“So, what’s the plan?” she asked him, her eyes sparkling with her eagerness.
“We’re going back to the compound. We’re going to blow it into a million tiny fragments. If we’re lucky, Roj will be inside when it goes up. If not, we’re going to funnel him into a trap.”
Rafe began laying out the plan in detail and all of our smiles got wider. Roj had been terrorizing people in these parts for the better part of a year now. It was time he was neutralized.
* * *
It tookus a full day to prepare, but by the time the sun was sinking below the horizon we were making our way back toward Roj’s compound.
Rafe had gone over the specs with us. It was an old requisitioned Iraqi military base. Which meant it was made of stucco and concrete, not the usual adobe building you would find out here. This actually helped our plans. Blowing up a mud hut wouldn’t do nearly the damage that thousands of pounds of concaving concrete would. We’d gone over the layout over and over until we’d committed it to memory. There were no plans for us to split up, but in the moment, you never knew what could happen.
I eyed the horizon and the sinking sun. By the time it came up in the morning one side of this fight would be victorious. I could only hope it’d be us.
The work we had ahead of us was best suited for darkness, so we’d timed it so that we’d get there after dark. Rafe had spent the day procuring everything Colby would need to rebuild the bomb—this time without the chemical agents—and that we’d need to fight off the armed men who stayed in the compound. Those who survived Colby’s chaos anyway. We hoped it wouldn’t be too many. Rafe hadn’t been inside the compound for very long the other day, just enough to get an idea of the layout and a head count. At the time there’d been forty-five men, not including Roj and his personal bodyguards. It would be a nightmare to have to fight all of them.
The bomb would help with that. Colby planned to rebuild it into four smaller bombs—which is why Rafe had needed to find more supplies for her—one for each of the four support columns within the compound.
The container was left at the safe house, resting cozily in its little nest. This was going to be a dangerous mission as it was, the addition of chemical agents would just make it a nightmare. Its home would be there until we came up with a way to pass it over to someone who could safely dispose of it.
Colby rested comfortably in front of me as we traveled. I enjoyed having her in my arms and Bilal was the biggest of the camels, so that happened often. I wasn’t about to complain.
The hours passed quickly until we found ourselves back at our sand dune, overlooking Roj’s stronghold. Sig went to release the camels. He was going to release them in the opposite direction of our traps. We wanted to catch and kill insurgents, not our loyal mounts.
Colby settled down in the sand and began working on setting up the bombs. She’d get everything set except the triggers, so it would only take a few minutes once we infiltrated and planted the bombs, for her to get them fully operational. The tricky part would be moving around, staging them, and not getting caught.
I draped a cloth over her so that the flashlight she was using wasn’t spotted. We didn’t want to give away our position and start this battle before we were ready. We intended to use the building to create a series of funnel points, places where their superior numbers wouldn’t help. If they caught us out in the open it wouldn’t be ideal, to say the least. We were going in knowing the odds weren’t in our favor—never an ideal scenario—so we were counting on the element of surprise to even it out a bit.
Rafe and I settled in with night vision goggles to watch the activity down below. There were guards doing rotations, occasional stragglers who would step out to have a smoke or just get fresh air. It was still early in the evening. We wouldn’t be making our move until most of the men in the compound were asleep.
Colby finished up and crawled over to us. Rafe pulled her into his arms and we sat quietly, passing the goggles back and forth while we waited for the hour to get late enough.
Sig returned, letting us know the camels were safe, and activity slowed down below. Rafe and I backed away from the dune and grabbed our bags of supplies and shovels. It was time for us to set up the traps. We were going to have to get fairly close to the compound to set them—just outside of the reach of the security lights—so we were leaving Colby behind. Sig would stay and guard her. The two of them were more than capable of handling any situation that popped up.
Sweat poured over my brow as I dug holes and set up the little surprises we had for Roj’s men. If they were lucky, they’d die in the explosion, or the resulting cave in. If they did manage to escape, these little pits of despair would take care of survivors.
The compound was primarily below ground, not an easy feat out here in the desert, which is why Roj had snatched it up as soon as he’d found it. Rafe had told us that the entrance opened up to a long hallway that encompassed the compound. This was where all the offices and rooms were. Down below was an open area where the military had stored all their supplies and weapons. It looked like Roj was using it as his own weapons cache, a place to store them until he needed them. We’d have to get down to that lower level to plant the bombs, then make it out before the clock ticked down.
We finished up and made it back up to where the others were waiting without any incidents. It was dark out tonight and the guards had never wandered past the halo of light that surrounded the building they guarded.
Amateurs.
By staying in the light they not only silhouetted themselves for us to see, but they ruined their own vision, never allowing it to adjust to the dark. They were basically blinding themselves. I settled in against the dune to wait. By the time Rafe announced it was time to go, I’d drifted off.
Yawning, I checked my watch. It was two a.m. I stretched, then shouldered my rifle. We were going to be heading west to the spot where the dunes dipped down, making it easier to cross into the little sand ridden valley below. We’d come in from the east when we set the traps and the journey down to the valley floor was steep and treacherous. Not to mention we wanted to stay out of that area now. Rafe and I had marked where the traps were and when we escaped we were going to have to be careful none of us activated them.
Colby didn’t whine or complain once on the trek over. She impressed me, not only with her abilities, but her attitude as well. She complemented our team perfectly. She rounded out our group in a way that I hadn’t expected. We’d never thought we needed a fourth, but Colby was proving us wrong.
We crept our way through the darkness, a bare sliver of moon lighting the way, and stopped once we hit the back side of Roj’s compound.
Rafe held up his hand for us to stop, then motioned for Sig and I to go to the left while he and Colby would go right. We had to take out the two guards who were patrolling the grounds, and we needed to do it silently. We could have easily shot them, concealed out here in the dark as we were. That would only alert the others inside the compound. This needed to be a little more…discrete.
Sig was right on my ass as we approached the corner of the building. Peeking around it, I saw one guard, leaning back against the wall. His head was back, mouth open, appearing dead asleep. I shook my head, almost feeling bad for the man because soon…he’d just be dead.
I moved silently through the thick sand, choosing my steps carefully. My knife glinted in the lights that were secured to the top of the building. The guard had his arms folded over his chest, but was still on his feet. One wrong move would alert him to my presence.
One of my hands snaked out and covered his mouth, while the other yanked him by the collar. He woke up with a muffled yell, his feet twisting together as I pulled him off balance. Our bodies landed with a thud in the sand as we fought.
His weapon had gone flying when I’d pulled him down and his hand extended out, trying to grab it. Sig stomped his boot down on his arm. The cracking bones made me wince, but I managed to clap my hand back over his mouth before he let out a blood curdling scream. It came out as more of a strangled squeak from behind my palm.