After dropping their gear in their rooms, Al led them down a white hallway to the conference room. Fluorescent lights reflected off the newly painted walls, making the hall almost as bright as the outside.
A door ahead opened, and a man with long brown hair, in olive drab cargo pants, a black T-shirt, and sunglasses perched on his head stepped into the hall.
He was big, Mike noted, gym big and short. If he had to run a hundred meter sprint, Mike guessed all bets were off. But, he was young, thirty’ish so who knew?
“Ah, Bruce.” Al turned back. “Mike, Tom, this is Bruce, the fourth member of the team.”
They all shook hands and traded introductions.
“Bruce used to be a SEAL, Team 4, Right? Mike, Tom, and I all used to be in the same SF Group together.”
“Ah, come on, Al,” Tom said with a smile. “An anchor clanker. What squeal team did you say you were on?”
Bruce lifted his eyes to the heavens. “More Army guys, Al? Come on, man. I keep telling you if you want the mission done right, you got to grab guys off the Teams, not more Army doggies.” Bruce smirked, lifting his hands. “No offense.”
“None taken.” Tom laughed “I remember the time we worked with some of you guys in Kandahar…”
“Maybe,” Al interrupted, “we can save the inter service rivalry nonsense for later and move on down to the conference room.”
“Good idea,” Mike said. Inter service rivalry was usually good natured based on mutual respect, and it typically ended there until someone’s feelings got hurt then things went downhill fast.
At the end of the hall, Al ushered them into a large rectangular room with the same fresh paint smell and harsh lighting. As they sat at the oval conference table facing two white boards two more individuals entered the room and stood next to Al.
The man was an Afghani. He wore his dark hair long and beard closely cut. Instead of typical Afghani garb, he wore jeans, a t-shirt, and a blue Chicago Cubs baseball hat.
Tom glanced at him, a frown on his face, but didn’t say anything.
Next to the Afghani was a woman also wearing olive drab cargo pants and a black t-shirt. Over it she wore an outdoorsy button down long sleeve shirt. Apparently, Bruce and her shopped at the same 511 tactical clothing shop. In her hands were rolled up maps and several thick files.
Al brought the two new team members deeper into the conference room and in front of the whiteboards.
“This is Maheem and Julia. You can guess which is which.”
The woman ignored them as she was introduced and began to tape maps to the whiteboard.
Tom directed an unfriendly smile at Maheem. “Haji, you speak’ee da English?”
Maheem’s eye’s rolled with humorous vigor. “Yeah, I speak’ee pretty good English. I was born and raised in Chicago, so I probably speak it better than some West Virginia hillbilly.”
Tom laughed, and Ahmad chuckled back.
Al dropped his head to the side. “You guys know each other?”
“Yeah.” Tom leaned forward in his chair. “About two years ago, I was doing some contract work in Herat when Maheem, his Ground Branch team, and their Afghani Special Forces guys rolled in. We did a few OP’s together, and then they rolled out.”
“Okay.” Al glanced at Tom, then waved to Maheem.” Give them the down and dirty on who you are.”
“Right. Like I said, I was born and raised in Chicago, but my parents lived in Afghanistan before emigrating to the US just before the Shah fell in 1979. They, my siblings, and I have gone back several times, and relatives have visited us in the States on many occasions. We have family who live in the northeast part of the country. That may or may not help us, but my knowledge of Pashto is excellent, as is the regional dialect for the area we're going to. Also, I was a Marine Platoon Commander and Company Commander during my two tours in Afghanistan. When I got out, I earned a master’s degree in international relations and then joined Ground Branch. Al and I have worked together several times over here.”
Mike looked at Al, his head cocked. “Special Activities Division, Huh? You too?”
“Afraid so buddy.”
“I thought you were some kind of pencil pushing case officer type. Why is this the first time I’m finding out about this?”
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Al shrugged.
“I knew something had changed about you.” Mike stared at Al for a long second. “Aren’t you the guy who told me you had a sixth sense about the CIA, even the paramilitary side, Ground Branch? You couldn’t trust them, you said. They were only out for their mission; anyone else involved was secondary. And, you could easily determine when they were lying because their mouths were moving.”
Al smiled. “What can I say? Strange stuff happens and on the scale of somewhat surprised to what the fuck, me being in Ground Branch doesn’t even register.”
“Hmm,” Mike grunted.
Mike faced Bruce. “You’re ground branch, too.”
Bruce nodded but decided to remain quiet. Something was going on with Al and Mike, and he didn’t want to get involved.
“You know, Al, I worked with those guys during clean up after Tal Bez mission. It didn’t go well.”
Al nodded and faced Julia.
The anger that had quelled earlier began to rise. Mike was ready to bust his chops but let it slide.
“Julia is going to brief us up. Are you ready?”
