Shadow in the Mountain by KaLyn Cooper

Chapter 15

Xena staredwith disappointment at the large computer screen

“There’s nothing there,” Van insisted as Xena, Ryker, Blade, Dell, Clint, and her father gathered around the business office desk at their private airport. “I made a half a dozen passes in both directions and nothing shows up on the thermal scan. Even if they were cold camping without any fires, the body heat of fifty men should show up as a bright red dot.”

“What are these red dots?” Her father asked pointing to the screen.

“My last pass was really low. Those are the people in Kidi who came out of their homes to identify the noise.” He expanded the picture on the screen. “Those were only ten people, and you can clearly see the heat generating from their homes. Fifty soldiers would be huge.”

“You should show this to the Saudis,” Clint suggested. “I’m sure they would love to be able to see their enemies this clearly in the middle of the night.”

Van slapped his older brother on the shoulder. “That’s the plan, big brother. Now, if I can only figure out a way to demonstrate the bombing capabilities of this bird, I could make a million dollars off the single sale.”

Her father slapped the palms of his hands on the wooden desk making everything on the top jump. “Saddle up. We need eyes on. Xena, I want your team to jump in here.” He pointed to the most logical area for a camp.

Her father indicated a campfire surrounded by six human-like red dots located near the main road through that section of mountains. “Clint, take your team here. I’m going to bet they’re bandits, not rebels, but they might know something either way.”

“Dell, do we have enough drones to cover both areas?”

“With infrared, barely.” At her father’s frown, Dell quickly added, “but I’ll make it work. I can establish a grid pattern and program them to—”

“I don’t need to know how, just do it.” Digger stared at his computer geek. “I want you to take a good hard look before anybody jumps.”

“You got it, Digger.” Dell spun on his heel and darted through the soundproof door into the command center.

“Dad, do you want me high in the air?” Van asked.

“Absolutely.” Adam Riggs stared at the screen. “And load up. If this turns into anything more than a sneak ‘n peek, I want you at your brother’s and sister’s backs with enough firepower to send anybody who dares to attack them all the way to hell.”

Xena smacked Clint on the shoulder. “See, I told you Daddy loves us more.”

Her older brother slung an arm across her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. “Take care of yourself out there.”

“Right back at ya, big bro.” She’d never admit it to anyone, but she always worried every time someone in her family went into combat. Her family meant the world to her.

“I’ll be watching everything from here.” Her dad tilted his head toward their new command center. It wasn’t much in Xena’s opinion compared to the operations center at the U.S. State Department. Her family didn’t need anywhere near that amount of equipment or people. For Africa, though, it was fucking incredible. Soundproof, huge flat screens, a communications center that would rival almost anything stateside, and completely invisible even to the men in her father’s army.

The Riggs family exchanged hugs, as usual, before they walked out.

* * *

“Alpha team. Ten minutes to drop.”Blade was behind the stick and obviously pissed off that he wasn’t about to parachute out the back of the CH 47 Chinook with her team. It was going to take some fancy flying over and through mountains after dropping Clint’s team at one site then her team—designated Beta team for this op—on the other side of the mountain range. Although their pilots were all highly qualified and combat tested, her dad was more comfortable with Blade as pilot.

“Beta team, the bumblebees are picking up movement on your site, but it looks more like small animals.” Dell’s voice came through her headphones clearly. “Alpha team, eight tangoes, look to be sleeping.”

“Bet they shit their pants when we wake them up.” Clint chuckled.

“Video at oh-four-hundred,” Dell announced. “Beta primary, you’re responsible for the popcorn.”

“Just because I’m female, what makes you think I know how to cook?” Xena snapped back.

“Dell, trust me on this one, you don’t want her cooking anything,” her brother warned from twenty thousand feet in the night sky.

Hydraulics squeaked and groaned when the rear ramp started to lower. Cold air rushed into the hold as the twelve men on Clint’s team lined up. Their backpacks contained a parachute and the pouch covering their chest held the reserve as they shuffled forward strapped into their harnesses. On Blake’s countdown, Clint finished the final pre-check. A minute later, they were gone. She couldn’t see the black parachutes in the moonless sky but heard the jumpmaster talking about wind shifts.

“Beta primary, seven minutes to jump.” Blade didn’t bother closing the ramp.

When Xena stood, the seven men on her team and Ryker lined up behind her. After their first jump together, she’d designated Wings as jumpmaster. She’d never seen anyone maneuver a parachute the way that man could, and he was so meticulous about gear. She also believed in leading from the front, so she was usually the first one out the door.

Final equipment check.

Xena was impressed at how well Ryker blended into her team. Many of the men who worked for her father were former special operators from the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. To work for Digger, English was the first criterion. He hired the locals from time to time but mostly as guides to a specific area. Even though he’d been in the country for nearly forty years, on and off, he still didn’t trust them. Hard lessons learned hard.

“Beta primary, you have a go.” Blade gave the voice command because they hadn’t installed the light system as yet in this chopper. Although it could carry over fifty troops, it had more often been used as a cargo ship delivering guns and ammo. Thanks to its unique back ramp, it was the perfect vehicle that night.

