Hidden Threat (8 page)

“
On the left, Sergeant, you will see the unmanned aerial vehicle video of the action that night. On the right will be the AC-130 video.”

“
Rampage.” Eversoll’s voice was a whisper. He wasn’t sure he was prepared for this. Wouldn’t he rather live with the slim hope, however misguided, that his boss had somehow miraculously survived the explosion of the helicopter? It was too late. As he was pondering the notion of getting up and walking out, Kill TV, as the soldiers called it, began to show on both screens. They called it that because typically they were watching their team kill the Taliban or AQ in large numbers. Reviewing this reversal of fortune was not supposed to be part of the moniker.

“
You can see there, we’ve got heavy fire on the landing zone, with the first aircraft taking a hit in the tail rotor engine housing.” Rampert used a green laser pointer to circle the MH-47’s smoking tail rotor. He shifted to the AC-130 gun tape. “Here, you see Rampage laying down heavy 105 suppressive fire.”

Eversoll remembered sitting in his Humvee listening to the fight. So far this tracked with what he knew. Though, it was different seeing it actually happen.

“
Here you see Jergens falling out of the aircraft as it lands, then pulls up. We lose him for about twenty seconds because of the whiteout from the snow. Watch.”

Sure enough, the helicopter was kicking snow high into the air. The twin rotors pushed down and then pulled up the snow, creating a white cloud that surrounded the helicopter and everything within one hundred feet. Eversoll knew that pilots called this whiteout, and he absently wondered how they could possibly control an aircraft in those conditions. These Special Forces pilots were good; he knew that much. Watching this video, he saw they had to be. He could not see the aircraft or Jergens.

“
You see the 47 take off here,” Rampert continued. “It almost falls, but maintains control off that ledge. Now that the whiteout is gone, you can see Jergens, here, and AQ coming at him, here.” He used the pointer to highlight Jergens on the left side of the screen and the Al Qaeda on the right. There were about fifteen men wearing white sheets and wielding AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The grainy, gray video painted an unmistakable picture.

Navy SEAL Jergens was a dead man if something didn’t happen in the next two minutes. Eversoll felt like he was watching a thriller movie. His palms were sweating, and he could feel himself wishing someone would help the American trapped on the mountaintop.

“
Here comes Colonel Garrett’s aircraft.” Rampert pointed to the UAV video feed. “You can see the AC-130 is still focused on separating the AQ from Jergens.”

“
Doing a pretty good job, sir.” Eversoll had not followed this portion of the picture when he had originally listened to the fight. The AC-130 was providing pinpoint accurate fires, killing the enemy. He could see six or seven dark masses lying in the snow.

“
Roger, now watch what happens here.”

Eversoll saw the second MH-47 come hurtling in toward the very same landing zone the first helicopter had tried. As the aircraft slowed and flared in its descent, the ramp was already down. Four men spilled out of the aircraft to the left and three to the right. About the time Eversoll noticed two men running straight off the back ramp, snow enveloped the entire helicopter.

“
That has to be Colonel Garrett and Sergeant Honeywell,” Eversoll said with conviction.

“
I agree. Honeywell’s the biggest soldier we’ve got, and Garrett’s the kind of guy who would go get Jergens. The radio transmissions tell us that Colonel Garrett ordered Rampage to continue to isolate the enemy. We heard the MH-47 pilots from Garrett’s aircraft tell the pilots from the first aircraft that they were recovering Jergens and then aborting the mission.”

The video streams continued. The AC-130 was clearly focused on destroying the enemy, though they seemed to be able to find good cover and then rush for a few seconds, finding good protection again. The UAV video was solely focused on the helicopter. The blurring white snow would fade just a second and then become thicker than before. Eversoll could clearly see Colonel Garrett emerge from the whiteout with Honeywell at his side.

