel seats and finally the rappel rings before testing the ropes. With the chopper swaying hard from side to side in another evasive manoeuvre, they finalized the prep by checking the anchor point connection to the inside of the helicopter.

Caleb swung open the door and the hot Egyptian night air blasted inside the cabin. He tossed his rope outside the chopper, ensuring it dropped over the outside of the portside skid, and with the wind buffeting him from every direction he swung his legs outside the chopper, flexed his knees and pushed himself outside.

The hot air washed over him as the father of two descended from the chopper. He was an old-hand at rappelling from buildings and helicopters, and as the rope slipped through both his brake hand and his guide hand, his main concern wasn’t the descent but the maniacs on the crest of the dam with the RPG launcher.

Going over ten feet per second now, he looked up and saw the rest of his team piling out the chopper and making their way down toward the top of the dam’s retaining wall. Glancing down, he saw the ground approaching fast as he lowered himself, but the chopper couldn’t hover there forever.

Just above the ground now, Caleb braked and released some of the tension on the rope, carefully controlling his rate of descent with his brake hand. Hitting the ground, he cleared the rope through the rappel ring and freed himself. The others hit the ground and did the same.

“We’re off rappel!” Caleb yelled, and the soldier in the chopper cut the ropes, allowing the pilot to turn and fly away into the night.

“All right,” Caleb said. “As we planned, Zara and Shafik plus two soldiers come with me to the hydropower generator plant and deactivate the bomb. Virgil, Ben and Don take Sharaf to the crest and take out Kyle, Iveta and Molly.”

The team split up, not knowing that one of them would be dead within minutes.