Time Sensitive Target

Part 9 - Infil and Exfil

Fuck. Ant made first entry into the basement. He had stepped into what could only be described as a dungeon.

"HVT secure," crackled through the radio. HVT? They were taking a captive? There was no time to think about it too much, through his NVG's he could see one figure curled up in a ball on the floor and another in the corner of the room. He gestured for two men to proceed to the casualty in the corner as he lowered his gun and rushed to the girl on the floor. She was just in her underwear, her back looked scarred and she was tied to the ceiling by something. He felt her neck for a pulse and called out for lights. They all pulled up their goggles to allow a few seconds to adjust.

"No!" The hostage wailed croakily.

"Shhh, shhh, you're safe, you're safe," Ant soothed. His first instinct was to stroke her hair or something else comforting but he had no idea where her wounds were and he needed to assess her.

The fluorescent lighting illuminated the scene before them.

"Jesus," someone exclaimed.

"Bravo 1, what's the status of the hostages?" Jase's voice came through the comms.

"Two casualties; five and-" Ant glanced up to Chris and Rav who were positioned over the second hostage's body. They shook their heads. "Five and one," he confirmed the statuses into the radio. One seriously ill or injured, and one deceased.

He realised it was Paige he was next to. She moved suddenly and cried out again, reaching her arms forward and trying to commando crawl across the bloodied floor. He noticed her wrists were stuck together but he couldn't make out what it was binding them.

"Stop- Stop! Stay still!" Ant commanded. She was grunting with pain, a strangled choking sound that alarmed him. She stopped and rolled to her side, eyes dropping. Jesus fucking Christ. It was wire... barbed wire. The DEVGRU guys had mentioned it, but Ant had forgotten. Hearing about it, and seeing it actually embedded into a young woman's throat were two different things.

Now she lay still he could assess her. There was blood... everywhere. The obvious wounds were somewhat superficial in that there were no deep gauges or stab wounds. Her back looked pretty nasty, but that would heal. He was mostly concerned about her torso. He couldn't see a centimetre of unmarked skin. Quite literally every inch of her was covered in bruises, cuts or blood. Her ribs were horrific, her skin literally black and deep purple up her entire torso. Her face was covered in blood and grazes. Her eye sockets were purple with exhaustion and her lips were so badly cracked with dehydration they were scabbing in places.

Rav appeared instantly at his side, tearing open his pack and pulling out a medibag of fluids. He cannulated her quickly and began to administer the fluids.

"Hold your position, stand by for new point of exfil." The radio cracked. Alpha team began to pour into the dungeon as the order came through. Jase assessed the scene and removed his helmet.

"Copy that, holding position," Jase responded and rested his helmet on the floor. Two of the others had Bazish al-Raheem in the next room, with Danny and Cairo; the MPC, guarding the door.
"She stable?" He asked Ant and Rav, who were bent over Paige's body.

"She's been overdosed with epinephrine, she'll come down by herself but we have to keep her body temperature regulated, we need to get her down from here," Rav looked up at the wire suspended from the ceiling.

"Down from where?" Jase asked, stepping closer to the unconscious hostage. "Fuck," he cursed. Sonny shunned his helmet and paced over to see.

"Sweet Jesus," he stepped back instantly. "That's gonna hurt like hell to take off," he shook his head. He'd have no part in it. He shook his head more and bit his lip, resting his hands on his hips in disbelief. He took a deep breath in through his nose, the smell of death filling his nostrils, and began to walk towards the door. Jase grabbed him by his body armour as he passed and pulled him close. Sonny kept his head bowed to the floor.

"Don't go in that room, do you understand? Sit down, take a breath, get your head straight," Jase said quietly in his ear. He knew Sonny like the back of his hand. If he hadn't stopped him, he would have walked straight into the next room and beaten al-Raheem until he was a vegetable.

"He doesn't need his limbs to spill his secrets Jase. I won't kill him," Sonny looked him square in the eye, unblinking; his heavy southern drawl quiet but deadly serious.

"We're not wasting meds on him, stay here and get your head together." Jase ordered with quiet authority, and exhaled heavily as Sonny paced to the other side of the room.

Ant drew out his multitool and began working on the main wire attached to the ceiling. They would have to leave the ring around her neck until she was in hospital, it would take too much time to remove it safely now.

"Alpha 1 we have multiple unknown inbounds 30 klicks east of your position," The radio crackled.

"Roger that, do we have a new point of exfil?" Jase frowned as he held on to his radio.

"Negative Alpha 1 we have a helo down and multiple hostiles with MLR's, combat zone's too hot I need you to move 40 klicks west of your position and await further instruction."

Jase stayed silent for a moment as he held his radio.

"Copy that," he replied. "Ok you heard, move out," Jase observed as Ant and Rav hastily prepped Paige for their emergency exfiltration. To the west of their position the mountain ranges began and there was some dense woodland. 40 klicks would put them in a well covered area, but still no closer to getting out.

Ant stood heavily and wiped his bloodied hands on his body armour. He nodded towards the body in the corner.

"We moving her too?" Ant was glad for once to have that decision rest with someone else. With a normal extraction they would have brought the body back. If it was one of their own they would have brought the body back unless it impossible. Jase assessed it quickly- they already had one casualty to carry and an Enemy Prisoner of War to transport 40 klicks on foot, with multiple hostiles on their tail. There was no telling if the inbounds would follow on west after they found the bolthole empty, but they had to work on the assumption they would.

"Negative, burn it." Jase didn't want to leave it there for the inbounds to play with.

They were out of the structure within a minute, beginning a hard ascent through the mountainous region. After a while Jase turned back to see the vague outline of several vehicles pull up to the site they had left in the distance, only marked now by the smoke billowing up from the ground as Jasmin's body burned.

They were all relieved when vegetation began to appear underfoot and the distance ahead of them became tree lined. It was 0400 and they needed to be concealed by the tree canopies by first light. They each touched the first trunk as they trudged past it, glad it meant their ascent would soon be over with. It still left them in the middle of enemy country, though.

When the forest had become dense enough they offloaded their gear and rested on their packs for a moment. Rob bent down in front of Ant and gently passed Paige's unconscious body to him. They'd wrapped her up in a thermal sleeping bag but they needed to clothe her properly when she regained consciousness.
"She's been out for a long time," Ant held her and watched her breathing carefully. She looked like she was in the deepest of sleeps, and it would almost appear peaceful if she wasn't so bloodied and bruised...