Waterkill (Dave Henson Series) (23 page)

Chapter 38 (April 18, Monday 1:45am Tehran, Iran)

It was fifteen minutes before two o’clock in the morning and they were only a block away from Zarin’s residence parked in a large private garage. Dave and his Special Ops team had met up with the other team fifteen minutes earlier and had already received a full intelligence briefing. All was quiet at Zarin’s residence. There had been little activity at the compound throughout the evening. Only a single car had left the property around ten o’clock with two men in it. They had also reported that their sensors indicated Dana was locked up in one of the home’s second story bedrooms.

“So what’s the plan?” asked Dave urgently at the mention of Dana.

The second Ops team leader, a guy who went by the name of Frank Stewart placed on top of the hood of their Escalade a tablet computer. All of the team members gathered around him. With a couple of brush strokes of his right index finger they were looking at the top floor plan of Zarin’s residence. Dave and the others leaned in over the vehicle’s hood to take a closer look.

“Two of my men will enter into the home from these two roof balconies,” said Stewart as he tapped the display screen and then gave a quick glance up at Gomez and Cook who acknowledged their assignment. “Gomez will enter through the larger balcony, which is off of Zarin’s den, and Cook will enter through this smaller one which is connected to a guest bedroom. Our sensors are reporting that both rooms are presently empty. We also anticipate the den to be rich in evidence that we will need to collect.”

Stewart brushed and tapped his index finger over the tablet screen a couple of more times and a floor plan of the first floor was displayed.

“There are four entrances into the residence on the ground level.” Stewart pointed at each one while describing them. “Besides the main entrance on the street side of the home, there is a series of sliding glass doors off the back patio, and two servant entrances on either side of the residence. We will enter through the patio sliding glass doors and the two servant entrances, as the main entrance is heavily guarded and has nearly every surveillance sensor known to man monitoring it. The other three entrances are not as heavily guarded and only have video cameras monitoring them.”

“And how do you plan to prevent the video cameras from not announcing our arrival?” questioned Dave with a doubtful expression on his face.

Stewart looked from Dave to Jones as a grin widened on his face.

“Infrared LEDs,” responded Jones. “With an array stick of high energy IR LEDs we can effectively blind the security cameras long enough for us to pass by them without being detected. Any guard monitoring the cameras will simply see a bright white light for a couple of seconds on the video monitors while we enter the residence.”

“And in the event one of the guards monitoring the video feeds is smart enough to eventually figure out that there may be something amiss, we will have already neutralized him,” said Stewart.

“As soon as we enter the residence we move fast,” said Jones in a deadly serious tone.

“And what about Dana?” asked Davis.

Stewart swiped and tapped the tablet screen again with his finger and another floor plan image was displayed.

“This is the second floor layout of the residence. Both Dana and Aref Zarin are on this level at the moment. She is locked in a guest bedroom, and he is in his master suite.” Stewart pointed out each bedroom, first Dana’s and then Zarin’s.

“This floor is heavily guarded, and thus why we need to approach it from top and bottom simultaneously.”

“And we need to do so fast and silently,” reiterated Jones.

“We have one unknown variable though” interrupted Stewart

“And what’s that?” Davis asked

“There is a basement level to this residence with no entry into it other than through the first level of the home. We also don’t have any Intel on its layout. We can only presume that it contains a safe bunker for Zarin, and is where his command and communications center is located. Consequently we can expect that it is heavily guarded.”

“And also leaves us vulnerable to a rear attack,” commented Jones.

“Agreed,” said Stewart as he looked up at Jones and gave him a penetrating stare. “So I, along with one of my guys, will enter in through the back patio sliding glass doors and make our way to the basement level. We will cover your rear, while you and your team enter from the side entrances and make your way to the second level.”

Stewart stood up from being hunched over the hood of the Escalade and looked at all the men huddled around him. “So the success of this mission depends on speed and stealth. The longer we can go undetected the exponentially greater our chances of terminating Zarin and recovering Ms. Cogswell alive.” Stewart hesitated as he gave a look over to Dave.

“Henson, having you participate in this mission goes against every rule in the book. You are not trained for it and you are emotionally involved. But this said, someone in Washington authorized your presence here and to participate in the operation.” Stewart made an exaggerated look around at all of the men before returning his gaze back to Dave.

