Time Sensitive Target

Part 12 - Radio Silence

Jase surveyed the map closely. 32 hours without comms had wracked everybody's nerves, and they couldn't stay in the Syrian woodland forever. It was only a matter of time before a goat herder at the very least came across them, and that intel would be worth a lot to the insurgents. That was if they hadn't already been stung. They alternated a two-man watch duty, but the locals knew their own land and it wasn't entirely unfeasible that someone had seen them.

Paige was being strong. Frankly they were all surprised she was still alive, but she seemed to be handling the situation well in spite of her injuries. She was now the least of his concerns; Jase knew the inevitable confrontation with Ant was fast approaching. The SAS point man had said suspiciously little regarding the capture of al-Raheem. There had been grumbles from the others; the occasional moan of 'why are we dragging this fucker around?' 'I'll put a bullet in him and save everyone the trouble.' 'He can't be that valuable if he wasn't even on the inner sanctum!'

They were right, of course. Bazish had been trying to buy his way in to the inner folds and earn the respect of the IS elders and higher-ups with the negotiation and return of high value prisoners. It would have worked. Ant's silence on the matter had said too much to Jase and Sonny, and though the backlash probably wouldn't hit them until later it was still a constant nagging concern in their minds. The lack of comms did little to ease the tension between the two teams. With each passing hour of radio silence the suspicion heightened, each side wondering if the other knew more than they were letting on.

Ant knew the Americans had a bigger reason for holding al-Raheem than "probable links to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi". Jase only delegated the prisoner watch to other DEVGRU operatives, whilst Ant and his team took charge of Paige. He felt a gnawing sense of anxiety when he was around her; they had her on suicide watch despite the fact that she hadn't shown any other suicidal behaviours since the rifle episode. Still, those feelings didn't just go away. Every time he was alerted to something- some possible movement or a suspicious reflection of light, he snapped his eyes to Paige immediately; picturing the sight of her shivering with the impossibly large rifle pointed at her neck. But if she was suffering with anything, she didn't show it.

*

Jase shifted uncomfortably as the crackling continued in his ears. Damn broken comms. At least they had been silent up until now... Wait-

Jase opened his eyes, staying rigidly still. He feigned a sleep laced yawn and stumbled up as he normally would do for a piss. Once he was sheltered by the trees that loomed impossibly high and fanned out into huge canopies overhead, he grasped his radio. They reserved a channel for private intel, one he had been careful not to tune into whilst surrounded by the British. He had checked in to it more than once since the comms had gone quiet, but he had been greeted with silence. He turned the switch- one click- two clicks- three clicks- four clicks.

"Pollyanna3, Pollyanna3 this is Alpha 1, do you copy? Over" Jase spoke quietly, his warm breath hitting the cold air with billowing smoke. All was silent except the rustling of the leaves and whistling of the wind. The wait felt excruciating. More than a minute passed.
"Pollyanna3, Pollyanna3 this is Alpha 1, do you copy?! Over," Jase repeated. He had imagined it. It wasn't uncommon for them to react to sounds, smells and sensations as if they were in the middle of a mission. He didn't know a single man who'd served who didn't grit their teeth for game time when a car backfired, or a floorboard creaked in the middle of the night. They were trained to always be alert, and the military didn't necessarily care if it overlapped into the "normal world". Well, unless they started popping people off in the middle of a shopping centre.

Jase exhaled through his nose with disappointment. He relieved himself on the cold soil quickly, zipped up and turned in retreat to the camp.

The radio crackled. He froze and held the small box with cold fingers. He held his stance for another minute. Nothing. Nothi-

"Roger Alpha 1, stand by."

Jase stood rooted to the ground, the wait felt like an eternity.

"Proceed 21 klicks southeast to Bravo Sierra Juliet, copy?"

"Copy that, over and out."

Relief flooded him, especially as Jase knew where they were headed to. Anything over 10 miles south would put them in Jordan. Bravo Sierra Juliet. Black Site Jordan.

He walked back to camp with a renewed sense of urgency. He shook Sonny first, and before a minute had drawn to a close every man in the camp was prepping to move. Paige woke as a mag clattered to the ground near her head.

"What's going on?" She asked wearily.

"Get yourself ready, we're moving out," Rob wasn't sure what he meant by 'get yourself ready'. She didn't even have shoes. Instead she wore four pairs of their socks over each foot and his own camo undershirt. It would contour to every muscle on his large frame, but it drowned her like a frumpy knee length dress. She was swathed in blankets to prevent the chill from penetrating her fragile skin, but she still shivered in the cold mountain air.

Jase had filled Ant in on the short radio instruction he had received.

"That came through as you went for a piss?" Ant had raised a brow. "On a different channel?"

Jase had told him he alternated through the different channels just in case anything came through. That wasn't a suspicious concept.

"Any word on what to expect at the site?" Ant asked, stroking his beard.

"Nothing man, all I got was what I told you. It's just an AFI." Await further instruction, the staple part of any special op. They were used to sitting on intel or events and holding position for days at a time, waiting for that further instruction. Sometimes it never came and the op was abandoned or shelved.

"You think she's ambulatory?" Ant nodded over to Paige. Jase shook his head vehemently.

"She'll slow us down. We need to cross the border before first light. We can stick Cairo behind al-Raheem, she'll snap at his heels and keep him moving," Jase smirked. Ant responded with a slight smile.

"Alright," Ant hoisted his bergen onto his back and turned to assess everybody's readiness. "Move out."