PART 5
One.
Five.
Ten.
Twenty.
Then more.
They had been inside the mountain the entire time.
Weapons appeared along the upper shelves, all angled down toward the basin where Hale had ordered my snipers to land.
Someone whispered, “Jesus.”
Reyes switched overlays.
“Multiple signatures now visible. Heat bloom from cave mouths. They were shielded until the doors opened.”
Hale stared at the screen.
I said nothing.
I didn’t have to.
The map had started speaking for me.
Then the eastern ridge lit up.
More fighters.
More weapons.
A vehicle hidden under camouflage netting rolled out from behind a cut in the rock.
Its mounted gun turned slowly toward the basin.
Briggs looked at Hale.
“That where you wanted us, sir?”
Hale didn’t answer.
On the audio channel, a translator leaned closer to his headset.
“Enemy chatter,” he said. “They’re asking why the helicopters haven’t arrived.”
The TOC went silent.
The translator swallowed.
“They say… ‘The snipers should be in the bowl by now.’”
Hale’s face drained.
The words hung in the air.
The snipers should be in the bowl by now.
Not might be.
Not could be.
Should be.
Someone had expected us.
Captain Reyes looked back at me, eyes wide.
“Commander Hayes was right.”
Hale slammed his hand on the table.
“Shut that feed down.”
No one moved.
“I said shut it down!”
Reyes lifted her hands from the keyboard.
“No, sir.”
Hale stared at her like she had grown a second head.
Then a new voice came from the tent entrance.
“Good choice, Captain.”
May you like
Everyone turned.
Major General Adrian Keller stepped inside with two JAG officers, an NCIS investigator, and a colonel from Special Operations Command.
