Say You Love Me Again - Choni

Chapter 20

We had arrived at the town early at 5:00am we were going to begin the search of the houses when everyone went to the mosque to pray which was at 6:08am today at sunrise.

We were not going to be touching anything but scouting out where guns and missiles could have possibly been held. Archie an I stood on the hill overlooking the town with our night vision devices on.

"What's the plan Corporal" Archie sounded confident in me.

"You are going to stay around the hill, which surrounds the town, I want your guys spread out, eyes everywhere" I survey the area.

"There should be no one out in the city at prayer time, if there is, we got trouble" Archie nods his head agreeing with me.

"You see anything, anyone walking around, any guns hidden, any SB's you tell me straight away, do not shoot unless I tell you"

"Yes Ma'am" Archie nods.

"What about Jason" Archie asks. Jason is the youngest guy here, he's nervous as hell, I don't need a loose cannon on scopes.

"He's with me, I don't know if he is trigger happy yet, I need to find that out" Archie smirks.

"You're just a glutton for punishment aren't you?" I tap his back and slide a white envelope into the side portion of his backpack.

"You know me too well brother" we both share a smile.

"Okay, this is what is going to happen, grounders we are going in when the town get's called to prayer, we have 30 minutes, to get in and out of all these houses, do not touch anything, these are peoples houses, these are people's lives, they did not ask for this." I give a stern look so that they know that I am being serious.

"If you see a Suicide Bomber, known as an SB, you do not approach do you hear me? You do not shoot! Even if they didn't have time to detonate before your bullet hits them, the device detonator will trigger as soon as it is dropped. So that doesn't work either. We must just clear out civilian as quickly as possible and not allow them to get into any Red zones. They get into a Red Zone, Civilians die, you fail! You got that!" They all nod.

"I don't want failures on my team" I finish the serious talk and try to remind these guys of their decorum while they are here.

"If anything is stolen I will personally discipline you myself, and I don't mind leaving a thieving bitch in the heat for the ant's to feast one to teach them a lesson" I saw Private Luca get an uncomfortable look on his face for that time he stole gold in Iraq.

"We are looking for false floors, false walls, you will hear a false floor because it will feel lighter under foot, it will echo, concrete does not echo. You locate it, you don't touch you notify me of the location you got it?"

"Yes Ma'am they all shout" I nod "Good, now get into position".

The calls for prayer rung out and I put my right hand up moving two fingers back and forth, letting Archie know to take his snipers.

I put my left arm up with a closed fist to bring grounders behind me. When I opened my hand we advanced. I watched the civilians of the town file out of their houses, grasping the hands of their children while the older ones run ahead to get to the mosque.

I unfolded my hand, we needed to advance as the last of them were filing in, or we would never get this done in time.

I pressed the alarm on my watch at 20 minutes, even though we had 25 give or take I didn't want to be caught short and the town rebel or worse, hostiles viewing see us as sitting ducks.