The Keepers of the Persian Gate (7 page)

“We have to move!” shouted one of the SEALs.

“Right, let’s go!” ordered the Lieutenant.

When the boats came ashore, Lieutenant Graham’s team immediately jumped aboard. The Mechanic had been gagged at this stage with duct tape to avoid another screaming episode. In what seemed like seconds, the boats had left the shore and were heading back to sea at full throttle. The helicopters patrolling the coast did not appear to have detected the boats carrying out the evacuation. It seemed that the evacuation team had a clear run to international waters.

Back onshore, SEAL Team 6 were beginning to retreat to Paddy and Jake’s position. Paddy could even hear the voices of Venezuelan soldiers less than a few hundred yards away. Then, as if out of nowhere, a member of SEAL Team 6 appeared beside the pond.

Paddy whispered, “Hey, over here.” The SEAL initially did not notice.

“HEY!” Paddy said louder. This time, the SEAL turned and pointed his weapon at Paddy.

“Wait, it’s me, Paddy. I have Jake here,” said Paddy.

“Where’s the rest of the team?” asked the SEAL.

“Gone, I think!” replied Paddy.

“Right, we need to get you guys to a safer location. Is Jake ok?” said the SEAL.

“Yeah, I think he might just be concussed. Mortar fire landed a little close for comfort,” said Paddy.

“OK, two seconds. I need to explain the situation to the rest of the team,” said the SEAL. The SEAL used hand signals to communicate with another member of his unit. He then crawled over to the edge of the pond, where Paddy and Jake were standing. “Jake! Jake…” said the SEAL.

Jake looked up, still dazed but more alert to his surroundings than he was previously.

“How you doing? Can you move ok?”

Jake nodded. “I think so.”

“Right, here’s the plan, Paddy. You will retreat with Jake as far westward as you can. I will scout you loosely whilst covering the rear of the rest of my unit. We will rendezvous on the outskirts of the nearest town, Arenitas. Wait there for as long as you can. If it becomes clear that myself or my unit will not make the rendezvous point, I want you to find cover in the town and follow the standard protocol for contacting US assets on the ground, as you were briefed. Is that ok?”

“Yeah,” said Paddy. He pulled Jake out of the lake and the SEAL disappeared back into the mist of darkness.

Fortunately for Paddy and Jake, the mortars had become more concentrated closer to the forward position of the SEALs. It seemed they had done a good job of drawing the fire of the Venezuelans.

Paddy began attempting to jog with Jake’s arm over his shoulder as Jake limped along.

“I think I might have broken my ankle,” said Jake.

“You took a pretty big hit, I think, when that mortar dropped. You must have landed funny,” said Paddy.

It seemed like forever that they were moving along the tree line. Paddy mustered all of his strength and fitness to move Jake along. After three-quarters of a mile, they lay down for a rest.

“You know, I underestimated you, brother. You are a brave son of a bitch coming back for me,” said Jake

“You would’ve done the same.” said Paddy.

“Yeah, but that’s my job. To protect you guys. Your objectives were different to mine. You didn’t need to come back for me,” said Jake.

“Well, what is it you guys say, no man left behind, etc,” said Paddy.

“Actually, that’s the Rangers, but yeah.” said Jake.

“So I hear, in fact the saying first arose when you Yanks were all British,” said Paddy.

“Yeah right, man, whatever,” replied Jake.

“No, for real. It actually came twenty years before you guys declared independence, during the French and Indian War in 1756. The American and British Rangers were the first to display the principle of no man left behind,” explained Paddy.

“How do you know all this stuff?” asked Jake.

“I was a scholar of military history at Sandhurst.”

“How’d you get that gig?” asked Jake.

“It interested me. And I was a close friend of the visiting lecturer. His name was Colonel Maxwell,” said Paddy.

Jake’s ears suddenly perked up. “What’s that?”

There was a sound of barking dogs. However, this time the sound wasn’t coming from their forward position; this time it was coming from the rear.

“Get low, do absolutely nothing, do not move a muscle,” whispered Jake.

“But they’ll find us,” said Paddy.

“Quiet, the dogs already know where we are. They’re going to come close. Do not move a muscle. Let them do what they have to do,” replied Jake.

