Viper Team Seven (The Viper Team Seven Series Book 1) (37 page)

The National Security
Advisor stopped for a breath and then went on. “The Iroquois-Hueys will be
standing by near your position just in case you need to do some fast and fancy
scrambling. BIG BIRD will also be on the ready at Arnold. But the main thing
is, you need to make sure vun Buvka doesn’t get killed. You can kill the other terrorists,
I don’t care, just not vun Buvka. You can wound him but
do not
kill him.
We need him alive.”

“How can we be
sure which terrorist is him, sir?”

“Your own
judgment, Major. But it’d better be some good judging. You know what he looks
like and that’s all we can offer.”

“One more thing,
sir; how will we know which vehicle is the terrorists’?”

“Langley will notify you when their vehicle gets within five miles of your position.
They’ll be watching the drone image, remember? Besides, you already know the
vehicle’s description.” Smith paused and went back to his explanation. “If you
want my opinion, I’d say you’ll need to kill just enough of the terrorists so
vun Buvka will realize it’s hopeless and give up. But you will also have to
work it out so he won’t kill any of your team while he’s giving up. But if it comes
to it, we need vun Buvka alive. Period. Somebody on your team may have to give
his life to reach that goal. It’s going to be a tough operation to do but you
can do it.”

Thanks for
the vote of confidence,
Parks thought to himself.
But I know I’m going to
have a hard time if I have to trade the life of one of my team members for the
life of a dirty, murdering terrorist.

Wednesday, March 26
^th
– 0715 hours

BIG BIRD

Parks and his
team were aboard the C-17 heading for Arnold Air Force Base. He had briefed his
team on the current situation and plan of attack. Their complicated and
hopefully unstoppable plan was giving everyone qualms, more so factoring in the
threats each man had received about his job.

“I think I need
to address one last thing,” Parks said to his team. “I hate to bring up bad
memories but I’m sure most of you remember the, uh – how should I say this –
incentive
the National Security Advisor gave us concerning this operation. Look, I don’t
believe we are an incompetent bunch of guys who can’t differentiate between
right and left, but it’s a bad thing when my boss thinks that. To put it simply,
if we don’t get this one right, we’re done. Now I don’t care whose fault it may
be, if we fail we are fired. But I know we can get this operation done right,
and I know we are going to.”

“You aren’t
going to have problems with me,” Samuels assured him.

“Me either,”
Corley agreed.

“You don’t have
to worry about me,” Norse stated. “Like you or not, I want to keep my job.”

“That’s all I
care about,” Parks replied. “I’m not asking for a friend, I just need a team
member who can be counted on.”

“I can be
counted on,” Lee confirmed.

“We’ll get this
one right, KP,” Marler conceded.

Parks looked to
Solomon. “You have any concerns, Solomon?”

“My only concern
is that we’re gonna put the Army’s Delta Force, the Navy’s SEAL Team Six, and
every other counterterrorism operator out of business,” he finalized. “But I’d
rather them lose their jobs than us.”

Parks figured he
was going to get some smart comment out of Solomon, and he did. In actuality,
Parks didn’t think that would be a bad idea to put those other teams out of
operation. But it all had to start here and now.

“All right,
let’s go over our plan one more time,” Parks declared. “The main goal of this
operation is to capture vun Buvka alive. That’s not going to be an easy job, but
here’s how we’ll do it. We’ll helicopter in to our position just below Lebanon, Tennessee. We should get there with plenty of time before the terrorists do. I’m
going to have two men, Solomon and Phillip, drive blockade vehicles. You will
time it so one of you will drive in front of the terrorists and the other
behind them, very inconspicuously of course. I’ll post you out about three
miles from our position. The rest of us will be waiting on both sides of the
road. Solomon, you’ll be in the vehicle ahead of the terrorists, and when you
get close to our position, radio in to me and let me know you’re coming. When the
terrorists are right in front of us I’ll radio you to spin your vehicles sideways
and block both lanes. You’ll be armed so you can help with the fight.”

“When the
vehicle blockades are in place, those of us by the roadside will begin our part
of the operation,” Parks continued. “We’ll be split on either side, and I want
a man on each wing to be armed with an M203 grenade launcher. Their job will be
to fill the terrorists’ vehicle with CS gas grenades. The remaining few will be
armed with M4 carbines, and they’ll need to blow the vehicle’s tires to ensure
they won’t escape. When the CS gas forces the terrorists out, they’ll come
shootin’. Now here’s the critical part. Remember that we can shoot back and
kill a few of the terrorists, but we
cannot
kill vun Buvka. We are
allowed to wound him but only do that if necessary, because we all know, wounds
can kill.”