Xena stared at the darkness at the end of the ramp. She loved this part. Launching herself off the ramp, she moved quickly into a stable arch. The silence always struck her. One second she was inside the belly of a noisy military helicopter and in the next she was a human bird, flying high above the earth. On this jump, though, she wasn’t high enough to enjoy her flight but a few seconds. She immediately opened her chute which jerked her harness, grabbing her hips, slowing her descent. Glancing up, she checked that her chute had deployed completely. Her team, in all-black camouflage, could only be identified as small blurs against the stars. She slowed her chute to the point that a swift run would replace the traditional side roll upon returning to earth. They had landed in the farmer’s small field as expected.

“Beta primary on the ground.” She pulled on the ropes, collapsing her chute as she walked forward. Each member of her team was responsible for his own chute since very few preferred the same style or manufacturer. No one other than her touched her chute.

“Beta two on the ground.” Ryker had taken Blade’s designation for the op.

“Beta three, boots on the ground and ready to par-tay.”

When the count finished, Xena breathed out a slow sigh of relief. All kinds of shit could go bad jumping into an unknown landing zone in the dark. So far, so good.

It was a short two-mile hike to the area everyone agreed was most likely the rebel camp. Snarling wild animals could be heard a quarter of a mile away. Thank God for night vision goggles that could be switched to infrared.

The scent of wet soil, decomposing trees, and rotting leaves was replaced by urine, decaying food, and human defecation. Whoever the leader of this camp was, did not have an ounce of basic camping etiquette. The establishment of human bodily fluids and food disposal should have been confined to a deep pit downwind.

Quiet as mice, her team swept through the camp.

“Fires have been out for at least two days,” Tracker announced once they were given the all-clear. “Tents were here, here, and here.” He walked into the woods and studied the trees before he ran his hands up and down several.

Tracker, named for his uncanny ability, shook his head slowly from side to side. He glanced at Ryker. “Sorry, brother, they tied your friends to these trees.”

“Motherfuckers,” Ryker said under his breath. “I swear to God I’m going to kill them all.”

“Yeah, nah, I don’t think so, mate,” one of the two Aussies on her team smacked his hand down on top of Ryker’s shoulder. “You’re going to let us have a little fun killing the bloody arseholes. Anyone who would do this shit doesn’t deserve to live.”

“Get some pictures and we’ll analyze everything once we get back to Eden.” Xena sniffed the air, praying she didn’t smell the unique scent of dead human bodies. Nothing but garbage, piss, and shit, as far she could tell. She stood beside Tracker and in a very low voice asked him to look for graves. Without a word, the man disappeared into the woods.

“Beta four, I have a job for you.” The Brit with dark hair and hazel eyes spoke nearly as many local languages as she did. “Take beta six and go into the surrounding towns. Find out as much as you can about the rebels. We’re most concerned with numbers and where the fuck they went.” She glanced around at the carnage. “These are lazy assholes. They wouldn’t have gone far. Don’t bother going any farther than ten miles in any direction.”

“Will do, Xena.” He looked up at the sky. “We can be in Kidi by dawn.”

She handed him a satellite phone. “Call for extract.”

She tapped the button on her communications earpiece. “Beta primary to base.”

“Base here.” She recognized her father’s voice.

“Heading to departure zone. ETA thirty minutes.”

“Copy that.”

Forty minutes later, Xena slumped into a jump seat along the side of the Chinook. Ryker took the seat beside her and crossed his solid arms over his massive chest.

“I’m really sorry they moved on.” She needed to say these words to him before the helicopter took off and they couldn’t hear anything. “We’ll find them. I promise you.” She patted his biceps and settled in for the long trip home.

Disappointment dropped on Xena’s shoulders as she hoped she could keep her promise sooner rather than later.

Minutes later they landed at the secondary site and picked up Clint and Alpha team. As his men settled, her brother leaned over and spoke directly into her ear so she could hear over the hydraulics closing the ramp. “You’re not going to fucking believe what I found out.”

“Tell me!” She screamed back as the engines powered up.

Clint pointed to his ears and shook his head. He mouthed the words; When we get home. Her older brother simply crossed his muscular arms over his chest, stretched out his long legs, crossing his boots at the ankle, and leaned his head back, closing his eyes.

As soon as Blade landed the helicopter, she turned to her brother.

“Not here.” His gaze swept over the men shuffling toward the door. “Meet me in the ops center after you debrief your team.”

Xena knew he was right. It only took her a few minutes to dismiss her team. Grabbing Ryker’s hand, she headed toward the ops center. “Clint learned something, but we couldn’t talk on the chopper ride home. Come with me.”

Her dad stood and stretched, yawning so wide the crack of his jaw echoed in the dark room. Two large flat screens hung across from a semicircular desk with three keyboards and six monitors sitting on top.

Dell placed the last of his bumblebees—the small drones with NVG and IFR cameras—on their recharging stands shelved against the left wall. “Is it okay if I start powering down all the computers?”