Jake and Paddy stared at each other in silence as the animals drew close. They were large German Shepherds. The first one jumped on Jake and bit his leg, but only gently. It then began sniffing Paddy up and down. The second arrived and simply stood and watched. After a few moments of sussing out Jake and Paddy, the first German Shepherd lifted his leg on Jake and then moved over to Paddy. The other followed suit. Then as quickly as they had arrived, the dogs ran off again in search of something else.

“I got peed on,” said Paddy.

“Better than getting torn apart,” replied Jake.

“How’d you know they’d do that?” asked Paddy.

“It’s part of our training. Let the dogs be the boss. Once they piss on you, they own you and you are no longer perceived a threat,” said Jake.

“We have to move,” said Paddy.

“Yeah. Although there’s gonna be a search team not far behind those dogs. We’ll need to be on our guard.”

As they moved through the brush, sure enough, they saw torches a few hundred yards in front of them.

“Get down,” said Paddy.

“This is a mop-up crew. They’ve worked out that the forward unit are covering a retreat. They should pass us ok,” whispered Jake.

Paddy and Jake waited for five minutes as the crew passed.

“They just look like regular police officers,” said Paddy. Jake said nothing as the two sat and observed the crew move beyond their position.

“Shall we move?” whispered Paddy.

“No,” said Jake.

“Why not?” said Paddy.

“It’s a set up…look to the third tree from the beach. You can see the silhouette of a rifle pointing about twenty degrees to our left,” said Jake.

“Jesus, you’ve got good eyes,” said Paddy.

“He’s covered himself well. There’s no guarantee it’s just him either,” said Jake.

“What do you suggest?” asked Paddy.

“We’re going to have to lure any others,” said Jake.

“With what?” asked Paddy.

“Bait!” said Jake, turning to Paddy with a wry smile.

“Where do you want me…?” asked Paddy.

“Sprint to the beach and dive into the waves. That will make it harder for them to hit you. Ok, 3, 2, 1…GO!” said Jake.

Paddy jumped to his feet, almost tripping. Shots came from two angles, first from the previously identified sniper and second from someone on the tree line. Jake reacted quickly, immediately shooting the sniper. However, Paddy blocked the view of the second gunman who had now appeared to dive for cover himself. The gunfire had also alerted the canine unit that had previously passed their position.

Jake looked around and shouted to Paddy. “RUN!”

Jake stood and began hopping towards the position of the second gunman, who was training on Paddy. Jake pulled a grenade from his belt and threw it directly at the position of the gunman. The grenade completely wiped out the second threat; however, the sound alerted everyone to Paddy and Jake’s position. That included the main body of the Venezuelan force which was engaged with the rest of the remaining members of SEAL Team 6.

Paddy sprinted back to Jake and helped him to limp along. As they cleared the trees, they spotted the loom of lights about a half mile in front of them over a hill. “There it is - the town!” said Paddy. They had reached an embankment on the outskirts of the town, with a decent view of the surrounding area. They paused for breath.

“Ok, we wait here for a while. If we spot anyone coming out of the woods we need to make a break into the town,” said Jake.

“Where to?” asked Paddy.

“I would say the harbour, but it’s going to be crawling by the morning with people looking for us. That’s where they would expect us to go. Although we could try and get out on a fishing boat or something like that,” said Jake.

***

The pair waited for over an hour. They were conscious that this was the rendezvous point, but there was no sign of any of the SEALs. Moreover, the sound of gunfire had stopped about fifteen minutes before.

“Well, what’s the plan?” asked Paddy.

“I think we’re clear to sunrise. Despite my initial fears, I can’t see anyone tailing us anymre, and anyone that was has clearly moved back towards SEAL Team 6. We can’t stay here forever obviously. By morning that bay will be completely crawling with naval vessels searching for us. They will be expecting a northerly extraction,” replied Jake. He pulled out a handheld GPS out of his pocket.

“What are you doing?” asked Paddy.

“If I am correct, there is another town not far from here, on the south side of the peninsula. We may be able to find somewhere to lay low and ride this out before making contact with command,” said Jake.

Jake played around a bit with the GPS. “Yes, I was right. It’s a place called Boca De Rio. It’s a bit of journey, about six miles through the mountains but if we move now under cover of darkness we should be able to get there in a few hours.”