“You have all seen vun Buvka’s picture, and that’s the best description
we have of him,” Parks admitted. “It’s going to be tough to confirm which one’s
him, but just take your time and aim well. My Commander’s Intent is, capture
vun Buvka, alive.”

*          *          *

Parks radioed in
to VIPER BRAVO and VIPER CHARLIE who would be driving the lead and rear
vehicles respectively. “VIPER BRAVO, this is VIPER ALPHA, can you hear me?
Over.”

The radio
cracked to life. “Roger that, VIPER ALPHA, I hear you perfectly. How’s
everything on your end? Over.”

Parks and his
team had landed at the Air Force base not a half hour ago and they had been
rushed to this spot by helicopter.

“We’re not set
up yet,” Parks informed him. “VIPER FOXTROT and I are on the right, and VIPER DELTA,
ECHO, and GOLF, are on the left. Break. What are you and VIPER CHARLIE up to?
Over.”

“We’re sittin’
in this undercover spot waiting for them to come by. Break. When they do, I’ll
perform some fancy passing to where I’ll get in front of the targets without
them even suspecting anything. Over.”

“Sounds good, VIPER
BRAVO. Keep us up-to-date. Out.”

Parks faced Lee
who was messing around with the grenade launcher. “You sure you know how to
handle one of those things?”

“I’ve been
shootin’ these since you were in kindergarten, buddy,” Lee bragged. “Don’t you
waste your worries on me.”

Parks didn’t say
anything else as he checked to make sure his M4 was loaded and ready to go. It
was true that he had many other demanding issues to worry about. He just hoped
Lee was as dependable as he said he was.

“Is the team
across the road ready to go?” Lee wondered.

“I don’t know.
But I’m gonna find out.” Parks grabbed his radio. “VIPER ECHO, this is VIPER ALPHA.
Are you ready? Over.”

The reply took a
minute but it finally came. “VIPER ALPHA, we’re ready when you are. Over.”

“Correction,
VIPER ECHO, you mean when our targets are ready. Over,” Parks corrected
humorously.

“Sure, VIPER
ALPHA, you know what I mean. Anyway, we’ll be standing by. Out.”

Parks set down
his radio, took in a deep breath, and said, “Hey Eric, they’re ready. Now the
question is are we?”

“If you are I
am. How far away you think these terrorists are, KP?”

Parks shrugged.
“Your guess is as good as mine. We may have some time to wait though.”

Only a few
minutes passed and both men grew tired of staring at the empty road. Questions
kept filling Parks’ mind, however, and made him uneasy. Would the terrorists go
another way? Would they manage to dodge his team like the last operation? If
so, what would he do then?

Lee seemed to
read his mind and tried to comfort him. “Everything will work out all right,
you wait and see. Bad things do happen, but when things are at their worst they
can only get better. And it would seem to me that they were already at their
worst.”

Parks agreed and
tried to occupy his mind with something else. When he heard an airplane fly
overhead he tried to identify it. “You see that plane? Isn’t that a Gulfstream
IV?”

“No way, KP.
That’s an old 707,” Lee corrected. “My dad was an Air Force air traffic
controller and he taught me how to identify every kind of plane, both civilian
and military.”

Slightly embarrassed at his ignorance, Parks triple-checked his carbine
and stared down the road. Everything was ready, now all that was needed was
their target.

*          *          *

“They’re what?”
The D/CIA couldn’t believe what he was hearing but the senior FBI watch officer
on duty was adamant that the terrorists had indeed changed course.

“Yes sir, the
terrorists have changed interstates at Nashville and are now driving northeast
on I-65. It doesn’t make sense. If the terrorists really are going to D.C., I-65
would be the longer route.”

“It could be
that they’re just not heading to D.C. at all,” Cummins suggested.

“That could be a
possibility, but I’d say they’re just doing this to throw people off – but then
again it’s not like they know there are any people after them.”

Cummins tugged
hard on his ear as he debated what to do. Of course he knew he had to report
this up the chain of command but what would he say? What would he advise?

“Man this is
bad,” he told the watch officer. “This just wrecks everything.”
Now we’re
going to have to get the team back in the helicopter and transport them northeast
,
he thought. “Oh, this is so bad. We’ve got to do something quickly.”

The watch
officer blew his nose and stared at his boss. “Why don’t you just report it,
sir, and make it someone else’s worry?”

“It isn’t
someone else’s worry, it’s mine. I’m going to report it but I’ve got to do my
job as well. You need to leave my office; I’ve got to call the President.”