Honeywell stopped to shoot as the colonel rushed toward a dark spot in the snow—the man that was probably Jergens. The UAV operator must have zoomed in during this section of the film, because Eversoll could see Colonel Garrett clearly now, yelling and shaking something near his chest. Suddenly a suicide Al Qaeda slipped through Rampage’s wall of fire, leaping over the rock providing cover for the two Americans. Eversoll clenched his fists in pride as Colonel Garrett whipped out his knife and impaled the would-be attacker on its sharp edge. Colonel Garrett quickly slipped Jergens into a fireman’s carry. Jergens was firing his M4 as best he could. They ran past Honeywell, who then began to backpedal.

“
Way to go, sir,” Eversoll whispered. He noticed he was sweating now. The film was coming to the part he wasn’t sure he was ready to see. He remembered seeing replays of the Challenger shuttle explosion, and even though he had only been one or two when the tragedy had occurred, he still found it hard to watch. There was something unsettling to him about the confirmation that comes with witnessing the moment of tragic death.

Honeywell, Jergens, and Colonel Garrett all reentered the snow haze around the aircraft. The AC-130 tape remained focused on the Al Qaeda fighters. Eversoll could see about twelve dark masses lying on the ground, presumably dead. On the UAV video, the whiteout had ebbed enough for him to see Honeywell leap up onto the ramp, pulling the wounded Jergens from Colonel Garrett’s shoulders.

Eversoll found himself thinking,
What could go wrong; the hard part is over? Just take off.
He was clutching the table now with both of his hands. He felt Rampert’s hand on his shoulder.

The whiteout reappeared in full force, blocking any visibility from the video feed as the MH-47 throttled up and began to torque straight up into the sky. The video followed the aircraft up, watching it nose forward over the ledge and speed off, ramp still open.

“
They’re away—”

The UAV video suddenly erupted with a billowing, grey and white image when the MH-47 exploded just above the landing zone. Burning pieces of the debris wafted into the deep crevice beyond the mountaintop.

Eversoll pushed away from the table and stood up. “Where did that come from?”

Rampert looked at him. “Do you really want to know, son?”

He was afraid for his commander. He was personally devastated. “Yes, sir. Damn right I do.”

“
Rerun it, VD,” Rampert said to Van Dreeves, sitting in the dark corner of the room.

The video picked up again where Eversoll could see Honeywell on the ramp, Jergens being flopped onto the ramp, and Colonel Garrett on one knee in the snow. The operator had enlarged the picture. It wasn’t great, but it was good enough to see the three men through the snow tornado created by the rotor blades. As the aircraft lifted off, the whiteout thickened, and there was no way to tell what happened next.

“
Stop it,” Rampert ordered. “See there. That’s got to be Colonel Garrett getting on the aircraft.”

Eversoll followed Rampert’s green laser. Through the snow, it was possible to make out a dark mass moving quickly onto the aircraft. As the video played in slow motion, the aircraft took off, nosed over, and then two streaks of light cut across the feed from right to left. Then the helicopter exploded.

“
Those could be RPGs or maybe even surface to air missiles,” Rampert said. “We’re not really sure. There could have even been an explosion inside the aircraft.”

Eversoll sat speechless for a moment. On one hand it seemed undeniable. Colonel Garrett was on the aircraft, and it exploded, killing him and the rest of his friends.

“
Sir, does the UAV ever go back to the landing zone?”

“
No. It follows the aircraft into the gorge. Why?”

“
How about Rampage?”

“
Watch it,” he said, motioning.

The AC-130 video continued to focus on the enemy that seemed to come pouring from nowhere. There were at least thirty on the mountaintop, cheering wildly as the helicopter exploded. Rampage’s 105 rounds expedited their meeting with Allah.

“
So, nothing ever gets back to the landing zone? The UAV and the AC-130, they never look at the LZ? Rampage couldn’t have killed everyone up there.” Eversoll’s mind was in high gear.

“
No, but we killed about forty AQ. Rampage had to break station about five minutes after this. They were out of gas. The team that went in Saturday afternoon saw some blood trails and a lot of shell casings from the firefight. That’s about it, son.” Rampert paused, then continued. “We never kill them all, that’s for sure. And there’s a cave complex up there. That’s where all those guys came from. I think we were onto something.”