“You will be teamed with Jones and Davis and you will stick to them like glue, and you will do everything they tell you to do. Do you understand Henson?”

Dave nodded his head slowly in agreement, a quiet anger brewing in him, as he initially looked at Stewart and then shifted his gaze over to Jones. He wasn’t use to taking orders. He had always been in command of every aspect of his life, and this situation wasn’t going to be any different. His wife’s life was at stake.

“Very good,” said Stewart as he kept is eyes locked on Dave’s and slowly swung his open faced-up palm around the circle of men that surrounded him. “Because all of these men’s lives are dependent upon it. You do what you’re told, and with any luck we get the bad guy, save the girl, none of us get hurt and we all go home happy.” A smile grew across Stewart’s face with his final warning message to Dave.

Jones broke the pregnant silence from the circle of men. “Great, let’s suit up and get this show on the road.” Jones glanced down at his watch and noticed it was five minutes before two o’clock, as he led Dave and the others on his team to the back of the Escalade. He opened up the rear hatch door on the vehicle. Stewart mirrored the process in the other Escalade.

“Safety first,” said Jones. He twisted the metal locking clasps on one of the large shipping crates that sat in the back of the Escalade and flipped open its cover. “Kevlar flak jackets for everyone.” Jones handed one to Dave who fumbled with it trying to put it on. After slipping his on, Davis reached over and gave him a hand with it.

“Helmets next,” said Jones as he pulled them from the same crate, along with full face black cloth head coverings and opened finger gloves. Dave noticed the helmets were different from what he had typically seen military personnel wear in the field. These particular helmets were much more compact, yet extended down below the ear and had integrated head lamps mounted on the front of them. They resembled old fashion football helmets, thought Dave.

“Okay, now here comes the fun stuff,” said Jones as he opened up a large case and began pulling out M4 Carbines with integrated grenade launchers and suppressors on the rifle barrels. He handed one to both Ames and Davis before putting another aside for himself.

“You’re not going to need one of these babies,” said Jones as he placed his hand over the one he had set aside for himself. “You’re not trained in its use and you could end up killing yourself with it.”

“What about Graves?” Dave asked angrily.

“He’s driving the getaway car,” responded Jones, “So he does not need one.”

Dave looked at Jones incredibly.

“But don’t worry. While Graves sits tight and has this vehicle’s engine running for a fast exit, he’ll be fighting right alongside of us. I’ll show you how shortly.”

Dave glanced over at the man with the python arms. He was wearing a broad grin on his face as he looked back at Dave.

“But I’m not going to let you enter that building without some self-protection,” said Jones as he handed Dave a 9mm pistol. The other men already had their 9mm side arms holstered and strapped to the side of their legs. Dave also noticed that each of them was wearing a weapons belt around their waists that contained spare magazine clips, a knife, and a small assortment of other items.

Jones next opened a crate that contained personal communicator devices and handed them out to all of the men. Again, Davis helped Dave strap on the communicator and adjust the earpiece and throat mic. Dave was beginning to appreciate Davis a little bit more with all of the personal assistance he was providing him. First impressions are not always correct he thought to himself.

“Last, but not least, here are the night vision goggles,” said Jones as he passed them out to the team. “Hang the strap over your neck so that you can have them ready when needed,” said Jones to Dave.

Dave took the pair of goggles from Jones’s hand, activated them, and raised them to his eyes to have a look through them. “Impressive,” he said to no one in particular, as he lowered them from his eyes and switched them off.

“Glad you approve,” said Jones as he closed the rear hatch on the Escalade, the M4 rifle slung over his shoulder and a small ruggedized case in his hand. Dave glanced over at the other counter terrorist team and saw that they were also fully prep’d.

“What about Graves?” Dave asked.

“Graves is going to man what’s in this box,” responded Jones as he passed the box to Graves.

“What is it?” asked Dave.

“It’s one of your prodigy children but with its own unique custom feature integrated into it, courtesy of the CIA,” commented Graves.

Dave looked at the two of them curiously before Jones continued with his explanation.

“It’s a micro-drone, about the size of a horsefly” said Jones smiling at Dave. “But instead of just providing reconnaissance data it also packs its own punch.”

“What do you mean packs a punch?” asked Dave inquisitively.