“You might want to wait until Clint gets here,” Xena told both men. “He has information for us.”

Looking at his watch, Digger sighed. “I hope he makes this brief. I’m an old man. I need my beauty sleep.”

It was already after four in the morning. Dawn would soon be rising.

Xena needed a stiff drink. Maybe two or three. She wanted to wash away the disappointment. A little liquid courage may help her face Ryker. He had to be even more depressed than she was.

Clint stepped through the steel door and tossed everyone a bottle of water. “Make yourself comfortable, this may take a while.”

“Fuck,” she muttered and plopped down into one of the office chairs.

“Was that an invitation?” Ryker whispered into her ear as he rolled next to her. Maybe his spirits were higher than she anticipated after all.

She was glad the room was dark because she was blushing. “I’m open to the idea.”

“The bandits were very chatty, especially when we had guns pointed at their dicks.” Clint drained the bottle, crushed it, and tossed a three-pointer into the wastebasket. “We let them live. Fact is, I paid them for the information and told them to go home.”

Her brother’s eyes softened. “They were starving. They used to be farmers, selling off whatever their family didn’t need. The spring drought killed all their plantings, so they didn’t even have enough food to feed their families. What little they had was stolen by the rebels.”

Xena’s heart broke for the people in that area.

Clint’s wide hand washed over his face. “The oldest man’s daughter was kidnapped by three rebels in broad daylight. He tried to fight them off, but farm implements don’t stand a chance against the automatic rifles they carried. He asked if we found his daughter to bring her home.”

Clint’s gaze met Xena’s then he looked into the darkness of the room. “His son told me that they’d already found his sister, raped, beaten, and dead, along with two other girls from a Kidi. The rebels had dumped the bodies next to the road when they left two days ago.” Clint found and held his father’s gaze. “The boy said that after they buried the girls his father hasn’t been right in the head since.”

Her father looked directly at Xena. “We’ll find these motherfuckers and kill them all.” She knew that was a promise he’d keep.

“Definitely.” She swung her gaze to her older brother. “Did they say anything else?”

“Oh, yeah. The bandits had spied on the rebels for days. Three days ago, they were joined by a second group of about twenty-five rag-tag men. Since the rebels had stolen all the food from the surrounding villages, they had to move on.”

Clint chuckled. “The bandits said that the rebels had stolen a new company truck from Neberu’s mining corporation. They knew better than to steal a Mercedes because they all have tracking systems. The bandits thought it was funny that the rebels would probably end up dead soon. Neberu would have them killed for stealing the truck.”

“Way to bury the lead, Clint.” Dell scurried to the semicircular desk and started bringing computers to life. “What kind of truck? How big? How new?”

“In the morning, I’ll call Mekonnen Seraw and see if he’s missing a truck.” Her dad suggested. “Hopefully, he’ll give us all the information on it so we can track it down.”

“Do you really believe Seraw is going to admit to losing a truck?” Van questioned. “The bandits were right. Neberu won’t hesitate to kill the thieves, and Seraw for his incompetence.”

Digger smiled up at his youngest son. “That’s a good angle. I can offer to save his ass by tracking down the stolen truck. Hell, I’ll even offer to bring it back to him.”

“Aren’t you the good Samaritan?” Xena joked.

“In the meantime, I’m going to work on this lead,” Dell said without lifting his head. “I might have it before y’all wake up in the morning.” Their computer geek’s Southern drawl became more prominent when he was distracted or tired.

When everyone started to get up, Clint called out, “I’m not done. I told you, they were chatty.”

Groans, yawns, and curses bounced off the walls of the small operations center.

“The bandits overheard the rebels talking about going to Jimma,” Clint announced.

Now, there was a real lead. Although Jimma was the largest city in the southwestern Oromia region with over two hundred thousand occupants, it was almost completely surrounded by mountains. They could be anywhere.

“They just built a nice airport with runway enough for me and my team to land the bombers and fighter jets,” Van noted.

“Dell, start—”

“Already on it.” Dell’s fingers flew over all three keyboards, his gaze darting from one screen to another.

“Anything else, son? Or can I now finally go to bed?” Stretching as he stood, Digger stared at Clint.

“That’s all.”

“Good work.” Digger patted his son on the shoulder. His gaze swept the room landing on each man before reaching Xena. “I know you didn’t get the solution you had hoped for, princess, but we’re getting closer all the time. We’ll get those fuckers.” At the door, her father paused and looked over his shoulder. “Let’s leave Dell to his work. We could all use some sleep.”

“I could use a drink,” Xena said as she followed her brothers from the room.

“Me, too.” Van and Clint said at the same time.

“I’ll meet you in the library.” Since she was the last one out the door, she grabbed Riker’s hand. “Nightcap?”

“I’ll follow you anywhere.” He squeezed her hand. “I’m always a little jazzed after a mission. Is there any bourbon in the library?”

“Daddy loves good Kentucky bourbon.”

“Lead the way.”