Angels & Shadows

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 (Final Edit)

Pakistan. Saturday, February 14th 2009:

The dun coloured twin engine Boeing CH-47 Chinook flew out of Karachi heading north over Godap Town and out towards Pakistan's Khirthar National Park. The Dureji Road was below them and they followed it until it reached the Hub Dam reservoir then headed northwest following the Hub Tributary to where it met the main road five miles southeast of their final destination, Goth Allah Bakhsh.

Sean O'Malley dropped the Chinook down into the Pakistan desert as Ralph Robinson looked at his Omega wristwatch; it was 2030 hours Zulu time, 0130 hours local time, which would give them one and a half hours to make the five mile overland trek to Goth Allah Bakhsh.

Ralph and his squad of ex-SAS soldiers and Mossad agents, formerly of Israel's National Intelligence Agency, made up an elite squad of twelve highly trained counterterrorist experts. This unit and others like it worked covertly outside of any government authority although, off the record, they were internationally endorsed by them. It allowed certain things to be done without fear of recrimination.

Ralph's mission was yet another search and destroy. The target was an Al-Qaeda terrorist training camp. Ten Taliban insurgents, commanded by Mullah Ismael Alansari, were conditioning a group of some 30 young students taken from the madrasahs of Pakistan, for another suicide bomb campaign in Tel Aviv. The scope of their mission was to assassinate the Mullah and neutralise the camp whilst limiting student casualties to an acceptable level. When Ralph was given the task he had wondered at the ease at which politicians could use expressions such as 'acceptable level' when referring to the death of vulnerable, innocent people. It just showed how disassociated from reality they had now become.

The Chinook touched down for less than 30 seconds, in which time Ralph and nine of his squad had disembarked with their weapons and supplies. The tail gunner and medic, Craig Jamieson, stayed on the Chinook preparing the on-board trauma unit for the pickup scheduled at 0400 hours local time, one hour after the planned raid. They had chosen the time of their attack to coincide with both the darkest phase of the desert night and the hour when man is at his lowest ebb, easily confused and vulnerable.

Craig was a personal friend of Ralph's and had accompanied him on several missions. Unfortunately it had become almost an expectation to suffer casualties and Craig was wondering how many of the brave nine had got return tickets this time.

The drop had been made five miles from the target as the characteristic thumping beat of the Chinook's twin rotors could be heard for several miles in the still desert air. Surprise was essential to the outcome of their mission. This allowed them 90 minutes to run the five miles across rough desert terrain with their backpacks, weapons and webbing, totalling 60 pounds in weight. They would then have another 60 minutes to fulfil their mission and get themselves, including the wounded, to the pickup point half a mile due west of the terrorist camp.

Ralph took out his handheld DAGR GPS to orientate himself, then struck out at a fast jog with his men falling in behind. He would increase the pace once his men had accustomed themselves to the task. Only one hydration break had been planned at the three mile point, giving his men the psychological boost that they had broken the back of the run at that stage. The break would be their final opportunity to go through their plan which had been meticulously put together using satellite technology, Nimrod and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle reconnaissance data. They were as ready as they could be but they lacked first-hand, up to date intelligence. There was a real risk that conditions could have changed in the last 24 hours.

The going was heavy. They were running over sand and scree and there was so much give in each stride that they were effectively running an additional mile. It was telling on two of the heavier men and Ralph had to re-think his strategy.