“Is that the best we got?” asked Paddy.

“That’s the best we got,” replied Jake.

“What about your ankle?” asked Paddy.

“I think it’s just a sprain; it feels better,” replied Jake. He picked up a large branch and broke off the twigs. “This will do as a hiking stick. Hopefully, we can make it before dawn if we move quick enough.”

With that, the two moved quickly into the wilderness and the mountains.

Chapter 4

Evacuation

SEVERAL HOURS PASSED, as the pair made their journey through the mountains. Although the forest was dense, the outline of the terrain was clear in the moonlight.

When they reached the saddle of the last two mountains overlooking Boca Del Rio, they could make out a clear road to their destination. Within an hour they were on the outskirts of the town.

“It’s about ten minutes to dawn,” said Paddy.

“We need to make a call about where we go. Where will be friendly…” said Jake.

“Down there, that looks like an abandoned warehouse doesn’t it?” said Paddy.

“Yeah, let’s check it out.”

As they approached the door, Paddy noticed it was padlocked.

“Stand aside,” said Jake, as he smashed the door in with his better foot. When they got inside, Jake began barricading the door in case anyone decided to walk in. “We need to get a couple of hours sleep. It might be the last chance we get for a while.”

“You go first,” said Paddy.

“Wake me up in an hour or so. Don’t fall asleep yourself. There could be a team of police officers at that door at any moment so remain alert,” said Jake.

After about twenty minutes or so, the sound of light traffic began to rumble around the town. Paddy climbed up a ladder to a window to have a look. The window was dirty, so he gave it a wipe with the back of his sleeve.

Paddy walked back over to his bag and turned on his radio. There was plenty of activity, so Paddy turned down the volume and put in his ear piece. His Spanish, let alone his knowledge of the Venezuelan dialect, was poor to say the least. However, he could hear regular reference to various parts of the island, as well as the word ‘americanos’. There was a lot of discussion of the Macanao Peninsula and “norte” which Paddy assumed meant north. He also heard a reference to ‘preso’ which was alarming as he knew this meant ‘prisoner’.

Jake stirred. “How long was I out?” he asked.

“Only about thirty minutes. Get some more sleep,” replied Paddy.

“Not a chance, brother. I won’t get any more,” said Jake.

Jake stood with difficulty and walked over to the ladder to get his own view of Boca Del Rio. “You know, our best next move should be to get out of these clothes.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll just nip down the road to the clothes shop… What’s your preference, Hugo Boss or Ralph Lauren?” said Paddy.

Jake laughed.

“You know, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland members of the Irish Republican Army used to claim sanctuary in Catholic churches in order to hide from Security forces.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“Well, there’s a small church over there,” said Paddy.

“Do you really think that would work?”

All Catholic church grounds are property of the Vatican, a sovereign state. Churches are merely an extension of that sovereignty. In Northern Ireland they were considered embassies of refuge. The British Army could not and did not follow.

“Yeah, but the second you go outside, you’re arrested,” said Jake.

“Exactly, so it all depends on what the priest does when you’re on the inside,” replied Paddy.

“Who’s to say he won’t raise the alarm?” said Jake

“Well, that’s why we have money with us, isn’t it?” said Paddy.

“And what’s to say a man of the Lord will be open to bribery?” asked Jake.

“Think of it as a donation to the church,” replied Paddy.

“Might as well try,” said Jake.

Jake pulled back the boxes which he had used to barricade the door. Once these were out of the way, he peered outside. It was about 0700 hours, and he could see one or two people walking across the streets in the distance. The church was two blocks away.

“Go, go!” whispered Paddy.

The pair ran across the street, but, as they did, a small fruit van came round the corner and they were forced to dive into an alleyway. The van stopped at a give way point at the end of the alley. Paddy and Jake hid behind a set of trashcans as they waited for it to drive on. The driver had his windows down and was singing along to some Latino music.

“Did it see us?” asked Paddy.

The truck revved up and moved on.

“Thank God,” said Jake.

The pair ran back out onto the road and made their way into the church grounds by climbing over a fence to the rear of the building. Cautiously, they moved along the side the church, heads down, towards the front steps. Fortunately for them, the front doors were wide open. There was a nun praying in the front pew. She turned around and looked at them. She was very startled to see Paddy and Jake.