The watch
officer complied and as soon as he shut the door, the D/CIA picked up a phone
and dialed the White House. After speaking with the operator and giving his
identification, Cummins was patched through and heard the President’s desk
phone begin to ring.

“Hi Mike; what
is it?” Winnfield answered.

“Uh, Mr. President, I have to tell you something. It’s not good.”

*          *          *

For the second
time of the day, the President, Vice President, and Directors gathered in the
Situation Room. Things were not going as planned and a plan B needed to be
formed as quickly as possible. The Viper Team Seven had been notified about the
incident and had been ordered to stand by at Arnold until ordered otherwise.
Time was running out, and the terrorists were constantly getting closer to
their target city.

“All right Mr.
Director, tell us
everything
you know,” the President said seriously.
“We need intel, we need info, and we need some kind of intervention. Go ahead.”

The D/CIA
swallowed hard and wondered what he really knew. “To tell you the truth, Mr.
President, I don’t really know what’s going on. All I do know is that the terrorists
are now heading northeast on I-65 instead of I-40. They turned off somewhere
around Nashville, and they skirted around Parks just like they knew he was
there.”

“They couldn’t
have known that,” Roxon stated. “I mean, how could they have?”

“I don’t know
how. Frankly I don’t think that’s our biggest concern right now. Taking out
these terrorists is. Now I am just going to try to shoot the moon and say that
they’re still heading for us. It seems like the most likely scenario. Maybe I’m
wrong.”

“So what does
that prove?” Watkins asked. “We still need to take them out.”

“I’ll tell you
what that proves,” Smith began. “It proves that vun Buvka has a plan – a great
one. He must feel that it’s going to work well if he’s bold enough to attack Washington D.C.”

“All the more
reason to take them out before anything can happen,” Anders threw in. “But how?
Are we going to try the same thing we just did?”

“I think we
could get by doing that,” the Secret Service Director advised. “It’s a good
plan and I doubt the terrorists will change course this time.”

“I’d be willing
to agree with that,” the D/CIA told the President. “But I guess the question is
where. Location is critical now. We need to place Parks and his team in just
the right place to where the terrorists can’t skirt around them. But where
would that be?”

The answer to
the question did not come for a long time until a map of the Nashville, Tennessee area was cast upon a screen. Cummins felt it his duty to lead the briefing.

“Factoring in
all the highways and roads that fan out across this area, I’d say that if we
placed Parks east of Portland it would block vun Buvka from traveling any
farther northeast. It is a fact that the terrorists are trying to go somewhere
in the northeast so the logical solution would be to block them off on I-65. If
we put Parks near Portland the terrorists wouldn’t be able to reach another
major interstate transition and change roads. But yes, I’d say the same plan
would work.”

“Well how much
traffic is around that area?” Roxon questioned. “We have to remember that this
plan requires a low-traffic road.”

“We can shut down
the interstate which will keep it mostly clear. But I can’t imagine there’d be
too much traffic anyway,” Cummins explained.

“Isn’t one
vehicle too much traffic?” Travis pointed out.

Cummins clenched
his jaw in frustration. “Parks is a smart operator, he can figure a way to keep
the civilians uninvolved. And if he can’t Solomon can – I can assure you of
that.”

“Fine, fine, but
just know I wash my hands of this whole operation if it involves any civilians,”
the DNI concluded.

“It isn’t going to
involve the public,” Anders reassured. “We’re going to shut down the interstate
and if there are any vehicles on the road, we’ll work something out to get them
to safety. Maybe we can use the police ordeal again. It’ll all go okay but we
must move now.”

Silence flooded the Situation Room as each man mulled over the plan. It
seemed to be the only way to go. What the Vice President had said was right;
time was of the utmost importance.

*          *          *

It was almost an
exact repeat of what had happened only a couple hours earlier. Parks and his
team had loaded into the Iroquois-Hueys and were flown to their strike site. Solomon
and Marler drove the blockade vehicles. Parks was beginning to think this was a
drill. Things would probably be better if this all was a drill. There’d be no
lives to save, no lives to lose, and no vun Buvka to catch – which was going to
be quite a chore. But instinctively Parks knew it was no drill. This was real,
and things were not looking good.

“Are you ready?”
Parks asked Lee.

“Look, I was
ready a long time ago and I had to be uprooted, so now I’m not ready. Give me a
few minutes, will you?”

Parks checked
over his M4 once more just to make sure everything was ready. It was, so he
knelt down and waited, which was all he could do.

“VIPER ALPHA,
this is VIPER BRAVO,” Solomon’s excited voice came over the radio. “Do you
copy? Over.”