“It has integrated into its belly a C4 pellet that we can remotely detonate,” said Graves. “I land the little fly in this box on someone’s neck or temple, tap a special radial button on a tablet computer, and lights out.”

“The C4 pellet is large enough to break the vertebrae in a human’s neck or puncture a temple, and cause either instant paralysis or brain death to the individual,” commented Jones in a clinical description.

Dave shook his head in disbelief. Not so much for the new weapon the two men just described to him, but instead, on how fast the United States government had expanded on NSurv’s nano-fly surveillance sensor technology. He had only licensed the technology to the U.S. military two years earlier.

“Alright, let’s huddle up one last time,” said Stewart as he and his team walked over to Jones and the others.

“We will load up in the Escalades and approach Zarin’s residence from opposite directions on the road in front of it. The Escalades will stop fifty meters from the property. At that point we will exit the vehicles and make our way on foot to our respective entries into the residence. Again, the success of this mission is all about speed and silence. The longer we can hold off firing our weapons, and the quicker we can get to our targets, the higher probability of our success and getting the hell out of there safely. Do we all understand?”

Every man nodded his head in agreement.

“Alright, let’s mount up and head out,” said Stewart.

Chapter 39 (April 18, Monday 2:00am, Tehran, Iran)

Graves drove the Escalade, its headlights turned off, slowly down the street in a westerly direction, towards Zarin’s residence.

When they got to within seventy five meters of the front entrance to the compound Graves gently applied the brakes and brought the vehicle to a stop at the prescribed fifty meter distance. Though it was dark out, there was enough ambient light for Graves and Jones to see the other Escalade coming to rest one hundred meters from them. Jones glanced down at his watch. “Alright guys we’re on.”

Jones, Ames, Davis and Dave stepped out of the Escalade simultaneously. “Dave, you and I will enter the east side entrance,” whispered Jones. “Ames and Davis, you have the west entrance.”

Hunched over to maintain a low profile the four men ran silently in the direction of Zarin’s compound. Dave, following Jones’s lead, peeled off from the other two men and ran towards the east side of the compound.  As they neared the property Dave noticed a two meter high stone wall that surrounded the compound. Jones, without breaking stride jumped up and grabbed onto the top of the wall. He quickly pulled himself on top of it and laid his body flat along its top surface.

Though Dave was normally in excellent physical shape, his left shoulder was still aching from the car accident the previous day.  Like Jones he ran up to the wall and jumped up to reach the top of it. He was able to hold on, his feet hanging a foot off the ground, but his injured shoulder was preventing him from pulling himself up and over the wall.

Jones saw Dave struggling and shifted his body and grabbed onto both of Dave’s hands to help pull him up on top of the stone wall. Dave used the toes of his feet to gain purchase on the wall to help push himself up on top of it.

“Thanks,” whispered Dave to Jones as he finally came to rest on top of the wall, feeling slightly embarrassed. Jones had no comment as he was already focused on Zarin’s residence.

“There, that’s where the video camera is located,” said Jones quietly as he pointed to a date palm tree.  Dave could make out the dark silhouette of a black box attached to the tree about five meters above the ground.

“We will still be out of its field of view for the first five meters from the stone wall. So as soon as we drop down off the wall I’ll contact Stewart and Ames to see if they are in position to blind the cameras.” Jones took another glance at his watch before jumping down off the stone wall. Again, Dave followed right behind him.

“East-end in position,” said Jones as he tapped his throat mic.  Stewart and Ames’s voices immediately came in over Jones and Dave’s headsets indicating that they were also in position.

Jones hit the on switch to the IR LED array post he was holding and raised it to head height. “Alright let’s move,” commanded Jones over his throat mic.

The two raced in the direction of the east door, Jones holding the array post out in front of them as they moved.

Dave could see the side door entrance as they approached the residence. He could feel his heart rate increasing with the anticipation of the imminent attack.  He also was getting a sick feeling deep in his stomach that this was all going too smoothly.

They made it to the entrance and pressed their backs flat up against the side of the residence. Dave noticed that the exterior surface of the building was made out of painted cement cinder block.

Jones reached into one of his belt pockets and pulled something out of it that Dave couldn’t see. Jones immediately worked his hands over the locked door handle. It had to be some type of explosive clay material thought Dave.  When Jones was done working with the material Dave saw Jones place a metal probe into it.