“
But we don’t know for sure that Colonel Garrett got on that helicopter, General.”

“
We know it, son. It’s hard for me to accept, too, but we know it.”

“
The last image in the video that we know for sure is that of Colonel Garrett was on the ground.”

“
We found his dog tags in the wreckage, son.” Rampert stood. “We’ll talk more about this later. It’s been a rough couple of days.”

Eversoll stood, thanked the general and walked out.

As Eversoll departed, Rampert looked at Van Dreeves and said, “The real question is did he leave behind what he needed to?”

Van Dreeves looked at the general and said, “Actually, we can be pretty sure of that. What we really need to know is if the bad guys found it.”

CHAPTER 9

Spartanburg, South Carolina

Sunday Evening

The major sitting across from her had a serious tone. They had returned from their earlier visit in the morning in accordance with military protocol. He was now there to tell her about what her father had left behind, facts and figures that she really didn’t care about. But when Amanda Garrett heard him say, “Five hundred thousand dollars,” her heart skipped a beat.

“
Surely that’s not all for me?” she said.

“
Ma’am, Colonel Garrett left you that much money. It was every bit of his life insurance. He had savings accounts out of which we are paying for things such as his mortgage in North Carolina and other expenses. This money is yours.” The major looked away briefly.

Amanda was dressed in a black pantsuit that her mother had purchased. “You’re in mourning and we need you to appear to be,” she had said. Amanda and the major sat in the dining room, papers spread out between them. Nina Hastings watched from the living room, while Amanda’s mother sat pensively at the other end of the table.

Amanda looked at her mother, whom she caught eyeing Nina at the sound of the words “Five hundred thousand dollars.”

“
Why would he do that? I hated him. I couldn’t even stand for him to be around, and he leaves me all of this? It doesn’t make sense.”

“
Well, clearly, ma’am, he didn’t hate you,” the major said.

“
I think what Amanda is trying to say,” her mother chirped, “is that relations between her and her father had been strained in recent years.”

“
Strained? You wouldn’t let me—”

Nina Hastings raised a hand and said, “Child, we’ll have none of that. Your father’s dead, and it isn’t right to talk about him like this.”

Major Blair and the chaplain exchanged glances. Perhaps they had seen it before; Amanda didn’t know.

“
When does Amanda get the money?” Melanie Garrett asked.

“
Well, there’s one catch,” Major Blair said.

“
I knew it,” Nina muttered under her breath. Amanda turned and looked at her and then back at the major.

“
Amanda, you’re not eighteen yet.” The major clearly preferred talking to her as opposed to her mother or grandmother. She watched her mother out of the corner of her eye as the major began to speak. Her face was twitching, as if she was trying to not smile. Interesting. The major reached across the table and touched Amanda’s hand lightly.

“
Your father put a stipulation in his will that if you were under eighteen when he passed, you’d have to talk to someone before receiving the money. And then, on your eighteenth birthday, the insurance would be paid out to you. Because he passed before you turned eighteen, this stipulation endures. You must comply with it to receive the death gratuity. In other words, even after you turn eighteen, you have to follow the instructions as detailed by your father if you wish to receive the money.”

“
What is this?” Melanie Garrett spat. “Some cruel joke from beyond the grave? He has to manipulate Amanda even when he’s gone, is that it? I’m getting a lawyer here now!” Amanda’s mother jumped up from the table, knocking some of the papers onto the floor.

“
Just goes to figure,” Nina Hastings said, shaking her head.

Amanda sat in her chair and looked at the major. “I turn eighteen the day after graduation. That’s two weeks. Who do I need to talk to?”

Major Blair handed her an envelope. “The name and address are in here with some other instructions. This has all been thoroughly checked out by our judge advocate general. That’s a military term for a lawyer. Colonel Garrett obviously put a lot of thought into this, ma’am. The least you can do is to follow it through.”