The Devil's Handshake

44

Borama

As the morning call to prayer started to ripple across the city, the defensive deployment around the President Offices was primed and ready for battle.

Arriving late last night they had quickly set up by the placing of the President’s militia around and on the walls of the offices while inside on the compound in front of the steps of the building they had set up two machine-guns nests manned by Gurkhas who had also been given two RPGs and F1 Fragmentation grenades by the Zaslon team that had arrived from Syria.

Inside the building, loyal men from the President’s Clan had been split into two teams of three, again further supported by three Gurkhas in each.

The newly arrived teams of Zaslon had been deployed to the second floor so they could defend the windows initially then once the building had been breached, the entrance to the President’s office.

Finally, inside the office was the last line of defensive deployment, Thomas’s and Igor’s own teams.

The strategy created by Igor had been designed purely to delay rather than prevent the advance of the Viper’s men with the idea of being able to buy time and cause additional casualties by yielding space rather than trying to defeat them with a single line. As such, no tripwires had been set up.

“If we can get them to lose momentum over a period of time, that means we can yield lightly defended territory in an attempt to stress Viper’s logistics,” Igor explained to the President who had asked why they are setting themselves up in such a manner.

“Once Viper has lost momentum or is forced to spread out to pacify us we can then defensively counter-attack his weak points with the aim being able to drive him back to its original starting position,” offered Mikhail in support of the explanation having seen the confused look on Jawari’s face despite knowing it was a waste of time.

“I trust you my friends,” Jawari answered trying to look as though he understood.

Earlier when Igor had assessed strength numbers it hadn’t gone unnoticed by him that some of Mikhail’s men were missing.

Surprised, he asked Mikhail as to their whereabouts. The former Israeli Special Forces officer had explained it away as Thomas wanting to make sure there was at least some protection provided for the personnel that made up TLH groups many teams on the ground. Although it was something Igor accepted without comment, he wondered privately if that were the real reason. Either way, it meant he had to adapt the plan to reflect the loss of numbers.

“If it looks like we’re facing a breach and we have to move the President, we will need to do this by surrounding him then move out in a circle are you up for that?” he asked as he knew the first instinct of Mikhail’s team would be to protect Thomas.

Thomas answered for him. “Igor, I am more than capable of holding my own so don’t worry I know the score and I have told the boys the President comes first.”

Igor didn’t argue. Mikhail’s look suggested otherwise though. It was something that had been picked up by Thomas, who quickly asserted his authority over his friend.

“Mikhail?”

“I hear you, Boss!” he answered, accepting his order if somewhat reluctantly.

Igor smiled. He decided he liked these men. “True professionals to the core.”

“We have company!” said one of the Gurkhas on the wall over the communications earpieces broke the tension.

The deployment teams quickly took up positions at the windows to sounds of the ever-present call to prayer, coming from the loudspeakers attached to the mosques of the small city. The last line of defense around the President of Adwalland placed themselves at the windows off the office that looked out on to the compound.

“Boss, make sure you don’t poke your head out!” offered Avi towards Thomas with a smile.

“Cheeky sod, I was fighting bandits long before you were out of nappies!” said Thomas towards his trusted and youngest bodyguard of his team while he cocked his Heckler & Koch M5, the trusted weapon of his youth as a Captain in SAS and as he re-checked his body armor one last time.

“Concentrate!” ordered Mikhail in Hebrew towards them both, putting an end to the banter. He was never one for humor before an action. Especially one when they were out-numbered. His mind drifted back for a second to the last time he had faced such moment. He shivered. Bosnia still haunted him.

“Mr. President please stay under the desk,” ordered Igor towards the standing leader of Adwalland.

“A President doesn’t act like a coward he stands by his men!” he responded. “Give me a gun! I can fight!”

The experienced intelligence officer rolled his eyes.

“Badr, please make sure he has vest on!” he instructed the President’s head of security not needing an argument at that precise minute. To which, the trusted bodyguard nodded his support and pushed his boss under the desk.

The former Corporal in 7th (Duke of Edinburgh’s Own) Ghurkha Rifleman Bijaya Dhimal reported his final reconnaissance of the building in Dila back to his leader.

“There are a couple sensors on the stairs, and there are three targets inside all up and about and being very noisy!” he said.

“Okay, Bijaya we go for a Dynamic Entry,” answered Barak. With such little time to prepare both he and Yossi decided that their best tactic was surprise, speed, and domination.

Moments later they quietly ran the eight hundred yards to the building and moved up the stairs without a sound, avoiding the sensors as they went, and deployed either side of the door. The assault team took up position.

On Bijaya’s closed fist movement and point towards the door, one of the other Gurkhas quietly placed about 30 grams of RDX explosive on the handle. Finished, he stood back.

He gave the signal to take up position. Fifteen seconds later, BANG! The building shook.

Moments after the explosion Bijaya quickly entered the room with one of the other Gurkhas, followed by two more from the team, before finally Barak and Yossi so they could take up the points of domination in the room.

Before Joe, Clara, and Pete had time to react their collective ears still ringing and minds confused by the explosion they found they were facing weapons pointed at their faces.

“DOWN! DOWN!”

“HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!”

“NOW!” the assault team shouted at once towards the three targets, again forcing their domination in the room through the use of lots of voices from different directions to cause confusion for the targets.

Realizing they were completely covered with overlapping fire by the fact each corner in the room had been taken by their assailants the SAD team surrendered immediately and did as ordered.

Not one shot had been fired in anger.

“CLEAR,” shouted one of the Gurkhas having checked the kitchen and bathrooms.

Knowing there was no point pretending they were charity workers with the hi-tech monitoring equipment in the room the three SAD officers quickly went into silent mode so to prepare for the worst.

Securing them firmly and roughly with flexi-cuffs, Yossi quickly pulled a sack over their heads one by one, then manhandled them to their feet ready to exit the building.

“CLEAR,” shouted the Gurkhas having checked outside to see if the team they had taken down were about to receive any help.

“COMING OUT,” Barak announced as he pushed the prisoners out and down the stairs one by one to exit the building to the lights of the surrounding buildings coming on one by one as the occupants’ having been woken up by the explosion and the shouting.

Once they were bundled, one by one, into the four Land Cruisers that had pulled up at speed in front of the building the assault team sped off to down the street to make their way back to TLH secure compound just outside the Cismah.

“Just like the old days!” Barak offered in Hebrew towards Yossi who smiled in response.

At his feet with her hands tied behind her back and her head still covered Clara began to get her bearings back, calming her mind to allow her training to kick in. She had trained for it once at the Farm and now for the first time in her life she was actually facing it. Taking slow breaths, she went through her mental routine.

“Deny any connection with their agency. Do not request diplomatic legal assistance; none will come. Hold out for as long as possible to enable other team’s members to escape.” These were the thoughts swirling away in her mind at the same time as she started her mental count and direction change routine to try and work out when she was being driven to from their base.

“Calm down,” she told herself again. Taking a deep breath but having never experienced anything like this outside her training, her mind was drawn to voices above her.

“Was that Hebrew?” she asked herself before she tried to focus her mind again. “That means they are Litchfield’s! How the fuck did they know we were here?” she concluded, remembering that all of his security team were Israeli.