Again, Jones glanced down at his watch. Three minutes had elapsed since they left the Escalade. Jones touched his throat mic. “We’re ready at the east-end.”

“Copy, west-end is ready.”

“Copy, back is ready.”

“Copy, we are in position on the roof,” said Gomez.

“This is only going to burn and fizz,” said Jones as he looked over at Dave.   

Dave nodded in understanding as Jones touched his throat mic again and said, “Go”, while simultaneously triggering the fuse imbedded in the clay material.

A second later Dave saw the door handle and the surrounding door material turn a burning red as the clay material burned through the metal and wood. 

***

Dana lifted her head from the pillow as she thought she heard movement in the hallway outside her bedroom. She had not slept at all since being brought back to her room after having dinner with Aref Zarin. Maybe she was just imagining things, as she had been hoping all night that Dave would come to her rescue. Again she heard something out in the hallway.  It sounded like multiple pairs of feet running lightly down the hallway. She quickly sat up in bed and listened intently in the darkness, urging to hear more sounds, trying to visualize what was on the other side of the bedroom door. Suddenly, she heard whispering out in the hallway. A chill shot through her body. The words spoken were not in English. They were in Farsi. Though she could not understand the language she could sense heightened urgency in the voice. Whoever was in the hallway was rapidly issuing hushed commands.  Dave. He must be close by she thought, renewed hope racing through her brain.

But her thought of hope was fleeting as fear instantly gripped her again. Zarin and his men must know Dave has arrived, and they are preparing to spring their trap on him she realized. Zarin had commented to Dana during their dinner that he was expecting Dave. However, she had interpreted his words as a general statement, as more of a supposition than a known fact. Now she realized that Aref had specific intelligence on Dave. Aref had had definitive knowledge of where Dave was and when he would arrive, when he made his statement to her.

Thoughts began to race through her brain. She needed to do something to signal Dave. To add another variable to Zarin’s plans. The candle in the bathroom flashed into her mind. She had noticed that the servant girl had left matches next to the candle after lighting it. She jumped out of her bed and ran to the bathroom. They were still there, sitting just where she had seen them while taking her bath.

Dana grabbed the matches and returned to the bedroom. She looked up and saw the LED flash red on the smoke detector mounted on the ceiling. However, the ceiling was three meters high. She thought for a moment. If she could somehow create enough smoke without asphyxiating herself, she could set off the smoke alarm in her bedroom and quite possibly the other alarms throughout the residence. Besides the smoke alarms causing a massive distraction to Zarin and his guards, the smoke that would inevitably seep from underneath the bedroom door could also serve as a beacon for Dave. But how could she create enough smoke to set off the smoke detector she thought. Suddenly an idea flashed into her head.

Dana ran back into the bathroom, grabbed two bath towels and a wash cloth, tossed them into the tub and turned the water on to soak them. She also grabbed another towel and ran back to the center of the bedroom. She tossed the towel on the floor and knelt down beside it and lit one of the matches. A few seconds later the towel was ablaze, black smoke billowing up from it. While the towel burned Dana ran back into the bathroom and pulled the wet towels and wash cloth from the tub. As she ran out of the bathroom the smoke detector suddenly went off, creating a loud piercing siren sound in the bedroom. She hesitated for a few seconds and watched the towel burn, wanting to make sure that enough smoke was generated in the room to keep the smoke alarm active even when she put out the fire.

When the room filled with so much smoke that she was beginning to have trouble breathing, she draped the two wet towels over the remains of the burning towel to snuff out the fire. She then put the wet wash cloth up to her face and covered her nose and mouth with it so that she could breathe filtered air. Her eyes were stinging badly, however, so she made her way over to the window to lean her head out of it to escape the smoke and breathe in fresh air. Now all she could do was wait and hope that she had helped Dave enough in some way that improved his chances of finding her.

***

Jones pushed on the door with his right boot slowly, testing the door to see if it would open freely. It did. He immediately slid through the door threshold with Dave on his heels. As they did, alarms instantly went off in the residence. The two of them froze for a second in shock. However, Jones, viewing the dark hallway in front of him with his night vision goggles saw no sign of movement. Jones rushed forward with Dave right behind him. As they made their way to the center of the residence, towards the central stair case, Jones saw Stewart and his wingman pass by ahead of them en route to the basement stairwell. “I’ve got you in sight,” whispered Jones into his throat mic.