“Good morning, gentlemen,” Julia stood up straight, shoulders back, her hands behind her back. “I’m Special Agent Julia Miles. A little about myself, I grew up in the cave state.” She smiled. “I grew to love the thousands of…”
Blank looks stared back at her.
A formal introduction, give the audience some emotion, and ease into the informal part, almost like it came from a memorized script, but maybe that’s how she talked. Or maybe it was how she was taught to speak to an audience from some kind of seminar. Either way, Mike wasn’t sure he wanted to listen to anymore.
“Missouri, the cave state.” Agitated, she dropped the smile. “Never mind, let’s get started.”
And here it comes. A little self important? Mike sighed and resigned himself this would be a long and tedious brief. He covered the grimace on his face with his hand, elbow on the table. Special Agent Julia came off as a bit arrogant and a know it all, never a good combination.
“I’ll be briefing you on this mission today.” She pulled one hand from behind her back and pointed to the whiteboard with the two maps on it. “This map is the target area, the Tal Baz Valley, and the surrounding area out to about twenty kilometers. The second map is a one over the world. It's called a JOG, and it’s typically used by aviation units to navigate from place to place.”
Tom looked over at Mike and rolled his eyes with a grin. Julia seemed oblivious or ignored them he wasn’t sure which.
On the second whiteboard hung a satellite photo of the Tal Baz Valley and the mountains surrounding the valley. Julia pulled a pen from her pocket, extended it into a pointer, and placed the tip in the valley’s center.
“Our target destination.” The pointer moved to the bottom of the map. “This is one of only two roads in.” She traced the road south out of the valley, through the mountains, and down to a river valley. Once the road passed through the mountains, a large river paralleled it south off the map.
Expressionless, Mike continued to listen and observe, but under the table, his right knee began to bob up and down violently. Did she think he didn’t know this place? The valley where his brother died? How could she not know? Al must have briefed her.
“To the north.” The pointer found the entrance to the valley’s south end and followed the road until it abutted the mountains. “To the north,” she said again. “Is a tunnel leading out of the valley into and around the highest peaks of the Hindu Kush. That road quickly changes direction east into Pakistan.” She brought the pointer down, collapsed it, and put it in her pocket.
She stared at them, Mike felt, for dramatic effect. He heard Tom try to repress a chuckle. It was all he could do to keep his cool. The memory of Paul lying dead at his feet tried to overwhelm him.
“This mission will be what you guys call a sneak and peek.”
Mike sat forward, clasping his hands on the table in front of him. He took a deep breath and looked at Al, eyes drilling into him. Al either didn’t see him or avoided looking back.
”The way I envision this,” she continued, not acknowledging Mike’s attention on Al as she focused on the map. “Our team will fly a CIA aviation helo into the mountains to the east of the valley. She pointed to an area with several dashed lines indicating trails and contour lines so close together they almost merged. The insertion point will be far enough away that anyone in the valley won't detect it. Once on the ground, the team will walk to the valley using one of the existing trails.” She momentarily faced them, then turned her pointer out again, tracing a trail on the map. “I’ve done a time distance analysis of the terrain and estimated it would take two hours to conduct movement, find a good location, and set up an observation post. After that, it is simply a matter of setting up equipment and watching.” She nodded her head at them, her lips betraying the slightest of smiles. “Our job is to locate and identify our target, send back all the information we can gather on him, and wait for the former Afghani Commandos we’ve hired to helo in and kill or capture him. It’s as simple as that.”
As simple as that. It’s never that easy. Mike silently sighed, suppressing his anger. She had no idea what she was talking about. Her enthusiasm was somewhat encouraging, no doubt trying to make a good impression. He couldn’t figure out why she was here in the first place. Tom’s foot tapped his under the table. He lifted his hand but didn’t look at Tom.
“You don’t agree?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Why not?” she sounded offended.
“No.” Mike slowly stood. “I don’t…”
“Folks,” Al said preemptively. “This isn’t a planning session. We can figure out how we will do this after Julia tells us the why of where we’re going.” He turned to Julia. “These guys are the best of the best. Planning and execution are what they do for a living. They will have this thing planned out to perfection when it comes time.”
“Sure, I understand.” Her shoulders sagged, but she immediately composed herself. “As long as they understand, I want the opportunity to offer any advice or input in the planning phase.”
With a broad smile on his face, Al nodded. He turned to Mike. “I’m sure it won’t be a problem, right Mike?”
He felt Tom’s foot tapping his again. “You know, Al, maybe this is a good time for a break, You and I can have a little chit-chat and iron out some things.”
Julia faced Al. “Is there a problem?”
“No, no problem. I haven’t had the opportunity to update Mike on a few important factors. Once I have this, it will go a lot smoother, I guarantee. While I’m ironing it out, maybe the rest of you can go to the break room and have a coffee and a donut.” He looked at Bruce and Ahmad and nodded toward the door.
Julia pursed her lips into a frown, snorted, and walked out, followed by Bruce and Maheem.