“Roger that, good luck,” responded Stewart as he began his way down the basement stairwell.

“We’ve made it to the west stair case,” came Ames’s voice over Dave’s ear piece, though Dave struggled to hear him over the din of the alarms screeching in the residence. “We are proceeding up towards the second ….”

Dave felt the concussion hit him in the chest, followed by an immediate and deafening explosion that briefly lit up the hallway they were standing in. It took him a second to realize that he was down on his back with Jones lying on top of him.

“Jones, are you okay?” yelled Dave, but not hearing his own voice, partially because he was temporarily deaf due to the explosion and partially because of the sound of rapid gun fire.

“Yes, I’m fine,” said Jones as he hurriedly picked himself up off of Dave. “Ames, Ames, come in,” he yelled into his throat mic, Jones already comprehending what had happened, that Ames and Davis had run into an ambush.

“Ames is down, Ames is down,” repeated Davis, the sound of gun fire crackling over their earpieces as Davis spoke rapidly. Dave could clearly hear the anxiety in Davis’s voice as he reported Ames condition.

“Stay where you are,” responded Jones. “Stewart’s men will attack the ambush’s position from the rear.”

Jones, hunched low, continued moving toward the center stair case, his M4 carbine extended out in front of him, his finger on the trigger. Dave followed right behind him holding the 9mm in his right hand. The alarms continued to pulsate in deafening volume throughout the residence. “Damn those alarms,” swore Jones over the com. “They are abusing my naturally good nature.”

They had just made it to the staircase when gun fire erupted directly above them. The bullets were aimed high in their direction, but both Jones and Dave were able to duck behind a nearby wall and avoid taking any hits. Out of his peripheral vision Dave saw something small fly by his left eye. It was moving in the direction of the staircase, however, he lost sight of it in the darkness. Suddenly Dave and Jones heard gun fire erupt from below them.

“Shit,” said Jones, “Stewart is now taking heat. They must have known we were coming.”  Dave had already been thinking the same.

There was a brief lull in the firing of enemy weapons from the top of the staircase. Jones took advantage of the moment to expose himself. As he did, he said, “Clear. Clear. Clear.” into his throat mic just before firing a buck shot round from the grenade launcher on his M4 Carbine. He had aimed the round directly at the top of the staircase, where the enemy weapon fire had been originating from just seconds before.

The grenade exploded causing instant death to anyone standing within five meters of it. After the initial shock from the exploding grenade Dave heard moaning from the top of the staircase.

“Let’s move,” said Jones as he ran to the central staircase firing his weapon simultaneously. Dave followed Jones in tight pursuit. They took the staircase two treads at a time, in the direction of the moans.

Four bodies, nearly unrecognizable to Dave, were lying at the top of the staircase landing. Two of them were dead and completely missing faces due to the amount of buckshot that had torn through them. Another dead body was lying flat on its back, the man’s entire body pockmarked with bloody holes. The last man, however, was still alive. He had apparently been shielded from much of the buck shot absorbed by the other men. His hands though were bloody, and one of his arms looked like it had been snapped in half. The man, dazed by the concussion of the grenade, looked at the both of them. He was moaning and holding outwards his one good arm in a half attempt to shield his face with his bloodied hand. Without hesitation Jones fired two rounds from his M4 into the man’s head. The man’s head flinched back and then fell dead sideways.  Jones then fired two additional rounds into the heads of each of the other three bodies.

“Let’s move,” he said as he stepped over the bodies. Dave followed right behind him with his 9mm pistol still extended.

With their cover blown, Jones and Dave moved quickly down the long hallway, stopping at each door they came across along the way. With every closed door Jones tested it to see if it was locked, which none were, before abruptly pushing it open and entering the space behind it.  In each case, Jones went in high and left with Dave following low and right, their weapons extended out in front of them and fingers on triggers. All of the rooms turned out to be empty bedrooms, with no signs of Dana or Zarin.

As they continued to work their way down the hallway, they suddenly heard another loud explosion up ahead of them and around a bend in the hallway. The sound of intense weapon fire followed for another few seconds before there was only the sound of the alarms still ringing in their ears.